Jupiter Zeus Dolichenus

Stone relief dated ca 50-150 AD from Croy Hill, Scotland. It depicts Jupiter Dolichenus (standing on a bull) and his wife and consort Juno Dolichena (standing on a cow). National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK...

Juno Regina is the Queen of the Gods and Queen of Heaven and the patron goddess of Rome... 

Jupiter Dolichenus is a mixture between Roman Jupiter and a Anatolian sky god. Carrying a thunderbolt (Jupiter) and a double-headed axe (Teshub)...

Jupiter Dolichenus stands on a bull because the Anatolian thunder god stood on a bull...

Pics of the two stele from Tell Ahmar are from this paper... 

And he stood on a bull because...Officially we don't know, but actually we do know. He stood on a bull because:

This Hittite symbol means storm god. Bottom part (Bull head) means storm, the above part means god...

The thunderstorm season in Anatolia starts in Apr/May, Taurus...Which is why Hittite Thunder God stands on a bull...I talked about this in my post "Bull god from Arslantepe"

Roman Juno was associated with cows and calves...And so was her Greek predecessor Hera.

Which is interesting considering that Apr/May, the start of the thunderstorm season in Anatolia and Southern Europe, is also the start of the calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle...

This is what Taurus, Bull (it really should be Calf), marks. It originally had nothing to do with stars. It was a marker for Apr/May, the beginning of the calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle. Talked about it in many of my posts...

BTW, Jupiter (Zeus) Dolichenus was also known as Jupiter (Zeus) Heliopolitanus. This is because the cult originated from the area between the cities of Doliche and Heliopolis, which both housed important temples of the god...

Between the two cities lies the mount Caisus, the sacred home of Ba‘al Hadad, who was the Ugaritic version of the Hurian storm god Teshub...

It is in this area that we see the local storm god, wearing local clothes...

Become Romanised/Hellenised, and starts wearing Roman military attire, and gets his lightning trident replaced with lightning bolt...

Pics again from this paper...

Here is another relief, this one from Rome, 3rd c. AD, depicting Jupiter Dolichenus and Juno Dolichena. See the eagle killing snake in the top left corner, the symbol of Zeus/Jupiter?

I love this one a lot. A sculpture of an eagle devouring a serpent from Roman London. 

It depicts a snake eagle killing a snake...

Why is this a symbol of Zeus/Jupiter? Because:

Eagle-Snake struggle is a complex animal calendar marker for the thunderstorm season in Europe Apr/May -  Sep/Oct, when migratory snake eagles can be seen in Europe...I talked about this in my post "Eagle snake struggle"... 

Interestingly, main snake mating season, when snakes coil like this, also starts in Apr/May...

And so:

Why is Hermes, the herald of Zeus, carrying a staff with two coiling snakes, given to him as a present by Apollo, the sun god?

Cause snakes (solar animals) mate (coil) in Apr/May, (heralding) the beginning of the thunderstorm season. I talked about this in my post "Lyre of Apollo"...

So...The visual depictions of Jupiter Dolichenus and Juno Dolichena are full of animal calendar markers for Apr/May...

The time of the year when snakes start mating, snake eagles arrive back from Africa to Anatolia/Southern Europe, wild cows start calving, and when the thunderstorms (ThunderGod) arrives riding on a bull...In Taurus...

BTW, If you want to see how Teshub the thunder god is actually symbolically equated with the snake eagle check my post "Teshub killing snake" out. It gives symbolic analysis of this Neo-Hittite basalt stele from the 9th-8th c. BC and explains why is Teshub standing on a bull and why is he holding a snake in his left hand...

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...

King killing Bull

A very strange 5th c. AD Sassanian silver dish, with even stranger provenience story. 

The dish depicts a warrior with a spear sitting on a bull, about to stab another bull. His headdress indicates that he is the Persian ruler Yazdagird I (399–421)...

