An Inquiry Into the Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology

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An Inquiry Into the Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology (1818) is a book by Richard Payne Knight.

In many ways, this book can be considered the unexpurgated version of The Golden Bough.

1 See also
2 Full text[1]

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Preface

The original edition of this worlc was privately printed by the author at London, in the year 1818. It had not been designed by him for a treatise by itself, as appears from the following notice on the title-page, namely :

" Intended to be prefixed to the Second Volume of the ' Select Specimens of Ancient Sculpture^ published by the Society of Dilettanti ; but the necessarily slow progress ot that work, in the exhausted state of the funds to be applied to it, affording the author little probability of seeing its com- pletion, he has been induced to print a few copies of this pro- posed Part of it, that any information which he may have been able to collect upon a subject so interesting to all lovers of Elegant Art, may not be lost to his successors in such pur- suits, but receive any additions and corrections which may render it more worthy to appear in the splendid form, and with the beautiful Illustrations of the preceding volume."

Afterward, with Mr. Knight's consent, the " Inquiry " was reprinted, in continuous portions, in the Classical Journal. It was published a third time, in 1836, by a London House, having been edited for the purpose, by E. H. Barker, Esq., a gentleman of superior literary endowments. The demand for it among scholars and persons of culture, has exhausted the edition which was necessarily limited ; and copies are now difficult to procure.

Richard Payne Knight was one of the most thorough scholars of the earlier period of the present century. His works display profound judgment, discrimination, taste, acute- ness and erudition, united with extraordinary candor and im- partiality; and they constitute an invaluable collection ot ancient and curious learning, from which the students of such literature can draw abundant supplies. In these respects, they stand side by side with the writings of the late Godfrey

■ 5

iv Preface.

Higgins ; while they excel in respect to scope, accuracy, conciseness, and the arrangement of subjects. They are of untold value for the unfolding of correcter views of Ancient Mythology than have been commonly entertained. Later research has enlarged the province of these investigations, and occasionally modified the conclusions which they had seemed to indicate; but it has not superseded them in any important respect.

Mr. Knight suffered, as all men must, for cultivating knowledge and promulgating sentiments at variance with the popular idea. Indeed, while he lived, freedom of thought and speech were restrained in the British Dominions, to an extent which now appears almost incredible. The prosecution of John Wilkes afforded a glaring demonstration of the disposi- tion of those in power and station to circumscribe and violate the personal rights of individuals. In religious matters, while open impurity of life incurred little disapproval, there existed an extraordinary sensitiveness in regard to every possible encroachment upon the domain fenced off and conse- crated to technical orthodoxy. There was a taboo as strict, if not as mysterious as was ever imposed and enforced by the sacerdotal caste of the Kanaka Islands. To be sure, it had become impossible to offer up a dissentient or an innovator as a sacrifice, or to imprison and burn him as a heretic. But it was possible to inflict social proscription, and to stigmatise unpopular sentiments. The late Dr. Joseph Priestley was one of these offenders, and found it expedient, after great perse- cution and annoyance, to emigrate to the United States of America, where his property was not liable to be destroyed by mobs, and he could end his days in peace. An exemplary life, embellished with every public and private virtue, seemed to constitute an aggravation rather than to extenuate the offense. If he had " spoken blasphemy," it was, as in the case of Jesus Christ, a crime for which no punishment known in law or custom was too extreme. It is easy to perceive that Mr. Knight, although an exemplary citizen of unexception- able character, would not escape.

In 1786, he published a limited edition of a treatise, entitled, "An Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus, lately existing at Isernia, in the Kingdom of Naples, etc." ; to which is added a Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, and its Connection with the Mystic Theology of the Ancients." Although the subject was extraordinary and prohibited from common conversation as indelicate, Mr. Knight had discussed it with moderation and remarkable caution, giving little occasion to prudishness or pruriency, or even to " prurient prudes " to resort to his pages for their accustomed aliment. He added engravings, however, from coins, medals, and other remains of ancient art, which he had collected ; all of which were genuine and authenticated, but were made a handle by which to misrepresent and vilify him. Having been elected to Parliament, a member who was opposed to him in politics, took the occasion in debate to assert that he had written an improper book. Mr. Knight, long before, in consequence of the clamor and of the calumny to which he was subjected, had suppressed a portion of the edition, and destroyed whatever copies came in his way. But indecency did not constitute the offense of the book. Facts were disclosed in regard to the arcana of religion, which the initiated had before sedulously kept vailed from popular knowledge. Mr. Knight had only endeavored to present to scholars a comprehensive view of the origin and nature of a worship once general in the Eastern world ; but it was easy to perceive that many of the elements of that worship had been adopted and perpetuated in the modern faith by which it had been superseded. A philosophical reasoner can not perceive why it should be otherwise. Opinions and institutions are not revolutionised on a day, but are slowly modified by reflection and experience.

Religion, like the present living race of men, descended lineally from the worships of former time with like elements and operation. Names have often been changed where the ideas and customs remained. But men often fail to think deeply, and are impatient of any newly-presented fact which renders them conscious of having cherished an error. Instead of examining the matter, they often seek to divert attention from it, by vilifying the persons making the unwelcome dis- closure. But the works of Mr. Knight, though covertly and ungenerously assailed, have remained, and are still eagerly sought and read by scholarly and intelligent men.

The present treatise, though including the principal facts set forth in the older work, has been carefully divested by the author of the details and examples, which, however valuable

\i Preface.

to the student, were liable to expose it to popular clamor, while at the same time it embraces a larger field of investi- gation. The endeavor has been made to give an accurate outline of the ancient religion of the countries from which we have derived our classical literature ; and thus to afford correct ideas of the nature and signification of their worship. The fables which have seemed puerile and often contradic- tory, are shown to have relation to a profounder system than had been suspected. We learn the frivolousness of those ideas derived from superficial reading, which regarded Bacchus as merely the god of wine, Apollo of art and music, iEsculapius of medicine, Mercury of oratory and commercial transactions, Neptune of the sea, etc., and associate the goddesses Ceres, Diana, Minerva, Venus and Vesta, with the tutelar patronage of agriculture, celibacy, learning, love and fire. It is to be regretted that Mr. Knight had not anticipated Messrs. Grote, Gladstone, and other later writers, and forborne the old practice of rendering in Latin the names of the principal Hellenic divinities. However identical Zeus may be with Jupiter, there are as great differences in character between Poseidon and Neptune, Hephaistos and Vulcan, Demeter and Ceres, Artemis and Diana, Athene and Minerva, as between the deities of the Grecian and Assyrian or Indian pantheons. Classical usage has authorised the old custom, but at the expense of truth. It is time now to adopt a more correct practice, as essential to a right understanding. Let our ver- sions of Homer, Plato, Thucydides, and other Hellenic writ- ers, give the names in a dress compatible with the language in which they were written. It is almost impossible without this, to obtain accurate perceptions of Grecian ideas and literature.

Not only do these explanations afford a key to the religion and mythology of the ancients, but they also enable a more thorough understanding of the canons and principles of art. It is well known that the latter was closely allied to the other ; so that the symbolism of which the religious emblems and furniture consisted likewise constituted the essentials of architectural style, and decoration, textile embellishments, as well as of the arts of sculpture, painting and engraving. Mr. Knight has treated the subject with rare erudition and ingenu- ity and with such success that the labors of those who came

Preface.

VII

after him, rather add to the results of his investigations than replace them in important particulars. The labors of Cham- pollion, Bunsen, Layard, Bonomi, the Rawlinsons and others, comprise his deductions so remarkably, as to dissipate what- ever of his assertions appeared fanciful. Not only are the writings of Greek and Roman authors now more easy to comprehend, but additional light has been afforded for a cor- rect understanding of the canon of the Holy Scriptures.

The editor and publisher of the American Edition have endeavored, in their respective spheres, to reproduce the work in a form which shall be convenient and attractive, and with notes and additional matter to bring it down to the present state of our knowledge upon the subjects treated.

Voung Bakchos. 9

Seilenos. Silenus.

CONTENTS.

Preface.

Introduction.,

Principles of Ancient Mythology, i.-v I

The Mysteries, vi.-xii 3

Ancient Coins, xiii.-xvii 7

Bacchus or Dionysus, xviii.-xx 9

Origin of the Mystical Rites, xxi., xxii II

Phallic and Priapic Symbolism, xxiii 12

The Mystic Egg, xxiv 13

"^ The Serpent-Symbol, xxv.-xxvii 13

The Sacred Bull and Goat, xxviii.-xxxiii iS

The Source of All Things, xxxiv 21

"^he Mother-Goddess, xxxv.-xxxvii

The Generations of the Deities, xxxviii.-xl

ftFire and Water as Symbols, xli.-xlii 25

Venus-Urania, the Mother-Goddess, xliii.-xlv 28

The Cross and Rosary, xlvi., xlvii 30

"■ The Myrtle and other Emblems, xlviii., xlix 31

The Amazons or Votaries of the Double-Sexed Deity, 1., li 32

— The Cow-Symbol, lii.-liv 35

Sun- Worship, and the Doctrine of Emanation, Iv.-lvii 37

Liberality and Sameness of the World-Religions, Iviii.-lxii 39

— Why Divine Honors were Paid to Plants, Ixiii., Ixiv 41

Improbability of the Neo-Platonic Interpretations, Ixv., Ixvi 43

Augury and Vaticination, Ixvii.— Ixix , 44

Prophetic Ecstasy, Ixx.-lxxiii 46

Enthusiastic Frenzy at the Religious Orgies, Ixxv., Ixxvi 49

Judicial Astrology, Ixxvii.-lxxxi 51

Sexual Rites at the Temples, Ixxxii.-lxxxv 54

The Night-Goddess, Ixxxvi., Ixxxvii 56

Horus and Typhon, Ixxxviii 58

The Solar System Anciently Known, Ixxxix., xc 59

The Ancient Temple-Circles, and Fire-Worship, xci.-xciv 5o

Square Temple-Enclosures, and Worship of the Female Principle,

xcv. , xcvi 63

The BuU-Symbol, xcvii., xcviii 65

Bacchus and Ariadne, xcix.-ci 66

Contents.

PAGE

Pyramids, Obelisks, and Churcli-Spires, as Sun-Symbols, cii.-civ 69

The Good and Evil Principles, cv.-cvii 71

-Animal Symbols, cviii.-cx 74

? Symbol of the Horse, cxi 76

Likeness of the Centaurs and Satyrs, cxii 77

Hippa, the Ancient Goddess, cxiii 7g

Meaning of Various Symbolical Representations, cxiv 81

Symbolism and Allegories, cxv., cxvi 81

" The Mother and Daughter " — Isis and Proserpina, cxvii.-cxix 82

Isis-Worship the Same as the Asiatic Religions, cxx 84

The Swine a Sacrificial Animal, cxxi.-cxxiii 86

Prometheus and the Vulture, cxxiv 63

Putrefaction Abhorred, cxxv 8q

Bacchus and the Leopards, cxxvi go

The ChimEera, cxxvii 91

Apollo and Python, cxxviii., cxxix 91

Hercules Identical with Apollo and Mars, cxxx 92

The Pillars Ascribed to Sesostris, cxxxi 93

Apollo and Dionysus, the Day-Sun and the Night Sun, cxxxii.-cxxxvii.. , 94

Heat and Moisture as Sexual Symbols, cxxxviii 98

Diana, the Moon-Goddess and Great Mother, cxxxix.-cxli 99

Diana and Isa, cxIii loi

The Bloody Rites of Brimo, cxliii., cxliv 102

■ Pluto and Serapis Identical, cxiv [03

The Lotus-Symbol, cxlvi , 104

^Egyptian Sculptures, Their Perfection and Prodigious Antiquity, cxlvii.,

cxlviii 105

Certain Antiquity of ^gypt, cxlix.-cli. 106

Ancient ^Egyptians Obtaining Their Symbols from India, clii 109

Architectural Pillars Devised from the Lotus, cliii.-clv 109

Impossible to Invent a New Order of Architecture, clvi., clvii no

^rhe Fish-Symbol and the Pomegranate, clviii in

The Dog-Symbol of Diana, Thoth, and other Deities, cliv.-clxi 113

Burning and Embalming of the Dead, clxii 116

The Diviner Human Soul, or Nous, clxiii.-clxv iiS

^Sacred Purification by Water and by Fire, clxvi., clxvii 121

Human Sacrifices and the Mystic Baptism of Blood, clxviii 123

The Two Human Souls — one /Ethereal, or Noetic, the other Terrestial

or Sublunary, clxix.-clxxi 123

Hermes or Mercury, and Vulcan the Fire-God, clxxii.-clxxiv 126

Athena, or Minerva, the Divine Wisdom, and her Symbols, clxxv.-clxxviii, 127

The ^I'-gis, or Goat-Skin Symbol, clxxix., clxxx 13a

Bells in Religious Worship, clxxxi 131

The Boat and the Chariot, Symbols of the Female Principle of Nature,

clxxxii 133

Lightning and Sulphur, Denoting the Masculine Divine Principle,

Ixxxiii., clxxxiv. 134

Contents. ^^

PAGE

The Ram Representing Wisdom, clxxxv 136

Amun, Zeus or Jupiter and " Great Pan," Identical, clxxxvi 137

The Mystic Dance, clxxxvii 13S

Pan, the Nymphs, and their Relations to the Sexual Symbolism, clxxxviii.-

cxc 140

The Goat and Priapic Orgies, cxci 142

Composite Symbols, cxcii 143

Cybele Combined with Deities of Other Worships, cxciii 145

Days of the Week Named after Astral Divinities, cxciv 145

Disa, the Isis of Northern Europe, cxcv., cxcvi 146

The Pillar-Stones, cxcvii 147

Cairns or Hillocks at Cross-Roads to Consecrate those Spots, cxcviii 148

Venus-Architis, the Ashtoreth of the Old Testament, cxcix 149

Allegorical Symbols and Stories Explained in the Mysteries, cc 150

The Palm-Tree Symbol, cci 151

Boxing a Feature of the Mystic Worship, ccii 152

Noble Qualities Considered as the Product of Divine Emanation, cciii. . . 154

Names of Gods Conferred upon Distinguished Men, cciv., ccv 155

Confusion of Personages and of the Allegories, ccvi 157

Men Begotten by Divine without Human Agency, ccvii 15S

Assuming Foreign Deities Identical with those Worshipped at Home,

ccviii 159

Old Practice of Naming Places Newly-Discovered, and the Confusion

Resulting, ccix., ccx 1 60

Jacob Bryant Criticised, ccxi 161

Euhemerus, Sanchoniathon, and Eusebius Accused of Fraudulently Solv- ing Myths as Historical Events, ccxiii 162

The Spurious Letter of Alexander the Great to his Mother, ccxv 1&4

Disgraceful Apotheoses of Ancient Emperors, ccxvi 164

The Elementary System" found in Homer and Other Poets, ccxvii. . . . 165

The " Syrian Goddess," and her Peculiar Worship, ccxviii., ccxix 166

The Mysterious Third One, ccxx.-ccxxii 167

J The Mystic Dove and the Italian Woodpecker, ccxxiii 170

Other Delineations at Hierapolis, ccxxiv 172

The Deified Personages, ccxxv 1 73

Emasculates and Virgins in the Sacerdotal Office, ccxxvi 174

iThe Fish-Symbol, ccxxvii 176

The Allegories Eased on the Doctrine of Emanation, ccxxviii 177

The Triune Idea Universal, ccxxix 17S

The Similarity of Symbols net Conclusive Proof of a Single Origin, ccxxx. 178

Apparent Identity of the Hindu and Egyptian Symbols, ccxxxi., ccxxxii. 179

Hindu Poetry and Mythology, ccxxxiii l8i

Ancient Religion and its Relation to Art, ccxxxiv 182

Perseus and Persephone.

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INTRODUCTION.

Till a comparatively recent period, it has been usual to describe the ancient religion of Babylonia, Assyria, and other cotemporary nations as a gross polytheism. The multitude of deities, the sanguinary customs, the mad enthusiasm of the sacred orgies, the lascivious rites of the Mother-Goddess, were cited as unequivocal evidence. Every city and community had a tutelar divinity; human victims were oifered as well as animals, at the several shrines; at special festivals, men and women, in the wild intoxication of religious excitement, abandoned their houses and vocations to celebrate secret ceremonies, and to wander at considerable distances over the fields and mountains ; and although in many places ascetic practices were regarded as conducive to a divine life, in others, more noted, there was permitted an almost general license, at the public festivals, and especially at the temples. From these scenes of debasement, the popular idea of the character of the ancient worship has been derived.

But explorations have greatly modified the impressions heretofore entertained, and afforded the " poor heathen " a stronger hold upon our candor and favorable regard. The eliefs which we have considered absurd and immoral, were to countless millions as the breath which sustained their life; and could not be dislodged without peril to those who had cherished them. The religion of every person is included in his ideal of the Absolute Right. Every man's conception of the Deity is the reflection of his own interior character. His religion is an integral part of himself, true in essence, superior to the forms of worship, but necessarily contaminated with the defects of the age and country in which he lives, and of the race to which he belongs. All are not called to the same formulas of doctrine; every man has a divine right to revere and copy his own ideal. The heavenly principle and Supreme Order have been the constant faith of mankind ; but the forms are apparently as diverse as the mental structures of races and individuals. There is always a dissension between persons of sentiment and the scientific, between those of speculative and investigating mind, and the merely practical. But neither could be very useful without the existence of the other ; and true wisdom shows that it is best in all matters of relia;ious faith to accord the widest latitude and the most perfect liberty, not by enforced toleration as of an evil that must be borne, but generously, that every one may spontaneously follow the path which appears to him the way of Truth.

The same rule should apply, perhaps even in a larger decree, to the reliffions of archaic time. It has been too common a practice to misunderstand them. The classical authors themselves were sometimes too frivolous or superficial to describe them trutlifully. The teachers of the faith which superseded them, have been too zealous to expose their deformities, without giving due credit and consideration to their essential merits. It has nevertheless been a matter of astonishment for us that men of superior mind should adore deities that are represented as drunken and adulterous, and admit extravagant stories and scandalous adventures among their re- ligious dogmas. Yet, let it be always remembered that the human mind is never absurd on purpose, and that whenever its creations appear to us senseless, it is because we do not understand them.

Religions were born from the human soul, and not fabricated. In process of time they evolved a twofold character, the external and the spiritual. Then symbolism became the handmaid to worship; and the Deity in all his attributes was represented by every form that was conceived to possess significance. The sun and moon, the circle of the horizon, and signs of the Zodiac, the fire upon the altar and the sacred enclosure which from temenos became temple, the serpent most spirit-like and like fire of all animals, the ego- which typified all germinal existence, the exterior emblems of sex which as the agents for propagating and therebv perpetuati no- all living beings, clearly indicated tlie demiurgic potency which actuated the work and function of the Creator, — these, and a host of other objects naturally and not inappropriately became symbols to denote characteristics of Divinity. In process of time the personifications were regarded as distinct deities ; and the One, or Double Unity, or the Quaternion including the Triad and Mother-Goddess, became amplified into a pantheon. The tutelar divinities of tribes were transformed into the associate gods of nations ; and the conquest of a people was followed by the transferring of its deities to a subordinate place in the retinue of the gods of the conquerors. Sometimes there were haughty innovators like the Assyrians, or iconoclasts like the Persians, who refused such concessions and destroyed the symbols of religion among the nations that had been vanquished. Again, the genius of a people changed with years, and new deities and representations crowded out the old. In Aryan countries, this was more commonly the case ; and hence the change of doctrines as the centuries passed has rendered the entire subject complex and more or less confused. Such complications and a forced literal con- struction of the mythological fables, were adroitly but most ungenerously seized upon by the adversaries of the popular worship to show the debasing influence of the ancient relig- ions. Candid criticism, if there is any such thing, can not accept their condemnation unqualifiedly. The attacks of Hermias, Tatian, and Athenagoras, resemble very closely those of Voltaire against Christianity. Ridicule is always hard to refute ; but it is not the weapon of noble men. The interpre- tation of Euhemerus which transformed the gods into men, that of Tertullian which gave them substantial existence as evil demons, and the gross sentiment of Epicurus and Lucre., tius, which made of the myths only frivolous fables invented to amuse, having no specific aim or meaning, were so many forms of calumny and misrepresentation. Ancient paganism '

' We use this term with hesitation. It has degenerated into slang, and is generally employed with more or less of an opprobrious meaning. The cor- recter expression would have been "the ancient ethnical worships," but it would hardly be understood in its true sense, and we accordingly have adopted the term in popular use, but not disrespectfully. A religion which can develop a Plato, an Epictetus, and an Anaxagoras, is not gross, superficial, or totally un- worthy of candid attention. Besides, many of the rites and doctrines included in the Christian, as well as in the Jewish Institute, appeared first in the other systems. Zoroastrianism anticipated far more than has been imagined. The-

XVI

Introdziction.

described by writers like Ovid and Juvenal, by what it had become in its decline, is like any individual or system in the period of decay. The loftiest ideas are sure to degenerate in the hands of sensual persons, into a gross sensualism and superstition. It was an innocence born of primitive Nature, which had become as strange to the Romans of the Empire as to the various peoples of modern time, that admitted into the religions those sacred legends which we consider scandalous, and the emblems which are accused of obscenity. The Her- maic or Baalic statue that constituted the landmark which might not be removed without profanation,' and that conse- crated every cross-way and intersection of highways, which more modern superstition has perverted to desecration, was but one simple expression of that childlike faith which recognises and adores God in every natural form, function, and attribute. " Let us not smile," says that incomparable woman and moral- ist, Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, " let us not smile at their mode of tracing the Infinite and Incomprehensible Cause throughout all the mysteries of Nature, lest by so doing we cast the shadow of our own grossness on their patriarchal simplicity.""

To this pagan symbolism is art indebted for its glories, its master-pieces, as well as the evolution of all its laws and principles. The Canon of Proportion which Egypt, Assyria, Phoenicia, Greece, and Ionia, employed in all their great works, was deduced from the human form as the ideal of Divinity, and the harmonious combination of the circle, square and triangle, in artistic representation. Nature, as an ingen- ious writer has plainly shown, has shaped and colored all her productions, animal and vegetable, as well as earthy and cry- stalline, according to laws which may be accurately ascer- tained by mathematical demonstration ; and which successful art has only pursued and imitated. The peculiar symbolism of the ethnical religions, being in a manner transcripts and

Cross, the priestly robes and symbols, the sacraments, the sabbath, the festivals and anniversaries, are all anterior to the Christian era by thousands of years. The ancient worship, after it had been excluded from its former shrines, and from the metropolitan towns, was maintained for a long time by the inhabitants of humble localities. To this fact it owes its later designation. From bein" kept up in the/aj-;, or rural districts, its votaries were denominated pagans, oi provincials. — A. W.

' Deuterono7ny, xix. 14 and xxvii. 17.

' Progress of Religious Ideas, Hindostan or India, vol. i. pp. 16, 17.

Introduction. xvii

copies from nature, must necessarily, as indeed it does, con- stitute the source from which every true artist derives the best lessons of his sublime vocation. Even the objects and representations which modern fastidiousness requires to be hidden from view and excluded from familiar speech, are im- portant constituents of modern architecture, both in church and mosque, as they were formerly in temples and emblems associated with the worship of the Deity. A thorough knowl- edge of ancient mythology and symbolism is therefore indis- pensable to a correct understanding of the details and intrica cies of artistic production. Religion antedated and developed human skill and ideality.

The Mysteries, which appear to have evolved and perpet- uated the esoteric principles of the ancient worships, were doubtless instituted when those worships had reached a com- parative maturity. Earlier than that, they could have been hardly possible. Like a child having the intellectual and spiritual elements chiefly enveloped in the physical, as the leaf, flower and fruit are included in the bud, so mankind at first comprehended religious ideas as a unity, not distinguish- ing the envelope from what it enclosed, the symbol from the idea which it typified. Afterward, they began to perceive that there was a kernel inside the shell, and even further that there was a germ or rudiment of a future plant included in both — that the rugged forms of worship comprised ideas and principles ramifying into the profoundest details of science, art, and philosophy. Then immortality was born of the faculty of veneration ; for he who can perceive God in the universe will recognise himself as divine from the existence of that power of perceiving ; and that which is divine is immortal. It is the kernel in the nut, the germ in the kernel, the entity of life in the germ. Hence, in the fullness of time, were established the Mysteries, which evolved from the phenomena of life the conception of its actual essences, and taught how purity, virtue and wisdom led to the supreme good. " Happy," cries Pindar, " happy is he, who hath beheld those things common to the region beyond this earth — he knows the end of life, he knows its divine origin ! " '

The great Author of the Christian religion did not hesitate

' Clement : Stromata, iii. " OXfiioZ odrii idaov sxeiva noiya. sii vxoxBovioc, oiSsv jiisy fiiov tEXEvrar, oiSsv Se Jio% Sorov apxav"

xviii Introduction.

or disdain to include esoteric learning in his teachings. When he first chose his confidential disciples he propounded his doctrines alike to them and the multitude that thronged wherever he was. But presently he observed that many, the 01 TtoXXoi, sought him, because they " did eat of the loaves and were filled." ' He thenceforth divided his instruction into the moral and the esoteric ; and " from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." He explained the reason to those who continued with him : " It is given to you to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given ; therefore, I speak to them in allegories, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." "

The Apostle whose name is associated above all others with the early establishment of Christianity, likewise divided the Church into the natural or psychical, and the spiritual, and addressed his instructions to them accordingly. "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect " or initiated, he wrote to the Corinthian believers; "we speak wisdom of God in a Mystery, secret, which God established in advance of the pres- ent period for our glory, which none of the archons of this period knew." '

It is not practicable to ascertain with certainty when or by whom the ancient Mysteries were instituted. Their form appears to have been as diversified as the genius of the wor- shippers that celebrated them, while the esoteric idea was so universally similar as to indicate identity of origin. In Rome were performed the rites of the Bona Dea, the Saturnalia and Liberalia, which seem to have been perpetuated in our festi- vals of Christmas, the Blessed Virgin and St. Patrick ; in Greece were the Eleusinia, or rites of the Coming One, which were probably derived from the Phrygian and Chaldean rites, — also the Dionysia, which Herodotus asserts were introduced

' Gospel according to John, vi. 26.

' Gospel according to Matthew, xiii. II, 13.

' I Corinthians, ii. 6-8. The archons of Athens always exercised the super- intendency of the Eleusinia, Thesmophoria, and Bacchic festivals ; and Paul who was contrasting the " Mystery of Godliness " with the other orgies, ingen- iously adopted their modes of expression. In the same connection, he also de- nominates their initiates Jiatural or psychical, thus signifying that they had not attained the diviner state — that they were still in the realm of " o-eneration " not having passed beyond the sphere of the Moon, and therefore had not at- tained the noetic or spiritual life.

Introduction. xix

there by Melampus, a mantis or prophet, who got his knowledge of them by the way of the Tyrians from Egypt. The great his- ' torian, treating of the Orphic and Bacchic rites, declares that they " are in reality Egyptian and Pythagorean." ' The Mys-- teries of Isis in Egypt and of the Cabeirian divinities in Asia and Samothrace, are probably anterior and the origin of the others. The Thesmophoria, or assemblages of the women in honor of the Great Mother, as the institutor of the social state, were celebrated in Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece and Sicily ; and we notice expressions in the Books oi Exodus, Samuel and Ezekiel which indicate that they were observed by the Israelites in Arabia and Palestine.^ The rites of Serapis were introduced into Egypt by Ptolemy, the Savior, and superseded the worship of Osiris ; and after the conquest of Pontus, where the Persian religion prevailed, the Mysteries of Mithras were carried thence into the countries of the West, and existed among the Gnostic sects many centuries after the general dissemination of Chris- tianity. The Albigenses, it is supposed, were Manicheans or Mithracising Christians. The Mithraic doctrines appear to have comprised all the prominent features of the Magian or Chaldsean system ; and we need not be surprised, therefore, that they are represented as embracing magical, occult, and thaumaturgical science. The Alexandrian Platonists evidently regarded them favorably as being older than the western systems, and probably more genuine.

The Mysteries, whatever may have been asserted in their derogation, nevertheless preserved the interior sense of the ancient worship. A distinguished writer' has employed his poetic talent to depict the scenes of an initiation in Egypt ; and but for the labor of travellers and antiquaries, we would imagine that he had woven an ingenious tale of romance. He, however, has omitted the famous Judgment-Scene of Amenti, the sublime period of the disembodied soul, though indicating much that relieves the Egyptian worship from the imputation of fetishism. Indeed, the Book of Job, which appears on superficial examination to be an Idumean or Arabian produc- tion, actually seems to have been a religious allegory or drama illustrating this very subject. This is not improbable;

' Herodotus : ii. 49, 81.

£xodiis xxxviii. 8 ; i Samuel ii. 22 ; and Ezekiel viii. 14,

• Moore : The Epicurean,

Introduction.

for the Apostle Paul himself does not hesitate to assert the same thino- of narratives in the Old Testament, which are not easy to verify as authentic history.'

The " Mystic Drama of Eleusis," as Clement so aptly de- nominates the sacred rites or orgies of the Great Mother, Demeter, was doubtless taken from the same source as the Mysteries of Isis." It extended from the institution by the mythical Eumolpus till the ancient worship was forcibly sup- pressed by the Emperor Theodosius, about the year 380, a per.iod of more than eighteen centuries. In it appears to have been expressed all that was vital and essential in the religion of Greece. Of its sacredness and majesty, Antiquity has but one voice. Renan gives us the following outline of the holy orgies :

"Setting aside the immense superiority of the Christian dogma, setting aside the lofty moral spirit which pervades its legend [the story of Jesus and his Passion], and to which noth- ing in antiquity can be compared — perhaps, if we could be per- mitted to assist at an ancient Mystery, we would witness simi- lar things there ; symbolical spectacles in which the mystagogue was actor and spectator at once, a group of representations traced in a pious fable, and almost always relating to the so- journ of a deity on the earth, to bis passion, his descent into hell, his return to life. Sometimes it was the death of Adonis, sometimes the mutilation of Atys, sometimes the murder of Zagreus or of Sabazius.

" One legend, in particular, contributed wonderfully to the commemorative representations; it was that of Ceres and Proserpina [or Demeter and Persephoneia]. All the circum- stances of this myth, all the incidents of the search after Pro- serpina by her mother, gave room for a picturesque symbolism

' In the Epistle to the Galatians, the circumstances relative to the wife, con- cubine, and two elder sons of Abraham are denominated aXysYOf>ovi.iEva (allegoroumend) or allegorising ; and to the Corinthians he declares that the ex- odus from Egypt and adventures in the wilderness were rvitoi {iupoi), types or S3mibols, which were written for instruction.

' "The worship of this Great Mother is not more wonderful for its antiquity in time than for its prevalence as regards space. To the Hindu she was the Lady Isani. She was the Ceres of Roman mythology, the Cybele (Kubele) of Phrygia and Lydia, and the Disa of the North. According to Tacitus (Genua, nia, ix.) she was worshipped by the ancient Suevi. She was worsliipped by the Muscovite, and representations of her are found upon the sacred drums of the Laplanders. She swayed the ancient world, from its south-east corner in India to Scandinavia in the North-west ; and everywhere she is the ' Mater Dolorosa.' And who is it, reader, that in tlie Christian world struggles for life and power under the name of the Holy Virgin, and through the sad features of the Madonna? " (Atlantic Monthly, vol. iv. p. 297, — The Eleusinia, note.)

Introduction.

XXI

which powerfully captivated the imagination. They imitated the actions of the goddess, and revived the sentiments of joy and grief, which must successively have animated her. There was first, a long procession mingled with burlesque scenes, purifications, watchings, fasts followed by feastings, night-marches with torches to represent the mother's search, circuits in the dark, terrors, anxieties — then, all at once, splen- did illuminations. The gates of the temple opened ; the actors were received into the realms of delight, where they heard voices. Changes of scene, produced by theatrical machinery, added to the illusion; recitations of which we have a sample in the Homeric Hymn to Ceres, broke the monotony of the representation. Each day had its name, its exercises, its games, its stations, which the actors went through in company. One day it was a mimic battle in which they attacked each other with stones. Another day they paid homage to the Mater Dolorosa — probably a statue of Ceres as an addolorata, a veritable Pietd.. Another day they drank the cyceon (kukeon, or mixed draught), and imitated the jests by which the old lambe succeeded in amusing the goddess; they made processions to the spots in the neighborhood of Eleusis, to the sacred fig-tree, and to the seaside; they ate the prescribed meats, and per- formed mystic rites, the significance of which was almost always lost on those who celebrated them. Mixed with these were Bacchanalian ceremonies, dances, nocturnal feasts with symbolical instruments.' On their return they gave the reins to joy ; the burlesque resumed its place in the gephyrtsmes, or farces of the bridge. As soon as the initiated had reached the bridge over the Cephissus, the inliabitants of the neighboring places, running from all quarters to see the procession, launched out into sarcasms on the holy troop, and lascivious jokes, to which they with equal wantonness replied. To this, no doubt, were added scenes of grotesque comicality, a species of masquerade, the influence of which on the first sketches of the dramatic art is very perceptible. Ceremonies which in- volved a symbolism so vague under a realism so gross, had a great charm for the ancients and left a profound impression; they combined what man loves most in works of imagination, a very definite form and a very free sense."

" It is certain that the Mysteries of Eleusis, in particular, exerted a moral and religious influence ; that they consoled the present life, taught in their way the life to come, promised rewards to the initiated, on certain conditions, not of purity

' " It was the time when the Sithonian women are wont to celebrate The Triennial Mysteries of Bacchus : Night a witness to the rites. Rhodope sounds with the clashings of acute brass by night."

Ovid : Metamorphoses, vi.

- Women girded phalli to their breasts, solemnising Mysteries."

NoNNUs, xlvii.

xxii Introductiofi.

and piety only, but also of justice; and if they did not like wise teach monotheism, which would have been a negation of paganism, they at least approached it as nearly as paganism was permitted to do. They sustained and cherished in the soul, by their very mystery, and by the purified worship of Nature, that sentiment of the Infinite — of God, in short — which lay at the bottom of the popular credence, but which the an- thromorphism of mythology tended incessantly to efface."'

The Dionysia or Mysteries of Bacchus are generally ascribed to Orpheus,' who is said to have introduced them into

' Religions of Antiquity. M. Renan asserts further that " deep researches would show that nearly everything in Christianity that does not depend on the Gospel is mere baggage brought from the pagan Mysteries into the hostile camp. The primitive Christian worship was nothing but a mystery. The whole in- terior police of the Cliurch, the degrees of initiation, tlie command of silence, and a crowd of phrases in the ecclesiastical language have no other origin. The Revolution which overthrew Paganism seems, at first glance, a sharp, trenchant, and absolute rupture with the Past ; and such, in fact, it was, if we consider only the dogmatic rigidity and the austere moral tone which charac- terised the new religion. But in respect of worship and^outward observances^ the change was effected by an insensible transition, and the popular faith saved its most familiar symbols from shipwreck. Christianity introduced, at first, so little change into the habits of private and social life, that with great numbers in the fourth and fifth centuries it remains uncertain whether they were Pagans or Christians ; many seem even to have pursued an irresolute course between the two worships. On its side, Art, which formed an essential part of the ancient religion, had to bnak with scarce one of its traditions. Primitive Christian Art is really nothing but Pagan Art in its decay, or in its lower departments. The Good Shepherd of the Catacombs in Rome is a copy from the Aristeus, or from the Apollo Nomius, which figure in the same posture on the pagan sarcophagi ; and still carries the flute of Pan, in the midst of the four half-naked Seasons. On the Christian tombs of the Cemetery of St. Calixtus, Orpheus charms the animals. Elsewhere, the Christ as Jupiter-Pluto, and Mary as Proserpina, re- ceive the souls that Mercury, wearing the broad-brimmed hat, and carrying in his hand the rod of the soul-guide (psychopompos), brings to them, in presence of the three Fates. Pegasus, the symbol of the apotheosis, Psychd, the symbol of the immortal soul, Heaven personified by an old man, the river Jordan, and Victory, figure on a host of Christian monuments."

» Aristotle declared that no such person as Orpheus ever existed ; and I entertain no doubt of the correctness of his judgment. The name is evidently the Chaldaic Urfihi, the designation of a celebrated oracle at Edessa, which was much consulted by the Babylonians and Persians. Pausanias asserts that Orpheus was a Magian. The legends of his descent into Hell in quest of his wife Eurydice, and his safe return to the upperwovld, however, resemble closely the other myths of the decease and subsequent resuscitation of the Myster)'- gods, and conclusively establish his affiliations with Osiris, Adonis, Atys, Dio- nysus-Zagreus, and the other Slain Ones, Protogoni or Only-Begotten 'sons. The Cabeirian as well as the Sabazian Mysteries are assigned to him, indicating that the entire legend came by way of the Phoenicians. This people had aUo a

Introduction. xxiii

Thrace at a very ancient period, eleven generations before the destruction of Troy ; also into Thebes and other parts of Greece. He is affirmed to have preceded all other religious teachers ; and his disciples were distin- guished for their knowledge of medicine, astronomy, and music, also for the employment of symbols and their devotion to a life of celibacy. The legend of the Dionysiac or Bacchic Mysteries recites that Dionysus-Zagreus was a son of Zeus or Jupiter whom he had begotten in the form of a dragon upon the Virgin Kore-Persephoneia, whom older myths have made the same as Demeter or Ceres, reputed to be her mother in the Eleusinian story. It was the purpose of Zeus to place the son thus obtained upon the throne of Olympus. But the seven Titans surprised the young child and tore him in pieces. His heart was rescued by Athene and swallowed by Zeus, by whom he was again begotten, and again made the heir of the universe.' All these scenes were commemorated, each mysta being sworn to secresy ; and at the end, the Hierophant chanted: " I have escaped calamity ; I have found the better lot."

famous mythical personage or divinity, styled Rapha, whose sons or worshippers, the Rephaim, or Orpheans, occupied districts in Palestine and east of the Jor- dan. They were famed, like their Thracian namesakes, for strength of body, disposition for ascetic life, and proficiency in knowledge and the liberal arts.

^ That ingenious but somewhat fanciful writer, E. Pococke, fondly traces in this legend the evidence of an ancient Lama Hierarchy in Northern Greece similar in constitution to that still existing in Thibet. " The Lamaic system," says he, " was, at the earliest periods of Greece, undoubtedly administered with great vigor. Its contests, however, for supremacy, were many, and vigorously conducted ; and but for that Tartar population, which in common with the people of Lebanon, formed so powerful an element in the colonisation of prime- val Phoenician Egypt, it would have been impossible to assure its dominant in- fluence over nearly the whole of Hellas. This system of religion will be found to have been so far modified and so far compromised, as to be compelled to take its place in the asyla of the Mysteries of Greece, in lieu of the open, and as it were state-position, it once occupied. That Lamaic sovereignity which was once wielded with the vigor of the triple crown in its most palmy days, had lost its imperial, and still more its despotic character ; and an oligarchy of the Hellenic Buddhistic priesthood had taken the place of the absolutism of one. Their faith, and the faith of those Athenians who were initiated at the Eleusinian Mysteries, will in the sequel be shown to be identical with that of Pythag- oras."

" The great head of this vast system of hierarchic domination which in those ancient days extended over the known world with an uniformity and vigor un- paralleled but by the same system of Buddhistic Rome, during the Middle Ages was tenned ' Jeenos ' by the Greeks, written ' Zeenos,' and appellation

xxiv Introduction.

This is the same proclamation as was made by the bride at the nuptial ceremony ; and indeed the idea of a sacred marriage is conveyed by the rites of initiation. " Those who are initiated sing: 'I have eaten from the drum ; I have drank from the basin [cymbal] ; bearing the earthen cup, I have gone to the nuptial chamber.' " '

In his relation to the sun, as lord of Heaven, demiurge and Father of Creation, Bacchus was denominated Uvpntaii, Puri- pats, or Son of Fire, and was represented with the phallic sym- bolism ; as was Zeus by that of a serpent, denoting the essen- tial spirit that preceded all things. Hence, in the mystic cista or ark which was opened to the view of the epopta or seer, were exhibited the egg, the phallus and the serpent, typifying the primal essence, the demiurgic power and the organic substance which is rendered operative — thus constituting a symbolism as lofty in sentiment or as gross in sense as is the mind of the person witnessing the spectacle.

After Pontus in Asia Minor, previously held by Persia, had been conquered by Pompey, the worship of Mithras super- seded the Dionysia, and extended over the Roman Empire. The Emperor Commodus was initiated into these Mysteries; and they have been maintained by a constant tradition, with their penances and tests of the courage of the candidate for

given to the Buddha pontiffs of antiquity, as well in Phoenicia as in Greece. The Greek term ' Zeus ' is simply the form 'Jeyus' inflected, and is the term employed to express the Ruling Saintly Pontiff of his day. Such was the Jeenos, ' the King of Gods and men,* that is of the devas (priests) and people in Greece, long before the Homeric days." "The succession of the Lamaic rulers in Greece appears, judging by the accounts left us by Hesiod, to have been set- tled by the pure decision of the ruling Pontiff, in lieu of the method at present adopted in Tartary. ' There is one new personage begotten by Zeus (the Pon- tiff) who stands pre-eminently marked in the Orphic Theogony, and whose ad- ventures constitute one of its peculiar features. Zagreus [Chakras or ruler of a continent], 'the horned child,' is the Son of Zeus by his own daughter (or votary) Persephone (Parisoopani or Durga, called also Kor^ or Gouree). He is the favorite of his father ; a child of magnificent promise, and predestined to grow up to succeed to supreme dominion.' This intended successor to the Pontificate appears to have been murdered by the Tithyas [Titans] or Heretics. With the usual Buddhistic belief, however, of transmigration, the young Lama is described as born again from the consort of the Jaina Pontiff, the Soo-Lamee [Semele] or Great Lama Queen. Other accounts represent this new incarna- tion, who had the name of ' Dio-Nausus,' as being born upon the holy mountain of ' Meroo,' a history converted by the Greeks to the ' meros' or thigh of Zeus ! " —{India in Greece, chap, xvii.) ' PsELLUS: Maniiscripis.

2('

Introduction. xxv

admission, through the Secret Societies of the Middle Ages and the Rosicrucians, down to the modern faint reflex of the latter, the Freemasons.' The Mithraic rites supplied the model of the initiatory ceremonies observed in those societies, and are de- scribed by Justin Martyr and TertuUian as resembling the Christian Sacraments. The believers were admitted by the rite of baptism ; they had a species of Eucharist ; while the courage and endurance of the neophyte were tested by twelve consecu- tive trials denominated Tortures, undergone within a cave con- structed for the purpose, and lasted forty days before he was ad- mitted to a participation in the Mysteries.' The peculiar symbol of these rites have been found all over Europe ; and the burial- place of the Three Kings of Cologne, Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior, were shown as the tombs of the Magians that visited Bethlehem. The Gnostics borrowed largely from them ; and in time their very festival became the Christmas of the Church. The Jews, too, derived from them the Pharisean doctrines of future rewards and punishments, a hierarchy of angels as well as of evil demons, the immortality of the soul, and future judg- ment. All these were features of the Zoroastrian system ; but were rej ected by the Sadducees or sacerdotal party who adhered to the Mosaic polity and rejected all foreign doctrines.

The Cabeirian Mysteries appear to have been the least un- derstood. Indeed, they were probably different in different countries. Creuzer traces them to the Phoenicians, and asso- ciates the worship with that of the Moon-god. Herodotus identifies the deities with the sons of Phtha or Hephaistos in Egypt; and Damascius with the seven sons of Sadyk, the Phoenician deity, of whom Esmun or Asclepius was the eighth. They are probably identical with the Patseci ox fetishes of the Phoenicians. Most authors agree that they varied in number, and that their worship, which was very ancient in Samothrace and in Phrygia, was carried to Greece by the Pelasgians. Some

' C. W. King : The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 47. The late Godfrey Higgins relates {Anacalypsis, vol, i.) that a Mr. Ellis was enabled, by aid of the Masonic symbols, to enter the adytum of a Brahmanical temple in Madras.

' " He baptises his believers and followers ; he promises the remission of sins at the sacred fount, and thus initiates them into the religion of Mithras ; he marks on the forehead his own soldiers ; he celebrates the oblation of bread (with water) ; he brings in the symbol of the resurrection, and wins the crown with the sword— in order that he may confound and judge us by the faith of his own followers." — Teetullian, Prasctipt.

XXVI

Inirodjictton.

believe them to have been Demeter, Persephone, and Pluto, and others add a fourth, Cadmus or Kadmiel, the same as Her- mes and ^sculapius. They were also worshipped at Lemnos. The goddess Astarte was likewise celebrated with Pothos and Phaethon "in most holy ceremonies " of the same nature.

The peculiar form of the Hermaic statues, called '^ Baalim" in the Old Testament, was adopted from the Cabeirian Mysteries. According to Herodotus, " the Samothracians received these Mysteries from the Pelasgians, who before they went to live in Attica, were dwellers in Samothrace, and imparted their relig- ious ceremonies to the inhabitants. The Athenians, then, who were the first of all the Greeks to make their statues of Hermes in this way, learnt the practice from the Pelasgians ; and by this people a religious account of the matter is given, which is explained in the Samothracian Mysteries." '

It is apparent that the idolatry ascribed to the Israelites and other inhabitants of Palestine was borrowed from these rites. Plutarch supposed the Feast of Tabernacles to have been Bacchanalian, and notices the carrying of the thyrsus at the feast of trumpets. The Mysteries of the Greeks were connected solely with the worship of the divinities in the Underworld; and such appears to have constituted a part of the orgies of Baal-Peor." " The children of Israel walked in the statutes of the heathen, did secretly (in the Mysteries) things that were not right against the Lord their God, built high places in all their cities, set up Hermaic statues and the emblems of Venus-Astarte in every high hill and under every green tree, worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal- Hercules, the god of Tyre." ' So closely did the practices as described by the prophets Hosea, Amos, Micah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, resemble those connected with the Phoenician wor- ship, including the mystic orgies, the sacred dances and pro- cessions, that the description of the one is equivalent to that of the other. Prior to the Babylonish captivity, the religion of Tyre, Sidon, and Palestine appears to have been general among the Israelitish tribes ; but after that event, the Persian influence evidently predominated. But the Macedonians introduced the

' Herodotus, ii. 51.

' Psalms, cvi. 28. " They joined tLemselves also unto Baal-Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead."

» 2 Kings, xvii. 7-17, abridged.

Introduction.

xxvu

rites of Bacchus, at a later period; and among them also we have the testimony of St. Jerome, a. d. 400, that in the place where the Redeemer cried in the manger, the lament of women for Adonis has been heard even in recent times. ' The Roman senate, in the reign of Theodosius the Great, prohib- ited the further exercise of the old religious rites ; after which they fell into general disrepute. But they were secretly ob- served in all parts of the empire for a long period. To the fanatical hordes of Islam, proclaiming with the edge of the cimiter that God was One and Mohammed was his Apostle, is to be accredited the extinction of the Mystic Orgies in the East, as well as the desecration of shrines and the almost total destruction of libraries and the works of ancient art. Singu- lar are the compensations of history ; the Arabian race planted their colonies with the Mosaic worship in Palestine, and the Mysteries in Phoenicia, and after chiliads of years, commis- sioned the destroyers to go over those lands like locusts to- consume and eradicate the product of their own planting.

' Epistle 49, to Paulinus.

Aphrodite and Eros. 29

THE SYMBOLICAL LANGUAGE —

ANCIENT ART AND MYTHOLOGY.

[edit]

PRINCIPLES OF ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY.

1. As all the most interesting and important subjects of ancient art are taken from the religious or poetical mythology of the times, a general analysis of the principles and progress of that mythology will afford a more complete, as well as more concise, explanation of particular monuments than can be conveyed in separate dissertations annexed to each.

2. The primitive religion of the Greeks, like that of all other nations not enlightened by Revelation, appears to have been elementary, and to have consisted in an indistinct worship of the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, and the waters,' or rather to the spirits supposed to preside over those bodies, and to direct their motions, and regulate their modes of existence. Every river, spring, or mountain had its local genius or peculiar deity ; and as men naturally endeavor to obtain the favor of their gods by such means as they feel best adapted to win their own, the first worship consisted in offer- ing to them certain portions of whatever they held to be most valuable. At the same time that the regular motions of the heavenly bodies, the stated returns of summer and winter, of day and night, with all the admirable order of the universe, taught them to believe in the existence and agency of such superior powers, the irregular and destructive efforts of nature, such as lightning and tempests, inundations and earthquakes, persuaded them that these mighty beings had passions and affections similar to their own, and only differed in possessing greater strength, power, and intelligence.

' Plato: Cratylus, 31. "It appears to me (said Socrates) that the first men of those connected with Greece con- sidered those only as gods, whom \

many of the Barbarians now do ; namely, the Sun, Moon, Earth, Stars, and Sky."

2 The Symbolical Language of

3. In every stage of society, men naturally love the mar- vellous ; but in the early stages, a certain portion of it is abso- lutely necessary to make any narration sufficiently interesting to attract attention, or obtain an audience : whence the actions of eods are intermixed with those of men in the earliest tra- ditions or histories of all nations ; and poetical fable occupied the place of historical truth in their accounts of the transac- tions of war and policy, as well as in those of the revolutions of nature and origin of things. Each had produced some renowned warriors, whose mighty achievements had been assisted by the favor, or obstructed by the anger, of the gods ; and each had some popular tales concerning the means by which those gods had constructed the universe, and the prin- ciples upon which they continued to govern it : whence the Greeks and Romans found a Hercules in every country which they visited, as well as in their own ; ^ and the adventures of some such hero supply the first materials for history, as a cos- mogojiy or theogony exhibits the first system of philosophy, in every nation.

4. As the maintenance of order and subordination among men required the authority of a supreme magistrate, the con- tinuation and general predominance of order and regularity in the universe would naturally suggest the idea of a supreme God, to whose sovereign control all the rest were subject; and this ineffable personage the primitive Greeks appear to have called by a name expressive of the sentiment which the contemplation of his great characteristic attribute naturally in- spired, TjtVi^jDseus, or Deus' (^2^ diphthong), signifying, accord-

' This statement seems to require giarised by tlie Greeks, and travestied

some qualification. Hercules was after their peculiar manner. — A. W.

originally the tutelar deity of Tyre, ' Phurnutus : Concerning the A'a-

the same as Baal or Moloch, the Fire- ture of the Gods, ii.: " By certain ones

god of the Hebrew Scriptures; and he (Zeus) is also called Z'^aj."

hence, by a figure of speech, he is The letter Z {zetd) was, as is well

described as having visited every coun- known, no other than /i'2 or ^A (ds

try to which the Tyrian commercial or sd) expressed by one character ;

and exploring expeditions resorted, and in the refinement of language

Some have derived the name from and the varying of the dialects, the

^13-~l1N, aur-chol, the light of the sigma was frequently dropped, as ap-

univeise; but the Sanscrit Heri-Ctil- pears from the very ancient medals of

yus, or Lord of the Noble, is almost Zankle in Sicily, inscribed DANKLE.

equally plausible. An inscription in In the genuine parts of the Iliad

Malta has been deciphered as follows: and Odyssey, there is no instance of a

NnV 7y3 mx DIPPD, Melkarth Ado- vowel continuing short before AKO'2,

inn Baal Tzwra, Melkarth, our Lord, JEIN02, AEIAD,, etc.; so that

the Baal, or tutelar deity of Tyre. the initial was originally a double

He was represented by the Sun, whose consonant, probably A'S ; which at

annual progress through the Signs of first became /I A, and afterwards A,

the Zodiac was typified and commem- though the metre of the old bards has

orated by the twelve Orgies, or Works preserved the double time in the

of Hercules. This legend was pla- utterance.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 3

ing to the most probable etymology, reverential fear or awe. Their poets, however, soon debased his dignity, and made him the subject of as many wild and extravagant fables as any of his subject-progeny; which fables became a part of their re- ligion, though never seriously believed by any but the lowesi of the vulgar.

5. Such appear to be the general principles and outlines of the popular faith, not only among the Greeks, but among all other primitive nations not favored by the lights of Reve- lation ; for though the superiority and subsequent universality of the Greek language, and the more exalted genius and refined taste of the early Greek poets, have preserved the knowledge of their sacred mythology more entire, we find traces of the same simple principles and fanciful superstructures, from the shores of the Baltic to the banks of the Ganges : and there can be little doubt, that the voluminous poetical cosmogonies still extant among the Hindus, and the fragments preserved of those of the Scandinavians, may afford us very competent ideas of the style and subjects of those ponderous compilations in verse, which constituted the mystic lore of the ancient priests of Persia,* Germany," Spain, Gaul, and Britain ; and which in the two latter countries were so extensive, that the education of a Druid sometimes required twenty years." From the speci- mens above mentioned, we may, nevertheless, easily console ourselves for the loss of all of them as poetical composi- tions, whatever might have been their value in other res- pects.

[edit]

THB MYSTERIES.

6. But besides this vulgar religion, or popular mythology, there existed, in the more civilised countries of Greece, Asia, and Egypt, a secret or mystic system, preserved, generally, by an' hereditary priesthood, in temples of long-established sanc- tity ; and only revealed, under the most solemn vows of secresy, to persons who had previously proved themselves to be worthy of the important trust. Such were the Mysteries of Eleusis, in Attica, which being so near to the most polished, powerful, and learned city of Greece, became more celebrated and more known than any others; and are, therefore, the most proper

Hermippus: afud Plin. lib. xxx. c. editum, et filium Mannum originem

I. Vicies centum millia versuum a gentis conditoresque.

Zoroastre condita. ' Cmsks.: de Bello GallUa,-n, Mag-

' Tacitus : Germany. Celebrant num ibi numerum versuum ediscere

(Germani) carminibus antiquis, quod dicuntur ; itaque nonnuUi annos vi-

unum apud illos memorise et anna- cenos in disciplina permanent ; neque

Hum genus, Tuistonem deum terra fas esse existimant ea litteris mandare.

The Symbolical Language of

for a particular investigation, which may lead to a general knowledge of all.'

7. These mysteries were under the guardianship of Ceres and Proserpina, and were called teletai, endings, on finishes, be- cause no person could be perfect that had not been initiated either into them or some others. They were divided into two stages or degrees, the first or lesser of which was a kind of holy purification, to prepare the mind for the divine truths which were to be revealed to it in the second or greater. From one to five years of probation were required between them ; and at the end of it, the initiate, on being found worthy, was admitted into the inmost recesses of the temple, and made acquainted with the first principles of religion ; * the knowledge of the God of nature ; the first, the supreme, the intel- lectuals by which men had been reclaimed from rudeness and bar- barism to elegance and refinement, and been taught not only to live with more comfort, but to die with better hopes}"

8. When Greece lost her liberty, the periods of probation were dispensed with in favor of her acknowledged sovereigns ;"

' The secret or Mystical system ap- pears to have been the basis of the ancient worship ; the difference be- tween the sacred rites and legends of the several countries being more in form than in substance. The desig- nation of mystery or z'aj'A'w^ Is applied to it as having been vailed from all ex- cept the initiated. The doctrines thus concealed were denominated gnosis, or knowledge, and SOPHIA, or wisdom; and were accounted too sacred for profane or vulgar inspection. They were regarded as including all science of a higher character, the moral and theurgical by preference. The in- terior doctrines, supposed to have been treated of by the Alexandrian Jews, were called the Apocrypha, or hidden things ; wjiile the disclosures by the early Christian teachers were termed the Apocalypse, or unvailing. The memorable words of Socrates were plain in meaning to the initiated : " We owe the cock to .iEsculapius ; pay it, and do not neglect it." It was the last offering made by candidates who had been inducted into the Greater Mysteries ; and the dying philosopher thus avowed his consciousness that he also was undergoing the last test or discipline, and was about to witness the revelation. While on their pro- bation, the candidates were called neophytes, or new-born, and mysta, or

vailed, while those that had passed all the trials successfully were denom- inated epopta, or seers, as having learned the wisdom of the gods.

A. W.

8 Salmasius: not. in ^1. Spartan. Hist. p. 116. Meursius: Eleusinia, c. viii. etc.

• Plutarch : Concerning Isis and Osiris. " The end of which is the knowledge of the First, the Lord, and the noetic."

"> Cicero: DeLeg. i. c. 24. Mihi cum multa eximia divinaque videntur Athe- na: tuae peperisse — turn nihil melius illis mystcriis, quibus ex agresti im- manique vita exculti, ad humanitatem mitigati sumus : initiaque, ut appellan- tur, ita revera principia vitas cognovi- mus : neque solum cum Isetitia vivendi rationem accepimus, sed etiam cum spe meliori moriendi.

Plutarch: Consolatory Letter, x. "As for what you hear others say, who persuade the vulgar that the soul, whenever freed from the body, suffers no inconvenience or evil, nor is sensi- ble at all, I know that you are better grounded in the doctrines delivered to us from our ancestors, as also in the Orgies of Dionysus, for the mystic symbols are well known to us, who are of the brotherhood."

" Plutarch: Demetrius.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 5

but, nevertheless, so sacred and awful was this subject, that even in the lowest stage of her servitude and depression, the Emperor Nero did not dare to compel the priests to initiate him, on account of the murder of his mother.'" To divulge anything thus learned was everywhere considered as the ex- treme of wickedness and impiety, and at Athens was punished with death;" on which account Alcibiades was condemned, together with many other illustrious citizens, whose loss con- tributed greatly to the ruin of that republic, and the subver- sion of its empire."

9. Hence it is extremely difficult to obtain any accurate information concerning any of the mystic doctrines ; all the early writers turning away from the mention of them with a sort of religious horror," and those of later times, who have pretended to explain them, being to be read with much cau- tion, as their assertions are generally founded in conjecture, and oftentimes warped by prejudices in favor of their own particular systems and opinions in religion and philosophy. Little more direct information is, indeed, to be obtained from ancient writers than that contained in the above-cited pas- sages, from which we only learn that more pure, exalted, and philosophical doctrines concerning the nature of the Deity and the future state of man were taught than those which were derived from the popular religion.

10. From other passages, however, we learn that these doctrines were conveyed under allegories and symbols," and that the completely initiated were called inspectors (seers):" whence we may reasonably infer that the last stage of initia- tion consisted in an explanation and exposition of those alle- gorical tales and symbolical forms, under which they were vailed. " All that can be said concerning the gods," says Strabo, " must be by the exposition of old opinions and fables ; it being the custom of the ancients to wrap up in enigma and

" Suetonius: Nero, xxxiv. " Proclus: Theology of Plato, i. 4.

" Andocides: Oration concerning " The Orpheans endeavored to express

tAe Mysteries. divine things by symbols, the Pytha-

" Thucydides: iv. 45. goreans by similitudes."

" Plutarch: Symposiacs, ii. 3. Demetrius: Phaler. De Eloc, 100.

" Other matters, according to Herod- " Wherefore also the Mysteries are

otus, it is proper to be silent about, expressed in allegories, for the

being a mystical subject." purpose of inciting confusion of mind

According to Clement of Alexan- and terror, as in darkness and

dria, the tragedian ^schylus narrowly night."

escaped being murdered on the stage " Epoptai or Ephori. All that is

of the theatre for using an expression left in ancient authors concerning the

which was supposed to have been ceremonies of initiation, etc., has been

taken from the Mystic Orgies, and diligently collected and arranged by

only escaped by shovring the people Meursius, in his Eleusinia, that he had never been initiated.

