Seated Apollo with laurel wreath, holding a lyre and pouring a libation. Attic white-ground kylix. Found in Delphi and dated c. 460BC. Archaeological Museum of Delphi...
In this post I would like to talk about this lyre...Its origin, and its symbolism...
First, according to the "Homeric hymn 4 to Hermes", this lyre was given to Apollo by his younger brother Herms...In exchange Apollo gave Hermes caduceus...All very important... Symbolically... But why did this exchange of gifts take place? Remember this post, "When grapes flower" in which I figured out Hermes's birthday?
This post is an analysis of (some) animal and plant calendar markers contained in the "Homeric hymn 4 to Hermes" which describes what Hermes did the day he was born (4th of May, when grapes flower)...
What Hermes did on the day he was born, was steal Apollo's cows.
He then invented fire drill, made fire, and sacrificed one of the cows to the gods...I talked about this in my post "12 Olympians" about (apparently inexplicable 🙂) link between Hermes and Hestia (fire)...
Apollo eventually caught Hermes and called on Zeus to decide how this "situation" should be resolved...And Zeus decided that they should shake hands and make friends, hence the exchange of presents...
But where did Hermes get the lyre? Well, he invented it...He made it himself...Apparently, as soon as he was born, he ran out of the cave he was born in, and at the entrance he saw a tortoise crawling in the grass...
He then "...killed the tortoise and cleaned its shell. He cut stalks of reed to measure and fixed them, fastening their ends across the back and through the shell of the tortoise, and then stretched ox hide all over it by his skill..."
"...Also he put in the horns and fitted a cross-piece upon the two of them, and stretched seven strings of sheep-gut...[then] he proved each string in turn with the key...At the touch of his hand it sounded marvelously..."
Here is a reconstructed 5th-4th century BC lyre found in Athens in parts. Currently in the British Museum...
Obviously based on the original design by Hermes...
Now, what if I told you that the lyre made by Hermes was a complex animal calendar marker for the day when Hermes was born, the 4th of May, mid Taurus...
If you have never heard of animal and plant calendar markers you would tell me I was mad...But if you did hear of them...
If you did hear of animal and plant calendar markers, you know that they mark important event from the annual cycle of the depicted animal or plant: mating, birthing, migration, flowering, fruiting...
So...the lyre's sound box was made of a tortoise shell.
The most common type of tortoise from Mediterranean, Greek tortoise, mates in Greece in Apr/May, in Taurus...When Hermes was born...
The sound box made from the tortoise shell was then covered with stretched ox hide.
After making the sound box, Hermes then attached horns to it...No explanation what that means...But judging by the shape of the lyre horns, I can bet that these were Auroch horns...
Here I want to thank @realVoxVulgaris for posting this in one of his twitter threads:
It is a natural thing to believe the curves were "flat", extending mostly outwards like on paintings but a couple of rare sideviews show that they curved mostly frontwards. Maybe best represented on this, the (Roman archaicising) Heidelberg Votive Lyre
See, shaped like bull horns...
Taurus marks the beginning of the calving season of the wild Eurasian Auroch cattle...
I talked about this in many of my posts, for instance this one, "Cow an calf ivory"...
Anyway, after creating the lyre frame, Hermes then attached 7 strings to the lyre...Why 7? The Poeticon astronomicon attributed to Hyginus says:
"...[Hermes], when he invented the lyre on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, gave it seven strings, from the number of Atlas's daughters [Pleiades], of whom his mother, Maia was one"...
Oh, and the first song Hermes sang with his lyre was about his mum...
BTW, Orphic hymn to Apollo says:
"[Apollo, You are] the cause of the blooming of all things; with your...lyre you harmonize...the heavens...You have arranged the highest three strings in the winter, the lowest in the summer...The middle one in spring...
Now, he used sheep guts for strings...Remember my post "Aries must die" about shepherd's rituals performed on St George's day, in which I explained why rams are sacrificed to St George, the end of Aries and the beginning of Taurus?
Aries must die (end) so Taurus can begin...BTW Aries marks the end of the lambing and the beginning of the sheep Milking season season. And Taurus marks the beginning of the calving and cow milking season...
And if we look at the lyre which Hermes made, its parts mark this super important part of the year for shepherds...Hence, Good Shepherd...
Which eventually lead to in exchange of gifts between Apollo and Hermes: Hermes gave Apollo the lyre (complex animal calendar marker for Apr/May) and Apollo gave Hermes "shepherd's staff" which is to become caduceus...
Now according to the Greek and Roman tradition, caduceus was a staff made from either bay laurel (Apollo's sacred plant) or olive wood...
Interestingly, both bay laurel (L) and olive (R) flower in Greece in Apr/May...
Which one is more suited to adorn the sun god? 🙂 I would definitely pick laurel...
Hermes used the shepherd staff Apollo gave him to separate two fighting snakes. They coiled around his staff in perfect harmony, creating the familiar caduceus tip...
Interestingly, most common snakes in Greece mate in Apr/May, when males engage in ritualised fights that once were interpreted falsely as mating ceremonies...
I talked about this in my post "Who were Persephone's parents"...
Soooo, Hermes gave Apollo lyre, complex animal calendar marker for Apr/May...And in exchange, Apollo gave Hermes caduceus, a complex animal and plant calendar marker for...Apr/May...Beginning of summer, the time of the year dominated by the sun, Apollo...
But why would Hermes, messenger of Zeus, carry a staff which is a calendar marker for Apr/May? Cause the messenger (the voice of) Zeus is thunder/lightning...I talked about this in my post about Iris, another messenger of Zeus (also carries caduceus 🙂) ...
And so Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, the one who announces Zeus, carries the staff made from the wood of trees which flower in Apr/May, around which are coiled snakes which mate in Apr/May, cause in Greece, the thunderstorm season starts in...Apr/May...
I talked about this in my post "Eagle and snake struggle"...
So when Greek poet Alcaeus in his hymn to Apollo written by the 6th c. BC says that it was Zeus who gave Apollo his lyre, this actually doesn't change anything in the interpretation of the lyre as a complex animal calendar marker for Apr/May...
Sooo...Cool, right?
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