Lascaux 9 - Minos an Knossos, from the conditio humana to the origin and message of Europa

(conditio humana)

AD TOR OC CO Mycenaean atoroqo Greek anthropos 'human being' was a formula for the conditio humana, toward AD bull in motion TOR right eye OC attentive mind CO, toward the bull in motion with open eyes and focused mind, facing the bull, taking him by the horns, coping with fate.

MUC NOS SAI, bull MUC mind NOS life SAI, was a parallel formula naming the mental coping with fate, visualized by the Minoan bull-leaper, accounting for both Minos and Knossos

MUC NOS SAI Mi NOS Minos

MUC NOS SAI C NOS SAI Knossos

Mycenaean is the language of Linear B that was deciphered by Michael Ventris. What about Linear A ? Cyrus H. Gordon proposed Northwest Semitic as language of the principal Minoan script. Jan Best and Robert Stieglitz followed him. Walther Hinz, in their wake, deciphered Linear A tablet Hagia Triada 95, identifying Mi Nu The as wheat from mu-nu-ti-um (2200 BC) Ugaritic mnt Hebrew Minnit (Ezekiel 27:17) better known as Tell Mardukh or Ebla in Syria, forty kilometers south of Aleppo, once a fertile region where the best wheat came from.

Several combinations of animals and human beings were known in Ebla, among them a Minotaur, half bull half man. A Minotaur lived in the labyrinth of Knossos. We may assume that also the Minoans came from Ebla, say, between 3000 and 2800 BC, and founded Knossos, capital of Minoan Crete, as New Ebla in the west.

Mi Nu The was given much the same way in hieroglyphic Minoan, Linear A and Linear B

MUC for bull

Mi as head of a bull

NOS for mind

Nu as visual pun of a bull-leaper on feet hands feet

SAI for life

The as tree of life

Minos formula: human life results from mentally coping with fate.

Mi Nu The on a Linear A tablet (not Hagia Triada 95), Mi given as head of a bull, Nu as visual pun of a bull-leaper on feet hands feet, and The as abstract tree of life minos.jpg

(calendar of Minotaur)

The Minoans used several calendars: Göbekli Tepe lunisolar calendar encoded in the oblique geometrical 'butterfly' carved in the surface of a block at Knossos, evoking the Minoan double axe; a variation of this calendar, encoded in rosettes of eight petals on beautiful Kamares ware; a calendar of 19 years encoded in the legend of Minotaur; and a calendar of 30 years encoded in the circle of cup marks on the large round stone in the court of Mallia. Here I focus on the Minotaur calendar of Knossos.

King Minos ruled Knossos. Minotaur, half bull half man, lived in the labyrinth of Knossos. Every ninth year Minos asked for seven virgins and seven young men as tribute for Minotaur. Several brave young men fought Minotaur, but failed. Finally, Theseus coped with him, slew the monster, freed the virgins and young men, and found out of the labyrinth by following the famous thread of Ariadne.

The earliest version of this legend, I claim, encoded a lunisolar calendar. Minotaur, half bull half man, personified two periods of time, 9 lunations and 235 lunations (or synodic months). King Minos personified 9 years. Each of the seven virgins and seven young men personified a period of 19 days. And finally Theseus personified a period of 19 years.

9 lunations of the Minotaur counted in the 30 29 30 mode

are 266 days

19 days for each of the seven virgins and each of the seven youths

are again 266 days

9 years of king Minos are seven regular years of 365 days and two

leap years of 366 days, in all 3,287 days, or 173 periods of 19 days

19 years of Theseus are 235 lunations, according to an additive

number sequence relating lunations and years (l/y)

37/3 99/8 136/11 235/19 371/30

And Ariadne's thread? May well symbolize additive number sequences (of several forms) that played an important role in early mathematics and astronomy.

(Adu or Haddu)

On the back side of Linear A tablet Hagia Triada 95 are listed amounts of cereals in dry measures of about ten liters for (the priests of) Adu or Haddu. Following Walther Hinz

(line 1) Adu or Haddu (gets)

(line 2) barley 10 (measures); wheat from Mi

(line 3) Nu The 10 (measures); emmer

(line 4) 10 (measures); oat 10 (measures); roasted

(line 5) grain 10 (measures, a delicacy)

Adu was a leading Minoan god of the Underworld, in Ugarit known as Haddu and in Aleppo as Hadad. Hadad of Mesopotamia and Elam was a god of storms and thunderstorms, alter ego of Ba'al from Canaan.

Magdalenian has GIS BAL CA MmOS of the male triad on the Göbekli Tepe that was symbolized by a bucranium, wherefrom GISh.BIL.GA.MISh Gilgamesh, gesture GIS hot BAL sky CA offspring MmOS, gesturing hot(headed) heavenly offspring, a long name abbreviated in BAL Ba'al. His alter ego Adu or Haddu may imply that he was not only a storm god but also a god of rain, rain that fills river beds, making the rivers flow toward AD the sea while coming from DA hills and mountains, AD DA having been a generic river name, AD DA Haddu Adu, AD DA DHAG Hadad, toward AD from DA able DhAG, the able one who makes rivers flow ...

In antiquity rivers were connected with the Underworld, so that Haddu Adu as a main deity of the Underworld could still have been the lord of rivers.

Gilgamesh as king of Uruk was also connected with water, his town having been named for AAR RAA NOS alias AAR RAA CA, him of air AAR and light RAA with a mind NOS in the sky CA, head of the male triad on the Göbekli Tepe, where he was implored for rain. AAR RAA NOS Varuna of the Indus Valley, once a sky god, had been relegated to the Underworld, but is still invoked when the monsoon is delayed in India.

