The boat of Dionysus

Dionysus' Kylix (cup) from Vulci, Etruria, Italy - 530 BC - currently in Staatliche Antikensammlungen of Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Interesting scene. Dionysus arriving on a boat and bringing ripe grapes, surrounded by leaping dolphins...

What could this mean? Well...

Dolphin was an animal calendar marker for Apr/May-Oct/Nov.

The reason why dolphin became an animal calendar marker for hot part of the year, is because dolphin mating and calving season in Mediterranean spans period May-Oct.

It takes place in the shallows, and is therefore easily observable by people living and fishing along the coast...

I talked about this in my post "Minoan dolphin fresco", about the famous Minoan "dolphins fresco" from Knossos, Crete, dated to 1500BC...

Guess what? Apr/May-Oct/Nov is also the sailing season in Eastern Mediterranean. 

I talked about it in my posts "Trojan horse", "Three sacrifices" and "Anat"...

It's all to do with the Etesian winds

Which blow between Apr/May and Sep/Oct

According to Hesiod, the middle point between the beginning and the end of the dolphin mating season, Jul/Aug, Leo, is "the best time to go to the sea"...I talked about this in my post "Tetradrachm from Byblos" about this amazing 4th c. BC, silver coin from Byblos.

According to Hesiod: "Fifty days after the solstice, when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, is the right (best) time for men to go sailing"

That's Jul/Aug, when Lion (autumn) kills (ends) Bull (summer). 

Aug/Sep is the beginning of the grapes harvest season in Greece and Italy...On this Archaic Greek amphora made in Athens 540–530 BC and currently in MFABoston, we see Dionysus seated in the middle of a vineyard during a grapes harvest. He is actually depicted as the root from which all the grapevines grow...

This is why ripe grapes are a plant calendar markers for autumn...I talked about this in my post "Skipping", about this amazing Archaic Greek black-figured amphora, found in Etruscan city of Vulci, Italy, dated 520BC...Depicting Leto holding Apollo and Artemis, standing between grapes and ivy. Why? One of the best examples of the use of plant calendar markers I have ever seen...

So when we put this together, the scene from the Dionysus' Kylix means: The grape harvest starts (ripe grapes are brought by Dionysus) in Aug/Sep, right after the best time to go to sea, which is Jul/Aug...

I think 🙂 What do you think?

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...