Saturday 7 May 2022

Demeter riding a panther

Goddess Demeter riding a panther. Terracotta figurine from Thebes, 375-325 BCE. Currently in Louvre

Very interesting...But I wonder: is this really a panther...Or is it a lioness...Let's see:

See the snake coiling around the goddess? Why is this snake here? For the same reason why on this Roman relief of Ceres (Roman equivalent of Demeter), the goddess is seen emerging from the ground holding grain and snakes...




Snakes are the only true solar animals. They are in our world when sun is in our world (day and hot part of the year) and they are in the underworld when sun is in the underworld (night and cold part of the year)...I talked about this in my posts "Enemy of the sun" and "The chthonic animal"...

The serpent was the animal most sacred to Demeter. Apparently, because "it is a creature which represented rebirth in nature and the fertility of the earth"...Why?

Well in continental Europe, winter is the time of cold and death. The time when sun and his snakes spend in the underworld...

Reemergence of snakes in spring announces the return of the sun from the underworld. Which causes "the rebirth of nature and the fertility of the earth"

The time when snakes spend in our world with the sun, the hot, fertile part of the year, is also the time when grain grows, ripens and is harvested...I think Demeter had something to do with grain...Like a goddess of grain or something...

Snakes are symbol of sun's heat. And dragons, old snakes, are symbol of the old sun, destructive late summer sun which burns the land and causes drought. 

Hence fire breathing dragons who guard water...I talked about this in my post "Dragon who stole rain"...


Interestingly, Demeter, and here Roman incarnation Ceres, ride around in a chariot pulled by two snakes or two dragons...And they bring ripe grain and a sickle...Like on this drawing by Pietro de Angelis...Why?


In Ancient Greece the grain harvest started around the beginning of May, in Taurus. If we are to trust Hesiod anyway...I talked about this in my post "Hesiod on grain"...

Interestingly, adder, the most common European snake, mates at exactly that time...And mating of these snakes is not something you will miss if you live on land...Cause of this: male snakes fighting for females...Looks familiar? Will talk about this soon...


So "two snakes" pull the chariot of the grain goddess who brings grain and sickle...Translated to agricultural calendar, when snakes begin to mate, it's time to start the grain harvest...

Anyway, as the goddess of grain, wheat was naturally regarded as her most sacred plant. The poppy was also sacred to Demeter...Apparently "as it is a flower commonly found growing amongst the grain of the wheat-fields"...

Here is Demeter holding grain and poppies in her left hand and torch in her right hand. Corinth plate with Demeter...

Demeter is holding a torch in her right hand. I love the fact that in her left hand she is holding grain and poppies, symbolising summer...Man can't live on bread alone. He needs drugs too 🙂 About Demeter and torches, check my post "Abduction of Persephone"...

But the poppies she is holding are not your innocent wild red poppies. They are opium poppies...So I wonder, were poppies Demeter's flower, because the grain harvest and poppy opium harvest used to take place at the same in Ancient Greece...

In Taurus...Remember this guy? "God", (I presume it's a god and not a stoned acrobat), holding poppiest in each hand, while riding on a bull. Urartu, 800BC

I talked about poppies as plant calendar marker in my posts "Poppy god", "Poppy princess"... 

I wonder what the torch is the symbol of??? Light and heat i presume...Fire...Fire of the sun? I did a bit of thinking about it already in my post "Thyrsus"...But I think need to think some more about all this...

But we are talking about Demeter here. Look at this: 500BC-480BC red-figured Atic skyphos (drinking-cup): Triptolemos takes the gift of grain to mankind. Riding on Demeter's snake (dragon) chariot...Currently in the British Museum... 


He is driving away from Demeter (behind him) holding grain towards Persephone (in front of him) holding jug of water...Both goddesses are holding blazing torches...

Demeter, representing grain harvest, at the beginning of the hot, dry part of the year (Apr/May) and Persephone representing grain sawing at the end of the hot, dry part of the year (Oct/Nov)...


Torches here would then represent the light and heat of the sun...

Speaking of grains and poppies...Look, the same grain poppy goddess in Mesopotamia...Which is where all this originates btw...I talked about this goddess in my post "Sun god in a boat"...

In a nutshell, it is a complex calendar marker, which depicts beginning of summer (Apr/May), just after the grain and poppy harvest. This is symbolised by the goddess, with grains growing out of her body, holding poppies, standing behind the boat, symbolising the flood, and waving it good by...

So we have grain and poppies linked together in Mesopotamian mythological symbolism...And we also have bulls and grain linked too...Because in Mesopotamia grain harvest also starts in Taurus...

Like on this fragment of a vessel with wheat stalks and a procession of bulls in relief, Late Uruk–Jemdet Nasr, 3300–2900 BC, Southern Mesopotamia. Currently in the Met Museum...


I talked about this symbolic link between bulls and grain in Mesopotamian art in my posts "How grain came to Sumer" and "Bulls and grains bowls"...

But I am digressing 🙂 Back to the original question: is Demeter riding on a panther (leopard), or on a lioness?

I talked about the opposite meaning of the leopard and lion animal calendar markers in Eurasia in this post about this amazing Elamite copper bowl

Leopard symbolises beginning of spring, the coldest part of the year, and lion symbolises the beginning of autumn, the hottest part of the year...But in general, leopard symbolises the cold dark half of the year and lion symbolises the hot, bright half of the year...



This is true in Europe too, where Leopard is associated with Dyonisus

This link between leopards, winter, goats and fertility was in Europe preserved in Dionysus cult...Leopard is the mount of Dionysus, is carried by Maenads, or his skin is worn by the leader of Rural Dionysia...

