Gisgis relief

The other day @Anatolian2023 alerted me to this amazing artefact: The Gisgis relief, a 2900 years old relief located on a hard-to-reach south facing cliff within the borders of the village of Gisgis in Diyarbakır's Ergani district in Turkey. You can read more about this relief in this article...

The relief depicts a king facing a procession of gods. From left to right: 

Ishtar on a lion.

Moon god Sin, symbolically depicted with the crescent moon standard, on "a complex creature".

Sun god Shamash, symbolically depicted with the winged sun standard, on a bull.

So why is this relief so "amazing"? Cause this is another complex animal calendar, which divides the year into three parts, and confirms what I have stated in my article "Moon god Nana/Sin" about why the god Sin was so important to Mesopotamians. 

In short, for the lazy ones, I postulated that the god Sin was the god of the "Wet moon", the moon of the wet, cool, half of the year in Mesopotamia, Oct/Nov-Apr/May...

And this relief actually confirms this. But to see how, we need to look at the animal mounts of the gods in the procession as animal calendar markers...

Let's start with Lion: Lion marks the period Jul/Aug, which is when the main mating season of Eurasian lions, which once lived in Levant, Mesopotamia and Persia, starts...

This is why Ishtar stands on a lion:

For those who will say "Ishtar was the morning star", yes she was, in Leo (Jul/Aug), when Sirius rose in the morning with the sun...Which is why Ishtar stands on a lion (with sun above the lion) and why Ishtar is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

For those who say Inanna/Ishtar is Venus and not Sirius. This article, "Sirius the mother of Venus" and linked articles might be of interest...

Apart from being the symbol for Jul/Aug, lion is also the symbol for Autumn, Jul/Aug-Oct/Nov, the main mating season of the Eurasian lions...

One of many Lion (autumn, starts in Leo) killing Bull (summer, starts in Taurus) scenes found all over Eurasia, this one depicted on the wall of the Great Mosque of Diyarbakir the oldest mosque in Anatolia.

Some articles that analyse artefacts which contain this animal calendar marker and related symbols: "Mystery seal", "Angra mainyu", "Bull leaping in Syria", "Lion killing bull under date palm", "Butt chewing"...

Then we have the "complex creature", which has scorpion tail, hind legs with claws like those of birds of prey, wings and [my suggestion, not clear] feline [leopard] head and front legs. This "complex creature" is of course a complex animal calendar marker...They all are...

Scorpion is an animal calendar marker for Oct/Nov, the beginning of the wet, cool half of the year, because this is when scorpions disappear from the fields and appear in people's homes...

I talked about this in my post "Angra Mainyu". 

The old Sumerian summer, the 7 headed dragon, can be depicted using animal calendar markers like this too: starts in Apr/May, Bull head, Taurus, peaks in Jul/Aug, Lion body, Leo and ends in Oct/Nov, Scorpion tail/Eagle wings and talons, Scorpio/Eagle...

Eagle/Vulture, is the animal calendar marker for the beginning of the vulture mating season, Oct/Nov...

Which is also the beginning of the wet season in Mesopotamia...

I talked about this first in my article "Double headed eagle" about this amazing silver gilt cast shaft-hole axe head, made between 2500-1500 BC in the area along the Oxus and Murghab rivers in modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan...

And I talked about this in my post "Eagle dance" about the "Eagle dance", Syria, 1800BC...

Eagle (vulture) couples dance above the mountains at the beginning of their mating season, which coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Fertile Crescent...

And in my post "Kassite seal with Apkallu", aout this mad Kassite seal, where we see two headed eagle spewing water from the sky.  Originally people believed that rains were brought by the rain god, who was in Bronze Age Mesopotamia imagined as huge black eagle...

And in many other articles. So together the eagle and scorpion mark the beginning of winter, Oct/Nov, and winter as a whole, Oct/Nov-Jan/Feb. Hence Eagle-Scorpion dude...

"On this seal, a bird-man with a scorpion tail aims a bow and arrow at a winged lion-griffin standing on a hillock". 

I have to say I love this description. It says that officially they have no idea what this all means...

