Angra Mainyu

Middle Assyrian Cylinder Seal with a "Lion-Dragon", 1300-1200 BC. 

This seal is AMAZING! It depicts a tiny flying dude facing an advancing giant winged monster with lion body, bull horns and scorpion tail...Above the monster are some "heavenly objects", namely 7 stars, most likely Pleiades, a large star, most likely Sirius, and a crescent moon...

Why is this seal so special? 

Cause this seal is an amazing example of a complex animal calendar marker. 

It is also an amazing example of the mapping of these ancient animal calendar markers to "heavenly objects".

It is also a proof that the symbolism we find in Achaemenid Iran is already present in Assyria almost a millennium earlier...I am talking about the "flying dude" and the so called "dragon-lion"...

Finally, this seal allows us to determine the actual meaning of these "religious" symbols...The old, original meanings, before their meaning was obscured by the various religious interpretations...

So I will start by reminding you of this recent article, "Achaemenid lion boar seal", in which I explained why I thought that the flying dude is Ninurta, the old rain (and war) god, who was originally imagined as a huge black bird (eagle) with outstretched wings. The rain bird....

At the end of the above article, I said that I also believe that this symbol was later appropriated to represent Ahura Mazda...And in this article I would like to first explain why I think so.

I will start by reminding you of this article, "The King killing Angra Mainyu", in which I talked about the obsession of Achaemenid kings with killing lions, and why I thought that this was a ritual act.

The discription of this scene is very important: "The King killing Angra Mainyu", the main adversary of Ahura Mazda, the highest deity of Zoroastrianism...Angra Mainyu is depicted as a "mythical beast", a winged lion with eagle talons and bull horns...

Now in the rest of "The King killing Angra Mainyu " article,  I went on to explain that this "mythical beast", is the symbolic depiction of the hot dry half of the year, which starts in Apr/May (Taurus), is the hottest and driest in Jul/Aug (Leo) and ends in Oct/Nov (Eagle)...

Wait the second. Eagle? Oh yeah...Did you know that Scorpio is the only zodiac sign which has a double. Eagle...I talked about this in my post about "Four living creatures"...

So if we replace eagle with scorpion, we get...The mythical beast from the Assyrian cylinder seal we are talking about in this article. We still have a winged lion with bull horns. But this time instead of eagle talons it has lion paws...The monster however has a scorpion tail...

And again this represents the hot dry half of the year, which starts in Apr/May (Taurus), is the hottest and driest in Jul/Aug (Leo) and ends in Oct/Nov (Scorpio)...

But these are not zodiac constellations...

The zodiac with Taurus, Leo, Scorpio...was not invented before 300BC at the earliest,  and most likely originated in Europe, where the oldest astrologer circular board was found...I talked about this in my post "Nakovana cave"...

The bull, lion, eagle, scorpion we are talking about are animal calendar markers. Ancient symbols which predate constellations by millenniums...And which were derived from the easily observable behaviour of the animals in question, which happened every year at the same time...And are not affected by precession...🙂

Usually these symbols mark either mating or birthing of the animal in question. 

For instance Taurus marks the beginning of the calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle (Apr/May). 

I talked about it in many of my articles, for instance "Cow and calf ivory", "Dairy farming seal", "Bull leaping in Syria"...and many others...

Leo marks the beginning of the main mating season of the Eurasian lions (Jul/Aug). 

I talked about it in many of my articles, for instance "Sacred hunt", "Lion killing bull under date palm"...and many others...

Eagle (Vulture) marks the beginning of the mating season of the Old World Vultures (Oct/Nov). 

I talked about it in many of my articles, for instance "Eagle dance", "Eagle dude from Alepo", "Double headed eagle"...and many others...

But in case of scorpion, this animal calendar marker marks the time when scorpions disappear from nature and appear in people's homes because the weather outside gets too cold and wet...

I first talked about it in many of my articles, for instance "Dilmun goat and scorpion seal", "Queen Puabi cylinder seal", "Bird man", "Scorpion king"...

