Oldest Arabic poem

I love that in this ancient poem, Mot, a personification of Death from the Ancient Canaanite religion, the enemy of Baal, the Thunder, Rain God, is explicitly identified as Sun...Another proof that climate indeed has major influence on the development of religious symbolism...

This is the oldest poem in Arabic: a 3-line text recounting the cosmic battle between Mōt, the god of death, and Baʿal, the storm god as described in the Baal Cycle

It is carved in an ancient script close to Safaitic and is at least 2000 years old. The reconstructed pronunciation of the Old Arabic: the verses form a final rhyme in *ām*, with an otiose syllable in the second verse.

1) ḥagga mōtu wal-lāẓẓu ṯarām
2) fa-muyakānu layālay-uh wa-ʾaywām-uh
3) wa-hāʾ baʿalu yabītu wa-lā-hu bāta wa-mā nām

Here is what is says:

1)Mōt has held a feast; the scorner eats
2)Established is the alternation of his nights and days
3)Behold Baʿal slumbers; he slumbers indeed, but is not dead…

The transliteration and translation was done by Ahmad Al-Jallad @safaitic, Epigraphist, Philologist, Historian of Language, Ancient Near East and Pre-Islamic Arabia. 

This is what he says about the actual inscription:

"This inscription (KRS 2453) was discovered in northern Jordan by Geraldine King in 1989, published online with a preliminary reading and no translation. The text is undated but certainly pre-Islamic. Mythological material can survive millennia. The letter shapes are rather archaic, differing from both Safaitic and Hismaic in their details. I safe guess: the text is at least 2000 years old but perhaps much older"

Here is the explanation of each of the verses:

1) "Mōt has held a feast; the scorner eats"

Mōt is the West Semitic god of infertility, drought, literally "death". This line explains that Mōt reigns. Holding a feast is a mark of kingship. (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

2) "Established is the alternation of his nights and days"

This verse affirms Mōt’s dominion through a connection with this cosmic phenomenon. A similar phrase occurs in the Quran (23:80): "And it is He (Allah) who gives life and causes death, and His is the alternation of the night and the day. Then will you not reason?" (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

3) "Behold Baʿal slumbers, he slumbers indeed, but not dead…" 

A similar phrase occurs in Quran (2:255) "Allah, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting by Whom all subsist, there is no god but He.  Neither slumber seizes Him, nor sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. Who is there who might intercede with Him save with His leave?" (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

It is very interesting that the same things attributed to Mōt (Sun god, god of death in the desert) in this Pre Islamic poem are in Quran attributed to Allah...

Mot gained dominion by ‘killing’ Baal, the Storm, Rain god. But according to the Baal Cycle, Mot only killed a substitute. Baal went into hiding in fear of Mōt’s power, only to return to life at a later point....

This is the way to indicate seasonal, cyclical character of this "battle"...

Here is Baal holding a thunder hammer in his right hand and a lightning spear from which the tree (of life) is sprouting...In deserts it is the rain that creates life...

The ultimate triumph of Baal (Rain, Life) over Mot (Sun, Death) can be seen on these pictures of the Dead Sea area, one of the driest places on earth, taken in February (mid winter) 2020...Larger than usual amounts of rain have transformed normally barren shores of the Dead Sea into a meadow... 

This poem is definitely related to the Baal Cycle as known from Ugarit. In its Arabian context, it appears to be a seasonal myth, symbolising the struggle between the dry summer months (Mōt) and the rainy seasons (Baʿal). A few texts record Baʿal in times of drought. (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

I would argue that the original Baal Cycle is the seasonal myth. In Eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, Levant, Mesopotamia and Arabia, the climatic year is divided into two parts, two seasons: Dry season (May-October) and Wet season (November to April). Dry season is the domain of Mot, Sun...And Wet season is the domain of Baal, Rain...

No memory of these myths makes it into Islamic-period sources...(Ahmad Al-Jallad)

Well...As you can see from the above Quran quotes, it does, except both Sun and Rain gods were amalgamated into one god, Allah, the Sky god...Serbian Dabog is the same kind of Sky god, being both Sun god and Bringer of rain, Storm god...

Baʿal survives in local dialectal expressions. In Lebanon, one can say: "ḫallī ʿalā ba‘al" 'leave it to Baʿal', referring to plants that are watered by the rain! (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

Bibliography:

"Echoes of the Baal Cycle in a Safaito-Hismaic Inscription" by Ahmad Al-Jallad

Scribe

I would like to talk about Sumerian writing: Cuneiform. Actually about their words for "write" and "tablet, document"...

