Maenads with hare

Detail from Athenian black-figure clay vase about 575-525 BC, made by Amasis Painter. It depicts Dionysos with a pair of attendant maenads...

There are few details on this image which deserve to be analysed, I think...The animals...Of course 🙂

One of the Maenads holds a hare by its ears and is presenting it to Dionysus...The other Maenad wears a leopard skin (dead leopard) around her waist. And is holding a stag by its front legs...

Is the choice of animals and their position in the scene random? The archaeologists who wrote the above depiction of the vase obviously thought so, as they didn't even mention the animals...

I think that these animals are all calendar markers, marking the beginning of spring...

I already talked about the link between Dionysus and leopards in two of my posts: "Leopard and tiger" and "Thyrsus" In the earliest depictions, Dionysus "rides on a leopard"...

Leopard marks the end of winter (Jan-Feb). Because its mating season starts in Jan-Feb...

Just like ibex goat marks the beginning of winter (Oct-Nov). Because its mating season starts in Oct-Nov...

This symbolic linking between ibex and leopard and winter originated in Central Asia and Mesopotamia, where winter is the rain season and the season of the resurrection, rebirth of nature after long dry summer and autumn... 

I talked about this in my post 

"A vessel from Tepe Hissar"

and

"Leopard and goat seal"

Now when a god "rides" on an animal, that means that whatever that god represents happens during that the time when that animal either mates or gives birth...

Originally Zeus rode on a goat...On Crete, where Zeus was also suckled by a goat, the rains arrive during wild goat mating season...Perun, Perkunas and Thor still do ride on goats...I talked about this in my post "Goat riding thunder god"...

In India Indra rides on an elephant...In India monsoon overlaps with elephant mating season...I talked about this in my post "Musth"...

Hittite storm god rides on a bull...In Central Turkey, the main rain and thunderstorm season overlaps with the calving of Aurochs...I talked about this in my post "Ulucinar stelae"... 

Slavic Sun god Svetovid rode on a white horse, which was sacred to him and was kept in his temples...Summer solstice is the peak of the wild horses mating season which is linked to the amount of daylight...I talked about this in my post "Svetovid"...

Ishtar (The Lady of heaven, Sirius) and all her later incarnations, ride on a lion...Because Sirius rises with the sun during Leo, the time when Eurasian lions main mating season starts...I talked about this in my post "Assumption of Mary"

It goes on and on...

The fact that Dionysus rides on a leopard is befitting to the god of death and resurrection of nature...In Europe...The nature dies at the beginning of winter, and gets resurrected at the end of winter...In the middle of the mating season of leopards, beginning of Feb...

Now I talked about Maenades and their link with the end of winter (death of leopard) in my post "Furious Maenad"

I proposed that their "fury" is a symbol for the sun's fire...The sun's fire and the reproductive fire...Which creates new life in spring...After the end of winter (death of leopard)...

Now back to the original image. Dionysus is not riding on a leopard...He has already arrived...The leopard is dead and its skin is pointing down, representing the end of winter, the end of leopard mating season (Jan-Feb)...

I think that's enough about leopards 🙂 

The hare is alive and is touching the hand of Dionysus with his front paw...Now hare is one of the main symbols of fertility...And Spring...Its mating season peaks in March (March hare), after the end of the leopard mating season (Jan-Feb)...I talked about hare reproductive cycle and its symbolism in my post "The winter spirit"...

So far so simple. Here is the really cool bit...

The deer, based on the spots, is the fallow deer...

This deer species which naturally originates in the area of the Fertile Crescent, was brought to Greece in antiquity, possibly by Persians, or even earlier by settlers from Anatolia...You can read more about it in this article...

Now here is something that I didn't know until I read this paper today: "Investigation of fallow deer (Cervus dama L.) population densities by camera trap method in Antalya Düzlerçamı Eşenadası Breeding Station". In it we can read that: 

"All wild fallow deer do have spots"

"Except for the winter months when they develop thick spotless coat"

The spots reappear in Spring...With new antlers...

Very interesting...

The Maenad is wearing dead leopard (winter has ended) is giving Dionysus a hare (spring has begun) while holding a spotted Fallow deer with antlers (summer, autumn)...

Mad...

I find this image infinitely more interesting now...What about you?

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...

Furious Maenad

Furious Maenad holding a thyrsus in her right hand and a leopard in her left hand. She wears a leopard skin as a cloak and a snake around her head like a diadem. Tondo of an Attic white-ground kylix, 490–480 BC. From Vulci, Italy...

