Malatya relief

A while back @PIELexicon posted this image:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But what kind of dragon? 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

7 heads

Good morning. Old Assyrian (2000 BC-1800 BC) cylinder seal. Currently in the British museum...

Official description: Man in a chariot driving four horses; before him seven human heads and two birds; one other bird is above the two horses

Hmmm...

Quadriga in 2nd millennium BC Mesopotamia... Interesting...A man? Or a God? Like Sun god? They love horse drawn chariots...Like Helios depicted in his horse drawn quadriga on this Apulian vase dated to 350BC...

Why would sun gods like horses so much? The natural breeding season of horses starts in Apr/May and ends in Sep/Oct spanning the sunny, hot half of the year in the continental Eurasia, 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"

But the quadriga rider depicted on this Assurian seal can't be Helios...And his quadriga can't be pulled by horses...

He is most likely Sun God Shamash who was depicted on this 3rd mill BC cylinder seal imprint found in Tell Brak, Syria riding on a quadriga. Quadriga pulled not by horses but by "kungas", donkey hybrids so highly regarded, that "they were the preferred draught animal for drawing the chariots of kings and gods"... I talked about this in my post "Sun god from Tell Brak"...

Shamash rides on the quadriga pulled by donkeys, because donkeys are also solar animals, just like horses. This is because just like the mating season of horses, the mating seasons of donkeys is directly linked with the amount of sunlight and peaks on Summer solstice... 

Interestingly: In a letter dated to 1775 BCE, Bahdi-Lim, governor under the Mari king Zimri-Lim, insists that the king should not ride horses in his capital, as it was considered uncivilised. Instead, he urges the king to honour his royal status by riding in a donkey-drawn wagon...

From my post "Alexamenos graffito" about this:

Christ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey by Oleksandr Antonyuk. 

Why did Jesus have to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey?

People say: He was fulfilling a scripture prophecy.

"Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey" Zechariah 9:9

God/King riding on the favourite ride of the old Gods/Kings... 

And this:

Christ is born on Winter Solstice, (re)birth day of the sun (god), he enters Jerusalem on a donkey, "animal of the (sun) gods and kings", and gets put on a cross, symbol of the sun (god)...Interesting...Early Christian "Alexamenos graffito", Rome. 

Anyway, back to our Assyrian seal. Why 7 human heads? Maybe 7 months of Mesopotamia summer? 

I talked about this first in my post "Seven headed dragon" The oldest depiction of a Hero(es) killing a 7 headed dragon dragon...Mesopotamia, 2200BC...With 7 snake heads...One for each hot month of Mesopotamian summer...They are killing the 4th head. Apr/May, May/Jun, Jun/Jul, Jul/Aug...  

Leo...The time when Sirius rises with the sun..There is also a princess (Inanna/Ishtar) standing under a star (Sirius) 🙂...

Here is Inanna/Ishtar, deified Sirius, which rises with the sun (morning star) in Leo, Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year. Which is why she is depicted standing on a lion with the sun above lion's head and is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

I talked about Inanna/Ishtar as Sirius in many of my posts...

Same girl, same beast (summer)...

Woman of the Apocalypse...I gave Full symbolic analysis of the Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation in my post "Apocalypse"...

Anyway, back to our Assyrian seal. Why birds? Originally I thought that maybe these are migratory birds, cause migratory birds announce the start and end of summer, the domain of the Sun god?

I talked about migratory birds in Mesopotamian mythology in my post "Nanshe'. In Sumerian mythology, Nanshe was the daughter of Enki (god of water) and Ninhursag (earth goddess). This 3rd Dynasty or Ur plaque depicts goddess Nanshe with geese.

 

This is because the arrival and departure of migratory geese marks the beginning and end of the wet half of the year in Mesopotamia. On the flip side the departure and the arrival of the migratory geese marks the beginning and the end of the dry half of the year in Mesopotamia.

 But now, I am thinking that based on the shape of the birds they could actually be doves. 

Dove was sacred to Inanna/Ishtar. 1800-1600 BC pottery cup, Syria. The rounded body tapering to a flat base, with 26 bird heads. Similar objects were interpreted as votive objects dedicated to Ishtar/Inanna, who was also linked to grain and doves. 

The reason for that is that nesting season of doves overlaps with the grain harvest season. 

Which brings me to: is that grain depicted just above the two birds? Right in front the chariot...

We know that this has been a grain symbol in Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Iran, since at least Sumerian times...

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

Mesopotamian harvest coincides with the beginning of summer (Apr/May), the beginning of the mating of wild donkeys and the beginning of summer, the domain of the Sun God...

