Lions of Delos

The 7 remaining "Lions of Delos", a group of (possibly) 12 (I would say definitely 12, one for every month of the solar year) lion statues which once lined the monumental avenue, similar to Egyptian avenues of sphinxes, in the 600 BC Temple of Apollo...

The island of Delos was an ancient holy sanctuary, and Greek mythology claims it was the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. The Lions, which had their mouths wide open as if roaring, were initially facing east (towards the the house of the Sun God)...

If you wanted to make a (First) Temple on a Threshing Floor, and "orient" it (make it to face east), if you wanted to make a "House of God" to face the "House of (Sun) God", how would you do it?

I talked about this orientation of temples to face east in my posts "Sun god from the First Temple" and "Boaz and Jachin"...

Here's the question: why lions? Well, I think comparative mythology, comparative linguistics and animal calendar markers can help us figure this out.

So where do we start? I think we should start with flies...

(In Mesopotamia) "There are flies that bite like bulldogs everywhere...in one's hair and eyes and mouth, in one's bath and shaving-water, in one's tea and in one's towel..." 

I talked about the etymology of the Sumerian word for fly and the fact that flies season in Iraq coincides with the hottest and driest time of the year in my post "Fly"...Then in this article, "Lord of the flies", I talked about Beelzebub, the lord of the flies, who was identified by Jews and Christians with Satan...

And I showed that behind this nickname hides the old Mesopotamian God of Death, Nergal...

Nergal was Mesopotamian god who represented the deified destructive "burning" sun on late summer early autumn, Jul/Aug, the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia, the time of drought and death...

I first talked abut Nergal in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

Nergal was also the god of plague, because Jul/Aug is also the peak time for flies which spread infectious diseases...Hence, Nergal, the Lord of flies...

Now guess who was the lord of the flies in Greek mythology? Apollo...Apollo whose name was most likely derived from one of Nergal's epithets, "Palil" through Late Bronze Age Hittite and Hurrian god of plague Aplu. I talked about this in my post "Palil"

Ok, I can hear you say, what does this have to do with lions? Well, Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is marked by Leo...Why?

Asiatic lions mating season started in Jul/Aug and spanned the whole of Autumn (Aug/Sep/Oct)...Which is why autumn starts in Leo (Jul/Aug). And why lion is the symbol of autumn...I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

This marking of Jul/Aug with a lion symbol predates zodiac symbols by millennia. It's an example of an ancient animal calendar marker found embedded in mythologies across Eurasia and North Africa.

When lions overheat. Bactrian seal with lion radiating sun/heat rays, the same rays radiated by sun god Shamash. Leo, Jul/Aug, start of lion mating season, the hottest part of the year in the northern hemisphere. I talked about this in my posts "Nude winged hero dominating snakes" and "Lion radiating heat"...   

BTW, Nergal, the god of death and plague, which peaks in Jul/Aug (Leo), plague brought by flies which swarm in Jul/Aug (Leo), the lord of the flies, the destructive sun of Jul/Aug (Leo), was also depicted as a lion-man...For (i presume now) obvious reasons...

Guess where fire breathing dragons with 7 heads, who steal and guard water (cause drought), come from? And dragon killers?

Why was dragon depicted on this Tell Asmar seal, dated to 2200 BC, with lion body and 7 snake heads? Cause snake is the symbol of sun's heat, there were 7 summer months in Mesopotamian calendar, and the hottest part of summer was Jul/Aug, Leo. I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

As the symbol of destructive heat which brings drought, plague, death, lion became the symbol of destructive force, and ultimately, evil...

Why were Persian kings so obsessed with killing lions? Well they were't really killing lions. They were symbolically killing dry season, Angra Mainyu, which starts in Apr/May, Bull, peaks in Jul/Aug, Leo and ends in Oct/Nov, Scorpio/Eagle... I talked about this in my posts "The king killing Angra Mainyu" and "Angra Mainyu"...

So...Are you suggesting, I can hear you ask, that Apollo = Aplu = Palil = Nergal = (god of) Destructive Sun of Jul/Aug, the cause of drought, plague and death??? And that this is why the lions lined the Sacred Avenue leading to the Temple of Apollo in Delos???

You bet that's what I'm suggesting. Why do you think Apollo was "the most feared of all Greek gods"? Certainly not because of his bad lyre playing...Although that probably didn't help...I talked about animal calendar markers in the story about how Apollo gave King Midas donkey's ears in my post "Onager"...

