Twelfth Century stone relief, thought to represent Slavic Sun God Svetovid (Svantovit) holding cornucopia (horn of plenty). The stone was found in Altenkirchen, Rügen, Germany...
German chroniclers recorded that the main annual religious ceremony performed by the Baltic Slavs was performed at the end of the harvest at the beginning of November (Samhain?). And it involved Svetovid, his "drinking horn", and giant breads...Probably like this one still made in Serbia for Christmas...
The priest looked at Svetovid's horn to see if the drink in it was evaporating. If so, the harvest would be poor the next year, and the people should save something of their current harvest for next year. If the drink did not disappear, that foretold a bountiful year...
There was also there as an offering an oval-shaped honey cake which stood "almost as tall as a man". The priest would stand behind it and would ask the people if they could see him. When they answered "yes", he would then wished them that next year they should not see him at all...Meaning that the honey cake (bread) offered to the god next year would be even bigger, because the harvest would be even better... More in my post "Can you see me".
From this ritual we can clearly see that the Slavs saw the horn as "cornucopia", the horn of plenty. The ritual was Slavic thanksgiving. The time when Slavs threw sacrificial feasts for their gods. And made human sacrifices to them too... More in my post "Thanksgiving".
Cornucopia is still associated with thanksgiving. Except it's not a horn any more, but a horn like wicker basket...But the idea of the symbol is the same: the bountiful harvest comes from the horn...Why?
Cornucopia is latin name for the symbol of abundance and nourishment, which in classical antiquity was commonly depicted as a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers or nuts...
Originally though, cornucopia was an actual horn and was not called cornucopia. It was called Keras Amaltheias (Horn of Amalthea)...Who was Amalthea? Remember the Ibex goat that suckled infant Zeus on Crete that I talked about in my post "Goat riding thunder god"? This is Minoan seal where swastika is formed by four Ibed goats...Ibex was venerated as a holy animal of the thunder god by the Minoans:
Apparently, one day, as young Zeus played with Amalthea, he accidentally broke off her horn. To make up for it and as a sign of gratitude, Zeus blessed the broken horn, so that its owner would find everything they desired in it...
The best bit: "How Amalthea’s horn came to be associated with an overflowing horn of plenty...is not quite clear in classical Greek mythology, although it is a common motif in Greek art..." Darkness in "our current understanding of our mythology" is scary...
Soooo. Here we are again. Tapping in the darkness. How did Amalthea's horn become The Horn of Plenty? Well, if you read my post about "Goat riding thunder god" you will see that the Amalthea and Zeus story takes place on Crete...
And on Crete, the year is divided into two parts: hot, dry part (April-May to October-November) and cold, wet part (October-November to April-May). It doesn't rain at all during the dry part. And it rains pretty much all the time during the wet part...
And the arrival of rainy season coincides with the beginning of the mating season of Cretan Ibex goats. Year after year, Cretans would see Ibex goats start their annual mating dances and fights and then the clouds would gather and the rain would start falling...
Almost as if the Ibex goats somehow made the rain come...Rain which makes crops grow, abundantly, plentifully. Almost as if the Ibex goats brought abundance, plenty...What is the most striking characteristic of Ibex goats, which makes them instantly recognisable? Their horns...
So if you wanted to have an object that represents abundance, plenty...And you were from Crete? Minoan Crete...What would you use? Well the horn of the Cretan Ibex goat, the bringer of rain, course...
And of course it wouldn't be any goat. It had to be Amalthea. The nurse (provider of life giving liquid) of Storm god Zeus (provider of rain, life giving liquid)...By the way remember that it was Zeus "who blessed the horn"...Ha ha ha...Rain brings abundance, plenty...
So this wasn't that difficult, right? It's kind of obvious in the end. But here is a really interesting question: why were Slavic priest, in November, checking whether drink evaporated from their "horn of plenty" to see if the next year's harvest would be good?
So. In my post about the Minoan artefact called Sanctuary rhyton, I mentioned that it could have been used as a rainfall measuring device. If it was left opened during the winter, it would tell Minoans how much rain fell during the winter...I talked about this in my post "Sanctuary rhyton".
If by springtime the rhyton was full of rain water, the next year would be bountiful, plentiful. There would be no hunger as the soil would have been well irrigated and there would be no thirst as the rivers, streams, springs and cisterns would have been full of water...
But if in November the water in the rhyton was getting lower (evaporating because the weather was hot and dry) instead of getting higher (accumulating because the weather was cool and wet), then that was the sign that the next year will be one of restrictions, hunger and thirst..
Why would Slavic priests from the temple of Svetovid, the sun god, in the Baltic, use evaporation of liquid from the horn of plenty in November as the indicator of the quality of the future harvest? When in Baltic, wet winter means lower yields...You can read about the effect of the rainfall on the grain yield in Northern Europe in this article.
But remember how Germanic, Slavic and Baltic thunder gods flew up north from Crete during Bronze Age on their ibex goat drawn chariots? Did they bring with them this November, horn of plenty, grain yield divination???
And somehow, Slavs, the conservative, backward fuckers that they are, managed to preserve it, until medieval time...
Another interesting thing: In Ancient Greek depictions, Amalthea's horn was held by one of two gods of wealth: Pluto (otherwise known as Hades god of the underworld) or Plutus, who was either son of Pluto (Hades) and Persephone or Iason (??) and Demeter...You can read more about this in my post "Pluto".
Pluto (Hades) with Persephone holding cornucopia
Plutus with Demeter holding cornucopia
Why is it the god of the underworld, the god of the dead, the one that gives wealth? Well because the wealth is in the ground...Right? You heard this many times before...Interestingly Slavs believed that it was their dead ancestors who determine the fortunes of the living...
They believed that the happy, well fed and watered ancestors give fertility and health to fields, animals and people and that the pissed off ones turn on their descendants and punish them with failed harvests, plagues, death and ruin...
Interestingly, in Slavic folklore, the time of the year linked with the dead is winter...The dark, wet, cold part of the year, the time of death...Also interestingly, in Crete, winter is the time of life...
I will soon write an article that proves that God Hades was originally a god associated with winter. For now, chuck that god to Crete, put shades and swimming shorts on him, and suddenly he turns from god of winter death, need and poverty to god of winter life, bounty and wealth
This definitely requires more talking about. Specifically how the Hades, the tourist from the north, abducted the local Cretan goddess of vegetation, Persephone, Mother Earth...and stole for himself her magic winter life giving powers...
For now I am leaving you with this image. 25,000 years ago, in the Dordogne, a pregnant woman holding a horn was sculpted on a limestone block in the rock shelter of Laussel...
Mother earth holding a horn of plenty? Did our palaeolithic ancestors already have this symbol?
Bravo!
ReplyDelete