Very beautiful and very interesting...

Maenads were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones"...

The oldest festival dedicated to Dionysus, was Rural Donysia, which took place around Winter Solstice. The main part of the festival was the procession. The god’s entourage during the procession consisted of the male satyrs and the female maenads...

I love this depiction of reveling dancers (satyrs???) lead by the piper dressed in leopard skin (Dionysus???)...Why leopard? Well, I talked about this in my post "Leopards and tigers"

Asian leopards are very secretive creatures. Very little is known about their lives. The general belief of the local population in the areas where Leopards are still found today, is that Leopards mate during "midwinter", right at the time of Rural Dionysia...

Is this why Dionysos was associated with leopards? 

Recent studies have however shown that the actual mating starts in January, soon after the Rural Dionysia, and peaks at the beginning of February...At the the end of winter beginning of spring...

It is interesting that in Anatolia, Central Asia, Mesopotamia, leopard was, with ibex goat, associated with rain season. Rain season which covers winter (starts with ibex mating season) and spring (starts with leopard mating season)...

Leopard hunts (follows) ibex...Spring, which starts with leopard mating season, follows winter which starts with ibex mating season...And this "hunt" revives nature and brings fertility to the land...I talked about this in my post "Goat and leopard"...

Rain, which is brought by mating ibexes and leopards, brings fertility...Ibex and leopard semen turns to rain which turns to flowing water...I talked about this in my post "A vessel from Tepe Hissar"...

Wasn't Dionysus associated with goats? Wasn't goat sacrificed to him? Wasn't tragedy, which translates in Greek as "goat-song", originally an improvised hymn sung and danced in praise of Dionysus? Was't Dionysus turned into a baby goat by god of rain, Zeus, his father? Who was in turn suckled by a goat??? I talked about the link between Zeus and a goat in my post "Goat riding thunder god"...

Now I am beginning to believe that Dionysus, the god of resurrection of nature, is associated with leopards because the end of leopard mating season is when "the resurrection of nature" actually happens: the end of winter and beginning of spring...Well in Greece anyway...

I think that this is why Dionysus, the god who dies and gets resurrected, rides on a leopard (arrives during leopard mating season), wears leopard skin (is identified with the end of the leopard mating season)...

And I also believe that this is why this Maenad not only holds a leopard by his hind leg (the end of leopard mating season) but also wears a leopard skin (dead leopard, again the end of leopard mating season)

So kind of cool...

It's actually even cooler...

Maenad's snake diadem. Snake is the animal which symbolises sun's heat, fire. Snakes are in our world when sun is in our world, spring, summer, autumn...And in underworld when sun is there, in winter. I talked about this in my posts "Enemy of the sun", "The chthonic animal",  "Bactrian snakes and dragons" and many others...

Maenad's thyrsus. The stick used by Prometheus to steal fire from the gods and smuggle it into human hearths. Probably also symbolic torch as well as penis...I talked about this in my post "Thyrsus"...

Finally Maenad's fury = internal fire, heat

The three main attributes of the Maenad represent fire, heat...And she is out dancing, for Dionysus, "the polar opposite of Apollo" in the middle of cold, dark, winter...Maenad kills leopard, winter ends, spring begins. Resurrection...

Finally finally, here is a Maenad carrying a thyrsus and a flaming torch...

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...

Thyrsus

Stunning Roman relief showing a Maenad holding a thyrsus a magic wand of Dionysus (Bacchus), 120-140 AD (Prado Museum, Madrid)...Article about thyrsus and why was it made out of fennel...

A thyrsus was a wand or staff made out of a stalk of a giant fennel (Ferula communis) and topped with a pine cone. Sometimes it was covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with a ribbon...

Thyrsus was associated with Dionysus and was a symbol of fertility (kind of obvious cause of its shape) and prosperity (well in agrarian societies fertility, of land, animals, people = prosperity)...Here is The Man himself, Dionysus, on a leopard holding his magic wand...From Pela, capital of Makedon...

I love this: Thyrsus was a symbol of freedom that Dionysus brought as well as weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents...🙂

So why was Thyrsus made from a giant fennel, topped with pine cone and wrapped with grape and ivy vines?

This is giant fennel, a wild flowering plant found in Mediterranean and East African woodlands and shrublands. It can grow up to 2.5 meters tall...

It flowers in June and July (around summer solstice) and produces huge number of large bright yellow globular "sun like" flowers...

Soooo?

