Malatya relief

A while back @PIELexicon posted this image:

With this description: A Luwian Storm-God conquers a sea-dragon, called Illuyanka in Hittite in this Malatya relief. The Luwian designation, unless the same, remains unknown. If the name was included in the relief, it was contained in the section broken off, now unfortunately permanently gone and lost...

He then said that the first deity spearing the dragon is Hitt.-Luw. Tarhunza = Hurr. Teshub and the second one is Sarma = Sarruma, the mountain God...

At which point someone joined the conversation and said that Illuyanka is not a dragon but a snake. He argued that Illuianga has the determinative MUSH "snake", which is why Friedrich call it "ungeheure Schlange" (monstrous Snake). 

Snake is a solar animal, pretty much a universal symbol of the sun's heat. Snakes follow sun everywhere. They are in our world when sun is in our world (day, summer) and in the underworld when the sun is in the underworld (night, winter)...I talked about this in many of my posts. 

Which is why the terms "snake" and "dragon" are fluid in the vocabularies and mythologies. For instance, according to Slavic folklore, (Fire Breathing) Dragon (the symbol of the destructive summer sun's heat which burns everything and brings drought) is just "an old snake" (symbol of sun's heat)...

I talked about the link between snake and sun in many of my posts...

Also Slavic "zmaj" (dragon) is masculine form of "zmija" (snake). 

I talked about this in my post "Letnitsa treasure", about the 4th c. BC Thracian treasure found in Bulgaria, which among other artefacts contained this metal plaque which depicts a common theme from Balkan fairytales: a princess being kidnapped by a dragon...And she seems to like it...Please note that the dragon was depicted with a snake body...

@PIELexicon replied that drawing distinction between "snake, snake-demon, and dragon" is "splitting hairs": Tischler gives all alternatives as the translation of Hitt. illuyanka- (c.) "Schlange, Schlangenungeheuer, Drache" (Snake, Snake demon, Dragon), (HHand2: 67), as people interpret a snake-demon as a dragon.

@PIELexicon also pointed at the article "The Serpent-Fighting Imagery of Anatolia in the 2nd Millennium BC and Malatya Serpentine Monster in the Light of Newly Published Old Assyrian Seal Impression from Kültepe" which actually states that the current understanding is that the closer examination of the Malatya "monster" shows that it has paws and multiple heads...

And that the existence of paws and multiple heads is confirmed by the recently seal impression from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts...

And that "Paws are also mentioned in other Hittite texts for creatures designated by the Sumerogram MUŠ ‘snake’, for example, MUŠ[-aš] GÌR.MEŠ ‘snake paws’ in the Pittei ritual, because this Sumerogram could cover the entire range of reptiles"...

And "The Serpent-Fighting Imagery..." article also states that some of the Hittite legends about Illuyanka mention the monster being tied with a rope before being killed, tying which is usually done to tie paws, legs...

Mesopotamians depicted dragon with lion body and snake heads...Cause dragon is a snake is a dragon...

The oldest depiction of a Hero (actually two Heroes) killing a Dragon...Mesopotamia, 2200BC...Seven headed dragon to be more precise...With seven snake heads...One for each hot month of Mesopotamian summer...Analysis of the meaning of this image can be found in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

Bactrians depicted dragons as winged snakes. No legs...Cause dragon is a snake is a dragon...I talk about this in my post "Bactrian snakes and dragons"...

So it is definitely a dragon, not a snake...

But what kind of dragon? 

I asked @PIELexicon what he thought the dots above the dragon represent. 

@PIELexicon then said that he thought that what was depicted above the dragon were thunderclouds, rain and raindrops. He then again pointed to the article "The Serpent-Fighting Imagery..." which contains the analysis of this relief in which rain/hail was mentioned as one interpretation. 

The article he also stated that "It can be that lines and circles shown above the serpent’s figure represent rain and hail caused by the Storm-God and directed by his assistants from heaven just onto the monster as an additional weapon against it".

The dots are definitely rain drops. I have found this interpretation in many places. For instance, in my post "Lapis lazuli water seal" I analyse the scene depicted on this amazing Lapis lazuli seal from the point of view of the local climate and animal calendar markers. The seal was made between 2400BC and 2000BC in Eastern Iran. British Museum.

