My immediate response was Rune Ur or Uruz. Looks like horns (but upside down). I perceive it as a container teeming with deeply (and sacred) feminine power.
I've always associated Uruz with cattle, but I hadn't thought about identifying it by gender. Of course, cattle wealth only increases when (female) cows have calves. I like the image of it as a container. Shall have to ponder these concepts some more. Thank you for sharing!
Fehu refers to cattle, Uruz to the auroch, a bovine species that our Eurasian Ice Age ancestors hunted. I'm not sure what their closest relative would be but I think yaks, buffalo & bison. Wild ungulates at any rate. What about horses I haven't seen you write about them, did they have horses in ancient Crete?
They didn't have horses until the Mycenaeans imported them during the occupation era of the last couple of centuries. Before that, oxen and goats were their draft animals. So horses don't figure in Minoan mythology, only in (Indo-European) Mycenaean/Hellenic mythology.
Yes, Hathor's association with Sekhmet - I can see the sun disc association. And just to be sure I understood, you're saying Isis' disc was also once a sun disc as well. Did Isis have a Sun Goddess aspect? Her father being Ra perhaps?
I'm not as familiar with the details of Isis and her symbology, so I can't speak to the nature of her disk unless it was directly borrowed from Hathor. I studied Hathor in particular in the course of my research when we were trying to find the Minoan sun goddess.
I guess I'm a nerd but I LOVED this! Just finished asking Roy (whose uncle had a dairy) if he knew cows used to have horns and he said OF COURSE! Which brings me to your comment about Hathor and by association Isis. So are you saying the "horns" around the solar disc we often see atop her head are bovine horns? And I've heard that's a solar and lunar disc. I'll bet you can clarify for me?
They are indeed bovine horns, and Hathor was originally a sun goddess. I think people nowadays sometimes identify the disk as a lunar one, but originally it was solar.
My immediate response was Rune Ur or Uruz. Looks like horns (but upside down). I perceive it as a container teeming with deeply (and sacred) feminine power.
I've always associated Uruz with cattle, but I hadn't thought about identifying it by gender. Of course, cattle wealth only increases when (female) cows have calves. I like the image of it as a container. Shall have to ponder these concepts some more. Thank you for sharing!
Fehu refers to cattle, Uruz to the auroch, a bovine species that our Eurasian Ice Age ancestors hunted. I'm not sure what their closest relative would be but I think yaks, buffalo & bison. Wild ungulates at any rate. What about horses I haven't seen you write about them, did they have horses in ancient Crete?
They didn't have horses until the Mycenaeans imported them during the occupation era of the last couple of centuries. Before that, oxen and goats were their draft animals. So horses don't figure in Minoan mythology, only in (Indo-European) Mycenaean/Hellenic mythology.
Love this—Thanks, Laura 🙏💜
Tribe spirituality is making me excited about bovines in a way I never knew was possible. :D
Yes, Hathor's association with Sekhmet - I can see the sun disc association. And just to be sure I understood, you're saying Isis' disc was also once a sun disc as well. Did Isis have a Sun Goddess aspect? Her father being Ra perhaps?
I'm not as familiar with the details of Isis and her symbology, so I can't speak to the nature of her disk unless it was directly borrowed from Hathor. I studied Hathor in particular in the course of my research when we were trying to find the Minoan sun goddess.
I guess I'm a nerd but I LOVED this! Just finished asking Roy (whose uncle had a dairy) if he knew cows used to have horns and he said OF COURSE! Which brings me to your comment about Hathor and by association Isis. So are you saying the "horns" around the solar disc we often see atop her head are bovine horns? And I've heard that's a solar and lunar disc. I'll bet you can clarify for me?
They are indeed bovine horns, and Hathor was originally a sun goddess. I think people nowadays sometimes identify the disk as a lunar one, but originally it was solar.