Blinding of Polyphemus

This image shows an ancient Greek Laconian black-figure cup depicting Odysseus and his men blinding the giant Cyclops, Polyphemus. It was Made in Sparta, Greece, around 560–550 BC, and is currently in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Cabinet des Médailles) in Paris.

Official scene description:

Odysseus and four companions drive a long stake into the eye of the seated Cyclops, who holds a human leg, while a snake arches above them and a large fish is painted beneath the figures. 

Why is there a snake above and tuna below this image?

🙂

I would here like to present my argument that everything depicted on this black-figure cup, is a calendar marker for Apr/May, and that this is when the blinding of the giant Cyclops, Polyphemus took place...

So I will start my symbolic analysis with the snake:

Snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)...

I talked about snake as the solar symbol from around the world in many of my posts...

Apr/May, the beginning of summer (bright half of the year), is when most common Eurasian snakes, vipers, start mating, and fighting...

I talked about this in many of my posts...

Which is why snake is a common animal calendar marker for Apr/May...

Now, I am not the first to notice that a single eyed giant with a "round eye" sounds very much like a depiction of the Sun (God)...

Wilhelm Grimm in his 1857 "Die Sage von Polyphem" says

"If these indications establish a deeper meaning of the Polyphemus saga, then perhaps we can come still closer to its original form. What else do the mythical songs of ancient times sing about than the origin and destruction of the world, and, for as long as it endures, the never-resting movements of mighty but hostile forces? They are the struggles of the elements with one another, of heaven and the underworld, of summer and winter, of day and night, which are reflected again in moral oppositions of blessing and destruction, love and hatred, joy and sorrow. The opposition between the external, terrifying forces of nature and those that work quietly in secret, or, in moral terms, between brute force and cunning agility, is expressed in the myths of giants and dwarfs. In this I find the original content and meaning of the Polyphemus saga."

The paper is referenced in the 1860's "Der ursprung der mythologie, dargelegt an griechischer und deutscher sage"...

where the author states:

"He [Grimm] too understands the eye of Polyphemus, on p. 27, as the world-eye of the Sun itself."

In Ovid's Metamorphosis, Polyphemus, when talking to Galathea, says himself: 

"Upon my brow I have one single eye, but it is huge, like some vast shield. What then? Does not the mighty sun see from the sky all things on earth? Yet the sun's orb is one."

As I said, snake is a solar animal. And because it is in our world when the sun is war, it is also a symbol of sun's heat. 

BTW, do you see how the snake is crawling towards Poliphemus's eye (The Sun???) basically mimicking the movement of the spear that is blinding him? There is a Slavic belief that snakes "can bite Sun's eye and blind it"...

I talked about this in my post "The enemy of the sun"...

I wonder if such belief existed among Ancient Greeks, at the time when this cup was made?

So, next, let's have a look at tuna. 

The tuna fishing season in Mediterranean, is from Apr/May to Oct/Nov...With the peak in Jul/Aug...I talked about this in many of my posts. You can start here, my post "Tuna boats", about Early Cycladic "frying pan" (a type of artifact made in the Aegean Islands between c. 2700 and c. 2200 BC) depicting a boat and a tuna fish...

So we have Polyphemus (The Sun???), the son of Poseidon, being blinded in Apr/May, the beginning of bright hot half of the year, and the beginning of the tuna fishing season in Mediterranean...And the beginning of the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean, where Poseidon originated in Early Bronze Age...

I talk about the sailing season in Eastern Mediterranean and animal calendar markers for for its start, its peak and its end in many of my posts...

For instance, there is a reason why horse was the sacred animal of Poseidon (Greek) and Yamm (Phoenician) sea gods. Horse mating season, marked by vicious stallion fights over mares, overlaps with the sailing season in Eastern Mediterranean.  I talk about this in my posts Trojan horse, Three sacrifices...

Anyway, finally we come to sheep...and lambs...

Natural lambing season of both wild and domestic sheep spans which spans the whole of spring (Feb/Mar/Apr) ands in Apr/May, when the milking season begins...

