Goat in European culture

Ibex head, Iran, 5th-4th c. BC. I want to thank Gabriella Brusa-Zappellini for posting the pic...Posts about Ibex, the "Goat of Rain": 

For those wondering why is "oldeuropeanculture" account writing about Neolithic-Bronze Age goat worship in Western Asia in articles like these 

"Goat Petroglyphs from Iran", "Problems with Abzu", "Goatfish", "Goat carrier", "Iranian goat of rain", "Strider", "Dancing goat men from Luristan", "A vessel from Tepe Hissar"

Here is why:

Meet Tanngnjostr and Tanngrisnir, the magic goats of Thor, the thunder god...I talked about Thor's goats in my post "Tanngnjostr and Tanngrisnir"...  

Why are Norse, Slavic and Baltic thunder gods riding on chariots pulled by goats? And why were goats sacred to Minoans? And Mycenaeans? And Greeks? I talked about this in my post "Goat riding thunder gods"...

Don't forget Pan, the "Old God", the goat, pardon me, the god 🙂 of vegetation who was obsessed with water nymphs...I talked about him in my post "Pan"...

Oh hey, don't forget about cornucopia, the horn of plenty. Originally 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...I talked about it in my post "Cornucopia"... 

Also meet Krampus, the Evil Goat Demon of Christmas. Why are people dressing up as ibex goats and prancing around Central Europe at the beginning of the mating season of Alpine ibexes? I talked about this in my post "Krampus"...

Why is goat obligatory mask in Christmas (Winter solstice) celebrations in Europe? Cause like all the other Winter Masks it is symbolically linked to death (of nature) during the winter and resurrection (of nature) in the spring...I talked about this in my post "Party"...

Also why is Capricorn where it is on the zodiac circle? Well because, just like all the other animal zodiac symbols, it is derived from a calendar marker for mating or birthing of the animal depicted...I talked about this in my posts "Goat" and "Zodiac"...

This zodiac was supposed to have been invented in Ptolemaic Egypt. But the oldest version of the Zodiac circle was discovered in Croatia and it predates the oldest example from Egypt. I talked about this in my post "Nakovana"...

And because animal zodiac symbols are all derived from animal calendar markers specific to Europe, European animals, European climate, this zodiac must have been developed in Europe...

But the idea to use animal lifecycle events as calendar markers is much much older...It probably existed before agriculture became the thing, but it became very important to early farmers...

So the idea for codified animal calendar markers probably dates to the Fertile Crescent and could be 15,000 years old...You need a way to pass agricultural knowledge to others. When do I sow seeds father? When Ibex goats start mating and rain starts to fall...

From here, these first farmers spread this idea as far as they had spread...Western Asia, Central Asia, North Africa, Arabia, Europe...

You can find a lot of articles about this animal calendar markers in various cultures on my blog...

I think that the idea for the animal calendar markers was also brought to Indian sub continent and China...The latest archaeological data confirms long distance contacts across Asia during Neolithic, in all directions...

So...Why am I writing about "non European cultures"? Everyone thinks they are special, but they are actually not. In order to understand Our European Culture, we need to realize that it is just a part of much wider cultural continuum...Both in time and space...

By the way the same goes for the "non European cultures"...They are not that special and unique either...

There I just offended everyone...Sorry...

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...