Lyre of Apollo

Seated Apollo with laurel wreath, holding a lyre and pouring a libation. Attic white-ground kylix. Found in Delphi and dated c. 460BC. Archaeological Museum of Delphi...

In this post I would like to talk about this lyre...Its origin, and its symbolism...

First, according to the "Homeric hymn 4 to Hermes", this lyre was given to Apollo by his younger brother Herms...In exchange Apollo gave Hermes caduceus...All very important... Symbolically... But why did this exchange of gifts take place? Remember this post, "When grapes flower" in which I figured out Hermes's birthday?

 

This post is an analysis of (some) animal and plant calendar markers contained in the "Homeric hymn 4 to Hermes" which describes what Hermes did the day he was born (4th of May, when grapes flower)...

What Hermes did on the day he was born, was steal Apollo's cows. 

He then invented fire drill, made fire, and sacrificed one of the cows to the gods...I talked about this in my post "12 Olympians" about (apparently inexplicable 🙂) link between Hermes and Hestia (fire)... 

Apollo eventually caught Hermes and called on Zeus to decide how this "situation" should be resolved...And Zeus decided that they should shake hands and make friends, hence the exchange of presents...

But where did Hermes get the lyre? Well, he invented it...He made it himself...Apparently, as soon as he was born, he ran out of the cave he was born in, and at the entrance he saw a tortoise crawling in the grass...

He then "...killed the tortoise and cleaned its shell. He cut stalks of reed to measure and fixed them, fastening their ends across the back and through the shell of the tortoise, and then stretched ox hide all over it by his skill..."

"...Also he put in the horns and fitted a cross-piece upon the two of them, and stretched seven strings of sheep-gut...[then] he proved each string in turn with the key...At the touch of his hand it sounded marvelously..."

Here is a reconstructed 5th-4th century BC lyre found in Athens in parts. Currently in the British Museum...

Obviously based on the original design by Hermes...

Now, what if I told you that the lyre made by Hermes was a complex animal calendar marker for the day when Hermes was born, the 4th of May, mid Taurus...

If you have never heard of animal and plant calendar markers you would tell me I was mad...But if you did hear of them...

If you did hear of animal and plant calendar markers, you know that they mark important event from the annual cycle of the depicted animal or plant: mating, birthing, migration, flowering, fruiting...

So...the lyre's sound box was made of a tortoise shell.

The most common type of tortoise from Mediterranean, Greek tortoise, mates in Greece in Apr/May, in Taurus...When Hermes was born...

The sound box made from the tortoise shell was then covered with stretched ox hide. 

After making the sound box, Hermes then attached horns to it...No explanation what that means...But judging by the shape of the lyre horns, I can bet that these were Auroch horns...

Here I want to thank @realVoxVulgaris for posting this in one of his twitter threads: 

It is a natural thing to believe the curves were "flat", extending mostly outwards like on paintings but a couple of rare sideviews show that they curved mostly frontwards. Maybe best represented on this, the (Roman archaicising) Heidelberg Votive Lyre

See, shaped like bull horns...

Taurus marks the beginning of the calving season of the wild Eurasian Auroch cattle...

I talked about this in many of my posts, for instance this one, "Cow an calf ivory"...

Anyway, after creating the lyre frame, Hermes then attached 7 strings to the lyre...Why 7? The Poeticon astronomicon attributed to Hyginus says:

"...[Hermes], when he invented the lyre on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, gave it seven strings, from the number of Atlas's daughters [Pleiades], of whom his mother, Maia was one"...

Pleiades, which at the time when the Homeric hymn to Hermes was written, rose with the sun at the beginning of May, when Hermes was born...

Oh, and the first song Hermes sang with his lyre was about his mum...

But also, 7 months of summer (hot dry half of the year) which starts in Apr/May, in Taurus???