I talked about this in many of my posts...

What does this have to do with Polyphemus?

Well Polyphemus was a shepherd, and his flock definitely contained lambs, and Homer is quite explicit about this.

When Odysseus and his men first enter Polyphemus' cave, they find:

"pens crowded with lambs...firstlings, later ones, and newborn separated..."

So the flock contains lambs of different ages, including newborns.

Homer then says:

"He [Polyphemus] drove his well-fed flocks into the wide cave, the ones he milked, leaving the rams…and then he milks the ewes and puts their young with them..."

This means that Polyphemus also milks the ewes, putting their young to them, which confirms that the lambs are actively suckling.

After Odysseus blinds Polyphemus, Homer says:

"The males of the flock hastened forth to pasture and the females bleated unmilked about the pens, for their udders were bursting..."

All of this, together with no mention of pregnant ewes, points at Polyphemus being blinded in Apr/May, the end of lambing and the beginning of the milking season...

So we have 

snake, animal calendar marker for Apr/May.

suckling lambs, animal calendar markers for Apr/May.

tuna, animal calendar marker for Apr/May.

So I will ask my question again: Why is there a snake above and tuna below this 560–550 BC depiction of the blinding of Polyphemus by Odysseus?  

🙂

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Dancing sun god

😂😂😂 Wow!!! Animation made by overlying two Celtic Silver Quinarius coins from Central Europe (Rhineland), minted between 65 BC - 1 AD, both featuring slightly different version of the same scenes:

Obv: dancing mannikin right, head turned left, holding snake in right hand [me: which is biting his nose], torque in left hand. 

Rev: horse standing right, head turned left [me: wandering WTF is going on on the other side of the coin]; around, zig zag border. 

Animation and data from this great page...

What I think is that the "dancing mannikin" is actually The Sun God. His spiky hair symbolising the sun rays. Just like here, on this coin of Alexander the Great depicting the face of Helios. 350-331 BC - British Museum, London...

That this is indeed The Sun God is indicated by the fact that he is holding a snake. Snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)...  

I talked about snake as the solar symbol from around the world in many of my posts...

BTW, because snake also spends half of the time in the underworld, snake is also a chthonic animal. So no contradiction here...

Just like the Sun God who also spends half of the time in the underworld, making the Sun God also a chthonic deity...

Think about this for now, will talk about this more soon...

Also, Apr/May, the beginning of summer, is when most common Eurasian snakes, vipers, start mating, and fighting...

I talked about this in many of my posts...

BTW, Hermes/Mercury, who features prominently in Celtic mythology, carries caduceus (staff with two intertwined snakes) because he himself was a deified calendar marker for Apr/May...Every single plant and animal that features prominently in his mythology is a calendar marker for Apr/May...I talk about Hermes/Mercury in these posts...

And remember the dual, solar/chthonic aspect of snakes? Which links them to both the land of living and the land of the dead, and makes them the messengers of the dead, the carriers of their will (prophecies)? This is why Apollo, who also features prominently in Celtic mythology, is associated with a (is basically a deified) snake...

I talk about the link between Apollo and Python (snake) in several posts: Apollo and Python, Marble throne of Apollo, Kassandra

Pic: Marble Throne of Apollo, Roman, late 1st c. AD. Currently in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Whoever made this, knew who Apollo really was and wanted to show Apollo in his true shape (serpent, dragon), sitting on his throne...

One last thing about snakes, solar animals number one, the symbols of sun's heat.

3rd millennium BC, Bactrian seal depicting the sun god (see heat rays emanating from his shoulders) holding snakes, symbols of sun's heat...

I talk about it in my post Nude winged hero dominating snakes...

Vipera Pythia, c. 1651, by Marco Aurelio Severino. Some people still knew what snakes were until recently. But for some reason this was a secret...

What about the horse? Horse (actually equid in general) is another animal calendar marker for summer. The fertility of equids is linked to sunlight. Which is why the mating of equids starts in Apr/May, lasts until Sep/Oct and peaks on Summer Solstice, and is characterised by wild stallion fights for mares...

