Sycamore tree goddess

Sycamore tree goddess, originally Hathor, and later Isis, both goddess of flood, or Nut, goddess of Heavenly Nile (Milky Way), pouring water which is depicted with ankh (life) symbols inside it...Tomb, Siwa Oasis, 400-600 BC. Egypt...

Why would a goddess of flood be depicted as a sycamore fig tree?

Most likely because sycamore bears fruit between May and Sep...

The time of the rise of the water level in the Nile. Which means that the sycamore full of fruit announces the arrival of the flood, the thing that makes life possible in Egypt...

I talked about Hather, the sycamore tree and the Nile flood in my post "Holy cow"...

And in my post "The white calf", in which I tried to answer the question why is this white calf standing between two sycamore trees under a red sun? 

Why was Nile Flood water depicted containing ankh (life) symbols? Cause the Annual Nile flood is what makes life possible in the Nile Valley, what originally created Egypt and what recreates it every year...Without the annual Nile flood there would be no Egypt...I talk about this in my post "Beautiful boy"...

BTW, Speaking about Ankh = Water, check my post "Goddess on a horse"...

Post in which I talk about the link between ankh, papyrus (flowers at the beginning of the Nile flood), lotus (flowers at the peak of the Nile flood) and the flood...And few other related things...

You also might like this: Baboons feed on figs in a sycamore tree on a painting in the tomb of Khnumhotep at Beni Hasan c. 1950 BC…

Both Sycamore tree and Baboons were animal calendar markers found imbedded in parts of Egyptian mythology related to water and flood. I talk about this in my post "Baboon"...

Finally I think that it's very interesting that we find "sacred fig goddess" in both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Indus Valley civilisations...

Check my post "Sacred fig goddess", in which I talk about the Indian one (different fig same link to water, this time monsoon rain water) with references to the Egyptian one...And about plant and animal calendar markers in both cultures...

That's that. 

If you are interested in reading more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Horizon

I am continuing my series of posts about Horus. In this one I would like to talk about a hieroglyph which we find often associated with Horus, the "mountain" hieroglyph, and I will try to show that our current understanding of its meaning is...incomplete...

Big claim I know. But hear me out...

This is Egypt, this blue green flower of life growing out of the red desert of death...Everyone who ever contributed to the creation of the Egyptian civilisation lived within this narrow blue green fertile strip along the River Nile...

Surrounded on both sides by first high sand dunes, then even higher distant hills, then even even higher and even more distant (few and far between) mountains...

This is elevation map of Egypt...

And this is what this all looks like from the Nile water level, from the fertile land which is flooded by this same Nile water, from Egypt...

Looks familiar? I believe that the "mountain" hieroglyph does not represent any mountain. It represents the banks of the Nile river, its dunes, hills and mountains...With Nile and Egypt lying between them...

That I could be right about the original deep meaning of the "mountain" hieroglyph can be seen from the fact that this symbol had its mirror in ancient Egyptian architecture: the pylon, the front part of Egyptian temples...

The pylon consists of two pyramidal towers, each tapered and surmounted by a cornice, joined by a less elevated section enclosing the entrance between them...

This design makes no sense if the towers represented any two mountains. It makes a lot of sense if the two towers represented the banks of the river Nile...

Because then the Temple would have been a symbolic representation of (heavenly and earthly) Egypts, the place where men and gods meet...

According to the people from The Met, the ancient Egyptians viewed the temple as the place where "the (re)creation, (re)birth, of the world was thought to be continuously repeated, and the building itself was regarded as an image of the natural world"...

Knowing that for Egyptians "The World" was equal to Egypt, the fertile land along the Nile, which was (re)created by the Nile ever year, making the temple to look like the Nile River Valley, like Egypt, makes so much sense...

I talked about the continuous (re)creation of The World (Egypt) by the River Nile in my post "Beautiful boy" about Nefertem, The Beautiful (Lotus) Boy from Egyptian mythology... 

I wonder if "the lotus flower at the creation of the world, who had arisen from the primal waters" just means: "the lotus flower who arrises from the waters of the Annual Nile Flood"? 

I also talked about this in these two posts about the origin of the Sphinx mythology, "Sphinx" and "Giza lioness"...

