Resurrection of the Maize god

Codex-style plate depicting the rebirth of the Maize god. Maya, Late Classic Period. 680–740AD...Currently kept in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston...

In this article I would like to analyse the scene description which says:

"Maize god emerges from the Underworld through a cracked turtle shell, symbolizing the earth. The Hero Twins pour water onto their father to facilitate his resurrection, as Maya farmers water maize seeds to help them sprout"...

So corn god "emerging from the Underworld" is a symbolic depiction of a corn sprouting...So when does corn sprout in the Maya land? In the 1848 book "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. I" by John L. Stephens we read that:

"In the dry season...Jan/Feb...a place is selected in the woods, from which the trees are cut down and burned. In...May/Jun...the corn is planted...by making little holes in the ground with a pointed stick, putting in a few grains of corn and covering them over..."

Local farmers in the old Maya lands even today plant corn in Apr/May/Jun, with planting season peaking in May...And, it takes only 4 days at 25 degrees celsius or more for corn to sprout...

Soooo...Turtle...Why "emerging through cracked turtle shell"...

Any guesses? Maaaaaybe this is another animal calendar marker, derived from a major turtle annual reproductive lifecycle event? 

Bingo...

When Maya made their mythology, every year, from May to Sep, thousands and thousands of sea turtles descended on the beaches of Central America to lay their eggs...They still do today...

Guess what happens in Maya land, right when the first turtle comes to lay its eggs, in May? Corn planting begins...

Guess what happens in Maya land right when the last turtle lays its eggs, in Oct? Corn harvest begins...

So corn god "emerging through cracked turtle shell"...

I am sure that turtles were a major food source for the Mayas...You can only hunt turtles during their nesting season, which is also corn growing season...And to get to the turtle meet you have to break the turtle's shell...

BTW, this is not the only place in the world where we find turtles (tortoises) as animal calendar markers...

Remember this article about turtles in Indian mythology? 

About earth being carried by four elephants standing on the back of a giant turtle (tortoise)? From my article "Turtles all the way"...

And these articles about turtles in Sumerian mythology?

"The keel of Enki's little boat was trembling as if it were being butted by turtles"...From my article "Enki's little boat"...That must have been some scary turtle, cause "Against Ninurta [Thunder god], Enki fashions a turtle"...From my article "Ninurta and the turtle"...

And this article from Greek mythology?

About "The lyre of Apollo" made out of turtle (tortoise) shell and bull horns? 

All these turtles from all these legends turned out to be animal calendar markers linked with fertility of the land and grain agriculture in their respective areas...

So no surprises here then.

This is the House of the Turtles in Umaxl was a Mayan temple which has been named such because of the turtles which adorn the top of the building. The turtle in Mayan mythology/religion represented creation.

Hmmm...The description says "...turtles were associated with rain and the earth's cycles..." 

No one knows why...Maybe because sea turtles come to Maya land to nest during rain season? I

Now what about "The Hero Twins pour water onto their father to facilitate his resurrection"? 

Well here we have to look at the climate in the Maya territory. Here is Yucatan climate chart...It is hot year-round. The wet season usually starts in Jun and ends in Oct...

See how rain season proper starts in Jun, right after the planting of corn? Do you know of any twins which like to hang around Jun? I do...All the horse twins from Eurasia...I talked about it in my post "Hayagriva"...

They mark summer solstice...The moment which marks the middle of the solar year. Solar year which starts when the old sun dies and is reborn as the new sun, on winter solstice...Two halves...Twins?

Mayan calendar also started on winter solstice...And considering that in Maya land, the time of the twins, Jun/Jul, is also the time when the rains arrive, we have the twins (rain season) pouring water on the resurrecting (growing) corn (god)...

BTW, this just reminded me of another pair of twins...Well actually it's a single god, Hapi, the god of the annual flooding of the Nile, who was "often depicted as twins, tying papyrus and lotus flowers together". I talked about him/them 🙂 here, in my post "Lotus and papyrus"...

In my article I said that "this depiction of Hapi as twins, is depiction of flooding Nile, which rises between flowering of papyrus and flowering of lotus, when it floods...

But I completely missed the fact that in the middle of this period between flowering of papyrus (Apr/May) and flowering of lotus (Jul/Aug) is Summer solstice...The twins central...🙂

Does this make sense? 

