Apollo the Great archer

Apollo armed with bow and arrows. Why?

"I will remember and not be unmindful of Apollo who shoots afar. As he goes through the house of Zeus, the gods tremble before him and all spring up from their seats when he draws near, as he bends his bright bow..."

"Leto...then...unstrings his bow, and closes his quiver, and takes his archery from his strong shoulders in her hands and hangs them on a golden peg against a pillar of his father's house..."

This is an excerpt from "Homeric hymn to Apollo".

So, ever wandered why Apollo was known as the "far shooting" and why "bow and arrow" were his main symbols? Like for instance, on this Marble Throne of Apollo, Roman, late 1st c. AD. 

BTW, whoever made this, knew who Apollo really was and wanted to show Apollo in his true shape (serpent, dragon), sitting on his throne. With his bow and arrows. You can find the full analysis of this object and the explanation why Apollo is the Serpent/Dragon in my post "Marble throne of Apollo"...

Anyway, I did wander, and I couldn't figure it out. Until yesterday. Let me explain: 

I knew that Apollo "was a god plague and pestilence" just like Nergal. I wrote about this in my post "Lord of flies", about Beelzebub, the lord of the flies, who was identified by Jews and Christians with Satan...In this article I showed that behind this nickname hides the old Mesopotamian God of Death, Nergal, The Destructive Sun of Jul/Aug, Leo, the time of droughts, flies and epidemics...

Leo, which was also the time of the year dedicated to Apollo. I talked about this in my post "Threshing floor of Apollo" about Halos, the sacred threshing floor of Apollo in Delphi. And about Apellaios, Jul/Aug, the sacred month of Apollo...

But I couldn't understand why Apollo "was a god who could bring...deadly plague with his arrows". I couldn't connect the plague and arrow(s) in any way.

And then I read this paper "The Best of the Olympians: The Character of Apollo in the Homeric Epics and Hymns"...

And in it there was a bit about how Apollo persuaded Cretans to go to Crisa and become priests in his temple. He first turned himself into a dolphin (important) and jumped on their ship. I talked about it in my post "Apollo and dolphins" about this  490 BC Etruscan hydria from Vulci, which shows Apollo in the centre, holding his lyre, seated on the Delphic tripod...with a dolphin to either side of the tripod...

But then we reed that: "There, from the ship the far-working lord Apollo leapt, seeming like a star at mid-day: many sparks flew from him, and the beam reached to heaven"...

The author of the paper says that "We may contrast this image, where Apollo is like a star at mid-day, with the similes that describe Achilles at the peak of his antagonism toward this god at the end of the Iliad..."

"Where the beam from the flame emitted from his head reaches the sky, and where an image of asterism later compares the hero to the brightest star in the night sky, a baneful signifier of Troy’s eventual destruction and perhaps his own..."

"It is the most brilliant light, but it produces a deadly sign and brings much fever to wretched mortals." 

Wow. Apollo was actually directly linked to Sirius?

Now remember that I proposed that Apollo was actually Nergal,  the Mesopotamian god of war, pestilence and death, the personification of the destructive sun's heat in Leo, Jul/Aug?

I explained why Apollo was so terrible, and why everyone was so scared shitless when he was around, in my post "Lions of Delos" about the lions from the 600 BC Temple of Apollo from Delos and about why Apollo was linked to lions, and Leo, Jul/Aug...

Guess which star rises with the sun in Leo, Jul/Aug? Sirius...The morning star in Leo. Hence Inanna/Ishtar (personification of Sirius), also known as the lioness of heaven, standing on a lion, with sun above the lion, in Leo... I talked about it in my post "Inanna and Sukaletuda"...

Interestingly, in Mesopotamia, Sirius was seen as an arrow and the surrounding stars were seen as a bow...And they were stars of Jun/Jul/Aug...

I already talked about this in my post "The brightest star" about the link between Sirius and Inanna...

So Jul/Aug, the time of the year ruled by Nergal/Apollo, is the time when Sirius (bow and arrow) rises with the sun. Now I know why Ishtar, the lady that rides on lions, is armed with bow and arrows...BTW, Jul/Aug was also start of date harvest...Hence palm tree...

