//They saye by this myracle, there is a potte boylinge with meate, and no man bringeth eyther water, fyre, or meate, & yet the potte dailye boyleth & feedeth infinite persons, and so continueth. A marueile there is so many miserable parsons that dye for hunger, & so greate myraculous potte.//

параллели к этому:

http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/grail.htm (Грааль - чаша, из которой вкушал Иисус на Тайной Вечере, Last Supper)
In Thomas Mallory's 15th century work Le Morte D'Arthur we again see the Grail as being a magical vessel which may serve food,
There are many elements in both of these tales which have their parallel in Celtic legends but the two main themes are "the other world" and "the magical cauldron, cup or vessel".
Celtic legends, as with the legends of many races, are full of such vessels of plenty, of wisdom and of regeneration of healing and rebirth.
the Plate of Gwyddner which supplies unlimited quantities of the best food;
This cauldron was finely decorated and heated by the breath of nine maidens.
For example, the Dagda had a cauldron which provided unlimited food. Cuchulain and Cu Roi stole Midir's cauldron from an otherworld castle that provided silver and gold without end; Bran had possession of a cauldron which gave regeneration to any dead warrior placed within it; Cerridwen's cauldron of wisdom from which Gwion Bach tasted inadvertently and is reborn (after transmigration) as Taliesin; and the cornucopia of the Greeks, or copper pot which the Sun God Surya gives to the Pandava brothers which provided them, in exile, with unlimited quantities of food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagda%27s_Cauldron = Four Treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann
In the Mythological Cycle of early Irish literature, the four treasures (or jewels) of the Tuatha Dé Danann are four magical items which the mythological Tuatha Dé Danann are supposed to have brought with them from the four island cities Murias, Falias, Gorias and Findias, when they arrived in Ireland.
Stone of Fál (Lia Fáil): It would cry out beneath the king who took the sovereignty of Ireland. It was supposedly located near the Hill of Tara in County Meath.
Spear (sleg) of Lug: No battle was ever sustained against it, or against the man who held it.
Sword (claideb/claiomh solais) which belonged to Núadu: No one ever escaped from it once it was drawn from its sheath, and no one could resist it. The sword is also described in the Tain legend as 'Nuadu's Cainnel' - a glowing bright torch! - "меч-факел", возможно это огнестрельное оружие
Cauldron (coire) of the Dagda: No company ever went away from it unsatisfied.

наличие этого чудо-горшка, как я понял, также очевидно в монастыре Сергия, отражает вероятно богатства старых монастырей ("житницы Иосифа"), а м.б. и какие-то технологические новшества, которые там создавались и применялись.
чудесный котел-горшок возможно имеет аналогию с "античным" рогом изобилия (не то "козы Амалфеи", не то Ахелоя):

По Страбону, рог Ахелоя и был рогом Амалфеи<10>. Либо Геракл подарил рог Гесперидам или (Овидий) нимфам, а те наполнили его яблоками и назвали рогом изобилия<11>. http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ахелой

Геспериды наполнили его яблоками - из райского сада? А что если это все тот же "ящик (точнее пифос, кувшин, чан) Пандоры" только с обратным оценочным знаком?

а кто такой собственно Ахелой загадочный? "Ахелой сватался к Деянире, но Геракл победил его в единоборстве, обломав Ахелою, принявшему образ быка, один рог<6>. Принимал облик тельца, змея, быкоголового мужа<7>. По Овидию, принимал облик человека, змея и быка. Во время этой битвы Арес помогал Ахелою, а Афина — Гераклу<8>." Быкоголовый муж - Минотавр? Тезей как известно, пытался подражать в подвигах Гераклу.
"По рационалистическому истолкованию, речь идет о том, что Геракл изменил течение реки Ахелоя, создав для неё другое русло. Рог Ахелоя и есть рог Амалфеи<12>. Насыпями и каналами Геракл обуздал течение реки<10>.
На произведениях искусства, особенно же на монетах, он изображался обыкновенно в виде быка с человеческим лицом, иногда же в человеческом образе с бычьими рогами." Если речь якобы просто о реке, то почему тогда говорится о битве с участием Ареса и Афины? Бычьи рога - османский полумесяц? М.б. рог Ахелоя - это залив Золотой Рог?

