Goibniu

This map shows surnames in different languages which mean "smith". 

Look at Ireland (Mac Gabhain) and Scotland (Mc Gowan)...

Both the Irish and Scotish surnames mean son of a smith (Gaelic gobha, gabha, pronounced gova which comes from Old Irish gobae, gobann meaning smith, cognate with Middle Welsh gof, Middle Breton goff, Old Cornish gof, Gaulish gobedbi, "Of disputed PIE origin possibly only found in Celtic languages and coming from Proto-Celtic stem *goben-, meaning smith"...

Hmmm...

Now look at all the Slavic countries...

Slavic languages have a whole cluster of words based on the root "kov" meaning metal:

        kov(ina) - metal/iron

        kovati - to forge, to strike hot metal to perform metal work

        nakovanj - anvil, that on which forging is done

        kovačnica, kovnica - forge

        kovanica - something forcefully stack together like being forged

        kovač - smith

From Proto-Slavic "kovati", from Proto-Balto-Slavic "*kauˀ-", from Proto-Indo-European "*kowh₂-", from the root "*kewh₂-" meaning to strike, to hit... 

But for some weird reason, Celtic words for smith can in no way be cognates with Slavic words for metal and smith...God forbid...

Now, in Celtic lands we find several gods, Irish deity Goibniu, Welsh deity Govannon, Gaulish deity Gobannos, whose names have a hypothetical Proto-Celtic root "*goben-", smith...

I will here like to talk about the Irish smithy, Goibniu (pronounced gov-nu), cause he will also help you understand what I am going to say about Lugh...

In Irish mythology Goibniu was the smith of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He is believed to have been a smithing god and was also associated with feasting.

According to Lebor Gabála Érenn, his father was Tuirenn...Who is basically, Taranis, The Celtic Sky/Thunder god in disguise. 

At the same time, in Irish mythology and folklore, his father was also named "Esarg" and "Tuirbe Trágmar".

"Esarg", meaning "striker", is derived Old Irish root esorcon, meaning "smiting," "striking," "beating," or "a blow dealt to a foe in battle". 

So far so normal and expected. Sky/Thunder gods were after all "Mighty Smiters"...

"Tuirbe Trágmar" which means "the axe-thrower" is a character which appears in Irish mythological texts as a warrior ancestor or father of Goibniu. 

In the Metrical Dindshenchas (Lore of Places) he is described as a "man of skill" and the father of Gobbán Saor "a highly skilled smith or architect". The text describes his feat of hurling his magical battle-axe from Tulach Bela (the Hill of the Axe) into the face of the incoming flood-tide to order the sea to stop rising. 

In the Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland) Tuirbe Trágmar appears as an alternate name or epithet for Esarg (Striker, The thrower of axes), listing him directly as the father of Goibniu the smith-god. 

In the Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann (The Tragedy of the Sons of Tuireann) he is mentioned as Tuirenn Tuirbe Trágmar, (Taranis, The thrower of axes) and is identified as the father of the divine smiths.

Tuirenn, Striker, Thrower of Axes, the father of the Smith God...

Remember the PIE root "*kewh₂-" means to strike, to hit. Striking, hitting is an integral part of axe making process since the Palaeolithic. 

Stone axes are made by striking a large flint nodule in such a way that small chips of stone are gradually removed until a sharp axe shaped blade is produced. 

Bronze axes are first cast, then the edge is cold hammered to harden it and then it is wet sand polished to sharpen it. 

Iron axes are first wrought (hot melted bloom, mix of ore and charcoal, folded, hammered, folded, hammered...) and then forged (reheated wrought iron hammered) to desired shape, then the edge is wet stone polished to sharpen it.

So striking = making axes...

That's "Maker of Axes"...This doesn't explain why  Goibniu's father was called "Thrower of Axes"???

Striking, hitting is also what sky gods did a lot. With thunderbolts. Which were imagined by people all over the place as stones...

A 15th-century engraving depicts the town of Ensisheim in present-day France being struck by a thunderbolt (stone)...I talked about this in my post "Jack and magic beans", about giants who lived on a stone sky and who hurled giants rocks down on earth...The original sky (stone) thunder gods...