6 The Symbolical Language of

fable their thoughts and discourses concerning nature ; which are not therefore easily explained." " " In all initiations and mysteries," says Proclus, " the gods exhibit themselves under many forms, and with a frequent change of shape; sometimes as light, defined to no particular figure; sometimes in a human form; and sometimes in that of some other creature."" The wars of the Giants and Titans, the battle of the Python against Apollo, the flight of Bacchus, and wandering of Ceres, are ranked by Plutarch with the Egyptian tales concerning Osiris and Typhon, as having the same meaning as the other modes of concealment employed in the mystic religion."

11. The remote antiquity of this mode of conveying knowl- edge by symbols, and its long-established appropriation to religious subjects, had given it a character of sanctity unknown to any other mode of writing ; and it seems to have been a very generally received opinion, among the more discreet Heathens, that divine truth was better adapted to the weak- ness of human intellect, when vailed under symbols, and wrap- ped in fable and enigma, than when exhibited in the undisguised simplicity of genuine wisdom or pure philosophy."'

12. The art of conveying ideas to the sight has passed through four different stages in its progress to perfection. In the first, the objects and events meant to be signified, were simply represented : in the second, some particular character- istic quality of the individual was employed to express a general quality or abstract idea ; as a horse for swiftness, a dog for vigilance, or a hare for fecundity ; in the third, signs of con- vention were contrived to represent ideas, as is now practiced by the Chinese : and, in the fourth, similar signs of convention were adopted to represent the different modifications of tonfe in the voice; and its various divisions, by articulation, into distinct portions or syllables. This is what we call alphabetic writing ; which is much more clear and simple than any other ; the modifications of tone by the organs of the mouth, being much less various, and more distinct, than the modifications of ideas by the operations of the mind. The second, however,

" Strabo: lib. x. p. 474. Osiris and Tvphon, and others, which

'^^ Vkoclvs: The Jiefublic. of Plato. everybody may lawfully and freely

20 Plutarch: IHs and Osiris, 25. hear, as they are told in the mytho-

" What they sing about among the logical story. The like may also be

Greeks concerning the Giants and said of those things which, being

Titans, and certain horrid acts of vailed over in the mystic rites and

Kronos (Saturn), as also of the sacred ceremonies of initiation, are

combats of Python with Apollo, the therefore kept private from the sight

flights of Dionysus (Bacchus), and the and hearing of the common people." wanderings of Demeter (Ceres) come " Maximus Tyrius: Dissertation,

nothing short of the relations about x. 4.

Coins of Syracuse, ttc.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 7

which, from its use among the Egyptians, has been denomin- ated the hieroglyphical mode of writing, was everywhere em- ployed to convey or conceal the dogmas of religion ; and we shall find that the same symbols were employed to express the same ideas in almost every country of the northern hemisphere.

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ANCIENT COINS.

13. In examining these symbols in the remains of ancient art, which have escaped the barbarism and bigotry of the Middle Ages, we may sometimes find it diflBcult to distinguish between those compositions which are mere efforts of taste and fancy, and those which were emblems of what were thought divine truths : but, nevertheless, this difficulty is not so great, as it at first view appears to be ; for there is such an obvious analogy and connection between the different emble- matical monuments, not only of the same, but of difierent and remote countries, that, when properly arranged and brought under one point of view, they, in a great degree, explain them- selves by mutually explaining each other. There is one class, too, the most numerous and important of all, which must have been designed and executed under the sanction of public au- thority, and therefore, whatever meaning they contain, must have been the meaning of nations, and not the caprice of indi- viduals.

14. This is the class of coins, the devices upon which were always held so strictly sacred, that the most proud and power- ful monarchs never ventured to put their portraits upon them, until the practice of deifying sovereigns had enrolled them among the gods. Neither the kings of Persia, Macedonia, or Epirus, nor even the tyrants of Sicily, ever took this liberty ; the first portraits that we find upon money being those of the Egyptian and Syrian dynasties of Macedonian princes, whom the flattery of their subjects had raised to divine honors. The artists had indeed before found a way of gratifying the vanity of their patrons without oflending their piety, which was by mixing their features with those of the deity whose image was to be impressed ; an artifice which seems to have been prac- ticed in the coins of several of the Macedonian kings, previous to the custom of putting their portraits upon them."

15. It is, in a great degree, owing to the sanctity of the

" See those of Archelaus, Amyntas, cules, seem meant to express those of

Alexander II., Perdiccas, Philip, Alex- the respective princes. For the fre-

ander the Great, Philip Aridseus, and quency of this practice in private

Seleucus I., in all which the different families among the Romans, see Statu

characters and features, respectively Sylv. 1. 1, 231-4. given to the different heads of Her-

8 The Symbolical Language of

devices, that such numbers of very ancient coins have been preserved fresh and entire; for it was owing to this that they were put into tombs, with vases and other sacred symbols, and not as Lucian has ludicrously supposed, that the dead might have the means of paying for their passage over the Styx : the whole fiction of Charon and his boat being of late date, and pos- terior to many tombs in which coins have been found."

16. The first species of money that was circulated by tale, and not by weight, of which we have any account, consisted of spikes or small obelisks of brass or iron, which were, as we shall show, symbols of great sanctity, and high antiquity. Six of them being as many as the hand could conveniently grasp, the words obolus and drachma, signifying spike and handful, con- tinued, after the invention of coining, to be employed in ex- pressing the respective value of two pieces of money, the one of which was worth six of the other. In Greece and Mace- donia, and probably wherever the Macedonians extended their conquests, the numerary division seems to have regulated the scale of coinage ; but, in Sicily and Italy, the mode of reckon- ing by weight, or according to the lesser talent, and its sub- divisions, universally prevailed. Which mode was in use among the Asiatic colonies, prior to their subjection to the Athenians or Macedonians, or which is the most ancient, we have not been able to discover. Probably, however, it was that by weight, the only one which appears to have been known to the Homeric Greeks ; the other may have been introduced by the Dorians."'

17. By opening the tombs, which the ancients held sacred, and exploring the foundations of ruined cities, where money was concealed, modern cabinets have been enriched with more complete series of coins than could have been collected in any period of antiquity. We can thus bring under one point of view the whole progress of the art from its infancy to its de- cline, and compare the various religious symbols which have been employed in ages and countries remote from each other.

'" The whole legend of Charon and Thrace made them a part of the his boat to conduct passengers or mystic rites. — A. W. spirits from the living world to the " Bentley: Onthe EpistUsofPha- region of the dead, was taken from laris, &c. Pausan. 1. i. c. 39. the Egyptian Judgment of Amenti. " Rawlinson: Herodotus, Km. to After the inquest upon the deceased Book, i. "A gold coinage existed person had been satisfactorily con- among the Asiatic Greeks, as at Pho- cluded at the Kiroim, or sacred tower, casa, Cyzicus, Lampsacus, Abydos, &c. an offering was made to the divinities It was copied from the Lydian, to of the Underworld, and the body which it conformed in weight and gen- ferried over the Acheron to the Cata- eral character." As far as has been combs. The Orphic Mysteries of ascertained, the Lydian coinage is of

the highest antiquity. — A. \V.

Bakchos or Dionysos.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 9

These symbols have the great advantage over those preserved in other branches of sculpture, that they have never been mu- tilated or restored ; and also that they exhibit two composi- tions together, one on each side of the coin, which mutually serve to explain each other, and thus enable us to read the symbolical or mystical writing with more certainty than we are enabled to do in any other monuments. It is principally, therefore, under their guidance that we shall endeavor to ex- plore the vast and confused labyrinths of poetical and allegor- ical fable ; and to separate as accurately as we can, the theology from the mythology of the ancients : by which means alone we can obtain a competent knowledge of the Mystic, or, as it was otherwise called, the Orphic faith, and explain the general style and language of symbolical art in which it was conveyed.

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BACCHUS OR DIONYSUS.

1 8. Ceres and Bacchus (or Demeter and Dionysus or lac- chus), called iniEgyptlsis and Osiris, and in Syria, Venus and Adonis (Astarte and Adoni), were the deities in whose names, and under whose protection persons were most commonly instructed in this faith."" The word Bacchus or lacchus is a title derived from the exclamations uttered in the festivals of this god,"' whose other Latin name, Liber, is also a title signifying the same attribute as the Greek epithet, Lusios, or Luson, which will be hereafter explained. But, from whence the more com- mon Greek name, Dionusos, is derived, or what it signifies, is not so easy to determine, or even to conjecture with any rea- sonable probability. The first part of it appears to be from Deus, Dios, or Dis, the ancient name of the supreme universal god ; but whether the remainder is significant of the place from which this deity came into Greece, or of some attribute belonging to him, we cannot pretend to say, and the conjec- tures of etymologists, both ancient and modern, concerning it are not worthy of notice."' An ingenious writer in the Asiatic Researches derives the whole name from a Sanscrit title of an Oriental demi-god,"° and as Ausonius says it was

•' Herodotus: ii. 42. " They (the *' They are in fact the same name in

Egyptians) declare Osiris to be identi- different dialects, the ancient verb

cal with Dionysus," or Bacchus. PAXil, in Laconian BAXil, having

EURlPmES: Bacchm, 73. "Oh become by the accession of the augment

happy, blessed is he that vifitnesseth VWAlCil, v. laxon-

the initiation of the deities, for he " See Macrobius: i. c. 18, & Bry-

venerateth the source of life ; not only ANT : Ancient Mythology , iii. 103.

does he divine the Orgies of Cybele, ■' Asiatic li£searches,\A.-f.'iOd,.Y)if^s.

the Great Mother, but waving the Nahushaor Deo-nus. He is said to

thyrsus, and crowned with ivy, he is have overcome the adversaries of the

also a votary of Dionysus." Brahmans in all countries, and after-

The Symbolical Language of

Indian.'" this derivation appears more probable than most others of the kind.

19. At Sicyon, in the Peloponnesus, he was worshipped under another title, which we shall not venture to explain any- further than that it implies his having the peculiar superin- tendence and direction of the characteristics of the female sex." At Lampascus, too, on the Hellespont, he was vene- rated under a symbolical form adapted to a similar oflBce, though with a title of a different signification, Friapus, which will be hereafter explained.'"

20. According to Herodotus, the name Dionysus, or Bacchus, with the various obscene and extravagant rites that distinguished his worship, was communicated to the Greeks by Melampus," who appears to have flourished about four generations before the Trojan war," and who is said to have received his knowledge of the subject from Cadmus and the Phcenicians, who settled in Bceotia. The whole history, how- ever, of this Phoenician colony is extremely questionable ; and we shall show in the sequel that the name Cadmus was probably a corruption of a mystic title of the Deity." The Cadmii, a people occupying Thebes, are mentioned in the

ward to have become a serpent. What- ever the plausibility of the legend, Bacchus or Dionysus was identified with the serpent-worship wherever found. — A. W.

'■" AusoNlus . Epigram, xxv.

Ogygia me Bacchum vocat,

Osirin .lEygyptus putat ;

Mysii Phanacem nominant ;

Dionysum Indi existimant, &c.

" Clement, of Alexandria, declares that he was denominated Choiropsale by the Sicyonians, a low term express- ing immodest practices with women.

^* Athen^us : Dipnosophista, i. 23. " Priapus was honored by the people of Lampsacus ; Dionysus or Bacchus bearing that designation, as he is also called Thriambus and Dithyram- bus."

'* Herodotus; ii. 49. " Melampus introduced into Greece the name of Dionysus, his worship and the proces- sion of the phallus. He did not so completely apprehend the whole doc- trine as to be able to communicate it entirely, but various sages since his time have carried out his teachings to greater perfection ; still it is certain that Melampus introduced the phallus, and that the Greeks learnt from him the ceremonies which they now per-

form. I therefore maintain that Me- lampus, who was a wise man, having the art of vaticination, became ac- quainted with the Dionysian worship through knowledge derived from Egypt, and that he introduced it into Greece, with a few slight changes, to- gether with certain other customs. I can not allow that the Dionysiac cere- monies in Greece are so nearly the same as the Egyptian, merely from co- incidence: they would have been more Greek in their character and of less recent origin. Nor can I admit that the Egyptians borrowed these customs, or any other whatever from the Greeks.— My opinion is that Melampus got his knowledge of them from Cadmus, the Tynan, and the companions who ac- companied him into the country called Bceotia."

It is hardly necessary to remark that Cadmus was a deity, identical with Her- mes, Thoth and jEsculapius ; also that Melampus or black-foot is but an epi- thet for an Egyptian. He was doubt- less a fictitious character. — A. W,

• Odyssey, xv. 226, et seqq.

" Kasiuillus ox Kadmiel is the name of one of the gods of the Samothjacian Mysteries.— A. W.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 1 1

Iliad ;" and Ino, or Leucothoe, a daughter of Cadmus, is mentioned as a sea-goddess in the Odyssey" But no notice is taken in either poem of his being a Phoenician ; nor is it distinctly explained whether the poet understood him to have been a man or a god, though the former is more probable, as his daughter is said to have been born mortal.

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ORIGIN OF THE MYSTICAL RITES.

21. General tradition has attributed the introduction of the mystic religion into Greece, to Orpheus, a Thracian ; " who, if he ever lived at all, lived probably about the same time with Melampus, or a little earlier." The traditions con- cerning him are, however, extremely vague and uncertain ; and the most learned and sagacious of the Greeks is said to have denied that such a person had ever existed ; " but, never- theless, we learn from the very high authority of Strabo that the Greek music was all Thracian or Asiatic," and, from the un- questionable testimony of the Iliad, that the very ancient poet Thamyris was of that country," to which tradition has also attributed the other old sacerdotal bards, Musseus and Eu- molpus."

22. As there is no mention, however, of any of the mystic deities, nor of any of the rites with which they were wor- shipped, in any of the genuine parts, either of the Iliad or Odyssey, nor any trace of the symbolical style in any of the works of art described in them, nor of allegory or enigma ir the fables which adorn them, we may fairly presume that both the rites of initiation and the worship of Bacchus are of a later period, and were not generally known to the Greeks till after the composition of those poems." The Orphic Hymns, too, which appear to have been invocations or litanies used in

'* Iliad, V. 807. " According to the Parian or

^' Odyssey, v. 539. Arundelian Marbles, the Eleusinian

^ EusEBius : Praparatio Evangeli. mysteries were introduced 175 years

i. ch. 6. " They say that Orpheus, the before the Trojan war ; but Plutarch

son of CEagreus brought the Mysteries attributes their introduction to Eu-

from the Egyptians and communicated molpus, de Exit.

them to the Greeks." *> Cicero : Nature of the Gods, i. c.

Aristophanes : Tht Frogs, 1032. 28. Orpheum poetam docet Aristote-

" Orpheus showed us the initiations." les nunquam fuisse. The passage is

— TeUtai. not in the works of Aristotle now ex-

PrOCLUS : Theology of Plato, i. 5.» tant.

"All theology among the Greeks is ^' Strabo; x. p. 471.

theoutbirth of the Orphic Mystagogy." ■" Iliad, iii. 595.

Pausanias : Corinth, xxx. 2. " The ^ Plutarch : On Banishment.

jEginetans have the initiation of He- " Some suppose them to have been

kate every year, saying that Orpheus the more ancient worship, thus vailed

the Thracian instituted the rites." for preservation. — A. W.

12 The Symbolical La7iguage of

the Mysteries" are proved, both by the language and the mat ter, to be of a date long subsequent to the Homeric times, there being in all of them abbreviations and modes of speech not then known, and the form of worshipping or glorifying the deity by repeating adulatory titles, not being then in use, though afterward common."

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PHALLIC AND PRIAPIC SYMBOLISM.

23. In^gypt, nevertheless, and all over Asia, the mystic and symbolical worship appears to have been of immemorial antiquity. The women of the former country carried images of Osiris in their sacred processions, with a movable phallus of disproportionate magnitude, the reason for which Herodo- tus does not think proper to relate, because it belonged to the mystic religion." Diodorus Siculus, however, who lived in a more communicative age, informs us that it signified the gene- rative attribute," and Plutarch, that the ^Egyptian statues of Osiris had the phallus to signify his procreative and prolific power," the extension of which through the three elements of air, earth, and water, they expressed by another kind of statue, which was occasionally carried in procession, having a triple symbol of the same attribute." The Greeks usually repre- sented the phallus alone, as a distinct symbol, the meaning of which seems to have been among the last discoveries revealed to the initiated." It was the same, in emblematical writing, as the Orphic epithet, Pan-genetor, universal generator, in which sense it is still employed by the Hindus." It has also been observed among the idols of the native Americans " and ancient Scandinavians"; nor do we think the conjecture of an ingenious writer improbable who supposes that the may- pole was a symbol of the same meaning, and the first of May a great phallic festival both among the ancient Britons and Hindus, it being still celebrated with nearly the same rites in both countries." The Greeks changed, as usual, the personi-

^i' Pausakias: ^«jV(J, c. xxxvii. s. 3. " Tertullian: Concerning tlit

"Whoever has witnessed an initiation Valeniinians, (a sect of Ophites or

at Eleusis, or those called Orphic, of Gnostics.) "After many sighings

knows what I say." of the seers (epoptm), the entire sealing

■" Arrian, lib. V. of the tongue, (from divulging it) an

" Herodotus: ii. 48. image of the virile organ is revealed."

^ Diodorus Siculus: i. 88. " Sonnerat : Voyage aux Indes.

^' Isis and Osiris. " They exhibit '* Lafitau, Mtxurs des Sauvages, i.

the statue in human semblance, hold- v. 150.

ingthe sexual part prominent as fecun- " Olaus Rudbeckius: Atlantica,

dating and nourishing." p. ii. c. 5.

'» Isis and Osiris. " They display " Maurice : Indian Antiquities, vi.

the emblem and carry it around, hav- pp. 87-94. ing the sexual parts threefold."

Ancient Art and Mythology. 13

fied attribute into a distinct deity called Priapus, whose uni- versality was, however, acknowledged to the latest periods of heathenism."

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THE MYSTIC EGG.

24. In this universal character he is celebrated by the Greek poets, under the title of Eros, Love or Attraction, the first principle of animation, the father of gods and men, and the regulator and disposer of all things." He is said to per- vade the universe with the motion of his wings, bringing pure light : and thence to be called the splendid, the self-illumined, the ruling Priapus — light being considered in this primitive philosophy as the great nutritive principle of all things." Wings are attributed to him as the emblems of spontaneous motion ; and he is said to have sprung from the q^% of night, because the Egg was the ancient symbol of organic matter in its inert state, or, as Plutarch calls it, the material of generation, con- taining the seeds and germs of life and motion without being actually possessed of either. It was, therefore, carried in pro- cession at the celebration of the Mysteries ; for which reason Plutarch, in the passage above cited, declines entering into a more particular disquisition concerning its nature, the Pla- tonic interlocutor in the Dialogue observing, that, though a small question, it comprehended a very great one, concerning the generation of the world itself , known to those who understood the Orphic and sacred language, the egg being consecrated, in the Bacchic mysteries, as the image of that which generated and contained all things in itself^"

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THE SERPENT-SYMBOL.

25. As organic substance was represented by the symbol of the Egg, so the principle of life, by which it was called into action, was represented by that of the Serpent ; which having the property of casting its skin, and apparently renewing its youth, was naturally adopted for that purpose. We sometimes find it coiled round the e^g^, to express the incubation of the vital spirit ; and it is not only the constant attendant upon the guardian deities of Health," but occasionally employed as an accessory symbol to almost every other god," to signify the general attribute of immortality. For this reason it served as a general sign of consecration ; " and not only the deified heroes of the Greeks, such as Cecrops and Erichthonius, but the virgin mother of the Scythians (Echidna), and the consecrated founder of the Japanese, were represented terminating in serpents." Both the Scythians and Parthians, too, carried the image of a serpent or dragon, upon the point of a spear, for their military standard," as the Tartar princes of China still continue to do ; whence we find this figure perpetually represented on their stuffs and porcelain, as well as upon those of the Japanese. The inhabitants of Norway and Sweden continued to pay divine honors to serpents down to the sixteenth century ; °° and almost all the Runic inscriptions, found upon tombs, are engraved upon the sculptured forms of them ; °' the emblems of that immortality to which the deceased were thus consecrated. Macha Alia, the god of life and death among the Tartars, has serpents entwined round his limbs and body to express the first attribute, and human skulls and scalps on his head and at his girdle, to express the second." The jugglers and diviners also, of North America, make themselves girdles and chaplets of serpents, which they have the art to tame and familiarise ; °° and, in the great Temple of Mexico, the captives taken in war, and sacrificed to the Sun, had each a wooden collar in the shape of a serpent put round his neck while the priests performed the horrid rites." In the kingdom of luida, about the fourth degree of latitude, on the western coast of Africa, one of these reptiles was lately, and perhaps is still, worshipped as the symbol of the Deity ; " and when Alexander entered India, Taxilus (Takshasila) a power- ful prince of the country, showed him a serpent of enormous size, which he nourished with great care, and revered as the image of the god, whom the Greek writers, from the similitude of his attributes, call Dionysus or Bacchus." The Epidaurians kept one in the same manner to represent ^sculapius ; " as did likewise the Athenians, in their celebrated temple of Minerva, to signify the guardian or preserving deity of the Acropolis." The Hindu women still carry the lingam, or consecrated symbol of the generative attribute of the Deity, in solemn procession between two serpents;" and, in the sacred casket, which held the egg and phallus in the mystic processions of the Greeks, was also a serpent." Over the porticoes of all the ancient Egyptian temples, the winged disk of the pun is placed between two hooded snakes (or asps), signifying that luminary placed between its two great attributes of motion and life. The same combination of symbols, to express the same attributes, is observable upon the coins of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians ; " and appears to have been anciently employed by the Druids of Britain and Gaul, as it still is by the idolaters of China." The Scandinavian goddess Isa or Disa was sometimes represented between two serpents ; " and a similar mode of canonisation is employed in the apotheosis of Cleopatra, as expressed on her coins." Water-snakes, too, are held sacred among the inhabitants of the Friendly Islands ; "' and, in the mysteries of Jupiter Sabazius, the initiated were consecrated by having a snake put down their bosoms.'^

26. The sort of serpent most commonly employed, both by the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Hindus, is the cobra de capellay naga, or hooded snake; but the Greeks frequently use a composite or ideal figure ; sometimes with a radiated head, and sometimes with the crest or comb of a cock ; accessory symbols, which will be hereafter further noticed. The mystical serpent of the Hindus, too, is generally represented with five heads, to signify, perhaps, the five senses, but still it is the hooded snake, which we believe to be a native of India, and consequently to have been originally employed as a religious symbol in that country ; from whence the Egyptians and Phcenicians probably borrowed it, and transmitted it to the Greeks and Romans ; upon whose bracelets, and other symbolical ornaments, we frequently find it."

27. Not only the property of casting the skin, and acquiring a periodical renovation of youth, but also that of pertinaciously retaining life even in amputated parts, may have recommended animals of the serpent kind as symbols of health and immortality, though noxious and deadly in themselves. Among plants, the olive seems to have been thought to possess the same property in a similar degree ; " and therefore was probably adopted to express the same attribute. At Athens it was particularly consecrated to Pallas-Athene ; but the statue of Jupiter at Olympia was crowned with it ; '° and it is also observable on the heads of Apollo, Hercules, Cybele, and other deities ; " the reserving power, or attribute of immortality, being, in some mode or other, common to every personification of the divine nature. The victors in the Olympic Games were also crowned with branches of the oleaster or wild olive ; " the trunk of which, hung round with the arms of the vanquished in war, was the trophy of victory consecrated to the immortal glory of the conquerors; " for as it was a religious as well as military symbol, ic was contrary to the laws of war, acknowledged among the Greeks, to take it down, when it had been once duly erected.

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Footnotes

' Titul antiq. in Gruter, i. 195, No. was the first. My friend Sylla saying

I. PRIEPO PANTHEO. that with this little question, as with

" Aristophanes: 5!>(/j,6q3. He- an engine, was involved the great and

SIOD: Theogony, 116. Orphic Hymn, weighty one concerning the genesis of

V. 29 and 57. the world, declared his dislike of such

" Orph. Hymn, V. v. 5. problems. * * I speak to those who

" Sophocles: CEdipus Tyrannus, understand the sacred legend of Or-

1437. pheus, which shows not only that the

™ Plutarch: Symposiacs, ii. 3. egg is before the bird, but makes it

" They suspected that I held the Or- before all things. The other matter

phic and Pythagorean dogmas, and we will not speak about, being as

refused to eat the egg (as some do the Herodotus says, of a mystic character,

heart and brain), because it is sacred ; * * * Therefore, in the Orgies

imagining it to be the first principles of Dionysus it is usual to consecrate

of generated existence. * * Soon after an egg as representing that which

Alexander proposed the problem con- generates and contains all things in

ceming the egg and the bird, which itself"

»' Phurnutus: Concerning the no- Herodotus mentions this legend, but

turea/tht Gods.iaami. "They have set makes Hercules the lover of the ser-

apart the serpent to him (yEsculapius), pent-queen (iv. 8-10. See also Kaem-

because those who are engaged in this pfer's History 0/ Japan, ii. p. 145).

healing art make use of it as a symbol « Arrian: in Prccf., p. 80. LuciAN,

for becoming young as it were after De Hist, conscrib., p. 39.

sickness, and putting off old age." " Ol MAGi^.de Gent. Sefitent. Hist

«2 Justin Martyr: Apology, ii. Epit.l. in. Serpentes ut sacros cole-

By all among you who worship the bant ;— asdium servatores atque penates

neathen gods, the serpent is depicted existiman es :— reliquise tamen hujus

as their great symbol and mystery." superstitione culturae— in nonnuUis

eapERSius: Satires, l "Paint two secretis solitudinum sedibusque per-

snakes, my boys, and the place then is severant ; sicuti in septentrionalibus

^°\T' ^ regnis Norvegije ac Vermelandi^.

•"DioDORUS SlcuLUS:ii.43."The " Ol. Vareui: Hunagr. Olans

Scythians related the fable of a giant RuDBECK:^//a»^. No. iii. c. i

(earth-bom) maiden among tliem ; that 6" Voyageen SibMe par F Abb'i Chap-

she had the womanly organs of the pe cT Cuteroche, pi. xviii. The figure

bodyabove, but those of a viper below, in brass is in the collection of Mr.

(echidna) s.nA that by intercourse with Knight. Zeus she had the child Scythes."

" Lafitau: Mcaurs des Sauvages, t. '* See Stukeley's Abury; the orig-

i. p. 253. inal name of which temple, he ob-

™ AcoSTA: History of the Indies, p. serves, was the Snake's Head: and it

382. is remarkable the remains of a similar

■" Hist. Gen. des Voyages, t. iv.p.305. circle of stones in Bceotiahad the same

" Maximus Tyr: Dissert., viii. c. 6. name in the time of Pausanias.

'^Livy: .ffij/., xi. epitom. Pausanias : .Soj^rfa, xix. 2. "The

'■* Herodotus: viii. 41. Thebans call a certain little spot of

" SoNNERAT : Voyage aux Indes, t. ground surrounded by stones selected

i. p. 253. for the purpose, the Serpent's Head."

■" See the mystic cistae on the num- " Olaus Rudbeckius: Atlantica,

mi cistophori of the Greek cities of part iii. i. 25, and part ii. p. 343, plate

Asia, which are extremely common, A, i. 510.

and to be found in all cabinets and ** The report that Cleopatra came

books of ancient coins. to her end from the bite of the asp or

" Medailles de Dutens, p. i. Mus. umus, is due to the wearing of an

Hunter., tab. 15, fig. v. and viii. effigy of the reptile upon the regal

diadem. She had arrayed herself in the paraphernalia of royalty, and placed on her head the crown of Egypt, surmounted by the Thermutis as a token that she had not compromised her rank, but died a queen. ^A. W.

' Missonaries' first Voyage, p. 238.

'*Arnobius: v. p. 171, Clement of Alexandria : Exhortation to the Gen- tiles. Julius Firmicius, c. 27.

Jupiter Sabazius or lacchus Sabazius is the serpent-deity of the mysteries, identical with Kronos or Hercules ; and the drama or allegory there repre- sented is thus set forth by Nonnus ;

" Kore-Persephoneia, you 'scaped not

marriage. But were wived in a dragon's nuptial

bonds, When Zeus changed form and aspect. And as a serpent coiled in love-inspiring

wreaths, Came to tlie chamber of dusky Kore, Waving his rough beard '*' * Thus by the Dragon of the ^ther, Persephone brought forth offspring, — Even Zagreus, the bull-horned child."

"^ La Chausse: Rovian Museum, vol. i., tables 13-14. The radiated serpent or agatlwdcsmon, is common on gems. See C. W. KiNG : Gnostics and their Remains,

^ The serpent appears also to have been adopted by certain sectaries as a part of the Christian mysteries, and some remnants of the worship still ex- ist. Adopting the book of Enoch, and kindred treatises in preference to the New Testament, and almost entirely

overriding the Old Testament, the Ophites constructed a doctrine of emanation after the model of the Zo- roastrians, Buddhists and Jewish Ka- balists, by which they explained the production and evolution of all forms of existence. The Supreme Being generated from himself a second, Sige or Silence, and by her Sophia or Pneu ■ ma, the divine Wisdom, and then by lier the perfect being, Christ, and the imperfect one, Achamoth. These four produced the Holy Church according to the heavenly ideal. Meanwhile, Achamoth, the imperfect wisdom, de- scended into Chaos, imparting life to the elements ; and finally by conjunc- tion with matter produced the Creator, Ilda-Baoth, or " Son of Darkness." He generated an emanation ; then a second, till six were brought fourth, lao, Sabaoth, Adoni, Eloi, Urseus, and As- taphaeus. These, with himself, be- came the seven spirits of the planets ; he also generated archangels, angels. Energies, Potencies, to preside over the details of the creation. The seven then created man, a crawling monster, and by communicating to him the ray of divine light rendered him the image of the Supreme Being. The Demi- urge, enraged that his production .should be superior to himself, animated the image of himself formed by reflec- tion in the abyss as in a mirror. This was Satan Ophiomorphus, called by the Ophites Michael and Samael —

one being the reputed tutelar angel oEthe Jews, and the other the prince of devils. Ilda-Baoth now forbade the man to eat of the tree of knowl- edge, which could enable him to un- derstand the mysteries and receive the graces from above. But Achamoth, to defeat this project, sent her own genius Ophis or the serpent to instruct man to transgress the command so un- justly imposed upon him. He thus became illuminated from heaven. Ilda.Baoth then made the material body for a prison in which man was enthralled. Achamoth, however, con- tinued his protector, and supplied him witli divine light as. he needed in his trials. Of the seed of Adam only Seth kept alive the seed of Light. His children in the wilderness received the law from Ilda-Baoth, but through the teachings of the prophets, Achamoth caused them to receive some idea of the higher life, and afterward induced her own mother, Sophia, to move the Supreme Being to send down Christ to aid the children of Seth. She also persuaded Ilda-Baoth to prepare for his advent by his own agent John the Baptist, and also to cause the birth of the man Jesus, this being a demiurgic rather than a divine work. At the baptism in the Jordan, Christ entered into the man Jesus, who immediately comprehended his divine mission and began his work. Ilda-Baoth stirring up the Jews against him, he was put to death. Immediately Sophia and Christ invested him with a body of Eether and placed him at the right hand of Ilda-Baoth by whom he is unper- ceived. Here he collects the purified souls ; and when all these are restored, the world will end, and all the re- deemed will enter into the pleroma. In their eucharist the Ophites have a

living serpent which coils around the bread and thus makes it holy. This serpent is the representative of Ophis, who instructed the first man to eat of the tree of knowledge, and so deliver himself from nakedness and the law of jealousy. Ophis is identical with Kneph or Agathodasmon, the Serpent of the Mysteries. Mani the heresiarch taught that he crawled over the bed and overshadowed the Virgin Mary. The serpent-club of .(Esculapius was a badge of the Ophites, who indeed are supposed to have existed long before the Christian era. They abounded in Asia, Egypt, Spain, and all parts of the Christian world.

The Ophites and Gnostics employed secret signs of recognition. Epiphan- ius thus describes them : " On the arrival of any stranger belonging to the same belief, they have a sign given by the man to the woman, and vice versa. In holding out the hand under pretense of saluting each other, they feel and tickle it in a peculiar manner underneath the palm, and so discover that the new-comer belongs to the same sect. Thereupon, however poor they may be, they serve up to him a sumptuous feast, with abun- dance of meats and wine. After they are well filled the entertainer rises and withdraws, leaving his wife behind, with the command : ' show thy charity to this man, our brother.' "

The Albigenses, Cathari and Pauli- cians are reckoned among the worship- ers of the agathodasmon. — A. W.

' Virgil: Georgics, ii. v. 30, and

181.

Theophrastus : Hist. Plant, lib. v.

'^ Pausanias : EHac. i. s. I.

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THE SACRED BULL AND GOAT.

28. Among the sacred animals of the Egyptians, the bull, worshipped under the titles of Mnevis and Apis, is one of the most distinguished. The Greeks called him Epaphus," and we find his image, in various actions and attitudes, upon an immense number of their coins, as well as upon some of those of the Phoenicians, and also upon other religious monuments of almost all nations. The species of bull most commonly employed is the urus, auroch, or wild bull, the strongest animal known in those climates which are too cold for the propaga- tion of the elephant ; " which was not known in Europe, nor even in the northern or western parts of Asia, till Alexan- der's expedition into India, though ivory was familiarly known even in the Homeric times." To express the attribute strength, in symbolical writing, the figure of the strongest animal would naturally be adopted ; wherefore this emblem, generally considered, explains itself, though, like all others of the kind, it was modified and applied in various ways. The mystic Bacchus, or generative power, was represented under this form, not only upon the coins, but in the temples of the Greeks : " sometimes simply as a bull ; at others, with

" See coins of Rhegium, Macedonia, Plutarch : Ids and Osiris. " Many

Aradus, Tyre. etc. of the Greeks make bull-shaped sym-

- Aristophanes: Plut. 586. bols of Dionysus ; and the women of

Ibid. 943. the Eleans praying, invoke the cloven-

™ Herodotus; ii. 153. " The Greek footed divinity to come to them. The

name for Apis is Epaphus." Argives call Dionysus the Bull-begot-

EiiRlproES: /'/za;»w«,688. " Epa- ten" {Bougenes), or "a bee" as it is

phus, child of lo, whom she brought sometimes rendered, from the fable of

forth to Zeus." bees hatched in a putrefying carcass.

" C.«sar: War in Gaul,'h<:>oW\. Athen^us : Dipnosophistts, b. xi.

»' Pausanias : i. c. 12. This proves 476. " In Cyzicus, he (Bacchus) is

that the coins with an elephant's skin represented as bull- formed."

on the head, are of Alexander II., It is probable that the bull-symbol

king of Epirus, son of Pyrrhus. was astrological, The Sun formerly

»»Lycophron: 2og. "The Bull" entered the sign of Taurus at the

(taurus) i. e., Dionysus. vernal equinox, thus beginning a new

Ancient Art and Mythology. 19

a human face ; and, at others, entirely human except the horns or ears." The age, too, is varied ; the bull being in some in- stances, quite old, and in others quite young; and the human- ised head being sometimes bearded, and sometimes not.°°

29. The Mnevis of the Egyptians was held by some to be the mystic father of Apis ; °° and as the one has the disk upon his head, and was kept in the City of the Sun, while the other is distinguished by the crescent," it is probable that the one was the emblem of the divine power acting through the sun ; and the other, of it acting through the moon, or (what was the same) through the sun by night. Apis, however, held the highest rank, he being exalted by the superstition of that superstitious people into something more than a mere sym- bol, and supposed to be a sort of incarnation of the Deity in a particular animal, revealed to them at his birth by certain external marks, which announced his having been miracu- lously conceived by means of a ray from Heaven." Hence, when found, he was received by the whole nation with every possible testimony of joy and gratulation, and treated in a man- ner worthy of the exalted character bestowed on him ; " which was that of the terrestrial image or representative of Osiris ; '" in whose statutes the remains of the animal symbol may be traced.'"'

30. Their neighbors the Arabs appear to have worshipped their god under the same image, though their religion was more simple and pure than that of any Heathen nation of an- tiquity, except the Persians, and perhaps the Scythians. They acknowledged only the male and female, or active and passive powers of creation ; the former of whom they called Urotalt ; '°° a name which evidently alludes to the Urus. He- season and resuscitating tlie year, ray of fire comes from heaven upon From this, the bull became the em- the cow, and she immediately becomes blem or representative of the Supreme pregnant with Apis."

Being, and of course a sacred or sacer- " Herodotus-, iii. 27. " Always on

dotal animal.- — A. W. his appearance the whole of Egypt

'■' Bronzi Hercolano, t. i. tav. I. feasted and kept jubilee."

Coins of Camarina. Plate ii. of the last '™ PLUTARCH: Ids and Osiris.

volume of " the Select Specimens." "Apis, in Memphis, was regarded as

—-" " Coins of Lampsacus, Naxus. the eidolon or visible representation of

^^ VlJJTAS.cn: Isis and Osiris. "The the soul of Osiris."

bull maintained at Heliopolis, called "" Strabq: xvii. " Of Apis, who is

Mnevis (some regarded him as sacred Osiris himself." See plate 2 of vol. i.

to Osiris, and others as the father of of Select Specimens, where the horns of

Apis) is black, and has the sacred the bull are indicated in the disposing

honors of the Apis." of the hair."

" See the /«a<r 7ato/x, etc. ^ '"i* Herodotus: iii. 8. "They have

' Herodotus: iii. 28. "Now this but the tutelar gods, Dionysus and

Apis or Epaphus is the calf of a cow, Urania. . . They call Dionysus,

which is never aftei-ward able to bear Urotalt."

young. The ./Egyptians say that a Wilkinson suggests that Urotal is

-O The Symbolical Language of

rodotus calls him Bacchus, as he does the female deity, Celestial Venus; by which he means no more than that they were personifications of the attributes which the Greeks wor- shipped under those titles.

31. The Chinese have still a temple called the Palace of the horned Bull ; '" and the same symbol is venerated in Japan, and all over Hindustan.'" In the extremity of the West it was also once treated with equal honor ; the Cim- brians having carried a brazen bull with them, as the image of their god, when they overran Spain and Gaul ; '" and the name of the god Thor, the Jupiter of the ancient Scandina- vians, signifying in their language a bull ; as it does likewise in the Phoenician and Chaldee."" In the great metropolitan temple of the ancient Northern Hierarchy at Upsal, in Sweden, this god was represented with the head of a bull upon his breast ; '" and on an ancient Phoenician coin, we find a figure exactly resembling the Jupiter of the Greeks, with the same head on his chair, and the words Baal Thurz, in Phoenician characters, on the exergue.'"* In many Greek, and in some .Egyptian monuments, the bull is represented in an attitude of attack, as if striking at something with his horns ; '°° and at Miako in Japan, the creation of the world, or organisation of matter, is represented by the Deity under the image or symbol of a bull breaking the shell of an egg, with his horns, and animating the contents of it with his breath ; "° which probably explains the meaning of this attribute in the Greek and Egyptian monuments; the practice of pittting part of a com- position for the -whole being common in symbolical writings }^^

32. In most of the Greek and Roman statues of the bull, that we have seen, whether in the character of Mnevis or Apis,

the same as allah-taal, or God the ex- and playing upon the sound of words,

alted ; also that it may come from for which the ancients were famous.

AUR, light. If Alilat (or Lilith) is the The Hebrew text of the Old Testa-

Night-Goddess, the latter is the more ment abounds with examples. The

probable etymology. Mr. Knight's bee was sacred to Venus, because its

hypothesis is not plausible. — A. W. name melitta was like Mylitta the As-

">' Hist. Gen. des Voyages, i, vi. p. Syrian designation of the Mother-

452. Goddess. Thus lin or Tlt^ Tur ox

""^ Recherches sur les Arts de la Greci, Sttr, signifies an ox ; and IV Tzttr, or

&c. rock, the name of Tyre, has nearly the

>»5 Plutarch: In Mario. same sound, and so makes a very good

109 Plutarch :/« .Sy/Za, c. 17. " The phonetic for symbolical writing. —

Phoenicians call the bull Thur." A. W,

"' Olaus Rudbeckius: Ailantica, i"" See coins of Thurium, Syracuse,

part ii. c. v. p. 300, fig. 28 ; also pp. Tauromenium, Attabyrium.

321, 338, 339. "» Memorable Embassy to the Em-

^"^ Medailles de Dut^)Ls, p. I. The peror of Japan, p. 283.

coin, better preserved, is also in Mr. '" See coins of Acanthus, Maronea,

Knight's collection. Eretria, Sic.

I think this an example of punning

, id i:i:ii;ill!!i!!iiiii:l

Zeus. Jupiter.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 21

of both which many are extant of a small size in bronze, there is a hole upon the top of the head between the horns where the disk or crescent, probably of some other material,'" was iixed: for as the mystical or symbolical was engrafted upon the old elementary worship, there is always a link of connection remaining between them. The Bacchus of the Greeks, as well as the Osiris of the .Egyptians, comprehended the whole creative or generative power, and is therefore rep- resented in a great variety of forms, and under a great vari-- ety of symbols, sign ifying his subordinate attributes.

33. Of these the goat is one that most frequently occurs; and as this animal has always been distinguished for its lu- bricity, it probably represents the attribute directed to the propagation of organised being in general.'" The choral odes sung in honor of Bacchus were called tragodiai, or goat-songs ; and a goat was the symbolical prize given on the occasion ; it being one of the forms under which the god him- self had appeared.'". The fauns and satyrs, the attendants and ministers of Bacchus, were the same symbol more or less humanised ; and appear to have been peculiar to the Greeks, Romans, and Etruscans : for though the goat was among the sacred animals of the Egyptians, and honored with singular rites of worship at Mendes, we do not find any traces of these mixed beings in the remains of their art, nor in those of any other ancient nations of the East ; though the Mendesian rites were admirably adapted to produce them in nature, had it been possible for them to exist ; "^ and the god Pan was there represented under such a form.""

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THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS.

34. But notwithstanding that the " first- begotten Love " or mystic Bacchus, was called the Father of gods and men, and the Creator of all things, he was not the primary personifica-

"' Five of these are in Mr. Knight's This is done at the season when the

collection, on one of which the disk is .(Egyptians beat themselves in honor

remaining. of Osiris."

Herodotus : ii. 132. " As for the '" Diodorus Siculus : i. 88. cow, the greater part of it is hidden " K'SOl.'L.OViO^Xii: Bibliotheca, iii. c.

by a scarlet coverture, and between iv. s. 3.

the horns there is a representation in "' Herodotus : ii. 46. " A goat

gold of the orb of the sun. The fig- was exhibited copulating with a wo-

ure is not erect, but lying down, with man."

the limbs under the body ; the dimen- "« Herodotus: ii. 46. " The artists

sions being fully those of a large ani- in .(Egypt delineate and sculpture the

raal of the kind. Every year it is taken symbols of Pan, like the Greeks, as

from the apartment in which it is having the countenance and limbs of

kept and exposed to the light of day. a goat."

2 2 The Symbolical Language of

tion of the divine nature ; Kronos or Zeus, the unknown Father, being everywhere reverenced as the supreme and al- mighty. In the poetical mythology, these titles are applied to distinct personages, the one called the Father, and the other the Son ; but in the mystic theology, they seem to have signified only one being — the Being that fills eternity and infinity.'" The ancient theologists appear to have known that we can form no distinct or positive idea of Infinity, whether of power, space, or time ; it being fleeting and fugi- tive, and eluding the understanding by a continued and boundless progression. The only notion that we have of it, arises from the multiplication or division of finite things ; which suggest the vague abstract notion, expressed by the ■word infinity, merely from a power which we feel in ourseh^es, of still multiplying and dividing without end. Hence they adored the Infinite Being through personified attributes, sig- nifying the various modes of exerting his almighty power ; the most general, beneficial, and energetic of which being that universal principle of desire, or mutual attraction, which leads to universal harmony, and mutual co-operation, it nat- urally held the first rank among them. " The self-generated mind of the eternal Father," says the Orphic poet, " spread the heavy bond of Love through all things, that they might endure forever ; " "° which heavy bond of love is no other than the Eros Protogonos (Love Only-Begotten) or mystic Bac chus; to whom the celebration of the Mysteries was there- fore dedicated.

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THE MOTHER-GODDESS.

35. But the Mysteries were also dedicated to the female or passive powers of production supposed to be inherent in Mat- ter.'" Those of Eleusis were under the protection of Ceres, called by the Greeks Demeter ; that is, ISJ other Earth; "" and

'" Euripides : Hiridida. " Seest containeth the elements from which

thou the immense Kther on high, and everything is produced."

the earth around held in its moist '^" DiODORUS SicuLUS; ii. 12. "In

embrace ? Revere Zeus and obey like manner to call her Demeter, by a

God." trifling transposition of a word, the

"8 Orphic Fragments, xxxviii. A ancient name being Ge-meter."

passage from Empedocles, preserved by Solon : In Brunch's Analectica, i,

Athenagoras, thus describes the ele- 24. " Great mother of the deities of

ments that compose the world : Olympus, the most excellent black

" Firewater, earth, and the soft air above, earth."

And vrith them, Love." y^ns Kennedy more plausibly forms

'" Plutarch: Symposiacs, ii. qu. 3. Demeter ixoxa. the Sanskrit Deva-ma-

"For matter hath the function of tri, or Mother-Goddess; and Cerei

mother and nurse, as Plato says, and Uom Shri. Both are names of Laksh.

l!!iiiiig|iil'lii!ii!iiiii^

Ceres. Demeter.

A7icient Art and Mythology. 23

though the meaning of her Latin name be not quite so ob- vious, it is in reality the same ; the Roman c being originally the same letter, both in figure and power, as the Greek gam- ma,"" which was often employed as a mere guttural aspirate, especially in the old iEolic dialect, from which the Latin is principally derived. The hissing termination, too, in the ^ belonged to the same : wherefore the word, which the Attics and lonians wrote £R4, EPS, or 'BPR, (era, ere, or here,) would naturally be written FEPES (geres) by the old ^olians ; the Greeks always accommodating their orthography to their pronunciation ; and not, like the English and French encumbering their words with a number of useless letters.

36. Ceres, however, was not a personification of the brute matter which composed the earth, but of the passive produc- tive principle supposed to pervade it,'" which, joined to the active, was held to be the cause of the organization and ani- mation of its substance; from whence arose her other Greek name /JHiO (Deo) the Inventress. She is mentioned by Virgil, as the Wife of the omnipotent Father, iEther or Jupiter;'" and therefore the same with Juno; who is usually honored with that title ; and whose Greek name TIPH (here) signifies, as before observed, precisely the same.'" The Latin name lUNO is derived from the Greek name Dione, the female Zeus or Dis ; the Etruscan, through which the Latin received much of its orthography, having no d or o in its alphabet. '"' The ancient Germans worshipped the same goddess under the name of Hertha ; ""■ the form and meaning of which still remain in our words, earth and hearth. Her fecundation by the descent of the active spirit, as described in the passage of Virgil before cited, is most distinctly represented in an ancient bronze at Strawberry Hill. As the personified principle of the produc- tive power of the Earth, she naturally became the patroness of agriculture ; and thus the inventress and tutelar deity of legislation and social order which first arose out of the divi- sion, appropriation, and cultivation of the soil.

mi, consort of Vishnu. See Hindu in love with her great body, nourishes

Mythology, pp. 394-395. all her offspring."

'■" See Senatus Consultum Mar- "■'Plutarch. SeeEosEBlus./'ne-

cianum ; also coins of Gela, Agrigen- poratio Evangelica, iii. i. " Ge (earth)

turn and Rhegium. is Hera," (Juno, or Lady.)

^' Ovid; Fasti, i. 673. '" Moor, the author of the Hindu

" Officium commune Ceres et Terra tuen- Pantheon, Godfrey Higgins and others

tur ; derive the name Juno from the San-

Hfficprjebetcausamfrugibus, Ilia locum." ^^^.jj y^^^-^ ^^ ^^^ Hebrew and Chal.

"^ Virgil: 0<^!yz«, ii. 324. "Then daic njV Juneh, a dove, representa-

the Omnipotent Father, great Rxhcx, tive of the Mother Goddess. The

with fecund showers, descends into the Hebrew and Sanscrit have no J.

bosom of his rejoicing wife, and united '^' Tacitus ; Germany.

24 The Symbolical Language of

37. The Greek title seems originally to have had a more general signification ; for without the aspirate (which was anciently added and omitted almost arbitrarily), it becomes -EPJ? (ere), and by an abbreviation very common in the Greek tongue, P-E or FEE (Re, Ree, Rea) : which pronounced with the broad termination of some dialects, become PKA ; and with the hissing one of others, RES ; a word retained in the Latin, signifying properly matter, and figuratively every quality and modification that can belong to it. The Greek has no word of such comprehensive meaning ; the old general term being, in the refinement of their language, rendered more specific, and appropriated to that principal mass of matter which forms the terraqueous globe; and which the Latins also expressed by the same word united to the Greek article r^ spa — terra.

[edit]

THE GENERATIONS OF THE DEITIES.

38. The ancient word, with its original meaning, was how- ever retained by the Greeks in the personification of it : Rhea, the first of the goddesses, signifying universal matter, and being thence said, in the figurative language of the poets, to be the mother of Jupiter, who was begotten upon her by Time. In the same figurative language, Time is said to be the son of Ovpavoi, {Ouranos) or Heaven ; that is, of the supreme termination and boundary, which appears to have been origin- ally called noikovj (koiloii) the hollow or vault, which the Latins retained in their word C(elu7n, sometimes employed to signify the pervading spirit, that fills and animates it. Hence Varro says that Coelum and Terra, that is universal mind and productive body, were the Great Gods of the Samothra- cian Mysteries ; and the same as the Serapis and Isis of the later Egyptians: the Taautos and Astarte of the Phoenicians, and the Saturn and Ops of the Latins.'" The licentious im- aginations of the poets gave a progenitor even to the person- ification of the supreme boundary Ouranos, which progenitor they called Akmon the indefatigable ; '"' a title which they seem to have meant perpetual motion, the primary attribute of the primary being.""

39. The allegory of Kronos or Saturn devouring his own children, seems to allude to the rapid succession of creation and destruction before the world had acquired a permanent constitution, after which Time only swallowed the stone : that is, exerted its destroying influence upon brute matter ; the gen.

" Z)e Lingtta Latina, iw. 10. "' Phurnutus: De Natura Deo-

"' Akamatos, akamon, akmon, etc. rum, i.

Rhea. Kybele.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 25

erative spirit, or vital principle of order and renovation, being beyond its reach.'" In conjunction with the earth, he is said to have cut off the genitals of his father, Uranus or Heaven ; '" an allegory, which evidently signifies that Time, in operating upon matter, exhausted the generative powers of Heaven ; so that no new beings were created.

40. The notion of the Supreme Being having parents, though employed by the poets to embellish their wild theogonies, seems to have arisen from the excessive refinement of metaphy- sical theology : a Being purely mental and absolutel)' immate- rial, having no sensible quality, such as form, consistence, or extension, can only exist, according to our limited notions of existence, in the modes of his own action, or as a mere ab- stract principle of motion. These modes of action, being turned into eternal attributes, and personified into distinct personages. Time and Matter, the means of their existing might, upon the same principle of personification, be turned into the parents of the being to which they belong. Such re- finement may, perhaps, seem inconsistent with the simplicity of the early ages ; but we shall find by tracing them to their source, that many of the gross fictions which exercised the credulity of the vulgar heathens, sprang from abstruse philosophy conveyed in figurative and mysterious expres- sions.

[edit]

FIRE AND WATER AS SYMBOLS.

41. The elements Fireand Water were supposed to be those in which the active and passive productive powers of the uni- verse respectively existed ; '" since nothing appeared to be

" It is by no means certain that revolution in government and worship.

Kronos, or Saturn, is identical with — A. W.

Chronos, or Time; and hence Mr. '*' Hesiod: Thcog. i5o.

Knight's solution of the allegory, '^^ Ovid: Metamorphoses, \. /^■^o.

though ingenious, can hardly be enter- g^jpp^ ^^5 temperiem sumpsere humor-

tained. We notice again an example que calorque,

of playing upon words. Kronos, en- Concipiunt: et ab his oriuntur cuncta

deavoring to devour his own sons, or duobus.

benim, is deceived with stones, or Hippocrates : Diceta, i. 4. " All

abenim. The same play is perceived living creatures, not only the animals,

in the words of John the Baptist : but likewise man, originate from the

,' God is able of these stones (abenini) Two Principles, differing in potency

to raise up children {benim) to Abra- but agreeing in purpose : I mean Fire

ham " {Matthew, iii. 8). The whole and Water." " Fire is able to give life

stoiy has an Indian aspect. The tin- to all things, but water can nourish

gam represented the divine energy, them."

which, being removed, was equivalent lb. 8. " The soul moveth itself in

to the dethroning of the divinity. man, being the commixture of fire and

Thus, Cronos succeeded to Uranus, water, necessary to the human body."

the meaning of the allegory being a — et passim.

26 The Syjnboltcal Lang7tage of

produced without them ; and wherever they were joined there was production of some sort, eitlier vegetable or animal. Hence they were employed as the primary symbols of these powers on numberless occasions. Among the Romans, a part of the ceremony of marriage consisted in the bride's touching them as a form of consecration to the duties of that state of life upon which she was entering." Their sentence of banish- ment, too, was an interdiction from fire and water, which implied an exclusion from any participation in those elements, to which all organised and animated beings owed their exis- tence. Numa is said to have consecrated the Perpetual Fire, as the First of all things, and the Soul of Matter, which, without it, is motionless and dead.'" Fires of the same kind were, for the same reasons, preserved in most of the principal temples both Greek and Barbarian ; there being scarcely a country in the world, where some traces of the adoration paid to it are not to be found. "^ The Prytania of the Greek cities, in which the Supreme Councils were usually held, and the public treasures kept, were so called from the sacred fires always preserved in them. Even common fires were reputed holy by them ; and therefore carefully preserved from all contagion of impiety. After the battle of Platsea, they extinguished all that remained in the countries which had been occupied by the Persians, and rekindled them, according to the direction of the Oracle, with •consecrated fire from the altar at Delphi."" A similar preju- dice still prevails among the native Irish, who annually extin- guish their fires, and rekindle them from a sacred bonfire.'" Perpetual lamps are kept burning in the inmost recesses of all the great pagodas in India; the Hindus holding fire to be the essence of all active power in nature. At Sais in Egypt, there was an annual religious festival called the Burning of Lamps ; '" and lamps were frequently employed as symbols upon coins by the Greeks,"" who also kept them burning in the tombs, and sometimes swore by them, as by known emblems of the Deity.'" The torch held erect, as it was by the statue of Bacchus at Eleusis,'" and as it is by other figures of him still extant, means life ; while being reversed, as it frequently is

■"^'Plutarch: Roman Questions. iv. 5. Lafitau: Mo:urs dcs Sauvages, "Why do they direct the bride to i. 153. touch fire and water? Is it not be- '^'■Plutarch: Arlstides. cause, as among the elements and "' Collect. Hibern. v. 64. principles, the one is male and the "' HERODOTUS : ii. 62. other female : the one constitutes the '^' See coins of Amphipolis, Alex- principle of motion, and the other the ander tlie Great, c&c. potency existing in Matter ? " '*» Asclepiades : Epigram, xxv.

'" Plutarch: Numa. from Brunck. Analect. \ ?i6.

'"^ HUET.: Dcmonstr. Evang. Prop., "' PauSANIAS : 1. c.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 27

upon sepulchral urns and other monuments of the kind, inva- riably signifies death or extinction.'"

42. Though water was thought to be the principle of the passive, as fire was of the active power ; yet, both being es- teemed unproductive when separate,"' both were occasionally considered as united in each. Hence Vesta, whose symbol was fire, was held to be equally with Ceres a personification of the Earth,'" or rather of the genial heat which pervades it, to whichits productive powers were supposed to be owing ; where- fore her temple at Rome was of a circular form, having the sacred fire in the centre, but no statue.'" She was celebrated by the poets, as the daughter of Rhea, the sister of Jupiter and Juno, and the first of the goddesses."" As the principle of Universal Order, she presided over the Prytania or magisterial seats, and was therefore the same as Themis, the direct per- sonification of that attribute, and the guardian of all assem- blies, both public and private, both of men and gods ; '*' whence, all legislation was derived from Ceres, a more general per- sonification including the same powers. The universal mother of the Phrygians and Syrians, called by the Greeks Kubele or Cybele, because represented under a globular or square form"'" was the same more general personification worshipped with different rites, and exhibited under different symbols, accord- ing to the different dispositions and ideas of different nations. She was afterward represented under the form of a large handsome woman, with her head crowned with turrets ; and very generally adopted as the local tutelar deity of particular cities ; but we have never seen any figure of this kind, which was not proved, by the style of composition and workman-

"' See Portland Vase, &c. Poly- /^^ y_ 201. nices infers his own approaching death

from seeing in a vision {Stat. Theb. ^fiVe^flamma.m""" """"^ ™ '"" xi. 142).

„ , , '•*= Ovid: .^cjA'. The temple is still

r^Sm ^^"^ "" '"■" "" '=^"'.. converted into a church, and

Effigiem. the ruins of another more elegant one,

Fire without moisture IS unnourisned ,4, 17 _„,„„„. n ,1. u j

J J J k ■»! t 41. ■ /ESCHYLUS: Prometheus Bound,

and dry, and water without warmth is „ r. it • ^r 1 »■

i-i J i-r 1 " 200, Potters translation,

unprohiic and liieless. '

'^^ VVKS^VKIVZ: Nature of the Gods, Now Gaia, under various names de-

xxviii. "But neither of the two, signed.

Demeter or Hestia, is properly "' Lexicon, Antiq. Frag, de Herm.

distinct from the other, upon the Grainm. " Demeter, as the earth, is

earth." the tutelary of the state, whence she

Ovid : Fast. lib. vi. v. 267. is described as the beaver of the tower.

VeSa eadem est qua Terra, subest vigil pybele is said to represent the earth,

' ' utrique. from the cubic figure in geometry.

28 The Symbolical Language of

ship, to be either posterior, or very little anterior to the Ma- cedonian conquest.'"

[edit]

VENUS-URANIA, THE MOTHER-GODDESS.

43. The characteristic attribute of the passive generative power was expressed in symbolical writing, by different enig- matical representations of the most distinctive characteristic of the female sex ; such as the shell, or Concha Veneris,^'" the Fig-leaf,"" Barley Corn,"' or the letter Delta ; '^ all which oc- cur very frequently upon coins, and other ancient monuments in this sense. The same attribute personified as the goddess of Love or desire, is usually represented under the voluptuous form of a beautiful woman, frequently distinguished by one of these symbols, and called Venus, Kypris, or Aphrodite, names of rather uncertain etymology.'" She is said to be the daugh- ter of Jupiter and Dione ; that is, of the male and female per- sonifications of the All-pervading Spirit of the Universe ; Dione being, as before explained, the female Dis or Zeus, and there- fore associated with him in the most ancient oracular temple of Greece at Dodona. '" No other genealogy appears to have been known in the Homeric times ; though a different one is employed to account for the name of Aphrodite in the Theog- ony attributed to Hesiod.

