Agia Triada sarcophagus

The other day I posted this article, "Minoan bull sacrifice", with the analysis of the bull sacrifice scene from the Minoan Hagia Triada Sarcophagus, a late Minoan limestone sarcophagus, dated to around 1400 BC, excavated from a chamber tomb at Hagia Triada, Crete. 

And it went completely unnoticed??? 

In this article I want to present the full analysis of all 4 sides of this sarcophagus. Honestly this is as cool an example of symbolic religious calendar art as they come.

First, I definitely don't think that these panels depict funerary rituals, which is the most common interpretation of the scene, like in this article.

I think that they could be depicting religious rituals related to Proto Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon. The "two queens and the king" mentioned In the Mycenean Greek tablets dated 1400–1200 BC.

They are also a religious calendar closely linked to the climatic calendar.

So let start with this panel. It is clearly divided into two halves, with two sets of people, facing opposite directions performing two different (and I would say opposite) ceremonies. 

I would start with the right side of this panel, with the calf and boat offering ceremony.

The climatic year on Crete is divided into two halves: Hot/Dry half, Summer, Apr/May - Oct/Nov and and Cool/Wet half, Winter, Oct/Nov - Apr/May. Which is why we find bull associated with the sun (gods). I talk about this in my articles "Solar bull", "Water bull",  "Bactrian snakes and dragons", "Shamash young and old", "Butt chewing", "When Utu steps up into heaven", "Maran", "Sun god tablet", "Gisgis relief", "Lyres of Ur"... 

The hot dry season in Crete starts in Apr/May, in Taurus, when wild Eurasian cattle used to start calving. I talked about this in my articles "Cow and calf ivory", "Foundation peg of the goddess Nanshe", "Elamite water bull", "Human bull hybrid", "White calf", "Calydonian boar", "Cypriot stamp seal with cow and calf"...

 

Hence the offering of calves. 

Apr/May is also the beginning of the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean. I talked about this in these articles "To sail - To harvest", "Coin from Byzantion", "Tetradrachm from Byblos", "Swallow tattoo", "Tuna boats", "Anat"...

Hence the offering of a boat model. 

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

Who is the dude to whom these offerings of calves and boat models were made? The most common interpretation is that this is the dead person whose funeral ceremony is depicted??? 

I would say that it is much more likely that this dude is some kind of deity, and he could be Proto Poseidon...

From here we proceed to the small panel depicting the two goddesses riding in a chariot pulled by a horse...

There is a reason why horse was the sacred animal of Poseidon (Greek) and Yamm (Phoenician) sea gods. Horse mating season overlaps with the sailing season in Eastern Medterranean.

I talked about this in my articles "Trojan horse", "Three sacrifices", "Seahorse ring", "Tetradrachm from Byblos", "Poseidon pursuing Demeter"

Apparently, the horse pulling the chariots with two goddesses could actually have ibex horns??? Check the image, it does look like it does...Like this one from Scythia???

A horse wearing reconstructed 2,500 year-old Scythian horse decorations which were unearthed in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. 

Why horse with ibex horns? Maybe a complex calendar marker for the period between Apr/May (beginning of the horse mating season) and Oct/Nov (beginning of the ibex mating season). Which is the sailing season in Eastern Mediterranean.

BTW, I already talked about these kind of complex animal calendar markers in my article "Mythical beast from Xian", in which I presented the analysis of the symbolism of this "mythical beast", stag with eagle's head, and ten further eagle heads in the antlers. 4th-3rd century BC. Nalinggaotu, Shenmu County, Xi'an, China...

But maybe, this horse with ibex horns actually depicts the grain agricultural season. Which starts with grain sowing in Oct/Nov, when ibex goats start to mate, and ends with grain harvests in Apr/May, when horses start to mate???

Are these two women riding on the horse pulled chariot then Proto Demeter and Proto Persephone? I think so...I talked about the link between Poseidon, Demeter, Persephone and horses in my article "Poseidon pursuing Demeter"...

The same grain agricultural calendar depicted using plant calendar markers. I talked about this in my article "Poppies and pomegranates", in which I answered the question: Why are opium poppies sacred to Demeter, goddess of grain harvest, while pomegranates are sacred to her daughter, Persephone?

Anyway, where are the two goddesses driving to? Well, towards the other main panel, which depicts bull being sacrificed on a table above two ibex goats...

In "Aegean Prehistory: A Review", in in the chapter, "Neopalatial, Final Palatial, and Postpalatial Crete", Paul Rehak and John G. Younger note that:

"A major development of the Final Palatial Period is the evidence for bull sacrifice..."

"It is possible that the killing of the animal became the final feature of the Minoan bull-games, perhaps under Mycenaean influence. It also may be significant that the bull sacrifice is attested at exactly the moment when Minotaur appears on Minoan/Mycenaean stamp seals."