BTW, Orphic hymn to Apollo says:

"[Apollo, You are] the cause of the blooming of all things; with your...lyre you harmonize...the heavens...You have arranged the highest three strings in the winter, the lowest in the summer...The middle one in spring...

Now, he used sheep guts for strings...Remember my post "Aries must die" about shepherd's rituals performed on St George's day, in which I explained why rams are sacrificed to St George, the end of Aries and the beginning of Taurus? 

Aries must die (end) so Taurus can begin...BTW Aries marks the end of the lambing and the beginning of the sheep Milking season season. And Taurus marks the beginning of the calving and cow milking season...

And if we look at the lyre which Hermes made, its parts mark this super important part of the year for shepherds...Hence, Good Shepherd...

Interesting, right? Considering that after Hermes made the magic lyre, he stole Apollo's cows...In the middle of Taurus...

Which eventually lead to in exchange of gifts between Apollo and Hermes: Hermes gave Apollo the lyre (complex animal calendar marker for Apr/May) and Apollo gave Hermes "shepherd's staff" which is to become caduceus...

Now according to the Greek and Roman tradition, caduceus was a staff made from either bay laurel (Apollo's sacred plant) or olive wood...

Interestingly, both bay laurel (L) and olive (R) flower in Greece in Apr/May...

Which one is more suited to adorn the sun god? 🙂 I would definitely pick laurel...

Hermes used the shepherd staff Apollo gave him to separate two fighting snakes. They coiled around his staff in perfect harmony, creating the familiar caduceus tip...

Interestingly, most common snakes in Greece mate in Apr/May, when males engage in ritualised fights that once were interpreted falsely as mating ceremonies... 

I talked about this in my post "Who were Persephone's parents"...

Soooo, Hermes gave Apollo lyre, complex animal calendar marker for Apr/May...And in exchange, Apollo gave Hermes caduceus, a complex animal and plant calendar marker for...Apr/May...Beginning of summer, the time of the year dominated by the sun, Apollo...

But why would Hermes, messenger of Zeus, carry a staff which is a calendar marker for Apr/May? Cause the messenger (the voice of) Zeus is thunder/lightning...I talked about this in my post about Iris, another messenger of Zeus (also carries caduceus 🙂) ...

And so Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, the one who announces Zeus, carries the staff made from the wood of trees which flower in Apr/May, around which are coiled snakes which mate in Apr/May, cause in Greece, the thunderstorm season starts in...Apr/May...

I talked about this in my post "Eagle and snake struggle"...

So when Greek poet Alcaeus in his hymn to Apollo written by the 6th c. BC says that it was Zeus who gave Apollo his lyre, this actually doesn't change anything in the interpretation of the lyre as a complex animal calendar marker for Apr/May...

Sooo...Cool, right? 

Oh look! Hermes with both the lyre and the caduceus...Thief...

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...

12 Olympians

In this article, I would like to again point at things hidden in plain sight...Around 435 BC, Greek sculptor Phidias made a giant seated statue of the sky and thunder god Zeus for the Temple of Zeus in Olympia...

Unfortunately the statue was destroyed during the 5th century AD; but we know what the statue looked like from Greek and Roman coins...

And from written records, like the one left by the 2nd c. AD geographer and traveler Pausanias

What I want to talk about here is what Pausanias says about the platform that supported the throne. He says that it depicted a line of paired deities standing between the sun and the moon...

Zeus and Hera...and Hermes and Vesta close to Hermes...and Eros receiving Aphrodite...and Apollo and Artemis...and Athene and Hercules, and at the end Amphitrite and Poseidon...

They were all coupled based on some mythological link that connected them. What is interesting is that Phidias depicted Hermes coupled with Hestia...Why? 

What is the relationship between these two deities? They are not husband and wife, nor brother and sister, nor mother and son nor protector and protege...

Holy fire and a Messenger of Zeus? What could connect the two? 

That these two were not put together by accident on the Zeus's throne, can be seen from this Fragment of a Hellenistic relief (1st c. BC–1st c. AD) currently in the Walters Art Museum and depicting the twelve Olympians...