Enkidu alias the Sumerian water god Ea was the comrade of Gilgamesh, AC CA DhAG Enkidu, AC CA Ea, earth AC sky CA able DhAG. Rain was implored on the Göbekli Tepe with prayers and the smoke of sacrificial fires ascending from the earth AC to the sky CA, prayers and smoke rewarded by rain that fell from the sky CA to the earth AC, filling water holes and making the rivers flow toward AD the sea while coming from DA hills and mountains, and the rain imploring ceremonies were performed by able ones on earth addressing the able one in the sky. AC CA would have been the name of the Göbekli Tepe, maybe preserved in the Syrian province called aqa by the Ancient Egyptians. AC CA, where earth AC and sky CA are meeting, abode of the early Sumerian deities DhAG dingir from the DhAG Du-ku mountain. AC CA DhAG also named Akkad, earth and sky meeting on top of the ziqqurat where the deities had been worshipped. Among the many derivatives of AC CA are Latin aqua 'water' and Spanish aua 'water', the latter close to Sumerian Ea, god of water, comrade of Gilgamesh.

Ba'al was occasionally shown with a bull's head. The white wavy lines running down on the face of the most beautiful Minoan serpentine rhyton from the Little Palace at Knossos in the form of a bull's head may then represent Ba'al or his alias Haddu or Adu as lord of rivers, implored for rain that fills the river beds and makes the rivers flow toward AD the sea while coming from DA hills or mountains, AD DA Haddu Adu, the rhyton perhaps having been a libation vessel used in ceremonies imploring rain?

(Dadumatha)

On the front side of Linear A tablet Hagia Triada 95 are listed amounts of cereals in dry measures of about ten liters for (the priestesses of) Dadumatha. Following Walther Hinz again

(line 1) Dadumatha . ideogram of cereal

(line 2) millet 10; (wheat from) Mi Nu The 10;

(line 3) barley 20; emmer

(line 4) 10; oat 10; roasted

(line 5) grains 7

Dadumatha given as da-du-ma-ta Ugaritic d-d-m-sh was the consort of Adu or Haddu or Ba'al, she loved by the master

Dadu da-du d-d 'loved by'

matha ma-ta m-sh 'the master'

The consort of the supreme Minoan god would have been the supreme Minoan goddess, Dictynna, implored for rain at Mallia.

Derk Ohlenroth deciphered not only the Phaistos Disc and the inscription on a bronze double axe from the Arkolokhori cave but also the one on an altar stone or perhaps libation stone at Mallia:

May Dictynna the goddess make it rain

Rain had been implored from AAR RAA NOS on the Göbekli Tepe, from him of air AAR and light RAA with a mind NOS, prayers for rain and the smoke of sacrificial fires imploring rain symbolized by snakes heading upward, and falling rain by snakes heading downward.

A sealing from Knossos represents a goddess on top of a mountain peak holding a rod she turns downward. The rod may evoke Aaron's rod which turned into a snake, symbol of water, meaning Aaron - believer in the ancient sky god AAR RAA NOS - was better at finding water than even Pharaoh's hydro-engineers or magicians.

Could the Minoan goddess on a mountain peak who holds a rod and turns it downward be shown in the act of making rain fall? Is she Dadumatha, alter ego of Dictynna implored for rain? If so, the famous Minoan snake goddess, one of the many emenations of the Great Goddess known as Dictynna, could well have been Dadumatha, she loved by Adu or Haddu or Ba'al.

(Dictynna)

Animals in the rock art of Southern Africa and cave art of Europe are often shown as if emerging from or disappearing into clefts or niches in the rock, anticipating Vladimir Vernadzky's famous dictum of life being the meatamorphosis of stone.

CER -: I -: was the Divine Hind or Hind Woman of Magdalenian times (produce the lip lick -: by touching both lips with the tip of the tongue). She called life into existence, out of clefts in rock. By far the largest animal painted in the Altamira cave is a beautiful hind licking the horns of a small bison under her. She called moon bulls into life, thus creating time, lunations, periods of 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 ... days. While some of the compact, rounded bulls of Altamira have regular tails in form of 'paint brushes', others have tails that evoke fir twiglets, indicating that the goddess also made plants grow.

Among the derivatives of CER -: I -: are Hera, cow-eyed goddess loved by Zeus, and Northwest Proto-Indo-European *kerdheh 'herd, series'. Among the derivatives of -: I -: are the locally famous lyoba call of herdsmen in the Swiss Canton of Fribourg, of Celtic origin, German Leib 'body' (English body from PAD for the acitivity of feet, a living body walking around), German Leben English life, German Liebe English love, Latin libido 'desire' and bibere 'to drink' (thirst can be a powerful desire), English lip (licking the lips can still indicate appetite and lust), Ugaritic dd 'loved by' and Phoenician Dido 'Loved One', Ukrainian lyalka 'doll', the female given name Lily and flower lily, German Laub 'foliage' and Laube 'arbor', the latter suggesting arbors made in honor of the goddess.

Dadu- of Dadumatha belongs to Ugaritic dd and Phoenician Dido, while -matha derives from MAS for the Magdalenian master hunter that became a general word for master, Ugaritic m-sh.