Hmmm...Amazing. But when did the bull-games, which ended in the bull sacrifice, take place? I think that this 1700BC Levantine seal can help us determine that. You can find the full symbolic analysis of this seal in my article "Bull leaping in Syria"...

Summer, which started with the calving of Wild Eurasian cattle, ended with mating of Wild Eurasian cattle...Mating which was marked by vicious bull fights...Where bulls charged at each other...Like this...

On this levantine seal, the bull leaping is depicted right under the charging bull, which means that the ceremony was most likely performed in Jul/Aug, at the time of charging bulls, the beginning of the Wild Eurasian cattle mating season...

The charging bull is charging towards the lion, Leo, Jul/Aug...

Leo (Jul/Aug), originally had nothing to do with stars either. It is the ancient animal calendar marker marking the beginning of the mating season of the Eurasian lions.

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

Which is why autumn starts in Leo (Jul/Aug). And why lion is the symbol of autumn...I talked about this in my article "Symbols of the seasons"...

Another clue that bull leaping was performed in Jul/Aug can be found on the so called Theseus ring, gold "Mycenaean" signed ring from the Acropolis of Athens, 15th c. BC. Currently in NAM Athens. where we also see that a charging bull is charging towards a lioness...

Was bull leaping a popular activity in Mycenae? Or is this just another looted Minoan treasure? I talked about this ring in my article "Theseus ring"...

So if the bull sacrifice was performed in Jul/Aug, in Leo, maybe it was performed as part of this sailing ceremony depicted on Minoan frescoes. I talked about it in my article "Minoan dolphin fresco".

In this article, I explained why lions were depicted on the sides of Minoan ceremonial ships:

Writing in the 8th century BC, Hesiod says that:

"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"

This is at the end of July beginning of August. In Leo...At the beginning of the mating seasons of lions 🙂

This is the time when Romans celebrated the Neptunalia. Apparently the authorities are not sure why Romans celebrated Neptune at exactly that time of the year. I will let authorities ponder this further... 

Here I will propose that maybe Minoans also celebrated sea god in Leo...And that they sacrificed bulls to their sea god, Proto Poseidon...

That the bull sacrifice was indeed performed in Jul/Aug, at the beginning of autumn, can be seen from the fact that the next panel depicts the two goddesses riding on a chariot pulled by a griffin.

Now griffin is a complex animal calendar marker for autumn. I talked about this in my article "Minoan flying goddess with griffin", in which I analyse this Minoan gold signature ring depicting a flying griffon and goddess, from cemetery at Archanes, Phourni, in Crete, 1700-1450 BC.

After this small panel, we arrive back to the original panel where according to the common interpretation, we see "what could be continuation of the bull sacrifice scene, where the bull's blood is poured into a cauldron, standing between two poles, topped with labris and a bird".

This could be the case, but this could also be symbolic closing of the water flowing season in Crete, which takes place a the end of the wet season in Apr/May. This is an annual flow rate chart for the Koiliaris River Basin near Chania, Crete from this article...

You can see that the water flows through the river during the wet season. The flow suddenly increases in Oct/Nov, when the first rains arrive and suddenly decreases in Apr/May, when the rains stop.

After that the only water that is available is the water that comes out of the low elevation karst springs, or the water that was collected in cisterns, like this one...Pic from this article... 

I wonder if the horns of consecration are actually bull horns at all, or more precisely, if they are only bull horns? Could they be symbolic depiction of dry river beds during the hot dry half of the year which starts in Taurus, Apr/May?

The Cretan gorges, like Samaria gorge, are open for hiking only during the period May to Oct, when they are completely dry...

I wonder if this pouring of blood ritual is symbolically sacrificing the (summer) bull (blood) for winter rain?

BTW, a guy playing a 7 string lyre is also another calendar marker for Apr/May, Taurus. And another symbol for the hot dry season, which according to Sumerians lasted 7 monts...I talked about it in my article "Lyre of Apollo", about animal and plant calendar markers, tortoise, bull, ram, snake, 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...

And in my article "Lyres of ur" in which I analysed the symbolic significance of the ceremonial Sumerian bull headed lyres. A lyre player from "The Standard of Ur", a Sumerian artefact found in one of the largest royal tombs in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, associated with Ur-Pabilsag, a king who died around 2550 BC. Now in the British Museum...

This concludes my analysis of the sarcophagus. What do you think? Cool? 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...

Rhubarb and Ibex

3rd mill BC cup made in Western Iran, by the people of the Jiroft culture. According to this paper by Maryam Rezghirad from the University of Tehran, "It depicts ibex goats and a tree of life". Here are some interesting excerpts from the text:

I'll answer all of the questions at the end.

