Friday 25 September 2020

Calydonian boar

Illyrian silver stater 300-275 BC. Cow suckling her calf. Jawbone above. So what's the meaning of all of this?

Of first the cow suckling the calf. 

The calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle starts in Taurus, beginning of summer. This is also the beginning of the milking season...I wrote about the link between wild Eurasian cattle and Taurus in my article "Ram and Bull" and about bull as the symbol of summer in my article "Symbols of the seasons"...


Now we have to identify the jawbone. Officially this is a wild boar jawbone...Is it? 

Jawbone from the coin. 

Wild boar jawbone

It seems to match...

In my article about the double headed eagle axe, I talked about the symbolism of the wild boar and its link to winter. Mating season of the wild boar across Eurasia starts in November, beginning of winter...

Both cattle and wild boar were used in Eurasia as solar year calendar markers. Bull marking end of April, beginning of May, beginning of summer, and wild boar marking end of October beginning of November, beginning of winter...

In old Celtic calendar, which closely corresponds to the Anatolian and Middle Eastern Agricultural calendar, the year is divided into only two parts: Dark Nov-Apr (wet season in Anatolia and Middle East) and Light May-Oct (dry season in Anatolia and Middle East)



The Dark part starts with Boar (November) and the Light part starts with Bull (May). Is it possible that the boar jawbone represents the death (end) of the the dark part of the year and the cow and calf represent birth (start) of the light part of the year? 

A century after the above Illyrian coin was minted, we find a jawbone on the coins of the Aitolian league. This one was minted in 211 BC. 



Officially "Spear, Jawbone, Calydonian Boar, commemorates killing of the Calydonian boar". Why would this be Calydonian Boar jawbone? What is the significance of the killing of this boar? Political? Religious?

Let's have a look at the Calydonian boar myth...

Hmmm"...King Oeneus of Calydon held annual harvest sacrifices to the gods...

Harvest in Ancient Greece began in Taurus...I talked about the link between the Taurus and grain in Greek culture in my post "Hesiod on grain"...

"...One year the king forgot to include Great Artemis...in his offerings. Insulted, Artemis...loosed the biggest, most ferocious wild boar imaginable on the countryside of Calydon. It rampaged throughout the countryside, destroying vineyards and crops...People began to starve..."

If boar represents winter, then "most ferocious wild boar" "destroying vineyards and crops" and "causing people to starve" could be a sudden catastrophic climate change, sudden cooling...Like the one which happened during Bronze age collapse...1200BC

So I think that the legend about the Calydonian boar just confirm the link between the wild boar and winter...And that it can actually only be understood properly through this link...

I personally that the jawbone on the Illyrian coin is a calendar marker marking the end of the dark part of the year and the beginning of the light part of the year.

What do you think?

1 comment:

  1. A very astute observation...I believe evidence will emerge to show how important,literally and symbolically, the wild boar was from the start of the holocene onwards. I wonder, the further back through prehistory one travels, perhaps a more symbolic mode of thought and being would be found?

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