Thyrsus

Stunning Roman relief showing a Maenad holding a thyrsus a magic wand of Dionysus (Bacchus), 120-140 AD (Prado Museum, Madrid)...Article about thyrsus and why was it made out of fennel...

A thyrsus was a wand or staff made out of a stalk of a giant fennel (Ferula communis) and topped with a pine cone. Sometimes it was covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with a ribbon...

Thyrsus was associated with Dionysus and was a symbol of fertility (kind of obvious cause of its shape) and prosperity (well in agrarian societies fertility, of land, animals, people = prosperity)...Here is The Man himself, Dionysus, on a leopard holding his magic wand...From Pela, capital of Makedon...

I love this: Thyrsus was a symbol of freedom that Dionysus brought as well as weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents...🙂

So why was Thyrsus made from a giant fennel, topped with pine cone and wrapped with grape and ivy vines?

This is giant fennel, a wild flowering plant found in Mediterranean and East African woodlands and shrublands. It can grow up to 2.5 meters tall...

It flowers in June and July (around summer solstice) and produces huge number of large bright yellow globular "sun like" flowers...

Soooo?

Well...In Ancient Greek mythology, when Prometheus stole fire from Zeus, he brought it to people by hiding it in the hollow stalk of the giant fennel...Here he is with fennel torches...

Some people wanted to see if there is any truth in these old legends...So they tried to preserve fire using fennel stalk. And they filmed their experiment.

In short:

Get a piece of dry giant fennel stalk, hard on the outside, full of soft pith on the inside. This pith can be ignited and it then smoulders...

The stalk can also be used as firedrill...If anyone has any pics or films showing the use of the giant fennel stalk as a fire drill, please post the link in the comments...

Well that's interesting...

We have:

1. A giant fennel which is full of sun like golden flowers around summer solstice

2. Summer solstice is sunniest but also the most thundery part of the year in the Balkans, which means a lot of chances for lightning (Zeus) started fires...

3. The previous year giant fennel plants are sitting pretty and bone dry among dry grass...

4. If lit up by a fire caused by lightning in just the right way, the fennel stick will smoulder and will allow you to "steal the fire from Zeus (lightning) and take it to the people"...

And the stick made from a dry giant fennel stalk, basically a firestick, was used during Rural Dionysia, which was celebrated around winter solstice, as a scepter carried by the god of resurrection (of nature) Dionysus and his followers...

Oh, and guess who regularly turns up at the Dionysia party and is seen here being greeted by the satyrs, the fateful followers of Dionysus...Well, Prometheus of course...

Satyrs dance amazed around the fire that Prometheus carries in the stalk of a giant fennel...And each one of the satyrs caries a giant fennel stalk too...Otherwise known as thyrsus...

Why?

What's all this resurrection of nature rubbish everyone is talking about? 

Well depends where you are, you can pick one of these two stories:

Eastern Mediterranean, Levant, Middle East...

Nature, which is full of life, fertile and abundant during winter, spring (cool wet half of the year) seems to die during summer and autumn (hot dry half of the year)...Only to be resurrected again in autumn...

The nature dies because the fire of the sun becomes too strong...The "resurrection of nature" depends on "the fire of the sun being almost extinguished" by the arrival of autumn rains...

So if during this time of coolness and wetness, you decide to throw a major party, to celebrate the arrival of the resurrection of nature (which is triggered by the extinguishing of the sun's fire by rain), what better thing to hold in your hand then a stick symbolizing the power of Zeus, thunder god? I mean, fire stolen by Prometheus was the product of Zeus's lightning...

So a lightning fire stick...Wrapped with ivy...And grape vines...With a pine cone stuck to its top...Cause fertility...Which arrives with the first winter rains (Oct/Nov)...When ivy starts bearing fruit...I talked about this in my post "Woman and pitcher"...Just after the end of grape harvest...I talked about this in my post "Crocus fairy"...And just at the beginning of pine cone harvest...I talked about this in my post "Eagle dude from Aleppo"...

I think that all this would make Thyrsus a very good symbol of the arriving winter rain season, which brings resurrection of nature...

Continental Europe:

Nature, which is full of life, fertile and abundant during spring summer autumn, seems to die during winter...Only to be resurrected again in spring...

The nature dies because the fire of the sun (almost) dies out. The "resurrection of nature" depends on "the fire of the sun being rekindled". If this does not happen, the winter will never end and the spring will never come...It happens. From time to time...

This is the meaning of the ritual rekindling of fires over Christmas and making sure that fire doesn't get extinguished through Christmas eve...

People believed that there was only one fire...The fire of the sun and the fire in in human hearths was one and the same...

I talked about this in my post about The end of calendar, post about Yule log and post about Badnjak, Serbian Yule log

Remember, Prometheus hid a bit of heavenly fire he stole from Zeus in wood, so people can summon it out whenever they need it...

The same fire, above and below...Agni basically...So when during the darkest part of the year the fire above, the fire of the sun, gets almost extinguished, it is up to people to make sure it keeps burning in their hearths...

So if during this time of darkness and cold, you decide to throw a major party, to celebrate the belief in resurrection of nature (which is triggered by the rekindling of the sun's fire), what better thing to hold in your hand than a firestick? Wrapped with grape and ivy vines...With a cone stuck to its top...Cause fertility...Hmmmm....

So maybe, just maybe, this all together somehow makes sense...

The question is which one of the two stories makes more sense?

Oh by the way, if you want to see what thirsus made of giant fennel stalk and a pinecone, someone's done it...He used a green stalk instead of dry one, but hey, close enough...

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...