Anyway, apparently, in ancient Egyptian religion, the pylon didn't mirror the "mountain" hieroglyph. Instead it mirrored the "horizon" hieroglyph, which is basically the "mountain" hieroglyph with the sun above it. This thing...

Now according to this paper the hieroglyph "horizon" was "a depiction of two hills between which the sun, the giver of life, rose and set on the first morning of the universe"...

As I said many times before, this "first day of the universe", when the world emerged from the primordial waters is not something that happened once in a distant past. It is something that happens every year, on the first day of the flood...

Remember, continuous (re)creation...

Interestingly, according to the same paper, "in another symbology, the hieroglyph horizon was a depiction the two banks between which the Nile River flows, this too being a giver of life"....

TA!....TA!....TAAAAAAAA!!!!! 🙂

Now if the "mountain" hieroglyph was indeed symbolic depiction of the Nile River valley, the way it was seen from it, from Egypt, then the "horizon" hieroglyph doesn't depict sun rising and setting between the mountains on the first day of creation of the world...

It depicts the sun, the giver of life, above the Nile River valley, above Egypt. At noon, when it is right above the Nile, the actual giver of life...

And when we overlay the "mountain" hieroglyph over this map, it perfectly fits the movement of the sun from east to west over the Nile River Valley...

The movement described by the "horizon" hieroglyph...

Also, the "horizon" hieroglyph, when overlayed over the map of Egypt, shows something else: The direction from which the annual Nile River flood comes...

It comes from the south, from the direction of the midday sun, and it fills the Nile River with the water of life, which then spills over the river banks into the Nile River valley (re)creating Egypt...

So I believe that the "horizon" hieroglyph has another meaning: "The Sun filling the Nile River valley with water". Basically "The Annual Nile River Flood". I first started thinking about this meaning of the sun as the source of the flood in my post "White calf", in which I tried to answer the question: why is this white calf standing between two sycamore trees under a red sun? 

I mean this has to be the other meaning of the "horizon" hieroglyph, or this "strange" image from the "Funerary Papyrus of Khonsu (c. 1070–712 BC) would make no sense...

I mean it would make no sense from the natural world point of view. This post gives some possible explanations for this scene from the Mythological point of view, and you will see that the nature and mythology again overlap...

If we accept that the "horizon" hieroglyph also meant "The Sun filling the Nile River valley with water" then then this image depicts Egypt (circular part with farmers digging the new fertile black soil brought by the flood) being (re)created by the Sun caused Nile flood...

The two female figures could be the White and Blue Nile, pouring water into the Nile River valley. The water is sometimes depicted as dark red (like blood) because this is the colour of the flood water, due to the sediment it brings down from the Ethiopian highlands...

The two female figures are sometimes named as Isis, and Nephthys, the two twin sisters of Osiris, the god of "the black soil", the fertile soil of the Nile River valley...

Osiris who IS "the black soil", the fertile soil of the Nile River valley, is depicted being watered by the flood and hoed by the people, being prepared for grain sowing...

Egyptians actually believed that grain grows from the (dead) body of Osiris...I talked about this in my posts "The beard of Osiris" and "Braided beard"...

So his two twin sisters pouring water (White + Blue Nile = Nile), the water of life, which makes Osiris (god of) the fertile black soil get reborn makes a lot of sense to me...

The water of life, the flood water. Being here poured by the Sycamore goddess, Nut (Hathor, Isis)...depicted with ankh (life) symbols inside it...Tomb, Siwa Oasis, 400-600 BC. Egypt...

Ok, ok...That's all great. But where is Horus?

Right here, on the same papyrus of Khonsu. 

From left to right:

Khonsu offers sacrifice to Ra-Horachte, the hybrid of Ra of the sun at noon 🙂 and Horus of the horizon 🙂.

Khonsu then takes water of life from the sycamore tree goddess. BTW, sycamore tree is full of fruit during the Period May/Jun (when Nile water levels start to rise) - Sep (when Nile water levels peak) 🙂.

After which we have the scene depicting (re)creation, resurrection (of Egypt) through annual flood 🙂.