You also might find this post, "Lyre of Apollo", interesting. It analyses 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...

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...

Nanshe

In this article, I will tell you a story about a chance discovery I made today about geese...From the end to the beginning...

Terracotta plaque showing seated goddess Nanshe and geese. From southern Iraq. 2003-1595 BCE. Iraq Museum...Pic by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin... 

In Sumerian mythology, Nanshe was the daughter of Enki (god of sweet water) and Ninhursag (earth and mother goddess). 

Her functions as a goddess were varied, but like her father, she was heavily associated with water...

Here is another depiction of the goddess Nanshe. She is accompanied by two geese and holds a vase in hand. Two streams of water and fish emerging from the vessel...Ur, 2100 BC...

She is depicted as the source of  Tigris and Euphrates...Just like her father Enki...

The most common depiction of Enki is with two streams pouring out of his shoulders or out of a jar which he is holding in his hands. This portrays Enki as the god of water who controls the source of Tigris and Euphrates...You can read about it in my posts "Utu or Enki", "Goatfish" and many others...

So why geese...Well geese, water...Kind of obvious, right? True, but there is a lot more to it. Geese here are used as a animal calendar marker...

If we check the list of birds of Iraq, we can see that three large geese species found in Iraq (the geese depicted next to Ninshe are large birds): A: Graylag goose, B: Greater white-fronted goose, C: Lesser white-fronted goose...

Now all these geese are winter visitors to Mesopotamian marshes. They spend summers near arctic circle, where they breed, and spend winters in Mesopotamia, where they arrive in Oct/Nov...

The fact that the geese arrive to Mesopotamia at the beginning of winter is very important and explains why the goddess Nanshe, the goddess of water and fertility, was depicted with geese...(apart from the fact that geese like water 🙂)

The climatic year in Mesopotamia is divided into hot/dry half (Apr/May-Oct/Nov) and cool/wet half (Oct/Nov-Apr/May). And all the sweet water which makes Mesopotamia fertile and habitable is the result of the rain and snow that falls during the cool/wet half of the year...

And geese arrive from the north, right at the beginning of the rain season, bringing rain with them...And stay in Mesopotamia during the cool, wet, fertile season...

They arrive from the direction of Abzu, the source of sweet water, and the place where Enki, the god of sweet water lives. 

"Abzu, place that is a big mountain, princely crown of the heaven and earth. To the lord Nudimmud (Enki), (give) praise!"

Basically, Abzu are the North-Eatern mountains, which are the source of Tigris and Euphrates...

Now have a look this. This is (most likely) Jemdat Nasr style seal 3100-2500 BC (?). From the Leroy Golf collection of Sumerian Seals...

Officially it depicts "animals in two rows: three gazelles next to a column of two flying birds over two walking birds". 

Actually what this seal depicts is: 

1. Birds, which look very much like ducks or geese, landing...

2. Gazelles or Ibex goats...Left: gazelle, Right: ibex

Both Gazelles and Ibex goats are a common animal calendar marker for the beginning of the rain season in Mesopotamia. Why? Cause the beginning of their mating season (Oct/Nov) coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Mesopotamia...

I talked about goat as a symbol for the rain season in "Goat carrier", "Dancing goat men from Luristan", "Vessel from Tepe Hissar" and many others

I talked about gazelle as a symbol for the rain season in "Pissing gazelle", "Ashur", "Mysterious creature", "Abu" and many others

And the migratory geese (ducks) arrive to Mesopotamia right at the time when gazelles start mating and when the rains arrive... Which is what this seal depicts... Beginning of rain season...

And as I said, the geese arrive from the north, from the northern mountains, Abzu, the mountain home of Enki, the God of water, source of fresh water, which is source of fertility... 

Hence geese as the companions of Enki's daughter, Nanshe, the goddess of water and fertility...

Now in "Alternate fortunes? The role of domestic ducks and geese from Roman to Medieval times in Britain" we can read that "...in ancient Mesopotamia geese were kept in herds and were used for sacrifices and food, but this does not necessarily prove domestication..."

Well, I can tell you that geese were definitely not domesticated during the time when Sumerian language was developing in Mesopotamia...We can see this from the Sumerian lexicon where the word for goose is: 

kur-gimušen: ('mountains'+'to return') 🙂

The birds which arrive from Enki's mountains in the north at the beginning of the rain season, and go back to Enki's mountains at the end of the rain season...

And this is where the story began...With me finding the Sumerian word for goose...

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...

