Mesa Mouliana vessel

A very interesting Minoan vessel found in Mesa Mouliana and dated to 1200-1100BC. Do you see the two nipple like things just under the spout? And wavy lines originating from each "nipple " and [my interpretation] symbolising the flow of water (milk of Mother Earth)?

This object is extremely stylised version of this. Ceramic vessel form Crete dated ca 2200-2000 BC. Probably during rituals the liquid would pour out of her breasts symbolically providing nourishment. It’s believed to represent the mountain goddess of Crete...

Both objects are in the Archaeological museum in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. 

What was poured out of this vessel was drinking water. I explained why in my post "Anavlochos mountain" about ancient Mother Earth sanctuaries found on it.

Now here is something that just occurred to me. Look at this beauty: Minoan jug decorated with flying swallows and small breast-like buttons - 1700-1650 BC, discovered in Akrotiri, Santorini. Currently at the Prehistoric Thera Museum, Santorini, Greece

Similar kind of jug, with nipples, but instead of water pouring out of the nipples, a swallow in flight is depicted  on the jug's belly. Why? I already talked about swallows as animal calendar marker for Apr/May, the beginning of summer, in Minoan art in my post "Minoan spring fresco". In it I analysed the animal (swallow) and plant (lily) calendar markers depicted on the "Spring Fresco" from the Akrotiri Site at Thera (Santorini), dated to 1550 – 1500 BC, and I suggested that based on the link between swallows nesting season and the lily blooming season, the fresco should be called "Summer fresco"...

But just now, I discovered that swallows were also linked with saffron crocuses. This is a strainer found in room 3 of the Xeste 3 house in Akrotiri. It is decorated with swallows flying over flowering saffron crocuses...The pic is from this paper...

Crocus flowers in Oct/Nov and is used in Minoan art as a plant calendar marker for Oct/Nov. I talked about this in my post "Male - female Minoan vessel", where I analysed this 16th c. BC Minoan vessel found on Thera, Akrotiri, depicting (according to the museum curators) on one side wild goats and saffron crocuses and on the other side dolphins and sea grass...

What is very very interesting is that swallows are summer visitors to Crete, arriving in Apr/May and leaving in Oct/Nov...

Minoans were maritime people and the swallow migrations marking the beginning and the end of the sailing season must have had a special place in Minoan culture...This veneration of swallows was also found in Ancient Greece. I talked about it in my post "Herald of spring". Did you know that Ancient Greeks had a constellation swallow (Ancient Greek: χελιδών). "...The sun entered into this constellation, when the swallow appeared in Greece as the herald of Spring..." 

And the same link between swallows and sailing was found in Roman culture and later European cultures...I talked about it in my post "Swallow tattoo"...

The period between the arrival of swallows (Apr/May) and the departure of swallows (Oct/Nov) marks the hot, dry half of the year on Crete.

How can this explain the nipple jugs with swallows? Well, the swallow migrations divide the year into female (Wet, Cool, Yin, Sowing - Creating life, No Sailing, Peace) and male (Dry, Hot, Yang, Harvesting - Destroying life, Sailing, War) halves...

The wet half being linked to the (earth) goddess, symbolised by saffron crocuses, goats and boobs 🙂 and the dry half being linked to the (sea/sun) god, symbolised by lilies, bulls and no boobs 🙂...

This is seriously cool...BTW, I already talked about the calendric symbolism of flowers in Minoan art in my post "Three Minoan flowers"...

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...

Three Minoan flowers

In this paper, Marcia Nugent talks about "3 flowers as 3 Minoan calendar markers for 3 seasons":

1. Madonna lily = Spring

2. Sea daffodil = Summer

3. Saffron crocus = Autumn

She is right about the flowers, but wrong about the seasons...Here's why:

Madonna lily starts blooming on Crete in Apr/May. This is the beginning of summer (summer solstice is "mid summer")...So Madonna lily is the flower calendar marker for summer, not spring...