I talked about this first in my post Trojan Horse...

This is why horse (actually equid in general) is together with snake one of the most widespread solar symbols. 

Here it is, sun above the midle of the horse (on summer solstice) depicted on a 

Roman coin

Celtic coin 

This is even better. Another Celtic coin, this time with the sun depicted as solar rider. See the spiky hair symbolising sun rays? With the sun god Apollo depicted on the other side...Eastern Europe. Hungary. 

BTW, this is another Celtic copy of a Macedonian coin...

This is why horse (actually equid in general) was the preferred ride of the sun gods (and kings who worshiped them) from Mesopotamia onwards...

Pic: Helios on a chariot pulled by 4 white horses. Apulian vase dated to 350BC

I talked about Horse (Equid) as a solar symbol in many of my posts. Here are just a few: 

Mesopotamia 

Shamash playing with solar horse

Sun god from Tell Brak 

Seven heads

Iran

Water carrier equid

Dioscuri plate from Iran

India 

Hayagriva

China 

Longma

Mythical beast from Xian

Europe 

Curlew

White stag

Archaic rider

Beotian solar Pyxis

Pegasus and Chimera

King John

Svetovid

Poseidon pursuing Demeter

Anatolia

Cilician Nergal

Levant 

Sun god from the first temple

Alexamenos graffito

Goddess on a horse

This is also why we find horse animal calendar marker disguised in our western Zodiac as Dioskuri, divine twin horsemen, marking the Summer Solstice. The guys who wanted to marry "the daughters of the white horse". 

I talked about the horse twins in my post Little horses

O yeah, almost forgot. Unicorn is also a solar symbol, symbol of summer. 

I talked about this in several of my posts:

Reem

Unicorn

Stag and unicorn

BTW, Unicorn horn is described as "being cubit and a half (28 inches) in length". Erect horse's penis length 🙂 is max 28 inches...

Oh and guess when the horse (equid) mating season ends? In Virgo...

The virgin, which calms the unicorn 🙂...

So, what is depicted on this funny coin is the dancing sun god with his pet snake and his pet horse...Is dancing here supposed to represent some king of celebration? Beltane (Apr/May), beginning of summer and the beginning of Celtic White Half of the year, celebration? Marked by the beginning of mating seasons of snakes and horses? 

Here is a post Horse and boar about the series of Celtic coins which depict horse as animal calendar marker for (the beginning of) the Celtic White Half of the year (Mating of horses starts in Apr/May)...And boar as animal calendar marker for (the beginning of) the Celtic Black Half of the year (Mating of boars starts in Oct/Nov)... 

That's it for today. If you are interested in reading more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Minoan warm period

One thing no one talks about when they analyse the conquering of the Minoans by the Mycenaeans is this: 

What influence did Minoan warming have on Minoan agriculture and their ability to feed their population? And the reputation of their ruling priestly caste?

What prompted me to ask this question was this interesting X thread which tries to answer the question: How come Mycenaeans were able to so (seemingly) easily conquer the Minoan civilisation even though we know that Minoans had a strong army and navy...

Great account btw, with great threads...

The main hypotheses presented in this thread is that Thera volcanic eruption and the series of earthquakes and preceded it caused a wave of refugees from the Cycladic islands to descend on Crete, causing population explosion, and eventually food shortage...

I lived on Crete. It is a huge, fertile island, with lots of arable land, the garden of Greece, that supplies the Greek mainland with fruit and vegetables.

I am pretty sure that it was able to sustain the Bronze Age Cretan population plus any refugees that could have come to the island from the Cyclades...Providing the climate didn't get too hot...

Which is exactly what happened during the Minoan warming period...I don't know what kind of effect that would have had on the local Cretan climate. Most likely negative. This paper states that:

"Climate modelling results show a decrease in precipitation and an increase in temperature from 2001 to 2100, resulting in 18-56% decrease of flow, 15-34% decrease of soil moisture and 22-65% decrease of groundwater reservoir volume"...

The temperature during Minoan warming was even higher...That would have had a catastrophic effect, triggering famine and the loss of power of the ruling theocracy, which probably claimed that they can in some way control the weather (all religions do that to some extent)...

