Slice of Life
10,000 BCE is agreed to be start of the periods that would become known as the Agricultural and the Neolithic Revolutions (Coyle, 2018). We had already started to eat grains, collecting the seed through hand plucking, but now it was through more purposeful cultivation, and harvesting with our hands and a sickle-like stone that a new era of human existence had begun (Scheuerman, 2017). Trust me when I say there is so much to explain about the origin of agriculture that archaeology classes typically spend two days to a week discussing it in different locations. I'm not going spend much time as a talking head and instead what I would most like everyone to keep in mind is when the tool first appeared, in life and whether it even shows up in the mythology.
Artifacts with a curved blade were used for harvesting stalky plants. The first ones that were used one handed have been found in some of the earliest ancient sites around the world, including: Africa, across the Fertile Crescent, India, and China. The common staple foods between these ancient areas are the grains/cereals: wheat, barley, millet, and/or rice. Earlier examples may easy have existed in mid- and southern Africa, since grains were a staple crop there too, however, archaeologists just haven't found the tools in excavations yet (Coyle, 2018 & Scheuerman, 2017).
In the Bronze and Iron Ages sickles were, as the name suggests, made out metals. Before smelting, however, was commonplace sickles were made from: flint, bone, clay, and wooden or bone handles with serrated teeth of bone, flint, and obsidian. Many of the earliest sickles found look to be the serrated versions as it made for easier cutting since the base was wood, clay, or bone (shown below in figures 1 - 6 below); these examples have been found in the region of Mesopotamia, the Levant, Africa, the Americas, and in Asia (Banning, 1998; Unger-Hamilton, 1985 & 1989; Sommerfeld, 1994; Works, 1987, Clarkson & Shipton, 2015). Then, as technological advances the clean, sharp-edged variations would be made of stone and then metals (bronze, iron, and eventually steel).
1) C. 7000 BC, flint and resin, Tahunian culture, Nahal Hemar cave, from the Israel Museum.
2) Museum Quintana. Neolithic sickle.
3) Wooden sickle with blade composed of flints(some now lost) with a hieroglyphic inscription. 18th Dynasty, Thebes. wood and flint (Kees, A.Z. 85 (1960) pp. 445ff; Dewachter. Rd'E 35 (1984). pp. 91ff; BMS Bulletin, Summer 1988, No. 58.)
4) Several kinds of sickles used in the class experiment based on the evolution of sickle forms in the Natufian and Neolithic of SW Asia (Clarkson & Shipton, 2015).
5) Sumerian harvesting sickle, c. 3000 BC
6) Serrated wood and flint-chert sickle, Saqqara Necropolis, Carved & Rough-Hewn
Style from in the Early Dynastic Period -3000 BC.
7) Ancient Greek iron sickle, Kerameikos Archaeological Museum, Athens.
8) Obsidian sickle from Zona Arqueologica de Teotihuacan, Teotihuacan de Arista, Mexico, probably for harvesting maize. (photo by Travis S., 2008)
9) Modern harvesting sickle.
The two handed scythe came later, making harvesting faster, just like the sickle had originally done. There is evidence that the scythe existed to at least 5000 BC comes from the Cucuteni–Trypillia settlements in Central Europe. According to Jack Here and Flesh of The Gods, the ancient Scythians grew hemp and harvested it with a hand reaper/scythe, (Emboden, 1974). They weren't seen to actually replace sickles in farming until the 16th century, but the earlier scythes were still thought to mow down the fields faster than sickles would.
top left) Neolithic rock engraving depicting scythes, Vingen, Norway.
bottom left) Early Medieval scythe blade from the Merovingian site Kerkhove-Kouter in Belgium
The falx is a word that originally meant sickle, but as technology expanded, its meaning became more inclusive of any tool or weapon with a curved blade. As it was used in Latin the sickle was falx messoria and the scythe was falx foenaria. The falx tool was later used as a weapon and described in Ovid's Metamorphosis as more of a falcata (ensis falcatus), a curved sword from pre-Roman Iberia (Silva, 2013; Fulgosio, 1872).
1) Roman monument commemorating the Battle of Adamclisi clearly shows Dacian warriors wielding a two-handed falx romphaia (Photo by Cristian Chirita)
2) A historic monument in județul Constanța (Photo by Cristian Chirita)
3) Dacian weaponry including a falx (top) (exhibited in Cluj National History Museum -"Getai Gold & Silver Armor". Romanian History and Culture.)