I talked about it in my post "Minoan spring fresco", in which I explained why this Minoan fresco from the Akrotiri Site at Thera (Santorini), dated to 1550 – 1500 BC, should be called "Beginning of summer" fresco and not "Spring Fresco" 🙂...  

Sea daffodil start blooming on Crete in Jul/Aug. This is the beginning of autumn (autumn equinox marks the middle of autumn)...So Sea daffodil is the flower calendar marker for autumn, not summer...

I talked about it in my post "Minoan griffin fresco", about this detail of the griffin fresco (reproduction) from the throne room, palace of Knossos, Crete, dated to 1700-1450 BC, in which I explained why I think that the flowers depicted around the lying griffin are sea daffodils...

Saffron crocus starts blooming on Crete in Oct/Nov. This is the beginning of winter (winter solstice is "mid winter")....So Saffron crocus is the flower calendar marker for winter, not autumn...

I talked about saffron in several of my posts, "Saffron", "Origin of saffron", "Pan goat of rain", "Crocus fairy", in which I also talk about the famous Minoan "Saffron gatherers" fresco. In them I also talk about the origin of saffron crocus...And why saffron crocus was the sacred plant on Minoan Crete...And why it was linked with Ibex goats...And mother goddess...

Knowing this, here is the fixed flower-season diagram

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...

A-TA-NA

Zeus appears to get a big headache as Athena emerges from his head. Athena looks a bit surprised herself. Illustration from "D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths."

What follows is crazy, but I was drinking so...

The oldest (believed) mention of Athena is a single Mycenaean Greek inscription 𐀀𐀲𐀙𐀡𐀴𐀛𐀊 "a-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja" which appears at Knossos, in the Linear B tablets from the Late Minoan II (1450–1400 BC) period...

This is translated as "Athena (a-ta-na) Mistress (po-ti-ni-ja)"... 

But there is actually a possibility that there is an even older mention of Athena. A sign series (inscription) "a-ta-no-dju-wa-ja" appears in the still undeciphered corpus of Linear A tablets, written in the "unclassified Minoan language"...

Apparently the part "dju-wa-ja" could be connected with the Linear B Mycenaean expressions "di-u-ja" or "di-wi-ja" which is interpreted as Div, Diwus, Dyeus, Deus, Zeus, God...

So it is proposed that the Linear A inscription "a-ta-no dju-wa-ja" could then be translated as Athena of Div, Diwus, Dyeus, Deus, Zeus...Or Athena Divine...

However, this is problematic because the Linear A inscription "a-ta-no dju-wa-ja" is very similar to another inscription "a-ta-nū-tī wa-ya". The best translation given (by Jan Best) for the initial "a-ta-nū-tī", which is recurrent in line beginnings, is "I have given"...

Now madness begins: 

I will start with "po-ti-ni-ja". The Ancient Greek word πότνια (potnia) means "mistress". It is a "poetic title of honour", used chiefly in addressing females, whether goddesses or women; Its hypothetical Proto-Indo-European (PIE) form is *pot-niha-, "mistress", "lady", "wife"...

In Slavic languages we have these expressions: 

Da (pronounced dah, apparently from PIE deh ) = yes, give

Dati (pronounced dahtee) = da ti = (give you) = to give

Podati se (pronounced pohdahtee seh) = to submit yourself to someone else's will. For women to let someone fuck them...

Podanik (pronounced pohdahneek) = a man who submitted himself to another man, serf

Podana (pronounced pohdahnah) = a woman who was given to a man

Podana ja (pronounced pohdahnah yah) = I was given to a man

Podana je (pronounced pohdahnah yeh) = She was given to a man

So now let's have a look at "po-ti-ni-ja" again. What does mistress, wife mean again? At the most basic level? You know how you become both wife and a mistress? What do you have to do to become either? Did you know that the etymology of the word "wife" is totally uncertain and that one of the proposed etymologies is related to "shame place" basically a vulva...And did you know that there is a possibility that that the word could actually be derived from Slavic "wu+jeb" = "her+fuck" = wife..."Poetic title of honour" 🙂 Love it...

Ok....

