Men (god)
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Men (also known as Men Askaelos, Mensis) was a god worshipped in the western interior parts of Anatolia as the savior of poor, ill, defenceless people and as a god who gives health and favor by the mystic power of his symbol the crescent moon. The roots of the Men cult go back to Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BC. Although ancient writers present the god as a local god of the Phrygians, they are not natives of Anatolia and in their motherland -- Thracia and Southeast Europe -- traces of this belief cannot be found. This implies that the Phrygians found the cult in their new homeland. The worship of Men is mixed with several cults and from Western Anatolia jumped to the Greek Islands and from there to Europe and Italy.
The god is usually shown with a crescent like open horns on his shoulders and we see the similars until neolithic ages. Description of the god as a young man with his Phrygian felt-hat, belted tunic and mystic power to explain the balance of the universe, brings us directly to the other personalities of similar description like Attis, Perseus, Dioskuroi (Gemini) and Mithras. Men's sacred animals are bull and lion.
Dr. Taşlıalan who gone on his studies in Antioch over 20 years noticed that the people who settled on the acropolis of Pisidian Antioch in the Greek colonial era, carried the Men Askaenos cult down to the plain as Patrios Theos and in the place where Augusteum was built there are some signs of this former cult as bukranions crescents on the rock-cut walls. The bullheads also effected the structure of Imperial Temple as a bukranion frieze in an unusual way.
The human being of antiquity turned his eyes to the skies, universe that was not polluted by city lights and with admiration of theological balance, perfect oscillation applied his observations as personifications to the natural events in a mystic and philosophic way. When we look at the matter from this point of wiew it is clear that the human of antiquity is not a kind of man who tries with agriculture and animals, begs for a good product, sacrifices animals just to give some blood to gods. Antiquity is the world of unknowns and during the comments on its beliefs this matter has to be cared.
Bull, lion and hero with felt-hat comes up in many iconographies together as a well known set. By the mysterians of mysterious beliefs, the out-coming of spring equinox from bull in zodiac (21st March) is symbolized as the death of bull. The bull stargroup can be seen lastly in the middle of February and that equals to grain sowing season. And in this date, the lion that kills the bull is in its highest point in the sky. And the Perseus groupstars are right at the top of bull as the symbol of the theologic power that killer of dark and cold era and the beginning of light and fertility by taking the place of lion.
In this point we meet with a cosmic symbolism and as an inheritance of Men, Mithras symbolism that lived its brilliant era in 1st century AD in Tarsus and spread until Italy by legions and veterans. And the symbol of Tarsus on coins is the fight of lion and bull. Sometimes a young boy joins to this scene with his felt-hat and cape, adorned with crescent and stars.