4) Iberian falcata - necrópolis de Los Collados, Córdoba (photo by Ángel M. Felicísimo)
Other variations also became weapons in different countries and a list include, but are not limited to the:
Kama (鎌 or かま) from Japan and other areas of Southeast Asia (Draeger & Rober W. Smith (1969),
Jī Zhuǎ Lián or Chicken Sickle (simplified Chinese:鸡爪鐮; traditional Chinese:雞爪鐮) from China
Shotel in Ethiopia (Collection of the British Museum)
Mambele from mid- to southern Africa; with variations of the mambele across the top row.
Congolese sickle, or Trumbash, (left) and replica throwing knife (right)
Even though these tools had been converted to weapons they still continued to be used as farming equipment.
Appearances in Myth
*These myths are contradictory and difficult to sort out, so I'm writing the versions that I enjoy.*
If Western mythology can say anything, we can say that we tend to 'emulate' older cultural traditions that are deemed worthy. Not automatically a bad or harmful thing, this can help us trace our roots, and the roots of the everyday things we use. Going into the deep past, one of the longest through-lines (possibly) starts with the story of Gaia, her son/husband Ouranos (or Uranus), and their son Cronus from Ancient Greece and, based on name etymology, possibly its predecessors (Beekes, 2009).
CRONUS/ KRONOS
Gaia, the primordial iteration of the Earth and Ouranos, the sky, had a heap of children, with the youngest being Cronus/Kronos. The Titan God of the Harvest is a marker of time passing, changing seasons, and the yearly reaping (Nilsson, 1951: 122-4).The short version goes as such...
After Gaia created her husband Ouranos, fearing that he would be supplanted by one of his children, and he ate the ones who would become known as the titans after locking up the more monster-like of his and Gaia's children. Gaia wasn't too happy about this so she created the harpe (a combination sword-sickle), or more traditionally, a sickle out of either flint or grey adamantine (diamond) for Cronus to castrate and possibly kill his father to save his siblings. He did. Ouranos was sliced apart after being castrated and Cronus then "threw them into the sea behind him; and with them he also threw away the sickle at Cape Drepanum" (Apollodorus, Library 1.1.4, Hesiod, Theogony 159ff, & Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.23.4).
Once Ouranos was out of the way Cronus became the ruler of the Titan Age, and after learning from Gaia and Ouranos that one of his children would overtake him, he ate them one by one (Hesiod, Theogony).
No one was happy about Cronus eating his and Rhea's children (whole or in pieces), so after Rhea gave birth to her youngest son Zeus on the island of Crete she gave Cronus the Omphalos Stone, which he promptly swallowed. After growing up in Gaia's care Zeus came back with an emetic (vomit inducing poison) that either Metis or Gaia gave him, which made Cronus throw-up all of his siblings and the stone.With the aid of his siblings, the three Cyclopes, and the Hecatoncheires, Zeus' team was able to defeat Cronus and threw him into Tartarus (Apollodorus,1.2.1; Hesiod, Theogony). This brought about the generation of Gods, the Olympian Age.
It's not clear whether this particular sickle ends up being the same weapon that was given to Perseus by Hermes when he went to kill Medusa, but it seems like an interesting continuation especially because Gaia made the blade to kill monstrous beings (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.2). If it was the same one, it was either thrown away by Cronus after defeating Ouranos or it was perhaps taken away after Cronus was defeated. Also, as these take place in a mythical setting, timing isn't specifically defined, so, other than the generational changes, we're not very sure which events were taking place in which order. The story of Perseus, however, did take place during the Olympian Age, as evidence that Hermes and Hera appear in the story.
Zeus also used his adamantine (diamond) sickle and to fight Typhon (born of Gaia who was supposed to supplant Zeus), which didn't work out well for him, at first...
"Zeus pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and when they were close, the god struck him down with an adamantine sickle. However Typhon wrested the sickle from him, severed the sinews of his hands and feet, and lifting him on his shoulders carried him through the sea to Cilicia in Asia Minor and deposited him on arrival inside the Corycian cave." -(Apollodorus, Library 1.6.2)
Even before the later ties to "monster" slaying, the sickle that Gaia created was known as a divine weapon. It may have been indestructible with divine magic for 'divine slaying' and essence scattering. With the hoops that seemingly have to be jumped through for the ability to kill a God, it seems like only something that Gaia created can destroy someone Gaia created. This seems to be tied to the idea of homeopathy, but that's a whole other story.
*Side note: I find it interesting that it's the youngest child that does the saving, sure it doesn't always end well for them, but still*
Because Greece and Rome liked to consolidate Gods internally and with any outside groups that they connected with or conquered, researchers see their favorite Gods being combined with others.
Most of these Gods have only slight connections based on what they rule over/represent and/or who their parents were. They aren't all depicted with the sickle tool, so I'll move along as quickly as possible.
