Thread: 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... #mythologymonday
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 city people separated from nature...
The Olympians 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 strange 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 this name is unknown..."
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, pleasure, beloved, dear, liked, wanted, lover, husband
Serbian (Pan-Slavic): prija - what is nice, good, beneficial, pleasant
Avestan: friia - dear, beloved, friend, well-wisher
Germanic: *frijōną - to love, to free
From PIE priHós
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
I presume this is quite suitable 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 languages have both words required to create Priapus's name...
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 am not aware of any Indian deities with names that sound 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 writing during Rhegian War (B. C. 399-389).
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 the name Priapus came to Greece...
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....
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Thread: 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... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_…
These instruments were not ordinary instruments. They were ceremonial instruments. This is obvious from the fact that the Sumerian sign for lyre also means "to praise." But praise who?
Thread: 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. Let me explain: collections.lacma.org/node/230211
Official description of the throne: "Despite its elaborate decoration, the artfully decorated legs terminating in lion's paw feet...[this throne] could hardly have been sat upon..."
Of course. Apollo is already depicted sitting on it. In a shape of a serpent/dragon...
"...A snake weaves its way in and out of an archer's bow, below which is a quiver full of arrows...The bow and quiver are associated with the god Apollo and the snake might refer to the fearful serpent Python, guardian of the oracle at Delphi, which Apollo slew in his youth..."
Thread: Etruscan gold disc fibula, from the Necropolis of Ponte Sodo, Vulci, Etruria, Italy. 650 BC, from the "Orientalizing period". Currently in the Antikensammlungen, Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
WTH is all this stuff depicted on it? Here is the official description:
"Around a central cross, above, are several birds in flight and, at the sides, two lions with a pendent tongue and serpentine tail; in the centre, two helmeted warriors, with short sword and shield, fight surrounded by a bird respectively." That's it?
Thread: "Motanka", elaborately decorated but always faceless cloth doll was once a common feature in every Ukrainian peasant home. These dolls weren't just toys. They were magic talismans...
The name "motanka" comes from the word "motaty" (to wind) ie to make a knotted doll out of fabric, without using a needle and scissors. The winding of the doll was to be carried out only clockwise...
The fact that the doll had to be wound clockwise (sunwise) is very important as this direction was by our ancestors considered "positive, natural" and the opposite direction was considered "negative, unnatural"...
Two Assyrian soldiers forcing Elamite captive to grind bones of his family, 7th - 6th c. BC. This wasn't like most people think an act of random cruelty...Making someone destroy the bones of their ancestors was a deliberate forced act of sacrilege...
Assyrian culture, like all the other Mesopotamian cultures, was built around the cult of the dead. Assyrians, often buried their dead under house floors. They also practiced "kispu", regular, ritual feeding and watering of the deceased after their burial...
Based on this, in the Petra M. Creamer concludes that "Socially, this indicates deep linkages to familial practices and ancestral memory".asor.org/anetoday/2024/…