Cuneiform emerged in Sumer in the late fourth millennium BC to convey the Sumerian language, "a language isolate which has no relationship with any other language"...It is one of the earliest known systems of writing...

Cuneiform writing began as a system of pictograms...

In the third millennium, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract, eventually turning into symbols...

The pictograms (later symbols) were were cut on clay tablets, using a blunt reed for a stylus. Basically, cuneiform writing was "making marks on clay using chiseling technique"...

Now, the word for writing in sumerian was "sar, šar" written using this symbol:

And the word for tablet, document was "dub" written using this symbol:

Unsurprisingly the word for a scribe was "dub-sar" (tablet, document-writer):

And scribes learned their trade in "e-dub-ba-a" house of documents writing 

Here is a very interesting thing. 

Sumerian document (dub) was clay tablet (dub) with patterns, symbols gouged, chiselled, written (sar, šar) into it...

In Serbian, the word for chiselling, gouging is "dub" and the word for "making patterns, symbols" is "šar"...

So Sumerian dub-šar (scribe) literally means "one who gouges, chisels patterns, symbols" in Serbian...

Eee what? 

How can such important words in Sumerian, language isolate, have roots in Serbian, totally unrelated IE language, which only appeared after Sumerian language died out?

Now this must be a complete coincidence, a fluke. But unfortunately this is just another example where we find Slavic words related to very important words found in Sumerian. 

Like words related to knowledge...You can read more about this in my post "Um"

Or

Like words related to grain agriculture...You can read more about this in my posts "Breath" and "Sickle"

I don't have an explanation for this madness, but...Have a look at this: 

The Vinča symbols, sometimes known as the Vinča script are a set of symbols found on Neolithic artefacts from the Vinča culture (6th to 5th mill BC) from Central Europe with its centre in Serbia...

And these are the Tărtăria tablets, discovered in 1961 at a Vinča culture site in the village of Tărtăria, in Romania. Originally dated to c. 5300 BC. 

Looks familiar?

Here is the best bit. Apparently archaeologists are now proposing much later date, based on the signs!!! And are dating tablets to 2,750 BC-3,300 BC, when Sumerian proto-writing, otherwise known as dub-šar :), was developed...

Now to conclude. I actually believe that Sumerian is a language isolate. And is not related to IE languages, including Serbian. But It is annoying that we keep finding these isolated, important words in Sumerian with IE roots...Why? As I said I have no explanation of this madness...

But we can't just ignore all this...Right?

Sumerian dictionaries:

Sumerian cuneiform English dictionary ed. Peter & Tara Hogan
Sumerian Lexicon Version 3.0 by John A. Halloran
The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary

Baboon

This is a beautiful Menat, a sacred necklace/instrument of the Goddess Hathor, the Deified Nile flood. 

It depicts goddess Tefnut and god Shu. You can read more about this amazing artefact and its meaning in my post "Menat". 

Tefnut (literally "That Water") was the deity of moisture in Ancient Egypt. She is the twin sister and wife of the air god Shu...What do you get when you marry rain and air? Monsoon which feeds the Nile flood. 

In the earlier Pyramid Texts she is said to produce pure waters from her vagina...So when one day, she got pissed off :) with Egyptians for taking the piss :) and not giving her enough kudos, she stopped producing pure waters from her vagina, and pissed off :) to Nubia...

There, Tefnut, in a form of an angry lioness, became the terror of the land, attacking both men and animals. She blew smoke and fire from her nostrils and eyes and fed on the flesh and blood of her victims...

Leo, the end of summer, beginning of autumn, the time of maximum heat and no rain, would be the time of droughts and death in Egypt, if it weren't for Tefnut, the monsoon moisture which feeds the Nile...It is this moisture that transforms Leo into time of inundation and life...

Sun god Ra, Tefnut's father, missed his daughter and so he sent Shu (Tefnut's husband) and Thoth (god of wisdom) as his emissaries to ask her to return home. Of course he missed her. Because no Tefnut means no Nile. And no Nile means no Egypt. And no Egypt means no Ra...

For some weird reason, Thoth, disguised himself as a baboon (!!!) and went looking for Tefnut.

When he finally found her (which was probably not that hard, he just had to fallow the trail of destruction), he tried to persuade her to go back to Egypt. First he told her that she should go back to Egypt because it was a much more civilised place than the wilds of the Nubian desert...Blah blah blah...Seeing that the mention of civilisation didn't really have much effect on the crazed murderous fire breathing lioness, Thoth then said that Tefnut should go back to Egypt because of her worshipers. They adore her and miss her and would throw huge party in her honour if she returns and would place on her altars the game she was now having to run down and kill for herself...OooooK...Listening...

