Kvashilava, Gia, 2010. On Reading Pictorial Signs of the Phaistos Disk and Related Scripts (2). Rosette (in Georgian and English)

In Psalms (84.11) we read: ‘the Lord God is a sun and a
shield’. The philosophers of the classical period characterized
the sun variously. E.g. Aeschylus says that „the sun is a circle‟;
Plutarch – that „the sun is a sphere‟; Pythagoras of Samos –
that „the sun is a disk‟. Others compared: it with „a beautiful
woman‟, „a shield‟; or said: „the sun is a wheel‟, „the sun is an
eye‟, and „eye is light‟, etc.
In various cultures the symbols of the Sun-god are: an eightpetalled
rosette 1 (Neve 1996, 33, 60; Herder 1980, 134); a
disk with an eight-petalled rosette (Herder 1980, 130); a
disk 2 (Maxwell-Hyslop 1971, 149; Mijatović, Ninković,
Vemić 2003, 338, 340, 341; Kurtik 1999, 508 21 ; Kazmierczak
1992, 8, Fig. 18); an eye (Nadiradze 1989, 21, 22); a circle
with a dot at its centre (Kasak, Veede 2001, 29, 30; Collier,
Manley 2007, 136; EA 1987, 557; Kazmierczak 1992, 24, Fig.
91); winged disks with an eight-petalled rosette ,
(comp. Black, Green 1992); winged disks ,
(Neve 1996, 57, 58, 59; Heiser 2006, 10); a winged disk with
snakes ; a circle with a cross (Evans 1909, 87;
Kazmierczak 1992, 10, Fig. 25; Bauer, Dümotz, Golowin 1987,
1 . According to the lexicon of S.-S. Orbeliani (1698; 1991, 26; 1993, 335,
336): “where this [eight-petalled rosette ] sits, is the sun”.
2 . Comp.: Tibetan [ ] and Sanskrit [ ] mean
a disk, ring, sphere and wheel (Chandra Das 1989, 56; Conway 2006, 1;
MPW 1992, II, 100); they are symbols of the sun (Conway 2006, 2).
Corresponding Aztec symbol is a disk of the Sun-god, Tonatiuh (comp.:
Galich 1990, 109, 110; MPW 1992, II, 518). In Hinduism a wheel is a
symbol of the solar deity, Surya (Devanagari [ ] – the supreme
light) (Gamkrelidze, Ivanov 1984, II, 684, 684 1 , 720, 721; comp. MPW 1992,
II, 477, 478).
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