Fertility goddess with poppies

Akkadian seal, currently in the University of Chicago. 

Official description: "Sun god in a boat. On prow long-haired crowned figure with punting pole and human-headed lion, snake's head for stern, plow, vase and two objects above, fertility goddess beside boat, fish below"...

That's it??? Of course not...I wrote a whole article about what is actually depicted on this super interesting seal: "Sun god in a boat". But I missed few bits, which is why I am writing this article today...

In a nutshell, this 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 and waving it goodbye...

This girl is the same as this girl...Corinth plate with Demeter...Demeter is holding a torch in her right hand, symbolising winter. 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 :) 

Kind of important, right?

I talked about this link between grain goddesses and poppies in my posts "Demeter riding a panther"...

About torches...Check my articles "Abduction of Persephone", "Woman with torches and swans", "Thyrsus"...

I identified the seated figure holding the rudder and steering the boat as Shamash/Utu, the sun god...You can see this from the sun/heat rays coming out of his shoulders...

Sun god which rules summer, the dry, hot half of the year (Apr/May - Oct/Nov). I talked about him in my posts "Shamash young and old", "Canals", "When Utu steps up into heaven"...

On the above seal, Shamash is standing in a dry irrigation canal bed "between lions", meaning in Leo (Jul/Aug), the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia...

This part of the year is marked by a lion, because this is when Eurasian lions mating season starts...

So in my original post about the "Sun god in a boat" Akkadian seal, I proposed that the lion is in the boat, because the boat is sailing from the beginning of the Mesopotamian summer (harvest, Apr/May) to the middle of the Mesopotamian summer (Jul/Aug), Leo...

But somehow I completely missed the implications of the fact that the lion has a human head...

This is not an ordinary lion...This is Nergal, the god of death, who rules the hottest and driest part of the year...The Bad Shamash...The deadly sun in Leo, which brings drought and death. I talked about him in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

So there are actually 3 gods in the boat

So we have Shamash steering the boat of summer towards the hottest part with Nergal hitching a lift towards Leo...So the third god. In my original post I completely ignored the "long-haired crowned figure with punting pole standing on the prow". Didn't know what to make of him...

Until recently, when I came across stories about Enki, the god of fresh water and the good of the annual flood of Tigris and Euphrates and his little boat...I wrote few articles about this: "Goatfish", "Enki's little boat", "Rain and flood"...

The above seal shows Enki in a boat, which represents the annual flood. The flood starts in (Apr/May), the time of the peak water levels in Tigris (left) and Euphrates (right)...And the grain harvest time. See the grain sheaf on the right of the boat?

By the way this part of the year (Apr/May) is marked by a bull, Taurus, Because this is the beginning of the calving season of wild Eurasian cattle. I talked about this in my post "Ram and bull", "Cow and calf ivory"

It's the snowmelt in the Anatolian and Zagros mountains, caused by the sun (Shamash/Utu) that releases the flood waters (Enki/Ea) which cause the flood during the calving season of Aurochs...Hence Both Shamash and Enki being linked to bulls...I talked about this in my post "Butt chewing"...

On the above relief you can see Triumphant Shamash, as a bull, in Taurus, which marks the beginning of the flood, Climbing up the mountain, to melt the snow and release Enki, the flood...His butt is being chewed by a winged lion though...Leo, which marks the end of the flood...

Back to Enki's boat, which represents the summer flood. On one side is grain (Apr/May). On the other side of the summer flood (Jul/Aug) is a star...Any random star? Of course not...

Sirius, rising before the sun, pretending to be "the morning star"... Otherwise known as Inanna/Ishtar "The queen of heaven"...The one that poses on the lion...In Leo...Girl which has some serious "conflicts of interest" with Nergal, Shamash, Sun in Leo...I talked about this in my post "Ninshubur", "Sacred marriage on a threshing floor"...

BTW, do you see the fish underneath the boat? Check my post about "Goatfish", which explains why the annual flood was in Sumer known as "Carp flood"...

So that't it...Few bits which fell into place since I wrote the original article...

Hope you enjoyed this...

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...