Achelous was often reduced to a bearded mask, an inspiration for the medieval Green Man. Floor mosaic, Zeugma, Turkey. - это у него как бы раздвоенная борода?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achelous
Others derived the legends about Achelous from Egypt, and describe him as a second Nilus. - Нил-Эридан?
Achelous was most often depicted as a gray-haired old man or a vigorous bearded man in his prime, with a horned head and a serpent-like body. - изображался со змеиным телом. "Змеи" - часто пушки. Титаны в титаномахии также изображались со змеиным телом. Геракл кстати помогал богам в гигантомахии.
In another mythic context, the Achelous was said to be formed by the tears of Niobe, who fled to Mount Sipylus after the deaths of her husband and children. - Ниобея - не отражение ли условно говоря "богоматери"?
In Hellenistic and Roman contexts, the river god was often reduced to a mask and used decoratively as an emblem of water, "his uncut hair wreathed with reeds".<20> The feature survived in Romanesque carved details and flowered duruing the Middle Ages as one of the Classical prototypes of the Green Man. - послужил прототипом средневекового Зеленого Человека. А это кто такой? Посмотрите, с кем его только не сравнивают:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man
A Green Man is a sculpture, drawing, or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves.
Related characters
Parallels have been drawn between the Green Man and various deities such as the British Celtic Lud, also known as Nodens. Many see him as being connected to the Mesopotamian Tammuz who is thought to symbolize the triumph of Life over Winter and Death,<13> Osiris, Odin, and even Jesus, as well as later folkloric and literary characters such as the Holly King.
A character superficially similar to the Green Man, in the form of a partly foliate mask surrounded by Bacchic figures, appears at the center of the 4th century silver salver in the Mildenhall Treasure, found at a Roman villa site in Suffolk, England; the mask is generally agreed to represent Neptune or Oceanus and the foliation is of seaweed.<14>
Mythical figures such as the Jewish (Elijah) and Muslim (Khidr) mystical prophet of eternal life, Cernunnos, Sylvanus, Derg Corra, Green George, Jack in the green, John Barleycorn, Robin Goodfellow, Puck, and the Green Knight all partake of the Green Man's nature; it has also been suggested that the story of Robin Hood was born of the same mythology. A more modern embodiment is found in Peter Pan, who enters the civilized world from Neverland, clothed in green leaves. Even Father Christmas, who was often shown wreathed in ivy in early depictions, has been suggested as a similar woodland spirit.<15>
The Green Knight of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight serves as both monster and mentor to Sir Gawain, belonging to a pre-Christian world which seems antagonistic to, but is in the end harmonious with, the Christian one.
In the Germanic nations, such as Germany, Iceland, and England, depictions of the Green Man could have been inspired by deities such as Freyr<16> or Odin, as both have many attributes of the later Green Men from throughout Europe.<17><18><19><20>
Green Men outside Europe
Tom Cheetham, an authority on Islamic mysticism, identifies Khidr of esoteric Sufism with the Green Man. In his book about the work of Henry Corbin and others concerning the 12th-century Muslim saint Ibn Arabi, he develops the idea of the Green Man/Khidr as the principle mediating between the imaginary realm and the physical world.<22>
On a similar theme, author on spirituality and architecture William Anderson writes:<23>
There are legends of him (Khidr) in which, like Osiris, he is dismembered and reborn; and prophecies connecting him, like the Green Man, with the end of time. ..He can come as a white light or the gleam on a blade of grass, but more often as an inner mood.
Osiris, lord of the dead. His green skin symbolizes re-birth.
In one of his roles the ancient Egyptian God Osiris is regarded as a corn-deity and is commonly depicted with a green face representing vegetation, rebirth and resurrection. Containers of soil in the shape of Osiris planted with seed ("Osiris Beds") are found in some New Kingdom tombs. The sprouting corn implied the resurrection of the deceased.<24>
Other gods depicted green are (in Tibet) Amogha-siddhi and (in Mexico) Tlaloc.
In Sanskrit the Green Man is cognate with the gana Kirtimukha or "Face Of Glory" which is related to a lila of Shiva and Rahu. The Face of Glory is often seen in Vajrayana Buddhist Thanka art and iconography where it is often incorporated as a cloudform simulacrum; and depicted crowning the 'Wheel of Becoming' or the Bhavachakra.<25>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_King_(archetype)
Graves identified a number of paired hero-figures which he believes are variants of this myth, including Lleu Llaw Gyffes and Gronw Pebr, Gwyn and Gwythr, Lugh and Balor, Balan and Balin, Gawain and the Green Knight, the robin and the wren, and even Jesus and John the Baptist.<1><2>

Таммуз, Осирис, Один, и даже Иисус, Илия, Хидр, Сильван, Робин Гуд, Зеленый Рыцарь, дед Мороз и пр. и пр.

зеленый Осирис как символ возрождения и воскресения <природы>


еще о роге изобилия:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Рог_изобилия
В произведениях изобразительного искусства влагается в руки маленького Плутоcа (бога богатства в древнегреческой мифологии), Фортуны, Геи, также Геракла.
"В более древние времена рог изобилия (как и все, что имело отношение к богатству) был связан с Аидом, царством мертвых. Рог изобилия принадлежал богу богатства Плутосу. Не случайна языковая близость имен Плутоса ( Πλοῦτος ) и Плутона ( Πλούτων ), владыки царства мертвых. В своей ранней форме Плутос как и Плутон связан с Персефоной. В элевсинских мистериях Плутос и Плутон отождествлялись. Последний мыслился обладателем несметных подземных богатств"

"На Агоре в Афинах долгое время стояла статуя, изображающая богиню счастья и судьбы Тихе, держащую в руках маленького Плутона – бога богатства... Когда в конце XVII века статуя была найдена в афинских руинах, христиане усмотрели в ней знамение божие и посчитали её одним из первых изображений девы Марии с младенцем Христом на руках."