Dean's Amulet
In a behind-the-scenes Supernatural special, Jensen Ackles (Dean) calls it an "Egyptian safety symbol".
Leandra has done the following research and come up with several different decodings of the amulet:
Speculation
- It's a male head with horns, and they are not ram-horns, they are bull-horns.
- It's certainly not Egyptian, or at least it's not typically Egyptian, judging by its stylistic elements.
Bull gods or gods with horns in a variety of cultures and religions include:
- Hathor, of the Egyptians, the cow god; but it's a female God (nonetheless with horns, though female cows have no horns). Also, I've never seen her depicted with a human face while I researched. It makes not much sense - Egyptian chimeras never have a human face + horns. Makes no sense to me.
- The Egyptian Apis Bull didn't make much sense either.
- The Minotaurus came to mind, of course, but that was Greek and is geographically totally off the charts.
The most likely candidate seems to be:
Mesopotamian Bull-man
According to Mesopotamian mythology,
The Bull-man is a demon. He is a man above the waist and a bull below the waist. He also has the horns and the ears of a bull.
The Bull-man helps people fight evil and chaos. He holds the gates of dawn open for the sun god Shamash and supports the sun disc. He is often shown on cylinder seals. (source)
Further info:
- Mesopotamian Gods, Goddesses, Demons and Monsters
- Mesopotamian Mythology at Wikipedia
- Bull-man at Wikipedia
Another possibility, that slots into the Zoroastrianism present in Supernatural, could be:
Mithras - Zoroastrian
Then I stumbled upon Mithras - and guess what? Guess what... Zoroastrian. In case you don't know, Mithras was the guy who slew a sacred bull. Mitra or Mitras, is another spelling.
Mithra is not present in the Gathas of Zarathustra (Zoroaster) but appears in the younger Yashts of the Avesta (Campbell p 257). There, Mithra comes to the fore among the created beings. "I created him" Ahura Mazda declares to Zoroaster, "to be as worthy of sacrifice and as worthy of prayer as myself" (Campbell, loc. cit.). In the Yashts, Mithra gains the title of "Judge of Souls" and is assigned the domain of human welfare (which He shares with the Creator). Mithra occupies an intermediate position in the Zoroastrian hierarchy as the greatest of the yazatas, the beings created by Ahura Mazda (Ormuzd in later Persian) to aid in the destruction of evil and the administration of the world. He is then the divine representative of the Creator on earth, and is directed to protect the righteous from the demonic forces of Angra Mainyu (Ahriman in later Persian). (WIKI)
In the Roman Empire the Mithras-Cult was a cult that was very popular among soldiers.
