Thread: A Delphic Amphictyonic League Coin (c.336-335 BC). The obverse shows the veiled head of Demeter and the reverse shows a serpent (Python) coiled around a net-covered omphalos stone @cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod 
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod This relief depicts Rhea deceiving Cronus by giving him swaddled omphalos stone instead of newborn Zeus
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod Bronze Coin of Pergamon in Mysia, c. 133-16 BCE.
Obverse: Laureate head of Asklepios right.
Reverse: AΣKLHΠIOY ΣΩTHPOΣ with an image of a bearded snake coiled around the Omphalos, which is draped with the "agrenon".
Obverse: Laureate head of Asklepios right.
Reverse: AΣKLHΠIOY ΣΩTHPOΣ with an image of a bearded snake coiled around the Omphalos, which is draped with the "agrenon".
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod Agrenon is a Greek word for the white wool netting which covered the Omphalos, and was also worn by bacchanals and soothsayers. It was made of raw wool which had been carded, but not spun or died. Paintings and copies of the Omphalos showed it covered with this netting.
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod A depiction of the net-like woollen garment worn by bachanals and soothsayers in ancient Greece. Image: Torso of Apollo wearing the Agrenon, found at Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod Omphalos stone from Delphi. This is thought to be a (Roman?) replica of the original sacred stone which mysterious disappeared. You can see that agrenon, which originally covered omphalos was engraved into the stone
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod Fresco from Pompeii depicting omphalos covered with agrenon with a snake coiled around it
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod Here is the best bit. This is a small clay object from Vinča culture, a Neolithic civilisation located along the Danube in Serbia, Bulgarian and Romania which flourished between 6000 and 3,500 BC. It is currently kept in Sofia Museum, Bulgaria. Please note the net cover...
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod Is it possible that this is a depiction of the Omphalos stone? If so, this would means that the Omphalos legend survived in the Balkans for 4 millennia. During this time the small clay depiction of omphalos of the Vinčans became large stone depiction of omphalos of the Greeks...
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod But this would not be the first case where we find earlier small Vinča clay ritual objects transformed by other cultures into later large stone ritual objects. Here is one example:
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod Here is another example:
1. Vinca clay "carved balls"
2. Scottish stone "carved balls"
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2016/07/clay-b…
1. Vinca clay "carved balls"
2. Scottish stone "carved balls"
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2016/07/clay-b…
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod Back to omphalos. What is the actual meaning of this swaddled omphalos stone and snake wrapped around it? Omphalos means "navel". When does navel look like omphalos? When a woman is heavily pregnant. Just before she is about to give birth....
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod The "woman" which legend connects with the omphalos is Rhea. Rhea, the mother of gods, was according to Greeks "daughter of Gaia" the Mother Earth. Some ancient etymologists derived Rhea (Ῥέα) (by metathesis) from ἔρα, "ground" basically equating Rhea and Gaia...
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod Rhea was probably just Young Spring Earth, Fertile Earth, which is in Slavic and Celtic mythology described as the Daughter of the Old Winter Earth...
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod It is interesting that Plato connected Rhea with ῥέω (rheo), "flow", "discharge". Imbolc, the beginning of Spring, falls in the middle of Aquarius, the water pourer. This is also the time of the first snow melt in Europe, the first "flow, discharge" of the Young Spring Earth...
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod The Young Spring Earth turns into Pregnant Summer Earth. And she starts giving birth during harvest time (Autumn). Autumn starts in Leo, and surprise surprise we find Rhea, whom the Romans identified her with Magna Mater (their form of Cybele), sitting on the lion throne
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod It seems that Rhea is another "Lion Lady" which I need to add to my list of Goddesses which "Stand on a lion", "Sit on a lion throne", "Ride in lion pulled chariot"...Basically she is another Virgo arriving after Leo to announce the Harvest oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2019/11/assump…
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod But why the snake? Snakes our out during the "sunny, warm, fertile" part of the year. Which is why snake coils around the omphalos stone, the pregnant belly of the life giving Mother Earth...
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-su…
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-su…
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod Oh, and you are going to love this last bit. Rhea, created "omphalos" as a replacement for the newborn Zeus, the Thunder god. She sits on a lion throne, between two lion figures. This means middle of Leo...
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod And in the middle of Leo is the 2nd of August, which is in Serbian mythology the day of Perun, Slavic thunder god. Coincidence, coincidence...🙂
More info about this in:
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-th…
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/08/alidju…
More info about this in:
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-th…
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/08/alidju…
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod This was the day when bulls were sacrificed by Slavs and Gaels to their sky gods...Bulls, which were in ancient cultures replacements for human, children sacrifice...
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod Is this why there is a bull next to omphalos on that fresco from Pompeii? Or is this just another coincidence? @cma_greekroman @sentantiq @TheAncientWorld @greekhistorypod @ancientgrworld @rogueclassicist Any idea?
@cma_greekroman @sentantiq @rogueclassicist @TheAncientWorld @MagicalEurope @greekhistorypod @ancientgrworld Apparently I was right: This fresco from Pompeii shows the Omphalos stone covered with a net and the Python wrapped around it. A priestess stands at left with a sacrificial bull; at right are Dionysos, Apollo, and Artemis...
