Ponte Sodo fibula

Etruscan gold disc fibula, from the Necropolis of Ponte Sodo, Vulci, Etruria, Italy. 650 BC, from the "Orientalizing period". Currently in the Antikensammlungen, Munich, Bavaria, Germany. 

WTH is all this stuff depicted on it? Here is the official description:

"Around a central cross, above, are several birds in flight and, at the sides, two lions with a pendent tongue and serpentine tail; in the centre, two helmeted warriors, with short sword and shield, fight surrounded by a bird respectively." That's it?

Yes, but what does this mean? Apparently no one knows...So let me try to decipher this...

First the central cross. The cross is a solar symbol, and more precisely symbol of the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash...I talked about this in my posts "The cross of Shamash" and "Sun god tablet"...

Here is the same cross on a late 7th c. Boeotian clay pyxis, currently in the Antikensammlung Berlin (thanks twitter friends🙂)  depicting the "Mistress of the Animals and some animals 🙂" (sure sign that "we have no idea what is really depicted here").

But I can tell you few things about the decorations: They are all solar symbols. You can find detailed analysis of these symbols in my post "Beotian solar pyxis"

In Greece, the sun god Shamash, more precisely the "terrible" sun, Shamash as Nergal,  became Apollo. The "terrible" sun god Apollo...I explained why terrible in my post "Lions of Delos" about the lions from the 600 BC Temple of Apollo from Delos:

So I believe that the cross here is the symbol of Apollo...

The "Mistress of the Animals" is Artemis, the the original, archaic, "terrible" twin sister of the "terrible" sun god Apollo...Definitely not moon goddess here with all these snakes. And lions (wink wink, notch notch)

And "some animals" are all solar animal calendar markers...

Sooo, if the central symbol on this Etruscan fibula from the "Orientalizing period" 🙂 is a cross of Shamash as Nergal / Apollo, then could we assume that the rest of the stuff is also somehow "solar"? You bet!

But before I explain what everything else means, do you see how the central cross is actually swastika too? Remember that on the Boeotian clay pyxis we see both crosses and swastikas...Swastika is a solar symbol too...Symbol of ever spinning solar wheel. Solar year...

I talked about it in my post "Kolo-vrt", about this ancient (officially medieval???) standing stone, Bosnia. Depicting solar wheel (swastika) and solar dance (kolo)... Pic by Kemal Čolak...

So what is depicted on both sides of the Shamash as Nergal / Apollo cross? Two lions...So sun cross between two lions...Sun in Leo...

Nergal, the deified destructive "burning" sun, was depicted as a lion man, because Jul/Aug, Leo, is the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia...Talked abut him in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

And these are not just any lions...They are lions with "serpentine tails"...Why? Maybe to emphasise the "solarness, solarity, solaritude 🙂 of the lions". Cause:

Snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)... talked about it in many of my posts...

Where did I see lions with serpent tails before? Oh yeah, here

Chimera, mythical beast or complex animal calendar marker for "hot dry season", Apr/May (mating of snakes), Jul/Aug (mating of lions), Oct/Nov (mating of goats)? 

The hot season ends in Oct/Nov, hence Bellerophon killing Chimera by spearing the goat.

I talked about this in my post "Pegasus and chimera"...

So what about "several birds in flight" 🙂? It's actually 7 birds in flight...It's not so difficult to count them. But I guess no one thought the number of birds was significant...Could these be 7 doves? Why? Cause in Greek mythology, the Pleiades are the seven daughters of Atlas

whom Zeus transformed first into doves

and then into stars...

Why first into doves and then into stars? Well, he is Zeus, he doesn't have to explain himself...(Hint: animal calendar markers) I talked about this in my post "Pleiades"...

Pleiades rise with the sun in Apr/May, at the beginning of the summer...So they are another (important) solar symbol...

But what about the two birds at the bottom? Well, could this be a symbolical depiction of migratory birds?

Like this? 

Leto, Slavic name 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. I talked about it in my post "Leto"...

The two identical birds are facing each other. They are also flanking two identical "warriors" who are facing each other. And the "warriors" are in turn flanking what looks like a pyramid with the sun (cross) right above it...Hmmm...

So sun, lions, pyramid...I talked about the pyramids (and lions, sphinxes) in my posts "Sphinx" and "Giza lioness" where I explained why (sun in) Leo (Jul/Aug) was so important to Ancient Egyptians...

