Male - Female Minoan bowl

A 16th cent. BC Minoan vessel found on Thera, Akrotiri, depicting (according to the museum curators) on one side wild goats and saffron crocuses and on the other side dolphins and sea grass...

According to the museum curators:

The vessel was found in the so-called "House of the Ladies", a building of both residential and ritual character...We think that the vessel had (possibly) ritual meaning and use, but we don't know what meaning and what use...

Maybe I can help here. This vessel is a ritual calendar, depicting a division of a solar year into cool/wet half of the year (goat) and hot/dry half of the year (dolphin)...

Why goat and dolphin? The beginning of the hot dry season coincides with the beginning of the mating of the dolphins (Apr/May) and the beginning of the cool wet season coincides with the beginning of the mating of the wild goats (Oct/Nov)...

I actually talked about this in detail in my post "Horned animal attacked by a dolphin" that analysis this strange Minoan seal...

Hot dry season Apr/May - Oct/Nov (Dolphin season) is also the sailing season...Extremely important if you were a Minoan...

I talked about this in my post "Minoan dolphin fresco" about the famous Minoan "dolphins fresco" from Knossos, Crete, dated to 1500BC...

What about crocuses? Well, wild Cretan crocus, the ancestor of all the saffron crocuses, starts flowering in Oct/Nov...

At the beginning of rain season, when wild Cretan Ibex goats start to mate...

Talked about this in my posts "Saffron" and "Origin of saffron"...

Which is why crocus was The Flower of The Goddess of Fertility...2nd millennium BC faience (glazed ceramic) models of female garments decorated with crocuses excavated by Arthur Evans during the excavations of the the Temple Repositories at Knossos...

This is the famous Minoan Hagia Triada Sarcophagus, a late Minoan limestone sarcophagus, dated to around 1400 BC. 

On it, we see a priestess presiding over a bull sacrifice wearing a skirt decorated with crocus flowers...

I talk about this in my posts "Agia Triada sarcophagus" and "Minoan bull sacrifice"...

BTW, Apr/May, the beginning of the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean is marked with a Bull, Taurus...This is because Apr/May was the time when wild Eurasian cattle calving season used to start...I talked about the "Old Taurus" in many of my posts...

I talked about the symbolic division of the Minoan year into Goat and Bull halves in this post "Theseus ring", about Winter (Ibex) and Summer (Bull) Minoan rings. Article about the opposite goat - bull symbolism in Minoan art. 

This 14th-13th c. BC larnax (a container for human remains), found in Mycenaean Tanagra cemetery, but created under strong Minoan influence, depicts:

The top part: Ibex goat (ritual?) hunt

The bottom part: Auroch bull (ritual?) leaping

Why?

This is typical Cretan climate chart:

Top: Ibex goat, symbol of cool, wet half of the year. Ibex goat animal calendar marker for Oct/Nov, start of the Ibex mating season

Bottom: Auroch bull, symbol of hot, dry half of the year. Auroch bull animal calendar marker for Apr/May, start of the Auroch calving season

Ritual ibex goat hunt marks the start of the cool wet half of the year and the end of the sailing season?

Ritual bull leaping marks the start of the hot dry half of the year and the start of the sailing season?

You can find more interesting things about this in my post "Goat riding thundergod"...

Because sailing was male dominated activity and saffron gathering and processing was female dominated activity, we could say that the Thera vessel is divided into male (Bull/Dolphin) and female (Goat/Saffron) halves...

Reflecting the division of the Cretan year into female (Wet, Cool, Yin, Sowing - Creating life, No Sailing, Peace) and male (Dry, Hot, Yang, Harvesting - Destroying life, Sailing, War) halves...

That's it. What do you think?

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...

Taranto

A silver didrachm from Taranto in southern Italy minted during the period 355-340 BC. It features on obverse a male youth riding a dolphin.

Dolphins and a dolphin-rider feature so prominently on the coinage of Taranto. This is unsurprising, given the mythological aetiology of the city from the hero Taras, the son of Poseidon (Pausanias 10.10.8). who was shipwrecked and then rescued by a dolphin. 