44. The GenetuUides or Genaidai were the original and ap-

"' It is most frequent on rbve ooias with the moon, and hence they were of the Asiatic ooJonias ; hai afl that similarly employed as symbols, we have seen with, srt are of late '" SuiDAS : " Delta, the fourth let- date, ter - it also signifies the vulva."

>'» Augustin: 'Ikt City oj God, '" The first may be from the vevb

vi.g. Clement of Aiexandria: .£.j:/;i;>?-- beindn, Suidas explaining Bsivoi

tations. " Ths Kteis gtmakeios (wo- or BiroS to be the name of a goddess;

man's comb), which is, to speak with a and the name Venus only differs from

euphemism, and in mystic language, it in a well-known variation of dia-

the female sexual paits." lect.

'"Plutarch: Isis and Osiris, -id- The second may be from Kuo^ropiS,

" They make a figure of a fig-leaf, i. e. Hveir 7topiiSKOv(Sa, though the

both foi the king and southern climate, theogonists derive it from the island

which fig-leaf is interpreted to mean of Cyprus. Sc/ioi. Ven. on the Iliad,

the generating and fecundating of the v. 458. Hesiod : Theogony. universe, for it seems to have some re- The third is commonly derived

semblance to the sexual parts of a from a^/iro.?, the foam of the sea, from

'™^'*' which she is fabled to have sprung ;

"■^ EUSTATHIUS; On Homer. " The but the name is older than the fable,

barley-corn, denoting the vulva among and doubtless received from some other

the writers upon the Bacchic ko- language. It is perhaps from the San-

'"^^^^- skrit, faradesa, a garden or beautiful

Clement: Exhortations, iii. " A woman ; or from Dis, the masculine

species of oysters in sympathy with of Dione.

the moon." There was a notion enter- "'Strabo: viii. 506. "In the

tained in ancient times that shell-fish same temple with Zeus, or Jupiter,

had some secret sympathy or relation was also the simulacrum of Dione."

.'?■^■^

Venus. Aphrodite.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 29

propriate ministers and companions of Venus," who was, however, afterward attended by the Graces, the proper and original attendants of Juno ; '" but as both these goddesses were occasionally united and represented in one image, "" the personifications of their respective subordinate attributes might naturally be changed. Other attributes were ou other occasions added, whence the symbolical statue of Venus at Paphos had a beard, and other appearances of virility,'*" which seems to have been the most ancient mode of repre- senting the celestial as distinguished from the popular goddess of that name; the one being a personification of a general procreative power, and the other only of animal desire or con- cupiscence. The refinement of Grecian art, however, when advanced to maturity, contrived more elegant modes of dis- tinguishing them ; and, in a celebrated work of Pheidias, we find the former represented with her foot upon a tortoise, and in a no less celebrated one of Scopas, the latter sitting upon a goat.'™ The tortoise, being an androgynous animal, was aptly chosen as a symbol of the double power, and the goat was equally appropriate to what was meant to be expressed in the other.

45. The same attribute was on other occasions signified by the dove or pigeon,'" by the sparrow,"' and perhaps by the polypus, which often appears upon coins with the head of the goddess, and which was accounted an aphrodisiac,'"' though it is likewise of the androgynous class. The fig was a still more common symbol, the statues of Priapus being made of the tree,'"' and the fruit being carried with the phallus in the

'=' Pausanias. ii. 4. but clothed in womanly robes, with

'" Iliad, xiv. Bryant's Translation. the sceptre and height of a man."

" Do what I ask ■'■" "^^ Cesnola Collection at the

And thou shall have from me a wedded Metropolitan Museum of Art in this

spouse; , ,, , city, is a bust, life-size, of this charac-

?hinef ^°""'^" '"> liolding ^patera on one hand, and

Pasithea, whom thou hast desired so the mystic dove on the other. — A. W.

long." 160 Pausanias : Eliac. ii. c. 25, s. 2.

Pausanias: C;r/«//2. xvii. 6, "The "'Plutarch: Isis and Osiris.

^^^//7/a of Hera (Juno) was seated on a "The Greeks made the dove the

throne of prodigious size, made of sacred animal of Aphrodite, the ser-

gold and ivory, the work of Polyklei- pent of Athena, the raven of Apollo,

tus. Upon it was a crown, having the and the dog of Artemis, or Diana."

Graces and the Hours wrought on it ; "* Eustathius : On Homer. " The

and in her hands she bore a pome- sparrow is set apart to Aphro-

granate and a sceptre." dite, by reason of its fecundity, and

158 Pausanias: Laconia^ xiii. 6. its burning salacity, the same reason

" They called the ancient xoanon^ for which the dove is assigned to the

"stock," or wooden representation of Aphrodite of mythology."

Aphrodite, Hera." "^ Athen^us : Deipnosophista, ii.

"' Macrobius: iii, 34. " The figure 23.

of the Venus of Cyprus is bearded, "•■ Horace: Satires, i. viii.

30 The Symbolical Language of

ancient processions in honor of Bacchus,"' and still continu- ing, among the common people of Italy, to be an emblem of what it ancientl}' meant : whence we often see portraits of per- sons of that country painted with it in one hand, to signify their orthodox devotion to the fair sex. Hence, also, arose the Italian expression, /ar la fica, which was done by putting the thumb between the middle and fore fingers, as it appears in many Priapic ornaments now extant ; or by putting the linger or the thumb into the corner of the mouth, and drawing it down, of which there is a representation in a small Priapic figure of exquisite sculpture engraved, among the Antiquities of fferculaneum}"'

[edit]

THE CROSS AND ROSARY.

46. The key, which is still worn, with the Priapic hand, as an amulet, by the women of Italy, appears to have been an emblem of similar meaning, as the equivocal use of the name of it, in the language of that country, implies. Of the same kind, too, appears to have been the cross in the form of the letter tau, attached to a circle, 7-, which many of the figures of .(Egyptian deities, both male and female, carry in the left-hand and by which the Syrians, Phoenicians, and other inhabitants of Asia, represented the planet Venus, worshipped by them as the emblem or image of that goddess.'" The cross in this form is sometimes observable on coins, and several of them were found in a temple of Serapis, demolished at the general destruction of those edifices by the emperor Theodosius, and were said by the Christian antiquaries of that time to signify the future life.'" In solemn sacrifices, all the Lapland idols were marked with it from the blood of the victims ; "" and it occurs on many Runic monuments found in Sweden and Denmark, which are of an age long anterior to the approach of Christianity to those countries, and, probably, to its ap-

"' Plutarch: Love of Wealth, vii. IV, act v. sc. 3, 3.ndJ!omeo and fuliet,

" The country-feast of the Dionysia act i. sc. i. Another old wriier, who

was anciently celebrated popularly probably understood Italian, calls the

and with merry-malcing. One carried \tM.t\ giving the fico ; and, according

an amphora of wine and clematis; toils ancient meaning, it might very

then one led a goat ; another followed naturally be employed as a silent re

carrying a basket of dried figs, on proach of effeminacy,

which was a phallus." "^ Proclus: Pamphr. Ptokm, lib,

"" Bronzi, tab. xciv. ii. p. 97. See also MiCHAEL Angelo:

It is to these obscene gestures that De la Chausse, part ii. no. xxxvi. fol.

the expressions oi figging and biting 62, and Jablonski: Panth. ALgypt.

the thumb, which Shakespeare prob- lib. ii. c. vii. s. 6.

ably took from translations of Italian "' SuiDAS in v. Taurus.

novels, seem to allude ; see i Henry "' Sheffer: Lapponic. c. x. p. 112.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 31

pearance in the world."" On some of the early coins of the Phoenicians, we find it attached to a chaplet of beads placed in a circle, so as to form a complete rosary, such as the Lamas of Thibet and China, the Hindus, and the Roman Catholics, now tell over while they pray.'"

47. Beads were anciently used to reckon time ; and a circle, being a line without termination, was the natural em- blem of its perpetual continuity : whence we often find circles of beads upon the heads of deities, and enclosing the sacred symbols upon coins and other monuments.'" Perforated beads are also frequently found in tombs, both in the northern and southern parts of Europe and Asia, which are fragments of the chaplets of consecration buried with the deceased. The simple diadem, or fillet, worn round the head as a mark of sovereignty, had a similar meaning, and was originally con- fined to the statues of deities and deified personages, as we find it upon the most ancient coins. Chryses, the priest of Apollo, in the Iliad, brings tlie diadem, or sacred fillet, of the god, upon his sceptre, as the most imposing and inviolable emblem of sanctity ; but no mention is made of its being worn by kings in either of the Homeric poems, nor of any other ensign of temporal power and command, except the royal staff or sceptre. ^

[edit]

THE MYRTLE AND OTHER EMBLEMS.

48. The myrtle was a symbol both of Venus and Neptune, the male and female personifications of the productive powers of the waters, which appears to have been occasionally em- ployed in the same sense as the fig and fig-leaf,"° but upon what account, it is not easy to guess. Grains of barley may have been adopted from the stimulating and intoxicating quality of the liquor extracted from them,"* or, more prob- ably, from a fancied resemblance to the object, which is much heightened in the representations of them upon some coins, where they are employed as accessory symbols in the same manner as fig-leaves are upon others.'" Barley was also

'™ Ans. Rudbeckius: Atlant. p. ii. Plutakch : Ids and Osiiis. " The

c. xi. p. 662, and p. Ill, c. i. s. iii. Ol. fig-leaf is interpreted to denote drink-

Varellh: Scandagr. HuniCf'SiOKl.ASE: ing and motion (generation or gesta-

Hist. of Cornwall, p. io6. ticn), and is supposed to resemble the

'" Pellerin: Villes. T. iii. pi. cxxii. male sexual organ."

fig. 4. Archaol. vol. xvi. p. 2. Ni- "* Herodotus: ii. 77 :" The drink

choff. s. ix. Maurice : Indian An- of the Egyptians is a wine which they

tiguiiies, vol. v. obtain from barley, as they have no

'^^ See Coins of Syracuse, lydia.. vines in their country."

"" See Coins of Syracuse, Marseilles, "' EUSTATHIUS: also Coins of Gela,

etc. Schol. in Aristoph. lysistr. 646. Leontium, and Selinus.

32 The Symbolical Language of

thrown upon the altar, with salt, the symbol of the preserving power, at the beginning of every sacrifice, and thence denomi- nated oulochutai."° The thighs of the victim, too, were sacri- ficed in preference to every other part, on account of the gene- rative attribute, of which they were supposed to be the seat,"' whence, probably, arose the fable of Bacchus being nourished and matured in the thigh of Jupiter.

49. Instead of beads, wreaths of foliage, generally of laurel, olive, myrtle, ivy, or oak, appear upon coins, sometimes encircling the symbolical figures, and sometimes as chaplets on their heads. All these were sacred to some particular per- sonifications of the deity, and significant of some particular attributes, and, in general, all evergreens were Dionysiac plants ;"' that is, symbols of the generative power, signifying perpetuity of youth and vigor, as the circles of beads and dia- dems signified perpetuity of existence. Hence the crowns of laurel, olive, etc., with which the victors in the Roman triumphs and Grecian games were honored, may properly be considered as emblems of consecration to immortalitj^, and not as mere transitory marks of occasional distinction. In the same sense, they were worn in all sacrifices and feasts in honor of the gods : whence we find it observed by one of the guests at an entertainment of this kind, that the host, by giv- ing crowns of flowers instead of laurel, not only introduced an innovation, but made the wearing of them a matter of luxury instead of devotion.'" It was also customary, when any poems sacred to the deity, such as those of a dramatic kind, were recited at private tables, for the person reciting to hold a branch of laurel in his hand,"" to signify that he was performing an act of devotion as well as of amusement.

[edit]

THE AMAZONS, OR VOTARIES OF THE DOUBLE-SEXED DEITY.

50. The Scandinavian goddess Freya had, like the Paphian Venus, the characteristics of both sexes; "' and it seems prob-

1" EUSTATHIUS : On the Iliad. neys, and the fat that is upon them by

'" EUSTATHIUS : " They made a the flanks and the caul above the

holocaust of the thighs, as being the livei." — A. W.

honorable part, having taken them "* Straeo:xv. : " Megasthenes says

from the other parts of the animals, that the worshippers of Dionysus dis-

because they serve the animals in played for emblems the wild figs and

walking and in generation in emitting ivy, laurel, myrtle, the box, and other

the semen." evergreens."

In the same manner the book of "' Plutarcpi : Symposiacs.: " Mak-

Leviticits prescribes the burning of ing the crown of pleasure, not of de-

" the fat and the whole rump by the votion."

backbone, and the fat that covereth ""• Aristophanes: Clouds, 1364.

the inwards, and all the fat that is '" Mallet : History of Denmark.

upon the inwards and the two kid- Introduction to, vii.

.S4

Coins. Cyrene, Perinthos, etc.

Ancient Art and Mythology 33

able that the fable of the Amazons arose from some symbol- ical composition ; upon which the Greek poets engrafted, as they usually did, a variety of amusing fictions. The two passages in the Iliad, in which they are slightly mentioned, appear to us to be interpolations ; '" and of the tales which have been circulated in later times concerning them, there is no trace in either of the Homeric poems, though so intimately connected with the subjects of both. There were five figures of Amazons in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the rival works of five of the most eminent Greek sculptors ; " and not- withstanding the contradictory stories of their having placed the ancient statue of the goddess, and been suppliants at her altar,'" we suspect that they were among her symbolical at- tendants, or personifications of her subordinate attributes. In the great sculptured caverns of the island of Elephanta near Bombay, there is a figure, evidently symbolical, with a large prominent female breast on the left side, and none on the right ; a peculiarity which is said to have distinguished the Amazons, and given them their Greek name ; the growth of the right breast having been artificially prevented, that they might have the free use of that arm in war. This figure has four arms ; and of those on the right side, one holds up a serpent, and the other rests upon the head of a bull ; while of those on the left, one holds up a small buckler, and the other, something which cannot be ascertained.'" It is prob- able that, by giving the full prominent form of the female breast on one side, and the flat form of the male on the other, the artist meant to express the union of the two sexes in this emblematical composition ; which seems to have represented some great deity of the people, who wrought these stupendous caverns; and which, probably, furnished the Greeks with their first notion of an Amazon. Hippocrates, however, states that the right breast of the Sarmatian women was de- stroyed in their infancy, to qualify them for war, in which they served on horseback ; and none was qualified to be a wife, till she had slain three enemies. This might have been the foundation of some of the fables concerning a nati'on of female warriors. The fine figure, nevertheless, of an Amazon in Lansdowne House, probably an ancient copy of one of those above mentioned, shows that the deformity of the one

"■' Homer: Iliad, iii. and Tii. Bry- His third exploit— the man-like Ann- an t's Translation : ^°°^-" " When came the unsexed Amazons to Pliny : ,\xxiv. 8.

war." Pausanias: v. 30, and vu. I.

" And then he slew— i85 NiEBUHR : Voyages, vol. ii. t.-ib. vi,

The Symbolical Language of

breast was avoided by their great artists, though the bisexual character is strongly marked throughout, in the counte- nance, limbs, and body. On gems, figures of Amazons are frequent, wliom Hercules, Theseus, or Achilles, had overcome; but we have never observed any such compositions upon coins.""

51. This character of the double sex, or active and passive powers combined, seems to have been sometimes signified by the large aquatic snail or buccinum ; an androgynous insect, which we often find on the mystic monuments of the Greeks,"' and of which the shell is represented radiated in the hands of several Hindu idols,"" to signify fire and water, the princi- ples from which this double power in nature sprang. The tortoise is, however, a more frequent symbol of this attribute ; though it might also have signified another : for, like the ser- pent, it is extremely tenacious of life ; every limb and muscle retaining its sensibility long after its separation from the body."" It might, therefore, have meant immortality, as well as the double sex ; and we accordingly find it placed under the feet of many deities, such as Apollo, Mercury, and Venus ; "" and also serving as a foundation or support to tri-

'" E. Pococke derives the term Amazon from the Sanscrit U/na- Soona, the children of Uma or Bha- vani. This would imply their relation to the Thugs, which their title Oior- pata or man-slayers, would seem to corroborate.

The Amazons are mentioned as occupying Northern Africa, to the ex- treme west, as overrunning Libya and Asia Minor, invading Thrace and sev- eral countries of Greece, and as con- stituting the Sauromatse on the river Tanais. Their country in Asia Minor was often called Assyria ; and they are reputed to have founded Ephesus, Smyrna, Cyma, Murina, Paphos, and other noted cities. Plato related that Eumolpus led them against Athens. Clement mentions this leader as one of the Shepherds ; and he is credited by Herakleitus with having instituted the Eleusinian Mysteries. Plato also mentions the Statue of the Amazon It Athens. The grouping and arrang- ing of these legends affords opportu- nity for the solution. The Amazon at Athens was the Goddess Artemis or "Diana of the Ephesians," identical with the Mother Goddess Anaitis, Astarte and Isis, whose worship was brought into Greece by the Shepherds.

One legend represents Cadmus as having married an Amazon, named Sphinx. The probabilities are, there- fore, that the Amazons were priest- esses of the goddess. Indeed, Calli machus states that the queen of the Amazons had daughters, known as the Peleiades, who were the first to insti- tute the circular dance and tV& panny- chis or watch-night. The designation is probably Phcenician from Am, mother, and Axon, or Adon, lord ; and tlieir occupation of various Moorish and Hamitic countries doubtless has reference to the institution of the rites and worship of the Mother god- dess. They were called man-slayers, because they offered human victims to Diana.— A. W.

'*' See silver Colne of Panormus and Segesta, and brass of Agrigentura in Sicily.

"' See Sonnerat's, and other collec- tions of Hindu Idols.

'*" jElian : De Animal., lib. iv. c. xxviii.

190 Plutarch: Conjugal Precepts, 138. "Pheidias made the Aphrodite of the Elians standing on a tortoise, as a symbol to women keeping at home and silence."

Pausanias : v. 25. " The agalma of

Ancient Art and Mythology. 35

pods, pateras, and other symbolical utensils employed in re- ligious rites. Hence, in the figurative language of the poets and theologists, it might have been properly called the support of the Deity ; a mode of expression, which probably gave rise to the absurd fable of the world being supported on the back of a tortoise ; which is still current among the Chinese and Hindus, and to be traced even among the savages of North America.'" The Chinese have, indeed, combined the tortoise with a sort of flying serpent or dragon ; and thus made a composite symbol expressive of many attributes.'"

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THE COW-SYMBOL.

52. At Momemphis in ./Egypt, a sacred cow was the sym- bol of Venus [or Isis], as the bulls Mnevis and Apis were of the male personifications at Heliopolis and Memphis.'" The Phoenicians employed the same emblem ; '" whence the Cad- meians are said to have been conducted to the place of their settlement in Boeotia by a cow, which pointed out the spot for building the Cadmeion or citadel of Thebes, by lying down to rest upon it.'"" This cow was probably no other than the symbolical image of their deity, which was borne before them, till fixed in the place chosen for their residence ; to which it gave the name of Thebes ; Theba in the Syrian language signifying a cow.'"" Hence we may perceive the origin of the fable of Bacchus being born at Thebes ; for that city, being called by the same name as the symbol of nature, was easily confounded with it by the poets and mythologists ; by which

Urania (the celestial Venus) is made of movement into and out of the cara-

ivory and gold, and was the work of pace represented the acting Unga,

Pheidias. This statue stands with whilst a front view indicated the same

one foot on a tortoise. . . Another idea as the Hindu and Egyptian

statue stands on a brazen goat, the 'eye,' viz.; the Arba-Il, or four-fold

work of Scopas. . . But as to what creator."

is signified by the tortoise and the ^'^'^'L.kyyykv : Mo;ursdes Sauvages,\.

goat, I leave to such as desire to 90.

guess." "' KiRCHER : China Illustrata, p.

Inman: Ancient Faiths Embodied in 187, col. 2.

Ancient Names, i\. -p. iZl. Strabo ; lib. xvii. p. 552. See

" Where we notice its appearance also eund. p. 536, and .(Elian: Z>e

and remark the frequency with which it Anim. lib. xi. c. 27.

protrudes its head from the shell, thus " Porphyry : On Abstinence, lib.

changing its look of repose with the ii. p. 158.

utmost rapidity to one of energy and '•* Pausanias ; ix. p. 773. Schol.

action, we shall readily see why the in Aristoph. Frogs, \2%b. OYlv.Meta-

animal was said to be sacred to Venus, morph.

and why it is symbolic of regenera- * Scholia in Lycophror, v. 1206.

tion, immortality, and the like. The "Theba among the Syrians signifies a

tortoise, from the configuration of its cow."

head and neck, as well as their rapid See also Etymologicum Magnum.

35 The Symbolical Language of

means the generator Bacchus, the first-begotten Love, and primary emanation of the all-pervading Spirit, became a deified mortal, the son of a Cadmsean damsel.

53. The cow is still revered as a sacred symbol of the deity, by the inhabitants of the Gold coast of Africa ; '"' and more particularly by the Hindus ; among whom there is scarcely a temple without the image of one ; and where the attribute expressed by it so far corresponds with that of the Grecian goddess Venus, as to be reputed the mother of the God of Love. It is also frequently found upon ancient Greek coins ; "' though we do not find that any public worship was ever paid it by that people : but it appears to have been held sacred by all the African tribes adjoining Egypt, as far as the Tritonian Lake;'"" among whom the Greek colonies of B area and Gyrene were settled at an early period. In the Scandi- navian mythology, the sun was fabled to recruit his strength during winter by sucking the white cow Adumbla, the symbol of the productive power of the earth, said to have been the primary result of warmth operating upon ice, which the an- cient nations of the north held to be the source of all organised being."" On the Greek coins, the cow is most commonly represented suckling a calf or young bull ; ""' who is the mystic god Epaphus, the Apis of the .^Egyptians, fabled by the Greeks to have been the son of Jupiter and lo.""

54. As men improved in the practice of the imitative arts, they gradually changed the animal for the human form ; pre- serving still the characteristic features, which marked its symbolical meaning. Of this, the most ancient specimens now extant are the heads of Venus or Isis (for they were in many respects the same personification),"" upon the capitals of one of the temples of Philse, an island in the Nile between ^gypt and .(Ethiopia ; and in these we find the horns and ears of the cow joined to the beautiful features of a woman in the prime

'" Hist. G^n. des Voyages, T. iii. p. whom they worship both with fasts

392. and festivals. The Barcsean women

"" See those of Dyrrachium, Cor- abstain not from cow's flesh only, but

cyra, etc. also from the flesh of swine."

'»» Herodotus: iv. 186. "Thus »»» Olaus Rudbeckius : Atlantis,

from Egypt as far as Lake Tritonis, p. n, v. p. 235, and vi. p. 455.

Libya is inhabited by wandering tribes *"' See Coins of Dyrrachium and

(nomades) whose drink is milk, and Parium.

their food the flesh of animals. Cow's '■"■ Euripides : Phomicians, 688.

flesh, however, none of these tribes '"^ Plutarch : Isis and Osiris. 53.

ever taste, but abstain from it for the " For Isis is the Female and receptive

same reason as the Egyptians, neither principle of generation, as by Plato

do any of them breed swine. Even and many others she is called nurse

at Cyrene the women think it wrong and niyrionumos, from having, in a

to eat the flesh of the cow, honoring word, innumerable forms and sem-

in this Isis, the ^Egyptian goddess, blances."

lo at Canopus.

Discord on Olympos.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 37

of life." In the same manner the Greek sculptors of the finest ages of the art represented lo,'" who was the same god- dess confounded with an historical or poetical personage by the extravagant imaginations of the Greek mythologists ; as we shall further show in the sequel. Her name seems to have come from the north ; there being no obvious etymology for it in the Greek tongue ; but, in the ancient Gothic and Scan- dinavian, lo and Gio signified the earth ; as Isi and Isa signi- fied ice, or water in its primordial state; and both were equally titles of the goddess, that represented the productive and nutritive power of the earth ; and, therefore, may afford a more probable etymology for the name Isis, than any that has hitherto been given.""" The god or goddess of Nature is however called Isa in the Sanskrit,"" and many of the Egyp- tian symbols appear to be Indian ; but, on the contrary, it seems equally probable that much of the Hindu mythology, and, as we suspect, all their knowledge of alphabetic writing, as well as the use of money, came from the Greeks through the Bactrian and Parthian empires ; the sovereigns of both which appear to have employed the Grecian letters and language in all their public acts.""

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SUN-WORSHIP AND THE DOCTRINE OF EMANATION.

55. The .Egyptians, in their hymns to Osiris, invoked that god as the being who dwelt concealed in the embraces of the sun ,• °° and several of the ancient Greek writers speak of the great luminary itself as the generator' and nourisher of all things, the rider of the world, the first of the deities, and the supreme Lord of all mutable or perishable beings."" Not that they, any more than the .Egyptians, deified the Sun considered merely as a mass of luminous or fervid matter ; but as the centre or body, from which the pervading Spirit, the original producer of order, fertility, and organisation, amidst the inert confusion of space and matter, still continued to emanate through the system, to

20^ NoRDEN : ^gypt. are fanes or enclosures of Isis ; of

"" Herodotus : ii. 41. " The em- which they call one Pelasgian and one

blem of Isis is that of a woman hav- Egj'ptian, and two of Serapis, as he is

ing cow's horns as the Greeks make called in Canopus."

lo." ™* Pausanias : Laconia, c. xii. s. 3.

™* Ol. Rudeeck: Atlaniica, p. i, c. *»' Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 52.

xviii. & XX. p. 854, p. II, c. V. p. 208- "In the sacred hymns of Osiris, they

214, 340, & 451. Edda Snorron. Myth. called upon the One hidden in the

iv. embrace of the sun."

^'" Sakoontala. There were two god- -"' Orphic Fragments. " Sun, the

desses of the name of Isis worshipped Father of all."

in Greece, the one Pelasgian and the Sophocles : CEdiptis Tyrannus, 660

other .(^igyptian, before the Pantheic and 1424. " The god Hallos, chief of

Isis of the latter ages. all the gods," "the royal sun which

Pausanias : Corinth, iv. 7. " There feedeth all."

38 The Symbolical Language of

preserve the mighty structure which it had formed.^" This primitive pervading Spirit is said to have made the sun to guard and govern all things,"' it being thought the instru- mental cause, through which the powers of reproduction, im- planted in matter, continued to exist ; for without a continued emanation from the active or male principle of generation, the passive or female principle, which was derived from it, would of itself become exhausted.

56. This continued emanation, the Greeks personified into two distinct personages, the one representing Celestial Love, or attraction, and the other, animal love or desire, to which the ^Egyptians added a third, by personifjang separately the great fountain of attraction, from which both were derived. All the three were, however, but one, the distinctions arising merely out of the metaphysical subtilty of the theologists, and the extravagant allegories of the poets, which have a nearer re- semblance to each other than is generally imagined.

57. This productive asthereal spirit being expanded through the whole universe, every part was in some degree impreg- nated with it, and therefore every part was, in some measure, the seat of the deity, whence local gods and goddesses were everywhere worshipped, and consequently multiplied without end. " Thousands of the immortal progeny of Jupiter," says Hesiod, " inhabit the fertile earth, as guardians to mortal men." " An adequate knowledge, either of the number or attributes of these, the Greeks never presumed to think attain- able, but modestly contented themselves with revering and in- voking them whenever they felt or wanted their assistance."' If a shipwrecked mariner were cast upon an unknown shore, he immediately offered up his prayers to the gods of the country, whoever they were,"' and joined the inhabitants in

'^'i Plutarch : Roman Questions: that " the gods are well pleased with

and Orphic Fragments. invocations addressed to them in the

■^'* Orphic Fragments, xxv. Egyptian and Assyrian dialects, as

'"'Hesiod: Weeks and Days, \22. being ancient and cognate languages

2" Philemon : Fragments. " Revere of their own." The Oracle of Zoro-

and worship God ; seeli not to know aster a.\%o commanded as follows:

more ; ^thou needest seek nothing " Never change barbarous names ;

further." For there are names in every nation given

Menander : Fragments. "Who ,, from God, . . ,,

/-, J . J . .. * , .1 1, Having unspeakable erncacv m the Mys-

God IS, desire not to learn ; they who teries "

desire to know what may not be ^he Orphic hymn also instructs the

known are impious. worshipper:

'" Homer: Oi/wj-fi', v. 445. "Hear „^,^ ,.-, .u ,, u ,.,.,

me, oh king, whoever thou art." ^h^^e fllme'; "' ° "

A particular merit pertained to the Address each godhead by his mystic name:

use of foreign and antique titles of the Full well the Immortals all are pleased to

deities. The Samothracians used a ThekTecret names rise in the muttered

sacred language. lamblichus declared prayer."

Ajicient Art and Mythology. 39

whatever modes of worship they employed to propitiate them,"" concluding that all expressions of gratitude and sub- mission must be pleasing to the Deity; and as for other ex- pressions, he was not acquainted with them, cursing, or in- voking the divine wrath to avenge the quarrels of men, being unknown to the public worship of the ancients. The Atheni- ans, indeed, in the fury of their resentment for the insult offered to the mysteries, commanded the priestess to curse Alcibiades ; but she had the spirit to refuse, saying, that she was the priestess of prayers, and not of airses."

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LIBERALITY AND SAMENESS OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS.

58. The same liberal and humane spirit still prevails among those nations whose religion is founded in the same principles. " The Siamese," says a traveller of the seventeenth century, " shun disputes, and believe that almost all religions are sood.""' When the ambassador of Louis XIV. asked their king, in his master's name, to embrace Christianity, he replied, " that it was strange that the king of France should interest himself so much in an affair which concerned only God, whilst He, whom it did concern, seemed to leave it wholly to our discretion. Had it been agreeable to the Crea- tor that all nations should have had the same form of worship, would it not have been as easy to his Omnipotence to have created all men with the same sentiments and dispositions, and to have inspired them with the same notions of the True Religion, as to endow them with such different tempers and inclinations . Ought they not rather to believe that the true God has as much pleasure in being honored by a variety of forms and ceremonies, as in being praised and glorified by a number of different creatures } Or why should that beauty and variety, so admirable in the natural order of things, be less admirable, or less worthy of the wisdom of God in the supernatural ? " "'

59. The Hindus profess exactly the same opinion. "They would readily admit the truth of the Gospel," says a very learned writer, long resident among them, "but they contend that it is perfectly consistent with their Shastras. The Deity, they say, has appeared innumerable times in many parts of this

■^'^ Homer : Odyssey, iii. people required her to do it : for she

"' Plutarch : Roman Questions, said that she was a priestess for prayer

44. " An execration is a fearful and and not for cursing."

grievous thing. Wherefore, the priest- '■"' Journal du Voyage de Siam.

ess at Athens was commended for re- '" Voyage de Siam, lib. v.

fusing to curse Alkibiades when the

40 The Symbolical Language of

world, and of all worlds, for the salvation of his creatures ; and though we adore him in one appearance, and they in others, yet we adore, they say, the same God ; to whom our several worships, though different in form, are equally acceptable, if they be sincere in substance." ^°

60. The Chinese sacrifice to the spirits of the air, the moun- tains and the rivers ; while the Emperor himself, sacrifices to the sovereign Lord of Heaven, to whom these spirits are sub- ordinate, and from whom they are derived."' The sectaries of Fohi have, indeed, surcharged this primitive elementary wor- ship with some of the allegorical fables of their neighbors ; but still as their creed, like that of the Greeks and Romans, remains undefined, it admits of no dogmatical theology, and, of course, of no persecution for opinion. Obscene and san- guinary rites have, indeed, been wisely proscribed on many occasions ; but still as actions and not as opinions™ Atheism is said to have been punished with death at Athens; but never- theless, it may be reasonably doubted, whether the atheism, against which the citizens of that republic expressed such fury, consisted in a denial of the existence of the gods ; for Diago- ras, who was obliged to fly for this crime, was accused of re- vealing and calumniating the doctrines taught in the Myste- ries ; ""■' and, from the opinions ascribed to Socrates, there is reason to believe that his offense was of the same kind, though he had not been initiated.

61. These two were the only martyrs to religion among the ancient Greeks, except such as were punished for actively vio- lating or insulting the Mysteries, the only part of their wor- ship which seems to have possessed any vitality; for as to the popular deities, they were publicly ridiculed and censured with impunity, by those who dared not utter a word against the very populace that worshipped them : "* and, as to forms and ceremonies of devotion, they were held to be no otherwise important, than as they constituted a part of the civil govern- ment of the state ; the Pythian priestess having pronounced from the tripod; that whoever performed the rites of his religion according to tlie laws of his country, performed them in a manner pleasing to the Deity.' Hence the Romans made no alterations in the religious institutions of any of the conquered countries ;

-"Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. -■ See the /';ww//;tv« of jEschylus,

274. and the Plains and Frogs of Aris-

-■-' Du Halde: vol. i. p. 32. tophanes, which are full of blasphe-

•'- lAV^: Histoiy,xxyiix.<). Seethe mies ; the former serious, and the lat-

proceedings against the rites and wor- ter comic or rather farcical,

shippers of Bacchus at Rome. '" Xenophon: Memorabilia,X\\> i.e.

2'^ Tatian : AdGrcEc. iii. s. i.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 41

but allowed the inhabitants to be as absurd and extravagant as they pleased, and even to enforce their absurdities and ex- travagances, wherever they had any pre-existing laws in their favor. An Egyptian magistrate would put one of his fellow- subjects to death for killing a cat or a monkey ■^'^' and though the religious fanaticism of the Jews was too sanguinary and violent to be left entirely free from restraint, a chief of the synagogue could order any one of his congregation to be whipped for neglecting or violating any part of the Mosaic Ritual.'"

62. The principle underlying the system of Emanations was, that all things were of one substance ; from which they were fasiiioned, and into which they were again dissolved, by the operation of one plastic spirit universally diffused and expand- ed.'"" The polytheist of ancient Greece and Rome candidly thought, like the modern Hindu, that all rites of worship and forms of devotion were directed to the same end, though in different modes and through different channels. '■'■Even they who worship other gods," says Krishna, the incarnate Deity, in an ancient Indian poem, " worship me, although they know it not." "'

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WHY DIVINE HONORS WERE PAID TO ANIMALS AND PLANTS.

63. By this universal expansion of the creative Spirit, every production of earth, water, and air, participated in its essence ; which was continually emanating from, and reverting back to its source in various modes and degrees of progression and re- gression, like water to and from the ocean. Hence not only men, but all animals, and even vegetables, were supposed to be impregnated with some particles of the Divine nature ; from which their various qualities and dispositions, as well as their powers of propagation were thought to be derived. These appeared to be so many different emanations of the Divine power operating in different modes and degrees, according to

'■^« Tertullian: Apol. c. xxiv. Ocean breeds beneath its marble sur-

'" See Acts of the Apostles, v. 40. face. They all possess a fiery potency,

'-8 Aristotle : Metaphys. i. 3, c. iii. and in their seed is a celestial piin-

Virgil: Aineid, vi. 724-734. " First ciple, — so far as they are not clogged

of all, the Inmost Spirit sustains the by noxious bodies, their limbs impeded

heaven and Earth and Ocean, the illu- by earthy substance, and all their

minated orb of the Moon, and the Ti- members moribund. Hence they fear

tanical Stars [planets] ; and the Mind, and desire, grieve and rejoice ; nor

diffused through all the members, gives do they, thus enclosed in darkness and

emergy to the whole frame and mingles a gloomy prison, behold the heavenly

itself intimately with the great body, air."

Thence proceed the race of men and See also Plutarch, in Rom. p. 76

beasts, and the living souls of birds, et Cicero: De Divinit. lib. ii. c. 4g. and the monstrous brutes which the ^^' Bhagavat -Gita , ix.

42 The Symbolical Language of

the nature of the substances with which they were combined : whence the characteristic properties of particular animals and plants were regarded, not only as symbolical representations, but as actual emanations of the Supreme Being, consubstantial with his essence, and participating in his attributes.^" For this reason, the symbols were treated with greater respect and veneration, than if they had been merely signs and characters of convention ; and, in some countries, were even substituted as objects of adoration, instead of the Deity whose attributes they were meant to signify.

64. Such seems to have been the case in ^Egypt ; where va- rious kinds of animals, and even plants, received divine honors ; concerning which much has been written, both in ancient and modern times, but very little ascertained. The Egyptians them- selves would never reveal anything concerning them, as long as they had anything to reveal, unless under the usual ties of secresy ; wherefore Herodotus, who was initiated, and conse- quently understood them, declines entering into the subject, and apologises for the little which the general plan of his work has obliged him to say.^" In the time of Diodorus Siculus the priests pretended to have some secret concerning them •^^ but they probably pretended to more science than they really pos- sessed, in this, as well as in other instances ; for Strabo, who was contemporary with Diodorus, and much superior to him in learning, judgment, and sagacity, says that they were mere sacrificers without any knowledge of their ancient philosophy and religion.^^^ The symbolical characters called hieroglyphics, continued to be esteemed more holy and venerable than the conventional signs for sounds : but though they pretended to read, and even to write them,"" the different explanations which they gave to different travellers, induce us to suspect that it was all imposture ; and that the knowledge of the an- cient hieroglyphics, and consequently of the symbolical meaning of the sacred animals, perished with their Hierarchy under the Persian and Macedonian kings. "° We may indeed

'™ Proclus : Theology of Plato, pp. ^ Diodorus : i. 96 : " Their priests

56, 57. have a secret doctrine concerning

- ' Herodotus: ii. 65 : " The ani- them."

mals which exist in Egypt, whether ^^' Strabo: xvii. p. 806.

domesticated or otherwise, are all re- °^'^ See the curious inscription in

garded as sacred. If I was to explain honor of Ptolemy V. published by the

why they are consecrated to the sev- Society of Antiquaries of London,

eral gods, I would be led to speak of 1803.

sacred matters, which I particularly '^^' The discovery of the Rosetta

shrink from mentioning ; the points on Stone, and the researches of Champol-

which I have touched slightly hitherto lion, Bunsen, and other able savaas

have all been introduced from sheer have disproved this, and demonstrated

necessity." that the concealing of the sacied

Ancient Art and Mythology. 43

safely conclude that all which they told of the extensive con- quests and immense empire of Sesostris, etc., was entirely fic- tion ; since Palestine must from its situation have been among the first of those acquisitions ; and yet it is evident from the sacred writings, that at no time, from their emigra- tion to their captivity, were the ancient Hebrews subject to the kings of iEgypt ; whose vast resources were not derived from foreign conquests, but from a river, soil, and climate, which enabled the labor of few to find food for many, and which consequently left an immense surplus of productive labor at the disposal of the state or of its master.""

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IMPROBABIUTY OF THE NED-PLATONIC INTERPRETATIONS.

65. As early as the second century of Christianity, we find that an entirely new system had been adopted by the iEgyp- tian priesthood, partly drawn from the writings of Plato and other Greek and Oriental sages, and partly invented among themselves. This they contrived to impose, in many instances, upon Plutarch, Apuleius, and Macrobius, as their ancient creed ; and to this lamblichus attempted to adapt their ancient allegories, and Hermapion and HorapoUo, their symbolical sculptures; all which they very readily explain, though their explanations are wholly inconsistent with those given to Herodotus, Diodorus, and Germanicus ; which are also equally inconsistent with each other. That the ancient system should have been lost, is not to be wondered at, when we consider

meaning of the hieroglyphics was but Deuteronomy vii. 20, and Joshica xxiv. a part of the obligation of those under- 11, 12) the ^y^V tzirah, hornet or standing them. — A. W. plague, that overcame the Amorites, ^^ Herodotus : ii. 14. The conclu- Hittites, and other populations of sion of Mr. Knight is hardly tenable. Palestine; and the Egyptian records The Egyptian sculptures and papyri term the Hyk-sos or Shepherds " the contain numerous memorials of the scourge" or "plague" who were driv. conquest of Northern Arabia, Pales- en by Aah-mosis and Thoth-mosis into tine, Syria, Lebanon, Hamath, Car- Syria. (See The Nation, New York, chemish, and Naharayn, or Mesopo- for May 13, i86g.) Josephus, in his tamia, and even Ninevah and Media. first treatise against Apion, distinctly Six thousand years ago naval battles asserts that the ancestors of the Israel- occurred between the Egyptians and ites (meaning the Hyk-sos) once had the nations beyond the Mediterranean ; dominion over the Egyptians; and and thirty-six centuries ago an inva- Professor J. P. Lesley, declaring the sion of Egypt by the confederated earlier Jewish legends unhistorical, armies of Libya and Europe was re- adds that " nothing prevents us from pulsed. The recentne.ss of the He- identifying the Hebrews of the Mon- brew manuscripts must weaken their archy as descendants of the Hyk-sos evidence. None of them are a thou- race," Certainly "unhistorical" le- sand years old; and their compilation gends should not be employed, as Mr. hardly antedates the period of the Knight has employed them, against Maccabees, or the Persian conquests, monumental records. — A. W. Yet they mention {Exodus xxiii. 28,

44 The Symbolical Language of

the many revolutions and calamities, which the country suf- fered during the long period that elapsed from the conquest of it by Cambyses to that by Augustus. Two mighty mon- archs of Persia employed the power of that vast empire to de- stroy their temples and extinguish their religion ; and though the mild and stately government of the first Ptolemies afforded them some relief, yet, by introducing a new language, with new principles of science and new modes of worship, it tended perhaps to obliterate the ancient learning of .^gypt, as much as either the bigotry of their predecessors, or the tyranny of their successors.

dd. It is probable that in .^Egypt, as in other countries, zeal and knowledge subsisted in inverse proportions to each other ; hence those animals and plants, which the learned respected as symbols of Divine Providence acting in particular direc- tions, because they appeared to be impregnated with particu- lar emanations, or endowed with particular properties, might be worshipped with blind adoration by the vulgar, as the real images of the gods. The cruel persecutions of Cambyses and Ochusmust necessarily have swept off a large proportion of the former class ; whence this blind adoration probably became general ; different cities and districts adopting different animals for their tutelar deities, in the same manner as those of mod- ern Europe put themselves under the protection of different saints, or those of China under that of particular subordinate spirits, supposed to act as mediators and advocates with the supreme God."'

[edit]

AUGURY AND VATICINATION.

67. From the system of emanations came the opinion so prevalent among the ancients, that future events might be predicted by observing the instinctive motions of animals, and more especially those of birds ; which, being often inexplica- ble from any known principles of mental operation, were sup- posed to proceed from the immediate impulse of the Deity. The skill, foresight, and contrivance, which many of them dis- play in placing and constructing their nests, is wholly unac- countable; and others seem to possess a really prophetic spirit, owing to the extreme sensibility of their organs, which enables them to perceive variations of the state of the atmos- phere, preceding a change of weather, long before they are perceptible to us."' The art of interpreting their various

"' Du Halde: ii. p. 49. ^s Virgil : Georgics, i. 415. Am-

MIAN. Marcellin. lib. vxi. c. I. 100

Ancient Art and Mythology. 45

flights and actions seems to have been in repute during the Homeric times, but to have given way, by degrees, to the oracular temples ; which naturally acquired pre-eminence by affording a permanent establishment, and a more lucrative trade, to the interpreters and deliverers of predictions.

68. The same ancient system that produced augury, pro- duced Oracles ; for the human soul, as an emanation of the Divine Mind, was thought by many to be in its nature pro- phetic, but to be blunted and obscured by the opaque incum- brance of the body ; through which it, however, pierced in fits of ecstasy and enthusiasm, such as were felt by tlhe Pythian priestesses and inspired votaries of Bacchus."^" Hence pro- ceeded the affected madness and assumed extravagance of those votaries, and also the sanctity attributed to wine ; which, being the means of their inspiration, was supposed to be the medium of their communion with the Deity ; to whom it was accordingly poured out upon all solemn occasions, as the pledge of union and bond of faith ; whence treaties of alliance and other public covenants were anciently called Spondaiox libations. Even drinking it to intoxication was in some cases an act of devotion ; "" and the vine was a favorite symbol of the deity, which seems to have been generally em- ployed to signify the generative or preserving attribute ; °" intoxicating liquors being stimulative, and therefore held to be aphrodisiac. The vase is often employed in its stead, to express the same idea, and is usually accompanied by the same accessory symbols."^

61). It was for the same reason, probably, that the poppy was consecrated to Ceres, and her statues crowned with it ; "" and that Venus was represented holding the cone of it in one hand, while the other held an apple, and the nokoi or modius decorated her head;"" for the juice of the poppy is stimulative and intoxicating to a certain degree, though narcotic when taken to excess.

•m Plutarch • The Failure of the drunkenness, except at festivals and

Oracles. of wine set apart to the deity."

Euripides : Bacchcs. " The Bac- "' See Coins of Maronea, Soli Nax-

chic impulse, and the manias contain us, etc.

much of the prophetic power. When ^^ See Coins of Thebes, Haliartus,

the God entereth the body, he causeth Hipponium, etc.

the raving ones to speak." ^^ Virgil : " Cereale papaver."

Plato : Phccdrus, 43. " The soul See Coins of Seleucus IV.

is in some measure prophetic." °-^ Pausanias : Corinth, x. 4. " He

'^^ Seleucus : from the Deipnoso- made the bust of Aphrodite, sitting

phisice: ii. 3 ; also Diogenes Laer- * * having on the head the polos of

Tius:iii. 39: " He (Plato) said that it gold and ivory, and in one hand a

was becoming for no one to drink to poppy-head, and in the other an apple."

T03

46 The Symbolical Langtiage of

[edit]

PROPHETIC ECSTASY.

70. By yielding themselves to the guidance of wild imag- ination, and wholly renouncing common sense, which evi- dently acted by means of corporeal organs, men hoped to give the celestial faculties of the soul entire liberty, and thus to penetrate the darkness of futurity ; in which they often be- lieved themselves successful, by mistaking the disordered wanderings of a distempered mind for the ecstatic effusions of supernatural perception. This sort of prophetic enthusiasm was sometimes produced, or at least supposed to be pro- duced, by certain intoxicating exhalations from the earth ; as was the case at Delphi ; where the design of setting up an ora- cle was first suggested by the goats being observed to skip about and perform various extravagant gesticulations, as often as they approached a certain fissure in the rock.°" It is said to have been founded by some Hyperboreans, and principall)- by the bard Olen, a priest and prophet of Apollo : "° but women ofiiciated there as far back as any certain tradi- tions could be traced ; they having, probably, been preferred on account of the natural weakness of the sex, which rendered them more susceptible of enthusiastic delirium, to promote which, all the rites practiced before the responses were given, particularly tended."'

Figures holding the poppy in one prophets to preserve the nation was be-

hand and the patera in the other, are lieved to have continued from Moses till

upon the medals of Tarentum and the later periods, and rules were given

Locri, in Italy. for knowing their genuineness {Deute-

The laurel was also supposed to ronomy,ii.\\\\. 15-22 and xiii. 1-5, also

have a stimulative and intoxicating Hosea, xii. 13). When Balak the king

quality, and therefore to be the proper of Moab brought Balaam to the hill of

symbol for the god of poetry and Peor and high-places of Baal to curse

prophecy. Israel, the changing of the purpose of

"' Plutarch : The Failure of the the prophet by the Lord, appears to

Oracles. have been regarded as necessaiy to

•i46 Pausanias: x. 5. prevent possible calamity. It is very

"' The oracles doubtless originat- singular, however, that after Samuel ed from the belief that as the human had been the judge or chief magis- soul was the emanation or offspring of trate till he was old, and might be the deity, it possessed a faculty of supposed to have acquired a wide communication with the higher pow- reputation in that capacity, Saul and ers, capable of being cultivated or de- his servants should seek from him in veloped, to the function of seership. his character of seer or man of God, The JMysteries seem to have been con- with a fee, to learn whether to go in ducted on this hypothesis ; and in all quest of fugitive animals. The de- countries, there have been persons signation amphi or om-phe was ap- reputed to be capable of comprehend- plied to the oracles, whence the ing the purposes of the Deity. Among onipha-el of the temple at Delphi was the Israelites the prayer of Abraham termed by the Greeks who interpreted was supposed to heal the household of by sound rather than sense the Abimelech ; and a succession of omphalos or navel-stone of the world,

104

Rhea. Ceres.

AphroditCj Hermes, Herakles, Athena, and Apollo.

Ancient Art and Mythology.

71. The inspiring exhalation was at first attributed to the Earth only; then to the Earth in conjunction with Neptune or the Sea; and lastly to Apollo or the Sun.'" These were, however, only diflferent modifications of one cause, always held to be unalterably the same, though supposed to act, at difierent times, in different ways, and by different means. This cause was Jupiter, the all-pervading spirit of the uni- verse, who had the title of All-prophetic,'" because the other deities presiding over oracular temples were merely personifi- cations of his particular modes of action.^'" The Pelasgian, or rather Druidical oracle of Dodona, the most ancient known, immediately belonged to him ; the responses having been originally delivered by certain priests, who pretended that they received them from the oaks of the sacred grove ;"' which, being the largest and strongest vegetable productions of the North, were employed by the Celtic nations as symbols of the supreme God;" whose primary emanation, or operative spirit,

the symbol of the Mother Goddess. The priestess or alma at Delphi was sometimes called Pythoness, from the serpent Python, the representative of Apollo ; he in turn was called Amphi- anax or king of the oracle. The Supreme Council or Parliament of the twelve nations of the Greeks was called Amphictyonic, either because its decrees were regarded as sacred or from being held at the place of the oracle. Hermes was styled Pompseus, as the messenger of God of the ora- cle ; and the city of Campania now celebrated for its magnificent ruins, was evidently so designated as a holy city, or place of oracles. The Pom- peian pillars and columns of Hercules are therefore identical. The use of the term nymp/ie, or its deriva- tions to designate young women, brides, the marriage chamber, the lo- tus flower {Nymphcea Nelumbo) the nymphaa or oracular temples (fire- mountains) and the labics minores of the human female, illustrates the fact that to femininity there was supposed to pertain a peculiar divine virtue. Women were supposed to be more receptive of the divine afflatus ; and the symbols of their sex participated in the veneration and sanctity. Ora- cles existed where the Mother Goddess was worshipped, who indeed was named Nympha. The name of the place of the oracle of Python-Apollo was called Delphi from delphus^ the womb, which fact is further illustrated

by the circumstance that the pythoness was supposed to derive her mystical gift by the inhaling of an exhilarating gas, or vapor from a cleft or fissure in the ground, a cunnus diaholi. The Egyptians denominated the inter- preter of oracles, Peter ; and the names Orpheus, Pompeius, Ampelus, and perhaps Patrick, may have a similar meaning. — A. W.

"* Pausanias: lib. x.

*' Panomphaios.

° See Pindar : Olymp. viii. 58, Lucan has expressed this ancient my- stic dogma in the language of the Stoics ; and modified it to their sys- tem, according to the usual practice of the Syncretic sects. Pharsalia, v. 93 :

Forsan terris inserta regendis Acre libratum vacuo quse sustinet orbem, Totius pars magna Jovis Cirrh^a per

antra Exit, et aetherio trahitur connexa Tonanti. Hoc ubi virgineo conceptum est pectore

numen, Humanam feriens animam sonat, oraque

vatis. Solvit.

ENTHUSIASTIC FRENZY AT THE RELIGIOtrS ORGIES.

74. Considering the general state of reserve and restraint in which the Grecian women lived, it is astonishing to what an excess of extravagance their religious enthusiasm was car- ried on certain occasions ; particularly in celebrating the Orgies of Bacchus. The gravest matrons and proudest princesses suddenly laid aside their decency and their dignit)^, and ran screaming among the woods and mountains, fantastically dressed or half-naked, with their hair dishevelled and inter- woven with ivy or vine, and sometimes with living serpents."' In this manner they frequently worked themselves up to such a pitch of savage ferocity, as not only to feed upon raw flesh,'"' but even to tear living animals with their teeth, and eat them warm and palpitating.""

Astarte, who appears to be the Baaltis or Dione of Byblus." He thinks that the origin of the oracle would not have been attributed to a foreigner unless there had been some founda- tion for the story ; and says that " it may refer to the sending out and es- tablishing an oracle in the newly-dis- covered West (Europe), through the Phoenicians, the merchants and ex- plorers of those days, who were in alliance with Egypt, supplied it with many of the productions it required from other countries, and enabled it to export .ts manufactures in their ships."— A. W.

"' Plutarch : Alexander.

'" Scholiast upon ApoUonius Kho- dius, i. 636.

' Julius Iiikmucius : c. 14. Cle- ment of Alexandria: Exhortatioin. Arnobius: v.

The intelligent reader perceives the superficiality of the popular notion that Bacchus or Dionysus was but the god of wine and drunkenness, and that the Orgies or secret religious rites, were all occasions of revelling and debauchery. His worshippers in Thrace, the Orpheans, were ascetics and devotees, like the Gymnosophists of India. The Bacchus of ancient worship was an Asiatic divinity, iden- tical with Atys, Adonis, Osiris, and

probably with Maha Deva of India ; and in the Grecian pantheon he ap- pears to be a foreigner, like Hercules. As Zagreus, the son of Zeus by the Virgin Kore-Persephoneia or Demeter, afterward born anew as the son of Semele, he seems to illustrate the metempsychosis. He was probably identical with Baal-Peor, the Moabite divinity, and the deity commemorated by the Israelites in the " Baalim " or priapic statues, often of wood, which were set up with the " groves " or symbols of Venus-Astarte, " on every high hill and under every green tree." Maachah, the queen-mother, who pre- sided over the orgies, was deposed from regal rank by King Asa for mak- ing a mephallitzcth, or phallic manikin, for an ashera, or oviphale (i Kings, XV. 13, and Herodotus, ii. 48). The orgies, works, or nocturnal rites, con- sisted of dances, mystical processions, and searches after the mutilated body of the divine youth. See NoNNUs: iv. 273.

'^ He brought to light the Evian rites Of the Egyptian Bacchus, the orgies of

Osiris. He taught the iuitiations at the Mysteries Held at night ; and witli voice disguised, He chanted to the Bacchante a Magian

hymn, Making a loud wail."

109

50 TIte Symbolical Language of

75. The enthusiasm of the Greeks was, however, generally of the gay and festive kind; which almost all their religious rites tended to promote.'"" Music and wine always accom- panied devotion, as tending to exhilarate men's minds, and as- similate them with the Deity ; to imitate whom was to feast and rejoice: to cultivate the elegant and useful arts; and thereby to give and receive happiness.^" Such were most of the reli- gions of antiquity, which were not, like the ^Egyptian and Druidical, darkened by the gloom of a jealous hierarchy, which was to be supported by inspiring terror rather than by conciliating affection. Hence it was of old observed, that " the Egyptian temples were filled with lamentations, and those of the Greeks u,ith dances ; " '" the sacrifices of the former being chiefly expiatory, as appears from the imprecations on the head of the victim ; ^" and those of the latter almost always propitia- tory or gratulatory.^" Wine, which was so much employed in the sacred rites of the Greeks, was held in abomination by the .(Egyptians, who gave way to none of those ecstatic raptures of devotion which produced Bacchanalian frenzy and oracular prophecy ; '°^ but which also produced Greek poetry, the pa- rent of all that is sublime and elegant in the works of man. The poetry of Delphi and Dodona does not seem, indeed, to have merited this character : but the sacerdotal bards of the first ages appear to have been the polishers and methodisers ot that language, whose copiousness, harmony, and flexibility af- forded an adequate vehicle for the unpaiallelled effusions of taste and genius, which followed.

76. Oracles had great influence over the public counsels of the different states of Greece and Asia during a long time; and as they were rarely consulted without a present, the most celebrated of them acquired immense wealth. That of Delphi was so rich, when plundered by the Phocians. that it snablea

These rites are mentioned in the ■" Herodotus : ii. 3g. Bible under the designation of " The *" Expiatory sacrifices were occa-

Mourning for the Only-Begotten.'* sionally performed by individuals, but

They were celebrated in Egypt, Asia seem not to have formed any part of

Minor, and Greece. Olympias, the the establislied worship among the

mother of Alexander, like Maachah, Greeks ; hence we usually find them

was a priestess, or " sacred woman," mentioned with contempt, and used to boast that the god was PLATO : T/ie Republic, ii. 7. " Ped-

the father of her son. The funeral of ler-priests (agurlai), also prophets, fre-

Jacob at Abel-mizraim (Cf/zfj-w 1. 11), quent the houses of the rich, profes-

appears to have been taken for this sing that they have a power from the

observance. — A. W. gods of expiating, by sacrifices and

^"* Euripides: Electra, 193. chantings, in the midst of hilarity and

'*' Strabo : X. feasting, whatever injustice has been

"'* Apuleius : Genius of Socrates, committed by any one or his ances-

^gyptiaca numiiium fana plena plan- tors." goribus, GrjEca plerumque choreis. " PLUTARCH : Isis and Osiris, 6.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 51

them to support an army of twenty thousand mercenaries upon double pay during nine years, besides supplying the great sums employed in bribing the principal states of Greece to support or permit their sacrilege.^"' Too great eagerness to amass wealth was, however, the cause of their falling into dis- credit ; it having been discovered that, on many occasions, those were most favored who paid best ; "" and, in the time of Philip, the Pythian priestess being observed to be as much under the influence of Macedonian gold as any of his pensioned

[edit]

JUDICIAL ASTROLOGY.

77. The Romans, whose religion, as well as language, was a corruption of the Greek, though immediately derived from the Etruscans, revived the ancient mode of divination by the flights of birds, and the motions and appearances of animals offered in sacrifice ; but though supported by a College of Au- gurs, chosen from the most eminent and experienced men in the Republic, it fell into disregard, as the steady light of human science arose to show its fallacy. Another mode, however, of exploring future events arose at the same time ; and, as it was founded upon extreme refinement of false philosophy, it for a long time triumphed over the common sense of mankind, even during the most enlightened ages. This was judicial astrol- ogy ^ a most abject species of practical superstition, arising out of something extremely like theoretical atheism.

78. The great active principle of the universe, though per- sonified by the poets, and dressed out with all the variable at- tributes of human nature, was supposed by the mystic theolo- gists to act by the permanent laws of pre-established rule, and not by the fluctuating impulses of anything analogous to the human will ; the very exertion of which appeared to them to imply a sort of mutability of intention, that could only arise from new ideas or new sentiments, both equally incompatible with a mind infinite in its powers of action and perception ; for, to such a mind, those events which happened yesterday, and those which are to happen during the immeasurable flux of time, are equally present, and its will is necessarily that which is, because all that is arose from its will. The act that gave ex- istence, gave all the consequences and effects of existence;

'" DiODORUS SicuLus; xvi. 37. loving race." See also Herodotus:

'*' Sophocles : Antigoni, io6. vi. " The mantian office is of a money- °" Demosthenes : Philippics.

Ill

52 The Symbolical Langttage of

which are therefore equally dependent upon the First Cause, and, how remote soever from it, still connected with it by a regular and indissoluble chain of gradation : so that the move- ments of the great luminaries ot heaven, and those of the small- est reptiles that elude the sight, have some mutual relation to each other, as being alike integral parts of one Great Whole.