Fertility goddess with poppies

Akkadian seal, currently in the University of Chicago. 

Official description: "Sun god in a boat. On prow long-haired crowned figure with punting pole and human-headed lion, snake's head for stern, plow, vase and two objects above, fertility goddess beside boat, fish below"...

That's it??? Of course not...I wrote a whole article about what is actually depicted on this super interesting seal: "Sun god in a boat". But I missed few bits, which is why I am writing this article today...

In a nutshell, this is a complex calendar marker, which depicts beginning of summer (Apr/May), just after the grain and poppy harvest. This is symbolised by the goddess, with grains growing out of her body, holding poppies, standing behind the boat and waving it goodbye...

This girl is the same as this girl...Corinth plate with Demeter...Demeter is holding a torch in her right hand, symbolising winter. I love the fact that in her left hand she is holding grain and poppies, symbolising summer...Man can't live on bread alone. He needs drugs too :) 

Kind of important, right?

I talked about this link between grain goddesses and poppies in my posts "Demeter riding a panther"...

About torches...Check my articles "Abduction of Persephone", "Woman with torches and swans", "Thyrsus"...

I identified the seated figure holding the rudder and steering the boat as Shamash/Utu, the sun god...You can see this from the sun/heat rays coming out of his shoulders...

Sun god which rules summer, the dry, hot half of the year (Apr/May - Oct/Nov). I talked about him in my posts "Shamash young and old", "Canals", "When Utu steps up into heaven"...

On the above seal, Shamash is standing in a dry irrigation canal bed "between lions", meaning in Leo (Jul/Aug), the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia...

This part of the year is marked by a lion, because this is when Eurasian lions mating season starts...

So in my original post about the "Sun god in a boat" Akkadian seal, I proposed that the lion is in the boat, because the boat is sailing from the beginning of the Mesopotamian summer (harvest, Apr/May) to the middle of the Mesopotamian summer (Jul/Aug), Leo...

But somehow I completely missed the implications of the fact that the lion has a human head...

This is not an ordinary lion...This is Nergal, the god of death, who rules the hottest and driest part of the year...The Bad Shamash...The deadly sun in Leo, which brings drought and death. I talked about him in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

So there are actually 3 gods in the boat

So we have Shamash steering the boat of summer towards the hottest part with Nergal hitching a lift towards Leo...So the third god. In my original post I completely ignored the "long-haired crowned figure with punting pole standing on the prow". Didn't know what to make of him...

Until recently, when I came across stories about Enki, the god of fresh water and the good of the annual flood of Tigris and Euphrates and his little boat...I wrote few articles about this: "Goatfish", "Enki's little boat", "Rain and flood"...

The above seal shows Enki in a boat, which represents the annual flood. The flood starts in (Apr/May), the time of the peak water levels in Tigris (left) and Euphrates (right)...And the grain harvest time. See the grain sheaf on the right of the boat?

By the way this part of the year (Apr/May) is marked by a bull, Taurus, Because this is the beginning of the calving season of wild Eurasian cattle. I talked about this in my post "Ram and bull", "Cow and calf ivory"

It's the snowmelt in the Anatolian and Zagros mountains, caused by the sun (Shamash/Utu) that releases the flood waters (Enki/Ea) which cause the flood during the calving season of Aurochs...Hence Both Shamash and Enki being linked to bulls...I talked about this in my post "Butt chewing"...

On the above relief you can see Triumphant Shamash, as a bull, in Taurus, which marks the beginning of the flood, Climbing up the mountain, to melt the snow and release Enki, the flood...His butt is being chewed by a winged lion though...Leo, which marks the end of the flood...

Back to Enki's boat, which represents the summer flood. 

On one side is grain (Apr/May). On the other side of the summer flood (Jul/Aug) is a star...Any random star? Of course not...

Sirius, rising before the sun, pretending to be "the morning star"... Otherwise known as Inanna/Ishtar "The queen of heaven"...The one that poses on the lion...In Leo...Girl which has some serious "conflicts of interest" with Nergal, Shamash, Sun in Leo...I talked about this in my post "Ninshubur", "Sacred marriage on a threshing floor"...

So, who is this guy? 

He is Enki depicted as being the flood boat...

BTW, do you see the fish underneath the boat? Check my post about "Goatfish", which explains why the annual flood was in Sumer known as "Carp flood"...And why fish always swims around Enki...

So that't it...Few bits which fell into place since I wrote the original article...

Hope you enjoyed this...

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...