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...

Turtles all the way

In Hindu mythology, the earth is supported by four elephants standing on the back of a turtle. 

It's Diskworld by Terry Pratchett. He stole his Diskworld idea from the Hindus...For a laugh...Cause he thought it was the most idiotic world myth there was...Bonkers, right? Complete nonsense, right? 

Not if you look at turtle and elephants as animal calendar markers: It's all a complex calendar marker for the monsoon season...

Elephants:

Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...

Which is why Indra, the thunder and rain god, rides on a white elephant...

I wrote about elephant as an animal calendar marker in India in these articles: "Musth", "Samantabhadra", "Modesty", "Ganesha".

Turtles:

There are many turtle and tortoise species in India. So which one is "The World Turtle"? Apparently, The World Turtle is the reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu...And Hindus believe that the animal in question is Indian Star Tortoise. You can read about it in this paper "A star attraction: The illegal trade in Indian Star Tortoises"... 

And Indian Star Tortoises mate during monsoon season. You can read about it in this paper "Husbandry Guidelines For Indian Star Tortoise" 

It is very interesting that this sacred tortoise of Vishnu, Kurma, is associated "with the sun"...Vishnu has tendencies to be associated with solar animals...I talked about this in my article about Solar Horse Hayagriva, also Vishnu avatar...

But equally tortoise was believed to be "The lord of waters" and "The sap of life". You can read about it in this article "Tortoise in the Vedic mythology and ritual"...

Why is this important? Cause the monsoon season in India is the sunniest, hottest time of the year in India...

So I don't think that in this legend, the earth is really "The Earth"...It is more like Life giving earth...Apparently, Prajapati, the Procreator, took the shape of a turtle when creating all living beings...

So that's one possible explanation...But maybe I am wrong and this is all just a bonkers story that makes no sense...

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...

Lyre of Apollo

Seated Apollo with laurel wreath, holding a lyre and pouring a libation. Attic white-ground kylix. Found in Delphi and dated c. 460BC. Archaeological Museum of Delphi...

In this post I would like to talk about this lyre...Its origin, and its symbolism...

First, according to the "Homeric hymn 4 to Hermes", this lyre was given to Apollo by his younger brother Herms...In exchange Apollo gave Hermes caduceus...All very important... Symbolically... But why did this exchange of gifts take place? Remember this post, "When grapes flower" in which I figured out Hermes's birthday?

 

This post is an analysis of (some) animal and plant calendar markers contained in the "Homeric hymn 4 to Hermes" which describes what Hermes did the day he was born (4th of May, when grapes flower)...

What Hermes did on the day he was born, was steal Apollo's cows. 

He then invented fire drill, made fire, and sacrificed one of the cows to the gods...I talked about this in my post "12 Olympians" about (apparently inexplicable 🙂) link between Hermes and Hestia (fire)... 

Apollo eventually caught Hermes and called on Zeus to decide how this "situation" should be resolved...And Zeus decided that they should shake hands and make friends, hence the exchange of presents...

But where did Hermes get the lyre? Well, he invented it...He made it himself...Apparently, as soon as he was born, he ran out of the cave he was born in, and at the entrance he saw a tortoise crawling in the grass...

He then "...killed the tortoise and cleaned its shell. He cut stalks of reed to measure and fixed them, fastening their ends across the back and through the shell of the tortoise, and then stretched ox hide all over it by his skill..."

"...Also he put in the horns and fitted a cross-piece upon the two of them, and stretched seven strings of sheep-gut...[then] he proved each string in turn with the key...At the touch of his hand it sounded marvelously..."

Here is a reconstructed 5th-4th century BC lyre found in Athens in parts. Currently in the British Museum...

Obviously based on the original design by Hermes...

Now, what if I told you that the lyre made by Hermes was a complex animal calendar marker for the day when Hermes was born, the 4th of May, mid Taurus...

If you have never heard of animal and plant calendar markers you would tell me I was mad...But if you did hear of them...

If you did hear of animal and plant calendar markers, you know that they mark important event from the annual cycle of the depicted animal or plant: mating, birthing, migration, flowering, fruiting...

So...the lyre's sound box was made of a tortoise shell.