79. As the general movement of this Great Whole was sup- posed to be derived from the first Divine Impulse, which it re- ceived when constructed, so the particular movements of each subordinate part were supposed to be derived from the first impulse, which that particular part received, when put into motion by some more principal one. Of course the actions and fortunes of individual men were thought to depend upon the first impulse, which each received upon entering the world ; for, as every subsequent event was produced by some preceding one, all were really produced by the first. The mo- ment therefore of every man's birth being supposed to deter- mine every circumstance of his life, it was only necessary to find out in what mode the celestial bodies, supposed to be the primary wheels of the universal machine, operated at that mo- ment, in order to discover all that would happen to him after- ward.

80. The regularity of the risings and settings of the fixed stars, though it announced the changes of the seasons and the orderly variations of nature, could not be adapted to the ca- pricious mutability of human actions, fortunes, and adven- tures : wherefore the astrologers had recourse to the planets ; whose more complicated revolutions offered more varied and more extended combinations. Their different returns to cer- tain points of the Zodiac; their relative positions, and con- junctions with each other; and the particular character and aspect of each, were supposed to influence the affairs of rren ; "* whence daring impostors presumed to foretell, not only the destinies of individuals, but also the rise and fall of empires, and the fate of the world itself.""

81. This mode of prediction seems to have been originally

'*' The poet Dryden believed in Ju- late Doctor Noah Stone of Guilford,

dicial Astrology ; and it is said com- Connecticut, who had learned the art

puted the horoscope of his son in in- from books written by Albubater, Ja-

fancy,which was actually accomplished, son Pratensis, and Paracelsus. Why

iSIr. William L. Stone, in tire Atlantic not accept the declaration of Hamlet

Monthly for February, 1871, gives " a to Horatio ? — A. W. Chapter of Modern Astrology," in ^"^ Baillie : Discours sur PAsirol-

which are recorded several remarkable ogie. instances of successful divining, by the

112

Ancient Art and Mythology. 55

Chaldsean, and to have been brought from Babylon by the Greeks together with the little astronomy that they knew,"' but the Chaldaeans continued to be the great practitioners of it ; and by exciting the hopes of aspiring individuals, or the fears of jealous tyrants, contrived to make themselves of mis- chievous importance in the Roman Empire;"" the principles of their pretended science being sufficiently specious to obtain credit, when every other of the kind had been exploded. The Greeks do not seem ever to have paid much attention to it, nor, indeed, to any mode of prediction after the decline of their oracles:"' neither is it ever mentioned amongst the supersti- tions of the ancient Egyptians, though their creed certainly admitted the principle upon which it is founded."* It is said to have been believed by only a certain sect among the Chal- daeans ; "° the general system of whose religion seems to have been the same as that of most other nations of the Nor- thern Hemisphere; and to have taught the existence of an universal pervading Spirit, whose subordinate emanations diffused themselves through the world,"' and presented them- selves in different places, ranks, and oflSces, to the adoration of men ; who, by their mediation, were enabled to approach the otherwise inaccessible light of the Supreme and Ineffable First Cause."'

^"Herodotus: ii. log: "The sun- by Pompey, it extended over the en- dial, however, and the gnomon with tire Roman empire. The Mithraic the division of the day into twelve rites superseded the Mysteries of parts, were received by the Greeks Bacchus, and became the foundation from the Babylonians." of the Gnostic system, which for many

The Chaldaeans, or Magians, first a centuries prevailed in Asia, Egypt, and conquering and civilising nation, ap- even the remote West. Julius Caesar pear to have constituted the learned was assisted by a " Chaldaean " in re- and probably the sacerdotal caste of forming the Calendar. — A. W. Babylonia and the neighboring coun- '" See TACITUS : Ann. ii. c. 32, xii. tries. The name Zoroaster, Zerdusht, c. 52, and Hist. i. c. 22 : Genus homi- or Zerathustra, which is applied to num potentibus infidum, sperantibus their traditional leader, appears to fallax ; also Plin. lib. xxx. c. I. have been a designation of the sacred "' Pindar: Olymp. xii. 10. college, or of its president, as Zadok, '"■' Herodotus : ii. 82. or Zedek^ was of the head of the sacer- ^^ Strabo ; lib. xvi. dotal family in Judea, and Rabbi, or "' Brucker: Hist. Crit. Philos.'i. Rab Mag, of the chief of the college c. 2. Fons omnium spirituum, cujus at Babylon. The Jewish Kabala, or essentiam per universum mundum tan- traditions, appear to have been de- quam animam diffusam esse, etc. — non rived from their religious opinions Chaldaea tantum et iEgyptus sed uni- and legends, and were revived in versus fere gentilismus vetustissimus Judea by the Casideans, or Asideans, credidit. See also EusEB. : Prcep, better known afterward as Pharsi (Per- Evang. iv. c. 5.

sians or Pharisees). The peculiar ^" Brucker: Ibid. Summum uni-

form of this religion, known as versi regem in luce inaccessibile habi-

Mithraism, was introduced into Pon- tare, nee adiri posse nisi mediantibus

tus by Artabazes, the satrap, from spiritibus mediatoribus, universi fere

which country, after its conquest Orientis dogma fuit.

54 The Symbolical Langviage of

[edit]

SEXUAL RITES AT THE TEMPLES.

82. Like the Greeks, they honored these subordinate emanations, and gave them names expressing their different offices and attributes; such as Michael, Raphael, Uriel, Ga- briel, etc.; which the Jews having adopted during the captiv- ity, and afterward engrafted upon the Mosaic system, they have still retained their primitive sanctity. The generative or creative attribute seems to have held the highest rank ; but it was not adopted with the others by the Jews: for as the true Creator had condescended to become their national and pecul- iar God, they naturally abhorred all pretenders to his high office.

83. At Babylon, as in other countries, the attribute was divided into two distinct personifications, the one male, and the other female, called Bel and Mylitta by the Assyrians and Zeus and Aphrodite by the Greeks : but as the latter people subdivided their personified attributes and emanations much more than any other, the titles of their deities cannot be supposed to express the precise meaning of those of Assyria. Bel, or, as the Greek write it, Belos, was certainly the same title, dif- ferently pronounced, as the Baal of the Phoenicians, which signified lord or master; and Mylitta seems to have been in all respects the same as the Aphrodite or Venus of the Greeks ; she having been honored with rites equally characteristic and appropriate. The Babylonian women of every rank and condi- tion held it to be an indispensable duty of religion to pro- stitute themselves, once in their lives, in her temple, to any stranger who came and offered money ; which, whether little or much, was accepted, and applied to sacred purposes. Num- bers of these devout ladies were always in waiting, and the stranger had the liberty of choosing whichever he liked, as they stood in rows in the temple ; no refusal being allowed.""

84. A similar custom prevailed in Cyprus, Armenia, and

'"' Herodotus: i. 199. especially to minister to the pleasures

The same custom existed in Ar- of the worshippers, were as common

menia, Phiygia, and in Palestine, as in the Holy Land as among the na-

well as in Carthage and Italy. It pre- tions around. For such a character

vailed also among the Israelites during a " sacred woman," or priestess, Judah

the monarchy, and was probably a mistook his daughter-in-law, Tamar

feature of the worship of Peor and (Genesis, xxxviii. 15) ; and in the reign

the Golden Calf of the Exodus. The of King Rehoboam and his queen

Hebrew prophets describe the idol- Maachah, a priestess of the orgies,

worship by all the characteristics of they abounded in all parts of the

prostitution ; and the kadesliim and country. Josiah found them at the

kadeshuth, or men (semi-males) and Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, as

women devoted to temple-service, and well as at the " high places " ; and

114

Ganymedes and Eagle.

.^•■r-'^-?-lr>

Angel Raphael.

Ancie7it Art and Mythology. 55

probably in many other countries ; it being, as Herodotus ob- serves, the practice of all mankind, except the Greeks and ^Egyptians, to take such liberties with their temples, which, they concluded, must be pleasing to the Deity, as birds and animals, acting under the guidance of instinct, or by the immediate im- pulse of Heaven, did the same.^°° The exceptions he might safely have omitted, at least as far as relates to the Greeks : for there were a thousand sacred prostitutes kept in each of the cele- brated temples of Venus, at Eryx and Corinth ; who, according to all accounts, were extremely expert and assiduous in attend- ing to the duties of their profession ; '"' and it is not likely that the temple, which they served, should be the only place exempted from being the scene of them. Dionysius of Halicarnassus claims the same exception in favor of the Ro- mans, but, as we suspect, equally without reason : for Juvenal, who lived only a century later, when the same religion and nearly the same manners prevailed, seems to consider every temple in Rome as a kind of licensed brothel.""

85. The temples of the Hindus in the Dekkan possessed their establishments ; they had bands of consecrated dancing-girls, called the Women of ihe Idol, selected in their infancy by the priests for the beauty of their persons, and trained up with every elegant accomplishment that could render them attrac- tive, and assure success in the profession ; which they exercised at once for the pleasure and profit of the priesthood. They were never allowed to desert the temple ; and the offspring of their promiscuous embraces were, if males, consecrated to the service of the Deity in the ceremonies of his worship; and, if females, educated in the profession of their mothers."

Hosea, referring to this peculiar form Nuper enim, ut repeto, fanum Isidis et

of Mylitta-worship, declared that p,,,, 'ir,Tf '^f °'= , w

• 1 J ^ J ^ Pacis, et advectK secreta palatia mains,

Samaria loved a reward at every Et Cererem (nam quo non prostat femina

corn-floor. The prophets Jeremiah, templo ?),

Ezekiel, Hosea, and Micah are specific Notior Aufidio mcechus celebrare solebaa.

and unequivocal in asserting that the ^^ MAURICE ; Antiq. Ind. vol. i.

lewd rites in Palestine were precisely pt. i, p. 341.

like those of the nations around them. See Asiatic Researches, vol. I. 166,

— A. W. and Inman's Ancient Faiths Em-

-™ Herodotus: ii. 64. braced in Ancient Names, vol. ii. p.

'■"' StrABO: viii. Diodorus Sicu- 168. An Arabian who travelled in pe-

LUS: iv. ninsular India, in the ninth century,

Thiswas the Phoenician Astarte, that mentions these women as follows:

as Venus Erycina was especially wor- " There are in India (in the Dekkan)

shipped by the Roman women, who public women called Devadasi, or vo-

every first of April made a phalle- taries of the deity. When a woman

phoric procession to her temple. (See has made a vow for the purpose of

Ancient Symbol -Worship, p. 26.) having offspring, if she brings into the

32 JuvEN.tL r Satire, 22. world a pretty daughter, she carries

the child to Bod {moie properly Maha "9

56 The Symbolical Language of

[edit]

THE NIGHT-GODDESS.

86. Night being the appropriate season for these observances, and being also supposed to have some genial and nutritive influence in itself,^" was personified, as the source of all things, the female productive principle of the universe,'"' which the jSlgyptians called by a name that signified Night. '°° Hesiod says, that the nights belong to the blessed gods, as it is then that dreams descend from Heaven to forewarn and instruct men."' Hence night is called eiiphrone {good, or benevolent) hy the ancient poets ; and to perform any unseemly act or gesture in the face of night, as well as in the face of the sun, was accounted a heinous offense.'" This may seem, indeed, a con- tradiction to their practice : but it must be remembered that a free communication between the sexes was never reckoned criminal by the ancients, unless when injurious to the peace or pride of families ; and as to the foul and unnatural de- baucheries imputed to the Bacchanalian societies suppressed by the Romans, they were either mere calumnies, or abuses intro- duced by private persons, and never countenanced by public authority in any part of the world. Had the Christian soci- ties sunk under the first storms of persecution, posterity might have believed them guilty of similar crimes ; of which they were equally accused by witnesses as numerous.""' We do, in- deed, sometimes find indications of unnatural lusts in ancient sculptures : but they were undoubtedly the works of private caprice ; or similar compositions would have been found upon coins ; which they never are, except upon the Spintrise of Ti- berius, which were merel)' tickets of admission to the scenes of his private amusement." Such preposterous appetites,

Devd), as they call the divinity whom Israelitish law prohibited the setting

they adore, and leaves her with him." apart of men and women to the libid-

This divinity is not now worshipped inous rites as was done elsewhere ; but

in that region ; but the custom was re- the practice existed in that country,

tained by the Brahman conquerors. See Deuterojwmy, xxiii. 17, and I

The women are called in the Tamul /ww^j-j, xiv. 24.

language Devadasi, which means '** Diodorus Siculus: i. 7.

women given lo God. The custom "* Orphic Hymn, ii. 2 : " Night, the

existed with the Dravidians of India, genesis of all things, whom we also

but with no other race. It is precisely call Cypris " (Venus),

the same as that of maintaining almas *"* Jablonski : Egyptian Pantheon,

in the temples of Isis and A'rti/i'j'/iipM at i.chap.i.87. Ather, ov Athor ; Coptic,

the shrines of Astarte or Venus Ery- Athorb.

cina. '^'■' Hesiod : Works and Days, 730.

The vow of Hannah, who dedi- '" Hesiod : Works and Days, li"].

cated her son, afterward the prophet '"' LiVY : Histoiy of Rome, xxxix.

Samuel, to the service of the Temple, 9. Mosheim.

in pursuance of a vow, will be re- "° A writer in Old and New (Bos-

membered. He became a Nazir. The ton), for September, 1S74, endeavors

Bakchik Ecstasy.

^^.

Ancient Art ajtd Mythology. 57

though but too observable in all the later ages of Greece, appear to have been wholly unknown to the simplicity of the early times; they never being once noticed either in the Iliad, the: Odyssey, or th? genuine poem of Hesiod; for as to the lines in the former poem alluding to the rape of Ganymede, they are manifestly spurious. °°'

87. The Greeks personified Night under the title oi Leto, or Latona, and Baubb ; the one signifying oblivion and the other sleep, or quietude ; ^°" both of which were meant to express the un- moved tranquillity prevailing through the infinite variety of un- known darkness, that preceded the Creation, or first emanation of light. Hence she was said to have been the first wife of Ju- piter,"" the mother of Apollo and Diana, or the Sun and Moon, and the nurse of the Earth and the stars."* The.ZEgyptians dif- fered a little from the Greeks, and supposed her to be the nurse and grandmother of Horus and Bubastis, their Apollo and Diana;"" in which they agreed more exactly with the ancient naturalists, who held that heat was nourished by the humidity of night."" Her symbol was the Mygali or Mus Araneus, anciently supposed to be blind ; "" but she is usually represented, upon the monuments of ancient art, under the form of a large and comely woman, v/ith a vail upon her head.'" This vail, in painting, was aiwaj 3 black ; and in gems, the artists generally avail themselves cf a dark-colored vein in the stone to express it ; it being the same as that which was usually thrown over the symbol of the generative attribute, to signify the nutritive power of Night, fostering the productive power of the pervad- ing Spirit; whence Priapus is called, by the poets, hlack- cloakedj"^ The vail is often stellated, or marked with asterisks, "°

with great ingenuity to vindicate Ti- "* HERODOTUS, ii. 156.

berius from these imputations, and to ^^^ Macrobius ; Saturnalia^ i. 23.

show that he was remarkable for his " Omnium autem physicorum asser-

gentle and austere virtues. — A. W. tione constat calorem humore nutriri."

=*' HoiiER : Iliad, V. 265, and xx. '" Plutarch : Symposiacs, iv. An-

230. TON. : Liberal. Fab. xxviii.

^'■^ Plutarch: from Eusebius: '^'s See medals of the Bretii, Sicilotas,

PrcEparatio Evangelic, iii. I. " Night King Pyrrhus, etc.

was Leto, from letho, to be oblivious, The animal symbol rarely occurs ;

as those in a dream." but upon a beautifully engraved gem,

Hesychius : " Baubai, sleep ; bau- belonging to R. P. Knight, is the head

ban, to sleep." It is the same as of a Boar, the symbol of Mars the de-

Iatiei7t in a different dialect. stroyer, joined to the head of a Ram,

" Homer : Odyssey, xi. 579, " Le- the symbol of Bacchus or Amun the

to, the illustrious spouse of Zeus." generator ; upon which reposes a Dog,

'^ Hesychijs. The Jews have also the symbol of Mercury, or presiding

a tradition of Lilith, the firct wife of Mind ; and upon the back of the dog

Ad-im, by whom genii are produced is the Mygale, the symbol of Latona,

and children bewitched. or Night.

" Baubo, nurse of Demeter," MoscHUS : Epitaph. Bion. 27

Euripides: Electra. "Oh! sable yiEXay xI^<^t-v 01 rs TLpir^icoi.

Night, nurse of the golden stars." ^"^ See medals of Syracuse.

58 The Symbolical Language of

and is occasionally given to all tlie personiiications of the generative attribute, whetiier male or female ; °°' and likewise to portraits of persons consecrated, or represented in a sacred or sacerdotal character, which, in such cases, it invariably s:g- nifies.="

[edit]

HORUS AND TYPHON.

88. The ^Egyptian Horus is said to have been the son of Osiris and Isis, and to have been born while both his parents were in the womb of their mother Rhea ; "' a fable which means no more than that the active and passive powers of pro- duction joined in the general concretion of substance, and caused the separation or delivery of the elements from each other : for the name Apollo is evidently a title derived from a Greek verb, signifying to deliver from ;^'"' and it is probable that Horus, (or whatever was the Egyptian name of this deity) had a similar meaning, it being manifestly intended to signify a personified mode of action of Osiris ; ^°' in the same manner as Liber, the corresponding title in the Latin tongue, signified a personified mode of action of the generator Bac- chus.'" His statue at Coptos had the symbol of the generative attribute in his hand, said to be taken from Typhon, the de- stroying power ; "" and there are small statues of him now ex- tant, holding the circle and cross, which seems to have been the symbol meant. Typhon is said to have struck out and swal-

^o' See heads of Venus on the gold are from the New-Platonic school,

coins of Tarentum, silver of Corinth — and not from Ancient Egypt,

of Bacchus on those of Lampsacus.etc. '"* Apoltto, anciently written with the

^"^ See medals of Julius Caesar, Li- digamraa / or v, Apolufo. The en-

via, the Queens of Syria and Egypt, deavor to form an etymology for the

bust of Marcus Aurelius in the Town- deity-names is not often satisfactory,

ley collection, etc. especially in the Greek language. Pla-

303 Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, ^4. to attempted it with remarkably ill suc-

" Nature produces the universe [cos- cess.

mos] by becoming herself of like form Apollo, the sun-god, is the same as

and temper with the mental or interior Abel or Bel the younger, the Assyrian

property. The generating of Apollo and Phoenician divinity ; and doubt-

[Horus] by Isis and Osiris, while those less, may be identified both with Ho-

gods were yet in the womb of Rhea rus of Egypt and Chri^na of India. —

hints to us that before this universe A. W

became visible {Hebrews xi. 3] and was 3°' Plutarch : Isis and Osiris.

completed by the higher Reason, mat- " He (Horus) is the terrcstr'al universe,

ter being convinced by Nature that she neither altogether delivering from cor-

by herself was incomplete, brought ruption nor generation."

forth the first production. This divin- 306 'j-j,g adjective liber is from the

ity was not the cosmos, but a kind of Greek luvo; the upsilon being changed

phantom or picture of the cosmos or to i and the digamma to b.

universe to be afterward." ""Plutarch: Isis and Osiris, ^S.

Plutarch's facts are well enough ; " In Coptos the statue of Horus has in

but his explanations and etymologies the left hand the aidoia of Typhon."

124

Ancient Art and Mythology. 59

lowed one of his eyes ; "* whence the itinerant priests and priestesses of the Egyptian religion, under the Roman em- perors, always appeared with this deformity ; "° but the mean- ing of this fable can not now be ascertained any more than that of the single lock of hair, worn on the right side of the head, both by Horus and his priests.

[edit]

THE SOLAR SYSTEM ANCIENTLY KNOWN.

89. According to Manetho, the ^Egyptians called the load- stone, the bone of Osiris : "" by which it would seem that he represented the attractive principle ; which is by no means in- compatible with his character of separator and deliverer of the elements; for this separation was supposed to be produced by attraction. The Sun, according to the ancient system learnt by Pythagoras from the Orphic and other mystic traditions, being placed in the centre of the universe, with the planets moving round,^" was by its attractive force, the cause of all union and harmony in the whole, and by the emanation of its beams, the cause of all motion and activity in its parts. This system, so remote from all that is taught by common sense and ODservation, but now so fully proved to be true, was taught se- cretly by Pythagoras ; who was rather the founder of a reli- gious order for the purposes of ambition, than of a philosoph- ical sect for the extension of science. After a premature dis- covery had caused the ruin of him and his society, Philolaus, one of his disciples, published this part of his doctrines, and Aristarchus of Samos, openly attempted to prove the truth of it ; ^'^ for which he was censured by Cleanthes, as being guilty

™' Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 55. nwise ; they affirm that Fire is at the

" They relate that Typhon one while centre, and that the earth and stars

smote the eye of Horus, and at an- move round that centre in a circle,

other while plucked it out and swal- thus making Day and Night."

lowed it, and afterward gave it back The author of the trifling book on

to the sun ; denoting by the blow the Tenets of the Philosophers, falsely

the monthly diminution of the moon, attributed to Plutarch, understands the

and by the blinding of him its eclipse central fire, round which the Earth

■which the sun cures again by shininj and planets were supposed to move,

presently upon it as soon as it hath not to be the Sun ; in which he has

escaped from the shadow of the earth." been followed by Adam Smith and

309 Juvenal : " Lusca sacerdos " — others ; but Aristotle clearly under-

tht one-eyed priest. In Mr. Knight's stands it to be the Sun, or he could not

Collection was a bronze head of an suppose it to be the cause of day and

Agyrtes having this deformity. night ; neither could the Pythagoreans

'^"* Plutarch: /sis and Osiris, 62. have been so ignorant as to attribute

" They call the siderite-stone the bone that cause to any other fire. This sys-

of Horus, as Manetho asserts." tem is alluded to in an Orphic Frag-

^" Aristotle: Concerning Heaven, ment, and by Galen: Hist. Phil.

ii. 13. " The Italian savans, called xiii.

the Pythagoreans, declare the contra- "Dutens: Dilcouvertes Attributes

125

6o The Symbolical Language of

of impiet}' ; "° but speculative theories were never thought im- pious by the Greeks, unless they tended to reveal the mystic doctrines, or disprove the existence of a Deity. That of Aris- tarchus could not have been of the latter class, and therefore must have been of the former ; though his accuser could not specify it without participating in the imputed criminality. The crimes of Socrates and Diagoras appear to have been, as before observed, of the same kind ; whence Aristophanes rep- resents them attributing the order and variety of the universe to circular motion called Z^Z/z^^y and then humorously intro- duces Strepsiades mistaking this Dinos for a new god, who had expelled Jupiter."* Among the symbols carried in the mystic processions was a wheel ; "' which is also represented on coins; " probably to signify the same meaning as was ex- pressed by this word.

90. The great system to which it alluded was, however, rather believed than known ; it having been derived from an- cient tradition, and not discovered by study and observation. It was therefore supported by no proof; nor had it any other credit than what it derived from the mystic veneration paid to a vague notion, in some degree connected with religion, but still not sufficiently so to become an article of faith, even in the lax and comprehensive creed of Polytheism. Common ob- servation might have produced the idea of a central cause of motion in the universe, and of a circular distribution of its parts ; which might have led some more acute and discerning minds to imagine a solar system, without their having been led to it by any accurate or regular progress of discovery ; and this we conceive to be a more easy and natural way of account- ing for it, than supposing it to be a wreck or fragment of more universal science that had once existed among some lost and unknown people."'

[edit]

THE ANCIENT TEMPLE-CIRCLES, AND FIRE-WORSHIP.

91. Of this central cause, and circular distribution, the primitive temples, of which we almost everywhere find ves- tiges, appear to have been emblems : for they universally con-

aux Modemes \ and authorities there ^" Ste'BKiiAAY.: Ifisluire de TAstro-

cited. nomie Ancienne. — Wilkinson is very

'" Plutarch : Concerning the Face explicit that the Egyptians and

in the Orb of the Moon, vi. Chaldeans possessed the knowledge of

'* Clouds, 826. the heliocentric system, and that they

'" Epiphanius. taught it to the savans of Greece. See

" See medals of Phliasus, Cyrene, Herodotus : ii. chap. 7 of Appendix.

Luceria, Vetulonia, etc. A. W.

126

Coins. Thunderboltj etc.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 6i

sist of circles of rude stones : in the centre of which seems to have been the symbol of the Deity. Such were the Pyraethea of the Persians,"' the Celtic temples of the North, and the most, ancient recorded of the Greeks; one of which, built by Adrastus, a generation before the Trojan war, remained at Sicyon in the time of Pausanias. It seems that most of the places of worship known in the Homeric times were of this kind; for though temples and even statues are mentioned in Troy, the places of worship of the Greeks consisted generally of an area and altar only."°

92. The Persians, who were the primitists, or Puritans of Heathenism, thought it impious or foolish to employ any more complicated structures in the service of the Deity ; "° whence they destroyed, with unrelenting bigotry, the magnificent temples of .iEgypt and Greece.'" Their places of worship were circles of stones, in the centre of which they kindled the sacred fire, the only symbol of their god : for they abhorred statues, as well as temples and altars;"" thinking it unworthy of the majesty of the Deity to be represented by any definite form, or to be circumscribed in any determinate space. The universe was his temple, and the all-pervading element of fire his only representative ; whence their most solemn act of devotion was, kindling an immense fire on the top of a high mountain, and offering up in it quantities of wine, honey, oil, and all kinds of perfumes ; as Mithradates did with great expense and magni- ficence, according to the rites of his Persian ancestors, when about to engage in his second war with the Romans ; the event of which was to make him lord of all, or of nothing."'

93. These offerings were made to the all-pervading Spirit 01 the Universe (which Herodotus calls by the name of Zeus or Jupiter), and to his subordinate emanations, diffused through Sun and Moon, and the terrestrial elements, fire, air, earth, and water. They afterwards learned of the Syrians to worship

'"« Pausanias : vii. 22 and iv. times. At a later period they began

319 .. Xsixevoi xat liooixoi." the worship of Urania which they bor-

32" Herodotus : i.131. "They (the rowed from the Arabians and Assyri-

Persians) have no images of the gods, ans. Mylitta is the name by which

no temples or altars, and consider the the Assyrians know this goddess, whom

use of them a sign of folly. Their the Arabians call Alitta (or Elissa), and

wont, however, is to ascend the sum- the Persians, Mitra."

mits of the loftiest mountains, and there In this account is no mention of the

to offer sacrifice to Zeus, which is the Ormazdean system, which all modem

name they give to the whole circuit of scholars consider as the ancient reli-

the firmamen t. They likewise offer to gion of Persia. — A. \V.

the Sun and Moon, to the Earth, to '" HERODOTUS.

Fire, to Water, and the Winds. These **' Strabo : xv.

are the only gods whose worship has '-' Appian : The War of Mithrada-

come down to them from ancient tes.

120

The Symbolical Language of

their Astarte, or celestial Venus; and by degrees adopted other superstitions from the Phoenicians and other neig-hbor- ing nations ; who probably furnished them with the symbolical figures observable in the ruins of Persepolis, and the devices of their coins. We must not, however, as Hyde and Anquetil have done, confound the Persians of the First with those of the Second dynasty, that succeeded the Parthians; nor place any reliance upon the pretended Zend-Avesta, which the latter pro- duced as the work of Zoroaster; but which is in reality noth- ing more than the ritual of the modern Ghebers or Parsees. That it should have imposed upon Mr. Gibbon, is astonishing; as it is manifestly a compilation of no earlier date than the eighth or ninth century of Christianity, and probably much later.="

94. The Greeks seem originally to have performed their acts of devotion to the sethereal Spirit upon high mountains; from which new titles, and consequently new personifications, were derived; such as those of Olympian, Dodonasan, Idsean, and Casian Jupiter.'" They were also long without statues ; "' which were always considered, by the learned among them, as

s" Mr. Knight, as well as Sir Wil- liam Jones, appears to us too skepti- cal. The Avesta. is, to be sure, in many respects, an incomplete work, but it is obviously genuine. Despite the foibles and blunders of Anquetil du Perron and his teacher, the Destur Darab, the labors of Burnous have successfully vindicated him and the Avesta, from the imputations made against them. The discovery that the Zend was one of the languages of the cuneiform inscriptions, also helped this confirmation. Sir Henry C. Rawlinson turned this fact to excellent account, translating a large portion of the inscriptions by means of this lan- guage. The dialect used in the Aves- ta, however, is many centuries older than that of the cuneiform writings. We learn from the portions still in ex- istence, somewhat of the schism that took place between the two great branches of the Aryan family, but not whether the Brahmans or the Mazda- yasnians, were the chief instruments in the separation. We read also of Ahriman, or rather Anra-Mainyas, as the Potentate of Evil, and of the Ser- pent or dragon-king Dahaka, as the minister of his will ; but the clew is not given, and we must ascertain it elsewhere. The well-informed orien-

talist, however, we think, will perceive in Ahriman the Kissian or Susianian divinity Harmannu ; and in Dahaka, the ophite dynasty of Zohak the Ara- bian that for a long period held Baby- lonia, extending its sway to Media and Armenia, and eastward to the Indus, and perhaps by way of Cash- mere and the Punjaub, under the mod- ified name of Takshaka, to the coun- tries beyond the Ganges. With this explanation it will be seen that the war of the Two Principles was a poetic or mystical form of describing the con- test of the Aryan and Hamitic (Turan- ian ?) races ; the old Iranians, giving to the evil powers the names peculiar to the religion of their adversaries, as the Jewish Pharisees, copying from them, made the Hittite god Seth or Satan, and Baal Zebub of Ekron, their ruler of the demon tribes.

In short, however, recently the Avesta may have been compiled and arranged, we think its genuineness sustained. The English translation of Prof. Spiegel's German Version, though often difiicult to understand, will sat- isfy most students, so far as it goes. — A. W.

^" Maximus Tyrius: Dissert, vii.

'■" Pausanias: viii. c. xxii. and lib,

130

Poseidon.

Ayicient Art and Mythology. 63

mere symbols, or the invention of human error to console human weakness."" Noma, who was deeply skilled in mystic lore, forbade the Romans to represent the gods under any form either of men or beasts ; °"' and they adhered to his in- structions during the first hundred and seventy years of the Republic : ^° nor had the Germans, even in the age of Tacitus, renounced their primitive prejudices, or adopted any of the refinements of their neighbors on this subject.

[edit]

SQUARE TEMPLE-ENCLOSURES, AND WORSHIP OF THE FEMALE PRINCIPLE.

95. In some instances, the circular area above mentioned is enclosed in a square one; and we are told that a square stone was the primitive symbol of several deities, more especially of the celestial Venus, or female productive power, both among the ancient Greeks and ancient Arabians.'"" Upon most of the very early Greek coins, too, we find an inverse or indented square, sometimes divided into four, and sometimes into a greater number of compartments; and latterly with merely the symbol of the Deity forming the device, in the centre. Anti- quaries have supposed this incuse to be merely the impression of something put under the coin to make it receive the stroke of the die more steadily:"" but in all that we have seen of this kind, amounting to some hundreds, the coin has been driven into the die, and not struck with it, and the incuse impression been made either before or after the other, the edges of it being always beaten in or out. Similar impressions also occur on some of the little .^Egyptian amulets of paste, found in

^" SiOVHor'Ll.s: Aptid Justin Mar- ^™ Maximus Tyrius: xxxviii.

tyr. Co/wri. cd Gent. -p. 10. CLEMENT of Alexandria.

^'* Plutarch : Nmna. Pausanias : Achaica, xxii. 3.

"' Varro : InAzigustindiCiv.DH, " There stood next the statue square

iv. 6. While Mr. Knight denies the stones, thirty in number ; the Pharians

genuineness of the Avesta, he is ready worship them, calling each by the name

enough to accept the legendary his- of some divinity ; but more anciently,

tory of Rome. Yet it appears on its and afterward among the Greeks, white

face to be what learned writers have stones received honors as symbols of

asserted, a compilation or rather in- the gods."

vention of later writers. The tales of Pausanias : ^toVa, xiv. 2. "The Romulus and Rsemus, the Sabine statue of (Aphrodite) was four-square women, and other such stories, are like the Hermaic pillars ; and the probably no more valuable than the inscription declared the Aphrodite- history of King Arthur. Numa, the Urania to be the most ancient of those Pythagorean sovereign is evidently a called The Fates." character borrowed from the Oriental *^' Abbe Barthelemi : Memoiresdt Vv'orld ; and the resemblance of his t Academic des Inscriptions, xxiv. 30. name to Ntun or Kneph, the agatho- D'Ancarville : Recherches sur Ut dcemon of Egypt is probably some- Arts, Book I. iv. thing more than an accident. — A. W.

133

64 The Symbolical Language of

mummies, which were never struck, or marlced with any ira pression on the reverse.

96. In these square areas, upon different coins almost every different symbol of the Deity is to be found : whence, probably, the goddess, represented by this form, acquired the singular titles of the Flace of the Gods'^ and the Mundane House of Ho- rns™ These titles are both Egyptian ; but the latter is signi- fied very clearly upon Greek coins, by an asterisk placed in the centre of an incuse square ; '" for the asterisk being composed of obelisks, or rays diverging from a globe or common centre, was the natural representation of the Sun; and precisely the same as the radiated head of Apollo, except that, in the latter, the globe or centre was humanised. Upon the ancient medals of Corinth and Cnossus, the square is a little varied, by having the angles drawn out and inverted ; ^" particularly upon those of the latter city, which show a progressive variation of this form from a few simple lines, which, becoming more compli- cated and inverted, produce at length the celebrated Laby- rinth °" which Daedalus is said by the mythologists to have built for Minos, as a prison to confine a monster begotten upon his wife Pasiphae, by a bull, and therefore called the Mino- taur. Pasiphae is said to have been the daughter of the Sun ; and her name, signifying all-splendid, is evidently an ancient epithet of that luminary. The bull is said to have been sent by Neptune or Poseidon ; °" and the title which distinguished the offspring is, in an ancient inscription, applied to At3's, the Phrygian Bacchus : "* whence the meaning of the whole alle- gory distinctly appears; the Minotaur being only the ancient symbol of the bull, partly humanised ; to whom Mir os may have sacrificed his tributary slaves, or, more probtoly, em- ployed them in the service of the Deity.""

"' SiMPLlcius : On Aristotle, HooV ^^^ Apollodorus : iii. i.

IV. " Wherefore the Egyptians call ^^" Gruter : vol. I. p. x.wiii. 6.

the Syrian A'argatis and Isis, 'The " Atlidi Minotauro" — to Atys, the

place of the gods,' as containing all Minotaur.

the divinities." Plutarch explains that ^^' Modern classical scholars are

Osiris was the beginning, Isis the re- disposed to make a distinction be-

ceptacle or intermediate, and Horus tween the Roman divinity, " Neptune

the ccmplement {Isis atid Osiris). or the Sea," and the eastern god

^" Plutarch. Isis and Osiris, 56. Poseidon: Sir H. C. Rawlinson, Sir.

" Isis is also Muth.and again they call Gladstone, and other eminent writers,

her Athyri and Methyer. They imply consider that although Poseidon was a

by the first of these names, the Mother, Deity connected with the Sea, he was

and by the second the mundane house not an actual Sea-God. We learn from

of Jlorus." Homer and Herodotus, that he was

* See small brass or bronze coins the chief god in the pantheon of Libya

of Syracuse. and Africa, and accordingly was a

'^' See Hunterian Museum. Hamitic rather than an Aryan divin-

^* See Hunterian Museum. ity. He w.n.s also worshipped in Crete.

I.i4

Ancient Art and Mythology. 65

[edit]

THE BULL-SYMBOL.

97. In the centre of one of the more simple and primitive labyrinths on the Grecian coins above cited, is the head of a bull ; "° and in others of a more recent style, the more com- plicated labyrinth is round."' On some of those of Camarina in Sicily, the head of the god, more humanised than the Mino- taur, yet still with the horns and features of the bull, is repre- sented in the centre of an indented scroll, '" vifhich other coins show to have been meant to represent the waters, by a transverse section of waves."' On the coins, too, of Magnesia upon the Meander, the figure of Apollo is represented as leaning upon the tripod, and standing upon some crossed and inverted square lines, similar to the primitive form of the laby- rinth on the coins of Corinth above cited.'" These have been supposed to signify the river Meander: but they more prob- ably signify the waters in general; as we find similar crossed and inverted lines upon coins struck in Sicily, both Greek and Punic; "" and also upon rings and fibulae, which are frequently adorned with symbolical devices, meant to serve as amulets or charms. The bull, however, both in its natural form, and humanised in various degrees, so as in some instances to leave only the horns of the animal symbol, is perpetually employed

and may be identified with the Philis- Sidon. The building of the Laby- tine Dagon, whom G. W. Cox consid- rinth is indicative of a similar idea ; ers to be the same as Cannes of Baby- Labyrinths, or winding caverns, gener- lonia and Ana or Ana-melech of Sip- ally underground, weie constructed in para. He is thus allied to the ancient India, Afghanistan, Susiana, Arabia, worship of the East, as the representa- Egypt and other countries occupied tive of wisdom and civilization ; the by the .Ethiopian race ; and it was Building-God, father of the Cyclopean customary among them also to sacrifice shepherds, who revolutionised the their children, selected victims, slaves, countries which they occupied and captives, persons sent for the purpose left behind them the stupendous from tributary provinces, and all monuments of their greatness. strangers not entitled to protection. Mr. Knight is probably right in de- The devouring of human victims by daring the Minotaur to have been the the Cyclopes of Libya, the Seirens, ancient symbol of the Bull, partly hu- Lamise and Lestrygones, as well as manised ; that representation of the the Minotaur, was but a poetical figure Supreme Being as the Sun in Taurus, to denote this custom. — A. W. at the vernal equinox, being a general **" In the cabinet of R. P. Knight, symbol in all the countries on the ^■" In the same. Also in the Brit- Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, ish Museum.

Pasiphae, the queen, is identical with * Hunterian Museum, tab. 14, No.

Venus-Astarte. The sending of the ix.

bull by Poseidon only implied that the ^'" lb. tab. 56, No. iii.

Libyans or Phoenicians occupied the ^'" li. tab. 35, No. ix.

country; as is also signified by the trans- '" See a specimen of them on the

portation thither of the maid Europa, reverse of a small coin, Mus. Hunter.,

the mother of Minos and daughter of tab. 67, No. v, Agenor or Belus, the tutelar god of

139

66 The Symbolical Language of

upon coins to signify particular rivers or streams; which be- ing all derived from the Bacchus Hyes, as the Nile was from Osiris, were all represented under the same form.'"

g8. It appears, therefore, that the asterisk, Bull, or Mino- taur, in the centre of the square or labyrinth, equally mean the same as the Indian lingam— that is, the male personification of the productive attribute placed in the female, or heat acting upon humidity. Sometimes the bull is placed between two dolphins,"' and sometimes upon a dolphin or other fish ; '" and in other instances the goat or the ram occupy the same situation;"" which are all different modes of expressing dif- ferent modifications of the same meaning in symbolical or mystical writing. The female personifications frequently oc- cupy the same place : in which case the male personification is always upon the reverse of the coin, of which numerous in- stances occur in those of Syracuse, Naples, Tarentum, and other cities.

[edit]

BACCHUS AND ARIADNE.

99. Ariadne, the fabled wife of Bacchus, is a personage concerning whom there has been more confusion of history and allegory than concerning almost any other. Neither she, nor Bacchus, nor Theseus, appear to have been known to the author of the Iliad ; the lines concerning them all three being manifestly spurious : but in the Odyssey, she is said to have been the daughter of Minos, and to have been carried away from Crete by Theseus to Athens, where she was killed by Diana — that is, died suddenly before he enjoyed her."" Such

"^s See coins of Catania, Seliuus, 2'" Odyssey, xi. : "And I beheld

Gela, Sybaris, etc. Phsdra and Procris, and fair Ariad-

^" See brass coins of Syracuse. ne, the daughter of wise Minos, whom

" Seen on a gold coin of Eretria Theseus once led from Crete to the

(Eubaea), owned by Mr. Knight, soil of sacred Athens ; but he did

Hence the address made by the Elian not enjoy her, for Artemis (Diana)

women in their hymn to Dionysus, slew her before-hand in the island

preserved by Plutarch, Greek Ques- Dia, on account of the testimony of

lions, 36 : Dionysus."

" Come, Dionysus, with thy ox-foot, As Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, was

come to thy pure temple by the sea, identical with Venus Astarte and De-

and sacrifice with the Graces." meter (§ 96, note 339), so Ariadne, her

Then they chant twice the words daughter, is to be regarded as another

" Axii Tawri*," worthy is the Bull. form of Kore-Persephoneia. The in.

The superstitious notion of mod- terpretation of the legend is as fol-

ern witchcraft, ihat the devil has a lows : The Bull sent by Poseidon to

cloven foot, was evidently derived Crete, crossing over into Greece, and

from this conceit of the ox-foot of there caught by Hercules, implies that

Bacchus-Dionysus. the Sidonian influence in that island

"" See gold coins of Mgx and Cla- extended to the mainland, but suc-

zomenae, in Mr. Knight's collection. cumbed there to the milder cultus

140

Theseus, Ariadne, and the Minotaur.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 67

appears to have been the plain sense of the passage, according to its true and original reading : but Theseus having become a deified and symbolical personage, in a manner hereafter to be explained, Ariadne became so likevtrise ; and was therefore fabled to have been deserted by him in the island of Naxus ; where Bacchus found and married her; in consequence of which she became the female personification of the attribute which he represented ; and, as such, constantly appears in the symbolical monuments of art, with all the accessory and characteristic emblems. Some pious heathen, too, made a bungling alteration, and still more bungling interpolation, in the passage of the Odyssey, to reconcile historical tradition with religious mythology.

100. In many instances, the two personifications are united in one; and Bacchus, who on other occasions is represented as a bearded venerable figure,"' appears with limbs, features, and character of a beautiful young woman ; "" sometimes dis- tinguished by the sprouting horns of the bull,"' and sometimes without any other distinction than the crown or garland of vine or ivy.°" Such were the Phrygian Atys, and Syrian Adonis ; whose history, like that of Bacchus, is disguised by poetical and allegorical fable ; but who, as usually repre- sented in monuments of ancient art, are androgynous person- ifications of the same attribute,"" accompanied, in different instances, by different accessory symbols. Considered as the pervading and fertilising spirit of the waters, Bacchus differs from Neptune in being a general emanation, instead of a local division, of the productive power; and also in being a per-

represented by the Hero-God, Hercu- '^' See silver coins of Naxus, and

les. Theseus (Theos-Zeus) carrying Plates i6 and 39 of vol. vi. of Select

away Ariadne, and her destruction by Specimens.

Artemis, or Diana, expresses the fail- "* See Coins of Camarina (Sicily),

ure to supersede the bloody rites, etc.

Death by the hand of Diana can **^ See Hunterian Museum, gold

hardly signify perishing in maiden- coins of Lampsacus, and silver coins

hood ; for the Ephesian or Amazonian of Maronea.

goddess was not a virgin deity, but ^ See gold medals of Lampsacus,

was identical with the Great Mother, brass medals of Rhodes, and vol. i.

Cybele, Isis, or Anaitis, whose wor- pi. 39, of Select Specimens.

ship in Armenia and Pontus, like that '" Plutarch : Symposiacs, v. 3.

of Mylitta and Venus-Aphrodite in " Both the gods (Poseidon and Diony-

Assyria and Cyprus, was accompanied sus) appear to be lords of the moist

by the defloration of marriageable or female, and of the male generating

women. principle."

The marriage of Ariadne to Bac- Phurnutus : De NaturA Deorum,

chus is therefore perfectly in harmony iv. " Poseidon is the active principle

with the mystical sense, allying the tale in the earth, and the potency of

with the loves of Venus-Astarte and moisture around the earth." Adonis, and the wanderings of Dido, Isis, Ceres, and Cybele. — A. W.

I4S

68 The Symbolical Language of

Eonificntion derived from a more refined and philosophical system of religion, engrafted upon the old elementary wor- ship, to which Neptune belonged."'

101. It is observed by Dionysius the geographer, that Bacchus was worshipped with peculiar zeal and devotion by the ancient inhabitants of some of the smaller British islands,"' ■where the women, crowned with ivy, celebrated his clamorous noctur- nal rites upon the shores of the Northern Ocean, in the same manner as the Thracians did upon the banks of the Apsinthus, or the Indians upon thtse of the Ganges.'" In Stukeley's Itinerary is the ground-plan of an ancient Celtic or Scandinavian temple, found in Zealand, consisting of a circle of rude stones within a square : and it is probable that many others of these circles were originally enclosed in square areas. Stonehenge is the most important monument of this kind now extant; and from a passage of Hecatasus, preserved by Diodorus Siculus, it seems to have been not wholly unknown to that ancient his- torian ; who might have collected some vague accounts of the British islands from the Phoenician and Carthaginian mer- chants, who traded there for tin. " The Hyperboreans," said he, " inhabit an island beyond Gaul, in which Apollo is worshipped in a circular temple considerable for its size and riches." This island can be no other than Britain ; in which we know of no traces of any other circular temple, which could have appeared con- siderable to a Greek or Phoenician of that age. That the ac-

^' Plutarch : Ids and Osins, 35. the tutelar god of Libya, as Herodotus

' The Greeks consider Dionysus not has shown ; he visited the .(Ethiopians,

solely as the god of wine, but also as and was worshipped at Philadelphia

the lord of every function of nature." and other inland places, as well as in

This assertion of Mr. Knight is de- the island of Crete and in Bceotia. nied by later scholars. The Hon. Mr. Mr. Brown accordingly considers him Gladstone declares of Poseidon that as identical with the Dagon of the " Though God of the Sea he is not, so Philistines and Hoa or Cannes of Ba- to speak, the Sea-God, or the Water- bylon, of whom H. C. Rawlinson re- God. He has in him nothing of an marks : " Hoa occupies in the first elemental Deity." The true sea-god Triad the position which in the Clas- is Nereus. He is the building-god, sical Mythology is filled by Poseidon, and stands in close relation to the and in some respects he corresponds giants and other rebellious personages. to him." — A. W. " In the western portion of the Outer ™ Dionysius: i. 170. Sphere, Zeus practically disappears Mr. Knight supposes these islands from the governing office, and Posei- to have been the Hebrides or Orkneys, don becomes the Supreme Ruler." *'* Diodorus Siculus : ii. 13 : Hence Ulysses, in the Odyssey, comes " Hecataeus and others assert that oftenest into collision with him ; and there is an island opposite the Celtic Mr. Gladstone suggests that he was provinces not less in size than Sicily ; " the god or the chief-god of the Phoi- that there was upon the island a mag- nikes." (Juventus Mundi, ch. viii). nificent temenos (or enclosed circle) of

Mr. Robert Brown, Jr., going farther, Apollo, and a famous temple of a cir-

says : " Poseidaon, sire of gods and cular form, abundantly adorned with

men," to the Hamitic East. He was 'votive offerings."

146

Marsyas and Olympos.

Eros and Satyr,

Ancient Art and Mythology. 69

count should be imperfect and obscure is not surprising; since even the most inquisitive and credulous travelers among the Greeks could scarcely obtain sufficient information con- cerning the British islands to satisfy them of their existence."' A temple of the same form was situated upon Mount Zilmissus in Thrace, and dedicated to the Sun under the title of Bacchus Sabazius; "° and another is mentioned by Apollonius Rho- dius, which was dedicated to Mars upon an island in the Euxine Sea near the coast of the Amazons.""

[edit]

PYRAMIDS, OBELISKS, AND CHURCH-SPIRES AS SUN-EMBLEMS.

102. The large obelisks of stone found in many parts of the North, such as those at Rudstone and near Boroughbridge in Yorkshire, belonged to the same religion : obelisks, as Pliny observes, being sacred to the Sun ; whose rays they signified both by their form and name."" They were therefore the em- blems of light, the primary and essential emanations of the Deity ; whence radiating the head, or surrounding it with a dia- dem of small obelisks, was a mode of consecration or deification, which flattery is often employed in portraits both of the Mace- donian kings and Roman emperors.'" The mystagogues and poets expressed the same meaning by the epithet Lukeios or Lukaios J which is occasionally applied to almost every per- sonification of the Deity, and more especially to Apollo ; who is likewise called Luklgenetes, or as contracted Lukigenes ; "* which mythologists have explained by an absurd fable of his having been born in Lycia ; whereas it signifies the Author or Generator of Light ; being derived from Luki, otherwise Lukos, of which the Latin word Lux is a contraction.

» Herodotus: iii. 115 : " I do not Ancient Faith Embodied in Ancient

allow Ihat there is any river to which Names, i. 29, 609. — A. W.

the barbarians give the name of Eri- ^" ApoLLONitJS Rhodius : Argo-

danus (probably the Vistula), emptying nautica, ii. n6o.

itself into the northern (IJaltic) sea, ^'^ Pliny: xxxvi. 14.

whence, as the tale goes, amber is Plutarch: Roman Questions, 2.

procured ; nor do I know of any " Light is the emblem of generation."

islands called the Cassiterides (the ^*' See Pliny : Panegyricz, Iii.

Tin Islands), whence the tin comes Also Coins of Antiochus IV and VI.

which we use." of Syria, Philip IV. of Macedonia,

^^ Macrobius : Saturnalia, i. 18. and of several of the Ptolemies, Oc-

It is noticeable that lacchus-Saba- tavius, etc.

zins is but a variant reading of the '" Homer : Iliad, iv. loi.

Hebrew or Phoenician designation, Mr. W. C. Bryant, not taking such a

Jaho-Tzabaoth, a name applied by view, has rendered the term " Lycian."

the Tyrians to the Sun-God in autumn, But Jacob Bryant, from another

and adopted apparently by King standing-point, derives these terms

David from them, as the title of the from El-Uk, a title of the sun among

Hebrew tutelar god. See INMAN : the Egyptians and Babylonians ; the

149

70 The Symbolical Language of

103. The titles Lucetius and Diespiter applied to Jupiter are expressive of the same attribute ; the one signifying lu??iinous, and the other Father of Day, which the Cretans called by the name of the Supreme God."" In symbolical writing the same meaning was signified by the appropriate emblems in various countries ; whence Zeus Meilichios at Si- cyon, and the Apollo Carinas at Megara in Attica, were repre- sented by stones of the above-mentioned form ; °°° as was also the Apollo Agyieus in various places; "" and both Apollo and Diana by simple columns pointed at the top; or, as the sym- bol began to be humanised, with the addition of a head, hands, and feet."' On a Lapland drum the goddess Isa or Disa is represented by a pyramid surmounted with the emblem so frequently observed in the hands of the Egyptian deities ; °" and the pyramid has likewise been observed among the reli- gious symbols of the savages of North America.^" The most sacred idol, too, of the Hindus in the Great Temple of Jugger- naut, in the province of Orissa, is a pyramidal stone ;°" and the altar in the Temple of Mexico, upon which'human victims were sacrificed to the Deity of the Sun, was a pointed pyramid, on which the unhappy captive was extended on his back in order to have his heart taken out by the priest."'

104. The spires and pinnacles, with which our old churches are decorated, come from these ancient symbols ; and the weathercocks, with which they are surmounted, though now only employed to show the direction of the wind, were origin- ally emblems of the Sun ; for the cock is the natural herald of the day ; and therefore sacred to the fountain of light.'" In the symbolical writing of the Chinese, the Sun is still repre-

initial vowel being finally elided. — Aguieus: "The conical pillar by

A. W. the gates of buildings ; a priest of

^" Macrobius : Saturnalia, \. 15. Apollo, and the god himself."

»«» Pausanius ; Corinth, ix. § 6. ^^^ Pausanias : Laconia, xix. 2.

" Zeus Meilichios [Moloch] and Ar- " It had a face, feet, and hands ; the

temis also named Pairoa (the paternal, rest is like a brazen pillar ; upon the

perhaps as being an Amazonian, or head is a helmet, and in the hands, a

male-female), are made with no plastic lance and a bow."

skill; he is represented by a pyramid, *«' Olaus Rudbeckius: Atlantica,

and she by a pillar." p. n ; v. 277, and xi. p. 261.

Attica, yXw.'^-i: "A stone having "^ Lafitau: Matirs des Sauvages,

the form of a pyramid, not of large vol. i. pp. 146 and 148.

dimensions ; they call it Apollo Ka- 211 Hamilton: Travels in India.

I'inas." s« AcosTA : History of the In-

^" SuiDAs: "Agyieus (the tutelar dies. deity, or protector of highways) is rep- '" Pausanias: p. 444: "They de- resented by a pillar running to a point, clare the cock to be sacred to the sun, which is placed by the gates ; some say and the angel (herald) to announce that they belong to Apollo, and others the Coming of the Sun." to Dionysus, or to both alike."

150

Herakles and the Daughters of Eurj'tos.

Car of Juggernaut at StreeveUputoor.

Ancient Art and Mythology. J\

sented by a cock in a circle ; "' and a modern Parsee would suffer death, rather than be guilty of the crime of killing one."' It appears on many ancient coins, with some symbol of the pas- sive productive power on the reverse ; "° and in other instances it is united with Priapic and other emblems and devices, sig- nifying different attributes combined.'"

[edit]

THE GOOD AND EVIL PRINCIPLES.

105. The Egyptians, among whom the obelisk and pyramid were most frequently employed, held that there were two op- posite powers in the world perpetually acting against each other ; the one generating and the other destroying ; the for- mer of whom they called Osiris, and the latter Typhon. By the contention of these two, that mixture of good and evil, of procreation and dissolution, which was thought to constitute the harmony of the world, was supposed to be produced ; "' and the notion of such a necessary mixture, or reciprocal op- eration, was, according to Plutarch, of unmemorable antiquity, de- rived from the earliest theologists and legislators, not only in traditions and reports, but also in mysteries and sacred rites both Greek and Barbarian™ Fire was held to be the efBcient principle of both ; and, according to som e of the later yEgyptians, that sethe- rial fire supposed to be concentrated in the Sun ; but Plutarch controverts this opinion, and asserts that Typhon, the evil or destroying power, was a terrestial or material fire, essentially different from the sethereal; although he, as well as other Greek writers, admits him to have been the brother of Osiris, equally sprung from Kronos and Rhea, or Time and Matter."" In this,

' Du Halde: vol. II.: "They and philosophers, it having an original

(the Chinese) in representing the sun, fathered upon no one, but having

put a cock in a circle." gained a persuasion both strong and

" Hyde : Religion of the Ancient indelible, and being everywhere re-

Persians. ceived by both Barbarians and Greeks

^" See Coins of Himera, Same- — and that not only in popular dis-

thrace, Suessa, etc. course and public repute, but also in

^" See Coins of Selinus, Himera, their secret Mysteries and public sacri-

Samothrace, etc. fices — that the universe is neither

"* Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 45. hurried about by blind chance, with-

" The harmony of the universe is, ac- out intelligence, discourse, and direc-

cording to Herakleitos, like that of tion," etc.

a bow or a harp, alternately tightened HIPPOCRATES ; " This to come into

and relaxed, and according to Euripi- existence, to cohabit, to die, to dissolve

des (/Eolus): away, to be judged." 'Nor good nor bad here's to be found apart, ^'^ PLUTARCH : Isis and Osiris.

But both immixed in one, for greater art.' Also DiODORUS SicULUS. i.

^" Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 45. Wilkinson in Rawlinson's Hero-

" Therefore this most ancient opinion dolus, ii. 171, note 4, says : " The

has been handed down from the theo- sufferings and death of Osiris were the

logians and law-makers to the poets Great Mystery of the Egyptian relig-

153

The Symbolical Language of

however, as in other instances, he was seduced, partly by his own prejudices, and partly by the new system of the Jigyptian Platonists ; according to which there was an original evil prin- ciple in nature, co-existing with the good, and acting in perpet- ual opposition to it.

io6. This opinion owes its origin to a false notion, which we are apt to form, of good and evil, by considering them as self-existing inherent properties, instead of relative modifica-

ion, and some traces of it are percep- tible among other people of antiquity. His being the divine goodness, and the abstract idea of 'good,' his manifestation upon earth (like a Hindu God), his death and resurrec- tion, and his office as judge of the dead in a future state, look like the early revelation of a future manifesta- tion of the deity converted into a mythological fable, and are not less remarkable than the notion of the Egyptians mentioned by Plutarch (in Life of Numa)^ that a woman might conceive by the approach of some di- vine spirit. As Osiris signified ' good,' Typhon (or rather Seth) was ' evil,' and the remarkable notion of good and evil being brothers, is abundantly illustrated with early sculptures ; nor was it till a change was made, appar- ently by foreigners from Asia, who held the doctrine of the Two Prin- ciples [represented by Oromazd and Ahriman, Zoroaster, and ZohakJ , that evil became confounded with sin, when the brother of Osiris no longer received divine honors. Till then. Sin, ' the great serpent,' or Aphophis, ' the giant ' (or earth-born) was dis- tinct from Seth [or Satan] who was a deity, and part of the divine system, which recalls these words of Isaiah (xlv. 7) : ' I form the light and create darkness ; I make peace and create evil ; I, the Lord, do all these things.' And in Amos (iii. 6) : ' Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it ? ' In like manner the my- thology of India admitted the Creator and Destroyer as characters of the Divine Being. Seth was even called Eaal-Seth, and was the god of their enemies also, which was from war being an evil, as peace in the above words is equivalent to good ; and in (Baal-) Zephon we may perhaps trace the name of Typhon. [The izadia.nd iau were interchangeable, as in Tzur, or Tyre.] In the same sense, the Ki^yptians represented Seth teaching

a Pharaoh the use of the bow, and other weapons of destruction, which were producers of evil. Sin, the giant Aph-ophis, as ' the great serpent,' often with a human head, being repre- sented pierced by the spear of Horus, or of Atmoo [the hidden one — the Tammuz of Ezekiel, viii. 16] as Re the ' Sun ' recalls the war of the gods and giants, and the fable of Apollo (or the Sun) and Python, the serpent slain by Vishnu. [The Greek name (Python) was probably Egyptian, Pi-Tan, and may be traced to the Tan^ or Tanin^ of Hebrew, translated serpent^ or dragon^ and whale^ in Gen- esis, i. 21 ; Job, viii. 12 ; Ezekiel, xxvii. 2 ; but which in Genesis might rather apply to the Saurian monsters in the early state of the world. It is singu- lar that the Egyptians even believed that it was inhabited by large mon- sters. The Python evidently corre- sponded to the giant ' Aph-ophis,' or Apap of Egypt, represented as the ' great serpent,' who was sin, and was pierced by the spear of Horus (Apollo), and other gods. The last syllable of Satan (Shaytan) is not re- lated to Tan^ as some might imagine, the / being a teth, and not a tau in the Hebrew ; but Titan may be related to it.