I talked about this in my posts "Leopard and tiger", "Furious maenad" and "Maenads with hare"

Also have you seen this: Dionisus, the winter sun, as opposed to Apollo, the summer sun. Apollo and Dionysus 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...



But I am digressing again 🙂 Considering that Demeter is linked with snakes and dragons, both symbols of the hot, summer sun, I believe that she is actually riding on a lioness, symbol of the half of the year when grain ripens and is harvested...

Remember in Mesopotamia, dragons had lion's body and snake's heads...7 snake heads...Snake is the symbol of sun's heat...And there are 7 of them, because old Sumerian summer (🙂), hot dry season, had 7 months. So dragon = hot dry season...I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon"...


Why lion's body? Cause the hottest and driest part of the year is Jul/Aug. The time of the year marked with Leo. Cause this is when the main mating season of Eurasian lions starts...



Which is why Nergal, Mesopotamian the god of death, who represents "destructive summer sun" is depicted with lion's body...I talked about this in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...


While we are in Mesopotamia, 
you know how there is this girl, Inanna/Ishtar, who loves standing on lions? 

Why does she do this?

Well...standing on a lion means "In Leo"...

And you know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar "The queen of heaven", "The morning star" is Venus...Well, when this "mythology" was developed, Sirius rose before the sun, in Leo (Jul/Aug), pretending to be "the morning star"...I talked about this in my post "Ninshubur"...

In "A hymn to Inana as Ninegala" we can read "Inana, great light, lioness of heaven..." Why? 

Well, this, combined with Inanna's obsession with standing on lions only makes sense if she is Sirius, rising with the sun in Leo...

Anyway, you know how some archaeologists say that Inanna's earliest depiction was as a lioness? Does this Elamite figurine made in Iran depict Inanna as lioness...



Interestingly, Inanna/Ishtar, was in "A song of Inanna and Dumuzid" described as: "Maiden, glossy mane, lovely beauty...colourful as a pile of grain, fit for the king, fit for Dumuzid! Maiden...a stack of...barley, fully developed in loveliness"...

Interesting right? And this beautiful Mesopotamian corn maiden loved having sex on a threshing floor...I talked about this in my post "Sacred marriage on the threshing floor"...

Guess when the threshing was finished in Mesopotamia? In Leo...

But what does Demeter have to do with Inanna/Ishtar? Well, have you ever heard of Levantine goddess Asherah? Now, we know that goddess Asherah was linked to "high places" where she was worshiped...And you know how every "high place" had an "Asherah pole" made of wood..."which marked the place as sacred and was itself an object of worship"...And no one is really sure what this pole was or what it looked like...

This is a traditional threshing floor in Ithaka, Greece...Definitely a "High place" with a "Central Pole"...

And this is what Homer says about Demeter and threshing floors:

"And even as the wind carries chaff about the sacred threshing-floors / of men that are winnowing, when fair-haired Demeter / amid the driving blasts of wind separates the grain from the chaff"...

You can find this quote in "A Compendium of Similes in the Iliad and Odyssey"...Which is why Eugene Vanderpool in "ΕΠΙ ΠΡΟϒΧΟΝΤΙ ΚΟΛΩΝΩΙ: The Sacred Threshing Floor at Eleusis" proposes that threshing floors were sacred to Demeter and were in fact her temples...

Also, wasn't Demeter's cult title Sito (Σιτώ), "she of the Grain"? Wasn't she "the holy goddess with the beautiful golden hair"? Wasn't one of her names "Ioulo", from "ioulos" meaning "grain sheaf"?

Oh, and guess when the threshing was finished in Greece? In Leo...

So I would suggest that Demeter on our original figurine is actually riding on a lioness...Just like Inanna/Ishtar...

Small world...BTW, Demeter and Inanna are just two names of the "lion goddess" found all over Eurasia and North Africa...The (incomplete) list can be found in my post "Assumption of Mary"...

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...


2 comments:

  1. Torch may be fields burnt when harvest is done.

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  2. Solomon's temple was built on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite on top of Mount Moriah. Ornan according to Strongs means "their light was perpetuated/ fir trees", the probably root is Oren which denotes a lofty tree, and this one usage is in Isiah 44 when it speaks of making an idol out of the tree (often thought to be the root of christmas trees). In essence the Asherah pole. So the threshing floor of a guy named after the Asherah pole.

    The bronze serpent called Nehushtan was likely a Jebusite relic that David won when taking Salem from the Jebusites, and the story about Moses creating it in the wilderness was an etiological myth to explain why it stood in the temple (in the Holy of Holies?). This symbol was of course the symbol of the goddess/Asherah. Which was likely related to the pole in the middle of the threshing field. A bronze serpent was found in the holy of holies of Midianite temples, one of which in Timnah was previously a Hathor temple. (Hathor= Asherah). See the midianite hypothesis for the origins of YHWH (where Moses was introduced to the name YHWH, or actually Eyeh Asher Eyeh)

    David's name is potentially DuWad, Du was replaced by Asher which meant "Of" or dedicated to in theophoric names. Wad was a serpent god of Arabia who was married to Athirat/Asherah. In a form of the sacred marriage. See Here for all the associations:

    https://www.academia.edu/32203467/Eves_Ritual_the_Judahite_Sacred_Marriage_Rite

    The name may also be cognate with Tiwaz as Diouad. Tiwaz is Luwian Sun god, cognate with Dyeus. It means shining. Like a serpent? Like a bronze serpent?

    Tiwaz's son is Runtiya who is associated with Resheph aka Nergal. Specifically Resheph of the goats, or Resheph of the birds. To bring it all around to the OP, the story of Persephone and Adonis would link Innana and Tammuz.

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