4 Sacred Animals Of Mithras: Wildly Irresponsible Speculation

[hiemal]

The thread of Mithraism runs deep in the Song of Ice and Fire and while it is sometimes hard to tell what is deliberate and what is the inevitable accumulation of archetypes and shared mythic contexts I have musing on the placement of the four sacred animals and am going to throw down the crazy on the dog, the scorpion, the bull, and the viper. The rite of Taurumbolis (sp?) is paralleled in Sam's blood bath (although perhaps it fits the rites of Cybele better) and I think the events surrounding the fall of the Targaryen's fit even better. Witness the tinfoil:

The Dog: Gregor Clegane. Pretty straightforward- the Mountain falls on Elia and her child.

The Scorpion: This one had me for a long time because I was distracted by House Qorgyle until I realized that Amory Lorch's Manticore is nothing but a spiffed-up scorpion and his murder of Rhaenys fits the theme nicely.

The Bull: Gerold Hightower, the White Bull. Is it posssible that he had secret orders from Aerys II to eliminate Rhaegar's progeny and Ned's arrival spared our Mithras stand-in an untimely death? Either way, his death fits the Taurumbolis imagery and sets Jon on his path to becoming a symbol of Mystery:

"Corn," the bird said, and, "King," and, "Snow, Jon Snow, Jon Snow." ... AFfC

Corn King!

And finally, the Viper: Where was Oberyn Martell during Robert's Rebllion? Could his brother Lewyn have given him secret information and secret instructions? Could he have been out and about practicing infant mortality?

Here comes the crazy:

Perhaps Oberyn was at Starfall poisoning Ashara Dayne to induce a miscarriage/stillbirth- possibly on Aerys' orders.

If Dawn led to the Daynes the could a Dayne/Stark hybrid bring the Dark?

If Young Griff is legitimate, would that throw the symmetry? How about if Oberyn was spiriting a baby away instead of killing it? So much tinfoil...