Does anyone have any idea if this is a depiction of some kind of mythological, religious scene? 

The dish was not discovered by archaeologists, but by ethnographer Arkady Baulo, who was in 2001 working with Ob-Ugric peoples in Khanty-Mansiysk, Western Siberia, Russia...

It was kept in the antechamber of the living room, a cult area on the right side of the room where women were not allowed to enter.

According to the owner, the dish was found by his great-grandmother, near the Sinja River...

She saw something shiny in the grass. Scraping the ground, she discovered several bronze pots, containing this dish but also silver and bronze figurines depicting various animals...

Apparently pile of Sassanian artefacts were discovered in similar settings, being used as cult objects by the local people, in Western Siberia...

Info from this article...

I wonder if this "tree" with three leaves is actually the sacred fig from Indian mythology.

And which has been used as a plant calendar marker with bulls as animal calendar markers in Indian Subcontinent since Indus Valley Civilisation...

I talk about this in my post "Harappan wheel seal", in which I analyse this seal from the mature Harappan period, the time when the civilisation was at its peak (2600 BC to 1900 BC), which was discovered in Rajasthan few years ago...

I also talk about sacred fig and bull as calendar markers in my post "Kharif and Rabi seasons" about the depiction of the Kharif (wet) season (May to November)  and the Rabi (dry) season (November to May) through animal and plant calendar markers on an Indus Valley civilisation vase...

And in my post "Sacred fig goddess" about these deified fig trees which we find in both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Indus Valley civilisations...

Anyway, I wonder what Sassanians turned all this into...If anyone knows, please post your comments here...

Now, I want to thank @iphone10fan for this info: "This appears to be Lord Shiva riding Nandi. The three leaf plant in the bottom left could be this. Often associated with Lord Shiva. The bull in the bottom right could be Mahishasura? I'm not sure..."

And you'll love this: "The Indian bael tree, also known as Aegle marmelos, flowers in Apr/May, at the start of the rainy season. The flowers are aromatic and greyish-white in colour".

Another plant calendar marker for monsoon season...

I talked about Shiva, bulls, and monsoon here:

Ardhanarishvara, the union of Shiva and Parvati, produces (the tree of) life and the river Ganges. 

This is a complex calendar marker for the peak of the monsoon season, Jul/Aug, where bull=summer=May/Jun/Jul  meets  lion=autumn=Aug/Sep/Oct... 

Which fills Ganga river with water...

I talk about this in my post "Ardhanarishvara"...

"Bael tree leaves and fruit play a main role in Shiva worship, because the leaf's trifoliate shape is seen to symbolise his trident. Another belief is that the trifoliate shape of Bael leaf is symbolic representation of three eyes of Lord Shiva"...

Now remember this?

What made Indian Devas (good guys, gods) turn into Iranian Daevas (bad guys, false gods)? The answer is (I think🙂): the opposite climate in India and Iran...

Jul/Aug, the wettest time of the year in India, the time of life, is the driest time of the year in Iran, the time of death...

Which causes that the religious symbols (deified calendar markers) have opposite meanings in these two places...

I talk about this in my post "Daevas vs Devas"...

So bull rider killing the bull...In Jul/Aug...When bael tree flowers...Jul/Aug...Which marks the end of summer which starts in Taurus, Apr/May...

I don't think that the bull being killed is Mahishasura. Mahishasura was buffalo, not bull, demon. I talked about him in my post "Mahishasuramardini", about Durga, goddess created by Devas, and armed with all their weapons, and who rides on a lion, avenging their defeat by evil Asura Mahisha (Buffalo). 

What's this all about? Climate in India. Oct/Nov is when wild buffalos start mating. This is also the start of the dry season, which eventually leads to drought...Drought which is killed (ends) in Jul/Aug, Leo, peak of the wet monsoon season...

