Skipping

This is one of the best examples of the use of plant calendar markers I have ever seen...Archaic Greek black-figured amphora, found in Etruscan city of Vulci, Italy, and dated to 520BC... 

Currently kept in the British Musem. The main panel depicts, from left to right: 

Hermes

Dionysos holding grapevine with ripe grapes

Leto holding the infants Artemis and Apollo in her arms

Satyr (?) holding long juvenile ivy shoot...

Soooo???

The ripe grape (harvest) season in Greece is autumn, Aug, Sep, Oct...

The common ivy (Hedera helix) is an evergreen which grows throughout the year, but the main growth spurt season in Greece, when it puts out long juvenile shoots, is spring, early summer, Mar, Apr, May...

So the grapes and ivy shoots can be used as plant calendar markers for autumn and spring...And they are held by Dionysus, god of winter, whose plant symbols are grapevine and ivy, and one of his Satyr mates...

So Dionysus and Satyr are, with their plants, marking beginning and the end of winter. And in the middle of winter is midwinter, winter solstice, the time when the new sun, new solar year is born...Which is exactly where Leto stands...

Now remember that Leto gave birth to Artemis first and Apollo second...Which is why Artemis is closer to the grapes, autumn, and Apollo is closer to the ivy, spring...

Amazing, totally amazing...

But wait!!! This could just be a coincidence!!! Just a random jumble of plants, gods and mythological creatures!!! How can you be sure that this depicts winter?

Cause of the other side of the amphora. Of which, we only have the description:

On the other side, we have a scene of a procession: first a Satyr carrying a wineskin, then another Satyr riding a goat, followed by another Satyr slapping the goat's behind, followed by another Satyr dancing...

So?

Well, if there ever was a symbol of winter, it's a goat...Wild goats mate during winter, and are found as symbol of winter throughout Eurasia...

I talked about the link between wild goats and Dionysus in my post about "Patera of Rennes"...

And in Europe, because the Alpine Ibex mating season centres around Winter Solstice, we have this as the winter zodiac...I talked about this in my post "Trentar"...

This all of course fits with the story about the birth of Apollo and swans...When Apollo was born, swans circled over the place where he was born...

The Swans of Apollo were "Singing swans" which "when the singers would sing hymns to Apollo, would join the chant in unison"...The only swans that "sing" are whooper swans...

Which are migratory birds, which are in Greece only during winter...Right on time for winter solstice...You can read about all this in my post "Singers of Apollo"...

So I will stop here for tonight...Hope you enjoyed this...Have a nice evening...

PS: Forgot to wish you all "Sretno Novo Leto" (Happy New Year/Summer)... Apparently the etymology of Leto's name is unknown, possibly "pre Greek"...

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...