Ponte Sodo fibula

Etruscan gold disc fibula, from the Necropolis of Ponte Sodo, Vulci, Etruria, Italy. 650 BC, from the "Orientalizing period". Currently in the Antikensammlungen, Munich, Bavaria, Germany. 

WTH is all this stuff depicted on it? Here is the official description:

"Around a central cross, above, are several birds in flight and, at the sides, two lions with a pendent tongue and serpentine tail; in the centre, two helmeted warriors, with short sword and shield, fight surrounded by a bird respectively." That's it?

Yes, but what does this mean? Apparently no one knows...So let me try to decipher this...

First the central cross. The cross is a solar symbol, and more precisely symbol of the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash...I talked about this in my posts "The cross of Shamash" and "Sun god tablet"...

Here is the same cross on a late 7th c. Boeotian clay pyxis, currently in the Antikensammlung Berlin (thanks twitter friends🙂)  depicting the "Mistress of the Animals and some animals 🙂" (sure sign that "we have no idea what is really depicted here").

But I can tell you few things about the decorations: They are all solar symbols. You can find detailed analysis of these symbols in my post "Beotian solar pyxis"

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 "Lions of Delos" about the lions from the 600 BC Temple of Apollo from Delos:

So I believe that the cross here is the symbol of Apollo...

The "Mistress of the Animals" is Artemis, the the original, archaic, "terrible" twin sister of the "terrible" sun god Apollo...Definitely not moon goddess here with all these snakes. And lions (wink wink, notch notch)

And "some animals" are all solar animal calendar markers...

Sooo, if the central symbol on this Etruscan fibula from the "Orientalizing period" 🙂 is a cross of Shamash as Nergal / Apollo, then could we assume that the rest of the stuff is also somehow "solar"? You bet!

But before I explain what everything else means, do you see how the central cross is actually swastika too? Remember that on the Boeotian clay pyxis we see both crosses and swastikas...Swastika is a solar symbol too...Symbol of ever spinning solar wheel. Solar year...

I talked about it in my post "Kolo-vrt", about this ancient (officially medieval???) standing stone, Bosnia. Depicting solar wheel (swastika) and solar dance (kolo)... Pic by Kemal Čolak...

So what is depicted on both sides of the Shamash as Nergal / Apollo cross? Two lions...So sun cross between two lions...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"...

And these are not just any lions...They are lions with "serpentine tails"...Why? Maybe to emphasise the "solarness, solarity, solaritude 🙂 of the lions". Cause:

Snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)... talked about it in many of my posts...

Where did I see lions with serpent tails before? Oh yeah, here

Chimera, mythical beast or complex animal calendar marker for "hot dry season", Apr/May (mating of snakes), Jul/Aug (mating of lions), Oct/Nov (mating of goats)? 

The hot season ends in Oct/Nov, hence Bellerophon killing Chimera by spearing the goat.

I talked about this in my post "Pegasus and chimera"...

So what about "several birds in flight" 🙂? It's actually 7 birds in flight...It's not so difficult to count them. But I guess no one thought the number of birds was significant...Could these be 7 doves? Why? Cause in Greek mythology, the Pleiades are the seven daughters of Atlas

whom Zeus transformed first into doves

and then into stars...

Why first into doves and then into stars? Well, he is Zeus, he doesn't have to explain himself...(Hint: animal calendar markers) I talked about this in my post "Pleiades"...

Pleiades rise with the sun in Apr/May, at the beginning of the summer...So they are another (important) solar symbol...

But what about the two birds at the bottom? Well, could this be a symbolical depiction of migratory birds?

Like this? 

Leto, Slavic name for summer and year is most likely derived from the word "let" meaning flight...Leto (the old summer, the hot, sunny half of the year) is the period between the arrival and departure of the migratory birds. I talked about it in my post "Leto"...

The two identical birds are facing each other. They are also flanking two identical "warriors" who are facing each other. And the "warriors" are in turn flanking what looks like a pyramid with the sun (cross) right above it...Hmmm...

