The Voynich Ninja

R.Sale: Yes, you are right, I even felt a bit stupid posting this since it's such an insignificant pattern

But I still added it because things like this can help focus on the cultural background against which the VM sources were created. Not much is found in classical art, but I am finding more and more in "popular" art from the Greco-Roman period in Egypt. This is getting more specific, and would explain to some extent the art style of the figures. So it's not this pattern by itself, but in addition to other things I have posted from the same period.

The thought behind my posting these images is not necessarily that the patterns were invented by someone in that period. Little has been invented in ancient art. It's evolution, synthesis, adaptation, degeneration, refinement... of existing forms. 

So when we see an artefact like this, we can assume that this was a way of drawing a certain material in Roman-Egyptian art made for the general public. So I add also little bits that point to this period, hoping that after a while enough pieces of the puzzle will be found to understand the precise cultural background of the original documents.

Of course, this implies that the 15th century copyists did not understand much of what exactly they were copying, apart from of course later additions like the crossbowman. But as the Carolingians show us, documents were sometimes just copied because of their antiquity, in order to preserve them. 

It is interesting to learn what this pattern meant in heraldry. But was it usual to add a color to it, then? (green in this case) In Egypt, green meant fertility, rebirth, or young life - which would be appropriate given the young girl in this basket.

I would like to deepen the analysis of the image I posted You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., comparing the blue-haired ring-holding nymph to various depictions of the Egyptian-Greek-Roman goddess Isis.

At the time I mainly focused on the similarity of the headdress and the object held. Yet there are two more clues hidden in the figure's hair.

A quote from the wiki will suffice to explain the blue hair:

Quote:Other Greek gods were also shown as having blue hair. This imagery may stem from Egyptian myth, in which their gods were said to have hair of lapis lazuli. [...] Color in ancient Greece and Egypt were also more expressive rather than natural: blue or gold indicated divinity because of its unnatural appearance and association with precious materials.

And, perhaps more importantly, I noticed just now that, even though the hair of the nymphs is usually quite messy, we can still see a braid or curl of some kind on the left. This, again, points to Greco-Roman period depictions of young goddesses like Isis.

While I agree that you should be collecting relevant images, there would be potential problems, *if* you were considering these various examples as all equal among themselves. But as you suggest, some examples are stronger than others. And the combination of weak and strong tends to end up in dilution. Plus, the further down the line of weak examples one goes, the more problematic things become. Where does the independent origination of patterns start to occur?

Perhaps it is better to separate the strong examples and to relegate those examples less easily confirmed to an afterthought. I will give you the Isis similarities along with the two I mentioned before. What other strong examples would you include?

I can't say whether or not the VMs pattern example had a historical predecessor or an independent origin. However you seem to suggest that it must have a historical predecessor from the Hellenistic tradition.

Where did the use of the heraldic interpretation of this pattern originate? Does it have an independent origin, or is it tied to some historical precedent?

As for the VMs example, I would say the artist has shown us much better mixtures of green paint throughout the illustrations. This is a dark and gray color with a greenish tinge. Almost like it was an attempt to make a 'green based' black. If the paint was intended to be green, it could certainly have been greener, like Pisces or White Aries.

The potential combination of paint and heraldic hatching that I have seen is exclusive to the VMs. Just hold that thought when you turn the page to White Aries. The same trick is applied there, on other striped patterns. It is a basic unwritten rule in heraldry, known to the author - but probably not fully recognized in many circles these days. It is simply that the three systems of tincture designation are not used in combination. The reader needs to know this intuitively. Pick one! It greatly clarifies the situation. (Also step back to the time before these striped patterns were specified by the counting of parts.)

Then it is a matter of orientation. The radial interpretation can be seen as something imposed on images that are oriented with the natural horizontal and vertical of the page itself. This second and somewhat 'hidden' interpretive gateway opens a path with historical connections to the tradition of the red galero. Pick two! The path is clear. The pairings are in the VMs Zodiac.

Incidentally, speaking of objects being held, in the illustration posted by Diane early on, the object being held looks to me like it might be a pistil from a flower, perhaps from a daffodil, tulip or something like that, with some possible indications of potential seeds inside.

An example of a certain pattern found on a beautiful ring. I must add that I have not been able to find the ultimate source of this image. 

Pinterest describes it as "ROMAN GOLD OPENWORK RING Circa 3rd-4th century AD. A gold openwork finger ring formed with two bands of ropework filigree connected by a continuous double-looped wire. Gold"




In Greco-Roman Egypt, the serpent was seen as a protector even more so than as an antagonist. The thought behind this is that this dangerous animal is a powerful guardian against enemies and harm. That is the reason why we often find serpents on personal items, things that were worn on the body. Call it a talisman or lucky charm. The ring above shows that the wavy pattern of the serpent could be abstracted, still maintaining the same meaning without depicting the full animal. 

Som more examples. A Roman period fibula (brooch)



Ptolemaic amulet:


Another nice abstracted example of the shape, Ptolemaic amulet:


This is something common to several ancient cultures, for example Diane has written about how something very similar happened with the Aegis. I have been running into more and more examples that illustrate what she has said about this wavy line, that it has existed since antiquity and that its meaning has remained the same: protection, a barrier, a line that marks a transition between different domains.

Koen,

Interesting photos. Did the ancient line you posit have a name? Something to do with snakes I would suspect, like serpentine or ophidian. The Latin word I found for "serpentine' is 'tortuosus'.

In heraldry the line of similar form is called 'nebuly', which derives from the Latin word 'nebula' which denotes 'a mist or vapor', AYK.

Since the linguistic nomenclature appears to be so clearly divided and unrelated between these two possibilities, being based on totally different, environmental referents,. that would seem to be a fairly substantial indicator of a cultural separation, rather than being an example of cultural continuity.