And symbolically, resurrection of Osiris together with Khonsu...

If you are interested in reading more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Horus the Elder

I am continuing my reading about the Egyptian god of the Sky Horus, and I came across this very interesting thing: According to Claudius Aelianus (175-235 AD): Egyptians called the god Apollo "Horus" in their own language...

However...

However, Plutarch (40-120AD), a Greek philosopher, historian...and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi (!!!) explained that the one "Horus" whom the Egyptians equated with the Apollo was not ordinary Horus, but "Horus the Elder"...

Why only this Horus?

Well this Horus was a very peculiar Horus indeed. Known in Egyptian as Heru-ur, Great Horus, he was sometimes depicted fully as a falcon, but was mostly depicted as a falcon headed lion, or falcon headed sphinx (!!!)...

Ok...Still don't get it. Why would this particular incarnation of the Sky God be equated with Apollo by the Plutarch, "a priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi"?

Cause Apollo was the Sun in Leo

IONIA. Miletos. Circa 340-325 BC. Drachm. 

Front: Laureate head of Apollo. 

Back: Lion with eight-pointed star above

This coin confirms my hypothesis that Apollo was Sun in Leo...Basically, Greek version of Mesopotamian Nergal...Sun in Leo...

Nergal, the deified destructive "burning" sun, was depicted as a lion man, because Jul/Aug, Leo, is the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia (and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere)...Talked abut him in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

I explain why Apollo is Greek version of Nergal in these articles:

1. "Palil". About "Palil" a nickname of Nergal, the terrible, burning, destructive sun of Jul/Aug, Leo...And about the origin of the name Apollo and its meaning...

2. "Lord of the flies". About Nergal and Apollo as "The lords of the flies"...And about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the peak of the fly and fly born diseases season in Northern Hemisphere...

3. "Lions of Delos". About the Lions of Delos, the burning destructive sun in Jul/Aug, Leo, and the fact that both Nergal and Apollo are linked to lions. 

4. "Apollo and dolphins". About Jul/Aug, Leo being the "best time to sail in Eastern Mediterranean", and the link between dolphins and Lions...and Apollo...

5. "Marble throne of Apollo". About snakes (symbols of sun's heat), dragons (symbols of burning sun's heat) and terrible sun gods, Nergal and Apollo who are dragons themselves...

6. "Apollo and Python". About why Python followed Apollo after his birth? Cause snakes are solar animals...According to the Delphian tradition, Apollo was born on the 7th day of the month of Bysios (Jan/Feb)

7. "White raven". About the black and white raven legend which is found in both Nergal and Apollo mythology, Egyptian vultures and the twins that guard the gates of hell. And some other weird stuff...

8. "Threshing floor of Apollo". About the threshing floors as solar observatories/temples, about the threshing floor of Apollo from Delphi, about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the holy month of Apollo, and about solar bonfires...

9. "Apollo the great archer". About why Apollo was the terrible "far shooting" archer...About arrow and bow constellation from Mesopotamia, Ishtar, Sirius, and Jul/Aug, the season of Perseid meteor shower...

10. "Apollo Sminthius". About Apollo his arrows that cause plague and peak infectious diseases season, Jul/Aug

11. "Apollo - Resheph". About how the transformation of Nergal into Apollo went through an an intermediary, Syrian god Resheph...

BTW, lion marks the period Jul/Aug because this is when the main mating season of Eurasian lions starts...Talked about lion as an animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

"Horus the Elder" was known as the "foremost of the two eyes", the two eyes being the Sun and the Moon, and the foremost of the two eyes being the Sun. The Sun in Leo...

But Apollo was not just the Sun in Leo. He was the Sky God in Leo. The most feared of the Olympic gods...The Terrible Archer...

I talked about this aspect of Apollo in several of my above posts about Apollo - Nergal connection. In them I explain why Apollo was the terrible "far shooting" archer and what does this have to do with the arrow and bow constellation from Mesopotamia, Ishtar, Sirius, and Jul/Aug, the peak infectious diseases season, and the season of Perseid meteor shower...

Now "Horus the Elder" was also known as Horus, "strong of arm", "great of power" and "lord of the slaughter in the entire land"...