I talked about palms and lions in my post "Cylinder seal with a monster", about this Elamite seal (Iran), ca. 11th–9th century BC. 

See the Shamash cross above the lion? That is the sun cross. I talked about this in my post "The cross of Shamash"...

But why did Mesopotamians see Sirius as arrow? Remember my post "Invisible archer"? If arrows are shooting down from the night sky, there must be an [invisible] archer shooting them from up there...  

This article was about Orion and Orionids meteorite shower. Orionids shoot down on earth during Sep/Oct/Nov. But there is another meteroite shower that rains light arows down on earth in Jul/Aug. Perseid Meteor shower...

And guess when this meteor shower is most intense? When the most light arrows are being shot down on earth? Right before dawn. You can even see them at dawn, together with Sirius and the sun...Destructive sun of Leo, Nergal, Apollo...

And guess what coincides with the time when the far shooting Apollo is rising in the east, with his "bow and arrow" (Sirius) while his golden arrows rain down on earth? The pestilence season...As I explained in my post about the lord of the flies...

Interesting, right? So this is why Apollo was the feared archer whose arrows brought plague...

Also, remember this? Artemis was also armed with bow and arrows...

Also Artemis, of the original, archaic type, before people forgot her real meaning, from the Artemis temple in Corfu...She is the twin sister of the sun god, Apollo 🙂 

Gorgon...Interesting name...🙂 In Slavic languages it means "The burning one"...Check my post "Ognjena Marija", About the special incarnation of virgin (goddess) Mary, Burning Mary, which is celebrated in...Jul/Aug...

Ko razume shvatiće...🙂

Will write more about this soon...

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...

Sacred marriage on the threshing floor

Vital to an agrarian community’s survival, threshing floors are agricultural spaces where crops are threshed and winnowed.

"...But the Hebrew Bible rarely refers to such agricultural activities taking place at such sites...

Instead, biblical narratives repeatedly depict threshing floors in ancient Israel as sites for mourning rites, divination rituals, cultic processions, and sacrifices...Kings consult prophets there; even the Solomonic temple was built on a threshing floor...

These originally agricultural sites were also considered sacred spaces connected to Yahweh, under his control, and subject to his power to bless, curse, and save and that Israel had a special ritual access to Yahweh in these powerfully symbolic sites..."

This is an intro to "Threshing Floors in Ancient Israel: Their Ritual and Symbolic Significance" by Jaime L. Waters... 

Now, we know that goddess Asherah was linked to "high places" where she was worshiped...These were holy grounds of sort, raised platforms where religious ceremonies were performed...Pic: High Place, Megiddo...

And you know how every "high place" had an "Asherah pole" made of wood..."which marked the place as sacred and was itself an object of worship"...And no one is really sure what this pole was or what it looked like...

Is it possible that originally these high places with a sacred wooden pole were just threshing floors with a central pole to which threshing animals were tied? 

Like this traditional threshing floor from Ithaka, Greece...Definitely a "High place" with a "Central Pole"...

BTW, this is what Homer says about Demeter, the goddess of grain harvest, and threshing floors:

"And even as the wind carries chaff about the sacred threshing-floors / of men that are winnowing, when fair-haired Demeter / amid the driving blasts of wind separates the grain from the chaff"...

You can find this quote in "A Compendium of Similes in the Iliad and Odyssey"...Which is why Eugene Vanderpool in "ΕΠΙ ΠΡΟϒΧΟΝΤΙ ΚΟΛΩΝΩΙ: The Sacred Threshing Floor at Eleusis" proposes that threshing floors were sacred to Demeter and were in fact her temples...

Here is another traditional threshing floor, this time from Croatia?

In the Balkans, among the Slavs, threshing floors were considered sacred until recently. They were platform where many religious ceremonies from the agricultural cult were performed...And sacrifices were made to the central pole until very recently...

I talked about this in my post "Bogovo gumno (God's threshing floor)"...

