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...

Donderbezem

This is so called Donderbezem (thunder broom), a protective symbol used in Holland and northern Germany as a protection from lightning strikes and evil spirits.

These symbols were either built into brick walls of the houses...This example is from the city wall of Elburg, Holland, and dates to 14th century...

Or they were engraved on the metal parts used as wall or door frame reinforcement...This one is from Nijmegen, Holland, and dates to 16th century. It is even made to look like a broom...

Or they were placed on the ridge of a roof pointing to the sky...This one is from Vleerbosch, Haarle/Tubbergen, and dates to 20th century. 

Most sources will tell you that these symbols were connected with the Germanic god of thunder (Thunar/Donar/Thor) and that the origin of this symbol is the Younger Futhark Haglaz rune which means "hailstone"...

What is interesting is no one really knows why this symbol is called "thunder broom"...Apart from a vague belief that a broom would keep evil spirits from entering your home, cause broom is used for cleaning, expelling...

That thunder broom being a broom is important, can be seen from the fact that there is a variant of Donderbezem symbol built into brick walls which actually looks like a broom. This example is from Altengamme near Hamburg, Germany, and dates to 20th century.

The broom pointing up looks very much like another rune, this time  Elder Futhark rune, Algiz...Which means "Protection"...From thunder and lightning?

That thunder broom being a broom is important, can also be seen from the fact that most of the Donderbezem symbols placed on the ridge of a roof actually look like a broom too...These examples are from Rekken in Berkelland province, Holland.

That thunder broom being a broom is important, can also be seen from the fact that sometimes actual brooms were hang under the roof as a protection from thunder...

Originally a Donderbezem was just a bundle of twigs stuck under the roof of the house...Technically brooms were originally just bundles of twigs. Like these ones...So it was in affect a broom stuck under the roof of the house that was the original Donderbezem (thunder broom)...

But as I said, I couldn't find any explanation in Germanic mythology or folklore for why people would believe that a broom was able to protect their houses from thunder strike. I have to admit I didn't do a thorough search, so I could've missed some important info. Anyone knows?

Traditionally, brooms are made from the twiggy growth of the birch tree, and the craft was particularly strong in areas where birch coppices abounded...

So I thought: could it be that the reason why broom was used as a protection against thunder strikes was because birch tree was believed to protect against thunder strikes?

Again, I couldn't find anything in Germanic mythology or folklore about people believing that birch was able to protect their houses from thunder strike. I have to admit I didn't do a thorough search, so I could've missed some important info. Anyone here knows?

But interestingly, Slavs believed that the birch, planted near the house, repels evil and protects from lightning...And even better, they believed that stuck under the roof of the house, birch branches (broom) protected the house from the lightning, storm, and hail...🙂

Wow...Strange...So what about Donderbezem? Where did that belief come from? This is map of Utrecht, city in Central Holland, dated to 1581...

And this is Willibrord  (658 – 739 AD),  a Northumbrian missionary saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands. He became the first Bishop of Utrecht...I talked about him in my post "Axe of Martin"....

Bede says: "Pepin gave Willibrord a place for his episcopal see in his famous castle, which, in the ancient language of those people (who originally built it), is called Wiltaburg (the town of the Wilti), but in the French tongue Utrecht..."

Wilti, of Wiltzi were a West Slavic tribe. During the time of Charlemagne, Wilti were in alliance with the Saxons, fighting against the Franks who were allied with another Slavic tribe, Obodriti...

You can read more about Slavs among Anglo Saxons in my post "The origin of Anglo-Saxon race" which talks about the 1906 book "Origin of the Anglo – Saxon race" by Thomas William Shore...

Slavs lived all over Northern Holland and Northern Germany (Donderbezem country) until they were either exterminated or germanised during hundreds of years of Anti Slavic crusades...

So is it possible that Donderbezem is a remnant of old Slavic belief that birch and birch twigs (broom) can protect the house from thunder strikes?

Interestingly, some of the roof Donderbezem look like this... 

See that rosette? That's Perunika, The flower of Perun (Slavic thunder god). Also known as "Gromoviti znak" (Thunder mark), it was carved into wood, stone, plaster on Slavic houses as a protection against...thunder...

Like this...BTW, do you notice how much Perunika looks like Donderbezem aka Haglaz rune??? 

Interesting, right? And mysterious...

Now it is possible that this is also linked in some way to the shape of the κεραυνός (keraunos), the lightning bolt of Zeus...

And is it possible that this is also linked to वज्र (vajra) the thunderbolt of Indra... 

And is it possible that this is also linked to the unnamed lightning weapon wielded by Ninurta?

And is it possible that this is also linked to the the "bundle" with unknown meaning held by Hadad

Don't they all look like the original, double broom Donderbezem?

