There is a complete poem of Sappho where she allegedly called upon the Goddess Aphrodite to make a girl had unrequited love for fall for the poetess, but in ancient Greek, third-person singular verbs can refer to both men and women. Much of her poetry was dedicated to heterosexual marriage, the bride and the bridegroom, their happiness etc. She often lamented at the tragic fate of women, at how unworthy men tricked them, but she also sang to the beauty of how the man's love for a woman makes the world go round

https://telegra.ph/The-Heroes-of-the-Iliad-as-Indo-European-Gods-A-Mythological-Rosetta-Stone-02-02

The Heroes of the Iliad as Indo-European Gods: A Mythological Rosetta Stone

Part 1 of 9: Agamemnon

Part 1 of our in-depth series on the Iliad Heroes as Indo-European gods. Will the Greeks be vindicated?

- The Sun Riders

“...we can see quickly that it is descended from the same tradition, the same material, but recast in a Greek form. This being plain from a host of examples which will become apparent [...] it should follow that the active figures of the Trojan War are representatives, incarnations, of the most archaic primary gods”


“...the Varuna archetype is always a conqueror who expands the territory of his kingdom in the early days of his power, which is exactly what Agamemnon and Pandu are said to do. Pandu is described as swallowing up kingdoms. After regaining his father's lost kingdom, Agamemnon's conquests make him the most powerful king in all of Greece.”

Svarog and Dažbog

In the Hypathian Codex, there is a tale which was translated from the language of the Byzantines. It tells us a story about the Egyptian God of the sky and his child, the Sun. The Byzantines referred to the God of the Sky as Hephaestus, and to the God of the Sun as Helios. Later, when this text was translated into Slavonic, the names were changed to Svarog as the God of the Sky and Dazhbog, as the God of the Sun:

(Then) began his reign Feosta (Hephaestus), whom the Egyptians called Svarog <…> during his rule, from the heavens fell the smith’s prongs and weapons were forged for the first time; before that, (people) fought with clubs and stones. Feosta also commanded the women that they should have only a single husband… and that is why Egyptians called him Svarog <…> After him ruled his son, his name was the Sun, and they called him Dažbog <…> Sun tzar, son of Svarog, this is Dažbog.

Hypathian Codex, translation of John Malalas’ Chronicle

- Daelendil, The Sun Riders

Wild boars in a snowy undergrowth by Georges Frédéric Rotig (1873-1961)

Freyr was one of the most widely and passionately venerated divinities amongst the heathen Norse and other Germanic peoples. One Old Norse poem calls him “the foremost of the gods” and “hated by none.” The reasons for this aren’t hard to understand; their well-being and prosperity depended on his benevolence, which particularly manifested itself in sexual and ecological fertility, bountiful harvests, wealth, and peace. His role in providing health and abundance was often symbolized by his fylgja, the boar Gullinborsti (“Golden-Bristled”), and by his enormous, erect phallus.

It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that Freyr was a frequent recipient of sacrifices at various occasions, such as the blessing of a wedding or the celebration of a harvest. During harvest festivals, the sacrifice traditionally took the form of his favored animal, the boar.

I was wrong to push the "Yamnaya as PIE" meme for so long. Terms like \Yamnaya-DNA' and 'steppe-ancestry' are a little misleading since a lot of the DNA we label as Yamnaya-related or 'steppe', isn't from the steppe or the Yamnaya. This ancestry comes from any people who, like the Yamnaya, are a mix of EHG and CHG and most peoples with that genetic signature in the late Neolithic did live on the pontic caspian steppe but not all. It looks like Yamnaya are just one late PIE speaking people, whereas the original PIE were probably Sredny Stog. The main group that spread IE languages and culture were NOT the Yamnaya, but the Corded Ware and it looks like CWC got their 'steppe DNA' directly from Sredny stog, not via yamnya, so most Europeans don't have any Yamnaya DNA.
The earrly IE cultures which spread IE to West Europe are likely Volosovo and Fatyanovo, each of whom lived in forests of Western Russia well North of the steppe. Also these and Corded Ware culture was not particularly equestrian so maybe describing the spread of "steppe" dna in terms of Scythian-like mounted warriors is not realistic. They had horses, but they didn't have a horse-centric culture like some steppe people. From now on I would like to refer to Neolithic farmers as 'Neolithic Western Europeans', and IE "steppe" as 'Neolithic Eastern Europeans' although this is not an ideal term since some Neolithic cultures in Eastern Europe were not IE at all eg Globular Amphorae Culture -but this will help kill the dumb meme that IE came from central asian steppes which I don't know why anyone thinks in the first place.