At that moment Tefnut's husband and twin brother Shu joined in, and he eventually persuaded Tefnut to go (back) to Egypt...Well moisture (Tefnut) can't go anywhere without wind (Shu)...

Tefnut's return trip became a triumphant procession through the Egyptian villages, just like Thoth promised. The goddess, accompanied by Nubian musicians, clowns, and baboons (???) was greeted by people who rejoiced in her presence, and wild drunken festivals were held in her honour...

As Tefnut progressed down the Nile, she lost her ferocity and became kind and gentle again and the heavenly flow returned :) 

Self explanatory, right? 

Well, all except the baboons. I mean WTF? Why did Thoth dress up like a baboon? And why did baboons follow Tefnut back to Egypt?

Well this monkey business is very important for understanding this story. Forget about Thoth's yapping about civilisation and such crap. That did nothing. It was the baboon costume 🙂 that did it...It was the fact that Thoth was dressed as baboon that made Tefnut return to Egypt...

Baboons are known as "water finders". They need open drinking water, so during dry season they stay near open watering holes. And so if you wanted to find water during droughts, all you need to do is find baboons and then follow them to their watering hole, around which they gather every evening...

Also, Baboons don't live and never lived in Egypt. They live in Sudan and in...Ethiopian highlands. The same place where monsoon (Tefnut-moisture + Shu-wind) causes enormous precipitations starting in March, with the full blown monsoon starting from April/May/June depending on the season and peaking in Jul/Aug...

Which is the source of the great flood, which is the source of life in Egypt...

Baboons don't have a breeding season. Instead, they breed year-round with "peak period in May-July"...In the middle of the monsoon season...And at the exact time when the Nile water level starts to rise...

So you could say that baboons "find and brings forth Tefnut (moisture, rain)". Well actually it's her "husband" Shu (wind) who finally "brings her forth", but it is Thoth (baboon) who "persuades" her to return...

And so the "moisture from the wind" (monsoon rain), pisses :) on the Ethiopian highlands (and on pissed off :) wet baboons). 

And from there it flows as Nile to Nubia and then to Egypt. The triumphant return of Tefnut (accompanied by Nubian musicians, clowns, and baboons :))

Now here is something that I just discovered about the baboons in Ancient Egypt: They were often depicted picking sycamore figs...

Some people think that this means that Egyptians trained baboons to pick the figs for them. 

Well, these ones don't look like they have any intention of giving any figs to the people. They are too busy eating them...It is the man actually picking the figs...I don't think this is the correct interpretation of these images...

Here is what I think: Sycamore fig was "the tree of life" of the Ancient Egyptians. Here is Goddess Hathor, the Nile flood deified, the source of grain and life, depicted coming out of a sycamore tree bringing bread to people...

Why?

Here's why: "Sycamore has three main harvests: May, June, August/September". So basically, the sacred tree of Hathor, was full of orange-red ripe fruit from May, beginning of monsoon which was the source of the great flood, until September, the end of the great flood...

You can read more about the animal and plant symbolism related to the Nile flood in my article "Holy Cow"...  

Did I mention that the peak mating season of the Hamadryas baboons, the ones who "persuade Tefnut, the rain water, to go Egypt", starts in May, the exact time when the sycamore fig harvest starts?

Could the depictions of the baboons in sycamore trees stuffing themselves with figs be symbolic? Like "The baboons are stealing our figs! Rejoice! Tefnut's vagina is back in business! The heavenly flow (the flood) will reach us soon..." Or something like this?

Anyway...It's gonna rain here soon. Gotta go for a walk before it starts...Take care...And don't look up when it's raining. Who knows what you might see :)

Crocus fairy

There is a Sicilian legend about the boy who set out to sell a basket of grapes. 

On his way to the market he met an old woman who asked him if she could eat the grapes because she was very hungry. The boy did so, and after she ate most of his grapes, the old woman turned into a beautiful young girl wearing a purple cloak. She then told him to go home and plant the remaining grapes. As he did so he found gold coins beneath them in the basket. The grapes grew into purple crocus. 

This is very interesting. 

In Sicily the grape harvest runs between August and November. So the story takes place probably end of October beginning of November...

The end of grapes picking season in Sicily overlaps with the beginning of the rain season (October). 

Which is also the time when wild crocuses start blooming in Sicily. 

Which is why the last remaining grapes when planted grew into purple crocuses...

And crocus is the source of saffron, which has always been worth its weight in gold...I talked about this in my post "Saffron"...