" Osiris may be said rather to have presided over the judgment of the dead than to have judged them ; he gave ad- mission to those who were found wor- thy to the abode of happiness. He was not the avenging deity ; he did not pun- ish nor could he show mercy, or subvert the judgment pronounced. It was a simple question of fact. Each man's conscience was his own judge. Thoth (or that part of the divine nature called Intellect and Conscience) weighed and condemned ; and Horus (who had been left on earth to follow out the conquests of his father, Osiris, after he had returned to heaven) ushered in the just to the divine pres- ence.' "

154

Ancient Art and Mythology. 73

tions dependent upon circumstances, causes, and events : but though entertained by very learned and distinguished individ- uals, it does not appear ever to have formed a part of the re- ligious system of any people or established sect. The beautiful allegory of the tvsro casks in the Iliad, makes Jupiter the dis- tributor of both good and evil ; '" which Hesiod also deduces from the same gods."^ The statue of Olympian Jupiter at Megara, begun by Pheidias and Theocosmos, but never finished, the work having been interrupted by the Peloponnesian war, had the Seasons and Fates over his head, to show, as Pausanias says, that the former were regulated by him, and the latter obedient to his will."' In the citadel of Argos was preserved an ancient statue of him in wood, said to have belonged to king Priam, which had three eyes (as the Scandinavian deity Thor sometimes had, "") to show the triple extent of his power and providence over Heaven, Earth, and Hell ; "' and in the Orphic Hymns or mystic invocations, he is addressed as the giver of life and the destroyer.""

107. The third eye of this ancient statue was in the fore- head ; and it seems that the Hindus have a symbolical figure of the same kind : "' whence we may venture to infer that the Cyclopes, concerning whom there are so many inconsistent fables, owed their fictitious being to some such enigmatical compositions. According to the ancient Theogony attributed to Hesiod, they were the sons of Heaven and Earth, and brothers of Saturn or Time ; "° signifying, according to the Scholiast, the circular or central powers, "° the principles of

^*' Homer : Iliad, xx. Bryanfs ^*° Orphic Hy/nn, Ixxii.

Translation. ^" Asiatic Researches, i. p. 248

" The gods ordain " This is Siva, or more anciently.

The lot of man to suffer, while themselves Maha Deva, originally the ante-Vedic

Are free from care. Beside Jove's thresh- ^ jj f j^e aboriginal Hindus."

old stand ^J, -,y B,,

Twocasksof gifts for men; one cask con- •'™ HESIOD : Theogony, v. 139.

tains More literally the sons of Ouranos

Theevil, one the good and he to whom ^nd Gaia, and brothers of Kronos,

The Thunderer gwes them mmgled, some- t_- 1. i ^ j- - -^ i_ j, ^

times falls which later divimty hardly appears to

Into misfortune, and is sometimes crowned be the same as Chronos, or Time, but

With blessings. But the man to whom he rather as Moloch the Fire-God.— A. W.

The^evi?only, stands a mark exposed , ^'^ Scholium on v. 139. "Cyclopes

To wrong, and chased by grim calamity, (Kuklopes), the powers of the circle,

Wanders the teeming earth, alike unloved or universe. Mr. Knight discards the

by gods and men, ' etc. etymology of the scholiast.

'- Hesiod: Works and Days, bo. Modern research, we think, has

^ Pausanias : Attica, xi. pretty accurately solved the nature

"■' Olaus Rudeeckius : Atlantica, and character of the Cyclopean tribes,

part ii. v. p. 518. and assigned them to the same race

^'^ Pausanias : Corinth, xxiv. § 5 : as the Berbers and Phoenicians, of

" Zeus had two eyes, placed naturally, whom they were probably o£f-shoots.

and the third upon the forehead. They are described as inhabitants of

They say that Priam had this bust of Libya and Sicily, following a pastoral

Zeus from his ancestor, Laoraedon." life, worshipping Poseidon, and eating

157

The Symbolical Language of

the general motion of the universe above noticed. The Cyclops of the Odyssey is a totally different personage ; but as he is said to be the son of Neptune or Poseidon, it is probable that he equally sprang from some emblematical figure, or allegorical tale. Whether the poet meant him to be a giant of a one-eyed race, or to have lost his other eye by accident, is uncertain ; but the former is most probable, or he would have told what the accident was. — In an ancient piece of sculpture, however, found in Sicily, the artist has supposed the latter, as have also some learned modern writers.*'"

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ANIMAL SYMBOLS.

io8. The .^Egyptians represented Typhon by the Hippopo- tamus, the most fierce and savage animal known to them ; and upon his back they put a hawk fighting with a serpent, to sig- nify the direction of his power ; for the hawk was the emblem of power, as the serpent was of life; whence it was employed as the symbol of Osiris, as well as of Typhon."' Among the

or more probably sacrificing, strangers who fell into their power. They are, again, depicted as a giant race, that introduced a massive style of archi- tecture into Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy ; also as being the progenitors of Galatus, lUyrius, and Keltus, or more literally of the Gauls, lUyrians, and Celtic tribes ; as workers in mines, and smiths who forged the weapons with which Zeus destroyed /Esculapius. The foundations of the First Temple at Jerusalem, and the great dykes and traces of fortifications at Arvad, in Phoenicia, exactly correspond in cha- racter with the Cyclopean structures in Greece. There are also the re- mains of similar buildings in Arabia, Assyria, Persia, and even India. Eu- ripides seems to have afforded us the key, when he declares that the walls of Mycenee were built by the Cyclopeans after the Phoenician Canon and method. Phoenician architecture is remarkable for its massiveness and for partaking of the specialities peculiar to the styles both of Assyria and ^gypt. The round Tower-pillars, like those in the Temple of Melkavth-Hercules at Tyre, of Solomon at Jerusalem, of Atargatis, the Syrian Goddess, at Bambyke, or Hierapolis, and the re- markable pillars in Ireland, are evi- dently to be attributed to the same origin. We notice that in the ancient

records, the identity of nations since regarded as distinct and separate, ap- pears to be an accepted opinion ; and this may furnish an additional clew to this problem. The shepherds of Egypt are also denominated in the Chronicle, Phoenicians, Hellenes or Greeks, Ara- bians, and Strangers, or Xeni ; and it is not improbable that they were pro- genitors or akin to the shepherd-colo- nists of Libya and Sicily, as well as many of the tribes of Greece and Palestine. They occupied large dis- tricts in Thrace, where the Bacchic rites, as well as numerous sciences, were cultivated, all of which are also ascribed to Egyptian sources by He- rodotus and others. We suspect, therefore, that they owe their designa- tion to their peculiar worship and arts. They were ophites ; and the syllable ops, which is the terminal of so many ancient names, is the contrac- tion of ophis, a serpent. The lemain- der of their appellation is Kuklos, or cycle, which may mean the universe. Yet they do not transmit that designa- tion to history, but are classed N\'ith the Tyrian builders, the Libyans, Italian tribes, and cognate populations wherever they happened to dwell. — A. W.

IIOUKL : Voyage en Sidle, plate

137- ^" Plutarch : his and Osiris, 50.

15S

n^;<:>r;/^i«:?^^#es^;,v^

. •'/>o

Europa.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 75

Greeks it was sacred to Apollo ; but we do not recollect to have seen it on any monuments of their art, though other birds of prey, such as the eagle and cormorant, frequently occur."" The eagle is sometimes represented fighting with a serpent, and sometimes destroying a hare,"' which, being the most prolific of all quadrupeds, was probably the emblem of fertil- ity.'" In these compositions the eagle must have represented the destroying attribute : but when alone, it probably meant the same as the .^Egyptian hawk : whence it was the usual sym- bol of the Supreme God, in whom the Greeks united the three great attributes of creation, preservation, and destruction. The ancient Scandinavians placed it upon the head of their god Thor, as they did the bull upon his breast, °" to signify the same union of attributes ; which we sometimes find in subor- dinate personifications among the Greeks. On the ancient Phoenician coins above cited, an eagle perches on the sceptre, and the head of a bull projects from the chair of a sitting fig- ure of Jupiter, similar in all respects to that on the coins of the Macedonian kings supposed to be copied from the statue by Pheidias at Olympia, the composition of which appears to be of earlier date.

109. In the BacchcB oi Euripides, the Chorus invoke their inspiring god to appear under the form of a bull, a many-headed serpent, or a flaming lion ; °°° and we sometimes find the lion among the accessory symbols of Bacchus; though it is most commonly the emblem of Hercules or Apollo, it being the natural representative of the destroying attribute. Hence it is found upon the sepulchral monuments of almost all nations both of Europe and Asia; even in the coldest regions, at a vast distance from the countries in which the animal is capable of existing in its wild state.'" Not only the tombs, but like- wise the other sacred edifices and utensils of the Greeks and Romans, Chinese and Tartars, are adorned with it ; and in Thibet there is no religious structure without a lion's head at

" In Hermopolis, the symbol of Typhon etc. It was deemed aphrodisiac and

was a river horse upon which a hawlc double-sexed.

was placed, fighting with a serpent ; '"' OlAUS Rudbeckius : Atlantica,

representing by the horse, Typhon, part ii. v. pp. 300, 320, 386.

and by the hawk, power, and the ori- '" "Appear, in form, as a bull, as a

gin of things." " They also picture many-headed serp'snt, or as a lion in

Osiris as a hawlc." flaming fire."

^"^ Aristophanes : Birds, 314. The The invocation to the many-headed

cormorant is placed on the coins of serpent shows the probable Hindu ori-

Agrigentum, as the symbol of Hercu- gin of this divinity as the Hydra does

les ; the eagle is well-known as the of Hercules. — A. W.

bird of Jupiter. °" Histoire GMirale des Voyages,

8«3 See coins of Chalais and Euboea, vol. v. p. 458 ; also Embassy to Thibet,

of Elis, Agrigentum, Crete, etc. p. 262 ; and HoueTs Voyage en Sidle.

"*' See coins of Massena, Rhegium,

161

76 The Symbolical Language of

every angle having bells pendent from the lower jaw, though there is no contiguous country that can supply the living model/"

no. Sometimes the lion is represented killing some other symbolical animal, such as the bull, the horse, or the deer; and these compositions occur not only upon the coins and other sacred monuments of the Greeks and Phoenicians,'" but upon those of the Persians,"" and the Tartar tribes of Upper Asia ; "' in all of which they express different modifica- tions of the ancient mystic dogma above mentioned concern- ing the adverse efforts of the two great attributes of procreation and destruction.

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SYMBOL OF THE HORSE.

III. The horse was sacred to Neptune and the Rivers;*"' and employed as a general symbol of the Waters, on account of a supposed affinity, which we do not find that modern naturalists have observed."' Hence came the composition, so frequent on the Carthaginian coins, of the horse with the aste- risk of the Sun, or the winged disk and hooded snakes, over his back; *** and also the use made of him as an emblematical device on the medals of many Greek cities."' In some in- stances the body of the animal terminates in plumes ; *°° and in others has only wings, so as to form the Pegasus, fabled by the later Greek poets to have been ridden by Bellerophon, but only known to the ancient theogonists as the bearer of Aurora and of the thunder and lightning to Jupiter;"' an allegory of which the meaning is obvious. The Centaur appears to have been the same symbol partly humanised;

"» Embassy to Thibet, p. 288. ^^ Aristotle : " The horse, an

'"See the coins of Acanthus and animal fond of washing, and of water."

Velia, and also those of some un- See also note 422.

known city of Phoenicia. HouEL : *>•* See Hunterian Museum, the

Voyage en Sidle, pi. xxxv. and vi. coins being

» Le Bruyn : RuiTis of Persefolis. '■"^ Cyrene, Syracuse, Maronea, Ery

" On old brass coins in the cabinet thee in Boeotia, etc.

of Mr. R. Payne Knight. On a small *<" It is so on coins of Lampsacus.

silver coin of Acanthus, in the same *" Hesiod : Theogony, v. 285. Ly-

cabinet ; where there was not room for COPHRON : Alexander, 17.

the lion on the back of the bull, as in The history of Bellerophon is re-

the larger, the bull has the face of a lated in the Iliad, Book vi. but Homer

lion. _ says nothing of the horse. The later

■"" Homer : xxi. Bryant's Transla- writers inform us that he was first

(ion : named HipponoOs, and Pindar relates

" This river cannot aid you ; this fair stream that he was aided by Athene to be-

With silver eddies, to whose deities come the possessor of Pegasus ; and

Ye oflter many beeves m sacrifice, • .•. j • j „ „iTn- 4..^ Ua.-

And fling into its gulfs your firm-paced '" gratitude raised an altar to her

steeds." under the name Hippeia. Virgil : Ceorgics, i. 12, and iii. 122

A\_-

' I 1 1)

£^

« I

Marsyas and Olympos.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 'j'j

whence the fable of these fictitious beings having been begot- ten on a cloud appears to be an allegory of the same kind."' In the ancient bronze engraved in plate Ixxv. of volume I. of the Select Specimens, a figure of one is represented bearing the Cornucopise between Hercules and ^sculapius, the powers of destruction and preservation ; so that it here manifestly repre- sents the generative or productive attribute. A symbolical figure similar to that of the Centaur occurs among the hiero- glyphical sculptures of the temple of Isis at Tentyra or Dende- ra in .(Egypt ; "' and also one of 'the Pegasus or the winged horse : "° nor does the winged bull, the Cherub of the Hebrews, appear to be any other than an .(Egyptian symbol, of which a prototype is preserved in the ruins of Hermontis.*" The dis- guised indications, too, of wings and horns on each side of the conic or pyramidal cap of Osiris are evident traces of the animal symbol of the winged bull.*"

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LIKENESS OF THE CENTAURS AND SATYRS.

112. On the very ancient coins found near the banks of the Strymon in Thrace, and falsely attributed to the island of Lesbos, the equine symbol appears entirely humanised, except the feet, which are terminated in the hoofs of a horse : but on others, apparently of the same date and country, the Centaur is represented in the same action ; namely, that of embracing a large and comely woman. In a small bronze of very ancient sculpture, the same Priapic personage appears, differing a

"' E. Pococke, in his treatise, India Ions " refines upon this by rendering

in Greece, makes the Centaurs, or Ken- NephelS (the cloud or female form

tauri, an Afghan tribe, and derives mistaken by Ixion for Juno), " a fallen

their appellation from Candahar, a woman," from NePheL, to fall; and

city and district near the Indus. Bry- makes the Centaurs the progeny of a

ant remarks {Analysis of Ancient My- woman debauched after the manner of

ikology, iii. p. 315) that they "were re- the Cyprians and Assyrians, in the pe-

puted to be of Nephelim race (see culiar rites of Mylitta and Astarte.

Genesis, vi. 4). Cheiron was said to Nonnus, as Bryant observes, makes

have been the son of the centaur Kro- them the offspring of Zeus in Cy-

nos, but the rest were the offspring of prus. Dionysiaca, v., xiv., and xxxii.

Ixion and Nepheld (Lycophron, v. " I came with great measure of ardent

1200). They are described by Nonnus passion for Paphia (Venus-Astarte) by

as horned, and as inseparable compan- which embrace was engendered the

ions of Dionysus. He supposes them Centaurs, casting the spore into the

to have been the sons of Zeuth (or secret recesses of earth " (Gaia).

Jupiter) and places them for the most The mythical King Erichthonius is

part in Cyprus." Ships were called said to have been the offspring of

Centaurs, and hence Bryant infers that AthenS and Hephaistos (Vulcan) in a

they had a relation to the ark of Noah; similar manner. — A. W.

which being of " gopher wood," he *" Denon : pi. cxxvii. 2.

supposes was evidence for supposing *'" Denon : pi. cxxxi. 3.

that they were built in Cyprus or *" Denon : pi. cxxix. 2.

Cupher. Hislop in his " Two Baby- *" Select Specimens : i. pi. 2.

165

78 The Symbolical Language of

little in his composition ; he having the tail and ears, as well as the feet of a horse, joined to a human body, together with a goat's beard ; *'" and in the Dionysiacs of Nounus, we find such figures described under the title of Satyrs ; which all other writers speak of as a mixture of the goat and man. These, he says, were of the race of the Centaurs ; with whom they made a part of the retinue of Bacchus in his Indian expedition ; *" and they were probably the original Satyrs derived from Saturn, who is fabled to have appeared under the form of a horse in his addresses to Philyra the daughter of Oceanus ; "' and who, having been the chief deity of the Carthaginians, is probably the personage represented by that animal on their coins.*'" That these equine Satyrs should have been intro- duced among the attendants of Bacchus, either in poetry or sculpture, is perfectly natural ; as they were personifications of the generative or productive attribute equally with the Faniskoi, of those of a caprine form ; wherefore we find three of them on the handle of the very ancient Dionysiac patera, terminating in his symbol of the Minotaur in the cabinet of Mr. R. Payne Knight. In the sculptures, however, they are invariably without horns. The Saturn of the Romans, and probably of the Phoenicians, seems to have been the personifi- cation of an attribute totally different from that of the Kronos of the Greeks, and to have derived his Latin name from Sator, the sower or planter ; which accords with the character of Pan, Silenus, or Silvanus, with which that of Neptune, or humidity, is combined. Hence, on the coins of Naxus in Sicily, we find the figure usually called Silenus with the tail and ears of a horse, sometimes priapic, and sometimes with the priapic term of the Pelasgian Mercury as an adjunct, and always with the head of Bacchus on the reverse. Hence the equine and caprine Satyrs, Fauns, and Paniski, seem to have had nearly the same meaning, and to have respectively differed in different

"' D'Ancarville : Recherckes sur ""s These are probably the person-

les Arts de la Grdce : i. pi. 13. There ages represented on the Thracian or

is no inaccuracy ; the terminal word Macedonian coins above cited ; but

taurus having misled the author into the Saturn of both seems to have an-

supposing that the animal parts were swered rather to the Poseidon of the

those of a bull. Greeks, than to the personification of

•"•' Dionysiacs : xiii. and xiv. See Time, commonly called Kronos or

note 40S. Saturn. The figure represented

'" Virgil : Georgics, iii. 92. " Such mounted upon a winged horse termin-

Saturn (Kronos) too, himself, swift at ating in a fish, and riding upon the

the coming of his wife, spread out a waters, with a bow in his hand, is prob-

full mane upon his equine neck, and ably the same personage. See Mi-

flying filled Pelion with shrill whinney- dailies Phiniciennes du Dutens, pi. i. f.

ing." The etymology proposed is i. The coin is better preserved in the

fanciful. cabinet of Mr. Knight.

166

Kentaurs and Kentauresses.'

Ancient Art and Mythology. 79

stages and styles of allegorical composition only by having more or less of the animal symbol mixed with the human forms, as the taurine figures of Bacchus and the Rivers have more or less or the original bull. Where rhe legs and horns of the goat are retained, they are usually called Satyrs ; and where only the ears and tail, Fauns ; and, as this distinction appears to have been observed by the best Latin writers, we see no reason to depart from it, or to suppose, with some modern antiquaries, that Lucretius and Horace did not apply properly the terms of their own language to the symbols of their own religion/" The baldness always imputed to Sile- nus is perhaps best explained by the quotation in the mar- gin."'

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HIPPA, THE ANCIENT GODDESS.

113. In the Orphic Hymns \he. goddess Hippa is celebrated as the nurse of the generator Bacchus, and the soul of the world;*" and in the cave-temple of Phigale in Arcadia, the daughter of Ceres by Neptune was represented with the head of a horse, having serpents and other animals upon it, and holding upon one hand a dolphin, and upon the other a dove;"° the meaning of which symbols, Pausanias observes, were evident of every instructed and initiated man ; though he does not choose to relate it, any more than the name of this goddess ; "'

" Bassi-reliezri di Roma, ii. page pun on that of the deities. The deities

I4Q, note 14. of that worship that were not Grecian

^'* Hippocrates : " They who are originally were called Hippian, and

bald {phalakids) are of an inflamma- their priests Hippai, as in the case of

tory habit ; and the plasma (phlegm) Diomedes.=-^A. W.

in their head being agitated and heated * Pausanias : Arcadia, xliii. 2, 3.

by salacity, coming to the epidermis The Phygalians say that the offspring

withers the roots of the hair causing it of Demeter (by Poseidon) was not a

to fall off, for which reason castrated mare (Jiippos), but the Despoina (lady,

men are never bald." mistress, tutelar goddess) whom the

The Zeus Phalakiis of the Argives, Arcadians call Hippia

mentioned by Clement (Exhortations, " This cave is regarded as the temple

ii.), is supposed to have acquired that of Demeter, and in it is an image

designation from the same idea. {agalma), made of wood ; this image

■"" .ffj/OTB. xlviii. " Calling Hippa, was made by them in this style ; it was

the nurse of Bacchus." seated on a stone, and was like a wo-

Fragment, xliii. (from Proclus). man, except the head ; but it had the

" Hippa, the suul of everything." head and mane of a mare, and the like-

Hippa is from the Phoenician Hip, nesses of serpents and other animals

and signifies the Parent of all. Hesy- grew to the head ; a chemise {chiton)

chius renders .ffi^/o» as follows; "Hip- covered her to the extremities of the

pon — the sexual parts of a woman or feet ; there was a dolphin upon one

of a man; a large fish." The deity hand and a bird on the other."

Hippa was therefore " parent of gods *" Pausanias : Arcadia, xxxvii. 6

and men," and represented by phallic " The name of the tutelar goddess it

symbols. The horse or hippos was was feared to write for those who had

sacred because the Greek name is a not been initiated."

The Symbolical Language of

they being both probably mystic. The title Hippios or Hippia was applied to several deities ; "^ and occasionly even to living sovereigns, whom flattery had decked out with divine attri- butes ; as appears in the instance of Arsinoe the wife of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who was honored with it."" One of the most solemn forms of adjuration in use among the ancient inhabitants of Sweden and Norway was by the shoulder of the horse ; "■" and when Tyndarus engaged the suitors of Helen to defend and avenge her, he is said to have made them swear upon the testicles of the same animal."'

■*" Pausanias says (Attica, xxxi. 4), that near the Academy in Athens was a mound {bonius) sacred to Poseidon as Hippios and to Pallas- Athena as Hip- pia. He also says, " There is a mound by that of Athena sacred to Hygeia, and they call Athena by the name Hippia, and Dionysus by that of Mel- pomenos, and also Kissos." This lat- ter term probably denotes the Kisssean origin of the Bacchic worship, and is commemorated in oriental fashion by the pun of Kissos or Ivy. sacred to that divinity.

Pausanias also declares — Elia. I., XV. 4 : " The mounds to Poseidon as Hippios, and Hera as Hippia ; . . . the mounds to Arei (Mars) as Hippios, and to Athena as Hippia."

It might be conjectured with great plausibility, that the horse and mare were placed for the divinities whom they represented. In the Hindu My- thology each deity has a vehan or ve- hicle, generally a bird or animal, that is generally depicted with them, in that manner. But Jacob Bryant {An- alysis of Ancient Mythology , iii.) de- clares Hippos and Hippa, Hippios and Hippia were designations brought from an older language ; Hippa, he re- marks, being the same as Cybel^, the Mother-goddess, worshipped in Lydia and Phrygia. She was the nurse of Dionysus after the death of his mother Semele, and his birth from the thigh of his father. Homer speaks of the mares reared by Phoebus in Pieria : " That guided by Eumelus, flew like birds," and Callimachus also refers to them in his Hymn to Apollo. " Those Hippai, misconstrued mares," Bry- ant declares, " were priestesses of the godd;-,s Hippa, who was of old worshipptJ in Thessaly and Thrace, and in many different regions. They

chanted hymns in her temples and performed the rites of fire; but the wor- ship growing obsolete, the very terms were at last mistaken. How far this worship once prevailed may be known from the many places denominated from Hippa." "The rites of Dionysus Hippius were carried into Thrace where the horses of Diomedes were said to have been fed with human flesh. Those horses, xenoktonoi, which fed upon the flesh of strangers, were the priests of Hippa, and of Dionusus, styled Hippos, or more properly Hip- pios."

Mr. Bryant explains elsewhere the cannibalism of the Lasstrygones and Cyclopes, and the slaughtering of men allured by the Sirens, by the same hy- pothesis of human sacrifices. The horse Pegasus, said to have been the son of Poseidon and Medusa, bom from her neck after her head had been cut off by Perseus, is interpreted by Palrephatus as a ship ; and the steed Arei6n, the offspring of Poseidon and Demeter-Erinnys, has in like manner taxed the powers of the euhemerists. Mr. Bryant also supposes that the Great Fish Ceto which was sacred to Dagon or Poseidon, had the same mystical meaning as the horse and ship.

It would curiously affect our literal interpreters of the Hebrew Scripture to learn that the swallowing of Jonah by the Great Fish was a figurative de- scription of his rescue by a ship of the Phoenicians or Philistines, being the effigy of Dagon or Ceto ; and yet it is neither irrational nor incredible. — A. W.

■"^2 Hesychius : Hippia.

■' Mallet : Introduction a la His-

toire de Danemarc.

■" Pausanias : iii. ch. xx.

170

Kentaur and Eros.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 8i

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MEANING OF VARIOUS SYMBOLICAL REPRESENTATIONS

114. In an ancient piece of marble sculpture in relief, Jupi- ter is represented reposing upon the back of a Centaur, who carries a deer in his hand ; by which singular composition is signified, not Jupiter, going to hunt, as antiquaries have supposed,"" but the all-pervading Spirit, or supreme male principle incumbent upon the waters, and producing fertility, or whatever property or modification of properties the deer was meant to signify. Diana, of whom it was a symbol, was in the original planetary and elementary worship, the Moon ; but in the mystic religion, she appears to have been a personi- fication of the all-pervading Spirit, acting through the moon upon the Earth and the waters. Hence she comprehended almost every other female personification, and has innumera- ble titles and symbols expressive of almost every attribute, whether of creation, preservation, or destruction ; as appears from the Pantheic figures of her ; such as she was worshipped in the celebrated temple of Ephesus, of which many are ex- tant. Among the principal of these symbols is the deer, which also appears among the accessory symbols of Bacchus : and which is sometimes blended into one figure with the goat so as to form a composite fictitious animal called a Trag-ele- phus ; of which there are several examples now extant."' The very ancient colossal statue of the androgynous Apollo near Miletus, of which there is an engraving from an ancient copy in the Select Specimens, pi. xii. carried a deer in the right hand, and on a very early gold coin, probably of Ephesus, a male beardless head is represented with the horns of the same ani- mal ; ■"" whence we suspect that the metamorphoses of Actaeon,. like many other similar fables, arose from some such symboli- cal composition.

[edit]

SYMBOLISM AND ALLEGORIES.

115. It is probable therefore that the lion devouring the horse, represents the diurnal heat of the Sun exhaling the

42« WiNCKELMAN ; Monument, Antic, carried away during the troubles by

inedited, No. ii. which Ptolemy XI. was expelled, a

^'" DiODORUS SicuLUS : xxviii. 20. glass one was substituted and exhibited

" EfiSgies of goat-elephants were among in its place in the time of Strabo." See

the ornaments of the magnificent Geogr. xvii.

hearse in which the body of Alexander ■'i'* In the cabinet of Mr. R. Payne

the Great was conveyed from Babylon Knight.

to Alexandria, where it was deposited See Ionian Antiquities published by

in a shrine or coffin of solid gold ; the Society Dilettanti, vol. L c. iii. pL

which having been melted down and ix.

173

82 The Symbolical Language of

waters ; and devouring the deer, the same heat withering and putrefying the productions of the earth ; both of which, though immediately destructive, are preparatory to reproduction : for the same fervent rays, which scorch and wither, clothe the earth with verdure, and mature all its fruits. As they dry up the waters in one season, so they return them in another, causing fermentation and putrefaction, which make one generation of plants and animals the means of producing an- other in regular and unceasing progression, and thus consti- tute that varied yet uniform harmony in the succession of causes and effects, which is the principle of general order and economy in the operations of nature. The same meaning was signified by a composition more celebrated in poetry, though less frequent in art, of Hercules destroying a Centaur; who is sometimes distinguished, as in the ancient coins above cited, by the pointed goat's beard.

1 1 6. This universal harmony is represented, on the frieze of the temple of Apollo Didumaeus near Miletus, by the lyre supported by tvjo symbolical figures composed of the mixed forms and features of the goat and the lion, each of which rests one of its fore-feet upon it.*" The poets expressed the same meaning in their allegorical tales of the loves of Mars and Venus ; from which sprang the goddess Harmonia,"" re- presented by the lyre,"' which, according to the .Egyptians was strung by Mercury with the sinews of Typhon.*"

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"the mother and daughter" ISIS AND PROSERPINA.

117. The fable of Ceres and Proserpina is the same allegory inverted: for Proserpina or Persephoneia, who, as her name indicates, was the goddess of Destruction, is fabled to have sprung from Jupiter and Ceres, the most general personifica- tions of the creative powers. Hence she is called Kore the

■* See Ionian Antiquities published " This was the harp which Zeus's beaute-

by the Society Dilettanti, vol. i. c. iii. „ o^is son

^1 ;„ Framed by celestial skill to play upon ;

l^ '.,„ ■ T ■ , ^ ■ ■ ^^^ for l"s plectrum the sun s beams he

430 Plutarch : Ins and Osms, used,

40. To strike those chords that mortal ears

Sophocles : (Edifus Tyr., v. 190. amused."

This unarmed Mars is the plague: *^ Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, ss-

wherefore that god must have been "They fable that Hermes (Thoth or

considered as the Destroyer in general, Mercury) took out the sinews of Ty •

not as the god of War in particular. phon and used them for harp-strings,

^^^ Tlvtarch : I'ytAian Priestess, 16. to denote that when JVous or reason " They presented a golden plectrum arranged the universe it made a con- to Apollo, remembering perhaps those cord out of many discords, and so did verses of Scythinus, who thus wrote of not abolish, but merely curtailed the the harp : scope of the corruptible principle."

174

Ancient Art and Mythology. 83

daughter ; "' as being the universal daughter, or general sec- ondary principle ; for though properly the goddess of Destruc- tion, she is frequently distinguished by the title Soteira"* Preserver, and represented with ears of corn upon her head, as goddess of Fertility. She was, in reality, the personification of the heat or fire supposed to pervade the earth, which was held to be at once the cause and eflFect of fertility and destruc- tion, as being at once the cause and effect of fermentation, from which both proceed."* The mystic concealment of her operation was expressed by the black vail or bandage upon her head,"" which was sometimes dotted with asterisks ; whilst the hair, which it enveloped, was made to imitate flames."'

118. The Nephthe or Nephthus of the Egyptians, and the Libitina, or goddess of Death of the Romans, were the same personage : and yet, with both these peoples, she was the same as Venus and Libera, the goddess of generation."' Isis was also the same, except that by the later .^Egyptians, the personification was still more generalised, so as to comprehend universal nature ; whence Apuleius invokes her by the names of Eleu- sinian Ceres, Celestial Venus, and Proserpina ; and she an- swers him by a general explanation of these titles. " I am," says she, " Nature, the parent of things, the sovereign of the elements, the primary progeny of time, the most exalted of the deities, the first of the heavenly gods and goddesses, the queen of the shades, the uniform countenance ; who dispose with my nod the luminous heights of heaven, the salubrious breezes of the sea, and the mournful silence of the dead ; whose single deity the whole world venerates in many forms, with various rites, and many names. The Egyptians, skilled in ancient lore, worship me with proper ceremonies, and call me by my true name. Queen Isis." "°

433 j^i^yi ig also translated puella or Isis and Osiris : " Nephthe, whom

maiden, and yet she is reputed to have some likewise call Death and Aphro-

been the mother of Diouysus-Zagreus dit^ they also name Victory."

of the Sabazian mysteries. But in Cicero: Against Verres. "They

truth the name is the same as Kura, call her Libera, who is the same as

the feminine designation of the Sun, Proserpina."

and the title given to Ceres or De- ^ Apuleius : The Golden Ass.

meter at Cnidus. Indeed, the two, " En adsum tuis commota, Luci, pre-

Demeter and Kore-Persephoneia, her cibus, rerura natura parens, elemen-

reputed daughter, are identical. — A. W. torium omnium domina, sasculorum

■"^ See coins of Agathocles. progenies initialis, summa numinum,

'■y- Orphic Hymn, y^Yx.-. " Persepho- regina manium, prima ccelitum, deo-<

neia, alike the cause of life and death rum dearumque, facies uniformis :

to mortals." quse coeli luminosa culmina, maris sal-

■"' Meleager : Epigram, cxix. ubria flamina, inferorum deplorata si-

"' See silver coins of Syracuse, etc. lentia nutibus meis dispenso, cujus

438 Plutarch : Numa. numen unicum, multiformi specie, ritu

17s

84 The Symbolical Language of

119. This universal character of the goddess appears, how- ever, to have been subsequent to the Macedonian conquest ; when a new modification of the ancient systems of religion and philosophy took place at Alexandria, and spread itself gradu- ally over the world. The statues of this Isis are of a composi- tion and form quite different from those of the ancient Egyptian goddess ; and all that we have seen are of Greek or Roman sculpture. The original .Egyptian figure of Isis is merely the animal symbol of the cow humanised, with the addition of the serpent, disk, or some other accessary emblem : but the Greek and Roman figures of her are infinitely varied to signify by various symbols the various attributes of uni- versal Nature."" In this character she is confounded with the personifications of Fortune and Victory, which are in reality no other than those of Providence, and therefore occasionally decked with all the attributes of universal Power.*" The figures of victory have frequently the antenna or sail-yard of a ship in one hand, and the chaplet or crown of immortality in the other ; *" and those of Fortune, the rudder of a ship in one hand, and the cornucopise in the other, with the modius or polos on her head ; "' which ornaments Bupalus of Chios is said to have first given her in a statue made for the Smyrnasans about the sixtieth Olympiad ; *" but both have occasionally Isiac and other symbols."'

[edit]

ISIS-WORSHIP THE SAME AS THE ASIATIC RELIGIONS.

120. The allegorical tales of the loves and misfortunes of Isis and Osiris are an exact counterpart of those of Venus and

vario, nomine multijugo totus venera- ■■■" See medals in gold of Alexander

tur orbis. Prisca doctrina pol- the Great.

lentes ^gyptii, ceremoniis me prorsus *** Bronzi cCErcolano, vol. 2, xxviii.

propriis percolentes, appellant vero *** Pausanias : Messen. xxx. 3, 4 ;

nomine Reginam Isidem." " The first mention of which I know,

■"" See plate Ixx. of vol. I. The that is made of TycliS or Fortune, Egyptian figures with the horns of the Homer makes in his "Hymn to cow, wrought under the Roman em- Demeter" (line 417). "She is men- pire, are common in all collections of tioned also as the daughter of Ocean- small bronzes. us." . . . . " Nothing further is

" Pausanias : Achates, xxvi. 3. declared than that this goddess is

" I am persuaded that in this ode of greatest among the gods in the affairs

Pindar, Fortune may be regarded as of men, and exercises great power."

one of the Fates and to be strong be- .... "Bupalos, the artist, first

yond her sisters." made a statue of Fortune for the

Menander : Supplementary Frag- Smyrnseans, of which we know that it

ments, i. " Fortune means all things had a polos or hemisphere on the head,

we know or do; but we are credited and in the left hand what is termed by

with them. Fortune directs all; and it the Greeks the horn of Amalthea."

behooves us to call her alone the god, *" Bronzi i'Ercolano, vol. ii. tav

mind, and thought, if we would not be xxvi. : also Medals of Leucadia. amused by empty names."

176

Ancient Art and Mythology. 85

Adonis (Astart^ and Baal);*" which signify the alternate exertion of the generative and destructive attributes. Adonis or Adonai was an Oriental (Phoenician and Hebrew) title of the Sun, signifying Lord; and the boar, supposed to have killed him, was the emblem of Winter;"' during which the productive powers of nature being suspended, Venus was said to lament the loss of Adonis until he was again restored to life: whence both the Syrian and Argive women annually mourned his death, and celebrated his renovation ; "' and the mysteries of Venus and Adonis at Byblos in Syria were held in similar estimation with those of Ceres and Bacchus at Eleusis, and Isis and Osiris in ^gypt."' Adonis was said to pass six months with Proserpina, and six with Venus ; *" whence some learned persons have conjectured that the alle- gory was invented near the pole, where the sun disappears daring so long a time : *" but it may signify merely the decrease and increase of the productive powers of nature as the sun retires and advances.'"" The Vishnu or Juggernaut of the Hindus is equally said to lie in a dormant state during the four rainy months of that climate : "° and the Osiris of the Egyptians was supposed to be dead or absent forty days in each year, during which the people lamented '" his loss, as the Syrians did that of Adonis, and the Scandinavians that of Frey ; "' though at Upsal, the great metropolis of their wor- ship, the sun never continues any one day entirely below the

" SuiDAS : " Osiris being likewise •"» LuciAN : De Dea Syria, xx. 6.

the same as Adonis, according to tlie "" Scholiast upon the Idyl of The-

the mystical method of blending the ooritus, iii. •' They say concerning

various gods." Adonis, that he dying, spent six

" Hesychius upon Macroeius: months in the embraces of AphroditS

Saturnalia, i. 20, further remarks, and also in the embraces of Perse-

that " Adonis is not considered as a phone."

distinct personage, but as Dionysus ■*" Ol-AUS Rudbeckius : Atlantica,

or Bacchus himself." No. II. iii. Baillie : De VAstroncmie

Plutarch: Symposiacs, iv. 5. "It Ancienm. is said that Adonis was slain by a ^^^ Plutarch : Ids and Osiris, 69.

boar. Now Adonis is supposed to be " The Phrygians, believing their god

thesame with Bacchus; and many rites to be asleep during the winter and

in the worship of each confirm this awake in summer, in celebrating the

opinion." orgies of Bacchus commemorate both

Ar the boar that slew Adonis was those events. Paphlagonians pray and

the symbol or representative of Ares intercede for the winter to break up

or Mars, the god of strife and destruc- and terminate." tion. The legend represents the end ■"' Holwell : Part II. p. 125.

of stmnner as well as human life by ""^ Am. Marcellin. xix. c. I. Ut

the genius of winter and Death. — lacrymare cultrices Veneris sa;pe spec-

A. W. tantur in solemnibus Adonidis sacris,

"* LuciAN : De Dea Syria. Pau- quod simulacrum aliquod esse frugum

sanias : Corinth, xx. 5. Ezekiel, viii. adultarum religiones mysticse decent. 16 "'THEOPHiLUS:orf.,4«fc/)'^.i. p. 75.

181

86 The Symbolical Language of

horizon.'" The story of the Phoenix, or, as that fabulous bird was called in the north, of the Fanina, appears to have been an allegory of the same kind, as was also the Phrygian tale concerning Cybele and Atys ; though variously distinguished by the fictions of poets and mythographers."'

[edit]

THE SWINE A SACRIFICIAL ANIMAL.

121. On some of the very ancient Greek coins of Acanthus in Macedonia we find a lion killing a boar ;"' and in other monuments a dead boar appears carried in solemn proces- sion ; "* by both which was probably meant the triumph of Adonis in the destruction of his enemy at the return of spring. A young pig was also the victim offered preparatory to ini- tiation into the Eleusinian mysteries,"" which seems to have been intended to express a similar compliment to the Sun. The Phrygian Atys, like the Syrian Adonis, was fabled to have been killed by a boar, or, according to another tradition, by Mars in the shape of that animal ; '" and his death and resurrection were annually celebrated in the same manner."' The beauty of his person, and the style of his dress, caused his statues to be confounded with those of Paris, who appears also to have been canonised ; and it is probable that a symbolical composition representing him in the act of fructifying nature, attended by power and wisdom, gave rise to the story of the Trojan prince's adjudging the prize of beauty between the three contending goddesses ; a story which appears to have been wholly unknown to the ancient poets, who have celebra- ted the events of the war supposed to have arisen from it. The fable of Ganymedes, the cup-bearer of Jupiter, seems to have arisen from some symbolical composition of the same kind, at first misunderstood, and afterwards misrepresented in poetical fiction : for the lines in the Iliad alluding to it, are, as before observed, spurious ; and according to Pindar, the most orthodox perhaps of all the poets, Ganymedes was not the son of Laomedon, but a mighty genius or deity who regu- lated or caused the overflowings of the Nile by the motion ol his feet."' His being, therefore, the cup-bearer of Jupiter, means no more than that he was the distributor of the waters be-

" Ol. Rudbeck. : Atlantic, p. ii. c. ■"" Aristophanes : Peace, 374.

V. p. 153. *" NoNNUS : Dionysiacs. "Ares

'" Ol. Rudbeck. : p. ii. c. iii. et v. (Mars) in the form of a boar, with

NoNNis : Diotiys. M. 396. savage teeth, bringing death, came to

^"' Pelerin;vo1. I. pi. xxx. No. 17. weave the web of fate about Adonis."

" On a marble fragment in relief in *"' Strabo : x. Julian: Orations, v.

the Townley-Collection. "^ Scholiast upon Aratus.

182

.-.Ci^^i-^-f-'g^^'^^^^

Ancient Art and Mythology. 87

tween heaven and earth, and consequently a distinct personi- fication of that attribute of Jupiter, which is otherwise signified by the epithet Fluvius. Hence he is only another modification of the same personification, as Atys, Adonis, and Bacchus ; who are all occasionally represented holding the cup or patera; which is also given, with the cornucopias, to their subordinate emanations, the local genii ; of which many small figures in brass are extant.

122. In the poetical tales of the ancient Scandinavians, Frey, the deity of the Sun, was fabled to have been killed by a boar; which was therefore annually offered to him at the great feast of Juul (Yule), celebrated during the winter- solstice."* Boars of paste were also served on their tables during the feast : which being kept till the following spring, were then beaten to pieces and mixed with the seeds to be sown and with the food of the cattle and hinds employed in tilling the ground.'"' Among the .(Egyptians likewise, those who could not afford to sacrifice real pigs, had images of them in paste served up at the feasts of Bacchus or Osiris,"' which seem, like the feasts of Adonis in Syria, and the Yule in Sweden, to have been expiatory solemnities meant to honor and conciliate the productive power of the Sun by the sym- bolical destruction of the adverse or inert power. From an ancient fragment preserved by Plutarch, it seems that Mars, considered as the destroyer, was lepresented by a boar among the Greeks ; "' and on coins we find him wearing the boar's, as Hercules wears the lion's skin ; "' in both of which in- stances the old animal symbol is humanised, as almost all the animal symbols gradually were by the refinement of Grecian art.

123. From this symbolical use of the boar to represent the destroying or rather the anti-generative attribute, probably arose the abhorrence of swine's flesh, which prevailed univer- sally among the .^Egyptians and Jews, and partially in other countries, particularly in Pontus ; where the temple of Venus at Comana was kept so strictly pure from the pollution of such enemies, that a pig was never admitted into the city."" The Egyptians are said also to have signified the inert power of Typhon by an ass ; "" but among the ancient inhabitants of

" Olaus Rudbeckius : part I., not that Ares in the form of a boar,

v., viii. and part II., v. sets all evils in commotion."

«* Olaus Rudbeckids. "68 gee brass coins of Rome, common

«6 Herodotus : ii. 47, and Macro- in all countries. Bius : Saturnalia, i. 20. "s' Strabo : xii. p. 575.

■»■" Plutarch: Of Love, 13. " For ™ ^lian : De Anim. x. xxviii. blind, oh women, is he who perceives

187

The Symbolical Language of

Italy, and probably the Greeks, this animal appears to have been a symbol of an opposite kind,"' and is therefore per- petually found in the retinue of Bacchus : the dismemberment of whom by the Titans was an allegory of the same kind as the death of Adonis and Atys by the boar, and the dismember- ment of Osiris by Typhon ; *" whence his festivals were in the spring ; *" and at Athens, as well as in ^gypt, Syria, and Phrygia, the Aphanismos and Egersis, or death and revival, were celebrated, the one with lamentations, and the other with re- joicing.*"

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PROMETHEUS AND THE VULTURE.

124. The stories of Prometheus were equally allegorical ; for Prometheus was only a title of the Sun, expressing /rw/- dence"" ox foresight, wherefore his being bound in the extremi- ties of the earth, signified originally no more than the restric- tion of the power of the sun during the winter months ; though it has been variously embellished and corrupted by the poets, partly, perhaps, from symbolical compositions ill understood, for the vulture might have been naturally em- ployed as an emblem of the destroying power. Another em-

" Juvenal : Satires, xi. 96. Colu-

mella : X. 344.

■•" Plutarch : " The sufferings re- lated in the chants concerning Diony- sus and the crimes of the Titans against him, etc., the whole related as a fable, is a myth concerning the re- turn to life."

Isis and Osiris : 54. " They do not simply propound in the legend that the soul of Osiris is perpetual and in- corruptible, but that his body is re- peatedly torn in pieces and concealed by Typhon."

■"' " The festival of Bromius (Bac- chus) occurring in spring."

^" Demosthenes : The Crown. Julius Firmicius.

•"' Pindar : Olympic Odes vi. 81.

The story of Prometheus has an oriental aspect, and is older than the Grecian mythology. He is styled by Lycophron, Daimon Promatheos Aithiops, the ^Ethiopian God Prome- theus. It is most improbable there- fore that liis designation expressed "providence or foresight." He be- longed, as even the Greeks acknowl- edge, to a previous era as well as race. jEschylus says ;

" Yet who like me advanced To their high dignity our new-raised gods ? . . . All ttie secret treasures Deep buried in the bowels of the earth, Brass, iron, silver, gold, their use to man. Let the vain tongue make what high vaunts

it may, Are my inventions all ; and, in a word, Prometheus taught each useful art to man."

According to Bryant (Analysis of Ancient Mythology, ii. p. 140), Prome- theus was worshipped as a deity by the Colchians, a nation kindred with the .(Egyptians, and had a temple on Mount Caucasus, called the Typhonian Rock, the device over the gate of which was an eagle over a heart. This was a symbol of Egypt, the eagle being the crest and the heart the em- blem of that country.

Diodorus asserts that Prometheus was an Egyptian deity, and one of the Orphic hymns identifies him also with Kronos or Saturn. Dunlap, in his Spirit-History of Man, makes the name synonymous with the Hindu Agni, " the fire upon the altar," and Col. Wilford finds it in the designa- tion Pramathas, the servants or vota- ries of Maha Deva, that were de- stroyed by the bird Garuda, the cele- brated enemy of the Serpent-tribes, or Naga- worshippers. — A. W

Prometheus and the Vulture.

Venus and wounded Adonis-

Ancient Art and Mythology. 89

blem of this power, much distinguished in the ancient Scandi- navian mythology, was the wolf, who in the last day was ex- pected to devour the sun ; "" and among the symbolical orna- ments of a ruined mystic temple at Puzzuoli, we find a wolf devouring grapes, which being the fruit peculiarly consecrated to Bacchus, are not unfrequently employed to signify that god. Lycopolis, in ^gypt, takes its name from the sacred wolf kept there; *" and upon the coins of Carthsea, in the island of Ceos, the forepart of this animal appears surrounded with diverging rays, as the centre of an asterisk/"

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PUTREFACTION ABHORRED.

125. As putrefaction was the most general means of natu- ral destruction or dissolution, the same spirit of superstition which turned every other operation of nature into an object of devotion, consecrated it to the personification of the de- stroying power ; whence, in the mysteries and other sacred rites belonging to the generative attributes, everything putrid, or that had a tendency to putridity, was carefully avoided ; and so strict were the Egyptian priests upon this point, that they wore no garments made of any animal substance, but cir- cumcised themselves, and shaved their whole bodies even to their eyebrows, lest they should unknowingly harbor any filth, excrement, or vermin supposed to be bred from putrefac- tion/'" The common fly, being, in its first stage of existence, a principal agent in dissolving and dissipating all putrescent bodies, was adopted as an emblem of the Deity to represent the destroying attribute; whence the Baal-Zebub, or Jupiter Fly of the Phoenicians, when admitted into the creed of the Jews, received the rank and office of Prince of the Devils.""

^" S^MOND : Edda, liii. day, that no lice or other impure thing

" The Wolf will devour may adhere to them when they are en-

The Father of the ages." gaged in the service of the gods.

See also Mallet : Introduction a Their dress is entirely of linen, and

VHistoire de Danemarc, vi. their shoes of the paper-plant ; it is

■"' Macroeius : Saturnalia, i. xvii. not lawful for them to wear either

•"* The wolf is also the device on dress or shoes of any other material."

the coins of Argos. ■'* See Inman : Ancient Faiths

^"Herodotus : ii. 37. " They Embodied in Ancient Names, \o\. i. -p.

drink out of brazen cups, which they 328. " Baalzebub, or Beelzebub, is

scour every day ; there is no exception usually said to mean * my Lord of

to this practice. They wear linen gar- flies,' but this seems to me to be ab-

ments, which they are specially care- surd. The word zabab signifies ' to

ful to have always fresh-washed. They murmur,' * hum,' or * buzz,' and when

practice circumcision for the sake of we remember the Memnons in Egypt,

cleanliness, considering it better to be which gave out a murmur at sunrise,

cleanly than comely. The priests I think it more consistent with what

shave their whole body every third we know of priestly devices, to con-

191

90 The Symbolical Language of

The symbol was humanised at an early period, probably by the Phoenicians themselves, and thus formed into one of those fantastic compositions which ignorant antiquaries have taken for wild efforts of disordered imagination, instead of regular productions of systematic art.*"

[edit]

BACCHUS AND THE LEOPARDS.

126. Bacchus frequently appears accompanied by leo- pards,'" which in some instances are employed in devouring clusters of grapes, and in others, drinking the liquor pressed from them ; though they are in reality incapable of feeding upon that or any other kind of fruit. On a very ancient coin of Acanthus, too, the leopard is represented, instead of the lion, destroying the bull ; "' wherefore we have no doubt that in the Bacchic processions, it means the destroyer accompany- ing the generator, and contributing, by different means, to the same end. In some instances his chariot is drawn by two leopards, and in others, by a leopard and a goat coupled together,'" which are all different means of signifying different modes and combinations of the same ideas. In the British Museum is a group in marble of three figures, the middle one a human form growing out of a vine, with leaves and clusters of grapes growing out of its body. On one side is an andro- gynous figure representing the Mises or Bacchus Diphues, and on the other, a leopard, with a garland of ivy round its neck, leaping up and devouring the grapes, which spring from the body of the personified vine, the hands of which are employed in receiving another cluster from the Bacchus. This compo- sition represents the vine between the creating and destroying attributes of the Deity, the one giving it fruit, and the other devouring it when given. The poets conveyed the same

sider that the word signifies ' My Lord plied the deity -names Seth, or Satan,

that murmurs.' " and Baal-Zebub, to the Evil Potency.

Ancient clairvoyants or interpreters — A. W.

of oracles spoke with a muttering ■"' See WlNKELMANi jI/ok. an/. ;Wa'.

voice, as if from the ground. See No. 13; and Hist, dcs Arts, Liv. iii.

Isaiah, viii. ig, and xxix. 4. Baal- c. ii. p. 143.

Zebub, of Ekron, was consulted as •"* These are frequently called

an oracle. But in the New Testa, tigers; but the first tiger seen by the

ment, the name is often written Beel- Greeks or Romans was presented by

Zebul, the latter term signifying an the ambassadors of India to Augustus,

abode or habitation. The combina- while settling the affairs of Asia, in

tion may therefore mean Baal of the the year of Rome 734. (DiON. Cass.

Temple. After the return of the Hist. liv. s. 9.)

Jews from Babylonia, the Asideans, ^'^ In the cabinet of Mr. Knight,

or Maccabean party (afterwards known ^'^ See medal of Maronea. Ges-

as Pharisees or Parsees), bringing Zo- NER. tab. xliii. fig. 26. roastrian sentiments with them, ap-

192

A7icient Art and Mythology. 91

meaning in the allegorical tales of the Loves of Bacchus and Ampelus, who, as the name indicates, was only the vine per- sonified

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THE CHIMERA.

127. The Chimera, of which so many whimsical interpreta- tions have been given by the commentators on the Iliad, seems to have been an emblematical composition of the same class, vailed, as usual, under historical fable to conceal its meaning from the vulgar. It was composed of the forms of the goat, the lion, and the serpent, the symbols of the generator, de- stroyer, and preserver united and animated by fire, the essen- tial principle of all the three. The old poet had probably seen such a figure in Asia, but knowing nothing of mystic lore, which does not appear to have reached Greece or her colonies in his time, received whatever was told him concern- ing it. In later times, however, it must have been a well- known sacred symbol, or it would not have been employed as a device upon coins.

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APOLLO AND PYTHON.

128. The fable of Apollo destroying the serpent Python, seems equally to have originated from the symbolical language of imitative art, the title Apollo signifying, according to the etymology already given, the destroyer as well as the deliv- erer ; for, as the ancients supposed destruction to be merely dissolution, as creation was merely formation, the power which delivered the particles of matter from the bonds of attraction and broke the dta^xov nepifipidri epooTO?, was in fact the destroyer. Hence the verb ATD, or ATMI (Luo or LuMi), from which it is derived, means both to free and to de- stroy^'^ Pliny mentions a statue of Apollo by Praxiteles, much celebrated in his time, called Sauroktonos,"' the lizard- killer, of which several copies are now extant."' The lizard, being supposed to exist upon the dews and moisture of the earth, was employed as the symbol of humidity ; so that the god destroying it, signifies the same as the lion devouring the horse, and Hercules killing the Centaur, that is, the sun, ex- haling the waters. When destroying the serpent, he only sig- nifies a different application of the same power to the extinc- tion of life ; whence he is called Pythias,* or the putrefier,

<*' See Iliad, i. 20, and i. 25. ^ Macrobius : Saturnalia, I. xvii.

- ' Pliny: xxxiv. c. viii. " Pythius, (torn, ftithein, i. e. sepein, to

■"■' See Winkelman: Man. ant. putrefy." ined. pi. xl.

199

92 The Symbolical Language of

from the verb nvdao. The title Smintheus, too, supposing it to mean, according to the generally received interpretation, mouse-killer, was expressive of another application of the same attribute ; for the mouse was a priapic animal,"' and is fre- quently employed as such in monuments of ancient art."" The statue, likewise, which Pausanias mentions, of Apollo with his foot upon the head of a bull, is an emblem of similar meaning.'"

129. The offensive weapons of this deity, which are the symbols of the means by which he exerted his characteristic attribute, are the bow and arrows, signifying the emission of its rays ; of which the arrow or dart, the bdos or obelos, was, as before observed, the appropriate emblem. Hence he is called ^<5flTnP, 'EKAT02, and 'EKATHB0A02, and also Chrusaor and Chrusaorus, which have a similar significa- tion ; the first syllable expressing the golden color of rays, and the others their erect position : for aor does not signify merely a sword, as a certain writer, upon the authority of com- mon Latin Versions and school Lexicons, has supposed ; but anything that is held up ; it being the substantive of the verb aeiro.

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HERCULES IDENTICAL WITH APOLLO AND MARS.

130. Hercules destroying the Hydra, signifies exactly the same as Apollo destroying the serpent and the lizard ; ""' the water-snake comprehending both symbols, and the ancient Phoenician Hercules being merely the lion humanised. The knowledge of him appears to have come into Europe by the way of Thrace ; he having been worshipped in the island of Thasus, by the Phoenician colony settled there, five generations before the birth of the Theban hero ; "' who was distinguished

" .iElian : History of Animals, tion ot the many-headed Nagas of

xii. 10. India, and is the designation of a con-

The appellation Smin-iheus would stellation in the sky. As the Phos-

seem rather to affiliate Apollo with nician . Hercules is the same as Cro-

the Hindu deity Ganesa, who is always nos, or Moloch, the Sun-God, the

accompanied by a rat. — A. W. slaying of the Hydra is the poetic or

^^ It was the device upon the coins mythological method of mentioning of Argos (Jul. Poll. Onom. ix. vi. 86), the entering of the sun into the signs probably before the adoption of the of the zodiac which lie near that con- wolf, which is on most of those now stellation. The identity of Hercules extant. A small one, however, in with Apollo, Bacchus, and Mars is gold, with the mouse, is in the cabinet certain enough ; the intelligent among of Mr. R. P. Knight. the ancients did not believe in the

^" Pausanias : Achaica, xx. 2. current polytheism. — A. W.

"" Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 50. *™ Herodotus : ii. 44.

The Hydra is evidently a reproduc-

Herakles between Vice and Vir

Ancient Art and Mythology. 93

by the same title that he obtained in Greece, and whose ro- mantic adventures have been confounded with the allegorical fables related of him. In the Homeric times, he appears to have been utterly unknown to the Greeks, the Hercules of the Iliad and Odyssey being a mere man, pre-eminently distin- guished, indeed, for strength and valor, but exempt from none of the laws of mortality."' His original symbolical arms, with which he appears on the most ancient medals of Thasus, were the same as those of Apollo; "' and his Greek name, which, according to the most probable etymology, signifies the glori- fier of the earth, is peculiarly applicable to the Sun.

The Romans held him to be the same as Mars ; "° who was sometimes represented under the same form, and considered as the same deity as Apollo; "' and in some instances we find him destroying the vine instead of the Serpent,*" the deer, the centaur, or the bull ; by all which the same meaning, a little differently modified, is conveyed : but the more common repre- sentation of him destroying the lion is not so easily explained ; and it is probable that the traditional history of the deified hero has, in this instance as well as some others, been blended with the allegorical fables of the personified attribute : for we have never seen any composition of this kind upon any monu- ment of remote antiquity."'

[edit]

THE PILLARS ASCRIBED TO SESOSTRIS.

131. Upon the pillars which existed in the time of Hero- dotus in diiferent parts of Asia, and which were attributed by the Egyptians to Sesostris, and by others to Memnon, was en- graved the figure of a man holding a spear in his right hand, and a bow in his left ; to which was added, upon some of them,

■" Homer : Iliad, xviii. 117, and was bom of Leto, and Ares of Hera ;

Odyssey, xi. 5oo. The three lines re- but the potency of both is the same,

lating to the apotheosis of Hercules, ... So also, Hera and Leto are

are interpolated. They declare that two appellations of a single divinity."

" he himself is one of the immortal ^™ Mus, Florent. in gemm. t. i. pi.

gods, delighting himself at their feasts, xcii. Q.

and wedded to fair-limbed Heb6." ""' The earliest coins which we have

i9t StrabO: XV. 688- Athen^us: xii. seen with this device, are of Syracuse,

It is apparent that as the sun-god of Tarentum, and Heraclea in Italy ; all

the Phoenicians, Hercules is identical of the finest time of the art, and little

with Apollo, the sun-god of Greece, anterior to the Macedonian conquest.

The club was given him by the epic On the more ancient medals of Seli-

poets. The name Hercules is evi- nus, Hercules is destroying the bull,

dently from the Sanscrit Her'calyus, as the lion or leopard is on those of

Lord of the tribe or city. — A. W. Acanthus ; and the destroying a cen

" Varro. See Macrobius : Sa- taur signifies exactly the same as a

tumalia, i. 44. lion destroying a horse ; the symbols

^" Plutarch See Eusebius : Pra- being merely humanised. paratio Evangelica, iii. i. "Apollo

203

94 The Symbolical Language of

the female aidoia, said by the Egyptians to have been meant as a memorial of the cowardice and effeminacy of the inhabitants, whom their monarch had [subdued."" The whole composition was however, probably, symbolical ; signifying the active power of destruction, and passive power of generation ; whose co-oper- ation and conjunction are signified in so many various ways in the emblematical monuments of ancient art. The figure hold- ing the spear and the bow is evidently the same as appears upon the ancient Persian coins called Varies, and upon those of some Asiatic cities, in the Persian dress; but which, upon those of others, appears with the same arms, and in the same attitude, with the lion's skin upon its head."' This attitude is that of kneeling upon one knee; which is that of the Phoeni- cian Hercules upon the coins of Thasus above cited : where- fore we have no doubt that he was the personage meant to be represented ; as he continued to be afterward upon the Bac- trian and Parthian coins. The Hindus have still a correspond- ing deity, whom they call Rama, and the modern Persians a fabulous hero called Rustam, whose exploits are in many re- spects similar to those of Hercules, and to whom they attribute all the stupendous remains of ancient art found in their coun- try.