What is also interesting is that people thought that these thunder stones were actually (shaped like) stone axes...This belief existed in Europe until well into the Middle Ages...Which is why ancient stone axes were believed to be petrified lightnings and were kept as talismans as a protection against lightning strikes...

I talked about this in my posts "Thunder axe" and "Kataibates"...

Which is why a lot of thunder gods wielded axes...Like Hadad...Whose name has no known etymology, possibly from Northwest Semitic root hdd meaning "to thunder," "to crash," "to make a loud noise"...

Now look at the smith surname map again. In Semitic languages we have word for smith "haddad", which apparently comes from the Proto-Semitic root *ḥdd = "to be sharp, pointed" 

So we have:

Hadad → the divine striker (lightnings, thunderbolts which were imagined as being made of stone)

ḥaddād → the one who makes sharp edges by striking metal

But apparently, linguists currently keep ḥdd ("sharp") and the proposed root of Hadad separate because they begin with different Proto-Semitic consonants (ḥ vs. h).

As I already said, in Stone, Bronze and Iron Age, striking was the universal method by which cutting tools were produced or improved, whether in stone, bronze, or iron. That makes "striker" and "maker of sharp edges" naturally adjacent concepts in many ancient cultures, even if they are not always etymologically identical.

As I said already, stone axes are made by striking a large flint nodule in such a way that small chips of stone are gradually removed until a sharp axe shaped blade is produced. 

Now if, while making a stone axe, you strike, hit a flint nodule with a pyrite nodule, cause you just happened to have picked this particular shiny stone to use as knapping stone, you will generate a spark, a mini lightning, strong enough to light combustable dry material and start fire...

Here is a video showing how this is done

In several of my posts I asked the question: How old is the connection between stone axes and thunder gods?

In my 2019 post "Sun stones", about ceremonies with exploding flint axes performed in Late Neolithic Vasagård site located on the southern side of the island of Bornholm, Denmark, I suggested that this link between a stone, more specifically flint axes, and thunder gods, already existed in the 4th millennium BC Europe...

In my post "Oldest symbolic monument" which I wrote last year, I suggested that the link between flint axes and lightning could be 40,000 to 160,000 old. At least based on "the oldest symbolic monument, that is to say, one with no obvious practical use and probably responding to a belief", which, according to this article is this pile of stones piled up next to a spring at El Guettar (Southern Tunisia) which has flint nodules placed on top of a pile of other round stones...

Round stones (like sling stones), falling (being thrown) from the sky...Where did I hear about this before? All over the place actually. I talked about this in my post "Cetus",  "Mithras", "Rudra"...

In Ireland, that was the speciality of Lugh...

But the latest archaeological discovery indicates that it is possible that this link already existed 400,000 years ago. According to this paper Neandertals struck chunks of iron pyrite against flint to light campfires - the oldest evidence of humans intentionally making fire. And the flint pieces found were actually flint axes...

Did Neanderthals link stone axes with lightning? Anyway...

Remember this:

A blacksmith has to strike his anvil with his hammer on every Christmas morning before sunrise. If he doesn't do it, his hammer and anvil should be broken and he and his family should be expelled from the tribe (medieval Vasojevići tribe law cannon, Montenegro)...

Striking anvil with hammer produces sparks and sparks create fire. And Christmas Day is the day when the fire of the sun gets rekindled (the old winter solstice, the rebirth of the sun and solar year)...

This is what Yule log rituals are all about...

A toast to yule log, Dalmatia, 1893. South Slavs believed that yule log was the earthly seat of god,  addressed it with utmost respect and made sacrifices to it, during cutting, bringing in, burning...

I talked about this in my posts "Badnjak", about Yule log customs in the Balkans, "La buche de Noel", about Yule log customs in France and "Yule log in English tradition", about Yule log customs in England. 

BTW, you need an axe to cut a Yule log...

Everything indicates that the Yule log ceremonies are solar ceremonies. But why was Oak, the holy tree of Perun, The Thunder God, used as Badnyak (Yule Log)? 