So the legend actually describes real things that happen every year in Sicily. You finish grape harvest and start gold (saffron) harvest...

The old woman would then be the Old Hag, Winter earth (November, December, January)...But who in Eastern Mediterranean is also a beautiful young maiden, Winter earth (November, December, January)...???

:) It's complicated...It's to do with East mediterranean climate...Have a look at these posts:

"Goat riding thunder god" "Abdication of Persephone"

Solar Ibex from Aeolis

Pottery dinos with friezes of grazing wild goats (Ibex). Ancient Greece, Aeolis, 610BC-570BC (circa). Currently in British Museum.

Why Ibexes with swastikas and suns?

Ibex mating season starts in Oct-Nov and ends in Jan, basically spanning the winter season. Which is why Ibex is the symbol of winter.

You can read more about this in my post "Symbols of seasons".

Right in the middle of the mating periods of both Alpine and Bezoar ibex is Winter Solstice, 21st of December. And the day after the winter solstice is the beginning of the Capricorn (goat) period, which last from December 22 – January 20...

You can read more about the origin of Capricorn in my post "Goat". And about the link between the goat, the sun and winter zodiac signs in my post "Zlatorog"...

In Eastern Mediterranean, winter is the rain season, the season of life. Which is why Ibex was symbol of Life in all the Eastern Mediterranean cultures...Like in Minoan Crete...

You can read more about this in my posts "Goat riding thunder god", "Sanctuary rhyton" and "Saffron"

The beginning of the Ibex mating season (October-November) was also the time when grain was planted in Eastern Mediterranean...Grain which is then used for making breads...Like this solar bread from Croatia which has the same type of swirly swastika found on the dinos next to the goat...

So 

Ibex = New Grain, New Life

But also 

Ibex = New Sun, New Solar year. 

Swastika in Slavic folklore is known as "kolovrt" (what spins the wheel, or what spins in circle) and represents never ending spinning of the solar wheel, solar year...Which starts during Ibex mating season...

Ploughing

Another very interesting 3rd millennium BC Akkadian cylinder seal from Tell Asmar, currently in the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. It depicts a very unusual ploughing scene...Which i would like to interpret...

To the right of the first figure is the symbol for grain.

So this is grain field ploughing...We find this symbol in Indus Valley civilisation artefacts too...

This is the end of the "normal" and "expected" stuff on this seal. The rest is...Well mythology...

Or is it?

The plough is pulled by, what is commonly interpreted as, a snake or a dragon. I would say dragon. Under the dragon is a lion. Above the dragon is a scorpion.

Why?

Well it's all about solar zodiac, again. On that climatic, biological (not stellar) zodiac, animals are used to mark significant reoccurring events in the solar year. Like a lifecycle event of that animal, which happens every year at the same time and which everyone knows about.

For instance lion marks the time when Eurasian lions main mating season starts:

And scorpion marks the time when Eurasian scorpions "disappear" (start hibernating, hide from cold), which happens in late October early November...

You can read more about solar zodiac here.

What does this have to do with ploughing of grain fields in Mesopotamia? Well according to their agricultural calendar:

1. The first ploughing of the barley fields was done in August-September. During Leo...
2. The second ploughing+sowing was done in October-November. During Scorpio...

Neat, right? But what about the dragon pulling the plough?

Well, the climatic year in Mesopotamia is divided into two parts: Dry season from May to October and Wet(er :)) season from November to April. 

Now the dry part of the year, summer-autumn, starts in Taurus. Taurus is where it is in the Solar zodiac, because it marks the beginning of the calving season of the Eurasian wild cattle. You can read more about this here.

Well, normally Mesopotamian seals depicting ploughing show ploughs being pulled by oxen, bulls.

The end of summer, when bulls are used for first ploughing, is the time when Eurasian wild cattle start their mating season which is characterised by vicious raging bull fights...The end of summer is also the time of droughts,  the time of the fire breathing, drought causing dragons (you can read more about the link between dragons and drought here)...And interestingly, there are indications that dragons and bulls were interchangeable symbols. You can read more about the links between dragons and bulls here.

Is this why bull was replaced by a dragon as the animal pulling the plough? To indicate that the first ploughing was to be done at the of maximum droughts, symbolised by raging bull/dragon?

All of this accidentally :) happens in Leo...

I am not sure...This dragon thingy is quite puzzling alright...

Now here is something very interesting. Star Sirius is positioned right above the plough. Why?

In the second part of the 3rd millennium BC, the time when this seal was made, Sirius was rising in Iraq in in the morning before the sunrise, in Leo, at the time of the first ploughing. And it was setting in Iraq in the morning before the sunrise in Scorpio, at the time of the second ploughing and sowing...