And he had a twin, Horus of Beḥuṭet, aka Horus of Edfû, who was depicted as a falcon headed lion, lion headed man, and "falcon with a phallus terminating in the head of a lion" 🙂...

Interestingly, this Horus of Beḥuṭet, aka Horus of Edfû, was also depicted as a falcon headed man carrying a club, bow and arrow...

Guess who else was depicted as an archer? Resheph, who was directly associated with both Nergal and Apollo...

And it seems that Resheph was in some parts of Egypt associated with Horus...Who was equated with Apollo...

BTW, guess who else is armed with club, bow and arrows and is prancing around dressed like a lion man? Heracles of course...Erythrai (Ionia) mint, 350-300 BC...

I discuss the true identity of the Heracles the Archer in my posts "Cetus", "Mithras", "Rudra" and "Red Archer"...

All these archers who shoot arrows from the sky in Leo are symbolic explanations for the Perseids meteor shower...You know, if there shining arrows (and clubs) are falling from the sky, there must be a great (heavenly) archer (also armed with a club) in the sky shooting them at us...

So, Plutarch, a priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, new why he identified Horus the Elder, Horus with lion body, The Sky God in Leo, as Apollo...But this got forgotten over time, until I think I rediscovered it recently...

If you are interested in reading more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

The great duel

In Montenegro, where patriarchal clan society still survives, the curse "Jebem ti oca" (I F*@k your father) is worse than the curse "Jebem ti majku" (I F*@k your mother). Because "F*@king" in curses is an act of defiling, humiliation and subduing...I talked about this in my post "Prokletija, cursing ceremony"...

Today I was reading something about Horus and came across "The Contendings of Horus and Seth" a mythological story from the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt written during the reign of Ramesses V, who reigned from 1149 to 1145 BC, and in it...

Well in it, we read that Set tried to prove his dominance over Horus by, basically, "F*@king" him. However, "Horus placed his hand between his thighs and caught Set's semen, which he then threw in the Nile river so that he may not be said to have been dominated by Set"...

Horus then deliberately spread his own semen on some lettuce, which was Set's favourite food. After Set had eaten the lettuce, they went to the gods to try to settle the argument over the rule of Egypt...

The gods first listened to Set's claim of dominance over Horus, and call his semen forth, but it answered from the river, invalidating his claim...

Then, the gods listened to Horus's claim of having dominated Set, and call his semen forth, and it answered from inside Set...

However, Set still refused to accept Horus's dominance...blah, blah blah...

It's all about domination...

My god dominating your god...Just like in Serbian curse "Jebem ti boga" (I F*@k your god)...

Do we find something like this in other cultures?

BTW, the above super cool illustration was done by  @TheyTiltBak

If you are interested in reading more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Sabean bulls and lions

Copper plaque showing date palm full of dates, growing out of a lion standing on a pedestal. Dedication to the south Arabian moon god Almaqah, Sabaean, 1st c. BC - 2nd c. AD. British Museum. Date palm harvest starts in Leo...Jul/Aug 🙂 More in: https://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/10/lion-killin-bull-under-date-palm.html

I posted this a while ago and came across it yesterday while looking for something and while rereading it I noticed that the plaque was dedicated to the Moon God...

Veneration of the Moon God came to Arabia from Mesopotamia/Iran where Moon God Sin was the most important god of the pantheon. I explained why in my article "Mon good Nana Sin" about this amazing 2294-2270 BC Old Akkadian Cylinder Seal. This is an amazing seal, because it confirms something I suspected for a while, but wasn't 100% sure until now: why was the moon god so important to the people from Ancient Mesopotamia...

In short, for the lazy ones, I postulated that the god Sin was the god of the "Wet moon", upward pointing crescent moon, the moon of the wet, cool, half of the year (rain season) in Mesopotamia, Oct/Nov-Apr/May...

This is symbolically depicted using animal calendar markers on this Neo Babylonian, 625-539BC, blue chalcedony pyramidal stamp seal with a goat-fish with a rhomb before it and a crescent moon above it. I presented the fool symbolic analysis of this seal in my post "Chalcedony seal"...