When we look at the complex combination of the animal calendar markers present on these seals, they all place scorpion at the end on hot dry season and the beginning of the cool wet season (Oct/Nov)...

Knowing this, this Assyrian "mythical animal" is a much better animal calendar marker for the hot and dry season than Achaemenid one. The head (bull) body (lion) and tail (scorpion) correspond exactly to the beginning (Apr/May) middle (Jul/Aug) and end (Oct/Nov) of the hot, dry season...

But this is basically the same complex animal calendar marker...With the same meaning...Hot dry season...Otherwise known as Nergal, the god of death, who was depicted as a lion...Remember, Leo marks the beginning of droughts... 

I talked about this my article "Winged super human hero"...

Or a "dragon with lion body and seven snake heads"...Cause the old Mesopotamian summer lasted seven lunar months...Apr/May, May/Jun, Jun/Jul, Jul/Aug, Aug/Sep, Sep/Oct, Oct/Nov...So Lion-Dragon 🙂 

I talked about this in my article "Seven headed dragon"...

The Mesopotamian dragon has snake heads because snakes are the symbol of sun's heat...The only true solar animals, which are in our world when sun is in our world and in the underworld when sun is in the underworld...

I talked a lot about this in many of my articles, for instance "Goat and snake from Kortik Tepe", "Bactrian snakes and dragons", "Who are Persephone's parents", "Eagle snake struggle", "Wolf vs snake"...and many others...

There is another symbol that represents the hot dry season. Angra Mainiu...In the earliest Zoroastian texts, Angra ("destructive", "chaotic", "disorderly", "inhibitive", "malign") Mainyu ("Energy", "Force", "Sprit", "Mind")...

Angra Mainiu was the antithesis of Spenta ("Holy", "Creative", "Bounteous") Mainyu ("Energy", "Force", "Sprit", "Mind")...

Now think about what brings order and disorder to an agricultural society? Which is why I believe that originally Angra Mainyu and Spenta Mainyu were, just two opposing natural forces: sun (Nergal) and rain (Ninurta)...Which later became Ahriman (devil) and Ahura Mazda (god)...

And so if the monster is the symbol of Angra Mainiu, the hot dry season, this means that the flying dude is the symbol of Spenta Mainiu, rain...Or more precisely, of the guy who brings rain and stops the monster of drought...Ninurta, the rain god...Or Ahura Mazda...

Soooo...That's that...

Actually there is more...

First, I need to get better glasses...The beast on the depiction of "The King killing Angra Mainyu" actually has a scorpion tail...🙂

Second, do you see the three "heavenly objects" above the monster of the hot dry season? They are not there as a random decoration. The choice and the position of these "heavenly objects" is very deliberate. 

Look at this:

Pleiades above the bull horns. Pleiades used to rise with the sun during Taurus (Apr/May). 

Sirius above the lion body. Sirius used to rise with the sun during Leo (Jul/Aug). 

Winter Moon over scorpion tail. Winter moon points upwards in the northern hemisphere starting from (Oct/Nov).

So these three "heavenly objects" basically mark the beginning, the middle and the end of the same half of the year marked by the beginning, the middle and the end of the mythical beast that they are placed above...

I think this is really cool, right?

But believe or not there is another explanation for these three "heavenly objects" which also fits perfectly with the total meaning of the rest of this image: the end of hot dry half of the year.

Remember, Ninurta stops the monster of drought...

As I said, the crescent moon pointing upwards is the symbol of winter. But also the symbol of night...And winter is the time when both Pleiades and Sirius become visible in the night sky with the moon...

So taken like this, the three symbols mean "winter", more specifically beginning of the "cool wet half of the year" which brings the end to the "hot dry half of the year"...

When the storm bird kills the drought dragon lion...When Ninurta kills Nergal...When Spenta Mainyu overpowers Angra Mainiu...When Ahura Mazda overpowers Ahriman...

I talked about this meaning of these three symbols in my article about this seal, "Seven stars of scorpion"...