To understand the link between the heart fire, yule log, thunder god and the sun, you need to check this out:

"It is a great secret how Svarog (heavenly and earthly fire) is at the same time Perun (thunder) and Svetovid (Sun)"...

Mathis (Matthias) Gerung, The Mighty Angel with the Little Book (Revelation 10), illuminated miniature on parchment in the Ottheinrich Bible, vol. 8, fol. 293r, c. 1530–1532 AD. Collection: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich...

Apparently, no one knows what this image really represents. I think it represents this:

Modern science has confirmed that it is indeed (heavenly) fire of the Sun which through Lightning descends to earth and becomes (earthly) Fire. I talked about this in my post "Sun Thunder Fire"...

So this is why the Yule Log is an Oak Log.

An Oak Yule Log (The Holy Tree of the Thunder Gods) is placed in the house hearth, the seat of the Earthly Fire on Christmas (Winter Solstice) eve to (symbolically) link it to the Sun's Fire...As long the Yule Log is burning, these two fires are (symbolically) connected and on Christmas (Winter Solstice) morning, the earth fire will (symbolically) ascend from the hearth to the sun and will restart the sun's fire...

BTW, this is how Ancient Greeks symbolically depicted the same thing:

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

What does this mean? Sun (Apollo, Helios) creates Fire (Hestia) through lightning (Zeus)...

I talked about this in my post "Having one mind with Zeus"...

Back to sparks:

In Serbia, one of the most important part of the Yule log ceremony was the sparks divination performed by the first footer, the luck bringer...I talked about this in my post "First Footer"...

The First Footer repeatedly "strikes" the fire to produce sparks. After each strike, he exclaims:

As many sparks, as much luck!

As many sparks, as much love!

As many sparks, as much health!

As many sparks, as much money!

This "creation of sparks by striking burning Oak (the sacred tree of the thunder gods) Yule log" seems to me to be symbolic enactment of the creation of lightning by the thunder god...

Smith "creating sparks by striking hot iron with a hammer" seems to me to have the same symbolic meaning and directly links smiths with thunder gods...

Which is why, I suppose, Thor wields a hammer...Like here on the 11th century Altuna Runestone...

But is Thor holding a hammer or a double axe?

You might find my post "Axe or hammer" interesting. It explors the origin of Thor's hammer (axe?) Mjǫllnir and its relation with Perun's axe: 

Anyway, this is all important to know if you want to understand the following:

So the father of the Irish smith god Goibniu was the sky god, Tuirenn, the Thrower of Axes (thunderbolts)...

Guess whose father was Goibniu? Lugh's...

According to an Irish legend, Balor hears a prophecy that he would be killed by his grandson. 

To avoid his fate, he locks his only daughter, Ethnea (Eithne), in a tower to keep her from becoming pregnant. 

Balor goes to the mainland and steals the magical cow of abundance Glas Gaibhnenn belonging to Cian. 

Cian learns he can only get the cow back when Balor is dead, so he manages to secretly enter the tower, finds Ethnea and impregnates her. 

When she gives birth to three sons, Balor orders the three to be drowned, but one survives without Balor's knowledge. 

The kid, Lugh, is fostered by a smith who is also Lugh's uncle. 

Balor eventually encounters his grandson by chance and is killed by him.

That magical cow of abundance Glas Gaibhnenn, was in other Irish legends said to have belonged to one of several figures variously named Gavida, Gavigan, Gaibhlen, identified as smiths, and believed to be Goibniu in disguise and who were in some way involved in the conception of Lugh.

BTW, the name of the magic cow Glas Gaibhnenn means "grey cow of the smith (god)", basically a rain cloud of the sky god...

Heavenly cows (rain clouds) are a common mythological image found all over Eurasia. 

In Indian mythology we find story about Indra's cows (rain clouds) being stolen by Panis demons who also steal sunlight (it is the sun that creates the wet summer monsoon) and hidden "inside the mountain" (Himalayas create up-drift which pulls the moist air from the sea). 

I talked about the Indian monsoon mechanism in these posts: "Vayu", "Maruts", "Mahishasuramardini"...