We have now Magdalenian etymologies for the deities mentioned on Linear A tablet Hagia Triada 95, Dadumatha and Adu or Haddu, and their possible visualizations

Dadumatha, Minoan snake goddess,

emanation of Dictynna who was implored for rain,

descended from the Magdalenian goddess of life

rhyton of black steatite in the form of a bull's head,

round forms indicating clouds and wavy lines running down

the face indicating rain that fills river beds,

Adu or Haddu, emanation of Ba'al

The Divine Hind or Hind Woman called life out of clefts in rock. Certain snakes can hide in clefts. And rivers can spring from clefts. This allowed the transition of the Magdalenian goddess of life to the Minoan Great Goddess known as Dictynna, one of her emanations having been Dadumatha, Minoan snake goddess. A further emanation of Dictynna was the bear, involving the Bear Mother or Bear Nurse form the Neolithic Balkans. One more emanation of Dictynna was a doe, while the stag was her standing attribute in plastic art (Marija Gimbutas).

Dictynna lived in fertile valleys but also on hills and mountain peaks. Imagine a cave in a rocky hill or mountain, resounding when the wind passes by. This could have named the goddess, DhAG TON NOS Dictynna, able DhAG to make oneself heard TON mind NOS - the able one makes herself heard and has a mind of her own ... Priestesses could have emulated her by blowing into a triton shell.

A woman blowing into a triton shell can be seen on a seal from the Ida cave wherein the Minoan Zeus was born, called into life by the goddess.

(Minoan double axe)

Dictynna with her emanations of Britomartis and Lousia would have been a triple goddess whose emblem was the Minoan double axe that also encoded a lunisolar calendar, variation of the Göbekli Tepe calendar

Dictynna

shaft of Minoan double axe

midwinter 2 and occasionally 3 days

midsummer 3 days

solstices

Britomartis

arc of eastern blade

sunrises from midwinter to midsummer

spring equinox in the middle

Lousia

arc of western blade

sunsets from midsummer to midwinter

fall equinox in the middle

Solstices and equinoxes imply a lunisolar calendar that was also encoded in rosettes of eight petals in beautiful Kamares ware (and in the center of the Tiryns side or disc of the Phaistos Disc), each petal a long month of 45 days (five Homeric weeks of nine days), plus 5 and occasionally 6 days indicated by a small circle in the center, in all a regular year of 365 days and an occasional leap year of 366 days, while 21 continuous periods of 45 days are 945 days which correpsond to 32 lunations or synodic months; mistake less than one minute per lunation, or half a day in a lifetime. Also these numbers can be found with additive number sequences (Ariadne's thread)

30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 sum 502 days

30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 sum 443 days

502 days for 17 lunations, and 443 days for 15 lunations

17 15 17 15 17 or 17 32 49 64 81 lunations

502 443 502 443 502 or 502 945 1447 1890 2392 days

The Britomartis emanation of Dictynna might have been named for a Magdalenian double formula

BRI DhAG

AMA REO DhAG

the fertile one BRI is able DhAG

the mother AMA of rivers REO is able DhAG

Lousia 'the angry one' is mentioned by the inscription on a bronze double axe from the Arkolokhori cave, Lousia eimi 'I belong to the goddess Lousia' (who had an equivalent in Black Demeter Melaina mentioned on the Elaia side or disc of the Phaistos Disc as deciphered by Derk Ohlenroth), personifying the other side of life, sunset and droughts and death, appeased by the very numerous double axes in the Arkolokhori cave, mostly of bronze but some of gold.

(Ebla)

Magdalenian PAS means everywhere (in a plain), here, south and north of me, east and west of me, in all five places, Greek pas pan 'all, every' and pente penta- 'five'.

SAP means everywhere (in space), here, south and north of me, east and west of me, under and above me, in all seven places, wherefrom words for seven in many languages including Hebrew sheba, also Greek sophia 'wisdom' and Latin sapientia 'worldly wisdom' acquired by knowing the world in all seven places.

LAD means hill. SAP LAD would have named a hypothetical hill on whose top rain was implored, water for all seven places, coulds in the sky above, rain reviving the land, here, in the south and north, east and west, filling the river beds, and the water holes in the ground below ...

We know the Minoan snake goddess in three versions. The beautiful one in fayence whith raised arms wears a skirt in form of a steep hill and is composed of seven rings that may indicate the hypothetical hill whereon the goddess invoked rain, SAP LAD, and this compound might well have named Ebla where the Minoans came from

SAP LAD heb LAD eb LA Ebla

(Mari)

The line of descending horses giving way to a pair of antithetic ibices in the niche at the rear end of the axial gallery in the Lascaux cave symbolizes the sun of late fall and early winter (descending horses) heading for midwinter (opposing ibices, in Asia Minor also mountain goats) according to Marie E.P. König.

Orion was the constellation of the Divine Hind Woman, invisibly present between the arcs of horns and heads of the opposing ibices in the Lascaux cave - midwinter emblem, Orion a winter constellation.

Winter is the rain season in Syria.

Now for Mari, modern Tell Hariri in Syria, on the western bank of the Euphrates and northern bank of a joining wadi. In the temple of Ninhursanga a fascinating stele was found. It shows the goddess whose face is also her body and a landscape. Her eyes are her breasts are hills of seven concentric circles each, the latter evoking the hypothetical SAP LAD hill on whose top rain was implored, water for the seven places. Her navel and nose and eyebrows are a young date palm of two curved branches, cultivated date palms requiring plenty of water. Her hairline is a zigzag line evoking waves, a rather thin river, leading not much water, but hopefully filled by the winter rain. Her pubic triangle flanked by ibices also is her mouth. Above the lower ibices appear two large pairs of antithetic ibices flanking a bough each, symbol of vegetation revived by the goddess.

The Divine Hind Woman called life into existence, out of clefts and niches in the rock, also vegetation out of the ground. Ninhursanga was the goddess of giving birth - also birth to a second life in the beyond for a worthy soul? Her original name could have been NE EN GAR SAI CA, out of NE in(to) EN cleft or niche in rock GAR life SAI sky CA - she calls life out of and later on back into clefts and niches in the rock of cave walls that were often seen as sky ...