So sun, lions, pyramid...I talked about the pyramids (and lions, sphinxes) in my posts "Sphinx" and "Giza lioness" where I explained why (sun in) Leo (Jul/Aug) was so important to Ancient Egyptians...

What's that got to do with our Etruscan fibula? Remember we are Orientalising here 🙂

So this could be a pyramid with the sun in Leo (Shamash as Nergal / Apollo) cross above it...

But what about the two identical warriors facing each other?

Well, if we have calendar marker for the beginning of summer (7 birds, Apr/May), and if we have calendar marker for the end of summer (two lions, Jul/Aug), what's missing? A calendar marker for the midsummer, summer solstice...

Well...How about these dudes? The twins...In Etruscan version without horses...

Horse zodiac symbol is disguised as Dioskuri, divine twin horsemen. The guys who wanted to marry "the daughters of the white horse". They mark Summer Solstice, the peak of the horse mating season, characterised by wild stallion fights for mares...

I talked about solar horse (more precisely equid) in many of my posts...

BTW, twins, always linked to summer solstice are also found in India (this time as horse headed twins)

Surya's wife Saranyu transforms into a mare and runs away from her husband. Surya eventually finds her, turns himself into a white stallion and...

After which Saranyu delivers horse head twins called Ashvins...

I talked about this in my post "Hayagriva" about the Indian solar horse mythology...

In Mesopotamia, you'll find them "guarding the gates of hell". In my post "White raven" about Apollo-Nergal, I talk about the Sumerian twin gods, identified as Gemini constellation, and associated with Nergal, which "guard the gates of hell"...Are they holding torches? Or keys?

In Egypt, where we find god Hapi, the god of the annual flooding of the Nile, who was "often depicted as twins, tying papyrus and lotus flowers together". Papyrus flowers in Apr/May, and lotus in Jul/Aug...I talked about him/them 🙂 in my post "Lotus and papyrus"...

In Central America as Hero Twins who pour the water of heaven (rains there arrive in Jun/Jul). I talked about this in my post "Resurrection of the maize god"...

We find them in Sasanian Iran, on this plate with youths and winged horses drinking water from a jar ca. 5th–6th century AD. I talked about this in my post "Dioskuri plate from Iran"...

And in Gotland. Together with horses. And pile of soar symbols...I talked about this in my post "Gotland sun stone with Dioscuri"...

Aaaaanyway...The twins on our Etruscan fibula, are standing facing the moment when the sun is in it's highest position in the sky? That pyramid...With the sun above...Maybe...

God most high...  

Snake: Apr/May, beginning of the main snake mating season, beginning of summer. 

Lion: Jul/Aug, beginning of the main lion mating season, end of summer.  

And in the middle, summer solstice, sun most high. 

I talked about this in my post "You will trample great lion and serpent"...

Which reminds me of the "lions with serpentine tails" 🙂 Are they also symbols of summer, the period between Apr/May (mating of snakes), Jul/Aug (mating of lions)?

Maybe they don't mean sun in Leo, but sun in summer? Middle of summer? Summer solstice?

BTW, probably totally unrelated, but just thought to throw it in for fun...

8000 years ago, people of Lepenski Vir culture in Serbia, built houses in the shape of the hill shaped like a flat top pyramid they could see from their settlement. 

Why? Because every summer solstice, the sun rose on top of it...

I talked about this in my post "Sun on top of pyramid"...

But then, (sun) god works in mysterious ways...Christ is born on Winter Solstice, (re)birth day of the sun (god), he enters Jerusalem on a donkey, "animal of the (sun) gods and kings", and gets put on a cross, symbol of the sun (god)...Interesting...

I talked about this in my post "Alexamenos graffito"...

Anyway, what do you think? Makes sense? Or not? 

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...

PS: Some people pointed out that the animals flanking the sun cross could be horses. With sharp teeth and snaky tails? But actually...They could be...A kind of chimera, with horse/equid body, lion head and snake tail...Even more amazing...

This would explain why horses are "suspiciously" missing from the fibula. Considering that Horse/Equid is one of the main solar symbols...