Mostly through sacrifices, usually animal sacrifices...

You can read more about this in "Minoan Sacrificial Ritual, Cult Practice and Symbolism"...

I also wrote about Minoan animal sacrifices in these two articles: "Minoan bull sacrifice" and "Agia Triada sarcophagus".

In them I proposed, based on the analysis of the animal and plant calendar markers depicted on this sarcophagus that this scene from the Minoan Hagia Triada Sarcophagus didn't depict funeral scene but a sacrifice of calves and a boat to (Proto) Poseidon. 

It turns out I could have been right: When Odysseus’ son Telemachus voyages to Pylos, he witnesses the sacrifice of 81 bulls to Poseidon. Archaeologists have found what’s likely an inventory for a very similar real-life ceremony recorded on tablets unearthed at Pylos! 

You can read about it here...

But there is evidence that during extremely difficult times Minoans, like many other peoples in similar situations, practiced human sacrifices too. 

In the summer of 1979, Giannis and Efi Sakellarakis, excavated the so-called Temple of Anemospilia, which was located at the northern foothills of Mount Juktas and in close proximity to the important Minoan site of the Archanes. 

The Temple was a symmetrically rectangular building, consisting of three rooms on the south side and a vestibule on its north side, having a clear palatial orientation. 

It was destroyed by an earthquake and a subsequent fire...

This is a depiction of what the temple contained inside (based on archaeological findings) at the moment of its destruction:

The important thing is what was found in the western room. 

It contained three bodies:

an approximately 28-year-old woman, lying face down;

an approximately 37–38-year-old man, lying on his back;

an approximately 18-year-old male, lying on a slightly raised structure/platform.

The last individual was discovered on a raised platform in such a tight fetal position which indicated that he was bound. A bronze blade was found associated with his body. 

The archaeologists argued that all the forensic evidence indicated that he had been killed shortly before the earthquake/fire. 

The adult man and woman were interpreted as the priest and priestess.

Their reconstruction of the events was:

Earthquakes threaten the community.

Priests attempt to appease the deity with a human sacrifice.

Sacrifice is underway. The sacrificial victim is already dead. Blood is being collected for libation.

Another earthquake strikes.

Building collapses and kills everyone inside...

You can read more about this in "Drama of Death: Human Sacrifice in a Minoan Temple"

I am sure that the sudden climate only increased the number of sacrifices, but also decreased the belief of the local population in the effectiveness of these sacrifices and in the power of the priests who performed them...

The same happened with Latin American native cultures...

This probably caused unrests. Maybe even an uprising against the ruling elite. Maybe even a civil war. Which probably prompted one of the Minoan leaders to hire Mycenaean mercenaries to help him fight whoever he was fighting, his own population or other Minoan leaders...

Mycenaeans were known as arms for hire in the whole of Mediterranean...Egyptians used them. So I would say Minoans did too...But as we know from history, mercenaries often turn on their employers in the failing states...

Once on the island, in the middle of the chaos caused by the earthquakes and the climate change, Mycenaeans seized control first of the city state they were meant to protect and then of the rest of the island...

Simple...

I honestly can't see any other reason...

All the ancient civilisations were ruled by the elites who based their power on their ability to feed the population...

The temples and palaces were centres of agricultural administrations first and foremost and were responsible for agricultural organisation and support. 

And when they failed to fulfil this duty...

PS: You might find this interesting. In this old article, "Legendary battle" originally proposed this: Is it possible that the "Combat agate" was worn by a Minoan warrior to commemorate a once famous Minoan victory over Mycenaeans? Only to be taken off his dead wrist by an avenging Mycenaean warrior, buried in the warrior grave found near Pylos, Greece?   

But now that we know that The Griffin Warrior was not genetically Mycenaean (The 2022 Science study and UC research confirm no steppe ancestry. Actually, they confirm the exact opposite—his DNA shows local origins, rooted in Neolithic Aegean populations, not Yamnaya)...