The cows are found by Indra's hound (the wet summer monsoon peaks during the Dog Days, Jul/Aug)...

Why are dog days in Jul/Aug?

When our mythologies were made out of animal calendar markers, Sirius, the Dog Star rose with the sun in Jul/Aug, when mating season of the old dog breeds began...

We find this embedded into myths in:

Egypt: Article about "Dog days"...

Mesopotamia: Article about "Tishtrya"...

India: Article about "The bitch of the gods"...

Anyway...

In Slavic mythology we find Perun (thunder) who every year fights Veles (dragon, burning sun) who steals heavenly cows (rain clouds) from Perun...And every year Perun triumphs over Veles and rescues his heavenly cows... 

In Ireland we find Balor (dragon, burning sun) who steals "grey cow of the smith (god)", from a smith or someone related to a smith (god) so the smith (god) impregnates Balor's daughter, whose son, Balor's grandson, eventually kills Balor by striking his burning eye with a shiny (sling) stone, after which the cow of abundance is returned to the smith (god)...And this also happens in...Jul/Aug...Which is the peak thunderstorm season in Ireland... 

Soo....

What do you think, cool?

Ultime grida dalla savana

Petroglyph, Wadi Mathendous, Libya

After the mandatory giggle, let's think what this image could represent?

Remember this? "We owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact it rains".

My guess is that in places like Libya, where life depends on rain, life is created by Sky (Father) inseminating (raining on) Earth (Mother)...

I talked about this in several of my posts: "Riddle", "Living nature", "An Ki Ankh"

Srbska zagonetka: Visok otac, široka majka = nebo i zemlja 🙂

Serbian riddle: Tall (high) father, wide mother = sky and earth 🙂

Father Sky and Mother Earth creating Life, preserved in Serbian tradition.

Because of the above identification of Sky = Father = Male and Earth = Mother = female, in many cultures around the world we find symbolic and ritual linking between:

Male fertility (ability to produce semen), sky fertility (ability to produce rain), seed and sowing...

Female fertility (ability to conceive after being inseminated), earth fertility (ability to grow plants after them being sown), fruit and harvesting...

I talked about this in my post "Sowing", in which I discussed this strange Serbia custom: In Serbia in the past people lived in extended families called "zadruga". When grain needed to be sown, the family would choose one man to do all the sowing. He had to abstain from sex from that moment until all the seeds were sown...

This brings me to a great Italian documentary I saw years ago, "Ultime grida dalla savana" ( Final Cry of the Savanna) which was in 1975 directed by Antonio Climati and Mario Morra...

And in it, if my memory is serving me right, they showed men from some African tribe, ritually inseminating Mother Earth, by each digging a small hole in the ground, lying down over it and...

Basically ritually playing the role of the Sky Father...

Rudra

Ok, buckle up, this is going to be quite a ride🙂

Maruts came (to earth) along with Agni (fire) from above...

The other day I read a very interesting paper "Comets and meteoritic showers in the Rigveda and their significance" by R.N. Iyengar

Most Vedas interpreters agree that Maruts are deified moisture laden monsoon storm winds, turned into rain bringing deities armed with thunder and lightning. Even I agree with that and I even wrote this post, "Maruts" talking about this through analysis of this 7th c. Maruts relief, Sambor Prei Kuk, Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia.

But, the Mysore Palace edition of the Rigveda, which gives in 36 volumes an exhaustive introduction, the text, traditional meaning, ritual application, grammatical explanation, and the Sanskrit commentary of Sâyan says that: Vâyu (winds) and Maruts are distinctly different...

And so in the above paper, R.N. Iyengar proposes that Maruts were, in the oldest layers of Rigveda, a deified meteorite shower, resulting from a close encounter of Earth with a comet. And I actually agree with his proposal...

So...I can hear you ask, you believe that Maruts are deified storms and deified meteorite shower? Actually I do. It will all make sense at the end of this post. So read on...

Here are some things that Vedas tell us about Maruts, and which R.N. Iyengar interpreted as description of a meteorite shower, resulting from Earth's close encounter with a comet. You can find a lot more in his article. It's well worth reading...