But "we" actually do. I it winter killing autumn...I talked about this in my article "Scorpion man". BTW, I talked about the origin of Griffin as an animal calendar marker for autumn, in my article "Origin of griffins"...

Now why do I think the front of the "complex creature" is leopard? Because winter is followed by spring, and spring starts in Jan/Feb, when Eurasian leopards mate. I talked about this in my article "Mosaic floor from Sulcis, Sardinia", about this mosaic which depicts leopards drinking from a krater for mixing wine and water with a grapevine growing from the krater...

And in my article "The oldest narrative scene" about this 11,000 years old relief from Anatolian Neolithic that no one can interpret...

And in my article "A vessel from Tepe Hissar", about this neolithic vessel which is a great example of related animal calendar markers used together. Mating Ibex (start of winter) followed by Mating Leopard (start of spring). Both winter and spring are rainy seasons...Semen turns to flowing water... 

And in many other articles. So leopard marks the beginning of spring, Jan/Feb, and spring as a whole, Jan/Feb-Apr/May.

Together Scorpion/Eagle/Leopard, mark the cool, wet season, Winter/Spring, Oct/Nov-Apr/May, the time of the "Wet moon" god Sin...

The Scorpion/Eagle/Leopard is followed by a bull. Bull which is an animal calendar marker for Apr/May.

Silver stater from Korkyra. Circa 510-480 BC. A sun above a cow suckling her calf. Summer sun. Summer starts in Apr/May, in Taurus, when wild Eurasian cows started calving...

I talked about this in many of my posts, like "Cow and calf ivory", "Foundation peg of the goddess Nanshe", "Elamite water bull"...

Apr/May, Taurus, marks the beginning of summer, Apr/May-Jul/Aug. Hence, A Sumerian song exclaims: "Hero emerging from the holy interior of heaven...the great wild bull, youthful Utu [Shamash, the sun god], who like a torch illuminates the Land from the holy heavens..."

And another one says:

In "Enki and the world order" we can reed that: "Enki placed in charge of the whole of heaven and earth the hero, the youth Utu (Shamash), the bull standing triumphantly, audaciously, majestically..."

Triumph, Taurus, Peak of the Flood, Leo, End of the flood. I talked about this in my post "Butt chewing"...

There is also this

Maran (Lord) Shamash (Sun) with bull horns, the main god of Hatra, an ancient city in Mesopotamia, whose full name was Hatra (Temple) Shamash (Sun)...

Maran...Like Maran-Atha (Our Lord - has come) from the bible? Which lord? Golden calf. Sun in Taurus. 

I talked about this in my post "Maran"...

And this

This is one of the most interesting seals I have ever seen. It was found in the 3rd mil. BC layers of the scribal quarters of Nippur. And it depicts Shamash, The Sun God (the central light of the Menorah) between two bulls (means in Taurus, Apr/May). 

I talked about this in my post "Menorah from Nipur"...

And I talked about this in many other articles...

So bull marks the beginning of summer, Apr/May, and the summer as a whole, Apr/May-Jul/Aug...

And so...It seems that the symbols representing Ishtar (left), Sin (centre) and Shamash (right), as depicted on the upper half of a kudurru of Meli-Shipak II and many other artefacts, are not ordered randomly after all...

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...

Utu

 Utu, Sun: 𒀭𒌓

According to this table, this means god, heaven + day = sun...

But, did the god sign originally mean shiny thing (sun, star)? And did the day sign originally mean "eye"? 

Because if the did, then we would get: shiny thing + eye = to see = sun? 

Makes a lot of sense...At least to me...Cause I am a Slav...Cause Slavs have Svetovid...

svet (world)

svetlo (light)

vid (sight)

Svetovid (sun god) = world, light + to see = sun  

I talked about this in my post "Svetovid"...

Thanks to @selineith for the original sun pic...

Mosaic floor from Sulcis, Sardinia

This Roman mosaic floor from Sulcis, Sardinia depicts leopards drinking from a krater for mixing wine and water with a grapevine growing from the krater...

What is this all about? Animal and plant calendar markers...Of course 🙂

Leopard was closely associated with the god Dionysus (Bacchus), god of rebirth (of nature).