The most common type of tortoise from Mediterranean, Greek tortoise, mates in Greece in Apr/May, in Taurus...When Hermes was born...

The sound box made from the tortoise shell was then covered with stretched ox hide. 

After making the sound box, Hermes then attached horns to it...No explanation what that means...But judging by the shape of the lyre horns, I can bet that these were Auroch horns...

Here I want to thank @realVoxVulgaris for posting this in one of his twitter threads: 

It is a natural thing to believe the curves were "flat", extending mostly outwards like on paintings but a couple of rare sideviews show that they curved mostly frontwards. Maybe best represented on this, the (Roman archaicising) Heidelberg Votive Lyre

See, shaped like bull horns...

Taurus marks the beginning of the calving season of the wild Eurasian Auroch cattle...

I talked about this in many of my posts, for instance this one, "Cow an calf ivory"...

Anyway, after creating the lyre frame, Hermes then attached 7 strings to the lyre...Why 7? The Poeticon astronomicon attributed to Hyginus says:

"...[Hermes], when he invented the lyre on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, gave it seven strings, from the number of Atlas's daughters [Pleiades], of whom his mother, Maia was one"...

Pleiades, which at the time when the Homeric hymn to Hermes was written, rose with the sun at the beginning of May, when Hermes was born...

Oh, and the first song Hermes sang with his lyre was about his mum...

But also, 7 months of summer (hot dry half of the year) which starts in Apr/May, in Taurus???

BTW, Orphic hymn to Apollo says:

"[Apollo, You are] the cause of the blooming of all things; with your...lyre you harmonize...the heavens...You have arranged the highest three strings in the winter, the lowest in the summer...The middle one in spring...

Now, he used sheep guts for strings...Remember my post "Aries must die" about shepherd's rituals performed on St George's day, in which I explained why rams are sacrificed to St George, the end of Aries and the beginning of Taurus? 

Aries must die (end) so Taurus can begin...BTW Aries marks the end of the lambing and the beginning of the sheep Milking season season. And Taurus marks the beginning of the calving and cow milking season...

And if we look at the lyre which Hermes made, its parts mark this super important part of the year for shepherds...Hence, Good Shepherd...

Interesting, right? Considering that after Hermes made the magic lyre, he stole Apollo's cows...In the middle of Taurus...

Which eventually lead to in exchange of gifts between Apollo and Hermes: Hermes gave Apollo the lyre (complex animal calendar marker for Apr/May) and Apollo gave Hermes "shepherd's staff" which is to become caduceus...

Now according to the Greek and Roman tradition, caduceus was a staff made from either bay laurel (Apollo's sacred plant) or olive wood...

Interestingly, both bay laurel (L) and olive (R) flower in Greece in Apr/May...

Which one is more suited to adorn the sun god? 🙂 I would definitely pick laurel...

Hermes used the shepherd staff Apollo gave him to separate two fighting snakes. They coiled around his staff in perfect harmony, creating the familiar caduceus tip...

Interestingly, most common snakes in Greece mate in Apr/May, when males engage in ritualised fights that once were interpreted falsely as mating ceremonies... 

I talked about this in my post "Who were Persephone's parents"...

Soooo, Hermes gave Apollo lyre, complex animal calendar marker for Apr/May...And in exchange, Apollo gave Hermes caduceus, a complex animal and plant calendar marker for...Apr/May...Beginning of summer, the time of the year dominated by the sun, Apollo...

But why would Hermes, messenger of Zeus, carry a staff which is a calendar marker for Apr/May? Cause the messenger (the voice of) Zeus is thunder/lightning...I talked about this in my post about Iris, another messenger of Zeus (also carries caduceus 🙂) ...

And so Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, the one who announces Zeus, carries the staff made from the wood of trees which flower in Apr/May, around which are coiled snakes which mate in Apr/May, cause in Greece, the thunderstorm season starts in...Apr/May...

I talked about this in my post "Eagle and snake struggle"...

So when Greek poet Alcaeus in his hymn to Apollo written by the 6th c. BC says that it was Zeus who gave Apollo his lyre, this actually doesn't change anything in the interpretation of the lyre as a complex animal calendar marker for Apr/May...

Sooo...Cool, right? 

Oh look! Hermes with both the lyre and the caduceus...Thief...

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...