Now I used Stellarium computer simulation program for these calculations...If they are correct, and I don't doubt they are, this explains why Sirius is positioned right above the plough...And this is truly amazing...

So, the picture is kind of a grain ploughing solar calendar.

And it reads:

Plough the fields first time when lions start mating...And Sirius is rising before the sun...
Plough the field second time and sow the fields when scorpions disappear...And Sirius is setting before the sun...

Well maybe, or maybe this is all just mythology...Gods, monsters...

Just to add some more detail. In Mesopotamia people used two types of ploughs.

The ploughing plough :) used in Leo for breaking the soil.

The Sowing plough, used in Scorpio for furrowing, sowing and covering

And just to see that I am not just inventing stuff here, here is another seal, showing sowing plough used in Scorpio...

Is that Sirius again above the plough?

I wonder what birds are flying all around...

I think this is a common crane.

The common crane lives in Northern Eurasia, but winters in Southern Asia and North Africa, Including Mesopotamia.

According to "Cranes of the World: Eurasian Crane (Grus grus)" by Paul A. Johnsgard, Cranes gather  in huge numbers in Eastern Turkey in late September early October, from where they fly down to the marshlands of Mesopotamia...Right in time for sowing...

Priapus

This is Priapus, Ancient Greek god of the male reproductive power and fertility and the fertility of nature in general. Allegedly he originated in Hellespont from where his cult moved to the Balkans and then throughout Greek and later Roman world...

Priapus was a peasant god, god of shepherds, farmers and beekeepers...For Classical Greek city dwellers he was apparently "a bit of a joke"...What else could be expected from the city people who lost touch with nature...

The Olimpians definitely couldn't stick him. They refused to allow him to live on Mount Olympus and threw him down to Earth...Which is where the archaic god of fertility should be living anyway...

It is interesting that such an obviously single role god doesn't have a name that denotes his function: fertility...The official etymology says: "Latin Priapus, from Ancient Greek Πρίαπος (Príapos), the origin of his name is unknown. The name may have originated from the Hellespont, the birthplace of his cult“

I want here to thank Aleksandar Miladinović who alerted me the fact that maybe the name of Priapus actually does denote his function. Just not in Greek. Or Latin...

Have a look at this:

Sanskrit: प्रिय (priya) – love, kindness, favour, pleasure, beloved, dear, liked, favourite, wanted, lover, husband
Serbian (Pan-Slavic): prija - what is nice, good, beneficial, pleasant
Avestan: 𐬟𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀‎ (friia) - dear, beloved, friend, well-wisher
Germanic: *frijōną - to love, to free

From PIE "preyH-" (to love, to please)

Sanskrit: याभ (yAbha) – to have a sexual intercourse
Serbian (Pan-Slavic): jeb (yeb) - to have a sexual intercourse
Ancient Greek: οἴφω (oíphō) - to have a sexual intercourse

From PIE "h₃yebʰ-" (to penetrate, to enter, to copulate)

Sanskrit: priya+yAbha=prijaba=priap - enjoy+sexual intercourse=love=procreation=fertility
Serbian: prija+jeb=prijeb=priap - enjoy+sexual intercourse=love=procreation=fertility

I presume this is quite suiteble name for a god of fertility with a giant erection...

Considering that Ancient Greek doesn't have a word for love based on the PIE root "priHós" the name Πρίαπος (Príapos) could not be of Greek origin...

Considering that only Slavic and Sanskrit have both words required to create Priapus's name, it is one either Slavic or Indian culture where we should look for the origin of Priapus...

We know about Siva lingam worship...

It could be tempting to propose that the name came to Greece from India after the Alexander's campaigns there. But I don't know of any Indian deity whose name sounds like Priap...And the dates don't match...

The first extant mention of Priapus is in the eponymous comedy Priapus, written in the 4th century BC by Xenarchus. He was already taking the piss out of Priapus at the beginning of the 4th century BC...

Greeks in Lampsacus in Asia Minor, where the cult of Priapus is said to have originated, already minted Gold staters with the ivy-wreathed head of Dionysus/Priapus between 360–340BC.

Alexander was not born until 356BC and he died during the Indian campaign in 323BC. So I don't think we should look at India as the place from where Priapus came to Greece wielding his giant dick...

So what's left?

A giant coincidence?

One last thing. Did I mention that the PIE root "h₃yebʰ-" which apparently "originally meant "to enter, penetrate" with a semantic narrowing to "copulate" can in Slavic languages be broken into "je" + "bo" = her + pierce, stab, penetrate = copulate....