On this coin from Taranto minted during the period 355-340 BC, Taras is depicted holding his father's trident...

The dolphin-rider motif appears early on the coins of Taranto. For instance, a silver didrachm from Taranto minted during the period 510-450 BC

With a Reverse this time featuring a winged hippocamp symbol of Poseidon.

Poseidon was god of the sea, storms...and horses. This is reflected in his epithets: Nauklarios (Ναυκλάριος) "belonging to the ship-owners", Pelagikos (Πελάγίκος) "belonging to the sea"...and Hippeios (ἲππειος) "belonging to a horse"...

Sailors prayed to Poseidon for a calm seas and safe voyage, "sometimes drowning horses as a sacrifice"...

In Greek art, Poseidon rides a chariot that was pulled by a hippocampus or by horses that could ride on the sea...

Poseidon is apparently "...more often regarded as the tamer of horses, but in some myths he is their father, either by spilling his seed upon a rock or by mating with a creature who then gave birth to the first horse..."

In Arcadia, one of the most conservative parts of Ancient Greece, Poseidon was worshipped as a stallion...

Why? Why?

The natural breeding season of horses starts in Apr/May and ends in Sep/Oct and is marked by wild stallion fights for mares...

The horse fertility is governed by the sunlight and peaks on summer solstice. I heard summer solstice was a big thing for sun worshipers....

Hence solar horses all over Eurasia...

Articles about solar horse (equid):

Iran "Water carrier equid", "Dioscuri plate from Iran"

Mesopotamia "Shamash playing with the solar horse", "Sun god from Tell Brak"

India "Hayagriva"

China "Longma", "Three legged crow", "Mythical beast from Xian"

Levant "Alexamenos graffito", "Goddess on a horse", "Unicorn"

Europe "Archaic rider", "Beotian solar pyxis", "Pegasus and chimera", "King John", "The horseman"

Ok, but what does this have to do with Poseidon? Well, mating season of horses, overlaps with the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean. Both start in Apr/May and finish in Sep/Oct...

I talked about this in my post "Trojan horse", in which I asked a question: was Trojan horse "hypos" - a wooden horse left as tribute, or  "hypos" - a wooden boat with a horse head used for transporting tributes...

As for dolphins, they are animal calendar markers for Apr/May-Oct/Nov.

The reason for this is that dolphin mating and calving season in Mediterranean spans period May-Oct.

It takes place in the shallows, and is therefore easily observable by people living and fishing along the coast...

So there is actually a symbolic link between the horses and dolphins. Their mating seasons overlap and they overlap with the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean...

I talked about dolphin as an animal calendar marker in many of my posts, like "Boat of Dyonisus", "Apollo and dolphins", "Horned animal attacked by a dolphin", "Minoan dolphin fresco", "Coin from Byzantion", "Eagle eating dolphin"

One other thing...A lot of the coins from Taranto depict a mounted warrior on the obverse. You can find them all here... 

This one even depicts a mounted warrior and Nike, the goddess of victory...

Why?

Because Apr/May - Sep/Oct was not only the sailing season but also the war season...

BTW, some of the Taranto coins only depict horse on both sides, like this one minted during the period  325-280 BC...So horses were definitely important symbol on its own...BTW, one is bridled and the other unbridled...Sailing and non sailing season? What do you think? 

Knowing this makes the original coin even cooler...I think...

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...

The boat of Dionysus

Dionysus' Kylix (cup) from Vulci, Etruria, Italy - 530 BC - currently in Staatliche Antikensammlungen of Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Interesting scene. Dionysus arriving on a boat and bringing ripe grapes, surrounded by leaping dolphins...

What could this mean? Well...

Dolphin was an animal calendar marker for Apr/May-Oct/Nov.

The reason why dolphin became an animal calendar marker for hot part of the year, is because dolphin mating and calving season in Mediterranean spans period May-Oct.