From left to right: 

Hestia, Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Demeter, Hephaestus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Zeus, Artemis, Apollo

Here they are, Hestia and Hermes...

Hestia and Hermes were also linked together in The Homeric Hymn 29 to Hestia...

"Hestia, in the...dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you have gained an everlasting abode and highest honour...for without you mortals hold no banquet...and you, Hermes, messenger of the blessed gods, bearer of the golden rod, giver of good...be favourable and help us, you (Hermes) and Hestia...come and dwell in this glorious house in friendship together; for you two, well knowing the noble actions of men, aid on their wisdom and their strength..."

Really, what's going on with these two? 

Well, lots of people have asked this question before me...

Jean-Pierre Vernant asked this question in 1969 in his paper "Hestia - Hermes : The religious expression of space and movement among the Greeks"

Patricia J. Thompson asked it in 1994 in "Dismantling the Master's House: A Hestian/Hermean Deconstruction of Classic Texts"

Apparently this was still an unanswered question in 2001, so Jean Robert asks it again in "Hestia and Hermes: The Greek Imagination of Motion and Space"

The explanation given by Jean Robert, is that Hestia and Hermes are coupled because they express two opposing, but linked concepts...

Hestia, whose place is at the hearth, in the center of the house, rules over the inside. Hermes, whose place is the door, at the edge of the house, rules over the outside...Hestia anchors, Hermes makes mobile...

Cool. But I think that there is much better reason for this seemingly strange association. Guess what was the first thing Hermes did after he was born? He escaped his cradle, and managed to steal Apollo's cattle...

Funnily enough the thieving Hermes was on the above vase depicted as an adult...With all his attributes including the caduceus, his magic staff...Important detail! Artistic freedom I suppose?

Anyway, after stealing Apollo's cattle, Hermes then wanted to make the first ever sacrifice to the gods. But he couldn't. Cause in order to do so, he needed fire, Hestia, to burn his offerings in...But he had no fire, and apparently, making fire was an art still not invented...

Sooo: "He [Hermes] chose a stout laurel branch and trimmed it with the knife ...held firmly in his hand: and the hot smoke rose up. For it was Hermes who first invented fire-sticks and fire"...From "Hymn 4 to Hermes"...

Wow...

A very strange thing to be attributed to a messenger of Zeus...

Or is it? 

Remember the article about this excerpt from the Homeric Hymn To Hestia: "Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo...come now into this house...having one mind with Zeus the all-wise..."?

In it I talked about how strange it was that Classical cultures still talked about the invention of fire making as if it was a really really big deal?

And I also talked about the fact that before people learned to make fire themselves, Fire (Hestia) descended to earth from the Sun (Apollo, Helios) through Thunder/Lightning (Zeus)... 

So if fire (Hestia) was made (Fathered) by the thunder/lightning (Zeus) then Hermes, "the messenger of Zeus", is the perfect inventor of the fire stick and fire making... 

Remember, Hermes was not the only messenger of Zeus...He shared his workload with Iris. (Attic Red Figure Stamnos, ca. 480-470 BC, Louvre)

Look they are both holding caduceus stick...

Actually, before Hermes got the job, Iris was the sole "speaker of messages of Zeus"...The only "voice of Zeus"...Which is kind of important...

Remember the article "Iris" in which I proposed that Iris might not have been the personification of the rainbow...But that instead she could have been the personification of thunder/lightning, the true "voice of the thunder god"...

Remember that before people invented the fire stick (sorry before Hermes invented the fire stick), Zeus used lightning to light fires on earth...Lightning was the "fire stick" of the Thunder god...

Thunder, which is inseparable from lightning, is the "voice of thunder god"...Which, as I explained in my article about Iris, I believe is the meaning of the "speaker of messages of Zeus"...