What about "a-ta-na"? There are two possible etymologies here:

In Slavic languages we have following expressions:

Ona (pronounced onah) = "she"

Ot (pronounced "ot" or "at", from PIE atta, pronounces atah) = "father" but also "from". 

-ina (pronounced eenah) = feminine ending denoting something feminine belonging to someone...

If we combine Ot,At + ina = Of the father (she is) = Given by the father (she is), Born of the father (she is)...Which is basically what Athena is...Right?

In Slavic languages we also have these expressions:

Dava (pronounced dahvah) = he gives (continuously or often)

Dava ja (pronounced dahvah yah)= I give (continuously or often)

Dano = given

Dana = given feminine

"Ja dana" (pronounced Yah dahna) = "I (feminine) was given" 

Div = giant, but once meant god

Divija = demonic, but once meant divine

So "a-ta-no dju-wa-ja" could be "ja dana divija" = I was given by Div, Diwus, Dyeus, Deus, Zeus...God...

Ok...

Finally, what about the problematic "a-ta-nū-tī" meaning "I have given"?

In Slavic languages we also have these expressions:

"Ja dano ti" (pronounced Yah dahno tee) = "What I have given to you" 

"Je dano ti" (pronounced Yeh dahno tee) = "What was given to you" 

Which would be something you would put at the beginning of each line listing things given to the authorities or a temple...

So...

But all this is just madness, right? I am drunk after all...Who would have spoken Slavic languages in Bronze Age Minoan Crete? No one of course...So this is all most likely just some gibberish from an "unclassified Minoan language"...

Good night...

Origin of saffron

During the excavations of the the Temple Repositories at Knossos, among many early 2nd millennium BC faience (glazed ceramic) objects, Arthur Evans unearthed ceramic crocuses and models of female garments decorated with crocuses...

I found this image in the "Bronze Age Flower Power: The Minoan Use and Social Significance of Saffron and Crocus Flowers". Really cool article...

In it the author, Rachel Dewan, states that: "...If Evans’ interpretation of the faience models as votive offerings is correct, than here again is evidence for significant links between women, textiles, crocuses, and the divine..."

In the conclusion of her article, Rachel Dewan says: "It is clear from the iconographic evidence that crocuses and saffron were regarded as more than mere crops by the inhabitants of  the Bronze Age Aegean...

As a functional ingredient within the dyeing and perfuming industries, an effective medical treatment, a meaningful cultural symbol most likely used in cultic activities, and a profitable commodity, the plant was revered by the Minoans...

The  numerous correlations between this valuable plant and Minoan females, seen both in iconographic representations  and  archaeological finds, suggests that saffron was held in particularly high esteem by women who embraced it as a symbol of female identity and culture...

By the Mycenaean period, saffron’s value and versatility were well-established, and its detailed recording in Linear B documents reflects its status as a treasured commodity worthy of palatial attention...Saffron ideogram on tablets from Knossos highlighted in yellow...

Interestingly, however, crocus imagery became a rare motif in Mycenaean art throughout the Aegean, suggesting that the plant lost some of  its symbolism in this later period, even as its economic importance remained..."

So there are two unanswered questions here:

1. Why was crocus revered by Minoans before the Mycenaean conquest?

2. Why was crocus not revered by Mycenaeans?

The answers to the first of these questions is: because of climate. The climate in Crete which shaped Minoan mythology...

The climate in Crete is divided into two seasons: 

The dry and hot season May-Sep...

The wet and cool season Oct-Apr...

This is temperature and precipitation chart for Knossos (Modern Heraklion) area of Crete...

The end of the dry season is the moment of prayer in Crete...The rivers and wells are dry...The soil is dry and cracked...Everyone is looking at the sky, waiting for the arrival of the first rain clouds...

And then the Cretan Ibex goat mating season starts, and the first rains arrive...The land turns green. The wells and riverbeds start filling up. The life returns... 

Which is why Ibex goat was venerated as the goat of rain by Minoans. I talked about this in my article "Goat riding thunder gods"...