A stag was the consort of the Divine Hind, his proud antlers worshipped in our summer constellations of Scorpio and Sagittarius. A stag was the attribute of DhAG TON NOS Dictynna, the able one who made herself heard and had a mind of her own, and a pair of stags accompanied Ninhursanga in Tell Ubaid near Ur in Sumer.

In the anteroom of the throne room of Mari stood a 140 cm tall statue of a woman holding a vessel before her womb. Out of the vessel flew water (supplied via an invisible canal). Her hair is full, contrary to the thin hairline of the goddess on the stele. Her name could have been AMA REO, mother AMA of rivers REO, and she could have been the patroness of Mari that would have been named for her

AMA REO MA REO MA Ri Mari

She would have been an equivalent of the Minoan Britomartis, emanation of Dictynna

BRI DhAG

AMA REO DhAG

the fertile one is able

the mother of rivers is able

(calendar kernos, Mallia)

Here you are with a longer version of 'Ariadne's thread', relating days and lunations and years (d/l/y)

1095/37/3 2922/99/8 4017/136/11 6939/235/19 10956/371/30

2922 days are the rounded average of 99 lunations and 8 solar years and 5 Venus years (dingir calendar of Sumer).

10956 days for 371 lunations or 30 years explain the lunisolar calendar encoded in the cup marks or bowls along the circumference of the kernos (round cult stone) in the southwestern corner of the central court of the Minoan palace at Mallia: 30 small cup marks plus a large one for a year.

Consider each regular cup mark a long week of 11 days, all 33 of them a basic year of 363 days; add 2 and occasionally 3 days for the large bowl of New Year and you get a regular year of 365 days and an occasional leap year of 366 days.

10956 days are 996 weeks of 11 days, or 332 months of 33 days, or 30 years. 5 years are 166 weeks of 11 days, or 1826 days.

Count the Mallia periods of 5 and 30 years as follows

365 365 366 365 365

Exact numbers

10955.84... days for 371 lunations

10957.26... days for 30 years

10956.55... days for the average

10956 days are in between 371 lunations and 30 years.

Imagine a symbolic hill of seven rings in form of seven concentric circles (comparable to the eye-breast-hills on the stele from Mari). Begin with a radius of 33 and add repeatedly 72

33 105 177 249 321 393 465

Sum of radii 1743, sum of diameters 3486. Multiply this number by 22/7 for pi and you get 10956.

The kernos calendar may have been a ritual calendar of Dictynna who was implored for rain by the inscription on a stone found by a local farmer.

A priestess of Dictynna standing in the central circle of the symbolic hill would have invoked the goddess: may she provide water for the seven places ...

(hill of seven rings)

Near the palace of Mallia, to the south, at the feet of the mountains, is a beautiful round hill, symmetrical, not very steep, on the rather flat and wide top a chapel (Ekklesia Profitis Ilias) replacing a former Minoan mountain sanctuary - garden sanctuary of Dictynna, her hill of seven rings, the seven concentric circles once marked by trees and shrubs and flowers?

Imagine a map of the hill top. Ideal radii and diameters of the seven concentric circles

33 105 177 249 321 393 465

66 210 354 498 642 786 930

How long are the circumferences?

Draw up the following pi sequences (another version of Ariadne's thread)

4/1 (plus 3/1) 7/2 10/3 13/4 16/5 19/6 22/7

3/1 (plus 22/7) 25/8 47/15 69/22 ... 487/155

Multiply 66 by 69/22 and you get 207 for the circumference of the innermost circle. 207 days are 7 lunations counted in the 30 29 30 mode

30 29 30 29 30 29 30 sum 207

Multiply 930 by 487/155 and you get 2922 for the circumference of the outermost circle. 2922 days are the rounded average of 99 lunations and 8 solar years and 5 Venus years. (Divide the exact average by the exact number of the circle and you get 930.0023... days, very close to 930 days.)

Innermost circle

radius 33 days or a Mallian month

circumference 7 lunations

Outermost circle

radius 465 days

circumference average of 99 lunations

and 8 solar years and 5 Venus years

Starting from 7 and 99 lunations we obtain the following sequence of

circumferences ('3 for 1/3 and "3 for 2/3)

7 22 '3 37 "3 53 68 '3 83 "3 99 sum 371

All circumferences together are 371 lunations or 30 years

37/3 99/8 136/11 235/19 371/30 (Ariadne's thread)

On top of the hill, in the center of the smallest circle, a priestess of Dictynna would have implored rain from her goddess, water for the seven places

clouds in the sky above

rain falling here,

in the south

and north,

east

and west,

filling the water holes below

Inscription on the altar stone found by a local farmer near the palace of Mallia, deciphered by Derk Ohlenroth

D I K T Y NN A I S L A I Y EI N

May Dictynna the goddess make it rain

(river of life)

The origin of the Mallian rain formula

D I K T Y NN A I S L A I Y EI N

Diktynnai slai hyein

May Dictynna the goddess make it rain

could have been a Magdalenian double formula

DhAG TON NOS

DhAG REO

The able one DhAG

makes herself heard TON

(in rain falling on the roof)

and has a mind NOS of her own

Come, able one DhAG,

and send rain that makes

the rivers REO flow

DhAG TON NOS would have become Dictynna.