These "beasts" would then be incredible composite animal calendar markers for summer (I have never seen one like this before): 

Start of summer: when snakes start mating in Apr/May.

Mid summer: when horses mating season peaks, Summer solstice.

End of summer: when lions start mating, in Jul/Aug.

With the addition of a horse (usually linked to summer solstice, like through Dioskuri) in the mix just confirms my interpretation of the whole scene...

Whipping fresco

5th c. BC Etruscan fresco, Tarquinia, Tomb of the whipping...Depicting...Well you can all see the obvious bit that it is depicting...

I will not talk about that. I will talk about the things "hidden in plain view", that most people who look at this fresco don't see 🙂

Do you see the guy on the left who is ... the woman from behind and also whipping her?

What's with the green branches (growing out of) on his head? Are these willow branches? They look like willow twigs to me...

This insignificant detail 🙂 indicates, at least to me, that this is not just a depiction of an ordinary "fun with friends"...I think this is a ritual, a fertility ritual...

Whose traces, a believe, we can still find among Slavs...As part of willow related spring, rebirth (resurrection) of nature, fertility folklore...

Here is why I think that:

Saturday before Palm Sunday is in Serbia known as Vrbica (Willow day). On that day kids and young women make and wear wreaths made of willow twigs and flowers...

On that day, willow twigs with young leaves and flowers, like these, known in English as Pussy Willow are brought to the church where they are blessed the next day, Palm Sunday, which is in Serbia known as Cveti (Flowers day)...

According to the church, this whole willow business is the consequence of the fact that there are no palms in Serbia, and people replaced palm branches with willow branches...Move on, nothing so see here...

There are few problems with this explanation...

Vrbopuc (Willow burst) is an expression which in Serbia means "part of spring during which willow starts growing new green shoots"...

Vrbopuc is also a term used in Serbia for the period of sudden surge of sexual hormones in teenage boys and girls...

Basically willow was directly linked with human fertility...Which is why in the past in Serbia, girls used to make belts from willow twigs (wrap willow twigs around their bellies), and wear them going to the rivers to perform ritual baths performed during this time...

Among Slavs, willow was directly linked with water, water divination....Dodole, young women which took part in rain bringing magic rituals performed during hot summers also wore willow twig belts...

Mother Earth = Yin = Winter, Cold, Wet, Night, Down = Female fertility

Father Sun (Sky) = Yang = Summer, Hot, Dry, Day, Up = Male fertility

Which is why rain, water magic is female magic...

And which is why 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...

The teenage boy first sang a a ritual song about spring, bountifulness and fertility, and "the young woman then turned around and got few whacks on her backside with the willow whip"...

Sounds familiar?

This was done "so girl would be healthy, beautiful and fertile throughout the following year"...They would also splash each other with water...

Cause it is water that makes land fertile...And Slavs directly linked female and land fertility...

I talked about Slavic willow folklore in my post "Willow in Slavic folklore"...

Sooooooooo...What do you think? Just a casual threesome or a fertility ritual?

For those who ask if there is a link to Lupercalia?

These are symbolically similar rituals. During Lupercalia, young men whipped women with sacrificial goat skin thongs. Dead goat was, and still is in Europe, symbol of spring...Goat being the symbol of winter. I talked about this in my posts "The birth of Romulus and Remus", "Goat in European culture"...

That's that. Interesting? I think so. 

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... 

Chimera

This is an electrum stater from the ancient city of Kyzikos, Mysia, circa 550-500 BC. It has a chimera above a tuna fish which was the civic badge of Kyzikos. The reverse is a quadripartite incuse square, an abstract representation of swastika, the symbol of sun's fire. 

Chimera is a monster of which a brief description in Homer’s Iliad is the earliest surviving literary reference. Homer, who wrote during late 8th, early 7th century BC, depicts it as "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire". It was the offspring of Typhon (last son of Gaia, fathered by Tartarus)

This Etruscan (Rascian) bronze, dated to 400 BC, is known as "Chimera of Arezzo". 

You can find high resolution image here.

