Maran

Maran Shamash (Lord Sun), the main god of Hatra, an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia located in present-day eastern Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq, the city whose full name was Hatra Shamash ([Temple] Enclosure of the Sun God)... Pic from: https://hatrasite.com

The Sun God Shamash was depicted with bull horns, rising from [behind?] [top of?] the mountain...Why?

Well one of the reasons why the sun god was depicted as rising from [behind] the mountain is because the sun does rise from behind Iranian Zagros Mountains in the morning...

But there is another possible explanation. The one that also explains why the Sun God Shamash has bull horns...And it all has to do with the local climate and how it affects the flow of the two great rivers, Tigris and Euphrates.

"When Utu/Shamash steps up into heaven, fresh waters shall run out of the ground for you..." from "Enki and Ninhursanga"...The sun god Utu/Shamash climbing the mountains to free Enki/Ea, god of fresh water...I talked about this in my post "Shamash young and old"

What does it mean? Well, when sun's elevation gets high enough, the snow on the mountains will start melting, and the rivers and wells will start filling up again...I talked about this in my post "When Utu steps up to heaven"...

The snowmelt starts in Jan/Feb (Aquarius 🙂)...

And the snowmelt runoff peaks in Apr/May (Taurus 🙂)

In "Enki and the world order" we read: "...Father Enki...he stood up full of lust like a rampant bull, lifted his penis, ejaculated and filled the Tigris with flowing water. He was like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass..."

You have to imagine this, no pics 🙂

Why like a wild bull and wild cow with a calf? 

Cause Tigris and Euphrates water flow peaks when the snowmelt runoff from the Zagros Mountains, peaks: in Apr/May, Taurus, The time when wild Eurasian cattle used to calve... 

In the same text we also reed: "Enki placed in charge of the whole of heaven and earth the hero, the youth Utu (Shamash), the bull standing triumphantly, audaciously, majestically..." I talked about this in my post "Butt chewing"...

"Enki and the world order" then goes to say "Utu/Shamash...the great herald in the east of holy An...with a lapis-lazuli beard, rising from the horizon...

Hence Shamash depicted as a golden (solar) bull with lapis lazuli (water) beard...

That Iranians used the same symbolic calendar can be seen from this Proto-Elamite silver figurine of a clothed kneeling bull (cow?) which "shows a curious blend of human and animal traits"...holding a spouted [water] vessel...I talked about this in my post "Elamite water bull"...

And so it becomes obvious why in Hatra we find Maran (Our Lord) Shamash (Sun) rising from the mountains with bull horns protruding from his forehead...

Maran...Maran...Like Maranatha? Maran-Atha (Our Lord - has come) from the bible? Which lord? The Golden Bull, Sun in Apr/May, in Taurus? Like this one from Ur currently in the Pen museum? 

Actually The Golden Bull should really be The Golden Calf...Like this one from Levant currently in Louvre... 

Cause Taurus marks the calving season of Wild Eurasian Cattle...

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...