DhAG meaning able, good in the sense of able, is the Magdalenian word of by far the most varied derivatives, among them Greek theos thea Latin deus dea (incompatible in Proto-Indo-European, well compatible in Magdalenian), Sumerian dingir announcing a deity, and the Du-ku mountain of Sumerian mythology, where the early deities came from (identified as the Göbekli Tepe by Klaus Schmidt), and the name of the supreme Celtic god Dagda, the good god in the sense of the able god, from emphatic DhAG DhAG able able. Another emphatic form of DhAG is Minoan slai

DhAG slAG slAi slai

(with a parallel in emphatic Slryns for Tiryns on the Phaistos Disc as deciphered by Derk Ohlenroth).

REO meaning river named rivers like the Rha Volga, Rhaenos Rhenus Rhine, Rhodanus Rhone, Reuss, also goddesses, Minoan Rheia Greek Rhea, accounts for Greek rheo 'flow' and, I believe, also for hyein 'to rain'

REO sREO *sreu- 'to flow' rheo

REO sRuO *suh- 'to rain' hyein

The goddess made herself heard via rain falling on a roof (perhaps emulated by the rhythm of the double formula). Her priestesses - maybe seven of them, on the hill of seven rings, in the circle of seven lunations, imploring rain from their goddess, water for the seven places - would have made themselves hear by blowing into triton shells ...

A further part of the ceremony could have been a procession of the seven priestesses along the middle circle of 53 lunations. 7 times 53 lunations are 371 lunations or 30 years, long period in the lunisolar calendar of Mallia.

The goddess provided rain that made the rivers flow, and time for the river of life ...

Rain ceremonies helped focus the mind on water problems and develop the sciences that allow to supply ever more people with water, precious water, element of life in all cultures.

(Daidalos)

The mountain sanctuary of Mallia was about one kilometer due south of the Minoan palace, on top of the beautiful hill where now a chapel stands (Ekklisia Profitis Ilias) in a roundish enclosure some thirty meters across.

Let us reconstruct the Minoan sanctuary using a royal cubit (c) of 7 palms (p) or 28 fingerbreadths (f). Radii and diameters of the seven concentric circles

radius 33 days, diameter 99 fingerbreadths or 3c 3p 3f

radius 105 days, diameter 315 fingerbreadths or 11c 1p 3f

radius 177 days, diameter 531 fingerbreadths or 18c 6p 3f

radius 249 days, diameter 747 fingerbreadths or 26c 4p 3f

radius 321 days, diameter 963 fingerbreadths or 34c 2p 3f

radius 393 days, diameter 1177 fingerbreadths or 42c 3f

radius 465 days, diameter 1395 fingerbreadths or 49c 5p 3f

The radius of the smallest circle corresponds to 33 days or a Mallian month while the diameter measures 99 fingerbreadths, or 3 royal cubits 3 palms 3 fingerbreadths, and the circumference corresponds to 7 lunations, marked by seven small shrubs.

Colored stone rings mark the subsequent circles.

The circumference of the largest circle corresponds to the average of 99 lunations and 8 solar years and 5 Venus years, and is marked by 33 slender trees that correspond to the 33 days of the Mallian month and the 33 small cup marks or bowls along the circumference of the kernos

at Mallia, while the entrance to the sanctuary corresponds to the large cup mark or bowl, New Year in the (ritual) calendar of Mallia.

Daidalos was the archetypical Minoan builder

DAI DAL LAS

he builds protected areas DAI

in valleys or dales DAL

and on mountains LAS

DAI for protected area has a comparative form in SAI for life

a shrine or enclosure DAI

for the goddess of life SAI

(legend of Ikaros)

Ikaros was the son of Daidalos

IKA KOS

everything needed for building a good camp IKA

heavenly vault KOS

IKA KOS Ikaros has everything that is needed

for building a good camp or a shrine

in harmony with the cycles of the heavenly vault

Daidalos made wings of wax for himself and Ikaros, however, the latter flew too high, approached the sun, the wax melted and he fell into the sea.

Let me explain the legend of Ikaros Icarus by telling a hermeneutic story meandering between mythology and history and archaeology.

Minos was the ruler of the Aegaean. The eruption of the Thera volcano somewhere in between 1650 and 1600 BC did not end the Minoan civilization but weakened the Middle Minoan thalassocracy while it may have favored the Minoan expansion into the northeastern Nile delta. From c. 1639 BC onward Minoans built and ruled Avaris (Tell el-Daba), center of a small but influential kingdom, next to other even smaller kingdoms of leaders from western Asia Minor.

The Minoan builders of Avaris decorated the throne room with magnificent frescoes of labyrinths and bulls and bull-leapers (fragments of those frescoes were found by Manfred Bientak). They carried out combined astronomical and architectural calculations on wax tablets. And they bragged: We got everything that is needed for building a good camp in harmony with the cycles of the heavenly vault, we are IKA KOS, we take it up with the great builders of your sun kings ...

Now the Egyptians turned IKA KOS into heka khaset meaning ruler of a hill country, or a barren region as the desert or the sea (both the realm of Seth), or a foreign country, and later on heka khaset became Hyksos

IKA KOS Ikaros Icarus

IKA KOS heka khaset Hyksos

Lines and clusters of calculations carried out on wax tablets became wings of wax - a poetic chiffre committing a fleeting detail of a remote past to the long lasting memory of mythology. Calculations make the mind fly, our current astrophysical calculations reach the end of the visible universe billions of light years away. And using a computer tablet we can visit almost any place in the world.

The Minoan builders of Avaris competing with the builders of the Egyptian sun kings, and the Hyksos rulers with the Egyptian rulers themselves, became Ikaros flying too high, approaching the sun. Kamose attacking Avaris in around 1540 BC and his son and sucessor Ahmose leading several campaigns against Avaris, gaining victory, ending the reign of the Hyksos, became the fall of Ikaros – those who survived returned to the sea where they came from.

