Thread: This is an impression of an Akkadian cylinder seal, c. 2217-2193 BC, currently in Louvre Museum. This also is one of the best examples of animal calendar markers I have seen...
It shows the same scene, a water buffalo licking a jar, held by a kneeling "man", from which water flows in two streams. The scene is depicted twice symmetrically around the inscription that reads "The Divine Sharkalisharri Prince of Akkad"...
So first, what's the meaning of the jar with two streams flowing out of it? The two flowing streams are two great Mesopotamian rivers, Tigris and Euphrates. And the jar is symbolic depiction of their source...
Now the mythological source of Tigris and Euphrates is God of fresh water, known to Sumerians as Enki and to Akkadians as Ea...Actually his penis. Apparently every year, he "stands up like a wild bull, lifts his penis, ejaculates and fills the great rivers with flowing water"...
Which is why Enki is either depicted sitting on his throne, holding a jar from which water flows out in two streams, like on this cylinder seal
Or he is depicted sitting on a throne with two streams flowing out of his shoulders...
Ok, so what about the buffaloes? Why are they licking the mouth of the water jars? It's all to do with Mesopotamian climate. The climatic year in Mesopotamia is divided into two halves: summer, hot and dry half (Apr/May-Oct/Nov) and winter, cool and wet half (Oct/Nov-Apr/May)...
The rain that falls everywhere in the Tigris and Euphrates catchment area and snow that falls in the Anatolian highlands and Zagros mountains during the wet season, and subsequent snowmelt, are the real source of the two great rivers...And the life in the region...
The beginning of the rain season in the area (Oct/Nov) is also the beginning of the mating season of the wild water buffaloes. Domesticated buffaloes also breed mostly during the winter...
So the reason why the water buffalo is depicted licking the jar, symbolic source of Tigris and Euphrates, is because the water buffalo is the animal calendar marker which marks the beginning of winter, the wet season, the real source of Tigris and Euphrates...
I talked about water buffalo as an animal calendar marker for winter in Mesopotamia already in this thread
One last thing. The story about ejaculating Enki says: "...Father Enki...he stood up full of lust like a rampant bull, lifted his penis, ejaculated and filled the Tigris with flowing water. He was like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass..." Why?
The rain season in Mesopotamia does start with the mating season of water buffaloes (Oct/Nov). But Tigris and Euphrates reach their peak water level 6 months later, in Apr/May...Pics: water flow charts, L: Tigris, R: Euphrates
This time of the year, Apr/May, is marked by Taurus, Bull...Why? Because this is the beginning of the calving season of the aurochs, Wild Eurasian cattle...oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2016/05/ram-an…
Hence Enki, the god of fresh water, was at the moment of his ejaculation, at the moment of his climax, at the moment of the peak water levels in the rivers he fills with his heavenly semen, "like a lustful bull" and "like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass"...
So the wet season, the real source of the two great rivers, starts with buffalo and ends, culminates, with bull...
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Thread: Have you ever heard of shepherd's stick calendars? Here's one from Bulgaria...
In the mountains of the Balkans, up until the end of the 20th century, shepherds carried with them calendar sticks...
It was a stick with a notch cut into it for every day of the year and a cross or some other symbol for major holy days, which in Serbia are all linked to major agricultural events and major solar cycle events...
At the end of every day a piece of the stick up to the first notch, representing the previous day, was cut off from the stick. When the last piece was cut, the year was over...
Thread (a quite long one, sorry, but I think worth reading to the end): A while back @another_barbara posted this 1865 beehive panel image with this description: An interesting Shrovetide tradition from Slovenija "babo žagajo" (sawing of an old woman)...
The other day wanted to write an article about this custom, and while looking around the net for more info on the subject, I came across 1960 paper by Niko Kuret "BABO ŽAGAJO, Slovenske oblike pozabljenega obredja in njegove Evropske paralele" etno-muzej.si/sl/etnolog/slo…
In which he presents all the different versions (he knew of) of the "SAWING OF THE OLD WOMAN" ritual found in Slovenian lands, and its European parallels...
Here I will translate the most interesting bits from this paper, and will then give my interpretation of the ritual...
Thread: The žirgeliai (little horses), are common motifs on Lithuanian rooftops, placed there for protection of the house...
They are a symbolic depiction of the Ašvieniai (), Baltic counterparts of Vedic Ashvins, who are said to pull the chariot of Saulė (the Sun Goddess) through the sky. As depicted on this rooftop of a house in Nida... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C5%A1vi…
Both names, Lithuanian ašva and Sanskrit ashva, mean "horse" and are derive from the same Proto-Indo-European root for the horse – *ek'w-...
Maruts came (to earth) along with Agni (fire) from above...
The other day I read a very interesting paper "Comets and meteoritic showers in the Rigveda and their significance" by R.N. Iyengar () academia.edu/7324390/COMETS…
Most Vedas interpreters agree that Maruts are deified moisture laden monsoon storm winds, turned into rain bringing deities armed with thunder and lightning. Even I agree with that and I even wrote a thread talking about this:
But, the Mysore Palace edition of the Rigveda, which gives in 36 volumes an exhaustive introduction, the text, traditional meaning, ritual application, grammatical explanation, and the Sanskrit commentary of Sâyan says that: Vâyu (winds) and Maruts are distinctly different...
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..."