Agni was born (among gods, in the sky) bright like the sun and was moving in the night sky along with smoke. After that Maruts were born with great commotion holding shining spears. Then the Maruts stood surrounding Agni with their lights.

Maruts then came (to earth) along with Agni from above. They are visible at a distance shining like stars. They come down in thousands to earth together. They are shaped like drops and are bright like fires. They gleam like serpents as they approach the earth.

They roar as they fly towards on the ground. The whole world is afraid to look at them during their brightened travel. They move/shake/crash the hills and mountains and disturb the oceans.

A flash of bright light, the sound of explosions - what witnesses report and cameras captured as a meteor broke apart as it entered the atmosphere...

They have an epithet "asurâh", which, apparently, means "one who throws". The material of the weapons of Maruts is made clear by Agastya in: "Far be from us, your impetuous shaft. Far from us be the stone you hurl". So Maruts are deities which "throw stones towards earth".

I love this in particular: They can bring "airless showers to deserts" (apprently, an intense meteoritic shower can make the target region airless for some time).

The author concludes that: Three broad phases can be discerned in the description of Maruts. 

The first, probably the earliest in time, are hymns which express awe at the approach of Maruts. These also express a sense of fear that Maruts are prone to kill people on earth.

In the second group are prayers that the shower of stones may avoid the worshippers of Maruts. 

The third layer contains hymns wherein Maruts are invoked to arrive at a prayer or worship.

It may not be wrong to conjecture that this trend should have been directly matching with the frequency of the storms of Maruts.

As Maruts were constant companions of Indra, the author concludes that originally Indra was the equivalent of the Celestial Agni and the personification of the comet which created the Maruts meteorite shower.

A point to be reconciled is the meaning of Maruts as storm wind deities in later literature. We guess, with the status of Indra getting downgraded in time to a mere rain god, Maruts always linked with Indra, were also brought down as wind deities.

This has happened notwithstanding the fact parjanya and vâyu are the independent rain and wind deities in Rigveda. One reason for this mismatch should be the absence of recognisable Indra and Maruts in the skies...

Important!!! I would beg to disagree with the last sentence...

Evidence for the evolution of the concept of Indra from the concrete to the abstract is found in RV itself. In the hymn (VI.21.4) the poet wonders: "Where the famous Indra is now located? Where he travels, among what people? What prayers summon him? Indra!"

In many hymns of RV Maruts are said to be the children of Rudra...The author concludes that "It is most likely that Maruts were thought to originate from a particular object or constellation in the sky, called Rudra".

This object, which has not been identified yet, could, according to the author, be planet Mars??? Cause Rudra is red and Mars is red...

Eeeeee....This makes no sense...Considering that he spends the whole paper talking about comets...Why Mars? Why not a comet?

I think that Rudra was originally another name for the same comet which the author thinks was named Agni and Indra. I mean in Rigveda Rudra was called He Who shines like [the] Sun, He Who shines like gold, He Who has [long] matted/braided hair...

Sadhu (holy man) ritual during the holy bathing for Magh Mela, an annual festival that celebrates the beginning of the universe...

What does this remind you of?

I mean...

Anyway...Who's Rudra?

Rudra (the roaring one, the wild one, the terrible one, the red, burning one) is a Rigvedic deity who is praised as the "mightiest of the mighty" and described as "extremely terrifying".

Rudra is one of several deities identified with Agni, most likely the same celestial Agni, the comet, who was said to give birth to Maruts...

Rudra is also called asura (the one who throws). Actually he was called "The great asura of heaven"...Significant I think 🙂

He was so feared, that in Rigveda he was often not named and was referred as "asau devam" (that god) and was given the adjective śiva (shiva) in the sense of "propitious" or "kind".

Rudra is also called Śarva (the archer), Dhanvin (bowman) and Bāṇahasta (Armed with a hand-full of arrows) and bow and arrow are his essential attributes. RV declare that Rudra discharges "brilliant shafts which run about the heaven and the earth" (RV 7.46.3)...