It has been mused that (some of) the Hyksos might have been Minoans. Now there is further support for that hypothesis.

(Ikarios and Penelope)

DAI DAL LAS Daidalos Daedalus was the Old Minoan builder, his son IKA KOS Ikaros Icarus the Middle Minoan builder who was defeated as Hyksos at Avaris, while another impersonation was highly esteemed, mentioned eighteen times in Homer's Odyssey: Ikarios the noble courageous high-spirited and widely famous father of clever smart intelligent Penelope

IKA KOS Ikaros Icarus

IKA KOS heka khaset Hyksos

IKA KOS Ikarios

PAS LOP Paenelopae Penelope

POL LOP Peloponnese

PAS means everywhere (in a plain), here, south and north of me, east and west of me, in all five places, pas pan 'all, every' pente penta- 'five'. LOP named enveloping hedges or fences or palisades or walls around fortified settlements POL.

Penelope – everywhere enveloping palisades or walls ...

Peloponnese – ... in the land of the fortified settlements enveloped in palisades and walls enforced by Penelope's mind.

Ikarios being her father testifies to the Minoan influence on Greece in the making.

Remember the Minos formula. It may have named Mykonos, a small and wild island important as relais in Minoan seafaring

MUC NOS SAI MUC o NOS Mykonos

while a double formula could have named Mukanai (reconstructed form) Mykaenae Mycene

MUC NAI

MUC NOS SAI

bull MUC

to find a good place for building a new camp NAI

mind NOS

life SAI

MUC NAI MUC a NAI Mukanai

MUC NOS SAI MUC a N AI Mukanai

The Zeus bull MUC

found a new home NAI

for us in Mycene

The Zeus bull MUC

gave us a mind NOS

to cope with fate

and stay alive SAI

Another name for the Peloponnese was

ITA CA Ithaka Ithaca

young bull ITA sky CA

under the sky of the young Zeus bull

a name surviving in a relatively small island off the southwestern

Peloponnese, while a permutation named

ATI CA Attika Attica

mature bull ATI sky CA

under the sky of the mature Zeus bull

The bull emanation of Ba'al had been replaced by the one of Zeus.

(Sarpedon of Mallia)

Greek homalae 'flat, even; smooth' named Mallia for its flat shore and fertile plain.

Minoan Mallia was ruled by Sarpedon, one of three brothers

oldest brother Minos, ruler of Knossos

middle brother Rhadamanthis, ruler of Phaistos

youngest brother Sarpedon, ruler of Mallia

That is all we know of Minoan Mallia from written sources. But we have archaeology, and now also Magdalenian as a non-invasive tool of archaeology.

Let us use it in explaining the name of Sarpedon

TAR PAD TON saR PAeD ON Sarpaedon Sarpedon

TYR means overcomer, as verb to overcome in the double sense of rule and give. Sar- might be an emphatic form of TYR (with a parallel in TYR Sseyr Sseus Zeus). PAD means activity of feet, and TON means to make oneself heard.

TYR PAD TON Sarpedon could have been a byname of DhAG TON NOS Dictynna, the able one who makes herself heard and has a mind of her own. Sarpedon would have been her powerful emanation as a swelling mountain river, moving quickly, rushing along, thundering in falls, cutting deep gorges into the high Dicte mountains above Mallia that were named for her,

mountains of Dictynna.

The swollen mountain rivers might have been represented by a leaping feline,

a panther or leopard, as the one of a sceptre-head from Mallia, a marvellous piece of worked gray shist, covered in water symbols, while the hind part of the body goes over into the blade of a stone axe, indicating the rushing water that cuts deep gorges into the rock. Small circles cover the head, indicating bubbles. Bands with parallel lines are slung around the paws and the shoulders/breast, indicating ripples on the surface of the water. Zigzag bands cover the forelegs (no hindlegs) and follow the arc of the blade, indicating waves. Plenty connected spirals cover the body, symbols of vortices in a rushing mountain river swollen from a heavy rain sent by Dictynna ...

Sarpedon would then have been a follower of Dictynna in her powerful emanation of a swollen mountain river.

The sceptre-head is either from the Middle Minoan or Early Late Minoan period of time.

Sarpedon, hero in the war of Troy mentioned in the Ilias, would have been a later king, successor of the Minoan Sarpedon, his name saying that he overcame the enemies in the way of a swollen mountain river, comparable to AChI )EI or AChI LEI Achilleus Achilles, rising water AChI attacking lion )EI or LEI, fighting with the combined force of rising water and an attacking lion, in the way of a river tsunami.

(Rhadamanthys)

Rhadamanthys, younger than Minos of Knossos, older than Sarpedon of Mallia, founded Phaistos in the fertile Messara plain in southern central Crete. His name may derive from

RYT MAN DhAG

spear thrower, archer RYT

right hand MAN

able DhAG

archer of the able right hand

RYT is the inverse of TYR and has a derivative in Greek rhytaer 'archer, protector'.

Rhadamanthys would then have been an archer and protector of his people. However, there are two more meanings overlaying the literal one.

Picture a volley of arrows shot in all directions from the top of a tower – flying radii, spokes of an imaginary wheel, accounting for Latin radius and German Rad 'wheel'.

Now picture an astronomer observing celestial bodies revolve – the sighting lines are again radii, spokes of celestial wheels.

MAN DhAG has a derivative in Latin mens English mind, since the hand is the organ of the mind, carries out what we decide.

RYT MAN DhAG may then also name an astronomer aiming his glances and handling well his instruments.

MAN DhAG in the meaning of mind is confirmed by a compound from the other side of the world.

