Dog saves the grain

A folk tale from Solčava, Slovenija:

"When Adam and Eve had to leave Paradise God gave them a hoe and said they're only allowed to cultivate as much soil as they can reach with a hoe without moving from the spot they're standing on. 

Tall wheat grew from hoed ground and it had grain from the bottom to the top. But first people got greedy, they wanted even more and dug further. God got angry, grabbed the wheat at the ground and drew his fingers up, removing the grain from the stem.

Almost at the top God paused, giving people a chance to ask forgiveness. But they didn't! Before God could tear all of the grain off the wheat stem a dog came. It asked the Creator to be merciful toward people and leave them enough grain to make bread.

God listened to the dog's plead and that's the reason wheat only has grain at the top and that's why dog has the right to a piece of bread too."

In this Slovenian legend, presented originally by @another_barbara, a great account well worth following, a dog saves Adam and Eve from god's wrath and stops god from removing all the seeds from grain stalks.  

Traditional wheat harvest in Slovenia started in Jul, traditionally called in local dialects "mali srpan" (little sickle), and peaked in Aug, traditionally called in local dialects "veliki srpan" (big sickle). Which means that threshing (removing seeds from stalks) takes place in Jul/Aug...

The days at end of Jul beginning of Aug, the hottest time of the year, the time of fire breathing dragons which represent destructive sun's heat, are known locally as "kresovi" (fires, torches, bonfires). 

They are also known as dog days. This is because when our mythologies were made out of animal calendar markers, Sirius, the Dog Star rose with the sun in Jul/Aug, when mating season of the old dog breeds began...

We find this embedded into myths in:

Egypt: Article about "Dog days"...

Mesopotamia: Article about "Tishtrya"...

India: Article about "The bitch of the gods"...

This is symbolically depicted here: Medieval standing stone from Ubusko, Hercegovina. Dog fighting horned snake, dragon. Dog days (end of summer beginning of autumn), is the hottest period of the year in the Northern hemisphere, the time of fire breathing dragons. After the dog days, the Northern hemisphere starts to cool...

I think that it is this overlap between the dog days and the harvest/threshing days explains the role dog plays in this Slovenia legend. What do you think?

BTW

Here is a very interesting depiction of the garden of eden story. The tree is oak. And next to Adam and Eve we see grain and a lamb. 

Is the expulsion from the garden of eden faint memory of what happened during Neolithic agricultural revolution? 

I talked about this first in my post "Christmas trees from the Garden of Eden"...

Since then I learned that this area of Upper Mesopotamia was indeed the original Garden of Eden where the transformation from hunter-gatherers to farmers took place...

I talked about this in my post "How grain came to Sumer"...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...