The "eternal" (read annual) struggle between wet and dry seasons in India, probably mythologised even before  the Indus Valley Civilisation. I talk about this in my post "Proto Durga" about this Is this 3rd mill BC Harappan tablet which could be depicting Proto Durga, the Warrior Goddess, the killer of the buffalo Asura who scared the Devas shitless?

But because of the opposite climates in India and Mesopotamia/Iran, buffalo as a (deified) animal calendar marker has opposite meaning in these two places...

In Mesopotamia/Iran, bulls were linked to the annual flood, which peaks in Apr/May, Taurus...I talked about it my post "Dedicated to Inshushinak" about this 3200 years old Elamite silver pouring vessel dedicated to the Elamite equivalent of Enki/Ea, god of fresh water and flood...

Remember this? The meaning of the lion killing bull?

Lion (autumn, starts in Leo) killing Bull (summer, starts in Taurus) depicted on the wall of the Great Mosque of Diyarbakir the oldest mosque in Anatolia.

I talk about the meaning of this complex animal calendar marker in my posts "Mystery seal", "Angra Mainyu" "Bull leaping in Syria", "Lion killing bull under date palm", "Butt chewing" and many others....

Guess who else killed bull every year in Leo? 

I talk about the true nature of Mithras in my post "Mithras", in which I also ask: Was Mithraism so popular among soldiers in the Imperial Roman army because Mithras was the personification of "Inevitable Victory"? After all, Lion (Autumn) inevitably kills (ends) Bull (Summer)...

In this article I also talk about the "triformed Mithras", which appears on a relief panel from Dieburg, showing a tree with three branches, each ending in a head wearing a Phrygian cap...

Jul/Aug. When Shiva tree blooms and bull gets killed...

And guess what: In Iran and Central Asia, the 3rd-century Kushan coinage featured a syncretic god with attributes of both Shiva and Mithra...You can read about this here...

Could this mean that the King riding a bull and killing a bull could be king as Mithra/Shiva killing a bull?

Mad...

Wow...This turned out to be some ride...I honestly had no idea where this (originally an X thread) will end up when I started writing it...Big, HUGE, thanks again to @iphone10fan for his nudge in the right direction.

If you are interested in reading 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...

Sabean bulls and lions

Copper plaque showing date palm full of dates, growing out of a lion standing on a pedestal. Dedication to the south Arabian moon god Almaqah, Sabaean, 1st c. BC - 2nd c. AD. British Museum. Date palm harvest starts in Leo...Jul/Aug 🙂 More in: https://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/10/lion-killin-bull-under-date-palm.html

I posted this a while ago and came across it yesterday while looking for something and while rereading it I noticed that the plaque was dedicated to the Moon God...

Veneration of the Moon God came to Arabia from Mesopotamia/Iran where Moon God Sin was the most important god of the pantheon. I explained why in my article "Mon good Nana Sin" about this amazing 2294-2270 BC Old Akkadian Cylinder Seal. This is an amazing seal, because it confirms something I suspected for a while, but wasn't 100% sure until now: why was the moon god so important to the people from Ancient Mesopotamia...

In short, for the lazy ones, I postulated that the god Sin was the god of the "Wet moon", upward pointing crescent moon, the moon of the wet, cool, half of the year (rain season) in Mesopotamia, Oct/Nov-Apr/May...

This is symbolically depicted using animal calendar markers on this Neo Babylonian, 625-539BC, blue chalcedony pyramidal stamp seal with a goat-fish with a rhomb before it and a crescent moon above it. I presented the fool symbolic analysis of this seal in my post "Chalcedony seal"...

For the lazy ones, Goatfish, the sacred animal of Enki, is a complex animal calendar marker for the wet season in Mesopotamia...Between the mating season of wild goats and the mating season of giant Mesopotamian carps...I talked about this in my post "Goatfish"...

Rhomb symbolises the womb of the Mother of Grain (Inanna/Ishtar) which produces food when "the seed of the Sky Father" (rain) fertilises her. I talked about this in my post "Rhomb"...

