The King killing Angra Mainyu

This is a drawing of a relief from Persepolis, depicting "The King killing Angra Mainyu", the main adversary of Ahura Mazda, the highest deity of Zoroastrianism...

In the earliest texts, Angra ("destructive", "chaotic", "disorderly", "inhibitive", "malign") Mainyu ("Energy", "Force", "Sprit", "Mind") was the antithesis of Spenta ("Holy", "Creative", "Bounteous") Mainyu ("Energy", "Force", "Sprit", "Mind")...

Eventually Angra (Destructive) Mainyu became Aka (Evil) Mainyu...Because of course everything destructive caused disorder and disorder is evil...And so Zoroastrian devil, Ahriman, was born...

However originally Angra Mainyu and Spenta Mainyu were, I believe, and will explain here why I believe so, just two opposing natural forces, at work in Persia: sun and rain...

This is the climatic year in the area of the ancient Persopolis

You can see that the climatic year is divided into 2 halves: Cool, Wet half (Nov-Apr),  the time of life, Spenta Mainyu and Hot, Dry half (May-Oct), the time of death, Angra Mainyu...

Eeee what? Why?

Look again at the "monster" the king is slaying. It has lion's body, eagle's talons and wings, and bull horns...

Apr/May, Taurus, Beginning of the calving season of the Eurasian wild cattle. 

Jul/Aug, Leo, Beginning of the main mating season of Eurasian lions.

Oct/Nov, Eagle, Beginning of the main mating season of Eurasian Vultures.

Beginning, middle, end of the hot, dry season...

The half of the year dominated by the beast...The dragon...The symbol of the sun's destructive heat... 

I talked about it in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

These are all well known animal calendar markers found all over Eurasia and North Africa since Neolithic. Check this page with links to animal calendar markers related articles then the rest of the blog (I still didn't add all posts here), and then my twitter account threads (I still didn't convert all to blog posts)...

Sun's heat is the strongest and the most destructive, deadly, at the end of summer, start of autumn. This moment is "marked" by all those "lion killing bull" images from Persepolis...Lion (autumn) killing (ending) Bull (summer)...Like this one from Persepolis...

And the hottest and driest part of the dry  at the moment when bull meets lion. At the end of summer, beginning of autumn. This moment is "marked" by all those "lion killing bull" images, like this one from Persepolis...Lion (autumn) killing (ending) Bull (summer)...

So the Persian king is slaying the monster, which is a composite animal calendar marker for the hot, dry half of the year, the half of the year ruled by the sun. Destructive, deadly sun. This "destructive, deadly" sun in Leo had a name in ancient Mesopotamia: Nergal...

I talked about him in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

In Levant, this destructive, deadly sun of the late summer, early autumn was the God of Death, Mot...I talked about him in my posts "Oldest Arabic poem" and "Anat"...Same climate, same mythology...Different names..."We are all individuals" 🙂 after all...

Anyway, it is funny that only 2 days, in my post "Sacred hunt" ago I asked "Why were Assyrian kings so obsessed with killing lions"...

And I proposed that it was a symbolic killing of the hot dry half of the year...And today, this... 

Achaemenids have actually spelled it out for us, so we don't have to wonder any more...The king is killing the hot dry half of the year...Well he is not really killing the sun's heat. He is pretending to be Ninurta, the Old Storm god, killing the sun's heat...

Ninurta, who was, in the earliest times, imagined as an "enormous black bird with outstretched wings".

Basically a vulture performing mating areal dance, which coincides with the end of the hot, dry half and beginning of the cool, wet half of the year...

I talked about him in many posts, like "Abu", "The judgement of the birdman", "Mysterious creature", "Eagle dance" "Pero"...

Also Ninurta, the hunter, the guy with the bow and arrow...Killing The Blazing Sun (Nergal)...Sagittarius...Which marks the same moment in the solar year...The end of the half of the year dominated by the sun...The Irish will love this. Remember the legends about Balor with the scorching eye being killed by Lugh? 

By the way, the tree animals marking the beginning, middle and end of "the beast" are 3 out of 4 "living creatures" which Ezekiel saw in his vision, around the same time when Persepolis was made...

I talked about them in my post "Four living creatures"...

What we have is Taurus (Apr/May), Leo (Jul/Aug), Eagle/Scorpio (Oct/Nov)...What's missing is the man, Aquarius (Jan/Feb)...

The four symbols which mark the beginning of Spring (Man), Summer (Bull), Autumn (Lion) and Winter (Eagle/Scorpion)...

Now in the area of the Persian empire, Aquarius marks the exact period of the solar year when the snowmelt started in Zagros mountains, including the area around Persepolis. The period when the water level in the rivers that made the Persian fields fertile began to rise...

Just to see how persistent these symbols are, here they are surrounding the Christ, as "Evangelists"

Christs with "the symbols of 4 evangelists". Original and fixed version with the correct sequence of "evangelists"...

It seems that "mad prophetic visions of Ezekiel and John, could be hidden remnants of old knowledge"...

So more of the same...Ninurta,  Ahura Mazda...God, as they say, has thousand names...And so does the devil...

I want to thank great Italian archaeologist, Gabriella Brusa-Zappellini, for drawing my attention to this image...

Oh, BTW, guess who was worshipped in Iran, including parts which later became Achaemenid Persia, since Neolithic? Ibex Goat...

Why? Because the Ibex goats in Iran mate at the beginning of the cool wet part of the year, and baby goats are born at the the end of the cool wet part of the year...

Hence, "Goat of rain"...You can read more about on my blog. Start here in my post about "Goat carrier"...

So if Angra Mainyu, bull-lion-eagle, is the hot dry part of the year, is the devil, then his antithesis, goat is god? It's complicated...