If Iris is personification of thunder/lightning, and Hermes is her later replacement as the messenger of Zeus, then Hermes would be perfect god to invent fire stick...The human replacement for thunder/lightning...

That's it...

I mean could there be a more direct link between Hestia and Hermes? Without Hermes there would be no Hestia...To me this is glaringly obvious...Maybe too obvious for some...

But if you "miss" (ignore) this, you can then go ahead and write endless academic papers trying to answer the question "why are Hestia and Hermes linked together"...

Anyway, this brings me back to one of my favourite unanswered questions: why was invention of fire such a big deal in all our mythologies, if people knew how to make fire, like, for ever?

Having one mind with Zeus

"Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo...come now into this house...having one mind with Zeus the all-wise..." from the "Homeric Hymn To Hestia"...

What does this mean?

Maybe the same thing as this: In Hindu mythology, Agni (fire) was believed to have three manifestations: Sun, Lightning, Fire...Which is why he had three heads...I talked about Agni and why he likes riding on a ram in my post "The ram of Agni"...

Just like Slavic Supreme god Triglav (Three headed)..."Because it is a great secret how Svarog (heavenly and earthly fire) is at the same time Perun (thunder) and Svetovid (Sun)"...I talked about Triglav in my posts "Triglav Trojan Trinity Trimurti Agni" and "Lugus or Triglav"...

Interesting right? Cause before people learned how to make fire, fire descended from the sun through lightning...

By the way, modern science seem to confirm that it is indeed Sun (Surya) which gives power to Indra (lightning) which becomes Agni (fire)...I talked about this in my post "Sun thunder fire"...

Or, Sun (Apollo, Helios) through Lightning (Zeus) gives birth to Fire (Hestia)...Hence "one mind", one essence...

Basically, sun gives birth to fire through lightning...Which is why Surya, the sun god, had a daughter, Tapati, whose name literally means "warming", "the hot one", "burning one"...Who was apparently the same as Scythian Tabiti...And Herodotus claimed that Tabiti was the same as Hestia...

And it is because the hearth fire is the same fire burning inside of the sun, that people make sure the hearth fire burns through the winter solstice (Christmas) night, the longest night, "so the sun's fire doesn't get extinguished"...I talked about this in my posts "Badnjak", "La buche de noel" and "Yule log in English tradition"

This fire which descended from the sky, was imagined as a firebird which came down from the sky to earth to nest. It had to be found, caught and brought home...Hence legends about "the hunt for the firebird whose one feather can light up the whole room"...I talked about this in my post "Firebird"...

How old are these legends? Well they most likely predate the moment when "Prometheus stole the fire from the gods" (thunder god to be more precise)...I talked about this in my post "Prometheus"...

Or, before people accidentally discovered fire making while drilling...I talked about this in my post "Fire-drill"...

And how long ago did people become masters of fire, considering that "fire-drill" was still worshiped as deity in Mesopotamia...I talked about this in my post "Holy fire-drill"...

How long ago did people become masters of fire, considering that fire making or fire stealing or fire catching was still the stuff of legends during classical times?

How long ago did people become masters of fire, considering that hearth was the center of the house cult, the house altar in so many Eurasian cultures until recently? 

And considering that making sure that hearth fire never died was so important to Eurasian people until very very recently? 

And considering that "live fire pulled out of wood" (kindled using fire drill) was believed to have magic properties by may Eurasian people until very very very recently? 

Like among the Serbs...I talked about this in my posts "Fire goddess", "Bride and hearth", "Verige", "Live fire"...

I am not saying that people have not been using fire for a very very long time...But I am pretty sure that the making of fire was a pretty recent invention...Neolithic...Mesolithic at the earliest...Which makes legends about the the time when people had to find or steel fire, before they learned how to make it, very very very old indeed... 

BTW, Hestia, (the etymology unknown, believed to be Pre-Greek) has only one cognate, Slavic word jesteja (yesteya) meaning "hearth, paved area around or in front of a hearth used for cooking food" which comes from "jesti" (yestee) meaning to eat...