But I don't think that the rain is "a weapon used against the monster". As I already said, (Fire Breathing) Dragon (the symbol of the destructive summer sun's heat which burns everything and brings drought) is just "an old snake" (symbol of sun's heat)...So Dragon "steals the rain" and the Thunder God kills the dragon and "releases the stolen rain" with the help of his assistants. 

I talked about this in my post "Scaring off the dragon" in which I analyse this interesting Bulgarian ritual: 

In Bulgaria, at the start of summer, all the strong and healthy village men would gather at midnight, strip naked and walk the village land in ritual silence brandishing axes or cudgels, weapons of thunder gods "to scare the dragon who steals the waters"... 

The reenactment of Teshub killing Illuyanka, or another version of this pretty universal Eurasian (And not only IndoEuropean) myth?

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...

Mamaragan

Adad, Mesopotamian storm god, holding an axe and lightning bolt...How old is this association between storm (thunder) gods an (stone) axes? How about at least 40,000 years?

I tried to explain the association between thunder gods and (stone) axes in my post "Jack and the magic beans"..

In which I proposed that some of our myths about sky gods are in fact very very old scientific theories which tried to explain the available observed phenomena in the best possible way with the knowledge of the universe people possessed at that time...Like if giant stones are falling from the sky, there must be a giant (sky god) throwing them from up there on our heads...

These stones that fall from the sky then became "thunder bolts" and "thunder stones" and "petrified lightnings". 

At the end of my post "Kataibates", about stone thunder axes from European folklore tradition, I asked how old this tradition could be...

I suggested that this link between a stone, more specifically flint axes, and thunder gods, already existed in the 4th millennium BC Europe...I explained why I thought so in my post "Sun stones" in which I talked about exploding flint axes...

But then I saw this picture of Namarrkon/Mamaragan, the storm "god" from Aboriginal mythology from Western Arnhem Land in northern territories. He lives high in the sky, rides storm clouds and makes thunders by striking the clouds with stone axes fixed to his head, elbows, and knees...

He also "soaks up the sun's rays and turns them into lightning"...In monsoon regions of the world, the end of the dry season is marked by spectacular electric storms which announce the arrival of the rains...

Also in Northern Australia, the hottest time of the year is also the rainiest time of the year...

So sun's heat is obviously and literally turned into lightning...

BTW, remember this?

"Because it is a great secret how come Svarog (hevenly and earthly fire) is at the same time Perun (thunder and lightning) and Svetovid (Sun)." Modern science explains the link between solar energy, lightning and fire...I talked about this in my post "Sun thunder fire"...

Now, Aboriginals arrived to Australia about 40,000 years ago...Which could mean that the link between thunder gods and stone axes, is more than 40,000 years old??? If we assume common root of the myth...

I already wrote about the age of (some) Aboriginal myths in my post "Dream time" and "Yeti revisited". Some Australian Aboriginal "dreamtime" stories, passed orally from generation to generation, could, according to latest scientific data, actually be over 40,000 years old...

Or, maybe, again, everyone ended up with the same explanation for the same observed phenomena...

Blue bull with golden horns

Stone figurine of a bull with a golden horns, Gilan, Iran, 1st mill BC.  The bull's blue(ish) stone body and golden horns suggest (to me at least🙂) that here we have an animal symbol linked with water and sun...And Taurus...  Why? Here's why:

This is the chart of the monthly flow of the Sefid Rud river, which flows through Gilan province of Iran from this article…You can see that the river is from Feb fed by snowmelt, which peaks in Apr/May, in Taurus...

Taurus which marks the beginning of summer, season symbolised by a bull...And ruled by the sun...I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

Taurus which originally had nothing to do with stars. It is an ancient animal calendar marker, which originally marked the beginning of the calving season of wild Eurasian cattle...

I talked about this in many of my articles, for instance "Cow and calf ivory", "Foundation peg of the goddess Nanshe", "Elamite water bull", "Human bull hybrid", "White calf", "Calydonian boar"...

It is the sun rising elevation 

and rising temperature which causes the snowmelt which fills the rivers with water.

And so, symbolically, every spring, the sun god Utu / Shamash climbs the holy mountain (Abzu, source of water) to free Enki / Ea, the god of sweet water from his icy prison and release the waters...