Maybe I am just reading too much into this. Maybe it is a man, a king, riding triumphantly over severed heads of his enemies which are being pecked by vultures and ravens....That's kind of cool too...

PS: A 5,000-year-old toy chariot found during the excavations in the ancient city of Sogmatar in the southeastern Turkish province of Sanliurfa...With what looks like grain symbols?

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...

Stag and Unicorn

Stag and unicorn, Figure 3 from "Alchymistica", 17th/18th century document found in Benedictine Abbey Admont, Austria...

"The Sages say truly

That two animals are in this forest..."

"...One glorious, beautiful, and swift,

A great and strong deer;

The other an unicorn.

They are concealed in the forest,

But happy shall that man be called

Who shall snare and capture them..."

"...The Masters shew you here clearly

That in all places

These two animals wander about in forests

(But know that the forest is but one)..."

"...If we apply the parable to our Art,

We shall call the forest the Body.

That will be rightly and truly said.

The unicorn will be the Spirit at all times.

The deer desires no other name

But that of the Soul; which name no man shall take away from it..."

"...He that knows how to tame and master them by Art,

To couple them together,

And to lead them in and out of the forest,

May justly be called a Master..."

"...For we rightly judge

That he has attained the golden flesh,

And may triumph everywhere;

Nay, he may bear rule over great Augustus."

From "Book Of Lambspring" by Nicholas Barnaud Delphinas...

Let's test my "Art" on this...

Deer and unicorn, in "the same" forest, surrounded by "fiery ouroboros"...What does this mean?

The true meaning of a unicorn is easy to decipher if we know that they are white horses, and if we know that horse is one of the most widespread solar symbols...

I talked about Horse (Equid) as a solar symbol in many of my posts: 

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", "Artemis Orthia"...

Horse is a solar symbol cause wild equid mating season, characterised by wild stallion fights, starts in Apr/May, at the beginning of summer, and ends in Sep/Oct...Equid  fertility is governed by the sunlight, and peaks on summer solstice...

Now unicorn has the same symbolic meaning as white horses...Unicorn is a solar animal, symbolising the hot, sunny half of the year...The virgin that "calms" the Unicorn is Virgo, Aug/Sep (horse mating season ends in Sep/Oct)...

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

I talked about Unicorns as animal calendar markers in my posts "Reem" and "Unicorn"...

What about the deer? Deer with fully grown antlers is a symbol of winter, because antlers become fully grown just before deer rut (Sep/Oct/Nov) and fall off just before beginning of summer, Apr/May...

I talked about deer as animal calendar marker for winter in my posts "Winter deer", "Dancing with deer and birds", "The return of Apollo to Delos", "Patera of Rennes", "Deer kills snake"...

So basically, unicorn=horny horse and deer are two animal calendar markers marking summer and winter. Two (opposite) halves of the same solar year (forrest)...Talked about it in my post "White stag":

"As for the White Roebuck [Stag], how many kings in how many fairy tales have not chased this beast through enchanted forests and been cheated of their quarry?"

That we are here looking at solar year calendar markers is confirmed by the fact that deer and unicorn are framed by the Ouroboros. 

The true meaning of the Ouroboros, "The serpent biting it's tail", is easy to decipher if we know that 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 this in many of my posts...

Basically Ouroboros represents the ever spinning the solar wheel...the ever changing seasons: Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter-Spring...the ever changing temperature of the sun and earth in continental parts of the northern hemisphere...

It is symbolic equivalent of this:

You know that Yin-Yang symbol is imagined as constantly spinning, ever changing? I talked about this in my post "Yin and Yang"...

So...

"He that knows how to tame and master [deer and unicorn], To couple them together...May justly be called a Master..."

He who knows the true meaning of Stag and Unicorn and how they are linked, and who knows how to use them...May justly be called a Master?

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...

Agia Triada sarcophagus

The other day I posted this article, "Minoan bull sacrifice", with the analysis of the bull sacrifice scene from the Minoan Hagia Triada Sarcophagus, a late Minoan limestone sarcophagus, dated to around 1400 BC, excavated from a chamber tomb at Hagia Triada, Crete. 

And it went completely unnoticed??? 

In this article I want to present the full analysis of all 4 sides of this sarcophagus. Honestly this is as cool an example of symbolic religious calendar art as they come.

First, I definitely don't think that these panels depict funerary rituals, which is the most common interpretation of the scene, like in this article.

I think that they could be depicting religious rituals related to Proto Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon. The "two queens and the king" mentioned In the Mycenean Greek tablets dated 1400–1200 BC.

