Along the rim, the bowl has inset gold coins, which make the dating of the bowl possible. The latest issued coin imbedded into the bowl is the one with the representation of the Emperor Geta who ruled with his father Septimius Severus and older brother Caracalla...
This coin would not have been reissued after his assassination and subsequent "damnatio memoriae". So this provides the earliest possible date when the bowl could have been made...
The bowl could have actually been somehow connected to the Severus family. The central decoration shows Bacchus and Hercules. The were tutelary deities of Leptis Magna, the birthplace of Septimius Severus, and both featured on his coins...
However this "history stuff" is not "the interesting bit"...The interesting bit is the stunning central scene depicting Dionysus getting Heracles drunk. And the circular depiction of the Rural (Winter) Dionysia procession which surrounds it...End their meaning...
The story goes that Heracles challenged Dionysus to a drinking contest and lost, resulting in his joining the Dionysus's retinue for a period...
I don't know about the drinking contest...The only person drinking here is Hercules...The two are seated at the table, surrounded by the satyrs who are providing musical entertainment...
In front of them is a leopard...
Leopard is animal calendar marker and the symbol of winter...The end of winter (Jan-Feb) to be more precise, and the beginning of spring and spring itself...Because this ie when Asian and Arabian leopards begin to mate...
This link between leopards and winter was in Europe preserved in Dionysus cult, which is a winter cult...
Leopard is the mount of Dionysus...
Is carried by Maenads, female followers of Dionysus...
And his skin is worn by the leader of Rural Dionysia...
I talked about the link between Dionysus and leopard in my posts "Leopard and tiger", "Furious Maenad", "Maenads with hare"...
Hercules is sitting on lion's skin which he always carries around...
Interestingly, lion is the symbol of summer. The end of summer (Jul/Aug) to be more precise and the beginning of autumn and autumn itself...Because this ie when Eurasian lions begin to mate...
This is why Leo is where it is on the zodiac circle...And has always been there, since at least Neolithic...It has nothing to do with stars and is not affected by precession...
Leopard and lion are two opposite animal calendar markers...Leopard marks the coldest part of the year while lion marks the hottest part of the year...
And at the Dionysus's party, one is alive (leopard) and the other dead (lion)...Basically symbolically depicting victory of winter over summer...
The celebration of the victory of winter over summer??? But why would anyone celebrate winter? It's cold and damp and dead time of the year...At least in Rennes, France...
Because Dionysus cult didn't originate in Europe...It originated in Eastern Mediterranean or Western Asia (Levant, Mesopotamia, Eastern Anatolia...), in one of the areas where the climatic year is divided into 2 halves: Hot, Dry Summer (May-Oct) and Cool, Wet Winter (Nov-Apr)...
There, the part of the year symbolised by a lion is the time of death. The hottest, driest part of the year...And the part of the year symbolised by a leopard is the time of life. The coolest, wettest part of the year...The time of rebirth of nature...
Which is what Old Rural Winter Dionysia, which is depicted along the bowl's rim is all about: celebration of the return of the rain season...
Which turns land of death (beginning of autumn)
In the procession we see Dionysus arriving on a cart pulled by two leopards, his favorite mounts...The cart is lead by a satyr, half man half goat...
In the areas where Dionysus cult makes sense, like in Levant, rains return when Ibex goats start their mating season, at the beginning of winter (Oct-Nov)...
Which is why goats (and half man half goat Satyrs) feature so prominently in Dionysus cult...
And which is why Dionysus's leopard pulled cart (chariot) is lead by a half man half goat Satyr...
An Ibex goat (mating season Oct/Nov, beginning of winter) leads (is followed, is chased, is attacked) by a Leopard (mating season Jan/Feb, end of winter) since Neolithic...Here they are on a vessel from Mesopotamian Tepe Hissar
Both animals are thus linked to rain and fertility...Their mating, semen, brings rain, heavenly semen, which fertilises the land...
In fact in Eastern Mediterranean, Western Asia, Central Asia, Mesopotamia, the Ibex goat became The Goat of Rain...The most depicted animal found on ancient artefacts.
I talked about this in my many of my posts...Like "Goat petroglyphs from Iran", "Goat in a tree", "Volga mirror", "Green pastures", "Strider", "Jumping goat", "Goats and partridges", "Sanctuary rhyton", "Griffin killing lizard"...
The mating season of Ibex goats begins with wild buck fights...
In the depiction of the Dionysia on the Rennes bowl, we see an Ibex goat about to head butt a half man half goat Satyr...
The goat mating season starts right after the end of the grape harvest, which in Eastern Mediterranean starts in August and ends in October...
Hence goats pulling cart full of grapes...
Because the end of grape harvest and the beginning of the rain season overlapped, Dionysus became eventually The God of Wine...When actually he is The God of Winter...The life giving winter (Nov-Apr)...
Apollo (right) and Dionysus (left) shaking hands at Delphi. From an Attic vase, fourth century BC. Light, hot, dry part of the year and dark, cold, wet part of the year...Summer and winter...In there balance and accord the tree (of life) will grow...
I have to say I love the fact that right before the Satyr who leads Dionysus's leopard pulled chariot, walks (well drunkenly stumbles) Heracles 🙂 "the Lion killer"...
Hot dry part of the year (symbolised by a lion) has to end so that cool, wet part of the year (symbolised by a leopard and ushered by a goat) can begin...More about lion as the symbol of the hot dry part of the year can be found in this article about "Chariots of Admetus"...
So far so good and pretty obvious... 🙂...But here is where we come to the mystery animal...
What animal is this, reined and pulled by one of the revelers while an old Satyr rides on its back?
There is a broken goat horn depicted on the ground under it...Cornucopia? You know goat horn symbol of plenty...Plenty provided by the Goat of rain... 🙂I talked about this in my post "Cornucopia"... I don't think this is here for no reason...
Oh look. Dionysus and Pluto (God of wealth) with cornucopia...
But what animal is this? I don't think somehow that this is a goat...I think that this could be a deer, Persian Fallow deer to be more precise, if these are spots on its body...The tail is also a giveaway as Fallow deer have exactly that kind of tail...
But if this is a deer, where are its horns? Well is this a hole on the side of the animal's head?
Are they the holes that can be seen on deer head after their antlers fall off in the spring?
If so, then this is a symbol for the end of the winter half of the year, the half ruled by Dionysus...Because Fallow deer lose their antlers right at the end of winter, Apr-May...
So if I am right about this mystery animal being an antlerless Fallow deer buck, then this Dionysian procession actually depicts the "Old winter, dark, cool, wet half of the year" (Oct/Nov-Apr/May)...
Ibex goat, symbolysing the beginning of the old winter (Oct/Nov)
Leopard, symbolising the middle of the old winter (Jan/Feb)
Fallow deer with no antlers, symbolising the end of the old winter (Apr/May)
This is kind of cool, right? But I wonder how much of all this was known to the makers of this artifact? Did they just blindly copy old symbols without knowing their meaning? Or did they indeed know precisely what they were doing, but the rest of the plebs didn't...
Hmmm. Quite possibly...Because Dionysus cult was kind of a secret society, whose members didn't really go around explaining what all this stuff was about to the uninitiated...
But I wonder if even the initiates in the Dionysian mysteries knew that at the bottom of their religion was death and resurrection of nature?
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...
Leopards (not lions) are the symbol of royalty in Africa
ReplyDeleteThis is quite interesting! Thank you for sending it! Pat Johnston
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Pat.
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