The Greek version of Cronus is often compared by classical authors to:
Roman ~ Saturn
Like his Greek equivalent, Saturn, or Sāturnus in Latin, was the ruler of the Gods during the Golden/Titan Age. Varro, in De lingua latina 5.64, says that the name Sāturnus came from satus, meaning "sowing", but even if this isn't etymologically connected to the Titans name, the meaning still does. He was worshipped as the Titan of Capitol, wealth, agriculture, liberation, and time, so to the Romans it only made sense to conflate him with the Greek God of the Harvest and even the Orphic Greek God Chronos/Khronos (but I'll talk about him later) (Hesiod; Ovid; & Macey,1994 & 2013). Also, he's one of two other versions that's shown holding a sickle, the other being from the Hurrian.
Egyptian ~ Geb
The God of the Earth, Geb was also the God of vegetation, fertility, earthquakes, and as the father of snakes (names for snake was s3-t3– "son of the earth" - from coffin lid texts). Geb, Seb, or Keb was often signified with a snake head or a goose (Wallis Budge, 1904; Wilkinson, 2003). The snake is also one of Cronus' symbols, which also include grain, sickle, and scythe. This flips the roles males and females played in the creation myths with Geb as the Earth and Nut as the Sky.
Mesopotamian ~ Elil - Sumerian:𒀭𒂗𒆤 (worshipped by the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hurrians)
Worshipped in Sumer as more of King of all the other Gods, a creator, and "as a benevolent, fatherly deity, who watches over humanity and cares for their well-being" (Kramer, 1963: 119). This doesn't match with how the Greeks saw or worshipped Cronus, but he created a farming tool, though is was described as more of a pick-axe or a hoe (Hooke, 2004 & Green, 2003: 37).
Hurrian mythology/Hittite ~ Kurambi
In the Song of Kurambi the title character bites off his own genitals and spits out semen, creating three new Gods. The weather god Tešub was cut out of Kurambi, making him Kurambi's son, is the one that overthrows him. Upon reading the stories in the Song of Kumarbi aka Kingship in Heaven tablets scholars pointed out the similarties to the stories about Cronus (Leick, 1998: 106; West, 1966: 18-31; Kirk, 1970: 214-20; & Güterbock, 1948).
Also in the Song of Ullikummi, 'Teshub' uses the "sickle with which heaven and earth had once been separated" to defeat the monster Ullikummi, establishing that the "castration" of the heavens by means of a sickle was part of another creation myth, in origin a cut creating an opening or gap between heaven (imagined as a dome of stone) and earth enabling the beginning of time (chronos) which ties it to Latinate history and the earlier Greek Mythology.
Ugaritian/Canaanite ~ El - ʼĒl(orʼIl,Ugaritic:𐎛𐎍
In the Sanchuniathon Philo of Bybos aka Herennius Philon, a Phoenician historian who lived in Ancient Greece in 64-141 CE, Ēl or Elus is the sun of the Earth and Sky, hence Cronus (Miller, 1967). But other than the other combination to the Star Saturn, that's where the similarities end. This is also made more complex because the only reason we have the Sanchuniathon is because of notes by Eusebius of Caesarea, a Greek Christian who lived around 260-340 CE, combining all of this with the Bible "history" too (though I'm not certain if it was just him).
"It was a custom of the ancients in great crises of danger for the rulers of a city or nation, in order to avert the common ruin, to give up the most beloved of their children for sacrifice as a ransom to the avenging daemons; and those who were thus given up were sacrificed with mystic rites. Cronus then, whom the Phoenicians call Elus, who was king of the country and subsequently, after his decease, was deified as the star Saturn, had by a nymph of the country named Anobret an only begotten son, whom they on this account called Iedud, the only begotten being still so called among the Phoenicians; and when very great dangers from war had beset the country, he arrayed his son in royal apparel, and prepared an altar, and sacrificed him." ~ Philo of Byblos through Eusebius.
Reported by Eusebius' Præparatio Evangelica 1.10.16 from Philo's account (the semi-legendary pre-Trojan War Phoenician) Sanchuniathon, indicates that Cronus was originally a Canaanite ruler who founded Byblos and was deified. This version gives one other name as Elusor Ilus, and states that in the 32nd year of his reign, he emasculated, slew and deified his father Epigeius/ Autochthon "whom they afterwards called Uranus" (Eusebius of Caesarea: Praeparatio Evangelica 1.10).
(Wilkinson, 2003; Caquot & Sznycer, 1980; Coleman & Davidson, 2015; Leeming, 2005: 60; Güterbock, 1948, Miller, 1967; Philo of Byblos).