Well...In Ancient Greek mythology, when Prometheus stole fire from Zeus, he brought it to people by hiding it in the hollow stalk of the giant fennel...Here he is with fennel torches...

Some people wanted to see if there is any truth in these old legends...So they tried to preserve fire using fennel stalk. And they filmed their experiment.

In short:

Get a piece of dry giant fennel stalk, hard on the outside, full of soft pith on the inside. This pith can be ignited and it then smoulders...

The stalk can also be used as firedrill...If anyone has any pics or films showing the use of the giant fennel stalk as a fire drill, please post the link in the comments...

Well that's interesting...

We have:

1. A giant fennel which is full of sun like golden flowers around summer solstice

2. Summer solstice is sunniest but also the most thundery part of the year in the Balkans, which means a lot of chances for lightning (Zeus) started fires...

3. The previous year giant fennel plants are sitting pretty and bone dry among dry grass...

4. If lit up by a fire caused by lightning in just the right way, the fennel stick will smoulder and will allow you to "steal the fire from Zeus (lightning) and take it to the people"...

And the stick made from a dry giant fennel stalk, basically a firestick, was used during Rural Dionysia, which was celebrated around winter solstice, as a scepter carried by the god of resurrection (of nature) Dionysus and his followers...

Oh, and guess who regularly turns up at the Dionysia party and is seen here being greeted by the satyrs, the fateful followers of Dionysus...Well, Prometheus of course...

Satyrs dance amazed around the fire that Prometheus carries in the stalk of a giant fennel...And each one of the satyrs caries a giant fennel stalk too...Otherwise known as thyrsus...

Why?

What's all this resurrection of nature rubbish everyone is talking about? 

Well depends where you are, you can pick one of these two stories:

Eastern Mediterranean, Levant, Middle East...

Nature, which is full of life, fertile and abundant during winter, spring (cool wet half of the year) seems to die during summer and autumn (hot dry half of the year)...Only to be resurrected again in autumn...

The nature dies because the fire of the sun becomes too strong...The "resurrection of nature" depends on "the fire of the sun being almost extinguished" by the arrival of autumn rains...

So if during this time of coolness and wetness, you decide to throw a major party, to celebrate the arrival of the resurrection of nature (which is triggered by the extinguishing of the sun's fire by rain), what better thing to hold in your hand then a stick symbolizing the power of Zeus, thunder god? I mean, fire stolen by Prometheus was the product of Zeus's lightning...

So a lightning fire stick...Wrapped with ivy...And grape vines...With a pine cone stuck to its top...Cause fertility...Which arrives with the first winter rains (Oct/Nov)...When ivy starts bearing fruit...I talked about this in my post "Woman and pitcher"...Just after the end of grape harvest...I talked about this in my post "Crocus fairy"...And just at the beginning of pine cone harvest...I talked about this in my post "Eagle dude from Aleppo"...

I think that all this would make Thyrsus a very good symbol of the arriving winter rain season, which brings resurrection of nature...

Continental Europe:

Nature, which is full of life, fertile and abundant during spring summer autumn, seems to die during winter...Only to be resurrected again in spring...

The nature dies because the fire of the sun (almost) dies out. The "resurrection of nature" depends on "the fire of the sun being rekindled". If this does not happen, the winter will never end and the spring will never come...It happens. From time to time...

This is the meaning of the ritual rekindling of fires over Christmas and making sure that fire doesn't get extinguished through Christmas eve...

People believed that there was only one fire...The fire of the sun and the fire in in human hearths was one and the same...

I talked about this in my post about The end of calendar, post about Yule log and post about Badnjak, Serbian Yule log

Remember, Prometheus hid a bit of heavenly fire he stole from Zeus in wood, so people can summon it out whenever they need it...

The same fire, above and below...Agni basically...So when during the darkest part of the year the fire above, the fire of the sun, gets almost extinguished, it is up to people to make sure it keeps burning in their hearths...

So if during this time of darkness and cold, you decide to throw a major party, to celebrate the belief in resurrection of nature (which is triggered by the rekindling of the sun's fire), what better thing to hold in your hand than a firestick? Wrapped with grape and ivy vines...With a cone stuck to its top...Cause fertility...Hmmmm....

So maybe, just maybe, this all together somehow makes sense...

The question is which one of the two stories makes more sense?

Oh by the way, if you want to see what thirsus made of giant fennel stalk and a pinecone, someone's done it...He used a green stalk instead of dry one, but hey, close enough...

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...