I think I'll reply in two postings. First: The inspiration for the floral (vel sim.) reverses at Miletus and wherever else they occur is the same as for the
lion types that were borrowed.
Mesopotamia, meaning
Assyria, and all the places where 'the Assyrians came down like a
wolf on the fold', such as
North Syria (
part of which is in
Turkey today) and
Phoenicia, however defined, and Urartu, to most of which most Armenians lay claim. So, using Modify for two more pictures, I'll post a map, a
stone representation of a rug (from Nimrud), a queen's bracelet or armlet from Nmrud, a wall-painting from Nimrud, and, from Nineveh, two centuries later (Ashurbanipal) one of the famous hunting reliefs (just look at him, and compare
his bracelet with the queen's--and you thought Assyrian art was monochrome?). On the evidence of lots of different kinds of art objects, art historians think that the
Greeks got the
lion types and floral
ornaments first from
North Syria (consider the early date of their trading post at Al-Mina) from the mixed Aramaean and sub-Hittite (Luvian) peoples there and, beginning in the 7th century, also from the center, that is, from
Assyria itself.
I remember discussing the lions in an earlier
thread.
As for
Helios (certainly on Rhodes, of course) and
Apollo (certainly at
Miletos, famously and early), they were
never actually identified, and, for that matter, Sol's cult was never really that of
Helios, anyway, even nearly a millennium later. Whatever Late Imperial cult, as under
Aurelian, did with them is remote, a world away, from the Milesian
reverse, which innocently makes use of a pattern such as 'Geometric' art
had never afforded them. Be assured that they
had laid
hands on some rugs, and silver bowls, and embroideries even before such things may have been monetized! This is why art historians, quite innocently and without a hint of political 'incorectness' say that most Early Archaic, 7th century Greek art is Orientalizing.