I talked about another heavenly archer in my post "Invisible archer":

If arrows are shooting down from the night sky, there must be an [invisible] archer standing somewhere up there shooting them out of his bow...

Orionid meteorite shower

Orion

An example of an ancient "scientific" explanation for an annual natural event...

Even the gods were afraid of the strung bow and the arrows of Rudra, lest he should destroy them...Sounds familiar? It should. Remember my post "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..."

Why was everyone so frightened of Apollo and his bow and arrows?

So, the Earth survived the near collision with the comet. It was most likely already broken into 3 really big bits as it approached Earth, which could be the reason why Rudra/Shiva has 3 eyes or 3 heads/faces. Three-headed Shiva, Gandhara, 2nd century AD.

As the comet passed by earth, comet either further disintegrated into many smaller but still big enough bits which could create the chaos described in Vedas...

These large comet bits fell on Earth causing all the death and destruction described in the Vedas. And then every following year the Earth flew through the comet's path full of debris which kept producing a meteorite shower full of destructive large meteorites.

Eventually, after who knows how many years, all the big bits fell down on Earth. And as time passed, the stories about the terrifying Rudra (the comet) and his murderous children Rudras (the large meteorites) turned from history to myths. 11 Rudras, Udayagiri Caves, c. 401 AD...

And now Rudra is indeed just the name for the area of the sky from which the Rudras/Maruts meteorite shower (still) emanates every year.

Important!!!

And the later Vedic texts corroborate the above points. The Taittirîya Brâhmana states that "There is only one Rudra and the innumerable thousands Rudra’s children, and that they are not seen any more but only remembered"...

At the end of his paper, R.N. Iyengar says: This raises the question whether Marut was a generic word for all types of meteoritic activity or it referred to particular types. This can not be answered definitively at present.

Well, I think it can.  Here comes the interesting bit:

In his paper R.N. Iyengar talks about the fact that the Taittirîya Âranyaka, says that Rudras appear in the grîsma-rtu, the two month before summer solstice and the Maruts appear in the hemanta-rtu, the two months before winter solstice.

That would make Rudras = Aquarids meteorite shower which falls in May and Maruts = Orionids meteorite shower which falls in Oct/Nov, both result of the Earth crossing the debris full path of the Haley comet, which swings by Earth every 75 to 76 years.

And that would make Rudra the Halley comet...I talked about Halley comet in my post "Grandmother's clubs" and "Jack and the magic beans"...

Why was Orion seen by Ancient Greeks as a "the greatest hunter" armed with a cudgel (club)? And why do Bulgarians call Orion "cudgels (clubs)" and why do Serbs call Orion "Baba's (grandmother's) sticks" and all the stars "Baba's (grandmother's) cudgels (clubs)"?

Maybe because of this

Wow, amazing, we solved the identity of Rudra/Agni/Indra and the identity of Rudras/Maruts and we resolved the ancient dilemma whether Rudras and Maruts are one and the same or different. They are both...

Done and dusted...

Weeeeeeell...It all fits except for one tiny thing...

The above interpretation doesn't fit Indian climate and is therefore wrong...You know whose climate it fits? Mesopotamian. Perfectly...But that is a completely different archer...I explained it all in this in my post "Invisible archer" I already mentioned earlier...There the rains arrive when Orion appears in the night sky, right when the rains start, rains that kill drought caused by the sun of the dry season. 

Hence, Great Archer killing Sun...I talked about this in my posts "Invisible archer" and "Moon god Nana/Sin"

An example of an ancient "scientific" explanation for an annual natural event...

So, we can't just take parts of Rigveda that describe Indra and Maruts as respectively comets and meteorite showers and ignore the other parts where they are clearly described as storm/rain deities directly linked with annual monsoon.

Every year, Indra and Maruts slay Vritra, the drought dragon. In India, Orionids mark the beginning of the dry season and Aquarids mark the end of the dry season. Neither of them can be Rudras/Maruts, the bringers of rain. Which means that Helley comet can't be Rudra/Indra.