[edit]

APOLLO AND DIONYSUS, THE DAY-SUN AND THE NIGHT-SUN.

132. It was observed, by the founders of the mystic system, that the destructive power of the Sun was exerted most by day, and the generative by night : for it was by day that it dried up the waters and produced disease and putrefaction ; and by night that it returned the exhalations in dews tempered with the genial heat that had been transfused into the atmosphere. Hence, when they personified the attributes, they worshipped the one as the diurnal a.n(l the other as the nocturnal sun ; call- ing the one Apollo, and the other Dionysus or Bacchus;"" both of whom were anciently observed to be the same god ;

'""'Herodotus: ii. 102, 106. under correspondent titles. Pausani- "" See coins of Mallus in Cilicia, AS: Attica, xl. 5. "This the temple and Soli :n Cyprus in the Hunter Col- of Dionysus of the Night-Orgies." lection. Pausanias : Act. xxvii. 2. " The '»* Macrobius: 53^ c. i8. Insa- sanctuary of Dionysus, called the cris enim hsec religiosi arcani obser- Torch-bearer." Osiris was also lord of vantia tenetur, ut Sol, cum in supero, the Underworld. Herodotus: ii. 123. id est in diurno hemisphierio est, Apol- " The .(Egyptians say that Deraeter lo vocitetur ; cum in infero, id est noc- and Dionysus (Isis and Osiris) preside turno, Dionysus, qui et Liber pater below." Macrobius also declares (Sa- habeatur. Hence Sophocles calls Bac- tumalia, i. 17) ; "Aristoteles, qui theo- chus " Leader of the chori of flame- logumena scripsit, ApoUinem et Li- breathing sta.TS," apuJ Eustath. p. 514, berum patrem unum eundemque deum und he had temples dedicated to him esse, cum multis argumentis asserit."

204

Slllli!

Apollon. Meleager

Ancient Art and Mythology. 95

whence, in a verse of Euripides, they are addressed as one, the names being used as epithets.'" The oracle at Delphi was also supposed to belong to both equally; or, according to the expression of a Latin poet, to the united and mixed divin- ity of both.'"

133. This mixed divinity appears to have been represented in the person of the Apollo Didymseus, who was worshipped in another celebrated oracular temple near Miletus, and whose symbolical image seems to be exhibited in plates xii. xliii. and iv. of volume I. of the Select Specimens, and in different com- positions on different coins of the Macedonian kings ; some- times sitting upon the prow of a ship, as lord of the waters, or Bacchus Hyes ; °" sometimes on the cortina, the vailed cone or ^^^ ; and sometimes leaning upon a tripod ; but always in an androgynous form, with the limbs, tresses, and features of a woman ; and holding the bow or arrow, or both, in his hands."" The double attribute, though not the double sex, is also fre- quently signified in figures of Hercules ; either by the cup or cornucopias held in his hand, or by the chaplet of poplar or some other symbolical plant, worn upon his head ; while the club or lion's skin indicates the adverse power.

134. In the refinement of art, the forms of the lion and goat were blended into one fictitious animal to represent the same meaning, instances of which occur upon the medals of Capua, Panticapaeum, and Antiochus VI., king of Syria, as wfeU as in the frieze of the temple of Apollo Didymaeus before mentioned. In the former, too, the destroying attribute is further signified by the point of a spear held in the mouth of the monster; and the productive, by the ear of corn under his feet.'" In the lat- ter, the result of both is shown by the lyre, the symbol of uni- versal narmony, which is supported between them ; and which is occasionally given to Hercules, as well as to Apollo. The two-faced figure of Janus seems to have been a composite sym- bol of the same kind, and to have derived the name from lao or laon, an ancient mystic title of Bacchus. The earliest spe- cimens of it extant are on the coins of Lampsacus and Tene-

"" Macrobius : Saturnalia, i. 17. (generation), and being no other than

" Lord, lover of Daphne, Bacchus, Osiris. " Paian, Apollo." '»• See medals of Antigonus, Antio-

™ LucAN. ./'.^arjuA'a, V. 73. "The chus I., Seleucus II. and III., and

mount sacred to Phoebus and Bromius ; other kings of Syria ; and also of

to whom in joint divinity the Theban Magnesia ad Mseandrum, and ad Si-

Bacchse celebrate the triennial fes- pylum. The beautiful figure engraved

tival. ' on plates xliii. and iv. of vol. i. of the

'"' Plutarch . Isis and Osiris, 3^. Select Specimens is the most exquisite

" They (Greeks) call Dionysus also example of this androgynous Apollo. Hyes as jord of the moist nature "" Numm. Pembrok. tab. v. fi?. 12.

207

96 The Symbolical Language of

dos ; some of which can not be later than the sixth century before the Christian era ; and in later coins of the former city, heads of Bacchus of the usual form and character occupy its place.

135. The mythological personages Castor and Pollux, who lived and died alternately, were the same as Bacchus and Apollo : whence they were pre-eminently distinguished by the title of the Great Gods in some places; though, in others, con- founded with the canonised or deified mortals, the brothers of Helen."' Their fabulous birth from the e.^Z-, the form of which is retained in the caps usually worn by them, is a rem- nant of the ancient mystic allegory, upon which the more recent poetical tales have been engrafted ; whilst the two asterisks, and the two human heads, one going upward and the other downward, by which they are occasionally repre- sented, more distinctly point out their symbolical meaning,"" which was the alternate appearance of the sun in the upper and lower hemispheres. This meaning, being a part of what was revealed in the Mysteries, is probably the reason why Apuleius mentions the seeing of the sun at midnight zvaong the circumstances of initiation, which he has obscurely and enigmatically related.""

136. As the appearance of the one necessarily implied the cessation of the other, the tomb of Bacchus was shown at Delos near to the statue of Apollo ; and one of these mystic tombs,"' in the form of a large chest of porphyry, adorned with goats, leopards, and other symbolical figures, is still extant in a church at Rome. The mystic cistx, which were carried in procession occasionally, and in which some emblem of the generative or preserving attribute was generally kept, appear to have been merely models or portable representations of these tombs,"" and to have had exactly the same signification. By the mythologists Bacchus is said to have terminated his ex- pedition in the extremities of the East ; and Hercules in the ex-

'"' Pausanias: i. and iii. They /wwiJjofthe divinities, Bacchus, Jupiter,

were also denominated anakes, from etc., were but these sacred hillocks or

the Phoenician term anak^ a prince, steles misnamed. They were general-

The Scholiast on Lucian remarks : ly surrounded by temenS or enclosures.

"The temple of the Dioscuri was Cities so distinguished were called Ty-

ctAXzA. Anakeion : for they were called phonian. See Analysis of Ancient

anakes by the Greelcs." Mythology, ii. 167-195. — A. W.

"" See medals of Istrus. "* The cistce pertain to the sexual

"° Apuleius : The GMen Ass. xi. rather than to the funereal symbolism ;

'" The words tophos, tufh, and toph, and the emblems which they contained

so common as a part of Egyptian were peculiar to the phallic rites,

names, signifies a high place, and, as See Inman : Ancient Faiths Embodiei

Bryant declares, were applied to the in Ancient Names, i. ■p. 2?:'i. — A. W. mounds created to the deities. The

20S

Ancient Art and Mythology. 97

tremities of the West ; which means no more than that the noc- turnal sun finishes its progress, when it mounts above the surrounding ocean in tlie East ; and the diurnal, when it passes the same boundary of the two hemispheres in the West.

137. The latter being represented by the lion, explains the reason why the spouts of fountains were always made to imitate lions' heads ; which Plutarch supposes to have been, because the Nile overflowed when the sun was in the sign of the Lion : "' but the same fashion prevails as universally in Thibet as ever it did in ^gypt, Greece, or Italy ; though neither the Grand Lama nor any of his subjects know anything of the Nile or its overflowings ; and the signs of the zodiac were taken from the mystic symbols ; and not, as some learned authors have supposed, the mystic symbols from the signs of the zodiac. The emblematical meaning, which certain animals were employed to signify, was only some particular property generalised ; and, therefore, might easily be invented or dis- covered by the natural operation of the mind : but the collec- tions of stars, named after certain animals, have no resem- blance whatever to those animals ; which are therefore merely signs of convention adopted to distinguish certain portions of the heavens, which were probably consecrated to those particu- lar personified attributes, which they respectively represented. That they had only begun to be so named in the time of Ho- mer, and that not on account of any real or supposed resem- blance, we have the testimony of a passage in the description of the shield of Achilles, in which the polar constellation is said to be called the Bear, or otherwise the Wagon \ "* objects so different that it is impossible that one and the same thing should be even imagined to resemble both. We may there- fore rank Plutarch's explanation with other tales of the later Egyptian priests ; and conclude that the real intention of these symbols was to signify that the water, which they con- veyed, was the gift of the diurnal sun, because separated from the salt of the sea, and distributed over the earth by exhala- tion. Perhaps Hercules being crowned with the foliage of the white poplar, an aquatic tree, may have had a similar meaning; which is at least more probable than that assigned by Servius and Macrobius.""

^'^ Plutarch : Symposiacs, iv. 5. the constellation Ursus, wagon, was

^'* Iliad, xvii. 487. also regarded as a vehan or wain. — A.

The wagon, or more properly vehan W.

(Sanscrit), was the vehicle or animal "° Commentary upon the ^neid,

which was supposed to carry a deity, viii. line 276.

in the Hindu system. It may be that Macrobius : Saturnalia, iii. 12.

209

98 The Symbolical Language of

[edit]

HEAT AND MOISTURE AS SEXUAL SYMBOLS.

138. Humidity in general, and particularly the Nile, was called by the Egyptians the outflowing of Osiris; "° who was with them the God of the Waters, in the same sense as Bacchus was among the Greeks ; "' whence all rivers, when personified, were represented under the form of the bull ; or at least with some of the characteristic features of that animal.'" In the religion of the Hindus this article of ancient faith, like most others, is still retained; as appears from the title, Daughter of the Sun, given to the sacred river Yamuna or Jumna."* The God of Destruction is also mounted on a white bull, the sacred symbol of the opposite attribute, to show the union and co- operation of both."" The same meaning is more distinctly repre- sented in an ancient Greek fragment of bronze, by a lion tramp- ling upon the head of a bull, while a double phallus appears behind them, and shows the result.'" The title 2nTHP K02- MOT, upon the composite Priapic figure, published by La Chausse, is well known ; '" and it is probable that the ithy- phallic ceremonies, which the gross flattery of the degenerate Greeks sometimes employed to honor the Macedonian princes,"' had the same meaning as this title of Saviour, which was fre- quently conferred upon, or assumed by them.™ It was also occasionally applied to most of the deities who had double at- tributes, or were personifications of both powers ; as to Hercu- les, Bacchus, Diana, etc.'"

"• Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 36. "« Sir William Jones : Asiatic

" The priests of Egypt call not only Researches, vol. i .

the Nile, but everything moist (like a '™ Maurice : Indian Antiquities,

pitcher of water) the outflowing of vol. i, p. 261.

Osiris." '2' On the handle of a vase in Mr.

'" Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 33. Knight's Cabinet.

" The more learned in arcane matters '^'^ Roman Museum.

among the priests, not only term the "^ Athenaeus : vi. 15. " The

Nile Osiris, and the Sea Typhon, but Athenians received Demetrius not

they also regard Osiris to signify every only offering incense, wearing sacrifi-

principle and potency of moisture, cial garlands, and making libations of

venerating it as the cause of genera- wine, but likewise with chants, and

tion and the substance of the semen, choruses, and Ithyphalli, accompanied

But by Typhon they mean everything by the sacred dance and processions,"

dried, fire-like, and withered, as being as in the celebration of the Mysteries,

opposed to moistness." '"Athenaeus: vi. i6.

35. " The Greeks consider ■■*' Pausanias : Arcadia, xxxi. 4.

Dionysus not alone as the patron of " The Sun having the surname of So-

wine, but also of the entire moist or ter or Saviour, the same as Hercules."

generative principle in nature." See also coins of Thasos, Maronea

'" Horace : Book iv. Ode xiv. Riv- Agathocles, etc. ers so personified appear on the coins o the Greek cities of Italy and Sicily.

iyX^^"

Diana drawn by Nymphs.

Diana returned from a Hunt.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 99

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DIANA THE MOON-GODDESS AND GREAT MOTHER.

139. Diana (or Artemis) was, as before observed, originally and properly the Moon, by means of which the Sun was sup- posed to impregnate the air, and scatter the principles of gen- eration both active and passive over the earth : whence, like the Bacchus diphues and Apollo didumaios, she was both male and female,"' both heat and humidity ; for the warmth of the Moon was supposed to be moistening, as that of the Sun was drying.'" She was called the Mother of the World; and the Daughter, as well as the Sister, of the Sun ; ^'^ because the pro- ductive powers with which she impregnated the former, to- gether with the light by which she was illuminated, were sup- posed to be derived from the latter. By attracting or heaving the waters of the ocean, she naturally appeared to be the sov- ereign of humidity ; and by seeming to operate so powerfully upon the constitutions of women, she equally appeared to be the patroness and regulatress of nutrition and passive genera- tion: whence she is said to have received her nymphs, or sub- ordinate personifications, from the ocean ; "" and is often re- presented by the symbol of the sea-crab ; °^° an animal that has the property of spontaneously detaching from its own body any limb that has been hurt or mutilated, and reproducing an- other in its place. As the heat of the Sun animated the seminal particles of terrestrial matter, so was the humidity of the Moon supposed to nourish and mature them ; "' and as her orbit was

'"Plutarch: Ids and Osiris, a,'},. EVRltlDSS : PAtenicians, ijS. "Oh

" They place the potency of Osiris in Selenaia (Moon), daughter of the

the Moon, and say that Isis being the bright-girdled Aelios (Sun) ] "

maternal principle of generation, has Scholium upon the foregoing passage:

intercourse with him. Whence they " So wrote jEschylus and the more phil-

call the Moon the Mother of the cos- osophical authors. But Hesiod de-

mical Universe, and to have both the clared that the Moon was the Sister of

male and female nature, being first the Sun."

filled by the Sun, and so made preg- '"^ .i^schylus : Prometheus Bound,

nant, and then sending forth into the 138.

air the generated principles, and so Callimachus : Hymn to Artemis;

inseminating them, as a male." also Catullus: In Cell.

'" Macrobius : Saturnalia, vii. 10. '^^ Roman Mtcseutn, VII. vol. ii.

" The heat of the Sun dries, that of See coins of the Brettii in Italy,

the Moon makes moist." Himera in Sicily, etc.

Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 41. '5' Schol. Vet. in Horat. Carm. Sec.

The Moon, having the light which Duobus his reguntur omnia terrena,

makes moist and pregnant, is promo- calore quidem solis per diem, humore

live of the generating of living beings vero lunse per noctem. Nam ut

and of the fructification of plants." calore solis animantur semina, ita

'^' Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 48. lunse humore nutriuntur, penes ipsam

" The Egyptian priests style the enira et corporum omnium ratio esse

Moon the Mother of the Universe." dictiur et potestas.

213

loo The Symbolical Language of

neld to be the boundary that separated the celestial from the terrestrial world,"" she was the mediatress between both ; the primary subject of the one, and sovereign of the other, who tempered the subtilty of sethereal spirit to the grossness of earthly mater, so as to make them harmonise and unite."'

140. The Greeks attributed to her the powers of destruc- tion as well as nutrition ; humidity as well as heat contribut- ing to putrefaction : whence sudden death was supposed to pro- ceed from Diana as well as from Apollo ; who was both the send- er of disease and the inventor of cure ; for disease is the father of medicine as Apollo was fabled to be of .iEsculapius. The rays of the Moon were thought relaxing, even to inanimate bodies, by means of their humidity : whence wood cut at the full of the moon was rejected by builders as improper for use."* The Eilithyise, supposed to preside over child-birth, were only personifications of this property,"' which seemed to facilitate delivery by slackening the powers of resistance and obstruc- tion ; and hence the crescent was universally worn as an amulet by women, as it still continues to be in the southern parts of Italy ; and Juno Lucina, and Diana, were the same goddess, equally personifications of the Moon."'

141. The .(Egyptians represented the Moon under the sym- bol of a cat, probably on account of that animal's power of see- ing in the night ; and also, perhaps, on account of its fecun- dity ; which seems to have induced the Hindus to adopt the rabbit as the symbol of the same deified planet."' As the

LuciL. : apiid Aul. (?<?/?. Lxx. c. 8. and liver, transmits below the heat

Luna alit ostrea ; et implet echinas, et of the parts above, and attracts the ex-

muribusfibraa, halations, thinning them for diges-

Etpecuiaddit. tion and purgation. .. . Everywhere,

Ocellus Lucanus : OntheUni- by necessity, that which is better pre-

verse. " The Moon is the isthmus vails over the other."

which connects the immortal life to iu Plutarch : Symposiacs, iii. 10.

generated existence. " <• Even in soulless bodies the power of

Philo : On Dreams, i. page 641. the Moon is evident. Builders refuse

" The philosophers depict the Moon- timbers cut in the full of the Moon, as

sphere which is the last of the heaven- being soft, and by reason of the super-

ly circles, but the first immediately abundant soft, liable to decay."

beyond us, as that of meteors ; the air mi> Plutarch : Symposiacs, iii. ro.

extends through everything to the "For this reason I believe Artemis

'"Jjf ""^ °^ "** earth." (Diana) to have been named Locheia

'^Plutarch : On the Face Ap- and Eileithyia, as being no other than

peanng in the Orb of the Moon, 15. the Moon."

" The Sun having the potency of the 636 Catullus : xxxiv. 3.

heat sends and diffuses its warmth " Tu Lucina dolent'lbus

and light like blood and breath. The Juno dicta puerperis,

land and sea are in the world as the Tu potens Trivia, et nos

bowels and bladder in the living ani- D'<='^ '"■"'"^ Luna."

mal. The Moon, placed between the '" Maurice : Indian Antiquities

Sun and the Earth like the liver or i. p. 513. Also Demetrius Phale-

some other viscus between the heart Rius : § 159.

214

A7icie7it Art and Mythology. loi

arch or bend of the mystical instrument, borne by Isis, and called the sistrum, represented the lunar orbit, the cat occupied the centre of it ; while the rattles below represented the ter- restrial elements;"' of which there are sometimes four, but more frequently only three in the instances now extant : for the ancient Egyptians, or at least some of them, appear to have known that water and air are but one substance."*

[edit]

DIANA AND ISA.

142. The statues of Diana are always clothed, and she had the attribute of perpetual virginity, to which her common Greek name Artemis seems to allude ; but the Latin name ap- pears to be a contraction of Diviana, the feminine, according to the old Etruscan idiom, of Divus, or dl¥ 02, Difos ; '" and therefore signifying the Goddess, or general female per- sonification of the Divine nature, which the moon was prob- ably held to be in the ancient planetary worship, which pre- ceded the symbolical. As her titles and attributes were in- numerable, she was represented under an infinite variety of forms, and with an infinite variety of symbols ; sometimes with three bodies, each holding appropriate emblems,*" to signify the triple extension of her power, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth ; and sometimes with phallic radii enveloping a female form, to show the universal generative attribute both active and passive.'" The figures of her, as she was worshipped at Ephesus, seem to have con- sisted of an assemblage of almost every symbol, attached to the old humanised column, so as to form a composition purely emblematical;'" and it seems that the ancient inhabitants of the north of Europe represented their goddess Isa as nearly in the same manner as their rude and feeble efforts in art could accomplish ; she having the many breasts to signify the nutri- tive attribute, and being surrounded by deers' horns instead of the animals themselves, which accompany the Ephesian statues. In sacrificing, too, the reindeer to her, it was their

"'Plutarch: Ids and Osiris, 63. said to have been made by Alcamenes,

'^^ Plutarch: Isis and Osiris, 36. about the 84th Olympiad.

" The moist principle being the chief Pausanias ; Corinth, xxx. 2. " Alca-

and source of all things from the be- menes first made three statues of

ginning, produced the first three Hecate adhering together as one,

bodies, earth, air, and fire." which the Athenians call turreted."

"" Varro : iv. 10. Lanzi : Sopra "' See Duane's Coins of the Selea-

le Lingue Morte d Italia, vol. ii. page cidse.

194. "^ De la Chausse: Roman Mu-

"' La Chausse : Roman Museum, seum, vol. I. ii. vol. 1. § 2, title 20. These figures arc

215

I02 The Symbolical Language of

custom to hang the testicles round the neck of the figure,"* probably for the same purpose as the phallic radii, above men- tioned, were employed to serve.

[edit]

THE BLOODY RITES OF BRIMO.

143. Brimo, the Tauric and Scythic Diana, was the de- troyer; whence she was appeased with human victims and other bloody rites; "" as was also Bacchus the devourer; "" who seems to have been a male personification of the same attri- bute, called by a general title which confounds him with another personification of a directly opposite kind. It was at the altar of Brimo, called at Sparta Artemis Orthia or Orthosia, that the Lacedaemonian boys voluntarily stood to be whipped until their lives were sometimes endangered : "' and it was during the festival of Bacchus' at Alea, that the Arcadian women annually underwent a similar penance, first imposed by the Delphic Oracle ; but probably less rigidly enforced."' Both appear to have been substitutions for human sacrifices,'" which the stern hierarchies of the North frequently performed ; and to which the Greeks and Romans resorted upon great and awful occasions, when real danger had excited imaginary fear."° It is probable, therefore, that drawing blood, though in ever so small a quantity, was necessary to complete the rite : for blood being thought to contain the principles of life, the smallest effusion of it at the altar might seem a complete sac- rifice, by being a libation of the soul ; the only part of the vic- tim which the purest believers of antiquity supposed the Deity to require.'" In other respects, the form and nature of these rites prove them to have been expiatory; which scarcely any of the religious ceremonies of the Greeks or Romans were.

144. It is in the character of the destroying attribute, that Diana is called Tauropola, and Boon Elateia, in allusion to her being borne or drawn by bulls, like the Destroyer among the

'•" Olaus RuDBECKius : ^//a«ftV3, "' Pausantas : Arcadia, 22,. "At

vol. ii. pp. 212, 277, 291, 292, figs. 30, the festival of Dionysus, near the Ora-

31. cle of Delphi, women are scourged, as

"' Lycophron : Cassandra, 1176. also are the young men among the

"Brimo tritiiorphos" — Brimo three- Spartans by the Orthia."

visaged. '■" Pausanias : Laconia. " The

TzETZES : Scholium. " Brimo is practice of sacrificing whomever the

said to be the same as Hecate . . . and lot indicated, Lycurgus changed into

Persephone as Brimo : and Hecate scourging of the young men."

and Persephone are the saiTie." "" PuJTARCH : Themistocles. Also

See Johannes Meursius. Parallels between Grecian and Ro-

"°" Dionysus Omadius, the cruel." man History, 20. LiVY: History oj

See Porphyry. jRome.

"' Plutarch : Lycurgus. '" Strabo : xv.

216

\ \\ Hr^' ' /I 'J

ffiS

■^

" "^.^

rZ- "^

Plouton and Kerberas.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 103

Hindus before mentioned ; and it is probable that some such symbolical composition gave rise to the fable of Jupiter and Europa ; for it appears that in Phoenicia, Europa and Astarte were only different titles for the same personage, who was the deity of the Moon;"" comprehending both the Diana and Celestial Venus of the Greeks: whence the latter was occa- sionally represented armed like the former; '" and also distin- guished by epithets, which can be properly applied only to the planet, and which are certainly derived from the primitive planetary worship."" Upon the celebrated ark or box of Cypselus, Diana was represented winged, and holding a lion in one hand and a leopard in the other ; "" to signify the de- stroying attribute, instead of the usual symbols of the bow and arrow; and in an ancient temple near the mouth of the Alpheus she was represented riding upon a griffin;"" an emblematical monster composed of the united forms of the lion and eagle, the symbols of destruction and dominion."' As ruling under the earth, she was the same as Proserpina ; except that the latter had no reference to the Moon, but was a personification of the same attributes operating in the terres- trial elements only.

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PLUTO AND SERAPIS IDENTICAL.

145. In the simplicity of the primitive religion, Pluto and Proserpina were considered merely as the deities of death presiding over the inferhal regions ; and, being thought wholly inflexible and inexorable, were neither honored with any rites of worship, nor addressed in any forms of supplication ; "' but in the mystic system they acquired a more general character; and became personifications of the active and passive modifi- cations of the pervading Spirit concentrated in the earth.

"^ LuciAN : De Dea Syria, § 4. standing in Greece, the armed image

" The Sidonians have another great of the goddess.

temple in Phoenicia, which, as they say, '" Plautus : Curcullo, act i. scene is of Astarte : but I think Astarte to 3. " Noctivigilia, noctiluca " — watch- be Selenaia or the Moon : as some of ing by night, shining by night, the priests assured me it was the temple '" Pausanias : Eleans,\. 19, g i. of Europa, the sister of Cadmus." — "* Strabo : viii. " Artemis borne Europa, Astarte, Venus-Urania, the by a griffin."

Syrian, Phrygian, and Babylonian "' See Hunteriart Collection, coins

goddesses were but the same divm- ofTelos. ity." "* Homer : Iliad, ix. 158. Bry-

"' Pausanias : Corinth, iv. 7. "At ant's Translation : the citadel of Corinth is a temple of " 'TIs Pluto, who is deaf to prayer

Aphrodite, and statues, representing And ne'er relents; and he of all the gods the armed goddess, the Sun and Cupid Most hateful is to mortals." with his bow." Pluto and Proserpina are invoked in

There was also at Cytherea, in the Iliad ix. and Odyssey x., but only as

most ancient temple of Venus-Urania rulers of the Underworld.

219

I04 The Symbolical La7igtiage of

Pluto was represented with the polos or disk on his head, like Venus and Isis, — and, in the character of Serapis, with the patera of libation, as distributor of the waters, in one hand and the cornucopise, signifying its result, in the other. His name Pluto or Pliitus signifies the same as this latter symbol, and appears to have arisen from the mystic worship ; his ancient title having been Aides or Afides, signifying the In- visible, which the Attics corrupted to Hades. Whether the title Serapis, which appears to be Egyptian, meant a more general personification, or precisely the same, is difficult to ascertain, ancient authority rather favoring the latter supposition."" At the same time that there appears to be some difference in the figures of them now extant; those of Pluto having the hair hanging down in large masses over the neck and forehead, and differing only in the front curls from that of the celestial Jupiter; while Serapis has, in some instances, long hair formally turned back and disposed in ringlets hanging down upon his breast and shoulders like that of women. His whole person too is always enveloped in drapery reaching to his feet ; wherefore he is probably meant to comprehend the attributes of both sexes ; and to be a gen- eral personification, not unlike that of the Paphian Venus with the beard, before mentioned, from which it was perhaps partly taken ; "° there being no mention made of any such deity in ^gypt prior to the Macedonian conquest ; and his worship having been communicated to the Greeks by the Ptolemies ; whose magnificence in constructing and adorning his temple at Alexandria was only surpassed by that of the Roman emperors in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.'"

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THE LOTUS-SYMBOL.

146. The mystic symbol called a modius or polos, which is upon the heads of Pluto, Serapis, Venus, and Fortune or Isis, appears to be no other than the bell or seed-vessel of the lotus or water-lily, the Nymphaa nelumbo of Linnaeus. This plant appears to be a native of the eastern parts of Asia, and is not

669 Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 2S. femafe below. Tfiey make her also

" They say that Serapis is no other sitting on horseback, or as Hippa." ■ than Pluto." Pausanias: Attica, xviii. 4. " There

'™ SumAS : Aphrodite. " They is a sanctuary of Serapis whom the

sculpture her (Aphrodite) with a Athenians say was introduced as a

beard, and as having both male and deity by Ptolemy (Soter). Of the

female organs. They style her the temples of Serapis among the .(Egyp-

patroness of generation, and say that tians the most illustrious is at Alexan-

from above the hips she is male, and dria, the most ancient at Memphis."

'" Ammianus Marcellinus : xxil

^G^gvcjx^'^

^'J-^^m^l^ 'imi^^iit^: "e^m^'^^ jg^u^qng

Coins. Vaga, etc.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 105

now found in iEgypt.'" It grows in the water, and amidst its broad leaves, which float upon the surface, puts forth a large white flower, the base and centre of which is shaped like a bell or inverted cone, and punctuated on the top with little cells or cavities, in which the seeds grow. The orifices of these cells being too small to let them drop out when ripe, they shoot forth into new plants in the places where they were formed, the bulb of the vessel serving as a matrix to nourish them until they acquire a degree of magnitude sufficient to burst it open and release themselves, when they sink to the bottom, or take root wherever the current happens to deposit them. Being, therefore, of a nature thus reproductive in itself, and, as it were, of a viviparous species among plants, the Nelumbo was naturally adopted as the symbol of the produc- tive power of the waters, which spread life and vegetation over the earth. It also appeared to have a peculiar sympathy with the Sun, the great fountain of life and motion, by rising above the waters as it rose above the horizon, and sinking under them as it retired below.'" Accordingly we find it employed in every part of the Northern hemisphere, where symbolical worship either does or ever did prevail. The sacred images ot the Tartars, Japanese, and Indians, are almost all placed upon it ; '" and it is still sacred both in Thibet and China.'" The upper part of the base of the lingam also consists of the flower of it blended with the more distinctive characteristic of the female sex; in which that of the male is placed, in order to complete this mystic symbol of the ancient religion of the Brahmans; '" who, in their sacred writings, speak of Brahma sitting upon his lotus throne."

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EGYPTIAN SCULPTURES, THEIR PERFECTION AND PRODIGIOUS

ANTIQUITY.

147. On the Isiac Tablet, the figures of Isis are represented holding the stem of this plant, mounted by the seed-vessel, in one hand, and the circle and cross before explained, in the other ; and in a temple, delineated upon the same mystic tablet are columns exactly resembling the plant, which Isis holds in her hand, except that the stem is made proportionately large,

'•^'^ Embassy to China, vo\, \\. p. 391. ^^^ Embassy to Thibet, 'p. H'i. Sir G,

"* Theophrastus : History of Staunton: Embassy to China, vol. ii.

Plants, iv. 10. p. 391.

See also Discourse on the Worship of ^^® SoNNERAT ; Voyage aux Indes,

Priapus, pp. 49, 50, 54, 58, and plate. etc.

'"See K^mpfer: D'Auteroche, '■* Bhagavat-Cita,-p. 91. See also

SoNNERAT and The Asiatic Re- the figure of him by Sir William Jones,

searches. in the Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 243

io6 The Symbolical Language of

to give that stability which is requisite to support a roof and entablature. Columns and capitals of the same kind are still existing in great numbers among the ruins of Thebes in ^gypt, and more particularly among those on the island of Philse on the borders of Ethiopia ; which was anciently held so sacred that none but priests were permitted to go upon it."' These are probably the most ancient monuments of art now extant ; at least, if we except some of the neighboring temples of Thebes; both having been certainly erected when that city was the seat of wealth and empire ; as it seems to have been, even proverbially, in the time of the Trojan war.'™ How long it had then been so, we can form no conjecture; but that it soon after declined, there can be little doubt ; for, when the Greeks, in the reign of Psammetichus (generally computed to have been about 530 years after, but probably more) became personally acquainted with iEgypt,"" Memphis had been for many ages its capital, and Thebes was in a man- ner deserted.

148. We may therefore reasonably infer that the greatest part of the superb edifices now remaining were executed or at least begun before the Homeric or even Trojan times, many of them being such as could not have been finished but in a long course of years, even supposing the wealth and resources of the ancient kings of iEgypt to have equalled that of the greatest of the Roman emperors. The completion of Trajan's Column in three years has been justly deemed a very extraordinary effort; as there could not have been less than three hundred sculptors employed; and yet at Thebes, the ruins of which, according to Strabo, extended ten miles on both sides of the Nile,"' we find whole temples and obelisks of enormous mag- nitude covered with figures carved out of the hard and brittle granite of the Libyan mountains, instead of the soft and 3'ield- ing marbles of Faros and Carrara. To judge, too, of the mode and degree of their finish by those on the obelisk of Rameses, once a part of them, but now lying in fragments at Rome, they are far more elaborately wrought than those of Trajan's Pillar.

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CERTAIN ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT.

149. The age of Rameses is as uncertain as all other very

"* DiODORUS SICULUS : i. 25. sis who died in the second year of the

"' Homer: Iliad, ix. 381. 63d Olympiad, in which Cambyses in-

™ DiODORUS SicuLus : i. pp. 78, vaded Egypt. 79. " He (Psammetichus) first of the " Strabo : xvii. " And now ap-

kings, opened tlie eraporia of Egypt pear the ruins of enormous magnitudcj

to other nations, as another country." extending eighty stadia along." This prhice was the fifth before Ama-

224

Ancient Art and Mythology. J07

ancient dates: but he has been generally supposed by modern chronologers to be the same person as Sesostris, and to have reigned at Thebes about iifteen hundred years before the Chris- tian era, or about three hundred before the siege of Troy. They are, however, too apt to confound personages for the purpose of contracting dates ; which being merely conjectural in events of this remote antiquity, every new system-builder endeavors to adapt them to his own prejudices ; and, as it has been the fashion, in modern times, to reduce as much as possible the limits of ancient history, whole reigns and even dynasties have been annihilated with the dash of a pen, notwithstanding the obstinate evidence of those stupendous monuments of art and labor, which still stand up in their defense.'"

150. From the state in which the inhabitants have been found in most newly-discovered countries, we know how slow and difficult the invention of even the commonest implements of art is ; and how reluctantly men are dragged into those habits of industry, which even the first stages of culture re- quire. .(Egypt, too, being periodically overflowed, much more art and industry were required even to render it constantly habitable and capable of cultivation, than would be employed in cultivating a country not liable to inundations. Repositories must have been formed, and places of safety built, both for men and cattle; the adjoining deserts of Libya aflFording neither food nor shelter for either. Before this could have been done, not only the arts and implements necessary to do it must have been invented, but the rights of property in some degree de- fined and ascertained ; which they only could be in a regular government, the slow result of the jarring interests and pas- sions of men ; who, having long struggled with each other, acquiesce at length in the sacrifice of some part of their natural liberty in order to enjoy the rest with security. Such a government, formed upon a very complicated and artificial plan, does .^gypt appear to have possessed even in the days of Abraham, not five hundred )'ears after the period generally allowed for the universal deluge. Yet .^gypt was a new country, gained gradually from the sea by the accumulation

'" Bishop Warburton, in \as Divine or Sethi, and his son Remeses II. sur- Legation of Moses, \v2l?. xwixo^ViC^fi ow^ passed the exploits of their predeces- of these chronologers, who proves that sor, the name of Sesostris became con- William I. the conqueror and William founded with that of Sethos, and the III. of England are the same person. conquests of that king and his still Sir Gardner Wilkinson says: " The greater son were ascribed to the origi- original Sesostris was the first king of nal Sesostris." This was before the the I2th dynasty. Osirtasen, or Ses- Hyk-Sos or Phoenicio-Hellenic Shep- ortasen I., who was the first great herds. — A. W. Egyptian conqueror; but when Osirei,

225

io8 The Symbolical Language of

of the mud and sand annually brought down in the waters of the Nile; and slowly transformed, by the regularly progres- sive operation of time and labor, from an uninhabitable salt- marsh to the most salubrious and fertile spot in the universe.

151. This great transformation took place, in all the lower regions, after the genealogical records of the hereditary priests of Amun at Thebes had commenced ; and, of course, after the civil and religious constitution of the government had been formed. It was the custom for every one of these priests to erect a colossal statue of himself, in wood — of which there were three hundred and forty-iive shown to Hecataeus and Herodotus;"" so that, according to the ^gptian computation of three generations to a century,'" which, considering the health and longevity of that people,"' is by no means unrea- sonable, this institution must have lasted between eleven and twelve thousand years, from the times of the first king, Menes, under whom all the country below Lake Mceris was a bog,"' to that of the Persian invasion, when it was the garden of the world. This is a period sufficient, but not more than suflBcient, for the accomplishment of such vast revolutions, both natural and artificial ; and, as it is supported'by such credible testimony, there does not appear to be any solid room for suspecting it to have been less : for, as to the modern systems of chronology, de- duced from doubtful passages of Scripture, and genealogies, of which a great part were probably lost during the captivity of the Jews, they bear nothing of the authority of the sacred sources from which they have been drawn.'" Neither let it be ima-

'" Herodotus : ii. 143. isfactory than those of the Hebrew sa-

"■i Herodotus : ii. 142. " Three cred writings. Many of the numbers

generations of men make one hundred are peculiar and apparently mystical

years." rather than historical ; and it is plain

"' Herodotus : ii. 77. " Apart that discrepancies exist of a most in- from any such precautions, they are, I comprehensible character, baffling believe, next to the Libyans, the credulity. There are displayed in pe- healthiest people in the world, — an riods of extraordinary brevity the ex- effect of their climate, In my opinion, tremes of rustic simplicity and mature which has no sudden changes. Dis- civilisation : and petty inaccuracies ease almost always attacks men when denoting either carelessness in tran- they are exposed to a change, and never scribing, or an allegorical sense which more than during changes of the is now lost. Thus King Hezekiah at weather." twenty-five succeeds his father who

'" Herodotus : ii. 4. " They died at thirty-six. Ahaziah at the age

told me that the first man who ruled of forty-two is placed on the throne of

over Egypt was Men, and that in his his father who had just died at forty,

time all Egypt except the Thebaic There are no old Hebrew manuscripts

nome or canton was a marsh, none of the scriptures in existence ; the

of the land below Lake Mceris then books were collected by the Pharisee

showing itself above the surface of the Rabbis under the earlier Maccabees

water. This is a distance of seven and more or less revised, travestied and

days' sail from the sea up the river." amended. But all the early manu-

"' Few chronologies are more unsat- scripts have perished; and of those

226

Ancient Art and Mythology. 109

gined that either Herodotus, or the priest who informed him, cctuld have confounded symbolical figures with portraits : for all the ancient artists, even those of ^gypt, were so accurate in discriminating between ideal and real characters, that the diflFerence is at once discernible by any experienced observer, even in the wrecks and fragments of their works that are now extant.

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ANCIENT EGYPTIANS OBTAINING THEIR SYMBOLS FROM INDIA.

152. But, remote as the antiquity of these .Egyptian re- mains seems to be, the symbols which adorn them, appear not to have been invented by that, but to have been copied from those of some other people, who dwelt on the other side of the Erythraean Ocean. Both the Nelumbo and the Hooded Snake, which are among those most frequently repeated, and most accurately represented upon all their sacred monuments, are, as before observed, natives of the East ; and upon the very an- cient .Egyptian temple, near Girjeh, figures have been ob- served exactly resembling those of the Indian deities, Jugger- naut, Ganesa, and Vishnu. The .Egyptian architecture appears, however, to have been original and indigenous ; and in this art only the Greeks seem to have borrowed from them ; the dif- ferent orders being only different modifications of the symbol- ical columns which the Egyptians formed in imitation of the Nelumbo plant.

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ARCHITECTURAL PILLARS DEVISED FROM THE LOTUS.

153. The earliest capital seems to have been the bell or seed-vessel, simply copied, without any alteration except a little expansion at bottom, to give it stability. The leaves of some other plant were then added to it, and varied in dif- ferent capitals, according to the different meanings intended to be signified by these accessory symbols."" The Greeks decorated it in the same manner, with the foliage of various plants, sometimes of the acanthus and sometimes of the aquatic kind ; "° which are, however, generally so trans- versions that exist there are disagree- "' Denon: pi. Ix. 12; pi. lix. and Ix. ments in the chronology. Ideler has "' See ib. pi. lix. i, 2, and 3, and Ix. demonstrated that the years of the i, 2, 3, &c. ; where the originals from world and the whole present chronolo- which the Greeks took their Corin- gy of the Jews were invented by the thian capitals plainly appear. It Rabbi Hillel Hanassi in the year 344. might have been more properly called None of the present Hebrew manu- the Egyptian order, as far nt least as scripts are nine hundred years old. — relates to the form and decoration.* A. W. of the capitals.

227

no The Symbolical Language of

formed by their excessive attention to elegance, that it is difficult to ascertain them. The most usual seems to be the Egyptian Acacia, which was probably adopted as a mys- tic symbol for the same reasons as the olive; it being equally remarkable for its powers of reproduction."" Theophras- tus mentions a large wood of it in the Thebaid, where the olive will not grow ; "' so that we may reasonably suppose it. to have been employed by the ^Egyptians in the same symbolical sense. From them the Greeks seem to have borrowed it about the time of the Macedonian conquest ; it not occurring in any of their buildings of a much earlier date : and as for the story of the Corinthian architect, who is said to have invented this kind of capital from observing a thorn growing round a basket, it deserves no credit, being fully contradicted by the buildings still remaining in Upper .^gypt.'"

154. The Doric column, which appears to have been the only one known to the very ancient Greeks, was equally de- rived from the Nelumbo ; its capital being the same seed-vessel pressed flat, as it appears when withered and dry ; the only state, probably, in which it had been seen in Europe. The flutes in the shaft were made to hold spears and staffs ; whence a spear-holder is spoken of, in the Odyssey, as part of a col- umn.'" The triglyphs and blocks of the cornice were also derived from utility ; they having been intended to represent the projecting ends of the beams and rafters which formed the roof

155. The Ionic capital has no bell, but volutes formed in imitation of sea-shells, which have the same symbolical mean- ing. To them is frequently added the ornament which archi- tects call a honeysuckle ; but which seems to be meant for the young petals of the same flower viewed horizontally, be- fore they are opened or expanded. Another ornament is also introduced in this capital, which they call eggs and anchors; but which is, in fact, composed of eggs and spear-heads, the symbols of female generative, and male destructive power ; or, in the language of mythology, of Venus and Mars.

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IMPOSSIBLE TO INVENT A NEW ORDER.

156. These are, in reality, all the Greek orders which are

'*" Martin : On the Georgia of Vir- attributed, it must be of about the

gil, ii. 119. liundredth and eleventh Olympiad, or

'*' Theophrastus : Concerning three hundied and thirty years before

Plants. the Christian era ; which is earlier

'*" If the choragic monument of than any other specimen of Corinthian.

Lysicrates was really erected in the architecture known,

time of the Lysicrates to whom it is '"Homer: Odyssey, '\.se^t.\^i^|.

2J,S

Coins. Alexander II., etc.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 1 1 1

lespectively distinguished by the symbolical ornaments being placed upward, downward, or sideways : wherefore to invent a new order is as much impossible as to invent an attitude or position, which shall incline to neither of the three. As for the orders called Tuscan and composite, the one is that in which there is no ornament whatsoever, and the other that in which various ornaments are placed in diflferent directions; so that the one is in reality no order, and the other a combina- tion of several.

157. The columns being thus sacred symbols, the temples themselves, of which they always formed the principal part, were emblems of the Deity, signifying generally the female productive power ; whence IIEPIKIUNI02, Ferikionios, sur- rounded with columns, is among the Orphic or mystic epithets of Bacchus, in his character of god of the waters ; '" and his statue in that situation had the same meaning as the Indian lingara, the bull in the labyrinth, and other symbolical com- positions of the same kind before cited. A variety of acces- sory symbols were almost always added, to enrich the sacred edifices; the .^Egyptians covering the walls of the cells and the shafts of the columns with them; while the Greeks, always studious of elegance, employed them to decorate their entabla- tures, pediments, doors, and pavements. The extremities of the roofs were almost always adorned with a sort of scroll of raised curves,"' the meaning of which would not be easily dis- covered, were it not employed on coins evidently to represent water ; not as a symbol, but as the rude effort of infant art, feebly attempting to imitate waves.""

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THE FISH-SYMBOL AND THE POMEGRANATE.

158. The most obvious, and consequently 'the most ancient symbol of the productive power of the waters, was a fish ; which we accordingly find the universal symbol upon many of the earliest coins; almost every symbol of the male or active power, both of generation and destruction, being occa- sionally placed upon it ; and Derceto^ the goddess of the Phoenicians, being represented by the head and body of a woman, terminating below in a fish ; "' but on the Phoenician

584 Orphic Hymn, xlvi. was a strange representation ; half

^"Stuart : Athens, vol. I. iv. was a woman, and from the thighs to

plate 3. the extremities of the feet, it appeared

'"^ See coins of Tarentum, Cama- as the tail of a fish ; but in the Holy

rina, &c. City (Hierapolis, or Bambyke) it was

'*' LuciAN : De Dea Syria, 14. entirely woman." " The image of Derceto, in Phoenicia,

231

1 1 2 The Symbolical Language of

as well as Greek coins now extant, the personage is of the other sex ; and in plate L. of vol. i of the Select Specimens, is engraved a beautiful figure of the mystic Cupid, or first-be- gotten Love, terminating in an aquatic plant; which, affording more elegance and variety of form, was employed to signify the same meaning; that is, the Spirit upon the waters; which is otherwise expressed by a similar and more common mixed figure, called a Triton, terminating in a fish, instead of an aquatic plant. The head of Proserpina appears, in numberless instances, surrounded by dolphins ; '" and upon the very an- cient medals of Side in Pamphylia, the pomegranate, the fruit peculiarly consecrated to her, is borne upon the back of one."' By prevailing upon her to eat of it, Pluto is said to have pro- cured her stay during half the year in the infernal regions ; and a part of the Greek ceremony of marriage still consists, in many places, in the bride's treading upon a pomegranate. The flower of it is also occasionally employed as an ornament upon the diadem of both Hercules and Bacchus, and likewise forms the device of the Rhodian medals ; on some of which we have seen distinctly represented an ear of barley springing from one side of it, and the bulb of the lotus, or Nymphcea nelumbo, from the other. It therefore holds the place of the male, or active generative attribute ; and accordingly we find it on a bronze fragment published by Caylus, as the result of the union of the bull and lion, exactly as the more distinct symbol of the phallus is in a similar fragment above cited."" The pomegranate, therefore, in the hand of Proserpina or Juno, signifies the same as the circle and cross, before explained, in the hand of Isis; which is the reason why Pausanias declines giving any explanation of it, lest it should lead him to divulge any of the mystic secrets of his religion."' The cone of the

'** See coins of Syracuse, Motya, etc. Underworld, who is after all but Isis,

'" Hunterian Museum : Tab. xlix. Rhea, and Cybele. — A. W.

6g. 3, etc. '™ R^cueil iT Antiquities : Vol. VII.

See Inman . Ancient Faiths Em- pi. Ixiii. figs. i. 2, 3.

bodied in Ancient Names, vol. ii. pp. The bull's head here is half human-

611-613. The arcane meaning of the ised, having only the horns and ears

pomegranate is evidently sexual. The of the animal ; but in the more

goddess Nana ate of one, and became ancient fragment of Caylus, to which

pregnant. Women celebrating the Mr. Knight refers, both symbols are

Thesmophoria, abstained from the unchanged.

fruit rigidly. The Greek name of '" Pausanias : Corinth, xvii. 4.

this fruit, rhoia, is a pun for Rhea, " The agalma of Hera is sitting upon

the Mother-Goddess. In the phallic a throne, and is of gold and ivory, the

symbolism, generation is a part of the work of Polycleitus ; her crown has

mystery of death, and therefore its inwrought upon it the Graces and the

symbol, the pomegranate, belongs very Hours ; in one hand she holds a

appropriately to the Queen of the pomegranate, and in the other, a

23-

Ancient Art and Mythology.

113

pine, with which the thyrsus of Bacchus is always surmounted, and which is employed in various compositions, is probably a symbol of similar import, and meaning the same, in the hand of Ariadne and her attendants, as the above-mentioned em- blems do in those of Juno, Proserpina, and Isis.°"

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THE DOG-SYMBOL OF DIANA, THOTH, AND OTHER DEITIES.

159. Upon coins, Diana is often accompanied by a dog,"' esteemed to be the most sagacious and vigilant of animals ; '" and therefore employed by the .Egyptians as the symbol of Hermes, Mercury, or Anubis, who was the conductor of the soul from one habitation to another ; and consequently the same, in some respects, as Brimo, Hecate, or Diana, the de- stroyer."' In monuments of Grecian art, the cock is the most frequent symbol ; and in a small figure of brass, we have ob- served him sitting on a rock, with a cock on his right side, the goat on his left, and the tortoise at his feet. The ram, however, is more commonly employed to accompany him, and in some instances he appears sitting upon it ; "" hence it is probable that both these animals signified nearly the same, or, at most,

sceptre ; concerning the pomegranate, I will not speak, for it is a matter per- taining to the arcane learning of the Mysteries."

The pomegranate was the symbol of the Female Nature, and was named Rhcea. Hera, or lady^ is a title not only of Juno, but of Venus, Demeter, Isis, and Athena. All these goddesses were also styled Hippa, the ancient personification of femininity. — A. W.

' Inman : Ancient Faiths Em- bodied in Ancient Names, vol. ii. 490. " In the previous volume (pp. go, 162, 527), when speaking of the so-called Assyrian * grove,' I stated my opinion that the pine cone offered by priests to the deity represented by that curiously- shaped cut emblem, was typical of the ' testis,' the analogue of the mundane egg. The evidence upon which such assertion is founded may be shortly summed up by reproducing a copy of the ancient gem depicted by Moffat. In this we notice the peculiar shape of the altar, the triple pillar arising from it, the ass's head, and fictile offerings, the lad offering a pine cone surrounded with leaves, and carrying in his hand a basket in which two phalli are distinctly to be recog- nized. The deity to whom the sacri-

fice is offered is Bacchus, as figured by the people of Lampsacus. On his shoulder he bears a thyrsus, a wand or virga, terminating in a pine cone, and having two ribbons dangling from it. We see, then, that amongst certain of the ancients, the ass, the pine cone, the basket, and the thyrsus were asso- ciated with Bacchus, or the Solar deity under the male emblem."

^®^ See coins of Syracuse, etc.

'" Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 11. "They (the Egyptians) do nsupposed to be a part of the aethereal substance of the Deity detached from the rest, and doomed, for some un- known causes, to remain during certain periods imprisoned in matter, all its impulses, not immediately derived from the materia organs, were of course impulses of the Deity."" As

population of those regions were cave- «'" Homer : Iliad, iii. Priam says to

dwellers. See Analysis of Ancient Helen [Bryant's translation]:

Mythology, vol. v. p. 191, et ultra.— _ " I blame thee not :

A. W. The blame is with the immortals who have

«™ Savary : Sur rEsrypte. „^ =«■" ., ^ , .

_ « Menander: "The mind {nous) These pestilent Greeks agamst me."

is our divinity." Agamemnon in like manner vindi-

"A divinity (demon) is placed with cates his conduct to Achilles, Id.xvL.:

every man to be his initiator into the u The Greeks speak often of this feud, and

mysteries 01 liie ; he is good ; for no cast

divinity thinks ill, setting at nought The blame on me. Yet was I not the

the life of excellence ; the god needs n-.f*?"!^?' j c ^ j u ■. n

,, ., . , , J ,; & "V.V.UI. But Jupiter, and Fate, and she who walks

all things to be good. in darkness, dread Erynnis. It was they

Plutarch, who assigns two demons, Who filled my mind with fury in the hour

or genii, to each person, quotes Em- '*^^° f"^"™ Achilles I bore off his prize."

pedocles in opposition to Menander ; Pindar : Pyth. v. 164. " The great

but the opinion of the latter is the mind of Zeus, who loveth men, dis-

most ancient and generally received. poseth for thee the Demon."

Sophocles says, "She called upon her Olympia : xi. 41. " Men are good

demon." — Trachineati Women, line and wise as the demon orders."

Qio. See Ovid : Fasti, vi. 5. «>' See Eddas, and Bartholinlts.

" A god is in us ; we glow with him ■' Philolaus : Pythagorica. " The

impelling us ; the internal pressure ancient theologists and prophets tes-

has the seed of a sacred mind." tify that the soul, by way of penalty

242

Kore.

Kybele.

Plouton etc.

Ancient Art and Mythology.

119

the principles of tiiis system were explained in the Mysteries, persons initiated were said to pass the rest of their time with the gods ; '" as it was by initiation that they acquired a knowl- edge of their affinity with the Deity; and learned to class themselves with the more exalted emanations, that flowed from the same source.

164. The corporeal residence of this divine particle or emanation, as well as of the grosser principle of vital heat and animal motion, was supposed to be the blood ; "" whence, in Ulysses's evocation of the Dead, the shades are spoken of as void of all perception of corporeal objects until they had tasted the blood of the victims ™ which he had offered ; by

is joined to the body, and is, so to speak, buried in tliis body."

Plutarch : Discourse Coiueming the DcEmon of Socrates^ 24. *' Tlie deity converses immediately witii but a very few, and veiy seldom ; but to most he gives signs, from which the art of vaticination is derived. So that the gods control entirely the lives of very few, and of such only whom they intend to raise to the highest degree of perfection and happiness. These souls, as Hesiod declares, that are liberated from the conditions of gen- erated existence, and in other respects separated from the body, and free from earthly care, become demons, taking care of other human beings. As ath- letes ceasing their exercises on ac- count of age, yet retain some love for their delight, to see others wrestle, and encourage them, so souls having passed beyond the toils and conditions of the world-life, and are exalted into demons, do not slight the endeavors of men, but are kindly disposed to those who are striving for the same end, and being emulous in some sort with them, they encourage and Work zealously with them when seeing them already near their hope and ready to grasp the prize."

Plutarch : Consolatory Letter. "As for what thou hearest others say, who persuade the many that the soul, when once freed from the body, neither suffers inconvenience nor evil, nor is conscious, I know that thou art better grounded in the doctrines received by us from our ancestors, and in the sacred orgies of Dionysus, than to believe them ; for the mystic sym- bols are well known to us who belong to the Brotherhood."

'" Plato : Phadrus. " In the same

way it is said, according to what is re- membered, that truly the soul thence- forth is led by the gods."

626 Hippocrates : Diseases, i. 27. " The blood in man contains the great- est part of the mind ; some say, all."

Hippocrates: Tie Heart, viii. " The mind which was generated in the left ventricle of the heart of man, and is the first principle of the soul : it is nourished neither by food nor drink by the belly, but by pure and luminous ideas evolved from the secre- tions of the blood."

Plutarch : Symposiacs, viii. 10. " The blood, the principal thing in the whole body, has both heat and the seminal moisture."

Leviticus, xvii. 14. " Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh, for the life (the soul) of all flesh is the blood."

The heart as the receptacle of the blood thus came, by figure of speech, to denote the person as to his moral character ; and in the New Testament, the evil acts denominated " works of the flesh" (Galatians, v. 19-21) are also spoken of as proceeding out of the heart {Mark, vii. 20-23). But in con- tradiction, the works of the spirit or interior principle are described as good, and above law ; and persons born of the spirit are declared to be unable to sin, being born from above (1 John, iii. g).— A. W.

" Homer : Odyssey, xi. " I be-

hold the soul of my deceased mother, sitting near the blood in silence ; nor does she dare look upon her son, as to speak. ... I remained till my moth- er came and drank of the blood ; then immediately she knew me and lament- ing addressed me."

245

I20 The Symbolical Language of

means of which their faculties were replenished by a reunion with that principle of vitality from which they had been sep- arated; for, according to this ancient system, there were two souls, the one the principle of thought and perception, called noos and phreti, and the other the mere power of animal motion and sensation, called Jisuche'^' both of which were allowed to remain entire, in the shades, in the person of Tiresias only/" The prophetess of Argos, in like manner, became possessed of the knowledge of futurity by tasting the blood of a lamb offered in sacrifice ; "° and it seems probable that the sanctity anciently attributed to red or purple color, arose from its similitude to that of blood ; as it had been cus- tomary, in early times, not only to paint the faces of the statues of the deities with vermilion, but also the bodies of the Roman Consuls and Dictators,"' during the sacred ceremony of the triumph; from which ancient custom the imperial purple of later ages is derived.

165. It was, perhaps, in allusion to the emancipation and purification of the soul, that Bacchus is called Liknites ; '" a metophorical title taken from the winnow, which purified the corn from the dust and chaff, as fire was supposed to purify the aethereal soul from all gross and terrestrial matter. Hence this instrument is called by Virgil the mystic winnow of Bacchus; "' and nence we find the symbols both of the destroying and generative attributes upon tombs, signifying the separation

'*' Orphica. " The father of gods tores Verrius, quibus credere sit ne-

and men placed us, the mind [nous] cesse, Jovis ipsius simulachri faciem

in the soul, and the soul in the sluggish diebus festis minio illini solitam, tri-

body." umphantumque corpora : sic Camillum

Gesner : J\ri!te on Orphica. " Ac- triumphasse."

cording to this philosophy, the fsuche "*' Orph. Hymn., xlv. The XiKVOV,

is the soul, or oKJOTa, by which animate however, was the mystic sieve in

thingslive, breathe, and are sustained ; which Bacchus was cradled; from

the nous is the mind, the something which the title may have been derived,

more divine, added or placed in cer- though the form of it implies an active

tain souls by deity." rather than a passive sense. See He-

629 Homer : Odyssey, x. 491. " You SYCH. in voc.

must come to the abode oi^ Pluto and '^' VlRGH : Georges, i. 166. " Mys-

awful Persephoneia, to consult the tica vannus lacchi. "

.soul of Theban Tiresias, the blind Osiris has the winnow in one hand,

prophet, whose mental powers (p/ire- and the hook of attraction in the

nis) are stable; to whom, now dead, other; which are more distinctly ex-

Persephoneia has given mind (nous), pressed in the large bronze figure of

that he may be truly wise." him engraved in pi. ii. of vol. i. of the

'™ PausaniAS : ii. 3, 4. Select Specimens, than in any other we

• Plutarch : Concerning the Ro- know. Even in the common small fig-

mans. " Speedily blossoms the red ures it is strange that it should ever

(milthinon) with which they anointed have been taken for a whip ; though it

the ancient statues." might reasonably have been taken for

WlNKELMAN : History of Arts, i. 2. a flail, had the ancients used such an

Puny; xxxiii. 7. " Enumerat auc- instrument in thrashing corn.

246

Ancient Art and Mythology. 121

and regeneration of the soul performed by the same power. Those of the latter are, in many instances, represented by very obscene and licentious actions, even upon sepulchral monu- ments ; as appears from many now extant, particularly one lately in the Farnese Palace at Rome. The Canobus of the .Egyptians appears to have been a personification of the same attribute as the Bacchus Liknites of the Greeks : for he was represented by the filtering-vase, which is still employed to purify and render potable the waters of the Nile; and these waters, as before observed, were called the outflowing of Osiris, of whom the soul was supposed to be an emanation. The means, therefore, by which they were purified from all grosser matter, might properly be employed as the symbol of that power, which separated the sethereal from the terrestrial soul, and purified it from all the pollutions and encumbrances ot corporeal substance. The absurd tale of Canobus being the deified pilot of Menelaus is an invention of the later Greeks, unworthy of any serious notice.