A fairly recent genetic study revealed that America was populated by Siberian tribes from the Altai who ventured across the Beringia 13,000 years ago. Their shamans and shamanesses would have spoken Magdalenian, remembering a good four hundred words via standing formulae and double formulae, among them a name for the Great Spirit, in Algonquian Gitche Manidoog or Gitche Manitou

GADh CA Gitche MAN DhAG Manidoog Manitou

good GADh sky CA right hand MAN able DhAG

The Great Spirit is the good one in the sky whose right hand is able.

Message conveyed by numerous works of Algonquian rock art and mobile art

Heed the Great Spirit

and make a fertile use of the time you are given

RYT MAN DhAG Rhadamanthys may then also mean

He aims well with his hand

he aims well with his mind

Rhadamanthys would have been an archer of the able right hand, protector of his people, favoring astronomy and perhaps further sciences, making good decisions, and would have been a just king. As such, he and his brother Minos became judges in the Underworld.

(Europa from Syria got a message for us – more on her Syrian origin later)

Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon were sons of Europa and Zeus.

Europa had been a Syrian princess who was carried across the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea by a gold-colored bull with a shimmering white lunar sickle on his forehead – Zeus in the guise of a bull.

Europa 'the wide-glancing one' (Marija Gimbutas) may have been the Syrian then Minoan and Mycenaean goddess of astronomy, her name deriving from

OIR OC CO

place from where the moon rises OIR

right eye OC

attentive mind CO

Finding the sickle of the young moon and predicting where it will rise from the horizon was a great challenge for the early astronomers. Apparently the Syrian astronomers excelled at it, and personified their skills in a goddess, OIR OC CO Europae Europa

we know where the moon rises OIR

we find the lunar sickle with our eyes OC

we calculate its position in our mind CO

Remember the formula of the conditio humana, AD TOR OC CO Mycenaean atoroqo Greek anthropos

AD TOR OC CO atoroqo anthropos

OIR OC CO ... Europae Europa

toward AD the bull in motion TOR with open eyes OC and focused mind CO, facing the bull, taking him by the horns, coping with fate. Now this formula gains an astronomical dimension. And so does the Minos formula.

The white lunar sickle on the forehead of the bull carrying Europa across the sea, starting from the east, evokes the moon bull of Magdalenian times, and the gold-colored bull evokes the golden calf, young Ba'al rising as morning sun from the tree of life

MUC Mi bull moon golden calf morning sun

NOS Nu mind of the astronomer as bull-leaper

SAI The life tree of life

MUC NOS SAI Mi Nu The Minos

The swimming bull was a symbol of Minoan seafaring which depended on astronomy.

When Zeus replaced Ba'al, the swimming bull became his guise or emanation.

Message of Europa who came from Syria: Cope with fate by engaging in astronomy, in the sciences, in science combined with art as human measure in a technical world, Minoan art on a par with the science it encodes.

(god of weather and time)

A rhyton from the largest and richest tomb at Mycenae, A IV, between 1550 and 1500 BC, made of (lunar) silver black from oxidation and (solar) gold, shows a bull's head wearing a large rosette of 16 petals on the forehead.

The bull may represent Zeus as sky god, and the rosette can be seen as windrose, indicating the weather god, but also as emblem of a longtime lunisolar calendar competing with the one from Mallia.

Remember 'Ariadne's thread' (lunations/years)

37/3 99/8 136/11 235/19 371/30

11 years are a little more than 4016 days (4017.66... d). 19 years are slightly less than 6940 days (6939.60... d). Drawu up the following number sequence (years/lunations/days)

11/136/4016 (plus 19/235/6940) 30/371/10956 49/606/17896

68/841/24836 87/1076/31776

It contains the formula of the longtime lunisolar calendar of Mallia

30 years or 371 lunations or 10,956 days or 332 periods of 33 days

and the formula of the possible longtime lunisolar calendar of Mycenae

87 years or 1,076 lunations or 31,776 days or 1,986 periods of 16 days

The mistakes are tiny

87 years are 31,776.07... or practically 31,776 days

87 years are 1,986.00... or practically 1,986 periods of 16 days

87 years are 1,706.03... or practically 1,706 lunations

Additive number sequences were effective tools of early mathematics. The Mycenaean astronomers might have learned how to handle them from their Minoan colleagues and friends.

The rosette as windrose may indicate Zeus as weather god, and the rosette as calendar period may indicate Zeus as lord of time.

TYR PAS named him as the one who overcomes in the double sense of rule and give TYR emphatic Middle Helladic Sseyr (Phaistos Disc, Derk Ohlenroth) Doric Sseus (Wilhelm Larfeld) Homeric Zeus, he who overcomes TYR everywhere (in a plain) PAS, he who overcomes everybody everywhere in weather and time – weather and time ruling our lives but also given to us so that we make the best of them.

TYR PAS accounts for Latin tempestas 'tempest' (the supreme god manifesting himself most impressively in a storm) and tempus 'time', Italian tempo 'weather, time, speed' (picture a storm cloud hurrying across the sky), French temps 'weather, time', English tempest and time, inverse PAS TYR for English weather, and for the Roman pastor 'shepherd' guiding his animals that graze everywhere on a pasture, out in the weather, under the open sky.

(Ariadne and Europa)

Ariadne, Mycenaean ariata, may originally have been ARI AD DA

ARI AD DA ariata Ariadne

good excellent ARI toward AD from DA

AD DA was a generic river name, water flowing toward AD the sea while coming from DA hills or mountains. AD DA also named a trading route leading toward AD one place while coming from DA another place. And thirdly, AD DA would have named a metaphorical way: an excellent ARI method of generating values for a difficult number, leading toward AD better values while coming from DA lesser ones.