Why? Cause leopards, which mate in Jan/Feb, are animal calendar markers for the end of Winter, start of Spring. The time of rebirth of nature...

You can read more about this in my posts "Leopard and tiger"...

Few more Dionysus posts explaining animal and plant calendar markers embedded into his mythology: "Patera of Rennes", "Maenades with hare", "Furious maenad", "Thyrsus"...

Here is another really cool depiction of the same scene with wine mixing krater flanked by two leopards and grape vine growing from it, from a sarcophagus found in Serbia...

The moment of discovery of a Roman stone sarcophagus found inside the crypt decorated with frescoes and mosaics at Beljnjača archaeological site in Šid, Srem region, northern Serbia...

The sarcophagus was dated to 4th c. AD. It was made of white marble from Austrian Alps, probably carved in nearby Roman city of Sirmium, one of the biggest Roman cities of its time with over 100k inhabitants...

The sarcophagus, which was robbed soon after the burial, originally contained remains of a couple, an officer and his wife, who were depicted on the side of the sarcophagus...

The front and back of the sarcophagus were decorated with mythological motifs: panthers around crater with grapevine as elements of Dionysus cult, personifications of the seasons of the year, and Medusa heads...

More about this artefact can be found in these two articles: 1, 2...

So? What does it all mean?

The rain and snow that fall during winter, the time of the year ruled by Dionysus, is what ensures rebirth of nature in Eastern Mediterranean...Where the cult of Dionysus most likely originated...

Levant

Crete

As you can see, the rain falls between the the grape picking (I talked about this in my post "Crocus fairy") which ends  before (Oct/Nov) 

and the grape flowering (I talked about this in my post "When grapes flower") which starts after (Apr/May)...

And guess what happens in Feb/Mar? Anthesteria, an ancient Greek three-day festival in honour of Dionysus...When the new wine was first drank...

Oh, and guess what else happens in Feb/Mar, when during Anthesteria the new wine was mixed with water in kraters? 

Grape vine rebirth.

After it died, after all the leaves fell off at the start of winter, it gets reborn, with new leaves starting to grow at the start of spring...

And so new grape vines growing out of a krater for mixing wine with water, flanked by two (couple of mating) leopards (panthers)...

Neat, I think...

@another_barbara:

Mixing wine and water in a chalice during a resurrection ritual ...  🤔 Why does that sound so familiar ... 🤔🤔😃.

Same all, same all...

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...

Sirius, the mother of Venus

You know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar (Morning Star) is Venus and how I think that it was originally Sirius, and only later became Venus? 

Well, it seems that Ancient Egyptians preserved the proof of this switch in their mythology. 

Meet Sopdet...

Sopdet, the personification of Sirius, was the consort of Sah, the personification of Orion. And their child was Sopdu, the personification of Venus, "Lord of the East" (Venus as morning star)....

Ta Ta Taaaaaaa!!!!

Why the f*ck would Sirius be the mother of Venus? Because Venus is what everyone thinks when we say "Morning Star"...But Sirius is also "Morning Star", actually "The (most important) Morning Star", in Jul/Aug, when it rises together with the sun, to announce the Nile Flood...

So does this myth, Mother (Sirius, Older Morning Star) --> Son (Venus, Younger Morning Star), trying to tell us that Sirius was (Original, Important, Once A Year) The Morning Star, and Venus is (Later, Less Important, Every Day) Morning Star?

I think so. 

BTW if you want to see where the "Lioness of heaven" (Ishtar) is hiding in Egypt, check these two articles: "Sphinx" and "Giza lioness"...

Did Mesopotamians forget this switch? Don't know. They certainly left is clues that we can use to decipher the true nature of Ishtar: 

Sirius...The morning star in Leo. Hence Inanna/Ishtar (personification of Sirius), also known as the lioness of heaven, standing on a lion, with sun above the lion, in Leo... 

In my article "Inana and Šukaletuda" I analysed the epic "Inana and Šukaletuda" which is used as "proof" that Inanna is Venus, but in which all calendar markers point at Inanna being Sirius and not Venus...