Rhomb is also a symbol for a date fruit. Date harvest season starts in Jul/Aug, in Leo, when Lion (autumn) kills (ends) Bull (summer) and lasts until Oct/Nov. I first encountered this symbol when I talked about date harvest in my post "Lion killing bull under date palm", but at that time I didn't know what rhomb means...

And Inanna/Ishtar was directly linked to the date palm precisely because the date harvest started in Jul/Aug, Leo...I will explain why later...

The rain season in Saba peaks in Jul/Aug, in Leo...Which was also the time when Sabaeans made pilgrimages to Almaqah's temple in Ma'rib to ask for his blessing of water...

Here is something interesting: Almaqah is commonly considered a moon god, but apparently that is not cool any more, at least according to Britanica:

"Garbini and Pirenne have shown that the bull's head and the vine motif associated with him [Almaqah] may have solar and Dionysiac attributes..."

"...He [Almaqah] was therefore a male counterpart of the sun goddess Shams / Ishtar / Isis, who was also venerated in Saba, but as a tutelary goddess of the royal Egyptian dynasty".

Eeeee???

Istanbul, Museum of the ancient Orient. Relief showing the standard bucrania with stylised greenery between the horns, two dragons and the desired result of the myth and its ritual, that is, the transformation of the sacrificed bull into sprouting vegetation/fertility...

Eeeee??? 

In ancient South Arabia, Almaqah, the moon god, was associated with bulls, which were considered sacred animals. Bulls were offered in sacrifice, and their heads "were linked to Almaqah's worship".

No one of course has any idea why and how...

Now look at this: As I said already, palm tree is a plant calendar marker for Jul/Aug, when Lion (autumn) kills (ends) Bull (summer). 

What is the best way to depict a dead bull? I guess like this: A Roman mosaic featuring a lion with the head of a bull, found on the floor of one of the Terrace Houses at Ephesus, Turkey...

I already talked about the meaning of the bull head in combination with a palm tree in my article "Date beer" about this 3rd millennium BC seal found in the Hurian city of Urkesh located in northeastern Syria..

Now remember Sabaeans made sacrifices to Almaqah in Jul/Aug, in Leo...When rains arrive to Yemen. Rains that make plants grow out of the cut off bull's head...

Oh, and grapes harvest in Yemen starts in Aug...After the bull's head is cut off...

BTW, those dragons depicted on both sides of bull heads. They are not there randomly. Jul/Aug, Leo, is the time of fire breathing dragons...Since (at least) Sumerian times. I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon", in which I explained why the dragon depicted on this Tell Asmar seal, dated to 2200 BC, has lion body and 7 snake heads.

For the lazy ones, 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 talk about dragons in various Eurasian mythologies in many of my blog articles...

As for Ishtar (and her twins from Arabia and other parts of Eurasia), she is also associated with lions...I talked about it in my post "Silver seal from Gonur Tepe" in which I talk about this cool Silver seal from Gonur Tepe, Turkmenistan, dated to late 3rd-early 2nd mill BC. Depicting a winged goddess riding on a lioness...

For the lazy ones, Ishtar was the deified Sirius, which rises with the sun (morning star) in Leo, Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year. Which is why she is depicted standing on a lion with the sun above lion's head and is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

I wrote many articles where I explained why "The morning star" is Sirius and "morning star" is Venus and how they are related and how they differ and why Inanna/Ishtar was originally definitely Sirius. You can start with "Sirius the mother of Venus". 

For the lazy ones, you know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar (Morning Star) is Venus and how I think that it was originally Sirius, and only later became Venus?

Well, it seems that Ancient Egyptians preserved the proof of this switch in their myths about Sopdet:

Sopdet, the personification of Sirius, was the consort of Sah, the personification of Orion. And their child was Sopdu, the personification of Venus, "Lord of the East" (Venus as morning star)....