The sculpture has an inscription reading "Tinia" on its front right leg. Tinia (also Tin, Tinh, Tins or Tina) was the god of the sky and the highest god in Etruscan mythology, equivalent to the Roman Jupiter and the Greek Zeus.

Interestingly in Irish the word "tine" means "fire", and in Serbian the word "tinja" means "smoldering"...

What does this have to do with Chimera? Well Chimera "snorts out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire". And she does it through the mouth of a lion. Now, as I already explained in my post "Two crosses",  the hottest part of the year in the northern Europe falls at the end of Summer and the Beginning of Autumn. In South Slavic tradition this period is called Kresovi meaning Fires. These are the days of wild fires and droughts. And interestingly this period is on the Zodiac circle represented by the symbol Leo, Lion. Lion which "snorts out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire". 

Now in my last post "You will trample the great lion and the serpent" I talked about the solar symbolism hidden in Psalm 91 (Greek numbering: Psalm 90), also known as the Psalm of Protection, and the image known as "Christ treading on the beasts" which is based on this psalm. In this post I explained why snake is a symbol of the beginning of the summer and why lion is the symbol of the end of the summer. 

Summer starts on the 6th of May, Day of Jarilo, Beltine. Jarilo represents the sun's heat, symbolized by the snake and the dragon. Funnily Jarilo was Christianized into St George, the Dragon killer :) In Serbia, St Jeremija who is celebrated at the beginning of May is known as the Snake Saint. His day (1st of May according to the Julian calendar, 14th of May according to the Gregorian calendar) is the time when people perform magic ceremonies for protection from snakes...Interesting both names Jarilo and J(a)eremija have the root "jar" meaning "bright heat".

Summer ends on the 2nd of August, Day of Perun, Lughnasadh. Day of Perun falls in the middle of the Leo (Lion) zodiac sign. 

Knowing this it is easy to understand why Chimera has a snake tail and a fire breathing lion head. Summer starts in the sign of Snake and ends in the sign of Lion. The heat increases during this period until it turns into "terrible flame of bright fire". 

What is interesting is that in Serbian mythology the 2nd of August, the point on the solar circle which marks the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn, the hottest part of the year, is also the day of Perun, the Slavic Thunder god. In Irish mythology this day is known as Lughnasadh, the day of Lugh, the Celtic thunder god. Why is the day of the thunder god in the middle of the hottest period of the year? Because right after the 2nd of August, the day of the maximum heat, the sun starts cooling down. The first Autumn thunderstorms arrive. Thunder god defeats the dragon. As I already explained in my post "Three suns", dragon is in Slavic mythology, with snake, symbol of sun's heat. The sun's heat which causes drought. The sun's heat that steals the "waters of heaven", rain. Once the Thunder god kills the dragon, once the sun's heat starts dissipating, the waters of heaven which the dragon stole are released, and the rains return...This is why the name of the sky god is inscribed on the Chimera's front right leg. 

But what about the goat's head that protrudes from the lion's back?

In my post "Goat" I talked about the symbolism of ibex goat and why is the Capricorn zodiac sign where it is on the solar circle. 

Now here is the important bit:

Alpine ibex mating season starts in December, and ends in January typically lasting around six weeks. 

Bezoar Ibex mating season starts in November and ends in January. 

Right in the middle of the mating periods of both Alpine and Bezoar ibex is Winter Solstice, 21st of December. And the day after the winter solstice is the beginning of the Capricorn (goat) period, which last from December 22 – January 20...

Have a look at this image. This is solar circle, with the beginning (snake), the middle (summer solstice) and the end (lion) of summer marked at the bottom of the Zodiac circle, and the middle of winter (winter solstice) marked at the top of the circle.

This is our Chimera. 

Chimera with the body with snake tail (beginning of summer), lion head (the end of summer) which all together represents summer. And with the ibex goat head on it's back, which represents the winter solstice.

And so it turns out that Chimera is not a monster, but a symbol of the sun. More precisely Chimera is the symbol of the solar yearly cycle. 

Interesting don't you think?