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SACRED PURIFICATION BY WATER AND FIRE.

166. The rite of Ablution or Baptism in fire and water, so generally practiced among almost all nations of antiquity, seems to have been a mystic representation of this purification and regeneration of the soul after death. It was performed by jumping three times through the flame of a sacred fire, and being sprinkled with water from a branch of laurel; "" or else by being bedewed with the vapor from a sacred brand, taken flaming from the altar and dipped in water."" The exile at his return, and the bride at her marriage, went through ceremo- nies of this kind to signify their purification and regeneration for a new life ; "° and they appear to have been commonly practiced as modes of expiation or extenuation for private or secret offenses.'" A solemn ablution, too, always preceded in- itiation into the .(Egyptian and Eleusinian mysteries;"" and when a Jewish proselyte was admitted, he was immersed in the presence of three witnesses, after being circumcised, but before he was allowed to make the oblation by which he professed

"■' Ovid : Fasti, iv. er. Apollodorus : Bibliotheca, i. 5, g

Cerle ego transilui positas ter in ordine 2. "Desiring to make the infant im-

flamflias, ^ mortal, she placed him in the fire of

Virgaquerorataslaureamisit aquas. „;g^j^ ^,,^ ^_^ ^^^^ j^j, ^^^.^^

636 ATHEN.EUS : ix. flesh."

686 Plutarch : Roman Questions, i. 637 Qvid : Fasti, v. 2.

"Is it because fire refines and water "^AruLEius: hu Golden Ass, xi.

eleanseth, and a married woman ought Diodorus Siculus : i.

to remain pure and chaste ?"

247

122 The Symbolical Language of

himself a subject of the true God. As this ceremony was sup- posed to wash off all stains of idolatry, the person immersed 'was said to be regenerated and animated with a new soul; to preserve which in purity, he abandoned every former connec- tion of country, relation, or friend.""

167. Purification by fire is still in use among the Hindus, as it was among the earliest Romans,"" and also among the native Irish; men, women, and children, and even cattle, in Ireland, leaping over, or passing through the sacred bonfires annually kindled in honor of Baal ; "' an ancient title of the Sun, which seems to have prevailed in the Northern as well as Eastern dialects; whence arose the compound titles of the Scandinavian deities, Baldur, Habaldur, etc., expressing differ- ent personified attributes."" This rite was probably the abom- ination, so severely reprobated by the sacred historians of the J ews, of parents making their sons and daughters pass through the fire: for, in India, it is still performed by mothers passing through the flames with their children in their arms;"' and though commentators have construed the expression in the Bible to mean the burning of them alive, as offerings to Baal or Moloch, it is more consonant to reason, as well as to history, to sup- pose that it alluded to this more innocent mode of purification and consecration to the Deity, which continued in use among the ancient inhabitants of Italy to the later periods of Heathen- ism ; when it was performed exactly as it is now in Ireland, and held to be a holy and mystic means of communion with the great active principle of the universe.""

'" Marsham : Canon Chronicum, An, quia cunctarum contraria semina re-

ix Iq2 TMra.

flirt T-i' TT Sunt duo, discordes iafnis et unda dei :

«*> DIONYSIUS OF HalICARNASSUS : Junxerunt elementa patres: aptumque pu-

Roman Aiitiquities, Ixxxviii. " Romu- tarunt

lus commanded fires to be built by the , Ignibug, et sparsa tangere corpus aqua?

„ . J J .u 1 ^ An, quod in his vitEe caussa est ; haec per-

tents and caused tlie people to pass diditexul: >- ^ , m.^., ^^i

through the fires for the purification His nova fit conjux : hsec duo magna pu-

of their bodies." '^°' '

'■" Collecian. de reb. Hibernic. No. v. This is probably the construction

p. 64. that ought usually to be given, Ahaz

"' Olaus RUDBECKius: Atlant.'?. and Man.isseh made their sons pass

ii. V. p. 140. through the fire to Moloch-Hercules ;

«J3 Ayeen Akberry, and Maurice's but the former is also said to have

Antiquities of India, vol. v. p, 1075. " burnt his children in the fire," while

"* Ovid : Fast. iv. 781. the latter " shed innocent blood very

, , . . much, till he had filled Jerusalem

»°n5^^„<f " ''^ """"'""' f'-om one end to the other." The

Trajicias celeri strenua membra pede. prophet J eremiah also asserted that

Expositus mos est : moris mihi restat origo. the kinirs of Tudah had built the high

tenet."'" '*"'"■"= <:a=P'='q"= nostra pj^^^^ ^^ jjaal to burn their sons with

Omnia piirgat edax ignis, vitiumque metal- fire for burnt-offerings to Baal, and

lis. filled the valley of Gehenna or Tophet

Excoquit : idolrco cum duce purgat oves. ^^1^,^ ^jg .^-^^^^ ^f innocents.— A. W.

248

Ancient Art and Mythology. 123

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HUMAN SACRIFICES, AND THE MYSTIC BAPTISM OF BLOOD.

168. It must, however, be admitted that the Carthaginians and other nations of antiquity did occasionally sacrifice their children to their gods, in the most cruel and barbarous man- ner ; and, indeed, there is scarcely any people whose history does not afford some instances of such abominable rites. Even the patriarch Abraham, when ordered to sacrifice his only son, does not appear to have been surprised or startled at it ; neither could Jephthah have had any notion that such sacrifices were odious or even unacceptable to the Deity, or he would not have considered his daughter as included in his general vow, or im- agined that a breach of it in such an instance could be a greater crime than fulfilling it. Another mode of mystic puri- fication was the Taurobolium, ^gobolium, or Criobolium of the Mithraic rites ; which preceded Christianity but a short time in the Roman empire, and spread and flourished with it. The catechumen was placed in a pit covered with perforated boards ; upon which the victim, whether a bull, a goat, or a ram, was sacrificed so as to bathe him in the blood which flowed from it. To this the compositions, so frequent in the sculptures of fhe third and fourth centuries, of Mithras the Persian Mediator, or his female personification, a winged Victory sacrificing a bull, seems to allude : °" but all that we have seen, are of late date, except a single instance of the Criobolium or Victory sacrific- ing a ram, on a gold coin of Abydos.

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THE TWO HUMAN SOULS ONE ETHEREAL OR NOETIC, THE OTHER TERRESTRIAL.

169. The celestial or sethereal soul was represented in sym- bolical writing by the psychl or butterfly ; an insect which first appears from the egg in the shape of a grub, crawling upon the earth, and feeding upon the leaves of plants. In this state it was aptly made an emblem of man in his earthly form; when the aethereal vigor and activity of the celestial soul, the divines particula mentis, was clogged and encumbered with the material body. In its next state, the grub becoming a chrysalis appeared, by its stillness, torpor, and insensibility, a natural image of death, or the intermediate state between the cessation of the vital functions of the body, and the eman-

"' See Bassi-relievi, di Roma, tav. which appears anterior to the Mace- Iviii.-lx. There was one of these in donian conquest, the cabinet of Mr. R. Payne Knight,

251

124 -^'^^^ Symbolical Language of

cipation of the soul in the funeral pile : and the butterfly breaking from this torpid chrysalis, and mounting in the air, afforded a no less natural image of the celestial soul bursting from the restraints of matter, and mixing again with its native aether. Like other animal symbols, it was by degrees melted into the human form ; the original wings only being retained, to mark its meaning. So elegant an allegory would naturally be a favorite subject of art among a refined and ingenious people ; and it accordingly appears to have been more diver- sified and repeated by the Greek sculptors, than almost any other, which the system of emanation, so favorable to art, could afford."' Being, however, a subject more applicable and interesting to individuals than communities, there is no trace of it upon any coin, though it so constantly occurs upon gems.

170. The fate of the umbra, shade, or terrestrial soul, the region to which it retired at the dissolution of the body, and the degree of sensibility which it continued to enjoy, are sub- jects of much obscurity, and seemed to have belonged to the poetry, rather than to the religion, of the ancients. In the Odyssey it is allowed a mere miserable existence in the dark- ness of the polar regions, without any reward for virtue or punishment for vice ; the punishments described being evi- dently allegorical, and perhaps of a diflFerent, though not infe- rior author. The mystic system does not appear to have been then known to the Greeks, who caught glimmering lights and made up incoherent fables from various sources. Pindar, who is more systematic and consistent in his mythology than any other poet, speaks distinctly of rewards and punish- ments ; the latter of which he places in the central cavities of the earth, and the former in the remote islands of the Ocean, on the other side of the globe, to which none were admitted, but souls that had transmigrated three times into different bodies, and lived piously in each ; after which they were to enjoy undisturbed happiness in the state of ultimate bliss, under the mild rule of Rhadamanthus, the associate of Kronos.'" A similar region of bliss in the extremities of the

"' This was an example of the because the word cohen sounds like

punning so common in those times, HVtov. The term psyche, or soul, also

often making us uncertain whether the signifies a butterfly ; melitta, a bee, is

accident of similar name or sound led the name of Mylitta, or Venus. The

to adoption as a symbol or was ivy or kisses was devoted to Bacchus

merely a blunder. Thus the Greeks as the Kissean or Cushite deity. — A.

styled a certain goddess a mare, be- W.

cause she was termed Hippa ; and de- «•" Olympiodorus : ii. 108-123, etc. scribed the priests of Egypt as dogs,

252

Ancient Art and Mythology. 125

earth is spoken of in the Odyssey ; but not as the retreat of the dead, but a country which Menelaus was to visit while liv- ing.'" Virgil has made up a mixture of fable and allegory, by bringing the regions of recompense, as well as those of punishment, into the centre of the earth ; and then giving them the aethereal light of the celestial luminaries,'" without which even his powers of description could not have embel- lished them to suit their purpose. He has, also, after Plat 0,°° joined Tartarus to them, though it was not part of the regions regularly allotted to the dead by the ancient Greek mytholo- gists, but a distinct and separate world beyond Chaos, as far from Earth, as Earth from Heaven.'" According to another poetical idea, the higher parts of the sublunary regions were appropriated to the future residence of the souls of the great and good, who alone seemed deserving of immortality.'"

171. Opinions so vague and fluctuating had of course but little energy ; and accordingly we never find either the hope of reward, or the fear of punishment after death, seriously em- ployed by the Greek and Roman moralists as reasonable mo- tives for human actions : or considered any otherwise than as matters of pleasing speculation or flattering error.'" Among the barbarians of the North, however, the case was very dif- ferent. They all implicitly believed that their valor in this life was to be rewarded in the next, with what they conceived to be the most exquisite of all possible enjoyments. Every morning they were to fight a great and promiscuous battle ; after which Odin was to restore the killed and wounded to their former strength and vigor, and provide a sumptuous entertainment for them in his hall, where they were to feed upon the flesh of a wild boar, and drink mead and ale out of

"* Homer : Odyssey, iv. 561. " But With iron gates and threshold forged of

for thee. Oh noble Menelaus, it is not ^s faTbeneath the shades as earth from

decreed by the gods to die ; but the heaven."

immortals will send you to the Elysian Milton's Hell is taken from the

plain, and the houndanes of the earth, Tartarus of Hesiod, or whoever was

where is auburn-haired Rhadamanthus, (he author of the Theogony which

. . . because you possess Helen, and tears his name. His descriptions of

are the son-in-law of Zeus." chaos are also drawn from the same

"» Virgil : Mneid, vi. " Solemque source,

suum, sua sidera notunt." 66s Lucan ; Pharsalia, ix. 5.

«" Plato : Phcedrus.

' Qua niger astriferis connectitur axibus

•"Hesiod: Theogony. "Beyond aSr,

dark chaos." Quodque patet terras inter lunseque mea-

Homer: Iliad, viii. [Bryant's trans- gemidei manes habitant, quos ignea vir-

lationj : tus

..f^, _.,, , . . , Innocuos vitae patientes setheris imi

„. „ , , Or I wiU seize and hurl pg^jt gt letemos animam coUegit in or-

The offender down to rayless Tartarus, ^cs "

Deep, deep in the great gulf below the .,„ , ' „ . .. ,

earth, ""Juvenal: Satire, u. 149 ; Lu-

can : Pharsalia, i. 458.

253

126 The Symbolical Language of

horns of stags till night, when they were to be indulged with beautiful women."' Mankind in general in all stages of society are apt to fashion their belief to their dispositions, and thus to make their religion a stimulus instead of a curb to their passions.

[edit]

HERMES OR MERCURY, AND VULCAN THE FIRE-GOD.

172. As fire was supposed to be the medium through which the soul passed from one state to another, Hermes or Mercury, the conductor, was nearly related to Hephaistos or Vulcan, the general personification of that element. The .^Egyptians called him his son ; "' and the Greeks, in some instances, represented him not only with the same cap, but also with the same features, and that they are only to be distin- guished by the adscititious symbols."" He had also, for the same reason, a near affinity with Hercules, considered as the personification of the diurnal sun : wherefore they were not only worshipped together in the same temple,'" but blended into the same figure, called a. Herm-Heracles from hav- ing the characteristic forms or symbols of both mixed.""

173. As the operations of both art and nature were sup- posed to be equally carried on by means of fire, Vulcan is spoken of by the poets, sometimes as the husband of Charis or Elegance,"" and sometimes of Venus or Nature ; °°° the first of which appears to have been his character in the primary, and the second in the mystic or philosophical religion of the Greeks : for the whole of the song of Demodocus in the Oftyssey, here alluded to, is an interpolation of a much later ■date;""' and the story which it contains, of Vulcan detecting Mars and Venus, and confining them in invisible chains, evi- dently a mystic allegory, signifying the male and female powers of destruction and generation fixed in their mutual operation by the invisible exertions of the universal agent, fire. It was probably composed as a hymn to Vulcan, and inserted by some rhapso- dist, who did not understand the character of the Homeric language, with which the Attic contraction Helios for Eelios is utterly incompatible.

■" Mallet : Introd. i IHistoire de *'* Cicero: Ad Atticum, i. 10.

Danemarc. ^" Homer : Iliad, xviii. [Bryant's

™ Syncellus : C/^m^. p. 124. translation]:

"'See coins of /Esernia, Lipara, " Charis of the snowy vail,

etc. The beautiful, whom the great god of fire

»" Pausanias : " The temple com- Had made his wife."

men to Hercules and Hermes by the '• Homer : Odyssey, viii. line 266.

stadium." "" Odyssey, viii. 266-369.

254

Ancient Art and Mythology. 127

174. The Egyptian worship, being under the direction of a permanent Hierarchy, was more fixed and systematic than that of the Greeks; though, owing to its early subversion, we have less knowledge of it. Hence the different personifica- tions of fire were by them more accurately discriminated ; Phtha, whom the Greeks call Hephaistos, and the Romans Vul- can, being the primitive universal element, or principle of life and motion in matter ; Anubis, whom they call Hermes and Mercury, the Minister of Fate; and Thoth, whom they called by the same titles, the parents of Arts and Sciences. Phtha was said to be the father of all their Cabeiri or chief gods ; '" and his name signified the Ordinator or Regulator, as it does still in the modern Coptic. His statues were represented lame, to signify that fire acts not alone, but requires the sustenance of some extraneous matter ;"" and he was fabled by the Greek mythologists to have delivered Minerva from the head of Jupiter ; that is, to have been the means by which the wisdom of the omnipotent Father, the pure emanation of the Divine Mind, was brought into action.

[edit]

ATHENA OR MINERVA, THE DIVINE WISDOM, AND HER SYMBOLS.

175. This pure emanation, which the .^Egyptians called Neith,"* was considered as the goddess both of Force and Wis- dom, the first in rank of the secondary deities,'" and the only one endowed with all the attributes of the supreme Deity; °" for as wisdom is the most exalted quality of the mind, and the Divine Mind the perfection of wisdom, all its attributes are the attributes of wisdom ; under whose direction its power is always exerted. Force and wisdom, therefore, when consid- ered as attributes of the Deity, are the same ; and Bellona and AthenS are but different titles for one personification.

Herodotus : iii. 37. Gardner "' Jablonski : Pantheon of jEgypt,

Wilkinson doubts the accuracy of this Book I. ii. 11, 13. statement, but his remarks are not *" PLATO : Timaus. " Sal's had a clear. Their worship was very ancient presiding divinity whose name is in the in Phrygia and Samothrace, also in Egyptian tongue, Neith, which they Lemnos and Tenedos ; in short, say corresponds with the Greek Athe- wherever Vulcan or Hephaistos was ne." The name more clearly re- worshipped. According to Jacob Bry- sembles that of the Armenian goddess ant, they were the priests of the Mo- Anaitis, or Ana-hid, the Heavenly ther Goddess. The Scholiast in Ap- Venus. — A. W.

ollonius declares that " Zeus is the * Horace : i. Ode 12. " Pallas

older of the Cabeiri." As Hephaistos received the honors next to him."

was the Phtha of Egypt, it is possible "' Callimachus : T/te Bath of

that he was their father in the sense in Athena. " Zeus gave to Athenaia

which he is denominated father of all alone of his daughters to bear the pa-

the gods. — A. W. ternal honors."

259

128 The Symbolical Language of

Both the Greeks and Egyptians considered her as male and female ; °" and upon monuments of art still extant, or accu- rately recorded, she is represented with almost every symbol of almost every attribute, whether of creation, preservation, or destruction.'"

176. Before the human form was adopted, her proper sym- bol was the Owl; a bird which seems to surpass all other creatures in acuteness and refinement of organic perception; its eye being calculated to discern objects, which to all others are enveloped in darkness ; its ear to hear sounds distinctly, when no other can perceive them at all ; and its nostrils to discriminate effluvia with such nicety, that it has been deemed prophetic from discovering the putridity of death, even in the first stages of disease.'" On some very ancient Phoenician coins, we find the owl with the hook of attraction and winnow of separation under its wing to show the dominion of Divine Wisdom over both ; while on the reverse is represented the result of this dominion, in the symbolical composition of a male figure holding a bow in his hand, sitting upon the back of a winged horse terminating in the tail of a dolphin ; beneath which are waves and another fish.'" A similar mean- ing was vailed under the fable of Athene or Minerva putting the bridle into the mouth of Pegasus,"" or Divine Wisdom controlling and regulating the waters when endued with mo- tion and vitality.

177. The Egyptians are said to have represented the per- vading Spirit or ruling providence of the Deity by the Scara- baeus or black beetle, which frequents the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and which some have supposed to be an emblem of the Sun.'" It occurs very frequently upon Phoenician, Greek, and Etruscan, as well as .^Egyptian sculp- tures; and is sometimes with the owl, and sometimes with the head of Minerva, upon the small brass coins of Athens. It is of the androgynous class, and lays its eggs in a ball of dung or other fermentable matter which it had previously collected, and rolled backward and forward upon the sand

•*' Orphic Hymn to Athena, " Born In the medals of Athens almost

male and female." every symbol accompanies the owl.

«"• Pausanias : I. xxiv. Her statue *" Of this we have known instan-

by Pheidias at Athens, held a spear in ces, in which the nocturnal clamors of

one hand, and near by was her Ser- the screech-owl have really foretold

pent. There was also a serpent kept death, according to the vulgar notion,

in her temple at the Acropolis. See "» See Dutens : M^dailUs Ph/nic.

Aristophanes : Lysistraius. pi. i. v. i.

Pausanias : Attica, xxiii. 5. " The *" Pausanias : II. ir.

statuecf Athena was also denominated •" Horapoll. : i. 10. that of Hygeia."

260

Ancient Art and Mythology. 129

of the sea, until it acquired the proper form and consistency ; after which it buries it in the sand, where the joint operation of heat and moisture matures and vivifies the germs into new insects.'" As a symbol, therefore, of the Deity, it might naturally have been employed to signify the attribute of Divine Wisdom, or ruling Providence, which directs, regu- lates, and employs the productive powers of nature.

178. When the animal symbols were changed for the human, Athene or Minerva was represented under the form of a robust female figure, with a severe, but elegant and intelli- gent countenance, and armed with a helmet, shield, and breast- plate, the emblems of perservation ; and most frequently with a spear, the emblem, as well as the instrument, of destruc- tion. The helmet is usually decorated with some animal symbol ; such as the owl, the serpent, the ram, the grifiSn, or the sphinx ; which is a species of griflBn, having the head of the female personification, instead of that of the eagle, upon the body of the lion. Another kind of griflSn, not unfrequent upon the helmets of Minerva, is composed of the eagle and horse,"* signifying the dominion of water instead of fire : whence came the symbol of the flying horse, already noticed. In other instances the female head and breast of the sphinx are joined to the body of a horse; which in these compositions is always a male, as well as that of the lion in the sphinx ; so as to comprehend the attributes of both sexes.'" In the stand of a mirror of very ancient sculpture belonging to Mr. Payne Knight is a figure of Isis upon the back of a monkey with a sphinx on each side of her head, and another in her hand. This is a compound symbol of the same kind as the Chimsera and others before noticed. The monkey very rarely occurs in Greek sculptures, but was a sacred animal among the .Egyptians, as it still continues to be in some parts of Tartary and India ; but on account of what real or imagi- nary property is now uncertain.'"

'" Plutarch : Ins and Osiris, 74. »" Herodotus : ii. 175. " A man " There are many that to this day be- presented to the temple a number of lieve that the beetle kind (scaraiaus) large colossal statues, and several pro- hath no female, but that the males digious andro-sphinxes." cast out their sperm into a round pel- " An engraving copied from an an- let of earth, which they roll about by cient gem or amulet, discovered in thrusting it backward with their hinder France, has a priapic figure of Zeus part — and this in imitation of the Sun or Jupiter with the chlamys hanging which while it moves from west to from his shoulder standing beside the east, turns the heaven the contrary Tree of Knowledge, and on the other way." side Pallas-Athene in full armor. The

Clement OF Alexandria: Mis- animals peculiar to each, are near them;

cellanies, v. 4. the ram by Jupiter, and the serpent at

'* See Medals of Velia, etc. the feet of the" goddess. Around the

263

130 The Symbolical Language of

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THE AEGIS, OR GOAT-SKIN SYMBOL.

179. The cegis or breast-plate of Minerva is, as the name indicates, the goat-skin, the symbol of the productive power, fabled to have been taken from the goat which suckled Jupiter; that is, from the great nutritive principle of nature. It is always surrounded with serpents, and generally covered with plumage; and in the centre of it is the Gorgon or Medusa, which appears to have been a symbol of the Moon,"' exhibited sometimes with the character and expression of the destroying, and sometimes with those of the generative or preserving attribute ; the former of which is expressed by the title of Gorgon, and the latter by that of Medusa."' It is sometimes represented with serpents, and sometimes with fish, in the hair; and occasionally with almost every symbol of the female generative or productive power ; it being the female personification of the Disk, by which almost all the nations of antiquity represented the Sun ; "' and the female personifi- cation was the symbol of the Moon. Among the Romans, the golden bulla or disk was worn by the young men, and the crescent by the women, as it still is in the South of Italy; and it seems that the same symbolical amulets were in use among the ancient inhabitants of the British Islands ; several of both having been found made of thin beaten gold both in England and Ireland ; which were evidently intended to be hung round the neck."" Each symbol, too, occasionally appears worn in like manner upon the fig^ures of Juno or Ceres, which cannot always be discriminated ; and the Disk between horns, which seem to form a crescent, is likewise upon the head of Isis and Osiris, as well as upon those of their animal symbols the cow and bull.'"

engraving are the words, in Hebrew '" See authorities before cited.

(Genesis, iii. 6) : "And the woman Maximus Tyrius : Dissertation,

saw the tree, good for food, and agree- viii. " The Pseonians (of Macedonia)

able for the eyes, and a tree to be de- worship the Sun ; the Pasonian sym-

sired for making one wise." — A. W. bol of the sun is a broad disk upon a

'" Orphic Hymn, quoted by Cle- large post."

ment ; Miscellanies, v. " The Moon ^ One three inches in diameter was

with the face of the Gorgon." found in the Isle of Man, and placed

Jacob Bryant considers the Gorgon, in the collection of Mr. Knight ; and

or female face, surrounded with ser- another, in Lancashire, England, was

pents to bean agalma or syxaho\ of the property of the late C.Townley.Esq.

the personified Divine wisdom, Metis '*' Heuodotus : ii. 132. "As for

or Medusa. — A. W. the cow, . . . between the horns

" GORGO is supposed ;0 hnve been there is a representation in gold of the

a barbarian title of Athena-Minerva, orb of the sun. The figure is not

as Bendeia and Dtctynna were of erect, but lying down, with the limbs

Diana. under the body."

264

Ancient Art and Mythology. 131

180. The aegis employed occasionally by Jupiter, Minerva, and Apollo, in the Iliad, seems to have been something very different from the symbolical breast-plate or thorax, which ap- pears in monuments of art now extant ; it being borne and not worn ; and used to excite courage or instil fear, and not for defense." The name ^gis, however, still seems to imply that it is derived from the same source and composed of the same material ; though instead of serpents, or other symboli- cal ornaments, it appears to have been decorated with golden tassels, or knobs, hanging loosely from it ; the shaking and rattling of which produced the effects before mentioned."' Vulcan is said to have made it for Jupiter; °°' and to have fur- nished it with all those terrific attributes, which became so splendid and magnificent when personified in poetry.

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BELLS IN RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.

181. Stripped, however, of all this splendor and magnifi- cence, it was probably nothing more than a symbolical instru- ment, signifying originally the motion of the elements, like the sistrum of Isis, the cymbals of Cybele,""' the bells of Bacchus, etc. ; whence Jupiter is said to have overcome the Titans with his aegis, as Isis drove away Typhon with her sistrum j"" and the ringing of bells and clatter of metals were almost universally employed as a means of consecration, and a charm against the

•'* Homer : Iliad, iv. '" Homer : Iliad, xv. [Bryant's

" But Zeus. Kronides, who sits on high Translation] : „,,^,.

Ruling ^her, disgusted at the fraud, p^™,,,,. ,v, ,™hi» »„?= fn ifi^l^.T

Will slake the «gis before them aU. Phcebus, the terrible ^gis in his hands,

^ Dazzlingly bright within its shaggy fringe,

Also, Iliad, ii. FBryant's Transla- By Vulcan forged, the great artiEcer,

-■ „T . *• ^ And given to J upiter. With which to rout

^'°°J • .. „ , , , ,. Armies of men. With this he led

But the god who bears -phe assailants on. . . .

The aegis, Saturn's son, hath cast on me as iong as Phcebus held the aegis still.

Much grief. -piie weapons reached and wounded equally

4i,.« Tti-j Both armies, and in both the people fell."

Also, Iliad, XV. '. \, "^

" Now take Also, Iliad, v. [^Bryant s fransla-

The fringed segis in thy hands, and shake tionl :

Its orb before the Greeks, to £11 " Her shoulder bore

Their breasts with fear." The dreadful aegis, with its shaggy brim

683 tj^,,.,., . TT J •■ rr. .t Bordered with Terror. There was Strife,

«" Homer : Ihad, u. [Bryant's and there

Translation]: Was Fortitude, and there was fierce Pur-

"Among them walked suit.

The blue-eyed Pallas, bearing on her arm And there the Gorgon s head, a ghastly

The priceless aegis, ever fair and new, sight.

And undecaying ; from its edge there hung Deformed and dreadful, and a sign of woe

A hundred golden fringes, fairly wrought, When borne by Jupiter."

w1?w?^"°F?'^'"J'^H"?™-.. <»' Pindar. See Strabo, x. "For

With this, and fierce, defiant looks she ,, ^ ,«■ n. <: .. .1. .

passed thee, O Mother, first, the great array

Through all the Achaian host, and made of cymbals."

i„ ^h^'^^J-^^.u V. J . . *"" Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 63.

Impatient for the march, and strong to en- ., n^i .i. * ^r i, * j

dure ' ^ Ihey say that Typhon was turned

The combat without pause." away, and beaten with the sistrum."

267

132

The Symbolical Language of

destroying and inert powers."" Even the Jews welcomed the new Moon with such noises;"" which the simplicity of the early ages employed almost everywhere to relieve her during eclipses, supposed then to be morbid affections brought on by the influence of an adverse power. The title Priapus, by which the generative attribute is distinguished, seems to be merely a corruption of Briapuos, clamorous; the beta and // being com- mutable letters, and epithets of similar meaning being continu- ally applied both to Jupiter and Bacchus by the poets."" Many

•*■' Sctioliast upon Theocritus : Idyls, ii. 36.

Ovm : Fasti, 441.

" Temesseaque concrepat sera, Et rogat ut tectis exeat umbra suis."

'88 Jsfumbers : x. 10. " Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your bumt-ofiferings, and over the sacrifices of your peace- offerings, that they may be to you a memorial before your God."

Plutarch : Symposiacs, iv. 6. [An argument to show that Iao, or Ado- nis, of the Jews, was identical with Dionysus, or Bacchus, the god cele- brated in the Mysteries.] " The time and manner of the greatest and most holy solemnity of the Jews is exactly agreeable to the holy Orgies of Bacchus, for that which they call the Feast they celebrate in the midst of the vintage, furnishing their tables with all sorts of fruits, while they sit under booths or tabernacles made of vines and ivy ; and the day which goes immediately before this, they call the day of Tabernacles. Within a few days afterward they celebrate another feast, not darkly, but openly, dedi- cated to Bacchus, for they have a feast among them called Kradephoria, from carrying palm-branches, and Thyrsophoria, when they enter into the Temple carrying thyrsi. What they do within, I know not ; but it is very probable that they perform the rites of Bacchus. First, they have little trumpets, such as the Grecians used to have at their Bacchanalia to call upon their gods withal. Others go before them, playing upon harps, whom they call Leuites — whether so named from Lusios, or rather from Evios, either word agrees with Bacchus. And I suppose that their Sabbaths

have some relation to Bacchus ; for even at this day, many call the Bacchi by the name of Sabbi, and they make use of that word at the celebration of the orgies of Bacchus. . . . Their high-priest, on holidays, enters their temple with his mitre on, arrayed in a skin of a hind \nebris'\, embroidered with gold, wearing buskins, and a coat hanging down to his ankles ; besides, he has a great many little bells hang- ing at his garment, which make a noise as he walks the streets. So in the nightly ceremonies of Bacchus, as the fashion is among us, they also make use of musical instruments, and call the nurses of the god, Chaico- drusta. High up on the walls of their temple is a representation of the in- curved thyrsus and drums, which surely can belong to no other divinity than Bacchus. Moreover, they are forbidden the use of honey in their sacrifices, because they suppose that a mixture of honey corrupts and deads the wine. . . . This is no incon- siderable argument that Bacchus was worshipped by the Jews, in that, among other kinds of punishment, that was most remarkably odious by which malefactors were forbid the use of wine for so long a time as the judge was pleased to prescribe."

'"' Such as Epibremetes, or The Roaring One ; Erigdoupos, or The One Crying Aloud ; Bromius, etc.

Bryant compounds the name Pria- pus quite plausibly from the designa- tion of the Arab god of generation, Peor, and Apis, the Bull of Egypt. We can hardly accept this idea, although we doubt not the identity of the rites of Baal-Peor and Priapus. The Baal-worship of Palestine was always attended by prostitution ; and the statues of the god were like those of the deity of Lampsacus. — A. W.

268

Ancient Art and Mythology. 133

Priapic figures, too, still extant, have bells attached to them ; "" as the symbolical statues and temples of the Hindus have ; and to wear them was a part of the worship of Bacchus among the Greeks ; '" whence we sometimes find them of extremely small size, evidently meant to be worn as amulets with the phalli, lunulse, etc. The chief-priests of the Egyptians, and also the high-priest of the Jews, hung them, as sacred emblems, to their sacerdotal garments;'" and the Brahmans still continue to ring a small bell at the intervals of their prayers, ablutions, and other acts of devotion ; which custom is still preserved in the Roman Catholic Church at the elevation of the host. The Lacedasmonians beat upon a brass vessel or pan, on the death of their kings ; °" and we still retain the custom of tolling a bell on such occasions ; though the reason of it is not gener- ally known, any more than that of other remnants of ancient ceremonies still existing.'"*

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THE BOAT AND THE CHARIOT, SYMBOLS OF THE FEMALE PRINCIPLE OF NATURE.

182. An opinion very generally prevailed among the ancients, that all the constituent parts of the great machine ot the universe were mutually dependent upon each other; and that the luminaries of heaven, while they contributed to fecun- date and organise terrestrial matter, were in their turn nour- ished and sustained by exhalations drawn from the humidity of the earth and its atmosphere. Hence the Egyptians placed the personifications of the Sun and Moon in boats ; '" while

"" Bronzi iT Ercolano, t. vi. tav. 98. cause why the belles ben rongen when

'" Megasthenes. See Strabo, xv. it thondreth, and when grete tem-

•*' Plutarch : Symposiacs, vi. 2. peste and outrages of wether happen,

" The high-priest goeth forth mitred to the end that the feindes and wycked

at these festivals, and clad in a fawn- spirytes shold be abashed and flee,

skin \nthris\ embroidered with gold, and cease of the movying of the tem-

weaiing a tunic reaching to his feet, peste," p. 90.

and buskins, and many bells hang LuciAN : Philofatris, 15. "They

from the robe, resounding at every fled when the sound of copper or iron

step." was heard."

Exodus, xxviii. 4-39. " Upon the There is also a tradition in Northern

hem of the robe thou shalt make Europe that the Trolls and Fairies

pomegranates of blue, and purple, were driven from those countries by

and scarlet, and bells of gold between the church-bells.

them round about," etc. '" Plutarch : Ids and Osiris, 34.

•" Schol. in Thtocrit. c. " They believe that the sun and moon

•'* " It is said," says the Golden do not go in chariots, but sail about

Legend, by Wynkyn de Worde, " the the world perpetually in boats — thus

evil spirytes that ben in the regyon of denoting their nourishment and gen-

th' ayre double moche when they here eration from seminal moisture."

the belles rongen ; and this is the Sir Gardiner Wilkinson : Raw-

269

134 The Symbolical Language of

the Greeks, among whom the horse was a symbol of humidity, placed them in chariots, drawn sometimes by two, sometimes by three, and sometimes by four of these animals ; which is the reason of the number of Bigce, Trigce, and Quadrigcs, which we find upon coins : for they could not have had any reference to the public games, as has been supposed, a great part of them having been struck by states, which not being of Hellenic origin, had never the privilege of entering the lists on those occasions. The vehicle itself appears likewise to have been a symbol of the female generative power, or the means by which the emanations of the Sun acted ; whence the Delphians called Venus by the singular title of The Chariot;"" but the same meaning is more frequently expressed by the figure called a Victory accompanying; and by the fish, or some other symbol of the waters, under it. In some instances we have observed composite symbols signifying both attributes in this situation ; such as the lion destroying the bull, or the Scylla,"" which is a combination of emblems of the same kind, as those which compose the Sphinx and Chimaera, and has no resemblance whatever to the fabulous monster described in the Odyssey.

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LIGHTNING AND SULPHUR DENOTING THE MASCULINE DIVINE PRINCIPLE.

183. Almost every other symbol is occasionally employed as an accessary to the chariot, and among them the thunder-

Uttson's Herodotus, ii. 58, note 9. the sacred boats, or arks, contained " These shrines were of two kinds, the emblems of life and stability, One was an ark, or sacred boat, which which, when the vail was drawn aside, may be called the great shrine ; the were partly seen ; and others con- other, a sort of canopy. They were tained the sacred beetle of the sun, attended by the chief priest or overshadowed by the wings of two fig- prophet, clad in the leopard-skin; ures of the goddess, Thmei, or 'Truth,' they were borne on the shoulders of which call to mind the cherubim of several persons by means of staffs, the Jews. The god Horus, the origin sometimes passing through metal rings of the Greek Charon, is the steersman, at the side ; and being taken into the par excellence, of the sacred boats, as temple, were placed on a table or Vishnu is of the Indian ark." stand prepared for the purpose. The The boat-procession of Ptah-Sokari- same mode of carrying the ark was Osiris was attended by the king him- adopted by the Jews ; and the gods of self ; and the deformed figure of the Babylon, as well as of Egypt, were image probably gave rise to the Greek borne and ' set in their place ' in a fable of the lameness of Vulcan, and similar manner. Apuleius [Metamor- the Gnostic notion of the imperfect phases, xi.) describes the sacred boat, nature of the Demiurge. The Phoe- and the high priest holding in his nicians employed similar figures, hand a lighted torch, an egg, and sul- called Pataeci, or fetishes. — A. W. phur, after which the scribe read from "" PLUTARCH : Amator, " They a papyrus certain prayers in presence call Aphrodite, Tie Car." of the assembled pastiphori, or mem- "*' See coins of Agrigentum, Herac- bers of the sacred college. Some of lea in Italy, AUipa, etc.

270

Charon, Soul, Hermes, and Boat.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 135

bolt; which is sometimes borne by Minerva and other deities, as well as by Jupiter, and is still oftener represented alone upon coins; having been an emblem, not merely of the de- stroying attribute, but of the Divine nature in general : whence the Arcadians sacrificed to thunder, lightning, and tempest ; '" and Krishna, the incarnate Deity, in an ancient Indian poem, says, "I am the thunderbolt." "I am the fire residing in the bodies of all things which have life.""" In the southeastern parts of Europe, which frequently suffer from drought, thunder is esteemed a grateful rather than terrific sound, because it is almost always accompanied with rain, which scarcely ever falls there without it.'°° This rain, descending from ignited clouds, was supposed to be impregnated with electric or sethe- real fire, and therefore to be more nutritive and prolific than any other water; '" whence the thunderbolt was employed as the emblem of fecundation and nutrition, as well as of destruc- tion. The coruscations which accompany its explosions, being thought to resemble the glimmering flashes which pro- ceed from burning sulphur ; and the smell of the fixed air arising from objects stricken by it being the same as that which arises from that mineral, men were led to believe that its fires were of a sulphurous nature : "" wherefore the flames of sul- phur were employed in all lustrations, purifications, etc.,"' as having an affinity with divine or aethereal fire ; to which its name in the Greek language has been supposed to refer."* To represent the thunderbolt, the ancient artists joined two obe- lisks pointing contrary ways from one centre, with spikes or arrows diverging from them ; thus signifying its luminous essence and destructive power. Wings were sometimes added, to signify its swiftness and activity; and the obelisks were

" Pausanias : vii. 29. " They . . . The ceraunic fire is wonderful

worship the lightning, tempest, and for delicateness and subtilty." thunder." ■"« HOMER : Iliad, viii. [Bryant's

•" Bhagavat-Gita, x. Translation]:

Phurnutus : De Natura Deorum. ii. " The Father of the Immortal gods

^^ Our souls are fire " And mortal men beheld^ and from on high

. Terribly thundered, sending to the earth

™" " Grateful as thunder m sum- A bolt of fire. He flung it down before

mer," is a simile of Tasso, who, not- The car of Diomed j and fiercely glared

withstanding his frequent and close The blazing sulphur." imitations of the ancients, has copied '""Juvenal : Satire, it line 157.

nature more accurately than any epic " They desired to purify, if sulphur

poet except Homer. might be had with pine, and if there

"" Plutarch : Symposiacs, iv. 2. was the dewy laurel." " The agriculturists call the lightning '"* Plutarch : Symposiacs, it. 2.

the fertiliser of the waters, and so " I believe that brimstone is called

consider it. . . . The water often theion (or divine substance), because

falls pregnant by the thunder, and its smell is like the fierj' offensive

their union is the cause of vital heat, scent that rises from bodies that are

struck by lightning."

27s

136 The Symbolical Language of

twisted into spiral forms, to show the whirl in the air caused by the vacuum proceeding from the explosion ; the origin of which, as well as the productive attribute, was signified by the aquatic plants, from which they sprang."'

184. After the conquests of Alexander had opened a com- munication with India, Minerva was frequently represented with the elephant's skin upon her head instead of the helmet ; "' the elephant having been, from time immemorial, the symbol of divine wisdom among the Hindus ; whose god Ganesa or Pollear is represented by a figure of this animal half-human- ised; which the Macha Alia, or god of destruction of the Tartars, is usually seen trampling upon. On some of the coins of the Seleucidse, the elephant is represented with the horns of the bull ; sometimes drawing the chariot of Minerva in her character of Bellona, and at others bearing in his pro- boscis a torch, the emblem of the universal agent, fire ; and in his tail the cornucopise, the result of its exertion under the direction of divine wisdom.'"

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THE RAM REPRESENTING WISDOM.

185. The ram has been already noticed as the symbol of Mercury ; but at Sais in iEgypt, it seems to have represented some attribute of Neitha or Minerva; "' upon a small bust of whom, belonging to Mr. Payne Knight, it supplies the orna- ment for the visor of the helmet, as the sphinx does that of the crest ; the whole composition showing the female and male powers of generation and destruction, as attributes to Divine Wisdom. In another small bronze of very ancient workman- ship, which has been the handle of a vase, rams are placed at the feet, and lions at the head, of an androgynous figure of Bacchus, which still more distinctly shows their meaning; and in the ancient metropolitan temple of the North, at Upsal, in Sweden, the great Scandinavian goddess Isa was represented riding upon a ram, with an owl in her hand."" Among the ^Egyptians, however, Amun was the deity most commonly

'"' See coins of Syracuse, Seleucia, city of this nome or canton was Sals ;

Alexander I., king of Epirus, Elis, ... the presiding deity of the city is

etc. Upon some of the most ancient in the Egyptian tongue Neith, but the

of the latter, however, it is more simply Greeks have for the equivalent Athena

composed of flames only, diverging (also Anaitis, Tanais, and Thanatos

both ways. or Death)."

"" See coins of Alexander II., king Strabo : xvii. " The people of

of Epirus, and some of the Ptolemies. Sals and Thebes worship a sheep."

■"" See those of Seleucus I., Antio- '<"• Olaus Rudbeckius : Atlantica,

chus VI., etc. ii. page 209, figure B.

"s Plato : Timaus. " The chief

276

Isis, Tripod, CanopuSj etc.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 137

represented under this symbol, which was usually half-human- ised, as it appears in pi. i. vol. i. of the Select Specimens ; in which form he was worshipped in the celebrated oracular temple in Libya, as well as that of Thebes ; "" and was the father of that Bacchus who is equally represented with the ram's horns, but young and beardless.

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AMUN, ZEUS OR JUPITER AND "GREAT PAN," IDENTICAL.

Amun, according to some accounts, corresponded with the Zeus,'" and according to others, with the Pan '" of the Greeks; and probably he was something between both, like the Lycaean Pan, the most ancient and revered deity of the Arcadians, the most ancient people of Greece."' His title was employed by the .^Egyptians as a common form of appellation toward each other, as well as of solemn invocation to the Deity, in the same manner as we employ the title of Lord, and the French that af Seigneur ; and it appears to have been occasionally compounded with other words, and applied to other deities."* According to Jablonski, who explains it from the modern Coptic, it signified precisely the same as the epithet Lycaan, that is lucid, or productive of light."' It may therefore have been applied with equal propriety to either Jupiter or Pan ; the one being the luminous aethereal spirit considered abstractly, and the other, as diffused through the mass of

"" Herodotus : ii. 42. " There- Ing, doublless, before the Lunar Wor-

fore the Egyptians give their statues ship had been introduced into Greece,

of Jupiter (Amun) the face of a ram ; Their language was brolcen into dia-

and from them the practice has passed lects, which were lost long before the

to the Ammonians who are a joint appearance of Grecian literature ; they

colony of the Egyptians and Ethiopi- were Pelasgians and of fabulous anti-

ans, speaking a language between ihe quity, but were probably emigrants

two." from Asia. They retained their coun-

'" Herodotus : ii. 42. " The try when other districts were repeated- Egyptian name for Zeus or Jupiter is ly colonised, because it was poor and Amun." mountainous.

■"' Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 9. ■"* Pausanias : Eliac. I. xv. 7.

" They regarded him as the First God, " They make libations to Hera, Am-

and the same as Pan, the All." monia, and Parammon. Parammon is a

Wisdom is called )DX, Amun, by title of Hermes."

Solomon — Proverbs, viii. 30. — A. W. Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 9. " He-

"' Ovid : Fasti, i., ii. catseus, the Abderite, says that the

" Before the Moon was formed, if they can Egyptians employed this term to each

be believed, other, when they accosted any one:

The country had the name Arcadia, ^^ jj^^ expression as an appella-

" The Arcadians are said to have held their tion

Ere J?vl was bom, and that theh race '" Jablonski : EgyfUan Pantham,

Was older than the Moon." Book II. ii. 12. Wilkinson remarks

Aristotle says that they expelled a that it is from a verb signifying to

previous population, " before the come; Manetho, that it means conceal-

adopting of the Moon : wherefore ment ; and lamblichus, tliat which

they were called Proselenians ; " mean- btings to light.

universal matter. Hence Pan is called, in the Orphic Hymns Zeus the mover of all things, and described as harmonising them by the music of his pipe."" He is also called the pervader of the sky" and of the sea," to signify the principle of order diffused through heaven and earth ; and the Arcadians called him lh.Q Lord of Matter,™ which title is expressed in the Latin name Sylvanus; Sylva, 'l^^i^^^, and 'TAH, being the same word written according to the different modes of pronouncing of different dialects. In a choral ode of Sophocles, he is addressed by the title of Author and director of the dances of the gods j "* as being the author and disposer of the regular motions of the universe, of which these divine dances were symbols.'" According to Pindar, this Arcadian Pan was the associate or husband of Rhea,™ and consequently the same as Kronos or Saturn, with whom he seems to be confounded in the ancient coins cited in section 112 ; some of them having the half-humanised horse, and others the figure commonly called Silenus, which is no other than Pan, in the same attitudes with the same female.

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THE MYSTIC DANCE.

187. Among the Greeks all dancing was of the mimetic kind : wherefore Aristotle classes it with poetry, music, and painting, as being equally an imitative art : "' and Lucian calls it a science of imitation and exhibition, which explained the concep- tions of the mind, and certified to the organs of sense things naturally beyond their reach™ To such a degree of refinement was it car- ried, that Athenaeus speaks of a Pythagorean, who could display the whole system of his sect in such gesticulations, more clearly and strongly than a professed rhetorician could

"= Hymn, x. " The horned Zeus." " The choral dance of the stars, the

Also Fragment, xxviii. orderly concert of planets, their com-

"Zeusisgodof all, of all Cerastes; mon union and harmony of motion,

Blowing with the breath the pipe, constitute the exhibition of the Dance

And making the au- resound. ^f ^^^ First-Bom."

■"' Orphic Hymn, v. AI&EPO- m Pindar : FytAia, iii.

lie Cnpunr-T Ti-Q • /linr line 7rn "I will invoke the Mother of the Gods,

.. , Aj^AA^f^'^n^l ' ' ^' The Revered Mistress, her,

" AAIUAArKTO^. Whom together with i>an,

'" Macrobius : Saturnalia, i. 22. Themaidensby my porch at night, " Lord of Primal Matter." Welcome with joyftif song."

"" Sophocles: Ajax, 694-700. '" Aristotle: Art of Poets, i.

"lollo! Pan! Pan! " LUCIAN : De Saltatione, 43.

Oh Pan, thou ocean-wanderer, " The Imitative Art is a certain knovifl-

OfTnow-bou!f/cyl!ln3, edge, an exhibition, a showing of

Show thyself. Prince of the Gods, things arcane to the mental powers,

Who leadest the dance ! " and the expressing of the things which

LuciAN : Concerning the Dance, are occult."

280

Ancient Art and Mythology. 139

in words ; for the truth of which, however, we do not vouch, the attempt being sufficient. Dancing was also a part of the ceremonial in all mystic rites : "' whence it was held in such high esteem, that the philosopher Socrates, and the poet Sophocles, both persons of exemplary gravity, and the latter of high political rank and dignity, condescended to cultivate it as an useful and respectable accomplishment."' The author of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes that God accompanying his lyre with the dance, joined by other deities;"' and a Corin- thian poet, cited by Athenseus, introduces the Father of Gods and men employed in the same exercise."* The ancient Hindus, too, paid their devotions to the Sun by a dance imita- tive of his motions, which they performed every morning and evening, and which was their only act of worship."" Among the Greeks the Knosian dances were peculiarly sacred to Jupiter, as the Nyssian were to Bacchus, both of which were under the direction of Pan ; "° who, being the principle of universal order, partook of the nature of all the other gods; they being personifications of particular modes of acting of the great all-ruling principle, and he of his general law of pre-establishing harmony ; whence upon an ancient earthen vase of Greek workmanship, he is represented playing upon a pipe, between two figures, the one male and the other female; over the latter of which is written Nooss, and over the former Alkos; whilst he himself is distinguished by the title MoLKOs; so that this composition explicitly shows him in the character of universal harmony, resulting from mind and strength ; these titles being, in the ancient dialect of Magna Graecia, where the vase was found, the same as Nous, Alke, and MoLPE, in ordinary Greek. The ancient dancing, how- ever, which held so high a rank among liberal and sacred arts, was entirely imitative, and esteemed honorable or other-

"' Athen^US : Deipnosophista, i. old age. The fair-haired Graces also

17. dance, and the Hours, Harmonia,

LuciAN : De Saltatione. " No an- Hebe, and Venus-Aphrodite, daughter

cient initiation can be found where of Zeus, each holding the other's

there is not dancing." hands by the wrist. And with them

Judges, xxi. ig. The Israelites had sport Ares and watchful Hermes ; and

the same custom. Phcebus Apollo strikes the harp, tak-

«8 Athen.«us : Deipnosophista. ing grand and imposing steps. Both

" Homer : Hymn to Apollo. golden-tressed Leto and deep-planning

"The Muses, answering with melo- Zeus are delighted to perceive the

dious voice, sing the gifts imperishable mighty Mind, their dear Son, thus

of the gods, and the sufferings of men, sporting among the gods."

who with all they have received of the '** Athen^us : xix.

immortals, are unable, nevertheless, '^^ LuciAN : De Saltatoine.

to procure counsel and resources by "" Sophocles : AJax. " Nyssian

which to keep off death, and ward off and Knossian Dances alike."

283

140 Tlie Symbolical Langtiage of

wise, in proportion to the dignity or indignity of what it was meant to express. The highest was that which exhibited mil- itary exercises and exploits with the most perfect skill, grace and agility; excellence in which was often honored by a statue in some distinguished attitude ; '" and we strongly suspect, that the figure commonly called " The Fighting Gladi- ator" is one of them ; there being a very decided character of individuality both in the form and features ; and it would scarcely have been quite naked, if it had represented any event of history.

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PAN, THE NYMPHS, AND THEIR RELATIONS TO THE SEXUAL SYMBOLISM.

188. Pan, like other mystic deities, was wholly unknown to the first race of poets ; there being no mention of him in either the Iliad, the Odyssey, or in the genuine poem of Hesiod ; and the mythologists of later times having made him a son of Mercury by Penelope, the wife of Ulysses ; a fiction, perhaps, best accounted for by the conjecture of Herodotus, that the terrestrial genealogies of the mystic deities. Pan, Bacchus, and Hercules, are mere fables, bearing date from the supposed time when they became objects of worship.'" Both in Greece and ^gypt. Pan was commonly represented under the symbolical form of the goat half-humanised ; "' from which are derived his subordinate ministers or personified emanations, called Satyrs, Fauns, Tituri, Faniskoi ; who, as well as their parent, were wholly unknown to the ancient poets. Neither do they appear to have been known in -^gypt, though a late traveller was so singularly fortunate as to find a mask of a caprine Satyr upon an ancient .^Eyptian lyre represented in the an- cient paintings of the Thebaid; in a form, indeed, so unlike that of any ancient people, and so like to a Welsh or Irish harp, that we can not but suspect it to be merely an embel- lishment of an idea, that he carried out with him."' M. De-

131 Athen^ub : Deipnosophista, xiv. and Pan is represented in Egypt by

26. the painters and the sculptors, just as he

"' Herodotus : ii. 146. " To me is in Greece, with the face and legs of

it is quite manifest that the names of a goat. They do not, however, be-

these gods became known to the lieve this to be his shape, or consider

Greeks after those of their other dei- him in any respect unlike the other

ties ; and that they count their birth gods ; but tliey represent him thus for

from the time when they first acquired a (mystical) reason which I prefer

a knowledge of them." not to relate. ... In Egyptian the

™ Herodotus: ii. 46. "These goat and Pan are both called Men- Egyptians, who are the Mendesians, des."

consider Pan to be one of the eight "* See print fewn Mr. Bruce's draw-

gods who existed before the twelve ; inq;, in Dr, BuWlO^S History of Music.

284

Nereid on a Monster,

Nereid on a Hippocampus.

Ancient Art and Mythology.

141

non, in his more accurate and extensive survey of the same ruins, found nothing of the kind.

189. The Nymphs, however, the corresponding emanations of the female productive power of the universe, had been long known ; for whether considered as the daughters of Oceanus or of Jupiter,"' their parent had long been enrolled among the personages of the vulgar mythology. Upon monuments of ancient art, they are usually represented with the Fauns and Satyrs, frequently in attitudes very lascivious and indecent ; but in the Homeric times, they seem to have been considered as guardian spirits or local deities of the springs, the valleys, and the mountains; "° the companions of the river-gods, who were the male progeny of Oceanus ; '" though the mystic system, as before observed, allowed them a more exalted genealogy."'

190. Pan is sometimes represented ready to execute his characteristic ofi&ce, and sometimes exhibiting the result of it ; in the former of which, all the muscles of his face and body appeared strained and contracted ; and in the latter, fallen and dilated; while in both the phallus is of disproportionate magnitude, to signify that it represented the predominant attribute."' In one instance he appears pouring water upon

"' Catullus : In Celt. " Oceanus, father of the Nymphs." See also, Callimachus : Hymn to Diana ; and ^EscHYLUS: Prometheus Bound.

"' Homer : Iliad, vi.

" Mountain Nymphs, Daughters of segis-bearing Jupiter, Came to the spot, and planted it with elms."

Odyssey : vi. 123. "A female voice of damsel Nymphs who possess tlie lofty summits of the mountains and the fountains of the rivers, and the grassy marshes, has come' around me."

'" Iliad: xxi.

" Achelous, Idng Of rivers, cannot viewithliim, nor yet The great and mighty deep nrom wtiich

proceed AU streams and seas and founts and wa- tery depths."

'^ The term Nymph is evidently more peculiar than Mr. Knight has indicated. In the later Greek writers it is applied to a young woman be- trothed or newly-married. More an- ciently, however, it always related to a race of females, descended from Zeus or Oceanus, who presided over foun- tains and streams of water. Indeed, Suidas has defined nymph to mean :

I. a fountain ; 2. a nubile or newly- married woman ; 3. a part of the female sexual organism. It evidently was introduced into Greek usage to denote the female principle, supposed to be expressed by water. Hence the lotos was named Nymphtea, Jacob Bryant (Analysis of Ancient Mythol- ogy, ii. 345, etc.) has derived the term from the "Amonian" words ain, a fountain, and omphe, an oracle ; after- ward contracted into Numpha. It is vt-orthy of note that nympheea or oracle-houses were always by such fountains : and it was doubtless from an idea of peculiar spiritual or mantis- tic qualities supposed to be peculiar to the female sex, that the same de- signation was applied to a part of their body.

Suidas informs us that the mother of Zeus or Jupiter was called Nympha by the Athenians ; thus figuring mystically his origin from the Divine Female Principle of the Universe. — A. W.

'3» Figures of this character are fre- quent ; and Mr. Knight has preserved copies in his celebrated treatise " On the Worship of Priapus."

287

142 The Symbolical Language of

it,"° but more commonly standing near water, and accom- panied by aquatic fowls ; in which character he is confounded with Priapus, to whom geese were particularly sacred.'" Swans, too, frequently occur as emblems of the waters upon coins ; and sometimes with the head of Apollo on the reverse ; '" when there may be some allusion to the ancient notion of their singing ; a notion which seems to have arisen from the noises which they make in the high latitudes of the North, prior to their departure at the approach of winter."' The pedum, or pastoral crook, the symbol of attraction, and the pipe, the symbol of harmony, are frequently placed near him, to signify the means and effect of his operation.

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THE GOAT AND PRIAPIC ORGIES.

191. Though the Greek writers call the deity who was represented by the sacred goat at Mendes, Pan, he more ex- actly answers to Priapus, or the generative attribute consid- ered abstractedly; '" which was usually represented in .^gypt, as well as in Greece, by the phallus onl3^" This deity was honored with a place in most of their temples,"' as the lingam is in those of the Hindus ; and all the hereditary priests were initiated or consecrated to him, before they assumed the sacerdotal office : "' for he was considered as a sort of ac- cessory attribute to all the other divine personifications, the great end and purpose of whose existence was generation or production."' A part of the worship offered both to the goat Mendes, and the bull Apis, consisted in the women tendering their persons to him, which it seems the former often accepted, though the taste of the latter was too correct."' An attempt

^» Bronzi iTErcolano, tav. xciii. priests assuming the hereditary sacer

'*' Petronius : Satyriacon, 136-7. dotal rank in Egypt, are first initiated

Published in the Bohn Library. into the sacred Mysteries of this god."

"' See coins of Clazomenae in Pel- "8 Inman : Ancient Faiths Embod-

leria, and the Hunterian Museum. ied in Ancient Names, vols. i. ii.; also

'■'" Olaus Rudbeckius : Atlantica, Ancient Pagan and Modem Christian

part II. V. Also Olaus Magnuson : Symbolism.

ix. 15. "' Pindar : See Strabo : xvii.

"' DIODORUS SICULUS : i "They .. By the Mendesian steep, at the border

say that the iLgyptians employed the of the sea,

goat as the Priapus was employed by The horn of the Nile where herded goats

the Greeks, to signify the sexual mingle with womeQ."

parts." Herodotus : ii. " A goat copu-

"' R. Payne Knight : " The lated publicly with a woman at a pub-

Worship of Priapus:' lie assembly of men."

DiODORUs SicuLus : i. Diodorus Siculus : i. " In the

"• Worship of Priapus. Also Dl- prescribed forty days the women only

ODORUS Siculus. saw him (Apis) standing before his

"' Diodorus Siculus . i. " The face, and raising their clothes they ex-

Pan and Goat.

Aphrodite on a Goat.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 143

seems to have been made, in early times, to introduce similar acts of devotion into Italy, for when the oracle of Juno was consulted upon the long-continued barrenness of the Roman matrons, its answer was, " Iliadas matres caper hirtus inito : " "° but these mystic reiinements not being understood by that rude people, they could think of no other way of fulfilling the mandate, than sacrificing a goat, and applying the skin, cut into thongs, to the bare backs of the ladies:

• Jussse sua terga maritse

Pellibus exsectis percutienda dabant ;

which, however, had the desired effect :

Virque pater subito, nuptaque mater erat."'

At Mendes female goats were also held sacred, as symbols of the passive generative attribute ; '" and on Grecian monu- ments of art, we often find caprine satyrs of that sex. The fable of Jupiter having been suckled by a goat, probably arose from some emblematical composition, the true explan- ation of which was only known to the initiated. Such was Juno Sospita of Lanuvium, near Rome, whose goat-skin dress signified the same as her title ; and who, on a votive car of very ancient Etruscan work found near Perugia, appears ex- actly in the form described by Cicero, as the associate of Hercules dressed in the lion's skin, or the Destroyer."'