They are also a religious calendar closely linked to the climatic calendar.

So let start with this panel. It is clearly divided into two halves, with two sets of people, facing opposite directions performing two different (and I would say opposite) ceremonies. 

I would start with the right side of this panel, with the calf and boat offering ceremony.

The climatic year on Crete is divided into two halves: Hot/Dry half, Summer, Apr/May - Oct/Nov and and Cool/Wet half, Winter, Oct/Nov - Apr/May. Which is why we find bull associated with the sun (gods). I talk about this in my articles "Solar bull", "Water bull",  "Bactrian snakes and dragons", "Shamash young and old", "Butt chewing", "When Utu steps up into heaven", "Maran", "Sun god tablet", "Gisgis relief", "Lyres of Ur"... 

The hot dry season in Crete starts in Apr/May, in Taurus, when wild Eurasian cattle used to start calving. I talked about this in my articles "Cow and calf ivory", "Foundation peg of the goddess Nanshe", "Elamite water bull", "Human bull hybrid", "White calf", "Calydonian boar", "Cypriot stamp seal with cow and calf"...

 

Hence the offering of calves. 

Apr/May is also the beginning of the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean. I talked about this in these articles "To sail - To harvest", "Coin from Byzantion", "Tetradrachm from Byblos", "Swallow tattoo", "Tuna boats", "Anat"...

Hence the offering of a boat model. 

I talked about Minoan sailing calendar in my article "Minoan dolphin fresco", about the famous Minoan "dolphins fresco" from Knossos, Crete, dated to 1500BC...

Who is the dude to whom these offerings of calves and boat models were made? The most common interpretation is that this is the dead person whose funeral ceremony is depicted??? 

I would say that it is much more likely that this dude is some kind of deity, and he could be Proto Poseidon...

From here we proceed to the small panel depicting the two goddesses riding in a chariot pulled by a horse...

There is a reason why horse was the sacred animal of Poseidon (Greek) and Yamm (Phoenician) sea gods. Horse mating season overlaps with the sailing season in Eastern Medterranean.

I talked about this in my articles "Trojan horse", "Three sacrifices", "Seahorse ring", "Tetradrachm from Byblos", "Poseidon pursuing Demeter"

Apparently, the horse pulling the chariots with two goddesses could actually have ibex horns??? Check the image, it does look like it does...Like this one from Scythia???

A horse wearing reconstructed 2,500 year-old Scythian horse decorations which were unearthed in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. 

Why horse with ibex horns? Maybe a complex calendar marker for the period between Apr/May (beginning of the horse mating season) and Oct/Nov (beginning of the ibex mating season). Which is the sailing season in Eastern Mediterranean.

BTW, I already talked about these kind of complex animal calendar markers in my article "Mythical beast from Xian", in which I presented the analysis of the symbolism of this "mythical beast", stag with eagle's head, and ten further eagle heads in the antlers. 4th-3rd century BC. Nalinggaotu, Shenmu County, Xi'an, China...

But maybe, this horse with ibex horns actually depicts the grain agricultural season. Which starts with grain sowing in Oct/Nov, when ibex goats start to mate, and ends with grain harvests in Apr/May, when horses start to mate???

Are these two women riding on the horse pulled chariot then Proto Demeter and Proto Persephone? I think so...I talked about the link between Poseidon, Demeter, Persephone and horses in my article "Poseidon pursuing Demeter"...

The same grain agricultural calendar depicted using plant calendar markers. I talked about this in my article "Poppies and pomegranates", in which I answered the question: Why are opium poppies sacred to Demeter, goddess of grain harvest, while pomegranates are sacred to her daughter, Persephone?

Anyway, where are the two goddesses driving to? Well, towards the other main panel, which depicts bull being sacrificed on a table above two ibex goats...

In "Aegean Prehistory: A Review", in in the chapter, "Neopalatial, Final Palatial, and Postpalatial Crete", Paul Rehak and John G. Younger note that:

"A major development of the Final Palatial Period is the evidence for bull sacrifice..."

"It is possible that the killing of the animal became the final feature of the Minoan bull-games, perhaps under Mycenaean influence. It also may be significant that the bull sacrifice is attested at exactly the moment when Minotaur appears on Minoan/Mycenaean stamp seals."

Hmmm...Amazing. But when did the bull-games, which ended in the bull sacrifice, take place? I think that this 1700BC Levantine seal can help us determine that. You can find the full symbolic analysis of this seal in my article "Bull leaping in Syria"...