And right after the first rains, the wild flowers appear everywhere. Including saffron crocuses which flower in November - December...They were picked by Minoan women, as depicted on these Minoan frescoes...

I talked about this in my article "Saffron"...

These flowers were picked because of their vivid crimson stigmas...About 400 hours of labour is needed to produce just one kilogram of saffron...Which is why saffron was worth its weight in gold...Still is by the way...

We know this because saffron was the only spice to be measured by weight, in the same small, intricate values used for gold, suggests that it was considered to be a valuable commodity, carefully monitored by the palace...

The appearance of the saffron ideogram (CROC) on 59 whole or partial Linear B tablets is indicative of its economic importance. It was a valuable commodity...The reason for this is because it was used in the production of luxury goods...

Because of its extremely strong color, saffron was  used to die clothes yellow, the color which was from Eastern Mediterranean to Mesopotamia considered to be the color of divinity and royalty...

Because of its aroma and color, saffron was used as a food spice and as a compound in cosmetics, like cremes, body paint, and perfumes...

Because of its medicinal properties, saffron was used in preparation of medicines. As a matter of fact it was in the past one of the most famous medicinal plants...Amongst medicinal plants known in the Near East and Mediterranean, saffron has the largest number of applications...

Here is the interesting bit: the spice’s most common ancient reference is as a pain-reliever for menstrual cramps and childbirth. Saffron can act as an abortive in high doses, and may have functioned as an early form of birth control...

A women's plant...

Rachel Dewan quotes Robert Arnott who notes the prominent role that herbal healing would have played within the ancient Aegean, particularly amongst ancient midwives and female healers. I talked about the old midwife cult in my article about Balkan village midwives "Baba's day"... 

Rachel Dewan then says that "The fact that women, rather than men, are shown in scenes involving crocuses and saffron has led many scholars to suggest that the Minoans were aware of the gynecological benefits of saffron, and thus exploited the plant’s medicinal properties..."

Indicating that maybe this plant was sacred to Minoan women precisely because of its obstetrical-gynecological medical application...And I do agree that this is part of the reason why saffron crocus was sacred to the Minoan women...

But I also believe that the saffron crocus acquired religious significance because of when it flowered: right after the first rains...

The plant directly connected with feminine beauty and fertility flowered at the moment when Mother Earth's beauty and fertility was restored by her first "period": the first trickle of water in dry riverbeds after the first winter rains...You could make a religion out of it...

Now what about the decline of the crocus veneration under Mycenaeans...

To answer this question we have to look at the saffron crocus plant itself...The saffron crocus plant grown commercially today is Crocus Sativus...

But this is not the crocus flower picked by Minoans...They picked this: Crocus Cartwrightianus, the wild ancestor of the Crocus Sativus...

If we look at the natural distribution of this wild saffron Crocus Cartwrightianus we can see that it is found in Crete, Cyclades islands and Attica...

Now the Crocus Sativus is a triploid with 24 chromosomes. This makes the plant sterile due to its inability to pair chromosomes during meiosis. Which means that it has to be propagated by corms...And transplanted from place to place by humans...

The ancestor of the Crocus Sativus, which is unknown in the wild is Crocus Cartwrightianus.

Now today I came across the article "Saffron (Crocus sativus) is an autotriploid that evolved in Attica (Greece) from wild Crocus Cartwrightianus".

In this interesting article we read that: "...From Minoan frescos it is clear that more than 3600  years ago humans already harvested and used wild saffron in the southern Aegean...

The first clear indication for the cultivation of triploid saffron can be found in Historia Plantarum (350 BCE–287 BCE) where Theophrastus described the plant as being propagated by corms...

Our GBS (genotyping-by-sequencing) data point to the small Greek region around Athens as the place where Crocus Sativus evolved. We assume that sometime in between 1600 BCE and 350 BCE a triploid Crocus Cartwrightianus cytotype originated in Attica and was selected by humans...

They must have realized that they have a highly aromatic and stable type at hands that keeps the valuable properties of saffron through time and (vegetative) generations..."

Now "between 1600 BCE and 350 BCE" is a huuuuge time period...Can we narrow down the time when the domestication of Crocus Sativus happened? Well I think we can...