Kurentovanje

For thousands of years our ancestors felt the need to chase away winter in the time of its climax. This tradition was kept alive in a couple of Slavic countries, one of them being the Slovenian celebration called kurentovanje. In modern times, the celebration takes place on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday in the city of Ptuj, which is known as the oldest recorded town in Slovenia. During the festival, groups of kurents or kurenti, which originally consisted of young unmarried men, but in modern times are comprised of whoever wants to participate, wear traditional thick long sheepskin garments and a mask on their faces and horns or antlers decorated with ribbons on their heads while holding wooden clubs with hedgehog skins wrapped around called ježevke, the noise of which is believed to chase away winter. In this way, the presence of kurenti announces the end of winter and beginning of spring.

Gallic Horsemen
Évariste Vital Luminais (c. 1875)

Check out part 1 of this new fantastic series O'Gravy is doing, part 2 will be posted sometime today (Saturday) American time.

Hope you all have a good weekend, and thanks for following and sharing our content. Very happy to be beyond 400 subscribers now!

-Owen, The Sun Riders

https://telegra.ph/The-Iliad-Heroes-etc-Part-2-of-9-02-08
The Heroes of the Iliad as Indo-European Gods: A Mythological Rosetta Stone

Part 2 of 9: Menelaus

Part 2. This section is the linchpin of the series as Mitra is the linchpin of the divine society. Menelaus has hidden depths, and this is where you start to see the pattern.

-O’Gravy, The Sun Riders

“Just as Mitra and Varuna form a divine pair who alternate as sovereigns, so Menelaus is Agamemnon's younger brother, both kings in their own right.”

“When they face off, Menelaus throws his spear at Paris. It goes through his shield, but Paris is rescued by Aphrodite before he can be killed…Crucially, the Vedic Yudhishthira is known as one so skilled with a spear that he can throw it through solid stone as if it was paper, exactly as Lleu actually does.”

“Lleu Llaw Gyffes' myth is so identical in every part to the story of Menelaus that it begins to seem like it may have been a direct borrowing by the Welsh from the Iliad [...]”

India and Iran on the one hand, Italy and Gaul on the other, preserved in common certain religious traditions, thanks to the fact that these four countries were the only ones in the Indo-European domain to possess classes of priests. Despite striking differences, brahmans, druids, or pontiffs [and] priests of Vedism.. all have this in common, that they maintained an ancient tradition. These priestly organisations imply a ritual, a liturgy of sacrifice, in short a collection of practises, of those which are usually least adaptable to evolution. There can be no liturgy or ritual without sacred objects whose names are preserved, without prayers which are repeated unchanged.

Joseph Vendrèys, Celtologist (1875 - 1960)

Part 1: https://t.me/solarcult/415
Part 2: https://t.me/solarcult/425

Check out part 1 and 2 of O'Gravy's article delving deep into the Iliad, he'd particularly recommend part 2. Part 3 will be posted later today!

- Owen, The Sun Riders

https://telegra.ph/The-Heroes-of-the-Iliad-as-Indo-European-Gods-A-Mythological-Rosetta-Stone-Part-3-of-9-02-09

The Heroes of the Iliad as Indo-European Gods: A Mythological Rosetta Stone

Part 3 of 9: Ajax

In this part we find the Lord of Wind in the hero Ajax, always the largest and strongest god as he is the god of the life-breath.

- O’Gravy, The Sun Riders

“Ajax is known to be so powerful and courageous that when it comes time to draw lots to face Hector in single combat, Ajax steps forward and all the Achaeans pray that he will be chosen, and only Diomedes or Agamemnon may suffice if it is not him. He is chosen and greets the news with joy, and thus we get the formalized bout between the two bafflingly powerful heroes in which Ajax fights Hector to a draw and they exchange gifts...”

Fig.: Baltic-Pontic Homeland

Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (1997)

The Baltic-Pontic solution. This solution argues that a PIE linguistic continuum already exised during the Mesolithic, i.e., c 8500-5000 BCE, in the area between the Baltic and Black/Caspian seas. The Neolithic cultures that emerge across this enormous region are then ancestral to their respective regional IE stocks, e.g., the northwest IE languages emerge in the TRE culture of the north European plain, while Indo-Iranian develops in the steppe lands of the Ukraine and south Russia and pushes eastwards into Asia.

Mallory & Adams (1997)

One of the panels from the Gundestrup caldron, considered a Celtic work, found in Denmark. This scene has been suggested by some to represent reincarnating warriors. This mirrors the famous quote by Julius Caesar on the Gauls, in reference to the Druids and warrior class, from his work The Gallic War:

“The principal point of their doctrine is that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from one body into another ... a firm belief in the indestructibility of the human soul, which, merely passes at death from one tenement to another; for by such doctrine alone, they say, which robs death of all its terrors, can the highest form of human courage be developed.”

Part 1: https://t.me/solarcult/415
Part 2: https://t.me/solarcult/425
Part 3: https://t.me/solarcult/429

Check out parts 1-3 of O'Gravy's current series investigating the Iliad, part 4 to follow later on today.

- Owen, The Sun Riders