Strap in. This is going to be fun. In this article I am going to talk about the first raw of panel from the 1st c. AD Roman monument known as the "Pillar of the Boatmen" found in Paris, France...
I was prompted to look into it by the posts by this great account @Michssspp82096 about this panel which depicts a bull standing under a willow tree, with 3 cranes perched on his back. The inscription reads "TARVOS TRIGARANOS" or "Bull and Three Cranes" in Gaulish...
This is a coloured version of this image.
It looks cool, but the colours are wrong...The only cranes native to France are Common Cranes and their feathers are grey not white and their legs are black not orange...
Common Cranes are highly migratory and follow extremely precise migratory routines, always mating/nesting and wintering in the same locations...
In Northern Europe (Including France, Britain and Ireland), cranes arrive from their wintering sites to their mating/nesting sites in the spring in Mar/Apr/May and they leave their mating/nesting sites for their wintering sites in Oct/Nov...
Which means that their arrival and departure was definitely used as animal calendar marker for the beginning of spring (arrival) and end of autumn (departure)...
Now look at this: In (Celtic) Europe, willow flowers in Feb/Mar/Apr, basically announcing the arrival of spring...
Spring which starts in Jan/Feb, and is marked by Celtic Imbolc festival...
So, spring starts (Jan/Feb), willow starts flowering (Feb/Mar)...Then the cranes arrived (Mar/Apr)...
And started their mating dances followed by mating and nesting...
And then in Apr/May the wild Eurasian cattle (now extinct) calving and lactating season started...This is what the original, Old Taurus marked...I talk about the old Taurus which we find all over Eurasia in many of my posts...
Spring starts (Jan/Feb), Willow (Feb/Mar), Cranes (Mar/Apr), Bull/Calf (Apr/May) Spring ends...
Cool, right? It gets a lot cooler...
Cranes are linked to cattle as animal calendar markers all over Eurasia. I talk about it in several of my posts...
What I found only today is that cranes love hanging around large ruminators, domesticated and wild. They love open spaces created by these animals...
You can read more about this in
"Interactions and impacts of domesticated animals on cranes in agriculture"
Which is why cattle and cranes together are a very common sight...
And why why we see things like these
Crane animal calendar marker:
A Terracotta Bowl, Mehrgarh, Balochistan, Indus Valley, 3500–3000 BC...
Decorated with zebu bulls, each with a water bird perched on its back and a leaf motif between the horns...
I talk about this artefact in my post "Mehrgarh crane bowl"...
Cool, right? It gets A LOT cooler...
Interestingly, next to the panel depicting "Tarvos Trigaranos" (arrival of spring) is the panel depicting a young man cutting willow branches. The inscription reads "ESVS"...
There are several prominent spring rituals in Europe involving the cutting and usage of willow branches, particularly in Central and Eastern European Slavic (ex Celtic) lands...
These traditions, now linked to Easter (Mar/Apr), are generally rooted in pre-Christian fertility rites, marking the arrival of spring and symbolising health, growth, renewal...
And there is a very good reason for it: Spring willow is full of growth hormones...Which is why I put the spring branch cuttings into water for watering my flowers...I talked about this in my post "Willow in Slavic folklore":
I also talked about the use of willow trumpets in May day/Beltain/St George's day rituals in
In the past in the Balkans, during the night before St George's day, processions of men and boys roamed the villages blowing willow bark trumpets "to scare the witch (winter) away"...The same ritual was performed in Cornwall too on May Day. I talk about this in my post "May horns"...
May day/Beltain/St George's day is the day which in South Slavic and Celtic calendar marks the end of cold, dark half of the year, and the beginning of the hot, light half of the year...
I also talked about the use of willow in spring fertility (sexual) rituals among the Etruscans in my post "Whipping fresco", where I give full symbolic analysis of this 5th c. BC Etruscan fresco, Tarquinia, Tomb of the whipping...Depicting...Well you can all see the obvious bit that it is depicting...Right? 🙂
BTW, the now tame Slavic spring willow rituals could once have been equally as explicit as the Etruscan ones...Considering the beliefs like this:
In Serbia people believed that women become very horny and very fertile in spring, when willows started putting out new green shoots ...So this was the best time to make babies...🙂
And rituals like this:
Willow, the tree which grows next to water, is associated with rain, water and female fertility, female sexuality...Hence ritual whipping of teenage girls by teenage boys using willow whips, performed in the Czech Republic, Slovakia on Easter Sunday...
I talk about this in my post "Willow in Slavic folklore" about willow and fertility in Slavic folklore.
Anyway...
Esus was Gallic god whose Romans equated with either Mercury or Mars...Which is it? It doesn't mater...
In Roman times, Mar/Apr-Oct/Nov was the "war season", which was opened and closed with the appropriate religious festivities presided by the Salii priests...