In it I proposed that the meaning means: "plow your field and sow your grain when the moon, pleiades and Sirius are visible in the night sky"...And when scorpions disappear...

PS. For those doubting the authenticity of the original seal (there are some who do that), here is another seal with identical "mythical beast". Seal impression from Tell Sabi Abyad (Syria). Most likely from the 2nd mill BC, not specified. Pic from this page about the excavations on Tell Sabi Abyad done by Leiden University...

So...This is it...As I said, the seal is amazing...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

Achaemenid lion boar seal

This Achaemenid cylinder seal, found in Iran and dated to the 6th–4th century BC is currently kept in the Met Museum. 

Now the scene depicted on this seal could be just an "ordinary king hunting a lion" scene 🙂 Although I already asked a question whether there is anything ordinary about the Persian king's obsession with lion hunting in my article "Sacred hunt"...

And in my article "King killing Angra Mainyu" I explained why I think that this was most likely a ritual in which the king imitated the rain (and war) god Ninurta/Ningirsu killing Nergal...Or "winter rain storms" ending "summer drought"...Which ever you like best...

So why lion and boar? Here's what I think:

Lion and boar are animal calendar markers depicting two halves of the climatic year:

Boar - cool, wet half of the year (Nov-Apr)

Lion - hot, dry half of the year (May-Oct)

I talked about these symbols in my article "Admetus" about Apollo and the chariot pulled by boars and lions...

Lion is the symbol of autumn (Aug,Sep,Oct)...Why? Cause the peak mating season of the Eurasian lions starts in Aug and spans the whole autumn...

Boar is the symbol of winter (Nov,Dec,Jan)...Why? Cause the peak mating season of the Eurasian boar starts in Nov and spans the whole winter...

I talked about the meaning of boar and lion as animal calendar markers, this time in Bactria, in my article "Summer and winter BMAC seals"...

In Mesopotamia, autumn is the hottest, driest part of the year. The time of death...And the ruler of the season of death was Nergal, "the destructive sun", the god of death, who was imagined as a lion...I talked about this in my article "Winged super human hero"...

The summer, the season of death, which starts when lions start to mate, ends when the first rains arrive in Nov...When boar start to mate...Making lions and boar the natural enemies...Like on this Elamite axe head with Lion (Autumn) and Boar (Winter)...I talked about this in my article "Double headed eagle"...

But there is another thing that happens in Nov...Vultures, whose mating season, which spans winter months (Nov, Dec, Jan), begin their courtship aerial displays, where the pairs fly together over one another with outstretched wings...

I talked about this in my article "Double headed eagle". Like this double headed eagle dude from a Bactrian axe dated to 2500-1500 BC. 

Why double headed eagle? Cause the vultures performing this aerial dance look like this from the ground... 

The beginning of the Vultures mating season coincides with the beginning of the cool wet season (Nov-Apr), the rain and snow season in Mesopotamia and surrounding mountain areas to the north and east...

I talked about this in my article "Eagle dance"...

Which is why the old "agricultural" rain god, Ninurta/Ningirsu was originally imagined as a huge eagle with spread wings... I talked about him as a bird man in my article "Judgement of the birdman"...

But Ninurta was also imagined as an archer. Here depicted killing the blazing sun...Ninurta, the hunter, the guy with the bow and arrow...Killing The Blazing Sun (Nergal)...Sagittarius...Which marks the same moment in the solar year...The end of the half of the year dominated by the sun...The Irish will love this. Remember Balor?

I think he is the dude holding the bow on the famous Adda seal. I talked about this seal in my article "Adda seal"...

So here we come to the first interesting question: is the archer depicted on the seal Ninurta killing the deadly late summer sun which causes drought? Or is the archer a king, imitating Ninurta, killing a lion, symbol of deadly late summer sun, Nergal?

And the second interesting question: All this boar, lion, archer stuff is happening under the watchful eye of the Faravahar (the flying dude), basically a man riding on a huge bird (eagle) with spread wings...Hmmmm...