For the lazy ones, Goatfish, the sacred animal of Enki, is a complex animal calendar marker for the wet season in Mesopotamia...Between the mating season of wild goats and the mating season of giant Mesopotamian carps...I talked about this in my post "Goatfish"...

Rhomb symbolises the womb of the Mother of Grain (Inanna/Ishtar) which produces food when "the seed of the Sky Father" (rain) fertilises her. I talked about this in my post "Rhomb"...

Rhomb is also a symbol for a date fruit. Date harvest season starts in Jul/Aug, in Leo, when Lion (autumn) kills (ends) Bull (summer) and lasts until Oct/Nov. I first encountered this symbol when I talked about date harvest in my post "Lion killing bull under date palm", but at that time I didn't know what rhomb means...

And Inanna/Ishtar was directly linked to the date palm precisely because the date harvest started in Jul/Aug, Leo...I will explain why later...

The rain season in Saba peaks in Jul/Aug, in Leo...Which was also the time when Sabaeans made pilgrimages to Almaqah's temple in Ma'rib to ask for his blessing of water...

Here is something interesting: Almaqah is commonly considered a moon god, but apparently that is not cool any more, at least according to Britanica:

"Garbini and Pirenne have shown that the bull's head and the vine motif associated with him [Almaqah] may have solar and Dionysiac attributes..."

"...He [Almaqah] was therefore a male counterpart of the sun goddess Shams / Ishtar / Isis, who was also venerated in Saba, but as a tutelary goddess of the royal Egyptian dynasty".

Eeeee???

Istanbul, Museum of the ancient Orient. Relief showing the standard bucrania with stylised greenery between the horns, two dragons and the desired result of the myth and its ritual, that is, the transformation of the sacrificed bull into sprouting vegetation/fertility...

Eeeee??? 

In ancient South Arabia, Almaqah, the moon god, was associated with bulls, which were considered sacred animals. Bulls were offered in sacrifice, and their heads "were linked to Almaqah's worship".

No one of course has any idea why and how...

Now look at this: As I said already, palm tree is a plant calendar marker for Jul/Aug, when Lion (autumn) kills (ends) Bull (summer). 

What is the best way to depict a dead bull? I guess like this: A Roman mosaic featuring a lion with the head of a bull, found on the floor of one of the Terrace Houses at Ephesus, Turkey...

I already talked about the meaning of the bull head in combination with a palm tree in my article "Date beer" about this 3rd millennium BC seal found in the Hurian city of Urkesh located in northeastern Syria..

Now remember Sabaeans made sacrifices to Almaqah in Jul/Aug, in Leo...When rains arrive to Yemen. Rains that make plants grow out of the cut off bull's head...

Oh, and grapes harvest in Yemen starts in Aug...After the bull's head is cut off...

BTW, those dragons depicted on both sides of bull heads. They are not there randomly. Jul/Aug, Leo, is the time of fire breathing dragons...Since (at least) Sumerian times. I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon", in which I explained why the dragon depicted on this Tell Asmar seal, dated to 2200 BC, has lion body and 7 snake heads.

For the lazy ones, cause snake is the symbol of sun's heat, there were 7 summer months in Mesopotamian calendar, and the hottest part of summer was Jul/Aug, Leo...

I talk about dragons in various Eurasian mythologies in many of my blog articles...

As for Ishtar (and her twins from Arabia and other parts of Eurasia), she is also associated with lions...I talked about it in my post "Silver seal from Gonur Tepe" in which I talk about this cool Silver seal from Gonur Tepe, Turkmenistan, dated to late 3rd-early 2nd mill BC. Depicting a winged goddess riding on a lioness...

For the lazy ones, Ishtar was the deified Sirius, which rises with the sun (morning star) in Leo, Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year. Which is why she is depicted standing on a lion with the sun above lion's head and is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

I wrote many articles where I explained why "The morning star" is Sirius and "morning star" is Venus and how they are related and how they differ and why Inanna/Ishtar was originally definitely Sirius. You can start with "Sirius the mother of Venus". 

For the lazy ones, you know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar (Morning Star) is Venus and how I think that it was originally Sirius, and only later became Venus?