As I asked in the comments to this post, but didn't get any answer, I wonder if Celts also had "War Season"?
The Gallic chieftain Dumnorix, literally "king of the world" in Gaulish, of the Aedui tribe, is depicted holding a severed head on a silver coin (first half 1st century BCE)
I would say yes, they did. I think that the Celts, like many societies in antiquity, had their "war season" aligned with the agricultural and weather cycles...
Warfare was most common during the warmer months, roughly from after spring agricultural work, planting, ended until before autumn agricultural work, harvest, began...
So Esus could have been a war god, Mars, announcing (by cutting the willow branches with cranes in Mar/Apr) the start of the war season, starting (most likely) in Apr/May...
Here he is depicted on another panel from a four sided column dedicated to Mercury, dated to the early Roman imperial period, and found in Trier, France. He is depicts as a young man chopping a willow tree, which holds a bull and three birds...
Also, according to the Irish tradition, before the Tuatha De Danan went to war against Fomori, Lugh, the leader of the Tuatha De Danan danced the "Corrghuineacht" (crane dance) around his warriors on one leg, with one eye closed and one arm outstretched, while cursing their enemies...
So the arrival of cranes and their mating dance was also an announcement of the beginning of the war season...
But ESUS could have also been Mercury/Hermes...
Hermes himself was a deified calendar marker for Apr/May...Every single plant and animal that features prominently in his mythology is a calendar marker for Apr/May...I talk about this in these articles:
Happy birthday Hermes! According to the "Homeric hymn to Hermes", Hermes was born "on the fourth day of the month" but the name of the month was never mentioned...So a mystery...Solved using animal and plant calendar markers: it's 4th of May. I talk about this in my post "When grapes flower"...
What did Hermes do first after he was born?
He stole Apollo's cows.
He then invented fire drill, made fire, and sacrificed one of the cows to the gods...
I talked about this in my post "12 Olympians" about (apparently inexplicable 🙂) link between Hermes and Hestia (fire)
What did Hermes do after that? He invented a lyre which he gifted to Apollo...A very special lyre...In exchange, Apollo gave him Caduceus topped with two snakes...
I talk about this in my post "Lyre of Apollo", in which I present the analysis of the 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...Bull, Tortoise, Snake are all animal calendar markers for Apr/May, the time of Hermes...
Finally, are the wings on the hat worn by Hermes/Mercury actually cockerel wings? Cockerel is also an animal calendar marker for Apr/May, the time of Hermes...I talk about this in my post "Cock fight mosaic", where I talk about the link between Hermes/Mercury, cockerels and (god of rain) thunder storms...
Remember, Mercury/Hermes was Herald of the Thunder God Jupiter/Zeus...Guess when the thunderstorm season starts in Europe? In Apr/May, the months of Mercury/Hermes...And peaks in Jul/Aug...
So Esus could have been Mercury, the herald of Jupiter...Which is interesting, cause the next panel in the same row on the Pillar of the Boatmen, next to the one with Esus, depicts Juptier, standing, holding a spear and a thunderbolt. The inscription reads "IOVIS"...
How cool is this? It get EVEN EVEN cooler...
Mercury/Hermes was the protector of trade and traders. During Celtic/Roman/Greek times, long distance trade in Europe started in Apr/May. After the snow melted, making roads passable, after ice melted, making rivers passable, after winter storms passed, making seas passable...
Which is quite interesting, considering that all of this is depicted on a Roman column erected in Lutetia (modern Paris) in honour of Jupiter by the guild of boatmen...
How cool is this? It gets EVEN EVEN EVEN cooler...
In Irish myths, Lugh, Thunder God, carried his most precious magical relics in a crane skin bag, the corr bolg, as did Manannan mac Lir, the Sea and Warrior God!
As I said, Trading, War and Thunderstorms all stared in Apr/May, right after the arrival of cranes...
How cool is this? Well, here is the coolest part...
The last panel in this same row depicts Vulcan/Hephaestus, standing, with hammer and tongs. The inscription reads "VOLCANVS"...
Why Vulcan/Hephaestus?
Cause he was a Holy Craftsman...
So?
When were boats repaired during Roman times? Well of course, during the "non sailing season", Oct/Nov - Mar/Apr...
Which makes me wonder if the first row of panels on the Pillar of the Boatmen is actually a calendar:
TARVOS TRIGARANOS: Spring (Jan/Feb-Apr/May)
ESUS: Summer (Apr/May-Jul/Aug)
IOVIS: Autumn (Jul/Aug-Oct/Nov)
VOLCANVS: Winter (Oct/Nov-Jan/Feb)
I told you...I think we just managed to decipher the meaning of the first row of panels form Pillar of the Boatmen. What do you think? I will leave deciphering the rest of this pillar for some other time. I think this is quite enough for today...
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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