The meaning of Faravahar is unclear...Some say that this is Ahura Mazda...But that is disputed...

Some say that this is actually a symbol of Ashur, the Supreme god of Assyrians, which Pesians borrowed later. 

Just wandering...Do we actually have any written source identifying this flying dude with a bow as Ashur? I don't think so, considering that there is still a dispute what the meaning of this symbol is...

We actually don't know if Ashur was ever depicted. But if he was, this could be one of his depictions. You know one of his names was "Great mountain"...

You see how his skirt was made to look like a mountain? I wrote about this artefact in my article "Assur"...

So is the flying dude Ninurta/Ningirsu, the eagle/archer in another guise? I mean Ninurta was a super important to the Assyrians...

When king Assurnasirpal II moved the Assyrian capital city to Kalhu, the first temple he built was for Ninurta, whom he addressed as: "...the strong, the almighty, the exalted, foremost among the gods, the splendid (and) perfect warrior..."

And as I said, Ninurta was most often depicted holding a bow. Actually bow is his identifying feature. Like on this 8th-century stone carving from Assur, on which a bare-headed king worships a god holding a bow, "thought to be Ninurta". Currently in the British Museum...

If I was a warlike Assyrian, I would want Ninurta, the war and storm god, "the perfect warrior" to be my god...

And as I said, Ninurta/Ningirsu was originally a storm god who was first imagined as a storm bird with outstretched wings...Storm bird that brings the rain to the desert land of Mesopotamia...

If this winged dude is actually Ninurta, the deified storm bird, that would explain why we see this symbol so often hovering over the tree of life...It is the rain that the storm bird (storm god) brings, which supports (tree of) life in Mesopotamia...

Oh look, "winged genies" standing on both sides of the tree of life...I talked about the origin of the Assyrian Eagle dudes and their (possible) meaning in my article "Eagle dude from Alepo"...

But the Eagle dudes were found in the area of Mesopotamia/Iran/Central Asia since Neolithic...

So, now, after saying all this, I will backpaddle here and say that I actually believe that the flying dude is Ahura Mazda...As well as Ninurta...And I will explain why I think so soon...

Until then...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

The King killing Angra Mainyu

This is a drawing of a relief from Persepolis, depicting "The King killing Angra Mainyu", the main adversary of Ahura Mazda, the highest deity of Zoroastrianism...

In the earliest texts, Angra ("destructive", "chaotic", "disorderly", "inhibitive", "malign") Mainyu ("Energy", "Force", "Sprit", "Mind") was the antithesis of Spenta ("Holy", "Creative", "Bounteous") Mainyu ("Energy", "Force", "Sprit", "Mind")...

Eventually Angra (Destructive) Mainyu became Aka (Evil) Mainyu...Because of course everything destructive caused disorder and disorder is evil...And so Zoroastrian devil, Ahriman, was born...

However originally Angra Mainyu and Spenta Mainyu were, I believe, and will explain here why I believe so, just two opposing natural forces, at work in Persia: sun and rain...

This is the climatic year in the area of the ancient Persopolis

You can see that the climatic year is divided into 2 halves: Cool, Wet half (Nov-Apr),  the time of life, Spenta Mainyu and Hot, Dry half (May-Oct), the time of death, Angra Mainyu...

Eeee what? Why?

Look again at the "monster" the king is slaying. It has lion's body, eagle's talons and wings, and bull horns...

Apr/May, Taurus, Beginning of the calving season of the Eurasian wild cattle. 

Jul/Aug, Leo, Beginning of the main mating season of Eurasian lions.

Oct/Nov, Eagle, Beginning of the main mating season of Eurasian Vultures.

Beginning, middle, end of the hot, dry season...

The half of the year dominated by the beast...The dragon...The symbol of the sun's destructive heat... 

I talked about it in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

These are all well known animal calendar markers found all over Eurasia and North Africa since Neolithic. Check this page with links to animal calendar markers related articles then the rest of the blog (I still didn't add all posts here), and then my twitter account threads (I still didn't convert all to blog posts)...