Maybe this Minoan jewel was never taken off "a dead Minoan hand"...

Maybe Mycenaeans didn't conquer Minoan Crete completely replacing Minoan elite with their own...Maybe the story is much more complicated...Maybe a new, mixed elite was formed which then took over the whole of Aegean...The huge cultural influence Minoans had on Mycenaeans supports this... 

Taranto

A silver didrachm from Taranto in southern Italy minted during the period 355-340 BC. It features on obverse a male youth riding a dolphin.

Dolphins and a dolphin-rider feature so prominently on the coinage of Taranto. This is unsurprising, given the mythological aetiology of the city from the hero Taras, the son of Poseidon (Pausanias 10.10.8). who was shipwrecked and then rescued by a dolphin. 

On this coin from Taranto minted during the period 355-340 BC, Taras is depicted holding his father's trident...

The dolphin-rider motif appears early on the coins of Taranto. For instance, a silver didrachm from Taranto minted during the period 510-450 BC

With a Reverse this time featuring a winged hippocamp symbol of Poseidon.

Poseidon was god of the sea, storms...and horses. This is reflected in his epithets: Nauklarios (Ναυκλάριος) "belonging to the ship-owners", Pelagikos (Πελάγίκος) "belonging to the sea"...and Hippeios (ἲππειος) "belonging to a horse"...

Sailors prayed to Poseidon for a calm seas and safe voyage, "sometimes drowning horses as a sacrifice"...

In Greek art, Poseidon rides a chariot that was pulled by a hippocampus or by horses that could ride on the sea...

Poseidon is apparently "...more often regarded as the tamer of horses, but in some myths he is their father, either by spilling his seed upon a rock or by mating with a creature who then gave birth to the first horse..."

In Arcadia, one of the most conservative parts of Ancient Greece, Poseidon was worshipped as a stallion...

Why? Why?

The natural breeding season of horses starts in Apr/May and ends in Sep/Oct and is marked by wild stallion fights for mares...

The horse fertility is governed by the sunlight and peaks on summer solstice. I heard summer solstice was a big thing for sun worshipers....

Hence solar horses all over Eurasia...

Articles about solar horse (equid):

Iran "Water carrier equid", "Dioscuri plate from Iran"

Mesopotamia "Shamash playing with the solar horse", "Sun god from Tell Brak"

India "Hayagriva"

China "Longma", "Three legged crow", "Mythical beast from Xian"

Levant "Alexamenos graffito", "Goddess on a horse", "Unicorn"

Europe "Archaic rider", "Beotian solar pyxis", "Pegasus and chimera", "King John", "The horseman"

Ok, but what does this have to do with Poseidon? Well, mating season of horses, overlaps with the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean. Both start in Apr/May and finish in Sep/Oct...

I talked about this in my post "Trojan horse", in which I asked a question: was Trojan horse "hypos" - a wooden horse left as tribute, or  "hypos" - a wooden boat with a horse head used for transporting tributes...

As for dolphins, they are animal calendar markers for Apr/May-Oct/Nov.

The reason for this is that dolphin mating and calving season in Mediterranean spans period May-Oct.

It takes place in the shallows, and is therefore easily observable by people living and fishing along the coast...

So there is actually a symbolic link between the horses and dolphins. Their mating seasons overlap and they overlap with the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean...

I talked about dolphin as an animal calendar marker in many of my posts, like "Boat of Dyonisus", "Apollo and dolphins", "Horned animal attacked by a dolphin", "Minoan dolphin fresco", "Coin from Byzantion", "Eagle eating dolphin"

One other thing...A lot of the coins from Taranto depict a mounted warrior on the obverse. You can find them all here... 

This one even depicts a mounted warrior and Nike, the goddess of victory...

Why?

Because Apr/May - Sep/Oct was not only the sailing season but also the war season...

BTW, some of the Taranto coins only depict horse on both sides, like this one minted during the period  325-280 BC...So horses were definitely important symbol on its own...BTW, one is bridled and the other unbridled...Sailing and non sailing season? What do you think? 

Knowing this makes the original coin even cooler...I think...

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...