ARI AD DA might originally have personified additive number sequences, universal tool of early mathematics (for the use of which I found ample indirect evidence in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus).

Additive number sequences provide good values from poor and mediocre ones, and brillant values from mediocre and good ones, for example in the case of pi

4/1 (plus 3/1) 7/2 10/3 13/4 16/5 19/6 22/7 25/8 28/9

3/1 (plus 22/7) 25/8 47/15 69/22 117/36 135/43 157/50 179/57

201/64 223/71 245/78 267/85 289/92 311/99 333/106 355/113

377/120 ... 1521/484 or 39/22 x 39/22

6/2 (plus 22/7) 28/9 50/16 72/25 ... 600/191

9/3 (plus 19/6) 28/9 47/15 ... 256/81 or 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2/3x3x3x3

Choose the value that comes handy in a given calculation.

You can also generate better values for all sorts of roots, and calculate astronomical cycles, for example the Venus year of 583.92 days, more than 583 days, a little less than 584 days

583/1 (plus 584/1) 1167/2 1751/3 ... 6432/41 7007/12

7007/12 days are a fine value that fits in the Babylonian number system, and in the calendar system of the Maya.

Additive number sequences would have been personified by a woman who gained a life of her own. Her sad end – told in many variations – mirror the fact that those number sequences reach a good or even brilliant value but then decline, they don't approach the exact value and have to be stopped.

Ariadne was the daughter of Minos - of MUC NOS SAI Mi-Nu-The munutium mnt Minut or Ebla where the Minoans came from.

OIR OC CO Europa would have been an analogous allegorical personification of astronomy, originating somewhere in the region of Tell Halaf or Ebla or Mari, perhaps near Dura-Europos on the Euphrates, a little above Mari?

The Syrian plains were ideal for observing the night sky. Astronomy helped navigate the desert, and then the sea. That is why Europa walked to the shore and became a Phoenician princess in the younger version of the myth.

(Europa Europa)

A marvellous fresco showing a bull-leaping scene was part of a frieze adorning a small court in the eastern wing of the palace at Knossos europa1.jpg

A 'flying' bull composed of dynamic and elegant arcs appears before a blue sky, in front of him a girl taking him by the horns, on his back a young man, in the air, upside down, and behind him another girl, turned toward him, stretching out her raised arms.

The three human figures explain phases in the daring sport of Minoan bull-leaping.

On another level of meaning the girl facing the bull and taking him by the horns visualizes the formula of the conditio humana, AD TOR OC CO Mycenaean atoroqo Greek anthropos 'human being' - toward AD the bull in motion TOR with open eyes OC and focused mind CO, facing the bull, taking him by the horns, coping with fate.

Imagine a horizontal line going out from the eye of the girl and leading across the nape of the bull's neck. The perfect arc of the neck above the line evokes the first sliver of the lunar disc rising above the horizon europa2.jpg

We have then also a visualization of OIR OC CO Europa: observe the place where the moon bull will rise from the horizon and start his heavenly journey OIR with open eyes OC and a focused mind CO ...

The girl behind the bull, turned toward the animal, raises her arms, keeping her balance. You can draw a horizontal line from her eye and will get a similar effect of the rising lunar disc. On this level of meaning the raised arms could also be a gesture of greeting the rising moon, AIR meaning to raise the arms in joy, with open eyes OC and a focused mind CO again, so that we have AIR OC CO and a possible double formula naming Europa as personification of early astronomy

OIR OC CO Europa

AIR OC CO Europa

While the girls framing the scene personify astronomy – the skill of predicting where the moon will rise from the horizon, and the joy of seeing it actually rise from that place –, the young man upside down on the bull symbolizes the acrobatic mind of a Minoan astronomer.

The bull runs or flies from the left to the right side, as moon bull from east to west, hence he is rendered from a vantage point in the southern sky, which makes astronomy a divine science. The girl on the left side observes the rising moon, and the girl on the right side, in a further shift of meaning, says goodbye to the setting moon.

Great art combines many perspectives and levels of meaning.

(Europa and Asterios)

Europa gave birth to Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon. Later on she married king Asterios.

His original name could have been AS TOR, denoting an early astronomer looking upward AS to the bull in motion TOR, up to the moon bull, then also a Minoan acrobat leaping up AS and over the bull in motion TOR, symbol of a Minoan astronomer calculating the lunar cycle.

Stars observed by AS TOR became Greek astaer and English star watched by an astronomer. Sanskrit has taras for star, from TOR AS, a star observed by those who watch out for the moon bull, the bull in motion TOR up above AS in the sky, and extend their studies to further celestial bodies.

AS TOR also accounts for the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar who was associated with the planet Venus, for Astarte, Eastern, and East where the celestial bodies rise.

Let us return to the fresco of the bull-leaping scene from Knossos. We can now identify all three human figures

girl on the left side OIR OC CO Europa

young man leaping over the bull AS TOR Asterios

young girl on the right side AIR OC CO Europa

The girl on the right side, stretching out her arms, keeps her balance, greets the rising moon bull, says goodbye to the setting moon bull, and now, on yet a further level of meaning, welcomes her husband AS TOR Asterios the astronomer king, raising her arms in joy AIR with open eyes OC and a focused mind CO, together AIR OC CO Europa, counterpart of the girl on the left side who watches the place where the moon bull rises OIR with open eyes OC and a focused mind CO, together OIR OC CO Europa; OIR OC CO straining her eye, AIR OC CO expecting her husband with obvious joy, if tense, and mixed with a little worry – may he succeed europa1.jpg

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