Also just remembered this. 

Serbian Folk song from Bosnia collected by Kosta H. Ristić in 1873. 

It talks about quarrel between Sun and Vila. Vila is mostly translated as Fairy or Mountain Nymph. The problem is that the word Vila literally means trident, pitchfork, fork...

Pitchfork being one of the ancient weapons of the thunder gods means that Vila is actually lightning personified...The best discussion about Vila's identity and her identification with the thunderstorms and lightning can be found in "Stara vjera Srba i Hrvata" by Nodilo... 

The song describes the two competing forces, sun and thunderstorms during summers, when sun wins over thunderstorms, skies dry out and droughts arrive...

Original in Serbian can be found here...

And here is another Serbian ritual song which talks about a (disastrous) marriage between Vila (literally "pitchfork"), a mountain fairy (but really personification of lightning) and Davor (Dabog), Serbian (Slavic) sun and rain (sky) god...I wrote about this in my post "When bride dies soon after the wedding"...

Is it possible that this is somehow linked to the the "pitchfork/broom" weapon of Ningirsu?

Or the त्रिशूल (trishula) pitchfork of Shiva

Doesn't this look like single broom Donderbezem?

Anyway...

Lions vs buffalos

"This cylinder seal and rolling show a pair of lions holding a bull at each end, while a hero is attacking one of the lions! A26312: limestone, Iraq, Akkadian period". From a tweet by @orientalinst (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago)

The two kitties are identified correctly as lions. But I don't think this is an ordinary bull...This looks like a buffalo to me...Do you see the ribbed horns? And that makes all the difference...Here are some buffalos:

Now remember this post in which I talked about water buffaloes being already present in south western Iran (Jiroft) 2000 years earlier than people thought? In this article I talked about this artifact depicting buffalos, dated to the early 3rd millennium BC. 

You want proof of Indus Valley civilisation - Mesopotamia links, there you go. These buffaloes didn't wander into Iraq all the way from Indus Valley by themselves...Someone had to bring them there...Via Iran of course...

Now about the seal...It is another example of a complex animal calendar marker.

Buffalos start mating at the beginning of the the rain season...Beginning of winter...November...

While Eurasian lions main mating period starts at the beginning of the drought season...Beginning of Autumn...August...

This is why Leo is where it is on the zodiac circle. It is an ancient animal calendar marker for Jul/Aug, the beginning of the main mating season of the Eurasian lions...

Leo is the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia. The time when water levels in the two great rivers and the irrigation canals that they feed is the lowest. Leo is the time when canals were repaired...See, sun god, in an empty canal (river bed) between lions (in Leo)...

I talked about this in my post "Canals"...

This time of the year was the time of droughts and death...Which is why the god of death in Mesopotamia, Nergal, was actually a "destructive sun of the late summer"...And was depicted as a lion...

I talked about Nergal in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

Also, because the Eurasian lion mating covers the whole of Autumn (Aug,Sep,Oct), lion was in the past a symbol for autumn

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

But I wonder if Lions vs Buffalo here means dry vs wet season? Where Lion represents the whole of the hot, dry season (May-October), season of the sun, while Buffalo represents the whole of the cool, wet season (Nov-April), season of rain???

Is this why Mesopotamian dragons have lion's bodies??? I mean 7 heads here represent the 7 months of "summer" (the whole dry and hot season, not just autumn)...

I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

How's this for a symbol of hot dry season? Cute Bactrian lion, whose head looks like a blazing sun, and whose body radiates heat, just like the body of the sun god Shamash/Utu...From the same period, 3rd millennium BC...

I talked about this in my post "Lion radiating heat"...

So if lions represent the dry, drought season, and buffalo represents the wet, rain season, then what's that over buffalo's head, two crescent moons pointing up...Why?

The same moon is placed on other Mesopotamian seals over sowing ploughs, next to scorpions, which also symbolise the start of winter and grain sowing season...Scorpions disappear when weather gets too cold...At the start of winter.

I talked about this in my posts "Seven stars of scorpio" and "Ploughing"

But what about the crescent moon pointing up? When the crescent moon points upward and looks like a dish gathering rain water...And when the buffalos start mating...And when the scorpions disappear...Then the rains will start falling...After which, it's time to sow grain...

The last thing: Who's the dude with the axe? Looks suspiciously like a storm god...Ishkur / Adad...He loved axes...

Well, all storm gods used to love axes. And especially stone axes...

I talked about this in my post "Kataibates"

So is the dude from the Akkadian seal "a hero" or a storm god ending drought and bringing rain? 

Have a look at this:

I was planning to do a lot of boring stuff, but then you posted this tweet and ruined my plan...🙂 Thank god...

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...