The sexual encounter between a solar hero and the goddess of fertility sheds light on the mysterious Iberian mythology.

Iberian mythology linked to the archaeology of the sun and other celestial bodies has received significant support following the discovery of a gigantic stone monument at El Fontanar in Jódar (Jaén), a unique stone monument depicting a sexual union between deities. This ritual took place during the winter solstice and physically recreates the metaphor of hierogamy, a mythical and magical sexual encounter between a solar hero and a fertility goddess, common in the ancient Mediterranean world.

El Fontanar is a large, pseudo-natural stone monument from the Iberian period, which, at sunrise on the winter solstice, creates an extraordinary effect associated with a sacred rite. The monument is composed of two units: one is a large, vertical stone measuring 5.3 meters, pointed at its top, and at the front, on the slope where the monument was erected, rests on two smaller, cylindrical stones. "The ensemble expresses the shape of the male genital organ, with a large penis and testicles facing forward, facing the sunrise on the winter solstice," explains archaeologist Arturo Ruiz, professor emeritus and international expert in the study of Iberian culture, who participated in the research at El Fontanar.

The other element discovered is a 6.8-meter-high shelter door, which represents the shape of the female genital organ, with the triangular shape of the uterus. By placing a large stone at the top, closing the entrance to the cave, they formally created the fallopian tubes. At the same time, an approximation of the lateral stones at the bottom defines the inner lips of the vulva. The result that archaeologists have been able to confirm is that at the winter solstice, the sun rises through the conical end of the phallus and projects its shadow towards the cave until, within a few minutes, it reaches the female vulva represented at the bottom of the shelter door. At that moment, the shadow begins to recede, as the sun rises in the sky.

The Fontanar rite is part of a myth that has recently been reconstructed in Iberian culture, associating images such as the small arula or prism of the oppidum of Puente Tablas near the capital of Jaén, archaeoastronomy studies, the landscape observable on the horizon and the architectural landmarks of the Puerta del Sol of the same oppidum .

According to Professor Ruiz, a Gold Medalist for Fine Arts, it has been established that during the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the liturgy of a myth developed there. Broadly speaking, it began in August, at the heliacal rising of Sirius (the star representing the goddess), with the call to the hero, continued with the hero's descent into the underworld, the catabasis in November, at the achronic sunset of the constellation of Orion; it continued with the egersis or resurrection of the hero at the winter solstice, and ended with the hierogamy between the hero, now a demigod, and the goddess at the spring equinox. "At that time, at the Gate of the Sun, the stele of the goddess was displayed, as she raised her long tunic to her stomach to welcome the sun (the hero) at its morning rise."

Of these four phases in the Jandulilla valley of Jaén, controlled by the princes of Iltiraka ( oppidum of Úbeda la Vieja), two moments of the myth were selected. The first is the catabasis, which was represented by the heroon of El Pajarillo (Huelma), discovered in 1994. Atop the tower was a sculptural group depicting a lupomachy, the fight between a hero and a wolf, in the presence of lions and griffins, their protectors (preserved in the Ibero Museum of Jaén) . At each sunset of the winter solstice, an astronomical effect was also produced when the sun rolled down a hill in front of the Pajarillo tower, configuring the rite of catabasis, represented first in the sculptures with the triumph of the hero over the wolf, guardian of the underworld, and then the heroic descent, with the solar roll.

The other selected moment was the hierogamy of El Fontanar, after having been resurrected that same day, at the dawn of the winter solstice. The liturgy developed during the journey through the Jandulilla River valley was to be practiced, taking advantage of the false solstice stop of the sun at the end of December, from south to north, from the source to the mouth of the river in the Guadalquivir, before the oppidum of Iltiraka, continuing the mythical narrative with the successive stops of El Pajarillo and El Fontanar.

“The myth of the catabasis, or the descent into the underworld, is a Mediterranean theme linked to the birth of the founding hero, who is identified with the sun. During its nocturnal phase, the sun connects with the ancestors of the ruling aristocrats, and during the day, its heat and light bring fertility to the fields,” explains Arturo Ruiz. These mythical catabasis, or descents into the underworld, are known from the Egyptian Osiris, Gilgamesh, Baal, and Melqart in the Near East; from Odysseus and Heracles in Greece; from Aeneas in Rome; and among the Iberians, it is documented in the reliefs of the Heroon of Pozo Moro in Albacete; in the hero Nokaki/Oka thanks to the altar and the Gate of the Sun in the oppidum of Puente Tablas; and in the hero of Iltiraka, whose name is unknown, whose narrative has been completed with the discovery of El Fontanar.

The publication has been published by Complutum , in an issue dedicated in homage to Teresa Chapa, professor of Prehistory at the Complutense University and archaeologist closely linked to Jaén due to her excavation of the Necropolis of Castellones de Ceal and her work on the management team of the El Pajarillo excavations.

The team that published the article includes the signatures of archaeologists specializing in Iberian culture: Arturo Ruiz, Manuel Molinos, and Miguel Ángel Lechuga; the discoverer of El Fontanar, Miguel Yanes; and the archaeoastronomer César Esteban.