I will start with a question: why are plants growing out of the horseman's head?
Seen this before?
Month of April, depicted as a Green Man (!!!), standing over Taurus (!!!), Cycle of the Months, floor mosaic, Crypt of the St. Columban Abbey (Bobbio Abbey), Bobbio, Piacenza, Italy, first half of 12th century...
Interesting...
The end of April is the time when St George, also known as "Green Jura" aka Green (young) Jarilo (Slavic sun god), aka Green Man arrives...Announcing the beginning of summer...In Taurus...
Zeleni Jura (Green Yura) walking the earth. Part of Jurjevanje, celebration of the return of Jarilo, Jura, The Young Sun God who brings spring...Today performed on St George's day...Tells you a lot about the true Identity of St George...
This ritual is performed Bela Krajina, area inhabited by descendants of Serbians who migrated here during Turkish invasions of the Balkans. Today split between Croatia/Slovenia...This is the original Green Man...
The Sun God's name Jarilo (pronounced Yareelo) comes from the root "jar" (yar) meaning: spring, young, green (Life giving warm sun of green spring), but also brightly burning and raging, furious (Life destroying burning sun of yellow summer)...
Interestingly, in Sanskrit, har (cognate of jar, yar) can also mean green and yellow...
It is the Spring/Summer sun that makes plants grow and get green...Hence Green Man...Hence walking green bush, hence plants growing out of the St George's head on the Italian mosaic, hence plants growing out of the horseman's head on the Greek kylix...I think...
Now in Slavic folklore Jarilo was imagined as a horseman...Just like Svetovid (another name for the sun god) in whose temples priests kept white horses as his sacred animals, which were used for divination...Solar rider from Medieval standing stone Bosnia...I talked about this in my post "Svetovid"...
Why horses? Well, ever heard of a Solar horse? Check this article about "Hayagriva", out.
In it I explain why horse is a "natural solar animal". In short, horse's natural reproductive cycle is governed by sunlight, starting in April and peaking on Summer Solstice...Which is why we see horses pulling sun chariots since...forever...Which is why we see things like these: Bronze Age "Sun Chariot" pulled by a horse, Denmark 1400 BC...
Or are ridden by sun itself, depicted either as a rider with sun disc with rays instead of the head, or as the sun disc with rays...like on these Celtic coins...
Or, in case of this Ancient Greek kylix, solar horse is ridden by a rider from whose head grows new vegetation...I think...
Oh did I mention that bull and horse are two interchangeable animal calendar markers, both pointing at Apr/May:
Beginning of calving season of wild Eurasian cattle...Marked by Taurus...🙂
Beginning of mating season of wild Eurasian horses...
Which is why we find Ancient Greek coins like this one. Check the article out: "Coin from Byzantion".
You'll like it...In it I explain the "mythological" link between cattle and horses...
Anyway, the dead giveaway that the rider is Jarilo, Or whatever name you want to give to the Young Sun God that arrives at the beginning of summer, are the birds...Migratory birds which arrive from Africa together with the Young Sun God...Remember this?
In Slavic mythology Jarilo actually departs for the land of the dead in the Autumn with the migratory birds and returns from the land of the dead in spring with migratory birds...I talked about this in my post "Leto"...
Leto, Slavic word for summer and year is most likely derived from the word "let" meaning flight...Leto (the old summer, the hot, sunny half of the year) is the period between the arrival and departure of the migratory birds...
What was the name of the mother of Apollo? Leto? Remember this post, "Skipping", about the birth of Apollo and the "Unknown meaning of the name Leto"?
Anyway, back to our horseman kylix. On it, the winged figure at the back is holding two wreaths...Flower wreaths? Like the ones still made on St George's day (Jarilo's day) in Serbia? I talked about this in my post "Aries must die"...
What about the eagle? I am not sure about that, but there is one eagle, which is also migratory, and which arrives to Europe with the Young Sun God, in Apr/May: Snake eagle...Bird of pray which arrives when snake, symbol of sun's heat, appears...I talked about this in my post "Eagle snake struggle"...
Interestingly, the other side, which I would really really really love to see, is apparently decorated with pomegranates...Symbols of winter...Top - Summer, Bottom - Winter? Or...Are these poppies, symbols of summer, and not pomegranates?
Remember this article about "Poppies and pomegranates"?
What connects pomegranates and poppies? Well obviously shape...But also the fact that these two plants are associated with Demeter (poppies) and her daughter Persephone (pomegranates)...The goddesses of grain...
Anyway, I have no idea if this is what is depicted on this mysterious Archaic Greek kylix, but no one else does either...So...🙂
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