Including blood sacrifices...Serbs actually sacrificed a cock to the central threshing floor column at the end of the harvest, most likely as a replacement for a human sacrifice...Based on ritual tying of girls to the central threshing floor column...

I talked about it in my post "Cock bashing"...

In "The Threshing Floor as Sacred Space in the Hebrew Bible A Spatial and Anthropological Perspective" Tamara Prosic asks: "Is the building of the Yahweh’s temple on the Jebusite threshing floor just a Yahwehisation of the holy threshing floor?"

Considering that there are many indications that the First Temple was built by solar worshippers, and that threshing floors were used, among other things, as solar observatories, it is kind of obvious why the First Temple was built on the threshing floor...Right?

I talked about this in my post "Boaz and Jachin"...

Why would you care where the true east is? Well, if Sun is your god you'd want to face your lord properly, right? The royal seal of the Kingdom of Judah from the time of the King Hezekiah (739 - 687 BC) with the winged sun. Abut First Temple solar cult: 

I talked about this in my post "Sun god from the first temple"...

In the Balkans, threshing floors were not just centers of religious life, but also of communal life. People met there, celebrated weddings and funerals there. Cilipi, Dubrovnik.  Circular dance "kolo" danced on a threshing floor. 

Zetsko kolo, circular dance with a couple dancing in the middle of the circle imitating mating eagles, from Montenegro, danced on a threshing floor 

Dancing Linđo on an threshing floor in the village of Mrčevo, Croatia...High Places...In mountain villages threshing floors were usually the only flat platforms suitable for social gatherings...

The birthplace of Greek circular dance "horos" is said to be the island of Crete, were Rhea, the Mother of Zeus, taught the Curetes how to dance...Minoan "Dancers from Kamilari" dancing "horos" (most likely) on a threshing floor...

I talked about this in my post "Shield of Achilles"...

Threshing floors were used for religious ceremonies in Mesopotamia too. In the "Threshing floor in reality and metaphor" we can read that "The annual sacred marriage reenactment between Ea and Ishtar (Asherah) was performed on a threshing floor"... 

Ea, Enki was the god of water who every year ejaculated Tigris and Euphrates. It was his semen (water) that enabled grain agriculture in Mesopotamia...The water level in both rivers peaks in Apr/May...

Right when the sacred marriage ceremony was performed on the threshing floor, in the month of Iyyar (Apr/May)...Now look at this. Sumerian agricultural calendar. 

Interestingly, Inanna/Ishtar, was in "A song of Inanna and Dumuzid" described as: "Maiden, glossy mane, lovely beauty...colourful as a pile of grain, fit for the king, fit for Dumuzid! Maiden...a stack of...barley, fully developed in loveliness"...

This is Inanna/Ishtar speaking: 

"...Before my lord, Dumuzi,

I poured out plants from my womb.

I placed plants before him,

I poured out plants before him.

I placed grain before him,

I poured out grain before him,

I poured out grain before my womb..."

I talked bout this in my post "Mother of grain"...

This is Inanna again:

"...

As for me, Inanna,

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will plow my high field?

Who will plow my wet ground?

..."

Grain harvest starts in Apr/May (time of the year dominated by Enki/Ea), and ends in Jul/Aug (time of the year dominated by Ishtar/Inanna)...

Hence the sacred marriage between Ea/Enki and Ishtar/Inanna performed on the threshing floor...At the beginning of the harvest...

How do we know that Jul/Aug is the time of the year dominated by Ishtar/Inanna? Well she is the girl that loved posing on lions...Why?

Well...standing on a lion means "In Leo"...

And you know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar "The queen of heaven", "The morning star" is Venus...Well, when this "mythology" was developed, Sirius rose before the sun, in Leo (Jul/Aug), pretending to be "the morning star"...I talked about this in my post "Ninshubur"...

In "A hymn to Inana as Ninegala" we can read "Inana, great light, lioness of heaven..." Why? 

Well, this, combined with Inanna's obsession with standing on lions only makes sense if she is Sirius, rising with the sun in Leo...

