Connect the 15 matching "Star/Pomegranate" pictographs with lines, like connecting stars to form constellations, to reveal a larger, hidden pictograph, a Minoan boat that seems to be the constellation Argo.
Phaistos Disk boat compared with modern map of the constellation Argo. The artist of the Phaistos Disk indicated only the major stars in the constellation, thus preserving a perfect 3,600 year-old stylized image of it.
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Constellation Argo has been sailing stern forward on constellation maps for at least 2,300 years. Is the Argo on the Phaistos Disk drawn backwards? No, this depiction of Argo is the original version with its logical, bow forward direction, while the map version has been drawn sailing backyards illogically for at least 2,300 years. Maybe we owe this reversal to Aratos (310-245 BCE), a Greek court philosopher and astronomer who famously wrote (or rather, infamously as it turns out):
As you can see, the Minoans drew the constellation sailing bow-forward, not stern-forward, which makes plenty of sense for two reasons: (1) because it is sailing in the direction the stars are (appear to be) moving and (2) because ships don't sail backwards.
Is drawn; for hers is not a usual course,
But backward turned she comes, as vessels do
When sailors have transposed the crooked stern
On entering harbour; all the ship reverse,
And gliding backward on the beach it grounds.
Sternforward thus is Jason's Argo drawn.The Argos of mythology was built at Dodona, where an ancient sanctuary of Zeus was located. A stadium was built there in the 3rd century B.C., open like a sunflower to hold 18,000 people. (far left and "flower" from disk) Dodona also had several temples, a theater, a stadium, and an acropolis, including a Temple of Heracles. Was Dodona the site of the first Olympic Games?
Dodona was the oldest oracle, sacred to Zeus and Dione. An old oak tree there became an oracle when a black dove, from Egyptian Thebes, settled on it. Priestesses interpreted the rustling of the tree's leaves, the cooing of doves, and the clanging of brass vessels that were hung from the tree's branches. At Dodona, they spoke in images - symbols - not words. Does the Phaistos Disk preserve part of their symbol language?
Also in Dodona were the Oreiades, (right) divine children of the Dactyloi and cousins of the dancing Curetes. They were nymphs of the mountain oaks (1) and pines. They were usually portrayed with serpents (2), and they carried thyrsoi, pine-cone tipped staves or poles. (3) Thyrsoi were symbolic wands, generally cane-like or knotted like a bamboo, and sometimes wreathed with ivy or vine leaves, with a pine-cone at the top. (Plutarch)
The Argos (1) was made of sacred oak (2) from the oracle at Dodona. The Argonauts were sailing the Aegean Sea (3) searching for the golden fleece (4) belonging to the ram (5) that had been sacrificed to Zeus.
Herakles and his brothers, the five original Curetes, are said to have built the alter of Olympic Zeus (1) and to have begun the Olympic games with a foot race, (2) which Herakles won. He received as his prize a branch of the wild olive. (3)