So who were/are Rudra/Indra and Rudras/Maruts? I think that Rudra/Indra is deified comet Swift–Tuttle and that Rudras/Maruts are deified Perseids meteor shower. Why?

Perseids meteor shower peaks in Jul/Aug, the same time when the monsoon rains peak in India. This means that Rudras (meteor shower) can also be Maruts (thunderstorm shower)...

See I told you it will all make sense in the end...

The comet Swift–Tuttle, whose trail of debris is the source of the Perseid meteor shower, is on an orbit that makes repeated close approaches to the Earth–Moon system...

It seams that (at least) once, it came too close to the Earth, and this terrifying close encounter was eventually deified as the birth of Rurdra/Indra/Agni in the sky...

That we are onto something here can be seen from this:

The abode of Rudra is commonly regarded as in the north, while that of the other gods is in the east. From "Vedic Mythology" by Macdonell, Arthur Anthony. This sounds strange until you realise that: "To see the Perseids meteors, you should look up and to the north"...

In Rgveda Rudra is described as "armed with a mace"...Why? Maybe because mace/club looks so much like a falling meteor...I talked about this in my post "Jack and the magic beans" about "might smiters". 

Baal with his battle mace...

But he is mostly seen as an archer, who is still there, shooting arrows that cause plague and other infectious disease...Rudra, just like Apollo, was believed to both inflict and cure infectious diseases...

I talked about this side of Apollo in my post "Apollo Sminthius"...

Coin depicting Apollo Sminthius (Apollo lord of the mice) with his plague causing bow and a mouse/rat at his feet. Minted in Alexandria, Troas/Troad. Around 300 AD. Currently in The British Museum, Department of Coins. London...

The peak plague/infectious diseases season is Jul/Aug, the peak Monsoon season and the peak Perseid meteor shower season...So this again points at Rudra being comet Swift–Tuttle and Rudras being Perseid meteor shower.

One other thing. In "The Presence of Siva" by S. Kramrisch we can read this about Rudra:

So Rudra is (directly linked to) Sirius. Which rises with the sun in Jul/Aug. At the peak of the Perseid meteor shower...

in "Vedic Mythology" by Macdonell, Arthur Anthony we can read that Rig Veda tells us about Rudra's widemouthed, howling dogs, who swallow their prey unchewed...Sirius is also linked to dogs and dog days. I talked about it in these posts:

When our mythologies were made out of animal calendar markers, Sirius, the Dog Star rose with the sun in Jul/Aug, when mating season of the old dog breeds began...

Egypt "Dog days", Mesopotamia "Tishtrya", India "The bitch of the gods"

And Sirius in Jul/Aug is finally linked to archers and bows and arrows, not just in India, where we find Rudra, but also in Greece (Apollo/Artemis). I mentioned Apollo the archer earlier. 

I talked about Artemis, Apollo's twin seister, the archer in my post "Artemis Orthia"... 

Mesopotamia (Ninurta/Ishtar, bow and arrow constellation). I talked about this in my post "The brightest star"

Egypt Sopdet=Satis

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. 

I talked about Sopdet/Satis in my post "Sirius mother of Venus"...

China (Bow and arrow constellation)...

But also, I wonder...Do these Chinese legends have anything to do with the Comet too? 

The legend about the 10 Sun Crows, depicted on a relief from the Wu family shrine, dated to 151AD. 

The Fusang mulberry tree, the Sun Goddess Xihe hitching her Dragon Horse into the Sun Chariot, and Archer Yi who takes aim at the Sun Crows...

I talked about this in my post "Three legged crows"...

This might finally answer my question: Why was Sirius deemed so important that everyone seems to have tracked it? Maybe because it's heliacal rising announced the arrival of the Terrible Archer, who (at least for a while) terrorised people all over the world every Jul/Aug...

It also explains why rising of Sirius was announcing the beginning of the time of fires and why Sirius was called The Scorcher...

July/Aug is the hottest time of the year in the northern hemisphere, so that could explain it...But maybe the "Fire that descends from the sky" also had something to do with such Sirius's reputation...

Anyway...I think this is enough for tonight...

So, what do you think? For the end I just want to send my regards to Perseus...

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...