Alchemical and rosicrucian compendium, c. 1760...
Very very interesting scene...Which proves that (at least some) people in 1760 knew the real meaning of griffin: complex animal calendar marker for autumn...
Let me explain why I think so:
On the left we see an adult sun (god) riding on a lion. I would suggest that this is Sun in Leo, Jul/Aug...Apollo...
If you want to know why I think so, check my article "Lions of Delos" first. It talks about the Lions of Delos, the burning destructive sun in Jul/Aug, Leo, and the fact that both Nergal and Apollo are linked to lions...
And then the rest of these articles about Apollo and his links to Nergal:
"Palil". About "Palil" a nickname of Nergal, the terrible, burning, destructive sun of Jul/Aug, Leo...And about the origin of the name Apollo and its meaning...
"Lord of the flies". About Nergal and Apollo as "The lords of the flies"...And about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the peak of the fly and fly born diseases season in Northern Hemisphere...
"Lions of Delos". About the Lions of Delos, the burning destructive sun in Jul/Aug, Leo, and the fact that both Nergal and Apollo are linked to lions.
"Apollo and dolphins". About Jul/Aug, Leo being the "best time to sail in Eastern Mediterranean", and the link between dolphins and Lions...and Apollo...
"Marble throne of Apollo". About snakes (symbols of sun's heat), dragons (symbols of burning sun's heat) and terrible sun gods, Nergal and Apollo who are dragons themselves...
"Apollo and Python". About why Python followed Apollo after his birth? Cause snakes are solar animals...According to the Delphian tradition, Apollo was born on the 7th day of the month of Bysios (Jan/Feb)
"White raven". About the black and white raven legend which is found in both Nergal and Apollo mythology, Egyptian vultures and the twins that guard the gates of hell. And some other weird stuff...
"Threshing floor of Apollo". About the threshing floors as solar observatories/temples, about the threshing floor of Apollo from Delphi, about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the holy month of Apollo, and about solar bonfires...
"Apollo the great archer". About why Apollo was the terrible "far shooting" archer...About arrow and bow constellation from Mesopotamia, Ishtar, Sirius, and Jul/Aug, the season of Perseid meteor shower...
"Apollo Sminthius". About Apollo and peak infectious diseases season, Jul/Aug
Lion/Leo marks the hottest time of the year on the northern hemisphere. After that the weather starts getting cooler. I talked about this in my post "Lion eating sun", in which I analysed this detail from the Alchemical and Rosicrucian compendium - c.1760...
Now back to our original image.
On the right we see a baby with two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward, holding a shield with the sun head identical to the one the lion rider has. He is riding on a griffin, whose front half is an eagle and the back half is a lion...
I would suggest that this is Janus, sun on Winter Solstice/New Year, at the time of death of the old Sun (Solar year) and the time of birth of the new Sun (Solar Year)...
I talked about Janus in my post "Janus"...
And I talked about his Sumerian predecessor Isimud in my post "Adda seal"...
The two faced one arrives in Europe after the end of autumn, Jul/Aug - Oct/Nov. This is what griffin represents, Autumn, the time between the mating of Eurasian lions (starts in Jul/Aug)
and mating of Eurasian Vultures (starts in Oct/Nov).
The oldest griffin that I know of is depicted on this 3000 BC Proto-Elamite seal.
I talk about griffin as an animal calendar marker in many of my posts...
The riders point their lances at each other, Apollo points at the Janus's sun shield, and Janus points at Apollo's head, basically indicating that they are one and the same, just at two different points in time...
I am not sure what why Apollo carries moon shield...Maybe it is to depict the cooling which starts in Jul/Aug and which "brings" rains at the end of autumn? I talked about the link between moon and rain in my post "Moon god Nana Sin":
Why was moon (god) so important to Mesopotamians? This article tries to answer this question. Spoiler: Cause the moon that was worshiped was not just any moon. The moon that was worshipped was the crescent moon that points upwards, aka "wet moon"...
Or maybe just to symbolise summer moons...
Anyway, I just thought this was interesting. What do you think?
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...
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