Something extremely important happened "between 1600 BCE and 350 BCE". The eruption of Thera, which according to archaeological data occurred in c. 1500 BC. It and the tsunami that followed caused cataclysmic destruction and the decline of the Minoan civilization of Crete...

This turn of events gave the opportunity to the Mycenaeans to spread their influence throughout the Aegean. Around c. 1450 BC, they were in control of Crete itself, including Knossos, and colonized several other Aegean islands, reaching as far as Rhodes...

I would here argue that the domestication of Crocus Sativus, if it happened in Attica, definitely didn't happen before the Mycenaean conquest of Minoan territories...Because I don't think that Mycenaeans knew what the source of saffron was before that...

Here is my theory: The wild Crocus Cartwrightianus was before Minoans endemic to Crete and this was the only place where it was originally found...

Minoans brought it to their colonies on Cycladic islands where they planted it, grew it and harvested it for saffron...The substance worth its weight in gold...

What I think is that Minoans probably kept the whole thing as a sacred secret...Partially because if you keep the source of your product secret you make sure no one else can take over your market by stealing few plants and planting them in their back garden...

But also because for Minoans saffron crocus was not just valuable. It was sacred...You wouldn't want some foreign devils laying their filthy barbaric eyes or hands on your sacred plant...

Then Thera exploded and Mycenaeans invaded Crete...Mycenaeans of course knew about saffron and now they were able to get their hands on the plant that saffron was extracted from...And of course they brought it to their mainland home and planted it in their back garden...

I believe that this is when Crocus Cartwrightianus left Minoan territory for the first time and was for the first time planted in Attica...

The plant was originally grown and harvested as a "wild plant"...Just like it was on Crete... Eventually at some point "between 1450 BCE and 350 BCE" somewhere in Attica someone came across the mutated Crocus Cartwrightianus and hey presto, Crocus Sativus...

Mycenaeans only saw economic importance of saffron crocus...As a male dominated warrior society, to Mycenaeans, the whole link between feminine beauty and fertility and the beauty and fertility of the Mother Earth was alien, unimportant and most likely laughable...

This was part of the Minoan culture and religion which they hated and probably actively eradicated...Which is why after the arrival of Mycenaeans, saffron crocus disappears from divine images and remains only in profane accounting tables...

That's it...What do you think?

Pan - Goat of rain

Pan is a great example of what happens when mythology based on a local climate gets exported to the place where climate is different...

The story of Pan starts on the Island of Crete, where the local climate is characterised by hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. The rainy season starts in October and lasts till March or even April.

The beginning of the Cretan rain season coincides with the beginning of the mating season of the Cretan Ibex.

Which is why in Minoan Crete Ibex was venerated as the goat which brought rain...And life... Which is why Ibexes are depicted on this Minoan fresco from Knossos flanking "the tree of life"...

By the way, the "tree of life" is olive. And olives are harvested from late October, early November, at the beginning of the rain season...

The flowers depicted all around are crocuses, which also bloom from Late October, early November, at the beginning of the rain season...

So this fresco depicts the beginning of the rain season, when ibexes fight and mate, crocuses bloom and olives are ripe...

We know that the Ibex cult existed in Mycenae, to where it was most likely brought from Minoan Crete. We can see this from seals found in Mycenaean sites.

This is a Lentoid Gem depicting Sacred Tree and Ibex Goats from Mycenae.

This is next artefact, a Gold Signet Ring from Mycenae, is even more interesting.

In "Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult and Its Mediterranean Relations, Journal of Hellenic Studies 21, 1901" Arthur Evans says this about this artefact:

"In the gold ring from the Lower Town of Mycenae, a man in the usual Mycenaean garb, who perhaps answers to the male attendant of the Goddess in other religious scenes, is seen reaching out his hand towards the topmost bough of what is perhaps also intended for a fruit tree. Behind him with the branches of another tree visible above the back, stands a large agrimi or Cretan wild goat - an animal seen elsewhere in connexion with female votaries. This goat may represent the sacred animal of either the male or female member of the divine pair referred to in the preceding- sections....the votive remains of the Diktaean Cave as well as the traditions of Amaltheia tend to show that this animal was sacred to the indigenous 'Zeus' at an earlier period than the bull. The ox indeed in any form seems to be absent in the more primitive archaeological strata of the island"

This is very very interesting on so many levels...