Summer, which started with the calving of Wild Eurasian cattle, ended with mating of Wild Eurasian cattle...Mating which was marked by vicious bull fights...Where bulls charged at each other...Like this...

On this levantine seal, the bull leaping is depicted right under the charging bull, which means that the ceremony was most likely performed in Jul/Aug, at the time of charging bulls, the beginning of the Wild Eurasian cattle mating season...

The charging bull is charging towards the lion, Leo, Jul/Aug...

Leo (Jul/Aug), originally had nothing to do with stars either. It is the ancient animal calendar marker marking the beginning of the mating season of the Eurasian lions.

In the "THE ASIATIC LION: A study of ecology and behaviour" by Paul Joslin we can read that based on the observation of the large number of wild lions, the mating season of the Asiatic lions starts in August and lasts until October. 

Which is why autumn starts in Leo (Jul/Aug). And why lion is the symbol of autumn...I talked about this in my article "Symbols of the seasons"...

Another clue that bull leaping was performed in Jul/Aug can be found on the so called Theseus ring, gold "Mycenaean" signed ring from the Acropolis of Athens, 15th c. BC. Currently in NAM Athens. where we also see that a charging bull is charging towards a lioness...

Was bull leaping a popular activity in Mycenae? Or is this just another looted Minoan treasure? I talked about this ring in my article "Theseus ring"...

So if the bull sacrifice was performed in Jul/Aug, in Leo, maybe it was performed as part of this sailing ceremony depicted on Minoan frescoes. I talked about it in my article "Minoan dolphin fresco".

In this article, I explained why lions were depicted on the sides of Minoan ceremonial ships:

Writing in the 8th century BC, Hesiod says that:

"Fifty days after the solstice, 

when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, 

is the right (best) time for men to go sailing"

This is at the end of July beginning of August. In Leo...At the beginning of the mating seasons of lions 🙂

This is the time when Romans celebrated the Neptunalia. Apparently the authorities are not sure why Romans celebrated Neptune at exactly that time of the year. I will let authorities ponder this further... 

Here I will propose that maybe Minoans also celebrated sea god in Leo...And that they sacrificed bulls to their sea god, Proto Poseidon...

That the bull sacrifice was indeed performed in Jul/Aug, at the beginning of autumn, can be seen from the fact that the next panel depicts the two goddesses riding on a chariot pulled by a griffin.

Now griffin is a complex animal calendar marker for autumn. I talked about this in my article "Minoan flying goddess with griffin", in which I analyse this Minoan gold signature ring depicting a flying griffon and goddess, from cemetery at Archanes, Phourni, in Crete, 1700-1450 BC.

After this small panel, we arrive back to the original panel where according to the common interpretation, we see "what could be continuation of the bull sacrifice scene, where the bull's blood is poured into a cauldron, standing between two poles, topped with labris and a bird".

This could be the case, but this could also be symbolic closing of the water flowing season in Crete, which takes place a the end of the wet season in Apr/May. This is an annual flow rate chart for the Koiliaris River Basin near Chania, Crete from this article...

You can see that the water flows through the river during the wet season. The flow suddenly increases in Oct/Nov, when the first rains arrive and suddenly decreases in Apr/May, when the rains stop.

After that the only water that is available is the water that comes out of the low elevation karst springs, or the water that was collected in cisterns, like this one...Pic from this article... 

I wonder if the horns of consecration are actually bull horns at all, or more precisely, if they are only bull horns? Could they be symbolic depiction of dry river beds during the hot dry half of the year which starts in Taurus, Apr/May?

The Cretan gorges, like Samaria gorge, are open for hiking only during the period May to Oct, when they are completely dry...

I wonder if this pouring of blood ritual is symbolically sacrificing the (summer) bull (blood) for winter rain?

BTW, a guy playing a 7 string lyre is also another calendar marker for Apr/May, Taurus. And another symbol for the hot dry season, which according to Sumerians lasted 7 monts...I talked about it in my article "Lyre of Apollo", about animal and plant calendar markers, tortoise, bull, ram, snake, embedded into the story about the birth of Hermes, particularly the part related to him making the first lyre, which he later swapped with Apollo for the caduceus...

And in my article "Lyres of ur" in which I analysed the symbolic significance of the ceremonial Sumerian bull headed lyres. A lyre player from "The Standard of Ur", a Sumerian artefact found in one of the largest royal tombs in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, associated with Ur-Pabilsag, a king who died around 2550 BC. Now in the British Museum...

This concludes my analysis of the sarcophagus. What do you think? Cool? I think so...

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...