It takes place in the shallows, and is therefore easily observable by people living and fishing along the coast...

I talked about this in my post "Minoan dolphin fresco", about the famous Minoan "dolphins fresco" from Knossos, Crete, dated to 1500BC...

Guess what? Apr/May-Oct/Nov is also the sailing season in Eastern Mediterranean. 

I talked about it in my posts "Trojan horse", "Three sacrifices" and "Anat"...

It's all to do with the Etesian winds

Which blow between Apr/May and Sep/Oct

According to Hesiod, the middle point between the beginning and the end of the dolphin mating season, Jul/Aug, Leo, is "the best time to go to the sea"...I talked about this in my post "Tetradrachm from Byblos" about this amazing 4th c. BC, silver coin from Byblos.

According to Hesiod: "Fifty days after the solstice, when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, is the right (best) time for men to go sailing"

That's Jul/Aug, when Lion (autumn) kills (ends) Bull (summer). 

Aug/Sep is the beginning of the grapes harvest season in Greece and Italy...On this Archaic Greek amphora made in Athens 540–530 BC and currently in MFABoston, we see Dionysus seated in the middle of a vineyard during a grapes harvest. He is actually depicted as the root from which all the grapevines grow...

This is why ripe grapes are a plant calendar markers for autumn...I talked about this in my post "Skipping", about this amazing Archaic Greek black-figured amphora, found in Etruscan city of Vulci, Italy, dated 520BC...Depicting Leto holding Apollo and Artemis, standing between grapes and ivy. Why? One of the best examples of the use of plant calendar markers I have ever seen...

So when we put this together, the scene from the Dionysus' Kylix means: The grape harvest starts (ripe grapes are brought by Dionysus) in Aug/Sep, right after the best time to go to sea, which is Jul/Aug...

I think 🙂 What do you think?

That's it. 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...

Apollo and dolphins

This is a 490 BC Etruscan hydria from Vulci, previously belonging to the Feoli Collection. shows Apollo in the centre, holding his lyre, seated on the Delphic tripod...with a dolphin to either side of the tripod...

What's with Apollo and dolphins?

Well, one of Apollo's epithets was Δελφίνιος (Delphinius, Delphinios), literally "Delphic", after Δελφοί (Delphi). An etiology in the "Homeric Hymn of Apollo" associated this with dolphins...

The earliest account of the origin of the Delphic oracle is provided in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, which recent scholarship dates within a narrow range, c. 580–570 BC...

It describes in detail how Apollo built his temple in "Crisa beneath snowy Parnassus" and how then he went looking for priests that will serve him...

For some weird reason, Apollo chose his first priests to be  "Cretans from Minos' city of Knossos" who were voyaging on a "black ship" across the sea. Apollo leapt into the ship in the form of a dolphin "a great and awesome monster"...

Dolphin-Apollo then forced the ship to sail to Parnassus where: "...like a star at noonday, the lord, far-working Apollo, leaped from the ship: flashes of fire flew from him thick and their brightness reached to heaven..."

"...He entered into his shrine between priceless tripods, and there made a flame to flare up bright, showing forth the splendor of his shafts, so that their radiance filled all Crisa, and [all who saw it] raised a cry...for he cast great fear upon them all..."

"...From his shrine he sprang forth again, swift as a thought, to speed again to the ship, bearing the form of a man, brisk and sturdy, in the prime of his youth, while his broad shoulders were covered with his hair: and he spoke to the Cretans, uttering winged words..."

"...guard my temple and receive the tribes of men that gather to this place"...

Interestingly, the Cretan archaeological finds from Delphi, dating from the 8th to the late 7th c. BC confirm that there once might have been Cretan priests at Delphi. But why Apollo as a dolphin? 🙂

This is the famous Minoan "dolphins fresco" from Knossos, Crete, dated to 1500BC...

Old Cretans, Minoans, were really into Dolphins, as any Mediterranean Maritime culture should be. Why? Cause of animal calendar markers of course. Dolphin was an animal calendar marker for Apr/May-Oct/Nov.