I talked about this in my posts "Shamash young and old", "When Utu steps up to heaven", "Problems of Abzu"...

Snowmelt which is the main water source for both Iranian rivers and Tigris and Euphrates.

Tigris and Euphrates annual flood (fed by snowmelt caused by the sun) peaks in Taurus, beginning of summer...

Hence Utu/Shamash depicted as a golden bull's head (sun) with lapis beard (flowing water). How do we know this is Utu/Shamash? Cause in "Enki and the world order" we read  "Utu/Shamash...the great herald in the east of holy An...with a lapis-lazuli beard, rising from the horizon..."  

I talked about this in my posts "Butt chewing", "Maran", "Lyres of Ur", "Solar bull"...

The Iranian blue bull with golden horns is most likely the Iranian symbolic equivalent of this golden bull Sun/Water bull Utu/Shamash or Enki/Ea, cause Enki was also known as "Great lord...Enki...great bull of the Abzu"...

BTW, I talked about Elamite/Iranian symbolic links between bulls and flood/water in my posts "Dedicated to Inshushinak", "Elamite water bull", "Harness ring from Luristan"...

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...

Fighting lion among the reeds

Akkadian cylinder seal, dated to 2400BC-2200BC, depicting "two antithetical groups, each consisting of a bearded hero fighting a lion"...Currently in the British museum...

There is a lot of speculation about the identity of the "hero". But no one is asking the question: why are there reeds depicted in the centre of the seal? Let me try to answer this question myself. 

Remember this seal from my post "Canals"?

Sun God Utu/Shamash with sun (heat) rays emanating from his shoulders, standing in in an empty canal, in Leo (between the lions), the hottest, driest time of the year in Mesopotamia, and the time when canals were repaired, holding reed cutting knife...

In this post I talked not just about the best time to repair the canals (August) but also about the best time to cut reeds for boat building (Also August):

"Marsh Arabs of Iraq say that Berdi reed, must be cut in August, and only in August, or it absorbs water quickly and sinks"...

So I wonder if this Akkadian seal also symbolically depicts that the best time to cut reeds is "between lions", in Leo (Jul/Aug). BTW Leo marks Jul/Aug, because this is when Eurasian lions main mating season used to start...

Another post, "Scarlet ware with goat" in which I talk about the exploitation of reeds in Mesopotamia, this time as animal fodder...

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...

Utu

 Utu, Sun: 𒀭𒌓

According to this table, this means god, heaven + day = sun...

But, did the god sign originally mean shiny thing (sun, star)? And did the day sign originally mean "eye"? 

Because if the did, then we would get: shiny thing + eye = to see = sun? 

Makes a lot of sense...At least to me...Cause I am a Slav...Cause Slavs have Svetovid...

svet (world)

svetlo (light)

vid (sight)

Svetovid (sun god) = world, light + to see = sun  

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

Thanks to @selineith for the original sun pic...

Sirius, the mother of Venus

You know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar (Morning Star) is Venus and how I think that it was originally Sirius, and only later became Venus? 

Well, it seems that Ancient Egyptians preserved the proof of this switch in their mythology. 

Meet Sopdet...

Sopdet, the personification of Sirius, was the consort of Sah, the personification of Orion. And their child was Sopdu, the personification of Venus, "Lord of the East" (Venus as morning star)....

Ta Ta Taaaaaaa!!!!

Why the f*ck would Sirius be the mother of Venus? Because Venus is what everyone thinks when we say "Morning Star"...But Sirius is also "Morning Star", actually "The (most important) Morning Star", in Jul/Aug, when it rises together with the sun, to announce the Nile Flood...

So does this myth, Mother (Sirius, Older Morning Star) --> Son (Venus, Younger Morning Star), trying to tell us that Sirius was (Original, Important, Once A Year) The Morning Star, and Venus is (Later, Less Important, Every Day) Morning Star?

I think so. 

BTW if you want to see where the "Lioness of heaven" (Ishtar) is hiding in Egypt, check these two articles: "Sphinx" and "Giza lioness"...

Did Mesopotamians forget this switch? Don't know. They certainly left is clues that we can use to decipher the true nature of Ishtar: 

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... 