Which would make Jesteja (Yesteya) the place where food was cooked...Which is exactly what hestia was...Not any fire...Domestic fire...The fire where food was cooked...

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

Having one mind with Zeus

"Hestia, you who tends the holy house of the lord Apollo...come now into this house...having one mind with Zeus the all-wise..." From "Homeric Hymn To Hestia"...

What does this mean?

In Hindu mythology, Agni (fire) was believed to have three manifestations: Sun, Lightning, Fire...Which is why he had three heads...

Just like Slavic Triglav (Three headed)..."Because it is a great secret how Svarog (heavenly and earthly fire) is at the same time Perun (thunder) and Svetovid (Sun)"...

I talked about this in my post "Triglav Trimurti Agni"

Interesting right? Cause before people learned how to make fire, fire descended from the sun through lightning...Basically sun makes fire using its "heavenly fire drill", lightning...

By the way, modern science seem to confirm that it is indeed Sun (Surya) which gives power to Indra (lightning) which becomes Agni (fire)...I talked abut this in my post "Sun thunder fire"...

Basically, sun gives birth to fire...Which is why Surya, the sun god, had a daughter, Tapati, whose name literally means the "warming", "the hot one", "burning one"...

And it is because the hearth fire is the same fire burning inside of the sun, that people make sure the hearth fire burns through the winter solstice (Christmas) night, the longest night, "so the sun's fire doesn't get extinguished"...

And it is because the fire in the hearth is the fire that descended from the sun through lightning, that in Serbia, Yule log, the magic log that has to burn through the longest night of the winter solstice, "so sun's fire would not get extinguished" was traditionally a log from an oak tree, the holly tree of Perun, the thunder god...Pic: Kissing Yule log before placing in on fire...

I talked about this in my posts "Badnjak" and "La buche de Noel"...

This fire which descended from the sun, was imagined as a fire bird which comes down from the sky to earth to nest...

It then had to be found and "caught" and brought home...Which is why we have legends about "the hunt for the firebird whose one feather can light up the whole room"...I talked about this in my post "Firebird"...

How old are these legends? Well they most likely predate the moment when "Prometheus stole the fire from the gods"...I talked about this in my post "Prometheus"...

What does stealing fire from the gods mean? Did Prometheus steal knowledge of making fire from the gods? Or did people accidentally discover fire making while drilling?  I talked about this in my post "Drill"...

And how long ago did people become masters of fire? 

Considering that "fire-drill" was still worshiped as deity in Mesopotamia...I talked about this in my post "Holy fire-drill"...

And considering that fire making or fire stealing or fire catching was still the stuff of legends during classical times?

And considering that hearth was the centre of the house cult, the house altar in so many Eurasian cultures. And considering that making sure that hearth fire never died was so important to Eurasian people until very recently? Like among Serbs...

I talked about this in my posts "Fire goddess", "Bride and the hearth", "Verige" 

And considering that rekindling new fire was one of the most important annual ceremonies all over Eurasia until recently...Like in Slovenia for instance where all the fires in the village are ritually rekindled once a year from a communal fire...I talked about this in my post "Blessed fire from the fire fungus"...

But I am digressing...

The important thing here is that originally fire descended from the sun to earth through lightning...Which is why Hestia "tends the holy house of the lord Apollo" and "has one mind with Zeus"...

BTW, Hestia, (the etymology unknown, believed to be Pre-Greek) has only one cognate, Slavic word jesteja (yesteya) meaning "hearth, paved area around or in front of a hearth used for cooking food" which comes from "jesti" (yestee) meaning to eat. 

Which would make Jesteja (Yesteya) the place where food was cooked...Which is exactly what hestia was...Not any fire...Domestic fire...The fire where food was cooked...

Which is why in the "Homeric Hymn 29 to Hestia" we read:

"Hestia...without you mortals hold no banquet..."

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