Well, it seems that Ancient Egyptians preserved the proof of this switch in their myths about Sopdet:

Sopdet, the personification of Sirius, was the consort of Sah, the personification of Orion. And their child was Sopdu, the personification of Venus, "Lord of the East" (Venus as morning star)....

For the Ancient Egyptians, the most important annual event, annual flood, which irrigated the land made it fertile, was linked to lions and lionesses...And Sirius...

I talked about this in my articles "Sphinx" and "Giza lioness" in which I give full symbolic analysis of the Sphinx mythology and its origin as Leo, animal calendar marker for Jul/Aug, the start of the peak of the Nile flood... 

All in all, very interesting...And suddenly few things I looked at before now make a lot more sense. Like this fresco from the house of M. Gavius Rufus in Pompei. The ruling Dionysus with the thyrsus, with Apollo/Helios in corona radiata, Aphrodite and other deities...

With dead bull's head, bucrania, at his feet...When does the grape harvest start in Greece/Italy? In Aug...After the bull's head is cut off...

And this 2nd c. AD Roman mirror of the goddess Diana from Art Institute, Chicago, depicting Diana sitting on a rock before a garlanded altar with a small herm, her quiver nearby...And chained bucrania which everyone seems to ignore cause they have no idea what to make of it...

Diana is Roman version of Artemis, the TWIN sister of Apollo. They are both linked with lions and Leo, Jul/Aug...When Lion of autumn kills the bull of summer. Hence the dead bull's head...

Apollo is directly linked with lions and sun in Leo, Jul/Aug. As a matter of fact Jul/Aug was the month dedicated to Apollo. 

IONIA. Miletos. Circa 340-325 BC. Drachm. 

Front: Laureate head of Apollo. 

Back: Lion with eight-pointed star above

This coin confirms my hypothesis that Apollo was Sun in Leo...Basically, Greek version of Mesopotamian Nergal...

I explain why this is the case in these articles:

1. "Palil". About "Palil" a nickname of Nergal, the terrible, burning, destructive sun of Jul/Aug, Leo...And about the origin of the name Apollo and its meaning...

2. "Lord of the flies". About Nergal and Apollo as "The lords of the flies"...And about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the peak of the fly and fly born diseases season in Northern Hemisphere...

3. "Lions of Delos". About the Lions of Delos, the burning destructive sun in Jul/Aug, Leo, and the fact that both Nergal and Apollo are linked to lions. 

4. "Apollo and dolphins". About Jul/Aug, Leo being the "best time to sail in Eastern Mediterranean", and the link between dolphins and Lions...and Apollo...

5. "Marble throne of Apollo". About snakes (symbols of sun's heat), dragons (symbols of burning sun's heat) and terrible sun gods, Nergal and Apollo who are dragons themselves...

6. "Apollo and Python". About why Python followed Apollo after his birth? Cause snakes are solar animals...According to the Delphian tradition, Apollo was born on the 7th day of the month of Bysios (Jan/Feb)

7. "White raven". About the black and white raven legend which is found in both Nergal and Apollo mythology, Egyptian vultures and the twins that guard the gates of hell. And some other weird stuff...

8. "Threshing floor of Apollo". About the threshing floors as solar observatories/temples, about the threshing floor of Apollo from Delphi, about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the holy month of Apollo, and about solar bonfires...

9. "Apollo the great archer". About why Apollo was the terrible "far shooting" archer...About arrow and bow constellation from Mesopotamia, Ishtar, Sirius, and Jul/Aug, the season of Perseid meteor shower...

10. "Apollo Sminthius". About Apollo his arrows that cause plague and peak infectious diseases season, Jul/Aug

11. "Apollo - Resheph". About how the transformation of Nergal into Apollo went through an an intermediary, Syrian god Resheph...

Artemis, the Greek Ishtar, was also linked with lions and was even called "lioness among women" by Hera. 

Boeotian stele, 7th c. BC, representing a "Potnia Theron", (Sketch) Athens, National Museum. Pic by Julianna Lees. 

I talked about this in my article "Silver seal from Gonur Tepe" and in the articles linked from it...

Anyway, that's it for today. I hope the above Sabaean artefacts now make a bit more sense...

If you are interested in reading more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...