For the Ancient Egyptians, the most important annual event, annual flood, which irrigated the land made it fertile, was linked to lions and lionesses...And Sirius...

I talked about this in my articles "Sphinx" and "Giza lioness" in which I give full symbolic analysis of the Sphinx mythology and its origin as Leo, animal calendar marker for Jul/Aug, the start of the peak of the Nile flood... 

All in all, very interesting...And suddenly few things I looked at before now make a lot more sense. Like this fresco from the house of M. Gavius Rufus in Pompei. The ruling Dionysus with the thyrsus, with Apollo/Helios in corona radiata, Aphrodite and other deities...

With dead bull's head, bucrania, at his feet...When does the grape harvest start in Greece/Italy? In Aug...After the bull's head is cut off...

And this 2nd c. AD Roman mirror of the goddess Diana from Art Institute, Chicago, depicting Diana sitting on a rock before a garlanded altar with a small herm, her quiver nearby...And chained bucrania which everyone seems to ignore cause they have no idea what to make of it...

Diana is Roman version of Artemis, the TWIN sister of Apollo. They are both linked with lions and Leo, Jul/Aug...When Lion of autumn kills the bull of summer. Hence the dead bull's head...

Apollo is directly linked with lions and sun in Leo, Jul/Aug. As a matter of fact Jul/Aug was the month dedicated to Apollo. 

IONIA. Miletos. Circa 340-325 BC. Drachm. 

Front: Laureate head of Apollo. 

Back: Lion with eight-pointed star above

This coin confirms my hypothesis that Apollo was Sun in Leo...Basically, Greek version of Mesopotamian Nergal...

I explain why this is the case in these articles:

1. "Palil". About "Palil" a nickname of Nergal, the terrible, burning, destructive sun of Jul/Aug, Leo...And about the origin of the name Apollo and its meaning...

2. "Lord of the flies". About Nergal and Apollo as "The lords of the flies"...And about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the peak of the fly and fly born diseases season in Northern Hemisphere...

3. "Lions of Delos". About the Lions of Delos, the burning destructive sun in Jul/Aug, Leo, and the fact that both Nergal and Apollo are linked to lions. 

4. "Apollo and dolphins". About Jul/Aug, Leo being the "best time to sail in Eastern Mediterranean", and the link between dolphins and Lions...and Apollo...

5. "Marble throne of Apollo". About snakes (symbols of sun's heat), dragons (symbols of burning sun's heat) and terrible sun gods, Nergal and Apollo who are dragons themselves...

6. "Apollo and Python". About why Python followed Apollo after his birth? Cause snakes are solar animals...According to the Delphian tradition, Apollo was born on the 7th day of the month of Bysios (Jan/Feb)

7. "White raven". About the black and white raven legend which is found in both Nergal and Apollo mythology, Egyptian vultures and the twins that guard the gates of hell. And some other weird stuff...

8. "Threshing floor of Apollo". About the threshing floors as solar observatories/temples, about the threshing floor of Apollo from Delphi, about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the holy month of Apollo, and about solar bonfires...

9. "Apollo the great archer". About why Apollo was the terrible "far shooting" archer...About arrow and bow constellation from Mesopotamia, Ishtar, Sirius, and Jul/Aug, the season of Perseid meteor shower...

10. "Apollo Sminthius". About Apollo his arrows that cause plague and peak infectious diseases season, Jul/Aug

11. "Apollo - Resheph". About how the transformation of Nergal into Apollo went through an an intermediary, Syrian god Resheph...

Artemis, the Greek Ishtar, was also linked with lions and was even called "lioness among women" by Hera. 

Boeotian stele, 7th c. BC, representing a "Potnia Theron", (Sketch) Athens, National Museum. Pic by Julianna Lees. 

I talked about this in my article "Silver seal from Gonur Tepe" and in the articles linked from it...

Anyway, that's it for today. I hope the above Sabaean artefacts now make a bit more sense...

If you are interested in reading 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...