Quote: According to "The History of Iran in Achaemenid Period (From the History Collection of Cambridge)" by Gershevitch: "This animal (Ibex) was once worshiped as the incarnation of human and herd fertility...

Me: Why?

Quote: Motifs of the goat have long been a symbol of water, rain, abundance and guardian of the moon... 

Me: Why?

Quote: According to "The Concepts of the Mithras and Moon in Pre-Historical Potteries" by Abdollahian: "Horned animals such as Ibex are the symbol of fertility due to their horns’ resemblance of the crescent"... 

Me: Why is moon linked with fertility?

Quote: "Zoroastians" by Mazdapour: "When the first people Mashya and Mashyana had grown out of a rhubarb plant, ibex protected them and suckled them. For this reason, the goat is the symbol of fertility and growth".

Me: Why rhubarb and Ibex? 

Answers:

To understand any of this, we need to look at the climate in Iran and Mesopotamia, the annual variation of the angle of the crescent moon in the sky over Mespotamia and Iran, annual lifecycle of Ibex goats and rhubarb. Don't forget rhubarb...

In Iran/Mesopotamia, rains arrive when Ibex goats begin to mate, in Oct/Nov...

The ibex mating season is marked by wild male goat head banging, the sound of which can be heard from miles away...Not something you would easily miss if you lived in the area...

As I said once before, all our mythologies are the result of the fact that people are very good at noticing patterns in nature while simultaneously being very bad at distinguishing between correlation and causation 🙂

In Iran and Mesopotamia the fact that the beginning of the ibex goats mating season announced the beginning of the rain season resulted in ibex goat becoming "symbol of water, rain, abundance...and fertility"...

Ibex became "Goat of rain"...Which is, to me, best depicted on this 5000-4000BC vessel from Tepe Hissar, Northeastern Iran...I talked about this in my post "Vessel from Tepe Hissar"...

I talked about symbolism of ibex goats as animal calendar markers for winter/rain season in many of my posts, like 

Europe:

"Pitys", "Goat in European culture", "Patera of Rennes"... 

Levant:

"The tree of life/light", "Lachish animal calendar"...

Mesopotamia:

"Feast plaque from Louvre", "Green pastures", "Problems with Abzu", "Relief from Dur Sharrukin", "Goatfish"...

Iran: 

"Flamingos from Susa", "Goat carrier", "Iranian goat of rain", "Strider", "A vessel from Tepe Hissar"...

And it is that rain, that supports (the tree) of life...Hence goats and trees of life for everyone in Eastern Mediterranean, Levant, Mesopotamia, Iran, Central Asia...The same climate, the same ibex annual lifecycle, the same mythology...I talked about this in my post "Bactrian Bronze Age menorah", in which I talked about this cool Bactrian bronze stamp, dated to 2400BC-1600BC...

It was in Iran where we find the earliest transition from Goat of rain to God of rain...Through a goat man...I talked about this in my post "Master of animals from Tepe Giyan", in which I talked about this cool "Master of Animals" stamp seal from Tepe Giyan, Iran, dated to 5000-4000 BC, and depicting the eternal struggle between the rain goat and the sun serpent/dragon...

Actually this transformation of the goat of rain into god of rain started much earlier, most likely in the 9th millennium BC...I talked about this in my post "Zawi Chemi Shanidar"... 

What about the link between the rain, fertility, moon and ibex goats? 

To understand this, we need to know that this rain, fertile moon, is not just any moon. Its the upward pointing crescent moon. Crescent moon points upwards only during the wet half of the year...

Which is why it became the symbol of the moon god Nana/Sin. The most important god in Mesopotamia...Also linked with rain, water and fertility...

I talked about this here in my post "Moon god Nana/Sin" in which I analysed this cool Old Akkadian Cylinder Seal, dated to 2294-2270 BC...

And so winter Ibex goat brings rain and winter moon catches it...Rain which makes plants grow...As depicted on this Sassanian gem stone...

Finally, rhubarb...According to this article the wild rhubarb grows in Iran between Apr/May and May/Jun. 

When it is picked by the locals and turned into delicious food, like "Khoresh-e Rivas" – Lamb Rhubarb Stew. Here's the recipe...

Now the wild rhubarb picking season coincides with the end of the rain season, and with the beginning of the ibex birthing season (Oct/Nov + 160 days gestation)...

Which means that the first mortals born out of the rhubarb plant could indeed be suckled by lactating ibex goats...

Fun...

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...

Dance of the Panes

Athenian red-figure skyphos (wine cup) dated to 5th BC, currently in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston depicting: "Goddess emerging from the ground between two [dancing/prancing] Pans"...