The reason why dolphin became an animal calendar marker for hot part of the year, is because dolphin mating and calving season in Mediterranean spans period May-Oct. It takes place in the shallows, and is therefore easily observable by people living and fishing along the coast...

I talked about this in my post "Minoan dolphin fresco"...

Guess what? Apr/May-Oct/Nov is also the sailing season in Eastern Mediterranean. I talked about it in my post "Three sacrifices", where I analyse this crazy story from the beginning of the Trojan war: 

Greeks are sacrificing to the sun god waiting for good winds to sail to Troy, when suddenly, a snake slithered from the altar to a sparrow's nest in platanus tree nearby. It ate the mother and her nine chicks, then was turned to stone. And then the good winds started to blow....Eee what? Why? Because the sailing winds in Eastern Mediterranean start blowing in Apr/May, when platanus trees start blooming, the sparrows are nesting and the vipers start mating...

BTW, note that the Greeks are praying to the Apollo for good wind...Good winds which blow from Apr/May to Oct/Nov, the dolphin season...Why?

It is the sun (Apollo), that heats up the Eastern Mediterranean...Which creates an updrift, which sucks the cooler air from Europe to start streaming southward, creating the etesian trade winds...And they get stronger as the summer progresses...

Minoans also depicted dolphins as "a great and awesome monsters" attacking goats. Why? Again, cause of animal calendar markers. I talked about this in my post "Horned animal attacked by a dolphin"...

This is a typical climatic chart for Crete

On Crete, the cool, wet season starts in Oct/Nov, when wild goats start to mate, and the hot, dry season starts when dolphins start to mate...So dry/good winds/sailing season (dolphin) ending (killing) wet/bad winds/no sailing season (goat)

Interestingly, Minoans seem to have linked lions with dolphins. Why? Well, cause the middle point between the beginning and the end of the dolphin mating season, Jul/Aug, Leo, is according to Hesiod "the best time to go to the sea"...

I talked about this in this post about this silver Tetradrachm from Byblos, Phonecia, apparently, minted during the reign of Adramelek, 315 BC-...and currently in the British Museum...

So what's that got to do with Apollo as a dolphin?

In Greece, the sun god Shamash, more precisely the "terrible" sun, Shamash as Nergal,  became Apollo. The "terrible" sun god Apollo...I explained why terrible in my post "Apollo from Delos" about the lions from the 600 BC Temple of Apollo from Delos:

So Apollo would then be this dude, Sun in Leo...

Nergal, the deified destructive "burning" sun, was depicted as a lion man, because Jul/Aug, Leo, is the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia...

Talked abut him in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

BTW, Leo originally had nothing to do with stars. It was an animal calendar marker marking the beginning of the main mating season of Eurasian lions, which starts at the beginning of autumn, Jul/Aug and spans the whole of autumn, (Jul/Aug - Oct/Nov)...

Hence lion as an animal calendar marker for Jul/Aug, Leo. And why lion is the symbol of autumn in general (Jul/Aug - Oct/Nov)...I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

So sun in Leo = Apollo as dolphin?

So maybe whoever wrote the "Homeric hymn to Delphic Apollo" wasn't just making ridiculous link between unrelated terms Apollo Δελφίνιος (Delphinios) and δελφίν, Koine form of δελφῑ́ς (dolphin)...

Check this out: δελφῑ́ς (dolphin) comes from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelbʰ- (womb), so originally it meant "fish with a womb". Now Δελφοί (Delphi), comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root *gʷelbʰ meaning womb.

Apollo's temple in Delphi was originally, according to legends, temple of Gaia, the old Mother Earth. And, again according to legends, the temple was located "at the centre of the earth" which was marked with ὀμφαλός (omphalós) meaning navel stone.

So we have a navel of the mother earth...In the place called Womb...So what was then (symbolically 🙂) the crack in the earth that the oracle sat over while reciting her prophecies? What makes every woman a woman, including Mother Earth?

That's it. 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...