In my article "Inana and Šukaletuda" I analysed the epic "Inana and Šukaletuda" which is used as "proof" that Inanna is Venus, but in which all calendar markers point at Inanna being Sirius and not Venus...

More about Inanna/Ishtar as Sirius can be found in this article, "The brightest star", about Ishtar being the the most shining when Sirius is the most shining, and also about Bow and Arrow constellation and its link with Leo, Ishtar and Nergal...And in this article, "Woman of the Apocalypse" about the true identity of this mysterious "Lady"...

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...

Lyres of Ur

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...

4 lyres of this type were actually found in royal graves in the Royal Cemetery at Ur.

These instruments were not ordinary instruments. They were ceremonial instruments. 

Stele representing a bull-lyre player and singer on the lower register and a priest with a plumb-bob on the upper register. Limestone, period of Gudea, ruler of Lagash, ca. 2120 BC, found in Telloh (ancient city of Girsu). From 1910 History of Sumer and Akkad...

This is obvious from the fact that the Sumerian sign for lyre also means "to praise." You can read about this here. But praise who?

All the lyres have a sound box topped by a bull head, three with a bearded bull head and one with a normal bull head. And no one knows what the meaning of the (bearded) bull head is...Well...

Well, we kind of know that the bearded bull is the symbolic depiction of the sun god Utu/Shamash. Why? Cause in "Enki and the world order" we read  "Utu/Shamash...the great herald in the east of holy An...with a lapis-lazuli beard, rising from the horizon..."

But why (lapis lazuli) beard? No one knows...Well...Over 70% of all the water flowing down Tigris and Euphrates comes from the snowmelt in the mountains where these two rivers originate. 

Snowmelt caused by Utu/Shamash, which peaks at the beginning of summer, Apr/May, in Taurus...

Which is why the water level in Tigris and Euphrates also reaches its peak in Apr/May, in Taurus. Which causes the annual flood, the source of life in lower Mesopotamia...

Which is why Utu/Shamash was depicted as a golden bull (Sun in Taurus) with flowing lapis lazuli beard (flowing water)...I talked about this in many of my posts. Like: "Shamash young and old", "When Utu steps up into heaven", "Butt chewing", "Maran"...

BTW, Taurus here is The Old Taurus, the animal calendar marker for the beginning of the calving season of wild eurasian cattle...I talked about this in my post "Cow and calf ivory", "Calydonian boar", "Bull carrying grannary", "Cypriot stamp seal with cow and calf"… 

Seal from Tell Brak

So I think that these harps were used to praise Utu/Shamash, the sun god...

Now interestingly, two of the harps have golden bull head with lapis lazuli beard, on has a golden bull head with golden beard, and one has silver bull head with no beard. Is this significant? I think so. Of course this could all be just me seeing thing again. What do you think?

Anyway, why am I talking about this? Cause of Apollo and his Lyre...Remember that in one of my recent posts about the Apollo I said that I finally realised why he is constantly dragging his lyre with him and insisting to play it weather anyone liked it or not?

In my post "Lyre of Apollo" I already explained that Apollo's lyre was a complex animal calendar marker for Apr/May, Taurus, beginning of the hot, dry half of the year ruled by the (sun) god Apollo...

But I wrote this article in 2022, and I it was only recently that I realised that Apollo is basically Shamash/Nergal. And that all his main attributes are found in Shamash/Nergal mythology of Mesopotamia...Including...the bull lyre...

Remember, Shamash, Sun, can be both life bringing (Apr/May, Taurus) and life taking (Jul/Aug, Leo)...

With Apollo, this is depicted through his two main attributes: bow and arrow and the lyre...

Let me explain what I mean...

As I showed in my two articles "Marble throne of Apollo", "Apollo the great archer" and "Apollo Sminthius", bow and arrow are the symbols of destructive Shamash, in Jul/Aug...Shamash the lion/serpent/dragon...

A Coin depicting Apollo Sminthius (Apollo lord of the mice) with his plague causing bow and a mouse/rat at his feet. 

And I think that the lyre is the symbol of the other, life giving side of sun god Shamash...

But then, I heard that lyre is a great instrument to play while watching the world burn...🙂

That's it. I will write about Ur lyres comics 🙂 at some stage, hopefully soon...

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...