Sun's heat is the strongest and the most destructive, deadly, at the end of summer, start of autumn. This moment is "marked" by all those "lion killing bull" images from Persepolis...Lion (autumn) killing (ending) Bull (summer)...Like this one from Persepolis...

And the hottest and driest part of the dry  at the moment when bull meets lion. At the end of summer, beginning of autumn. This moment is "marked" by all those "lion killing bull" images, like this one from Persepolis...Lion (autumn) killing (ending) Bull (summer)...

So the Persian king is slaying the monster, which is a composite animal calendar marker for the hot, dry half of the year, the half of the year ruled by the sun. Destructive, deadly sun. This "destructive, deadly" sun in Leo had a name in ancient Mesopotamia: Nergal...

I talked about him in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

In Levant, this destructive, deadly sun of the late summer, early autumn was the God of Death, Mot...I talked about him in my posts "Oldest Arabic poem" and "Anat"...Same climate, same mythology...Different names..."We are all individuals" 🙂 after all...

Anyway, it is funny that only 2 days, in my post "Sacred hunt" ago I asked "Why were Assyrian kings so obsessed with killing lions"...

And I proposed that it was a symbolic killing of the hot dry half of the year...And today, this... 

Achaemenids have actually spelled it out for us, so we don't have to wonder any more...The king is killing the hot dry half of the year...Well he is not really killing the sun's heat. He is pretending to be Ninurta, the Old Storm god, killing the sun's heat...

Ninurta, who was, in the earliest times, imagined as an "enormous black bird with outstretched wings".

Basically a vulture performing mating areal dance, which coincides with the end of the hot, dry half and beginning of the cool, wet half of the year...

I talked about him in many posts, like "Abu", "The judgement of the birdman", "Mysterious creature", "Eagle dance" "Pero"...

Also Ninurta, the hunter, the guy with the bow and arrow...Killing The Blazing Sun (Nergal)...Sagittarius...Which marks the same moment in the solar year...The end of the half of the year dominated by the sun...The Irish will love this. Remember the legends about Balor with the scorching eye being killed by Lugh? 

By the way, the tree animals marking the beginning, middle and end of "the beast" are 3 out of 4 "living creatures" which Ezekiel saw in his vision, around the same time when Persepolis was made...

I talked about them in my post "Four living creatures"...

What we have is Taurus (Apr/May), Leo (Jul/Aug), Eagle/Scorpio (Oct/Nov)...What's missing is the man, Aquarius (Jan/Feb)...

The four symbols which mark the beginning of Spring (Man), Summer (Bull), Autumn (Lion) and Winter (Eagle/Scorpion)...

Now in the area of the Persian empire, Aquarius marks the exact period of the solar year when the snowmelt started in Zagros mountains, including the area around Persepolis. The period when the water level in the rivers that made the Persian fields fertile began to rise...

Just to see how persistent these symbols are, here they are surrounding the Christ, as "Evangelists"

Christs with "the symbols of 4 evangelists". Original and fixed version with the correct sequence of "evangelists"...

It seems that "mad prophetic visions of Ezekiel and John, could be hidden remnants of old knowledge"...

So more of the same...Ninurta,  Ahura Mazda...God, as they say, has thousand names...And so does the devil...

I want to thank great Italian archaeologist, Gabriella Brusa-Zappellini, for drawing my attention to this image...

Oh, BTW, guess who was worshipped in Iran, including parts which later became Achaemenid Persia, since Neolithic? Ibex Goat...

Why? Because the Ibex goats in Iran mate at the beginning of the cool wet part of the year, and baby goats are born at the the end of the cool wet part of the year...

Hence, "Goat of rain"...You can read more about on my blog. Start here in my post about "Goat carrier"...

So if Angra Mainyu, bull-lion-eagle, is the hot dry part of the year, is the devil, then his antithesis, goat is god? It's complicated...