Which goddess?

I would suggest Persephone. Here's why:

Abduction of Persephone by Hades. Fresco from, Vergina, 340 BC, Macedonia, Greece. Based on the animal and plant calendar markers found in the story about the abduction of Persephone, which I presented in my post "Abduction of Persephone", this abduction took place in Oct/Nov...

This is interesting because it is at the precise moment when Persephone (the grain seed) is abducted and taken to the "underworld", in Oct/Nov, that winter grains, barley and wheat, were sown in Ancient Greece...

Here comes one of my favourite bits of the legend of the abduction of Persephone.

"Demeter, when she found her daughter had disappeared, disguised herself as an old woman and with lighted torched in her hands roamed the Earth looking for her daughter..."

How long was she doing this? Well the Homeric Hymn of Demeter says: 

"Thereafter, for nine days did the Lady Demeter wander all over the earth, holding torches ablaze in her hands."

On the tenth day, Hekate came to Demeter and told her that Helios (the sun) knows where her daughter was...

Why nine days?

If we see Persephone as grain seed, then she indeed spend only 9 days in The Underworld, Under The Ground...

This diagram shows the life cycle of the winter grains (wheat and barley). You can see that after sowing, the seed germinates and sprouts within 10 days...After 10 days the first grain leafs appear above the ground...

Is this why the Homeric Hymn to Demeter is so precise about number of days Demeter was looking for her daughter? I think so...

Anyway, just before Persephone was released from the underworld, Hades tricked her, giving her some pomegranate seeds to eat. And because she had tasted "food in The Underworld", she was obliged to return to underworld every year...

The pomegranate picking season starts in Oct/Nov and lasts until January, basically spanning the whole of winter. It is no wonder then that pomegranate is considered a symbol of Winter and Christmas in Greece...

So if Hades did give Persephone pomegranate to eat, he could only have given it to her in Oct/Nov, after she has spend 9 days in the underworld...

Guess what else happens in Oct/Nov, at the time when Persephone emerges from the underworld, her lips still sticky with pomegranate (fertility symbol) juice? 

The mating season of Ibex goats starts. Matins season during which bucks "dance/prance", actually fight for females...

Ibex mating (dancing/prancing) season spans the whole of winter...This is why goat is the symbol of winter.

An illustration by Yuri Vasnetsov from 1956 entitled "Goat". It depicts the scene from Slavic folklore in which goat (of winter) brings spring (basket with flowers) and summer (baby goat).    

You can read more about goat (calendar marker) in European folklore and mythology in my post "Goat in European culture"...

Back to our skyphos....The two dancing/prancing panes flanking the emerging goddess have goat heads...Sooo...Is this what is depicted on this vase? Grain sprouting from the ground in Oct/Nov, during goat mating season? I think so...But there is more...

This is the other side of the same skyphos. On it we see the same goddess, this time fully out of the ground, holding a skyphos and a thyrsus, holy staff of Dionysus, flanked by two Panes, this time with human heads and horse tails, one of whom also holds a thyrsus...

The fact that it is horse Panes and not goat Panes that flank fully emerged, moving goddess, indicate that here we are looking at Summer Persephone, Demeter, the harvested grain...

Actually I would even suggest that we are looking at threshed and winnowed grain...

According to Hesiod in Ancient Greece, grain harvest was done in Apr/May/Jun, and threshing and winnowing was done in Jun/Jul around the time of the summer solstice...I talked about this in my post "Hesiod on grain"...

Guess what starts in Apr/May (start of grain harvest in Ancient Greece) and peaks in Jun/Jul (end of grain winnowing in Ancient Greece)? Horse matings season, during which stallions "dance/prance", actually fight for females...

The horse fertility is governed by the sunlight and peaks on summer solstice. 

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"

Which is why horses are an animal calendar marker for summer, and summer solstice. Horse is hidden among zodiac symbols as The Devine Horse Twins...Dioscuri...

I talked about this in my posts "Hayagriva", "Dioscuri plate from Iran"...

The peak of the horse dancing/prancing, Summer Solstice, is the time when giant fennel, a wild flowering plant that can grow up to 2.5 meters tall, flowers in Greece, producing huge number of large bright yellow globular "sun like" flowers...

Giant fennel whose stalk is used as a shaft of Thyrsus, the sacred staff of Dionysus. I talked about this in my post "Thyrsus"...

Thyrsus carried by both moving Persephone (winnowing grain seed) and dancing/prancing horse Panes who flank her...

Isn't this interesting? So is this what the other side of the skyphos depicts? Moving Persephone (grain being winnowed) holding thyrsus (giant fennels) while dancing/prancing (mating) horses Panes are flanking her, in Jun/Jul...I think so...

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...