Barbery lion

Now here is something very interesting I just found out today...The Lion calendar marker for end of Jul beginning of Aug, hottest part of the year, Leo, was derived probably in Mesopotamia, from the beginning of the mating season of Eurasian lions...

African lions are different...Their mating season peaks in winter, starting in November in the Southern Africa and in January in the Northern Africa...Now extinct Barbery lion, which once lived in Tunisia, mated in January...

The mating behavior of Barbary lions would explain something that I couldn't explain until today. Things like this: Roman mosaic, 2nd century AD, Tunisia. Dionysus riding a lion, followed by Silenus riding a camel, followed by a leopard on a leash...

We all know that Dionysus was linked with winter, the period after the grape harvest...His main celebration was Winter Dionysia, which is what is depicted on the above mosaic...

Now let's have a look at the animals depicted on the above image as animal calendar markers: 

I talked about leopard symbolism and its link to winter, the rain season in both Middle East, Central Asia, Levant and North Africa in my posts "A vessel from Tepe Hissar", "Ibex and leopard", and its link to Dionysus, the god of rebirth (of nature), and Rural (winter) Dionysia in my posts "Maenads with hare", "Furious Maenad", "Leopard and tiger"...Basically, leopards mate in Jan/Feb, at the end of winter beginning of spring...

In this article I talked about Bactrian camel, and how it became a calendar marker for winter in Bactria. Basically, wild Bactrian camels mating season overlaps with the rain season in Central Asia... 

But the camel ridden by Silenus is Arabian camel, Dromedary...What about its mating season? Well, Dromedary mating "peaks in the rainy season". Winter... So camel is then exactly what you would see in the winter procession of Dionysus next to leopard...

But you wouldn't expect to see Dionysus riding on a lion. Dionysus is normally depicted riding either on a leopard or tiger. Both animals mate in winter, both are used as animal calendar markers for winter... 

I thought that this was because the mosaic artist didn't know "that Dionysus, winter god, should only ride on winter mating wild cats"...

Weeeell...I was wrong...The lion on which Dionysus rides on mosaics from North Africa is Barbary lion...Another winter mating cat, worthy of bringing god of winter, rain and life giving winter...God of rebirth (of nature) indeed...

You can see how the same animal, lion (two subspecies), with two opposite mating habits in two different parts of the world, can become a calendar marker for two different things, and cause complete confusion when it comes to interpreting its meaning on ancient artefacts...

But it wouldn't be fun if everything was obvious...Right? 

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...

Lion radiating heat

One of the coolest lions ever. Bactrian seal. From: "Sulla Via delle Oasi. Tesori dell’Oriente Antico" Ligabue and Salvatori 1989, fig. 46, p. 196).

Lion with "sun's heat" rays coming out of his back. These are usually seen coming out of the shoulders of the Mesopotamia Sun God Utu (Shamash). 

Or out of the back of dragons of Sumer and Akad who had 7 snake heads and lion body...I talked about these dragons in my post "Seven headed dragon". 

Snakes being the symbol of sun's heat, because they are only out when it's hot....I talked about this in my post "The enemy of the sun"... 

Dragon being the symbol of extreme heat and drought of the late summer...I talked about this in my post "Dragon that stole rain"...

So why do Mesopotamian dragons have lion bodies? And why are there sun rays coming out of our original lion's back?

Leo (July 23 and August 22), which marks the end of summer, beginning of autumn, is the hottest part of the solar year in the northern hemisphere. 

In Iraq, this is the hottest and driest part of the year

Which is why on this seal we see Shamahs, the Sun God, standing in the middle of a dry canal, river bed, in the middle of Leo (see the two columns with lioness, left, and lion, right), in the middle of the hottest and driest part of the year...

This is why Mesopotamian dragons have lion bodies...

But why is this part of the year marked by a lion? Because of the Eurasian lions and their mating habits. 

Their main mating season starts in August...

I talked about it in my post "Entemena Vase"...

Because the Asiatic mating season overlaps with autumn, lion is also the symbol of autumn...

I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"

Hence the sun (heat) waves coming out of the lion's body on our Bactrian seal...Just so you don't think that this could be one of a kind "coincidence":

"Bactrian seal of the sun god (see the wavy lines depicting heat coming out of his body). Sumerians depicted their sun god in the same way. Bactrian sun god is holding two snakes because the sunny part of the year is the period between the appearance and disappearance of snakes"...

From my post about "Bactrian snakes and dragons"...

Here is the actual seal, currently kept in the Met Museum...

What I didn't know until today is that this is a double sided stamp seal...Guess what's on the other side Winged Lion Dragon....

In Bactria Leo (Jul-Aug) is the hottest and driest part of the year...

So no wonder that there too lions radiate heat...And ibex goats bring rain...Their mating season coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Bactria...

I talked about Bactrian climate in my post "Fluffy"...

Cylinder seal with monster

In this post I will explain why I am soooo tired of academics with no imagination...

"Cylinder seal with monster" 😞 ca. 11th–9th century B.C. Elamite (Iran) . From Met museum.  

Elam was a Bronze Age civilisation that flourished on the territory of today's Iran between 2700 – 539 BC... 

These are date palms, one of the most important agricultural crops in Mediterranean, North Africa and Middle East...Including Iran (Elam)... 

Date harvest season in Mesopotamia and Elam starts in July/August...

Right at the beginning of the mating season of the Eurasian lions (now extinct since early 20th century). 

In the "THE ASIATIC LION: A study of ecology and behaviour" by Paul Joslin we can read that the mating season of the Asiatic lions starts in August and lasts until October. 

I talked about this in my post "Entemena vase".

Anyway. 

So the "Cylinder seal with a monster" 🙂 is actually "Cylinder seal with a lion and a date palm" which marks the beginning of the date palm harvest in Elam. As the old Elamite children song says: "When lions start to mate, it's time to harvest date" 🙂

Which is what the human figure standing next to the date palm is doing. Harvesting dates...

Is this so difficult to see?

BTW, I recently learned the meaning of the cross...It's the cross of Shamash, the sun god. and with it being placed above the lion, it literally mens "sun in Leo". I talked about this in my post "The cross of Shamash"...