FATHER TIME
[1: Pierre Mignard (1610-1695) - Time Clipping Cupid's Wings (1694)
2: Chronos and his child by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, National Museum in Warsaw, is a 17th-century depiction of Titan Cronusas "Father Time" wielding the harvesting scythe.
3: Detail of Father Time in the Rotunda Clock (1896) Sculptor is John Flanagan. Photographed in 2007 by Carol Highsmith (1946–), who explicitly placed the photograph in the public domain.-Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division.
4: Fountain of Time on the Midway Plaisance within Washington Park in Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Lorado Taft, 2013.
5: Father Time on an Irish memorial stone, displaying an empty hourglass to a mourning widow.]
As I mentioned earlier, Grecian and Roman philosophers connect the name Cronus with Chronos/Khronos, who was the God of time or, post-Renaissance, Father Time (Macey, 2013). As described in the Orphic poems the unaging Chronos was "engendered" by "earth and water", and produced Aether and Chaos, and an egg, which produced the hermaphroditic god Phanes, who gave birth to the first generation of gods (West, 1983:178). Pherecydes of Syros (6th c. BCE) later described Chronos as the ultimate creator of the cosmos, and Zas (Zeus) andChthonie (the chthonic) joining him as the three eternal principles (Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, 1984: 24, 56).
The much earlier Athenian philosopher Plato (400s-300s BCE) was the earliest mention I could find of an explanation for the direct conglomeration of Cronus and Father Time. In one of his dialogues (Cratylus) Plato points out that the name Κρόνος (Kronos) means "the pure and unblemished nature of his mind". This doesn't make a lot of sense until reading that, also according to Plato, both Cronus/Kronos and his wife Rhea (rhoĕ) were named after streams, one of which was Chronus.
The Roman philosopher Cicero (1st c. BCE) followed Plato as one of earliest to record this connection. He and Plutarch (in the 1st c. CE) based it on the assumption that Cronus was synonymous with Chronos or χρόνος, meaning time (Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, 32). This link was made via not only the name, but that because Cronus was the God of Harvests that that linked with the maintenance of the course and cycles of seasons and periods of time (Cicero, De Natura Deorum 25; Lindell, 1940; Plato, Cratylus, 402b; Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Cratylus, 396B7). This also connected with the name Saturn, due to it's implied meaning that because he was devouring his children Saturn/Cronus/time also generally devours the ages (Dronke, 2001: 316).
There are, however, more modern academics that disagree with this interpretation, such as H.J. Rose in 1928 and Janda in 2010. It was only since the Renaissance that were able to get these newer pieces of art as during the dark ages there wasn't much recording of mythological stories, whether in text or in artistry. According to H.J Rose, the etymology "fell short", but Janda gave further explanation by offering an Indo-European etymology of "the cutter" (Rose, 1928: 43). The root*(s)ker-"to cut" from the Greek κείρω (keirō) that connects to the English 'shear'. This may have been motivated by Cronus's characteristic act of "cutting the sky" or the genitals of anthropomorphic sky, Ouranos (Janda, 2010).
This, the Western version of time personified, Father Time, first really shows up in the Renaissance with a scythe and an hourglass. In some mythology this is explained by Father Time becoming a companion of the Grim Reaper, personification of Death, and taking his scythe (Hall, 1996: 119-20). You'll notice, that though the scythe is one of the symbols of Cronus, it was not THE original tool used by him to defeat his father. [Almost like the myths were evolving with the changing times and technological advancement.] Father Time may have also had an attribute of a snake with its tail in its mouth (also reminiscent of the Viking world serpent - Jormungandr), an ancient Egyptian symbol of eternity, which brings almost all of the conglomerated Gods together.
DEATH/ THE GRIM REAPER
[Not all of the pieces I found had the scythe, so I am using the photos that are or are examples of Death from not directly "western" culture, especially Hel from Scandinavia (1889 by Johannes Gehrts ~ top right) and यम राज, Yama Rājā from Hinduism with many different versions of reapers (from Kurnool in the 16th-17th c.~ right, 2nd from the top) as they are both Gods of death and are carrying staffs. I own none of these images, they were all found on the Wiki page for 'Death-personification'.]
These depictions of walking skeletons is most likely the image that most of us are familiar with. As the scythe was for reaping/harvesting crops, we no long question it's appearance with the Reaper (the name given for its reaping of souls). For a time (12th-13th c. BCE) in the Levant Death was even personified as the Canaanite God Mot, the son of El. It's not a direct tie to earlier mythological discussion, but it does show family ties, and the continuation of traditions (Cassuto, 1962).