Cretan wild goat - an animal seen elsewhere in connexion with female votaries (Symbol of the Goddess, Yin, part of the year), was once the symbol of Zeus, who was later associated with the bull, but Evans didn't know why...
Now the climate in Mycenae, on Peloponnesus, is similar the climate in Crete, consisting of hot dry summers and mild wet winters. But year is not clearly divided into dry and wet period, as can be seen from the precipitation table.

The main reason why Mycenaeans associated the Thunder God with bull and why Minoans associated the Thunder God with goat is because of this: the distribution of thunderstorms across the year....

If we look at the Balkans, the thunderstorm season starts in May...When Aurochs start calving...At the end of the wet part of the year...During the period, which by the time of Mycenaeans, has already been marked by a Bull all over Eastern Mediterranean, Central Asia, Middle East for thousands of years...  

If we look at Crete, the thunderstorm season starts in October...When Ibex goats start their mating season...At the beginning of the rain season...During the period, which by the time of Minoans, has already been marked by a goat all over Eastern Mediterranean, Central Asia, Middle East for thousands of years...

  

So Mycenaeans didn't have a direct obvious reason to associate Ibex with Zeus, Rains storm...Whereas Minoans did...

Yet on mainland Greece, Ibex was still seen as "the bringer of life"...Except after a while everyone forgot why...Which is why eventually this life bringing goat, whose mad mating causes nature to flourish, flowers to flower, trees to bud, rivers to flow....became Πάν (Pan)...

Pan, who has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. Whose skin is Pan carrying? Is this "Αιγις" (Aegis),  the goat skin which Zeus carried from Crete? It just occurred to me. What do you get if you clothe Holy Zeus, the bringer of rain, in goat skin? Holy Ibex Goat, the bringer of rain, of course...

Pan, the god of the wild, nature of mountain wilds, natural vegetative cycle caused by gods rather than men.

Pan, the lover and companion of the Nymphs (nature sprits) and particularly the darling of Naiades (nymphs presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water)...No wonder considering that it is the Holy Goat who used to bring rain and fresh water to Minoan Crete... 

Pan, the symbol of sex and lust and therefore symbol of fertility. Who because of different climate on Greek mainland, became associated with the season of spring and Aphrodite, goddess of love and spring. No wonder, that on mainland Greece Spring, and not Winter, was the time when life returned to the nature...

Pan, who in his earliest appearance in literature, Pindar's Pythian Ode iii. 78, was associated with a mother goddess. Perhaps Rhea??? The Goddess which is always playing with goats on Minoan artefacts??? And who gave Zeus to a goat to mind him?

Pan, whose worship began in Arcadia which was always the principal seat of his worship. Arcadia was a district of mountain people, culturally separated from other Greeks. Remember, Greeks considered Arcadians the oldest inhabitants of Greece, Pelasgians. They were so ancient and so traditional and archaic that they still ate acorns...I talked about this in my posts "Acorns in ancient texts" and "Pelasgos". And they still remembered at leas part of the "Old faith", before Olympians arrived...Ahh. Arcadia is sooo close to Mycenae...Where Minoan Holy Ibex landed on the Greek mainland...

Pan, who as a "rustic god" (read here "old god"), was not worshipped in temples or other built edifices, but in natural settings, usually caves or grottoes such as the one on the north slope of the Acropolis of Athens. These are often referred to as the Cave of Pan...Hmmm...Cave...Just like the holy cave in holy Goat Mountain here the Holy Goat nursed the Holy Infant Zeus...

Pan, who was a hunter, and to whom hunters owed their success or failure and whose statue Arcadian hunters used to scourge if they had been disappointed during hunt. Hmmmm....Holy hunt again???