Enki's little boat

The boat journey of the god Enki (cylinder seal impression, ca. 2300–2150 BCE). Source: W. H. Ward, The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia...

There is a very strange part in the Mesopotamian poem called "Gilgameš, Enkidu and the nether world"...

It goes like this: 

"...When he set sail...when Enki set sail for the nether world, against the lord a storm...arose...The waves at the bow of the boat rose to devour the lord like wolves and the waves at the stern of the boat were attacking Enki like a lion..."

So first, why would Enki be going to the netherworld? On a boat? And is the choice of animals, to which the waves are compared, significant? Let me see I can find answers to these questions...

As I explained in my article "Shamash young and old", Enki is the god of the source of fresh water...And the god of flood...Annual flood of the Tigris and Euphrates. Which is why he is depicted with two streams of water full of fish (rivers) coming out of him...

The water levels of Tigris and Euphrates start rising sharply in Jan/Feb, at the beginning of spring, peak in Apr/May, at the end of spring, beginning of summer, and then start falling sharply until Jul/Aug, the end of summer...

Annual flow charts:

Tigris

Euphrates

Oh, by the way, Enki is standing on the bull, because the annual flood peaks in Apr/May...The time when wild Eurasian cattle start to calve...Which is marked by Taurus...An ancient animal calendar marker. Which had originally nothing to do with stars...I talked about this in my article "Ram and bull"

The time of the flood is when large tracts of Mesopotamia used to be submerged, making boats the only viable means of transport...So Enki, the god of flood, in a boat...

The climatic year in Mesopotamia is divided into two halves: summer, hot and dry half (Apr/May-Oct/Nov) and winter, cool and wet half (Oct/Nov-Apr/May)...

The end of the flood, Jul/Aug, Leo, is the hottest and driest part of the hot and dry half of the year. The lair of the fire breathing dragons...Depicted as winged lions...I talked about this in my article "Is that you Gilgamesh"...

These winged lions were most likely derived from lions with sun heat waves radiating from their back...Basically symbolically saying: dragon is the sun in Leo, the hottest, driest part of the year...I talked about this in my article "Nude winged hero dominating snakes"...

Sometimes the dragons were depicted as beasts with lion's body and 7 snake heads...Snake is the symbol of sun's heat...And there are 7 of them, because old Sumerian summer (🙂), hot dry season, had 7 months. So dragon = hot dry season...I talked about this in my article "Seven headed dragon"...

Leo, the hottest, driest part of the year, is is also where we find Nergal...The god of death, and the husband of Ereshkigal, the goddess of the underworld...Standing on a lion, holding lion scepter, being a lion...Or being a winged lion, dragon...I talked about this in my article "Winged super human hero"...

Nergal is standing at the gates of hell...The hottest and driest part of the year, when nature dies...And this is exactly where the annual flood, Enki, is going...This is the end of Enki's journey...The end of the annual flood...

But what about the wolf and lion attacking the two opposite ends of Enki's boat...

Eurasian wolves main mating season starts in Jan...At the beginning of the annual flood...

Eurasian lions main mating season starts in Aug...At the end of the annual flood...

So the wolf and lion would be at the opposite ends of the Enki's boat...Of Enki's flood...Which starts when wolves mate, peaks when aurochs calve and ends when lions mate...

Oh, did I say that in the same chapter of the "Gilgameš, Enkidu and the nether world" we also read that "The keel (middle) of Enki's little boat was trembling as if it were being butted by turtles" 🙂

Guess when the terrible Mesopotamian turtles, you know that ones that Enki "unleashed" against Ninurta  mate? In Apr/May, middle, peak of the flood...I talked about this in my article "Ninurta and the turtle"...

BTW, that star, above the end of the Enki's boat...That's Sirius, which rises with the sun, the destructive, deadly sun in Leo...Nergal...At the gates of hell...At the end of Enki's boat journey...At the end of his boat...

Sirius, rising before the sun, pretending to be "the morning star"... Otherwise known as Inanna/Ishtar "The queen of heaven"...The one that poses on the lion...In Leo...

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

So here you go...Hope you enjoyed this...I will get back to Nergal standing at the gates of hell in my next thread...Until then, as a Henry Miller once said: "drink cold, piss warm"...🙂

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...