More about Inanna/Ishtar as Sirius can be found in this article, "The brightest star", about Ishtar being the the most shining when Sirius is the most shining, and also about Bow and Arrow constellation and its link with Leo, Ishtar and Nergal...And in this article, "Woman of the Apocalypse" about the true identity of this mysterious "Lady"...

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...

Lyres of Ur

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...

4 lyres of this type were actually found in royal graves in the Royal Cemetery at Ur.

These instruments were not ordinary instruments. They were ceremonial instruments. 

Stele representing a bull-lyre player and singer on the lower register and a priest with a plumb-bob on the upper register. Limestone, period of Gudea, ruler of Lagash, ca. 2120 BC, found in Telloh (ancient city of Girsu). From 1910 History of Sumer and Akkad...

This is obvious from the fact that the Sumerian sign for lyre also means "to praise." You can read about this here. But praise who?

All the lyres have a sound box topped by a bull head, three with a bearded bull head and one with a normal bull head. And no one knows what the meaning of the (bearded) bull head is...Well...

Well, we kind of know that the bearded bull is the symbolic depiction of the sun god Utu/Shamash. Why? Cause in "Enki and the world order" we read  "Utu/Shamash...the great herald in the east of holy An...with a lapis-lazuli beard, rising from the horizon..."

But why (lapis lazuli) beard? No one knows...Well...Over 70% of all the water flowing down Tigris and Euphrates comes from the snowmelt in the mountains where these two rivers originate. 

Snowmelt caused by Utu/Shamash, which peaks at the beginning of summer, Apr/May, in Taurus...

Which is why the water level in Tigris and Euphrates also reaches its peak in Apr/May, in Taurus. Which causes the annual flood, the source of life in lower Mesopotamia...

Which is why Utu/Shamash was depicted as a golden bull (Sun in Taurus) with flowing lapis lazuli beard (flowing water)...I talked about this in many of my posts. Like: "Shamash young and old", "When Utu steps up into heaven", "Butt chewing", "Maran"...

BTW, Taurus here is The Old Taurus, the animal calendar marker for the beginning of the calving season of wild eurasian cattle...I talked about this in my post "Cow and calf ivory", "Calydonian boar", "Bull carrying grannary", "Cypriot stamp seal with cow and calf"… 

Seal from Tell Brak

So I think that these harps were used to praise Utu/Shamash, the sun god...

Now interestingly, two of the harps have golden bull head with lapis lazuli beard, on has a golden bull head with golden beard, and one has silver bull head with no beard. Is this significant? I think so. Of course this could all be just me seeing thing again. What do you think?

Anyway, why am I talking about this? Cause of Apollo and his Lyre...Remember that in one of my recent posts about the Apollo I said that I finally realised why he is constantly dragging his lyre with him and insisting to play it weather anyone liked it or not?

In my post "Lyre of Apollo" I already explained that Apollo's lyre was a complex animal calendar marker for Apr/May, Taurus, beginning of the hot, dry half of the year ruled by the (sun) god Apollo...

But I wrote this article in 2022, and I it was only recently that I realised that Apollo is basically Shamash/Nergal. And that all his main attributes are found in Shamash/Nergal mythology of Mesopotamia...Including...the bull lyre...

Remember, Shamash, Sun, can be both life bringing (Apr/May, Taurus) and life taking (Jul/Aug, Leo)...

With Apollo, this is depicted through his two main attributes: bow and arrow and the lyre...

Let me explain what I mean...

As I showed in my two articles "Marble throne of Apollo", "Apollo the great archer" and "Apollo Sminthius", bow and arrow are the symbols of destructive Shamash, in Jul/Aug...Shamash the lion/serpent/dragon...

A Coin depicting Apollo Sminthius (Apollo lord of the mice) with his plague causing bow and a mouse/rat at his feet. 

And I think that the lyre is the symbol of the other, life giving side of sun god Shamash...

But then, I heard that lyre is a great instrument to play while watching the world burn...🙂

That's it. I will write about Ur lyres comics 🙂 at some stage, hopefully soon...

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...