Modena deity

Source: TW

A peculiar deity found in an apparently mithrAistic context at Modena. The deity has been interpreted as:

  1. a Roman rendering of the para-Zoroastrian deity zurvan akArana.
  2. Orphic protogonic deity Phanes/ Protogonos;
  3. Chronos.
  4. Zeus who swallowed the latter.

The chronic association of the deity – thus identifying him with zurvan is seen in the form of the zodiac around him & the snake winding around him which represents the periodicity of time – an element associated the Indo-Aryan chronic deity viShNu. However, the links to the protogonic deity on the Indo-Aryan side are seen in the form of the two halves of the egg shells on which he is standing – the hiraNyagarbha: e.g:

tad aNDam akarod dvaidhaM divaM bhuvam athApi cha |
tayoH shakalayor madhya AkAsham akarot prabhuH ||

We wonder if this iconography was directly influenced by H contact. The H contact is also suggested for Platonic Chronos, the equvivalent of the Iranic Zurvan: one of the last Platonist before their destruction by the error of Nazareth, Damascius, states that Chronos is tricephalic with the heads of a lion, a bull & a god. We believe that this iconography was influenced by viShNu trayAtman, with the boar head being replaced by a bull head. This might have had some intersection with the depictions of a leonto-cephalic deity in syncretic Roman-Iranic mithrAistic contexts where the deity is depicted in mithraeums with a single leonine head. The head of this deity might be compared with the central lion head on the torso of the Modena deity, where its flanked by a deer & ram heads. They also share the wings & the snake winding around them.

Comparable leontocephalic deities have been found at several mithraistic shrines though his identity remains unclear – Zurvan, Chronos, Protogonos? In this context, we may also note that an Orphic fragment states that Phanes bulls as side heads & a mighty serpent appearing in the shapes of all kinds of animals upon his head. We suspect this element of his iconography was again a transmission from a H source; probably vaiShNava.

Some snippets on the saMkarShana:

sahasra-shirasA vyaktaH
svastikAmala-bhUShaNaH |
phaNA-maNi-sahasreNa
yaH sa vidyotayan dishaH || …
lA~NgalAsakta-hastAgro
bibhran mushalam uttamam |
kalpAnte yasya vaktrebhyo
viShAnala-shikhojjvalaH ||

saMkarShaNAtmako rudro
niShkramyAtti jagat-trayam
sa bibhrach ChikharI-bhUtam
asheShaM kShiti-maNDalam ||

We posit, that the “Heliodoran” vaiShNava tradition was not a local aberration but was transmitted further into the Greco-Iranian world & influenced the Orphic & the Platonic tradition dependent on it.