The 'Angel of death' is often shown with the wings and hourglass of Father Time and were thus early Renaissance additions (Hall, 1996). Most western cultures also eventually, generally, switched over to Death being portrayed as the Grim Reaper, but there are examples of earlier mythology bleeding through.
[Left:The Angel of Death, sculpture of a funeral gondola, Venice. Photo by Paolo Monti, 1951.
Right: La mort du fossoyeur (Death of the gravedigger) by Carlos Schwabe.]
And let me show you another painting...
Finally getting to the cover image for the blog; this, being from the Latvian painter Janis Rozentǎls in 1897, is obviously far after the Renaissance, but it connects with the ancient and the modern. By now people have moved slightly further away from the death from the Black Plague (as shown in the second painting down on the left side) and shows Death as more 'alive' and all of the subjects are out a calm wooded area. Like the previous two examples Death is shown as a female angel, or more varied in the early mythology from Latvia, as Death was depicted as the young woman named Giltinė. The other large difference is that Death is holding a sickle, not a scythe, harkening back to the original Father Time and the tool he used to defeat a purveyor of death. I can't speak to the artists' ideas, but this painting seems less intimating. A white-gowned figure with a mother and child, almost grants a feeling of peace rather than the fear that accompanies the fear of the unknown. Especially without a huge intimidating blade looming over their heads.
The female version also comes into play in Greek mythology with Demeter or Ceres in Latin is sometimes called Khrysaoros meaning 'Lady of the Golden Blade' after the gold sword or sickle she is sometimes depicted with ("DEMETER ESTATE & ATTRIBUTES - Greek Mythology"). Her position seems to almost supplant Cronus, because she was the Goddess of agriculture, the harvest, and she presides over grains and the fertility of the earth, along with being identified by a snake. Another connection is that although she was most often referred to as the goddess of the harvest, she was also goddess of sacred law and the cycle of life and death ("Demeter - Facts And Information On Greek Goddess Demeter", 2014).
1) Antoine Watteau,Ceres (1717/1718); Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.
2) Demeter/Ceres holds a sickle in her right hand; Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures - Fredericksburg, VA
3) The goddess Demeter (aka Ceres). Her symbolic tokens are the scythe and the sheaf of grain in her hair. (Pinterest)
4) Plutus and Demeter, Apulian red-figure loutrophoros (c. 4th BC),The J. Paul Getty Museum.
I don't like to exclude, so let's move away from Western mythology now...
While we showed artwork signifying death in the last section (everyone has death in some form), but they weren't all connected to the sickle or scythe, so I looked for more, and found...
Kamaitachi (鎌鼬)
A Japanese Yokai, this weasel spirit/demon has long sickles/ Kama as claws (人文社編集部, 2005). There are a variety of local legends about these dust devil riding spirits, but most seem to agree that they inflict painless, bloodless cuts, as if they appeared in the wind (村上健司編著, 2000). In a few regions in Japan they are evil gods, either a singular or three separate entities (早川孝太郎, 1974). In the Western mountainous region of Kōchi and Tokushima Prefectures Kamaitachi are the tsukumogami (a receptacle that has turned into yōkai) with the onryō (vengeful spirit) of a discarded or forgotten sickle (京極夏彦・多田克己編著, 2000 & 人文社編集部, 2005). Meanwhile in the East there are legends of them being vengeful ghosts of a praying mantis or beetles (京極夏彦・多田克己編著, 2008). With such a wide array of traits and origin legends, it's difficult to find meaning, especially as an outsider. Maybe it has something to do with taking care of and respecting the world, along with the organisms and the objects in it, because everything has its own purpose.
Conclusion
But why don't these particular tools show up in burials when other agricultural tools do? Unfortunately, I can't answer this question. At first I thought that people didn't want to claim power that the personification of Death had, but that didn't come into play until approximately the Renaissance, which was already after the scythe was associated with Father Time, and also after European cultures mostly stopped burying personal items with the dead like in modern Christianity. So, while the tool isn't as connected to burial remains as the other tools I cited in my thesis, the scythe is a significant tool. It's both useful to research in both its agricultural roots and its context for mythological power. What is the most poignant is how no matter which culture it was in the tool was adapted into a position wherein its purpose of control of nature, be it plant or human, is linked to the understanding the nature of time and death.
Additional Reading:
There was so much that I had been searching through and just so many rabbit holes. I've tried to keep as many links as I could in the text to be your little white rabbit. Otherwise there would be way too many website links in this section.This whole post may have gone off the rails, but I hope that Wonderland can be a fun, education place too.
It's not the most academic, but I definitely recommend Overly Sarcastic Productions, as they do a ton of research in mythology and history, and the videos are my faves.
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