And here is the best bit...

Pan's parentage is unclear. In most accounts though, he is the son of Zeus...Hmmm...Considering that it is the Holy Goat which brings forth the Holy God...

Hyginus says that Aega (whose name means probably She Goat) who was a daughter of Melisseus, king of Crete, was chosen to suckle the infant Zeus. But as she had no milk, it was goat Amalthea who suckled infant Zeus. Hyginus also says that while married to Pan, Aega had a son by Zeus whom she called Aegipan (Goat Pan), and who was also suckled by Amalthea...Hmmm...So both Zeus and Pan were suckled by the same She Goat...Zeus actually tells Athena that "...goatfoot Pan...once was mountain-ranging shepherd of the goat Amaltheia my nurse, who gave me milk"...Meaning that Pan, Holy Goat, was there before the arrival of Zeus, Holy God...

And finally, the BESTEST :) bit: 

Pan aided his foster-brother Zeus in the battle with the Typhon...

TYPHOEUS (Typhon) was a monstrous "storm-giant" who laid siege to heaven but was defeated by Zeus. He was the source of devastating storms which issued forth from that dark nether-realm. 

I don't think Typhon was a storm giant or a source of devastating storms...He was The Dragon, the symbol of destructive blazing heat of the late summer...

Typhoeus was a winged giant, said to be so huge that his head brushed the stars. He was a sky being not being of the nether realm...


Hesiod in his Theogony dated to 8th or 7th century BC describes him like this:

"Typhoeus; the hands and arms of him are mighty, and have work in them, and the feet of the powerful god were tireless, and up from his shoulders there grew a hundred snake heads, those of a dreaded drakon (dragon-serpent), and the heads licked with dark tongues, and from the eyes on the inhuman heads fire glittered from under the eyelids: from all his heads fire flared from his eyes' glancing; and inside each one of these horrible heads there were voices that threw out every sort of horrible sound, for sometimes it was speech such as the gods could understand, but at other times, the sound of a bellowing bull, proud-eyed and furious beyond holding, or again like a lion shameless in cruelty, or again it was like the barking of dogs, a wonder to listen to..."

Snakes are symbol of sun's heat.

Dragons breathing fire or glaring fire are symbols of the destructive sun's heat at the end of the summer which brings draught. 

Bellowing bull is the symbol of summer, because summer starts in Taurus. 

Lion is the symbol of the end of summer, the hottest part of the year, which falls in the middle of Leo. 

Dogs are symbol of "Dogs days", the hottest 7 days of the year. Middle of Leo falls in the middle of Dog Days...

Typhoeus was also described as a giant which was "breathing fire" and whose eyes were "flashing fire"...

Hardly a description of a Storm Giant...

But then, I love that Typhoeus also had "a filthy, matted beard and pointed ears"...Just like Pan who looks suspiciously like an Ibex goat. The Holy Goat which brought rain to Minoan Crete every October-November and ended the drought...The Goat who killed Typhoeus...Or as Zeus bragged "who helped him kill Typhoeus"...

Oh, by the way, did you know that we also have Panes,  "rustic spirits" of the mountains and highland pastures who protected the goat herds and sheep flocks which grazed these lands. Panes were depicted as goat-footed men with the horns, tail, beard, snub nose and ears of a goat. They sometimes had actual goat-heads instead of just a few goatish features. As lascivious fertility spirits they were often depicted with erect members...

Jumping, noise making, horny Ibex Goats during their mating season, which announce the arrival of life bringing rain to Minoan Crete, springs to mind immediately...No wonder Panes were "the attendants upon the sacred rites of Rhea and Dionysos"...Life bringing sacred rites of Mother Goddess and...That is another story for another time...

Soooooo....

The bottom bit of my article, which few people probably ever get to 🙂 about "why Slavic, Baltic and Norse Thunder gods ride on chariots pulled by goats". This article "Goat riding thunder gods" looks for the root of this myth in Minoan goat mythology...You can read more about Minoan goat mythology in my posts "Sanctuary rhyton" and "Saffron"...