What's that got to do with our Etruscan fibula? Remember we are Orientalising here 🙂

So this could be a pyramid with the sun in Leo (Shamash as Nergal / Apollo) cross above it...

But what about the two identical warriors facing each other?

Well, if we have calendar marker for the beginning of summer (7 birds, Apr/May), and if we have calendar marker for the end of summer (two lions, Jul/Aug), what's missing? A calendar marker for the midsummer, summer solstice...

Well...How about these dudes? The twins...In Etruscan version without horses...

Horse zodiac symbol is disguised as Dioskuri, divine twin horsemen. The guys who wanted to marry "the daughters of the white horse". They mark Summer Solstice, the peak of the horse mating season, characterised by wild stallion fights for mares...

I talked about solar horse (more precisely equid) in many of my posts...

BTW, twins, always linked to summer solstice are also found in India (this time as horse headed twins)

Surya's wife Saranyu transforms into a mare and runs away from her husband. Surya eventually finds her, turns himself into a white stallion and...

After which Saranyu delivers horse head twins called Ashvins...

I talked about this in my post "Hayagriva" about the Indian solar horse mythology...

In Mesopotamia, you'll find them "guarding the gates of hell". In my post "White raven" about Apollo-Nergal, I talk about the Sumerian twin gods, identified as Gemini constellation, and associated with Nergal, which "guard the gates of hell"...Are they holding torches? Or keys?

In Egypt, where we find god Hapi, the god of the annual flooding of the Nile, who was "often depicted as twins, tying papyrus and lotus flowers together". Papyrus flowers in Apr/May, and lotus in Jul/Aug...I talked about him/them 🙂 in my post "Lotus and papyrus"...

In Central America as Hero Twins who pour the water of heaven (rains there arrive in Jun/Jul). I talked about this in my post "Resurrection of the maize god"...

We find them in Sasanian Iran, on this plate with youths and winged horses drinking water from a jar ca. 5th–6th century AD. I talked about this in my post "Dioskuri plate from Iran"...

And in Gotland. Together with horses. And pile of soar symbols...I talked about this in my post "Gotland sun stone with Dioscuri"...

Aaaaanyway...The twins on our Etruscan fibula, are standing facing the moment when the sun is in it's highest position in the sky? That pyramid...With the sun above...Maybe...

God most high...  

Snake: Apr/May, beginning of the main snake mating season, beginning of summer. 

Lion: Jul/Aug, beginning of the main lion mating season, end of summer.  

And in the middle, summer solstice, sun most high. 

I talked about this in my post "You will trample great lion and serpent"...

Which reminds me of the "lions with serpentine tails" 🙂 Are they also symbols of summer, the period between Apr/May (mating of snakes), Jul/Aug (mating of lions)?

Maybe they don't mean sun in Leo, but sun in summer? Middle of summer? Summer solstice?

BTW, probably totally unrelated, but just thought to throw it in for fun...

8000 years ago, people of Lepenski Vir culture in Serbia, built houses in the shape of the hill shaped like a flat top pyramid they could see from their settlement. 

Why? Because every summer solstice, the sun rose on top of it...

I talked about this in my post "Sun on top of pyramid"...

But then, (sun) god works in mysterious ways...Christ is born on Winter Solstice, (re)birth day of the sun (god), he enters Jerusalem on a donkey, "animal of the (sun) gods and kings", and gets put on a cross, symbol of the sun (god)...Interesting...

I talked about this in my post "Alexamenos graffito"...

Anyway, what do you think? Makes sense? Or not? 

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...

PS: Some people pointed out that the animals flanking the sun cross could be horses. With sharp teeth and snaky tails? But actually...They could be...A kind of chimera, with horse/equid body, lion head and snake tail...Even more amazing...

This would explain why horses are "suspiciously" missing from the fibula. Considering that Horse/Equid is one of the main solar symbols...

These "beasts" would then be incredible composite animal calendar markers for summer (I have never seen one like this before): 

Start of summer: when snakes start mating in Apr/May.

Mid summer: when horses mating season peaks, Summer solstice.

End of summer: when lions start mating, in Jul/Aug.

With the addition of a horse (usually linked to summer solstice, like through Dioskuri) in the mix just confirms my interpretation of the whole scene...