Lions of Delos

The 7 remaining "Lions of Delos", a group of (possibly) 12 (I would say definitely 12, one for every month of the solar year) lion statues which once lined the monumental avenue, similar to Egyptian avenues of sphinxes, in the 600 BC Temple of Apollo...

The island of Delos was an ancient holy sanctuary, and Greek mythology claims it was the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. The Lions, which had their mouths wide open as if roaring, were initially facing east (towards the the house of the Sun God)...

If you wanted to make a (First) Temple on a Threshing Floor, and "orient" it (make it to face east), if you wanted to make a "House of God" to face the "House of (Sun) God", how would you do it?

I talked about this orientation of temples to face east in my posts "Sun god from the First Temple" and "Boaz and Jachin"...

Here's the question: why lions? Well, I think comparative mythology, comparative linguistics and animal calendar markers can help us figure this out.

So where do we start? I think we should start with flies...

(In Mesopotamia) "There are flies that bite like bulldogs everywhere...in one's hair and eyes and mouth, in one's bath and shaving-water, in one's tea and in one's towel..." 

I talked about the etymology of the Sumerian word for fly and the fact that flies season in Iraq coincides with the hottest and driest time of the year in my post "Fly"...Then in this article, "Lord of the flies", I talked about Beelzebub, the lord of the flies, who was identified by Jews and Christians with Satan...

And I showed that behind this nickname hides the old Mesopotamian God of Death, Nergal...

Nergal was Mesopotamian god who represented the deified destructive "burning" sun on late summer early autumn, Jul/Aug, the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia, the time of drought and death...

I first talked abut Nergal in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

Nergal was also the god of plague, because Jul/Aug is also the peak time for flies which spread infectious diseases...Hence, Nergal, the Lord of flies...

Now guess who was the lord of the flies in Greek mythology? Apollo...Apollo whose name was most likely derived from one of Nergal's epithets, "Palil" through Late Bronze Age Hittite and Hurrian god of plague Aplu. I talked about this in my post "Palil"

Ok, I can hear you say, what does this have to do with lions? Well, Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is marked by Leo...Why?

Asiatic lions mating season started in Jul/Aug and spanned the whole of Autumn (Aug/Sep/Oct)...Which is why autumn starts in Leo (Jul/Aug). And why lion is the symbol of autumn...I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

This marking of Jul/Aug with a lion symbol predates zodiac symbols by millennia. It's an example of an ancient animal calendar marker found embedded in mythologies across Eurasia and North Africa.

When lions overheat. Bactrian seal with lion radiating sun/heat rays, the same rays radiated by sun god Shamash. Leo, Jul/Aug, start of lion mating season, the hottest part of the year in the northern hemisphere. I talked about this in my posts "Nude winged hero dominating snakes" and "Lion radiating heat"...   

BTW, Nergal, the god of death and plague, which peaks in Jul/Aug (Leo), plague brought by flies which swarm in Jul/Aug (Leo), the lord of the flies, the destructive sun of Jul/Aug (Leo), was also depicted as a lion-man...For (i presume now) obvious reasons...

Guess where fire breathing dragons with 7 heads, who steal and guard water (cause drought), come from? And dragon killers?

Why was dragon depicted on this Tell Asmar seal, dated to 2200 BC, with lion body and 7 snake heads? Cause snake is the symbol of sun's heat, there were 7 summer months in Mesopotamian calendar, and the hottest part of summer was Jul/Aug, Leo. I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

As the symbol of destructive heat which brings drought, plague, death, lion became the symbol of destructive force, and ultimately, evil...

Why were Persian kings so obsessed with killing lions? Well they were't really killing lions. They were symbolically killing dry season, Angra Mainyu, which starts in Apr/May, Bull, peaks in Jul/Aug, Leo and ends in Oct/Nov, Scorpio/Eagle... I talked about this in my posts "The king killing Angra Mainyu" and "Angra Mainyu"...

So...Are you suggesting, I can hear you ask, that Apollo = Aplu = Palil = Nergal = (god of) Destructive Sun of Jul/Aug, the cause of drought, plague and death??? And that this is why the lions lined the Sacred Avenue leading to the Temple of Apollo in Delos???

You bet that's what I'm suggesting. Why do you think Apollo was "the most feared of all Greek gods"? Certainly not because of his bad lyre playing...Although that probably didn't help...I talked about animal calendar markers in the story about how Apollo gave King Midas donkey's ears in my post "Onager"...

You also might find this post, "Lyre of Apollo", interesting. It analyses animal and plant calendar markers embedded into the story about the birth of Hermes, particularly the part related to him making the first lyre, which he later swapped with Apollo for the caduceus...

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...