And Jul/Aug is when Sirius starts rising with the sun in the morning...The real "Morning star"...Ishtar, Inanna...

Oh, and by the way, Leo marks the beginning of the main mating season of Eurasian lions, (Jul/Aug)...

By the way, this "Lady standing on a lion", "Lady sitting on a lion", "Lady standing between lions", "Lady sitting between lions", "Lady riding in chariots pulled by lions"...I surprisingly popular...I talked about her in my post "Assumption of Mary"...

Soo...Interesting...Right? Does this get us anywhere near to understanding why threshing floors were so important to Bronze and Iron Age Canaanites? And does this help us understand the link between "High Places", Asherah, Asherah Poles and Threshing Floors?

After everything I wrote in this article...What does "this" tell us about Mycenaeans? A pole between two lions (means in Leo)...Anything interesting?

Killing of the bull of heaven

Assyrian cylinder impression, MS 1989, Schøyen Collection, Norway, depicting Enkidu and Gilgamesh killing the Heavenly Bull...

The interesting bit is here: Epic of Gilgamesh, Table VI, 140-149.

Enkidu stalked and hunted down the Bull of Heaven.

He grasped it by the thick of its tail

and held onto it with both his hands,

while Gilgamesh, like an expert butcher,

boldly and surely approached the Bull of Heaven.

Between the nape, the horns, and... he thrust his sword.

After they had killed the Bull of Heaven,

they ripped out its heart and presented it to Shamash.

They withdrew bowing down humbly to Shamash.

 

This is actually very interesting. 

Bull is the ancient symbol of summer (May, Jun, Jul), the period which starts in Taurus...

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

By the way, summer is symbolised by a bull, because both calving (begins in Apr/May) and mating (begins in Jul/Aug) of Wild Eurasian cattle takes place during the summer, May to August...I talked about this in my post "Ram and bull"...

Taurus (Apr/May), the period when wild Eurasian cattle start their calving season, was extremely important time of the year for the people of Ancient Mesopotamia. This is when the water levels of Tigris and Euphrates peaked...

Tigris

Euphrates

So to the people of the Ancient Mesopotamia, it sure looked like it was the sun, Shamash, who released Enki, the sweet water, at the beginning of summer, in Taurus...

I talked about this in my post "Shamash young and old"...

Which is why Shamash is depicted as a golden bull with long flowing "lapis lazuli" (water) beard...

And why, in "Enki and the world order" we read: "...Father Enki...he stood up full of lust like a rampant bull, lifted his penis, ejaculated and filled the Tigris with flowing water. He was like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass..."

The moment of Enki's ejaculation, the moment of his climax, the moment of the peak water levels in the rivers he fills with his heavenly semen, is also the moment when "wild cows moo for their young in the wild grass"...In Taurus...

Taurus was also the beginning of the grain harvest in Mesopotamia...

Which is why Shamash/Utu is also depicted as a bull with a tail made of wheat...

Both the flood and the grain harvest end with the summer, in Jul/Aug. So killing of the bull symbolically represent end of summer symbolised by a bull...As well as the end of the harvest and the end of the period of water abundance. And the beginning of drought...

This killing of the bull is usually done by a lion...

This is a symbolic depiction of the end of summer, which begins in Taurus (Apr/May) and ends in Leo (Jul/Aug)

And, Leo is a solar year calendar marker which marks 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 of maximum heat, maximum drought. 

The throne of Shamash, the sun god. When he is the most powerful...Here is Shamash standing "between the lions" (in Leo), in an empty irrigation canal, at the moment of maximum heat and drought, when he is most powerful...

But here the killing is done by Gilgamesh and Enkidu. On behalf of the Shamash in Leo...

So our two "heroes" kill the bull of heaven (season), rip its heart (water, grain???) and present it to Shamash...Summer, the season of the bull ends. Autumn, the season of the lion begins...

Oh and guess who is there too, "standing on a lion" (in Leo): Ishtar, who started the whole thing

Sirius starts rising with the sun (is a "morning star") in Leo...

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"...