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THE COMPOSITE SYMBOLS.

192. The Greeks frequently combined the symbolical ani- mals, especially in engravings upon gems, where we often find the forms of the ram, goat, horse, cock, and various others, blended into one, so as to form Pantheic compositions, signi- fying the various attributes and modes of action of the Deity."'

hibited their sexual parts ; but the See Tracts on Flagellations, col- rest of the time, it was forbidden them lected by the late Henry Buckle ; also to come into the presence of the divin- The Merry Sisters of St, Bridget, etc. ity." '" Strabo : xvii. " The Mende-

Plutarch : Brute Beasts Making sians revere the goat, especially the

Use of Reason, 5. Gryllus : " The male."

Mendesian goat in ^gypt, which is Herodotus : ii. 46. " The Mende-

reported to have been shut up with sians hold all goats in veneration, but

several beautiful women, yet never to the male more than the female."

have offered copulation with them, "' Cicero : Nature of the Gods, i.

but when he was at liberty, with a 29. " With goat-skin, spear, shield,

lustful fury flew upon the she-goats." and with open buskins."

160 <■ Lg[ (jjg rough goat approach "* Found in numerous gems copied

the Trojan matrons." in Mr. Knight's Treatise upon the

'" Ovid: Fasti, ii. "Speedily the Worship of Ptiapus; but never upon

man a father, the wife a mother was." coins.

291

144 The Symbolical Language of

Cupid is sometimes represented wielding the mask of Pan, and sometimes playing upon a lyre, while sitting upon the back of a lion ; '" devices of which the enigmatical meaning has been already sufficiently explained in the explanations of the component parts. The Hindus, and other nations of the eastern parts of Asia, expressed similar combinations of attri- butes by symbols loosely connected, and figures unskilfully composed of many heads, legs, arms, etc. ; which appear from the epithets hundred-headed, hundred-handed, etc., so frequent in the old Greek poets, to have been not wholly unknown to them ; though the objects to which they are applied, prove that their ideas were taken from figures which they did not understand, and which they therefore exaggerated into fabu- lous monsters,"" the enemies or arbitrators of their own gods. Such symbolical figures may, perhaps, have been worshipped in the western parts of Asia, when the Greeks first settled there ; of which the Diana of Ephesus appears to have been a remain : for both her temple and that of the Apollo Didy- mseus were long anterior to the Ionian emigration ; "' though the composite images of the latter, which now exist, are, as before observed, among the most refined productions of Gre- cian taste and elegance. A Pantheistic bust of this kind is engraved in plates Iv. and Ivi. of vol. i. of the Select Specimens, having the dewlaps of a goat, the ears of a bull, and the claws of a crab placed as horns upon his head. The hair appears wet ; and out of the temples spring fish, while the whole ot the face and breast is covered with foliage that seems to grow from the flesh ; signifying the result of this combination of attributes in fertilising and organising matter. The Bacchus Dendrites, and Neptune Phultalmios^ the one the principle of vegetation in trees, and the other in plants, were probably represented by composite symbolical images of this kind.

" See Florentine Museum. symbols in the temple of Bel at

"• Homer : Iliad, i. [Bijant's Babylon.

Translation]: "' Pausanias : Achaia, ii. 4. " The

"Thou didst come and loose sanctuary of Apollo in Didymi and the

His bonds, and call up to the Olympian oracle are more ancient than any other

The huldred-handed, whom the immortal bmlding among the lonians ; much

gods older still than the Ephesian Artemis,

Have named Briareus, but the sons of among the lonians."

men^geon." ik Plutarch : Sympodacs, V. 3.

See also Pindar : Pythia, i. and " Thus began the enquiry why the an-

viii. cients dedicated the pine to Poseidon

Such figures were also employed in and Dionysus. As for my part it did

the mythological sculpture and other not seem incongruous to me, for both

representations of ancient Egypt. the gods seem to preside over the

Berosus notices these composite moist seminal and generative prin-

292

Ancient Art and Mythology. 145

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CYBELE COMBINED WITH DEITIES OF OTHER WORSHIPS.

193. A female Pantheistic figure in silver with the borders of the drapery plated with gold, and the whole finished in a manner surpassing almost anything extant, was among the things found at Macon on the Saone, in the year 1764, and published by Count Caylus."° It represents Cybele, the uni- versal Mother, with the mural crown on her head, and the wings of pervasion growing from her shoulders, mixing the productive elements of heat and moisture, by making a liba- tion upon the flames of an altar from a golden patera, with the usual knob in the centre of it, representing, probably, the lingam. On each side of her head is one of the Dioscuri, signifying the alternate influence of the diurnal and nocturnal sun ; and, upon a crescent supported by the tips of her wings, are the seven planets, each signified by a bust of its presiding deity resting upon a globe, and placed in the order of the days of the week named after them. In her left hand she holds two cornucopiae, to signify the result of her operation on the two hemispheres of the Earth ; and upon them are the busts of Apollo and Diana, the presiding deities of those hemispheres, with a golden disk, intersected by two transverse lines, such as is observable on other pieces of ancient art, and such as the barbarians of the North employed to represent the solar year, divided into four parts,"" at the back of each.

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DAYS OF THE WEEK NAMED AFTER ASTRAL DIVINITIES.

194. How the days of the week came to be called by the names of the planets, or why the planets were thus placed in an order so different from that of nature, and even from that in which any theorist ever has placed them, is difficult to con- jecture. The earliest notice of it in any ancient writing now extant, is in the work of an historian of the beginning of the third century of Christianity ; '" who says that it was unknown to the Greeks, and borrowed by the Romans from other nations, who divided the planets on this occasion by a sort of musical

ciple ; and to the Poseidon Phytalmios ones in silver, found with it, came in-

(nourisher of plants) and Dionysus to Mr. Knight's possession.

Dendrites (patron of trees) all the "" Olaus Rudbeckius ; Atlantica,

Greelcs sacrifice." vols. i. p. go and ii. p. 212, fig. 4, and

™ Vol. VII. pi. Ixxi. pp. 161, 162.

The plated parts remain entire. "' The part of Plutarch's Sympo-

The picture and several other small siacs. in which it was discussed, is un- fortunately lost.

295

146 The Symbolical Language of

scale, beginning with Saturn, the most remote from the cen- tre, and then passing over two to the Sun, and two more to the Moon, and so on, till the arrangement of the week was complete as at present, only beginning with the day which now stands last. Other explanations are given, both by the same and by later writers ; but as they appear to us to be still more remote from probability, it will be sufficient to refer to them, without entering into further details.'" Perhaps the difficult}- has arisen from a confusion between the deities and the plan- ets ; the ancient nations of the North having consecrated each day of the week to some principal personage of their mythology, and called it after his name, beginning with Loki or Saturn, and ending with Freya or Venus : whence, when these, or the corresponding names in other lan- guages, were applied both to the planets and to the days of the week consecrated to them, the ancient mythological order of the titles was retained, though the ideas expressed by them were no longer religious, but astronomical. Perhaps, too, it may be accounted for from the Ptolemaic system ; according to which the order of the planets was, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon : for if the natural day consisted of twenty-four hours, and each hour was under the influence of a planet in succession, and the first hour of Sat- urday be sacred to Saturn, the eighth, fifteenth, and twenty- second, will be so likewise; so that the twenty-third will be- long to Jupiter, the twenty-fourth to Mars, and the first hour of the next day to the Sun. In the same manner, the first hour of the ensuing day will belong to the Moon, and so on through the week, according to the seemingly capricious order in which all nations, using the hebdomadal computation of time, have placed them.

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DISA, THE ISIS OF NORTHERN EUROPE.

195. The Disa or Isa of the North was represented by a conical figure enveloped in a net, similar to the cortina of Apollo on the medals of Cos, Chersonesus in Crete, Naples in Italy, and the Syrian kings ; but instead of having the serpent coiled round it, as in the first, or some symbol or figure of Apollo placed upon it, as in the rest, it is terminated in a human head."^ This goddess is unquestionably the Isis whom

"' Cass. Dion. : xxxvi. p. 37. '«= Olaus Rudbeckius : Atlantica,

Hyde's : De Relig. Vet Persar. v. TI. v. page 219.

2q6

Ancient Art and Mythology. 147

the ancient Suevi, according to Tacitus, worshipped ; '" for the initial letter of the first name appears to be an article or prefix joined to it ; and the Egyptian Isis was occasionally repre- sented enveloped in a net, exactly as the Scandinavian goddess was at Upsal.'"^ This goddess is delineated on the sacred drums of the Laplanders, accompanied by a child, similar to the Horus of the ^Egyptians, who so often appears in the lap of Isis on the religious monuments of that people.'*' The ancient Muscovites also worshipped a sacred group, com- posed of an old woman with one male child in her lap and another standing by her, which probably represented Isis and her ofiFspring. They had likewise another idol, called the golden heifer, which seems to have been the animal symbol of the same personage.'""

196. Common observation would teach the inhabitants of polar climates that the primitive state of water was ice ; the name of which, in all the Northern dialects, has so near an afiinity with that of the goddess, that there can be no doubt of their having been originally the same, though it is equally a title of the corresponding personification in the East Indies. The conical form also unquestionably means the egg ; there being in the Albani collection a statue of Apollo sitting upon a great number of eggs, with a serpent coiled round them, exactly as he is upon the vailed cone or cortina, round which the serpent is occasionally coiled, upon the coins before cited. A conic pile of eggs is also placed by the statue of him, draped, as he appears on a silver tetradrachm of Lampsacus,"" engraved in pi. Ixii. of vol. i. of the Select Specimens.

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THE PILLAR-STONES.

197. Stones of a similar conical form are represented upon the colonial medals of Tyre, and called ambrosial stones ; from which, probably, came the amberics, so frequent all over the the Northern hemisphere. These, from the remains still ex- tant, appear to have been composed of one of these cones set into the ground, with another stone placed upon the point of it, and so nicely balanced, that the wind could move it, though so ponderous that no human force, unaided by machinery, can displace it ; whence they are now called logging rocks, and

'"Tacitus: Germany, c. i-n. '«' Olaus Rudbeckius: Atlantica.

•""•^ Isiac Table; also Olaus Rud- II. vi. pp. 512, 513.

BECKlus: .,4^/a«/;V3, V. pp. 209, 210. ""In the cabinet of Mr. Payne

"' Olaus Rudbeckius : Atlantica, Knight. II. V. page 280.

299

148 The Symbolical Language of

pendre stones™ as they were anciently living stones, and stones of God :'" titles, which differ but little in meaning from that on the Tyrian coins. Damascius saw several of them in the neighborhood of Heliopolis or Baalbek, in Syria ; particularly one which was then moved by the wind ; '" and they are equally found in the Western extremities of Europe, and the Eastern extremities of Asia, in Britain, and in China.'" Prob- ably the stone which the patriarch Jacob anointed with oil, according to a mode of worship once generally practiced,'" as it still is by the Hindus, was of this kind."* Such immense masses being moved by causes seeming so inadequate, must naturally have conveyed the idea of spontaneous motion to ignorant observers, and persuaded them that they were ani- mated by an emanation of the vital spirit : whence they were consulted as oracles, the responses of which could always be easily obtained by interpreting the different oscillatory move- ments into nods of approbation and dissent. The figures of the Apollo Didymxus, on the Syrian coins before mentioned, are placed sitting upon the point of the cone, where the more rude and primitive symbol of the logging rock is found poised: and we are told, in a passage before cited, that the oracle of this god near Miletus existed before the emigration of the Ionian colonies : that is, more than eleven hundred years be- fore the Christian era : wherefore we are persuaded that it was originally nothing more than one of these baitiilia or symbol- ical groups ; which the luxury of wealth and refinement of art gradually changed into a most magnificent temple and most elegant statue.

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CAIRNS OR HILLOCKS AT CROSS-ROADS TO CONSECRATE THE SPOT.

19S. There were anciently other sacred piles of stones, equally or perhaps more frequent all over the North, called by the Greeks Lophoi Hermaioi or hillocks of Mercury ;"' of

"' NoRDEN : Cornwall, -f. "j^. 713; Arnnobius: i. ; Herodian: /?2

'™ " Stones ensouled and Baitulia." Macrino.

Pseudo-Sanchon. : Frag, apud Eus- '" Genesis, xxviii. 22. " And this

eiium. The last title, Baitulia, seems stone which I have set up for a pillar,

to be a corruption of the scriptural shall be God's House (Beth-El)." A

name Bethel. teme7ios or enclosure was also made

"'Damascius: Vila Isidori. "I there ; and subsequently a sacred Calf

saw the Bcetuliiim moving in the air." set up, which was afterward carried

'"Norden: G^rMw/a//, page 7g. away and placed in the Museum of

KiRCHER: China Illustrated, page the king of Assyria. Hosea,-!L.ii.

270. "5 Homer : Odyssey, xviii. " Be-

'" Clem. Alex. : Miscellanies, vii. yond tile city where is a Hermaic

300

Ancient Art and Mythology. 149

whom they were probably the original symbols. They were placed by the sides, or in the points of intersection, of roads; where every traveller that passed, threw a stone upon them in honor of Mercury, the guardian of all ways or general con- ductor;"" and there can be no doubt that many of the ancient crosses observable in such situations were erected upon them ; their pyramidal form affording a commodious base, and the substituting of a new object being the most obvious and usual remedy for such kind of superstition. The figures of this god sitting upon fragments of rock or piles of stone, one of which has been already cited, are probably more elegant and refined modes of signifying the same ideas.

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VENUS-ARCHITIS, THE ASHTGRETH OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

199. The old Pelasgian Hermes of the Athenians consisted, as before observed, of a human head placed upon an inverted obelisk with a phallus ; of which several are extant ; as also a female draped figure terminating below in the same square form. These seem to be of the Venus-Architis, or primitive Venus ; of whom there was a statue in wood at Delos, sup- posed to be the work of Daedalus ; '" and another in a temple upon Mount Libanus, of which Macrobius's description ex- actly corresponds with the figures now extant ; of which one is given in pi. Iviii. of vol. i. of the Select Specimens. " Her ap- pearance," he says, " was melancholy, her head covered, and her face sustained by her left hand, which was concealed under her garment." '" Some of these figures have the mystic title Aspasia upon them, signifying perhaps the welcome or gratu- lation to the returning spring : for they evidently represent nature in winter, still sustained by the inverted obelisk, the emanation of the sun pointed downward, but having all her powers enveloped in gloom and sadness. Some of these figures were probably, like the Paphian Venus, double-sexed ; whence arose the Hermaphrodite, afterward represented under more elegant forms ; accounted for as usual by poetical fables.

cairn " or lophos. The expression is were deposited at the cross-roads." —

doubtless an interpolation. The cairns, A. W.

pillars, and obelisks, erected at the "^ Anthology, i. Epigramm 12. crossings of streets (Jeremiah, xi. 13) Phurnutus : Nature of the Gods. were regarded as consecrating those " Pausanias : Bceotia, xi. 12. places. It is a curious result that the " The Delians have a statue of Aphro- change of religion has rendered the dite (by Da;dalus), which is a four- same spots unhallowed, and that ac- sided figure to the feet." cordingly suicides and criminals that "' Macrobius : Saturnalia, i. 21. might not be buried in "holy ground," "Capite obnupto, specie tristi, faciem

manu teva intra amictam sustinens '

301

I50

The Symbolical Language of

Occasionally the attribute seems to be signified by the cap and wings of Mercury.

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ALLEGORICAL SYMBOLS AND STORIES EXPLAINED IN THE MYSTERIES.

200. The symbol of the ram was, it seems, explained in the Eleusinian Mysteries,"" and the nature and history of the Pe- lasgian Mercury in those of Samothrace ; "° the device on whose coins is his emblem either of the ram or the cock,'" and where he was distinguished by the mystic title Casmilus or Cadmilus ; '"^ of which, probably, the Latin word Camillus and the Greek name of the fabulous hero Cadmus, are equally abbreviations : "^ for the stories of this hero being married to Harmonia, the daughter of Mars and Venus, and of both him and his wife being turned into serpents, are clearly allegorical ; and it is more probable that the colony which occupied

■"' Pausanias : ii. 3.

"» Herodotus : ii. 51. "The pe- culiarity which the Greeks observe in their statues of Mercury they did not derive from the Egyptians, but from the Pelasgi. Whoever has been in- itiated into the Mysteries of the Ca- beiri will understand what I mean. The Samothracians received these Mysteries from the Pelasgi, who be- fore they went to live in Attica, were dwellers in Samothrace, and imparted their religious ceremonies to the in- habitants. The Athenians, then, who were first of all the Greeks to make their statues of Mercury in this way, learnt the practice from the Pelas- gians ; and by this people a religious account of the matter is given, which is explained in the Samothracian Mys- teries."

'*' Hunterian Museum : table xlvi. fig. 21. Also coins belonging to Mr. Knight.

'*' Scholiast upon Apollonius Rho- dius ; Book I. v. 917. " They are initiated into the Mysteries of the Ca- beiri in Samothrace, whose names Mnaseas tells us. They are four in number : Axieros, Axiokersa, Axio- kersos. Axieros is Demeter ; Axio- kersa is Persephone, and Axiokersos is Hades or Pluto. The fourth placed in the number, Casmilus, is Hermes as Dionysidorus relates." . " They add also a fourth, Kadmilus (Kadmiel), who is Hermes."

'83 Lycophron : v. 162. " Kad- milus, the Boeotian Hermes," or Mer- cury. The Scholium upon the same, says, " by syncope, Cadmus."

These annotations are " clear as mud." Their most prominent idea is a theocrasy, by which several deities, as they are popularly understood, are reduced to a few personages. Cadmil- lus is made to include the Theban Serpent-god, Cadmus, the Thoth of Egypt, the Hermes of the Greeks, and the Emeph or .^Esculapius of the Alexandrians and Phoenicians. The other Cabeirians embrace the gods of the universe, of generation and de- struction, whether represented by Astart6, Demeter, Cybele, or Isis, not excepting Europa and Persephone ; also Osiris, Pluto, and the judges of the Underworld. It is hardly prudent to give an opinion where men so able and accomplished have dif- fered ; nevertheless, it appears from the comparing of evidence, the Cabei- rian like other sacred Orgies, were somewhat changed in different coun- tries, but were substantially alike. They involve the leading idea of the Eleusinian and Sabazian Mysteries, and a portion of the mythological his- tory. The same dances upon the sup- posed plan of the planetary system, wailing for the First-Bom, dividing and occupying of the earth, and the introduction of the arts, characterise these rites. We suppose, therefore.

302

Hermes drawn by Cocks.

cy^A:>

.. «

/ r

Kadmos and Hermic

Ancient Art and Mythology. 151

Thebes, were called Cadmeians from the title of their deity than from the name of their chief.

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THE PALM-TREE SYMBOL.

201. The Egyptian Mercury, or Thoth, carried a branch of palm in his hand, which his priests also wore in their san- dals,'" probably as a badge of their consecration to immortal- ity: for this tree is mentioned in the Orphic Poems as pro- verbial for longevity, and was the only one known to the ancients, which never changed its leaves ; all other evergreens shedding them, though not regularly nor all at once."' It has also the property of flourishing in the most parched and dry situations, where no other large trees will grow ; and therefore might naturally have been adopted as a vegetable symbol of the sun, whence it frequently accompanies the horse on the coins of Carthage ; '" and in the Corinthian sacristy in the temple at Delphi was a bronze palm-tree with frogs and water-snakes round its root, signifying the sun fed by humid- ity.'" The pillars in many ancient .Egyptian temples repre- sent palm-trees with their branches lopped off; and it is prob- able that the palm-trees in the temple of Solomon were pillars

that they comprehended the old Asia- dian Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 273, and

tic Pagan system of Fire and Serpent which represents a Phoenician coin, a

worship, which the Phoenicians dif- tree resembling the palm is depicted,

fused over Asia, Syria, and Palestine, surrounded by the serpent, and stand-

and conveyed to their colonies in ing between two stones ; below is an

other regions of the world ; and it is altar apparently to the sacred Triad." probable that the Babylonians had the The Greek term for palm, Phcenix,

same. The other Mysteries were im- is also the designation of Phoenicia,

itations. — A. W. the land of palm trees ; and one title

'** Apuleius : The Golden Ass, ii. of the deity was Baal-Tamar, or Lord

xi. of the Palm. The designation appears

'"' Plutarch : Symposiacs, viii. 4. to have been originally one of honor.

" The palm, never shedding its foliage. The royal shepherds of Egypt were

is continually adorned with the same called Phoenicians and Hellenes, and

green. This power of the tree men Phoenix is said to have come from

think agreeable to and fit for repre- Egypt to Tyre. It was originally a

senting victoi-y." title of men of rank, like the Anakim

"^ Gesnerius; table Ixxxiv. figs. 40, or Sons of Anak in Palestine, and the

43. Anax andron 'or king of men in the

Inman : Ancient Faiths Embodied Iliad. Bacchus is also called Ph-anax

ill Ancietit Names, ii. 448, 449. " On or Phoenician, the god of the palm,

ancient coins it figured largely alone. The use of the palm at triumphs was

orassociated with some female symbol, a testimony to royal, or at least, noble

It typified the male Creator, who was rank. — A. W.

represented as an upright stone, a pil- * Plutarch : Pythagorean Dia-

lar, a round tower, a tree stump, an logues. " The Creator (Demiurgus)

oak-tree, a pine-tree, a maypole, a figuratively derived from the principle

spire, an obelisk, a minaret, and the of moisture (or the female principle)

like. . . In a curious drawing the nourishment of the sun, generated

which is copied from Maurice's In- existence and caloric."

305

152 The Symbolical Language of

of the same form ; "° that prince having admitted many pro- fane symbols among the ornaments of his sacred edifice. The palm-tree at Deles, sacred to Apollo and Diana, is mentioned in the Odyssey ; "' and it seems probable that the games and other exercises performed in honor of those deities, in which the palm, the laurel, and other symbolical plants were the dis- tinctions of victory, were originally mystic representations of the attributes and modes of action of the divine nature. Such the dances unquestionably were : for when performed in honor of the gods, they consisted chiefly of imitative exhibitions of the symbolical figures, under which they were represented by the artists."" Simple mimicry seems also to have formed a part of the very ancient games celebrated by the lonians at Delos,'"' from which, probably, came dramatic poetry ; the old comedy principally consisting of imitations, not only of indi- vidual men, but of the animals employed as symbols of the Deity."" Of this kind are the comedies of the Birds, the Frogs, the Wasps, etc. ; the choral parts of which were recited by per- sons who were disguised in imitation of those different animals, and who mimicked their notes while chanting or singing the parts.'" From a passage of .iEschylus, preserved by Strabo, it appears that similar imitations were practiced in the mystic ceremonies,'" which may have been a reason for their gradual disuse upon all common occasions.

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BOXING A FEATURE OF THE MYSTIC WORSHIP.

202. The symbolical meaning of the olive, the fir, and the

"* PococKE : Travels in the East, the long-trained lonians are assembled

i. p. 217. in honor of thee, with their children

'*' Homer : Odyssey, vi. 162. " I and respected wives. They delight

saw such a young shoot of a palm thee with boxing, dancing, and song,

growing up in Delos near the altar of when they begin the contest. . . .

Apollo." The Delian girls, the servants of the

190 Plutarch : Symposiacs, ix. 15, Far-Shooter, after they have first

" Dancing is made up of motion and chanted hymns to Apollo, and to Leto

manner, as a song is of sounds and and shaft-rejoicing Artemis, calling to

sobs. The motions they call phorai mind the heroes and heroines of old,

and the gestures and likeness to which sing an ode and charm the crowds of

the motions tend, they descriminate men. They ken how to imitate the

sebemata ; as for instance, when they voices and modulation of all ; so that

represent the figure of Apollo, Pan, or each man could say that he had him-

any of the BacchEe." self spoken, so beautiful an imitation

See also O'Brien : Round Towers had been made of them."

of Ireland, p. 237. " The god had ""' See Aristophanes : Horses, line

compassion, and danced ; and the sun, 520.

moon and stars danced with him." "' Aristophanes : Frogs, line 209.

Also Judges, xxi. ig-z'}. '"■' .iEschylijs : see Strabo, x. p.

■""' Homer: Hymn to Apollo. "There 721.

306

Ancient Art and Mythology, 153

apples, the honorary rewards in the Olympic, Isthmian, and Pythian games, has been already noticed ; and the parsley, which formed the crown of the Roman victors, was equally a mystic plant ; it being represented on coins in the same man- ner as the iig-leaf, and with the same signification,'" probably on account of a peculiar influence, which it is still supposed to have upon the female constitution. This connection of the games with the mystic worship was probably one cause of the momentous importance attached to success in them ; which is frequently spoken of by persons of the highest rank., as the most splendid object of human ambition ; "" and we accord- ingly find the proud city of Syracuse bribing a citizen of Cau- lonia to renounce his own country and proclaim himself of theirs, that they might have the glory of a prize which he had obtained.'" When Exsenetus of Agrigentum won the race in the ninety-second Olympiad, he was escorted into his native city by three hundred chariots ; "' and Theagenes the Thasian, the Achilles of his age, who long possessed unrivalled superiority in all exercises of bodily strength and agility, so as to have been crowned fourteen hundred times, was canonised as a hero or demigod, had statues erected to him in various parts of Greece, and received divine worship ; which he further proved himself worthy of, by miraculous favors obtained at his altars. Euthymus, too, who was equally eminent as a boxer, having won a great number of prizes, and contended once even against Theagenes with doubtful success, was rewarded with equal or even greater honors : for he was deified by command of the oracle even before his death ; "° being thus elevated to a rank, which fear has often prostituted to power, but which unawed respect gave to merit in this instance only ; and it is peculiarly degrading to popular favor and flattery that in this instance it should have been given not to the labors of a statesman or the wisdom of a legislator, but to the dexterity of a boxer.

' The Psalm resounds, "8 DiODORUS SlCULUS : xiii. 82.

The Bull-voiced mimes striking terror with i99Ptttcv' v\\ At

their mystic cries: „ ■^.'" V' • ^ ^ ir .. c^x.

With the drum an Echo Boxing, being itself a part ot the

As of thunder under ground, is produced, ancient worship, those who perished

Making aU things tremble." ;„ the contests were regarded as sacri-

'96 Hesychius: "Parsley, the femin- fices to the gods, as probably were

ine." those who perished by the gladiators.

"° Plato : The Republic, v. chap. All these exhibitions were religious

15. "That most blessed life which rather than for diversion, solely or

those live who gain the Olympic principally. It must be remembered

prizes." that human victims were offered in

See also Sophocles: Electra, one form or another in Rome, Africa,

'" Pausanias: vi. 3. Asia, and Greece, till long after the

Christian Era.— A. W.

309

154 ^■^^ Symbolical Language of

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NOBLE QUALITIES CONSIDERED AS THE PRODUCT OF DIVINE EMANATION.

203. This custom of canonising or deifying men seems to have arisen from that general source of ancient rites and opin- ions, the system of emanations, according to which all were supposed to partake of the divine essence, but not in an equal degree : whence, while a few simple rites, faintly expressive of religious veneration, where performed in honor of all the dead,"" a direct and explicit worship was paid to the shades of certain individuals renowned for either great virtues or great vices, which, if equally energetic, equally dazzle and overawe the gaping multitude.*" Everything being derived, accord- ing to this system, from the Deity, the commanding talents and splendid qualities of particular persons were naturally sup- posed to proceed from particular emanations; whence such persons were, even while living, honored with divine titles ex- pressive of those particular attributes of the Deity, with which they seemed to be peculiarly favored.*" Such titles were, however, in many instances given soon after birth ; children being named after the divine personifications, as a sort of con- secration to their protection. The founder of the Persian monarchy was called by a name, which in their language signi- fied the sun ; °" and there is no doubt that many of the ancient kings of iEgypt had names of the same kind,'" which have helped to confound history with allegory ; although the Egyp- tians, prior to their subjection to the Macedonians, never wor-

<"' Homer : Odyssey, x. 6. Hesychius. " The Persians say

»' Plutarch : Sentiments which *^' 5^™' ^^"™S " v f '*'"• ^fL j.n^ut.j D!,;i„,^j,^, : o " tk^i^ Kawlinson : Herodotus, vi. Appen-

dehghted Philosophers, I. Z. ' Thales, ,• Note A 'Tvni^ rOld Persian

Pythagoras. Plato and the Stoics, con- Z- ^°\^ ^■,. ^^^^p ^^^°- Persian

sider the demons to be psychical be- ^"™*-) , ^liis word was generally

ings ; that the heroes are souls separa- s"P?°=ed by the Greeks to mean he

ted from the bodies ; some are good f "• .*;%" ^"^ "ifntified with the

and some bad : the good, the iood |^"^."" ^^P"^' ^end Hware, modern

souls, and the bad. those whose souls f^"ff°' ^/'«% ^\. '^ "°^ suspected

are worthless." that this identification was a mistake,

as the old Persian A never replaces

"" Pindar : Nemea. "^^ Sanscrit S. The name is more

" One race of men, one of gods- properly compared with the Sanscrit

From one mother we both breathe, Kuru, which was a popular title

All power is held separated." among the Aryan race before the se-

BD, «„„„,.„ D • <i 1^1, i. 1 paration of the Median and Persian

«»» Ctesias : Perstca They took £,.,„,hes. but of which the etymology

his name from the sun. • , ,. j oj

Plutarch: Artaxerxes. "The •= •^■^known. Persians call the sun Cyrus." '"■' Jablonski : Pantheon of Egypt

.UO

Ancient Art and Mythology. 155

shipped them, nor any heroes or canonised mortals what- soever.'"

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NAMES OF GODS CONFERRED UPON DISTINGUISHED MEN.

204. "During the Pagan state of the Irish," says a learned antiquary of that country, " every child at his birth received a

-name generally from some imaginary divinity ; under whose protection it was supposed to be : but this name was seldom re- tained longer than the state of infancy ; from which period it was generally changed for others arising from some perfection or imperfection of the body ; the disposition or quality of the mind ; achievements in war or the chase ; the place of birth, residence, etc." '" When these descriptive titles exactly ac- corded with those previously imposed, and derived from the personified attributes of the Deity, both were naturally con- founded, and the limited excellences of man thus occasionally placed in the same rank with the boundless perfections of God. The same custom still prevails among the Hindus, who, when a child is ten days old, give him the name of one of their Deities, to whose favor they think by this means to recom- mend him ; '" whence the same medley of historical tradition and physical allegory fills up their popular creed, as filled that of the Greeks and other nations. The ancient theism of the North seems also to have been corrupted by the conqueror Odin assuming the title of the supreme CJod, and giving those of other subordinate attributes to his children and captains; '" which are, however, all occasionally applied to him : " for the Scandinavians, like the Greeks, seem sometimes to have joined, and sometimes to have separated the personifications ; so that they sometimes worshipped several gods, and sometimes only one god with several names.

205. Historical tradition has transmitted to us accounts of several ancient kings, who bore the Greek name of Jupiter;"*

»» Herodotus, ii 50. " The Egyp- XfSi,^^^L7St^^^i^

tians pay no divme honot: to heroes. Vacus et Skilfingus,

See also §§ 142, 143. Va/odas et Hooj/ta-iyr

Gautus et lalcus inter Deos,

'"^ Collectan. Hibem. No. xi. p. Ossier et Sua/iter,

250, Quos puta factor esse

f^" Omnes ex una me.

""Sonnerat: Voyas'e aux Indies, am n »^

'p J g -^ •^ ' *'" Pausanias : Messina, xxxiu. 2.

' ' /V The names of the individuals in the

™8 Mallet: Introd. a VHist. de Hebrew Scriptures were often designa-

Daneman. tions of the Supreme Being ; espe-

™3 Edd. S^mon : Grunnistnal, liii. cially those of the Book of Genesis. —

^tfzwKj ego nunc nominor ; A. W,

156

The Symbolical Language of

which signifying Awe or Terror, would naturally be assumed by tyrants, who wished to inspire such sentiments. The an- cient Bacchus was said to have been the son of Jupiter by Ceres or Proserpina ; '" that is, in plain language, the result of the aethereal spirit operating upon the Earth, or its pervad- ing Heat : but a real or fictitious hero, having been honored with his name in the Cadmeian colony of Thebes, was by de- grees confounded with him in the popular mythology, and fabled to have been raised up by Jupiter to replace him after he had been slain by the Titans; " as Atys and Adonis were

" DiODOEUS SicuLUS : iii. " They

say that the god, the offspring of Zeus and Demeter, was torn to pieces." De- meter and not Proserpina was men- tioned by older writers.

Arrian : ii. " The Athenians wor- ship Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Kore — that other Dionysus ; and the lacchus of the Mysteries, this Diony- sus and not the Theban one, is cele- brated with chanting." Mr. Knight aptly remarks that " an Attic writer during the independence of the Re- public would not have dared to say so much." But the introduction of Macedonian influence had had its full effect when Arrian wrote ; and the Orphic rites were superseding the Eleusinian. Hence the appeal of Nonnus ; Dionysiacs, xxxi.

" Let not Athens hymn the new Bacchus ;

Let him not obtain honor like the Eleusi- nian Bacchus ;

Let him not change the mysteries of the former Bacchus,

Nor dishonor the basket of the autumnal fruits of Demeter."

DiODORUS SiCULUS: iv. p. 148. " Certain mythologists narrate that there had been another Dionysus born, much more venerable in time than this one. They say that Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Persephone, and that some also named him Sfebazius ; whose birth, sacriiices, nocturnal wor- ship and hidden rites, they introduce to the attention because of shame at the unlimited intercourse which fol- lows."

Plutarch: Symposiacs, iv. 6. "I thinlc that the festival of the Sabbath is not wholly without relation to the festival of Dionysus. Even now, many call the Bacchi by the designation of Sabbi ; and this very word is uttered when celebrating the Orgies of the

god. One might say that the name was derived from a certain sobesis or pompous movement which character- ises those celebrating the Bacchic rites."

"- Nonnus : Dionysiacs, v.

- Zeus, who reigns on high, desires to rear

Another Bacchus, the copy of old Diony- sus, bull-formed. Unfortunate Zagreus, still loved. Whom Persephoneia brought forth to the dracontian bed of Zeus."

The Orphic legend which is here cited, makes Dionysus-Zagreus the son of Zeus or Jupiter, begotten by him in the form of the sacred Dragon upon Kore, said by some to be his daughter by Ceres or Demeter, and by others to be Demeter herself. Nonnus adopts the former idea and styles her Kore- Persephoneia. Zeus had destined this child for King of Heaven, and placed him in charge of Apollo and the Cure- tes, the ancient priest-caste of Greece, Crete, and Phrygia. But the Titans, incited by Hera, disguised themselves under a coat of plaster, and finding the child examining a mirror, attacked him and tore him into seven pieces. Pal- las-Athena rescued his heart which Zeus swallowed, and thus received again into himself the soul of the child, to be born anew in the person of the second Dionysus, the son of Semele. It is easy to perceive from this legend the doctrine of metem- psychosis or transmigration of souls, which was a part of the Orphic and Pythagorean doctrines, and doubtless came from the East. E. Pococke uses this story to illustrate his idea of an ancient Lama-hierarchy in Greece of which Zeus was the chief-pontiff. Za- greus or Chakras (universal sovereign) his son by Kore-Persephoneia (or Parasou-pani Durga). his contemplated

312

,^-^<?-5ffj3^c^_^^C^gg,

Leda and Jupiter as a Swan.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 157

by the Boar, and Osiris by Typhon ; symbolical tales which have been already noticed. The mystic deity was however duly distinguished as an object of public worship in the temples ; where he was associated by the Greeks with Ceres and Proserpina,*" and by the Romans with Ceres and Libera (who was their Proserpina), the reason for which, as the Stoic interlocutor observes in Cicero's Dialogue on the Nature of the Gods, was explained in the Mysteries.'"

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CONFUSION OF PERSONAGES AND OF THE ALLEGORIES.

206. The sons of Tyndarus, Castor and Pollux, were by the same means confounded with the ancient personifications of the diurnal and nocturnal sun, or of the morning and evening star; '" the symbols of whose attributes, the two oval or conical caps, were interpreted to signify their birth from Leda's ^%%, a fable engrafted upon the old allegory subsequent to the Ho- meric times ; the four lines alluding to the deification of the brothers of Helen in the Odyssey being undoubtedly spurious though extremely beautiful."" Perseus is probably an entirely fictitious and allegorical personage; for there is no mention ot him in either of the Homeric poems; and his name is a title of the sun,"' and his image the composite symbol of the grif- fin humanised. Theseus appears likewise to be a personage

successor, having been murdered by means evidently, even if it means no

the Titans was born again and made more, that the several rites observed in

the heir-apparent (India in Greece, Phrygia and Asia, purporting to be

xvii. pp. 265, 265). — A. W. originally from Samothrace, were sub-

Pausanias: ^«zVa. "The temple stantially identical. The Grecian

of Demeter is near by : She and the myth of Jupiter and Leda is but an-

Daughter having statues, and lacchus other version of the legend. Leda is

a torch." These seem to have been the Mother Goddess, and brings forth

the Cabeiri. to Tyndarus the Flame-God, or to

Clement of Alexandria: "The Zeus the lord of ffither, Castor, the

Demeter of Praxitiles, and Kore and Sun or Morning-star, Polydeukes, the

the lacchus of the Mysteries." Evening-star, and Helene or Selene,

»'* Cicero : The Nature of the the Moon.— A. W.

Gods, iii. 21. *" Homer : Odyssey, xi. " The

"' Sextus Empiricus : ix. 37. spurious passage (written by the inter-

" They say that the Tyndaridae (Cas- polator with the F or digamma, shows

tor and Pollux) succeed to the glory that " both of these the fruitful earth

of the Dioscuri who were formerly re- detains alive ; who, even beneath the

garded as gods." earth, having honor from Zeus, some-

The Dioscuri were originally Phce- times live on alternate days, and some-

nician divinities, the patrons of art and times again are dead, and they have

commerce. In Sanchoniathon, they are obtained by lot honor equally with the

thus described : " To Sydyc (Tzadec) [Cabeirian] gods."

were born the Dioscuri, or Cabeiri, or '" Scholiast oti Lycophron : " Per-

Corybantes, or Samothracians ; they sens, the Sun." first invented the mystic ship." This

317

158 The Symbolical Language of

■who started into being between the respective ages of the two Homeric poems; there being no mention of him in the genuine parts of the Iliad, though the Athenian genealogy is minutely detailed; '" and he being only once slightly mentioned as the lover of Ariadne in the genuine parts of the Odyssey.™ He seems, in reality, to be the Athenian personification of Hercu- les; he having the same symbols of the club and the lion's skin ; and similar actions and adventures being attributed to him, many of which are manifestly allegorical ; such as his conflict with the Minotaur, with the Centaurs, and with the Amazons.

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MEN BEGOTTEN BY DIVINE WITHOUT HUMAN AGENCY.

207. This confusion of personages, arising from a confusion of names, was facilitated in its progress by the belief that the universal generative principle, or its subordinate emanations, might act in such a manner as that a female of the human species might be impregnated without the co-operation of a male;°^° and as this notion was extremely useful and conven- ient in concealing the frailties of women, quieting the jealousies of husbands, protecting the honor of families, and guarding with religious awe the power of bold usurpers, it was naturally cherished and promoted with much favor and industry. Men supposed to be produced in this supernatural way, would of course advance into life with strong confidence and high ex- pectations; which generally realise their own views, when sup- ported by even common courage and ability. Such were the founders of almost all the families distinguished in mytho- logy; whose names being, like all other ancient names, de- scriptive titles, they were equally applicable to the personified attributes of the Deity : whence both became blended together,

" Homer : Iliad, ii. 546-550. pugnant to the unchangeable nature of

«'» Homer: Odyssey, xi. "Fair the deity. . . But I take heart again

Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, whom when I hear Plato call the eternal and

Theseus once led from Crete to the unbegotten deity the Father and

soil of sacred Athens ; but he did not Creator of the universe and all other

enjoy her, for Artemis slew her in the begotten things : not as if he parted

island Dia, on account of the testi- with any sperm, but as if by his power

mony of Dionysus." l^s implanted a generative principle in

™ Plutarch : Symfosiacs, viii. i. matter, which acts upon, forms, and

" It is very fit that we should apply fashions it. It seems no incredible

that to Plato : thing that the Deity, though not after

•He seemed not sprung from mortal man, *« ts.ih\on of a man, but by some

but God.' other certain communication hlls and

But for my part, I apprehend that to impregnates a mortal nature with a

beget, as well as to be begotten, is re- divine principle."

Ancient Art and Mythology. 159

and historical so mixed with allegorical fable, that it is impos- sible in many instances to distinguish or separate them. The actions of kings and conquerors were attributed to personages purely symbolical ; and the qualities of these bestowed in re- turn upon frail and perishable mortals. Even the double or ambiguous sex was attributed to deified heroes ; Cecrops being fabled to have been both man and woman ; ° and the rough Hercules and furious Achilles represented with the features and habits of the softer sex, to conceal the mystic meaning of which the fables of Omphale and lole, and the daughters of Lycomedes, were invented, of which there is not a trace in the Homeric poems.

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ASSUMING FOREIGN DEITIES IDENTICAL WITH THOSE WORSHIPPED AT HOME.

208. When the Greeks made expeditions into distant coun- tries either for plunder, trade, or conquest, and there found deified heroes with titles corresponding either in sound or sense to their own, they without further enquiry concluded them to be the same; and adopted all the legendary tales which they found with them ; whence their own mythology, both religious and historical, was gradually spread out into an unwieldy mass of incoherent fictions and traditions, that no powers of ingenuity or extent of learning could analyse or comprehend. The heroes of the Iliad were, at a very early period, so much the objects of public admiration, partly through the greatness of the war, the only one carried on jointly by all the States of Greece prior to the Macedonian usurpation, and partly through the refulgent splendor of the mighty genius by which it had been celebrated, that the proudest princes were ambitious of deducing their genealogies from them, and the most powerful nations vain of any traces of connection with them. Many such claims and pretensions were of course fabricated, which were as easily asserted as denied; and as men have a natural partiality for affirmatives, and nearly as strong a predilection for that which exercises

'-' Justin : ii. 6. See also Suidas, sexed. Venus with a beard, or stand-

Eusebius, Jerome, Plutarch, Eusta- ing on the tortoise, denoted the same

thius, and Diodorus. idea ; and it is hinted in the first and

This assertion can hardly be correct. fifth chapters of the Book of Genesis ;

The heroes were but the heris or dei- " in the likeness of God made he him ;

ties themselves in the manifestation male and female created he them,

denominated by the Hindus avatars ; and called their name Adam." — A.

and such were represented double- W.

323

i6o The Sytnbolical Language of

their credulity, as for that which gratifies their vanity, we may conclude that the asserters generally prevailed. Their tales were also rendered plausible, in many instances, by the various traditions then circulated concerning the subsequent fortunes and adventures of those heroes ; some of whom were said to have been cast away in their return, and others expelled by usurpers, who had taken advantage of their long absence; so that a wandering life supported by piracy and plunder became the fate of many."" Inferences were likewise drawn from the slenderest traces of verbal analogies and the general similarity of religiotis rites, which, as they co-operated in proving what men were predisposed to believe, were admitted without sus- picion or critical examination.

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OLD PRACTICE OF NAMING PLACES NEWLY-DISCOVERED AND THE CONFUSION RESULTING.

209. But what contributed most of all towards peopling the coasts and islands both of the Mediterranean and adjoining ocean, with illustrious fugitives of that memorable period, was the practice of an- cient navigators in giving the names of gods and heroes to the lands 7cihich they discovered, in the same manner as the moderns do those of the saints and martyrs : for in those early ages every name thus given became the subject of a fable, because the name continued when those who gave it were forgotten. In modern times every navigator keeps a journal ; which, if it contains any new or important information, is printed and made public : so that, when a succeeding navigator finds any traces of European language or manners in a remote country, he knows from whence they came : but, had there been no nar- ratives left by the first modern discoverers, and subsequent adventurers had found the names of St. Francis or St. Anthony with some faint traces of Christianity in any of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, they might have concluded, or at least con- jectured, that those saints had actually been there: whence the first convent of monks, that arose in a colony, would soon make out a complete history of their arrival and abode there ; the hardships which they endured, the miracles which they wrought, and the relics which they left for the edification of the faithful, and the emolument of their teachers.

210. As the heroes of the Iliad vftrt as familiar to the Greek navigators, as the saints of the Calendar were to the Spanish and Portuguese, and treated by them with the same sort of re-

^ Stkabo : iii. p. 150.

324

Ancient Art and Mythology. i6i

spect and veneration, there can be little doubt that they left the same sort of memorials of them, wherever they made dis- coveries or piratical settlements ; which memorials, being after- ward found among barbarous nations by succeeding navi- gators, when the discoverers where forgotten and the settlers vanished, they concluded that those heroes had actually been there : and as the works of the Greek poets, by the general diffusion of the Greek language after the Macedonian con- quest, became universally known and admired, those nations themselves eagerly co-operated in the deception by engrafting the Greek fables upon their own, and greedily catching at any links of affinity which might connect them with a people, from whom all that was excellent in art, literature, and society, seemed to be derived.

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JACOB BRYANT CRITICISED.

211. Hence, in almost every country bordering upon the Mediterranean Sea, and even in some upon the Atlantic Ocean, traces were to be found of the navigations and adventures of Ulysses, Menelaus, .^Eneas, or some other wandering chieftain of that age ; by which means such darkness and confusion have been spread over their history, that an ingenious writer, not usually given to doubt, has lately questioned their exist- ence ; not recollecting that he might upon the same grounds have questioned the existence of the Apostles, and thus under- mine the very fabric which he professed to support : for by quoting, as of equal authority, all the histories which have been written concerning them in various parts of Christendom during seventeen hundred years, he would have produced a medley of inconsistent facts, which, taken collectively, would have startled even his own well-disciplined faith."' Yet this is what he calls a fair mode of analysing ancient profane his- tory ; and, indeed, it is much fairer than that which he has practiced: for not content with quoting Homer and Tzetzes,

" Metodorus of Lampsacus an- the general fact of the siege of Troy

ciently turned both the Homeric (as they have been mis-stated to have poems into allegory ; and the Christ- done), any more than Tatian and Ori- ian writers of the third and fourth gen did the incarnation of their Re- centuries did the same by the histori- deemer, or Aristeas and Philo the pas- cal books of the New Testament ; as sage of the Red Sea. their predecessors the Eclectic Jews Tasso in his later days declared the had before done by those of the whole of his Jerusalem Delivered to be Old. an allegory ; but without, however

Metrodorus and his followers, how- questioning the historical truth of the

ever, never denied nor even questioned crusades.

325

1 62 The Symbolical Language of

as of equal authority, he has entirely rejected the testimony of Thucydides in his account of the ancient population of Greece; and received in its stead that of Cedrenus, Sj'ncelius, and the other monkish writers of the lower ages, who com- piled the Paschal and Nuremberg Chronicles. It is rather hard upon our countrymen, Chaucer and Lydgate, to be excluded ; as the latter would have furnished an account of the good king Priam's founding a chauntry in Troy to sing requiems for the soul of his pious son Hector, with many other curious par- ticulars equally unknown to the antiquaries of Athens and Alexandria, though full as authentic as those which he has collected with so mucli labor from the Byzantine luminaries of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.'"

212. A conclusion- directly contrary to that of this ingen- ious gentleman was drawn by several learned writers of anti- quity, from the confusion in which the traditions of early times were involved. Instead of turning history into mytho- logy, they turned mythology into history ; and inferred that, because some of the objects of public worship had been mortal men, they had all been equally so; for which purpose, the}' rejected the authority of the Mysteries, where the various gradations of gods, daemons, and heroes, with all the meta- physical distinctions of emanated, personified, and canonised beings, were taught;'" and, instead of them, brought out the old allegorical genealogies in a new dress, under pretense of their having been transcribed from authentic historical monu- ments of extreme antiquity found in some remote country.

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EUHEMERUS, SANCHONIATHON, AND EUSEBIUS ACCUSED OF FRAUDULENTLY SOLVING MYTHS AS HISTORICAL EVENTS.

213. Euhemerus, a Messenian employed under Cassander, king of Macedonia, seems to have been the first who attempted this kind of fraud. Having been sent into the Eastern Ocean with some commission, he pretended to have found engraven upon a column in an ancient temple in the island of Panchsea, a genealogical account of a family that had once reigned there ; in which were comprised the principal deities then worshipped by the Greeks.'" The theory, which he formed from this pre-

'" See Bryant : Ancient Mytho- and manifestations of the truth con-

logy. cerning the demons, let me keep silent,

'" Plutarch : Failure of the Ora- as Herodotus says." cles, 14. " As to the Mysteries and '-* EusEBius : Praparatio Evange-

secret observances, by which we re- lica, ii. 2.

ceive the most vivid representations Plutarch : Tsis and Osiris, 23

326

Ancient Art and Mythology. 163

tended discovery, was soon after attempted to be more full}- established by a Phcenician History, said to have been compiled many centuries before by one Sanchoniathon from the records of Thoth and Amun, but never brought to light until Philo of Byblos published it in Greek with a prooem of his own ; in which he asserted that the Mysteries had been contrived merely to disguise the tales of his pretended Fhanician History™ not- withstanding that a great part of these tales are evidently nothing more than the old mystic allegories copied with little variation from the theogonies of the Greek poets, in which they had before been corrupted and obscured.

214. A fragment of this work having been preserved by Eusebius, many learned persons among the moderns have quoted it with implicit confidence, as a valuable and authentic record of very ancient history ; while others have as confidently rejected it, as a bungling fraud imposed upon the public by Philo of Byblos, in order to support a system, or procure money from the founders of the Alexandrian Library ; who paid such extravagant prices for old books, or for (what served equally well to furnish their shelves) new books with old titles. Among the ancients there seems to have been but one opinion concerning it ; for, except Porphyry, no heathen writer has deigned to mention it ; so contemptible a performance, as the

" I fear that this would be to stir sea-captains, and kings, whom he as- things that are not to be stirred, and sumes to have lived in the more re- to declare war not only, as Simonides cent and ancient periods, and to have says, against length of time, but also been so recorded in golden characters against many nations and families of in Panchaia, a country which no Bar- mankind, whom a pious veneration barian, nor Greek ever saw, except toward these deities holds fast bound, Euhemerus alon-e, who pretends to like men astonished and amazed. have sailed into those regions of the This would be nothing else than go- earth never before known, because the ing about to remove so great and Panchaians and Triphyllians never venerable names from heaven to earth ; existed."

thus shaking and dissolving that re- ^ SANCHONIATHON, or Philo Bybli-

verence and persuasion that hope en- us, as quoted by Eusebius: Prapara-

tered into the hearts of all men from tio Evangelica, i. g. " But the most

their very birth; and opening the recent of the sacred Writers withheld

great double-barred gates to the athe- the literal accounts of the occurrences

istic party who convert all divine mat- happening from the beginning, and

ters into human, giving a conspicuous wove them into allegories and legends ;

place to the impostures of Euhemerus, and having established a certain rela-

the Messenian, who out of his own tionship between them and the varied

mind prepared a rescript of incredible experiences of this life, they instituted

and imaginary fable, and thus sowed the Mysteries, and afterward raised a

disbelief in the gods broadcast in the great smoke around them, so that one

world. This he did by describing might not easily apprehend their sense

those heretofore regarded as divinities correctly." under the style of military leaders,

329

164 The Symbolical Language of

fragment extant proves it to have been, seeming to them un worthy of being rescued from oblivion even by an epithet of scorn or sentence of reprobation. The early Christian writers, however, took it under their protection, because it favored that system which, by degrading the old, facilitated the prog- ress of the new religion ; but in whatever else these writers may have excelled, they certainly had no claim to excellence in either moral sincerity or critical sagacity; and none less than Eusebius, who, though his authority has lately been pre- ferred to that of Thucydides and Xenophon, was so dififerently thought of by ecclesiastical writers of the immediately subse- quent ages, that he is one of those by whose example they justified the practice of holy lying," or asserting that which they knew to be false in support of that which they believed to be true.

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THE SPURIOUS LETTER OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT TO HIS MOTHER.

215. Among the numberless forgeries of greater moment which this practice poured upon the world, is one in favor of this system, written in the form of a letter from Alexander the Great to his mother, informing her that an Egyptian priest named Leo had secretly told him that all the gods were deified mortals. Both the style and manner of it are below criticism ; it being in every respect one of the most bungling counterfeits ever issued from the great manufactory of falsehoods, which was carried on under the avowed patronage of the leading members of the Church, during the second, third, and fourth centuries."" Jablonski only wasted his erudition in exposing it ; "° though Warburton, whose multifarious reading never gave him any of the tact or taste of a scholar, has employed all his acuteness and all his virulence in its defense."'

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DISGRACEFUL APOTHEOSES OF ANCIENT EMPERORS.

216. The facility and rapidity with which deifications weie multiplied under the Macedonian and Roman empires, gave considerable credit to the system of Euhemerus, and brought

'*' Jerome : Against Jovinian. Athenagoras in his Apology; thus

^'^ Jerome: Against Jovinian, showing that it was extant in the

Chrysostoni : De Sacerdotibus. Tliird Century of the Christian Era.

tso Prolegomena. It is alluded to by * Warbuton : Divine Legation, i.

330

Ancient Art and Mythology. 165

proportionate disgrace on religion in general. The many worthless tyrants, whom their own preposterous pride or the abject servility of their subjects exalted into gods, would nat- urally be pleased to hear that the universally-recognised objects of public worship had no better title to the homage and devotion of mankind than they themselves had ; and when an universal despot could enjoy the honors of a god, at the same time that consciousness of his crimes prevented him from daring to enter a mystic temple, it is natural that he should prefer that system of religion which decorated him with its highest honors, to that which excluded him from its only sol- emn rites.'"

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THE "elementary SYSTEM," AS FOUND IN HOMER AND OTHER POETS.

217. This system had also another great advantage: for as all persons acquainted with the mystic doctrines were strictly bound to secresy, they could not of course engage in any con- troversy on the subject ; otherwise they might have appealed to the testimony of the poets themselves, the great corrupters and disguisers of their religion ; who, nevertheless, upon all great and solemn occasions, such as public adjurations and in- vocations, resort to its first principles, and introduce no fabu- lous or historical personages ; not that they understood the mystic doctrines, or meant to reveal them, but because they followed the ordinary practice of the earliest times, which in matters of such solemn importance was too firmly established to be altered. When Agamemnon calls upon the gods to attest and confirm his treaty with Priam, he gives a complete abstract of the old elementary system, upon which the mystic was founded ; naming first the awful and venerable Father of all ; then the Sun, who superintends and regulates the Universe, and lastly the subordinate diffusions of the great active Spirit that pervade the waters, the earth, and the regions under the earth."^ The invoca- tion of the Athenian women, who are introduced by Aristo- phanes celebrating the Thesmophoria, or secret rites of Ceres,, is to the same effect, only adapted to the more complicated and philosophical refinements of the mystic worship. First they call upon Zeus, the supreme all-ruling Spirit ; then upon the golden- lyred Apollo, or the Sun, the harmoniser and regulator of the world,, the centre and instrument of his power ; then upon Almighty Pallas,

"' Suetonius : Nero. * Homer : Iliad, iii.

1 66 The Symbolical Language of

or the pure emanation of his wisdom j then upon Artemis, or Nature, the many-named daughter of Leto or Night ; then upon Poseidon, or the emanation of the pervading Spirit that animates the waters j and lastly upon the Nymphs or subordinate generative ministers of both sea and land!' Other invocations to the same purport are to be found in many of the choral odes both tragic and comic; though the order in which tlie personifications are introduced is often varied, to prevent the mystic allusions from being too easily discernible. The principles of theology appear to have been kept equally pure from the superstructures of mythology in the forms of judicial adjuration; Draco having enacted that all solemn depositions should be under the sanction of Jupiter, Poseidon, and Athene,'" whilst in later times Demeter was joined to the two former instead of Athene.""

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THE "SYRIAN GODDESS," AND HER PECULIAR WORSHIP.

2x8. The great Pantheic temples exhibited a similar pro- gression or graduation of personified attributes and emana- tions in the statues and symbols which decorated them. Many of these existed in various parts of the Macedonian and Roman empires; but none are now so well known as that of Hierapo- lis, or the holy city in Syria, concerning which we have a parti- cular treatise attributed to Lucian. It was called the temple of the Syrian goddess Atar-gatis or Astarte ; who was the same as the Rhea, Cybele, or Universal Mother of the Phrygians ; whose attributes have been already explained, and may be found more regularly detailed in a speech of Mopsus in the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius.'" " She was," as Appian observes, " by some called Hera, by others Venus, and by others held to be Nature, or the First cause which produced the beginnings and seeds of things from seminal humidity; " "*' so that she comprehended in one personification both these god- desses; who were accordingly sometimes blended in one sym- bolical figure by the very ancient Greek artists.'^"

219. Her statue at Hierapolis was of composite form, so as to signify many attributes like those of the Ephesian Diana, Berekynthian Mother, and others of the kind."" It was placed

'* Aristophanes : The Thesmo- Pausanias : iii. " The Lacon-

fhoriazousa, line 365. ians call the ancient figures of Aphro-

'^^ Scholiast on Iliad, xv. dite, Hera."

"'Demosthenes: Km Tiiioxp. Strabo : v. "The Tyrrhenians

" Apollonius Rhodius : i. 1098. call the Hera, Kupra," or AphroditS.

838 Appian : De Bella Parthico. *"> Lucian : De Dea Syria. " It

See also PLUTARCH : Crassus. has the characteristics of Pallas-Athe-

Ancient Art and Mythology.

167

in the interior part of the temple, accessible only to priests of the higher order; and near it was the statue of the corre- sponding male personification, called by the Greek writers Zeus ; which was borne by bulls, as that of the goddess was by lions,"' to signify that the active power or asthereal spirit is sustained by its own strength alone ; while the pas- sive or terrestrial requires the aid of previous destruction. The Minotaur and Sphinx, before explained, are only more com- pendious ways of representing these composite symbols.

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THE MYSTERIOUS THIRD ONE.

220. Between them was a third figure with a golden dove on its head, which the Syrians did not choose to explain, or call by any name; but which some supposed to be Bacchus, others Deucalion, and others Semiramis.'" It must, therefore, have been an androgynous figure; and most probably signi- fied the first-begotten Love, or plastic emanation, which pro- ceeded from both, and was consubstantial with both ; whence he was called by the Persians, who seem to have adopted him from the Syrians, Mithras, signifying the Mediator.**'^ The

na, Venus-Aphrodite, Luna, Rhea, Ar- temis, Nemesis, and the Fates."

" LuciAN : " Both are represented

as sitting, and are made of gold. Hera is carried by lions, and he by bulls."

" She is evidently the same as Rhea, for lions support her, and she carries a tabor or drum in her hand, and a tower on her head, as the Lydians re- present Rhea or Cybele."

" The symbol is of Zeus ; the head, robes, and chair are enough ; we de- sire no other resemblance."

The figure, it will be seen, is Tyrian, and is, indeed, the same as that on the Phoenician medal with the Bull's head on the chain. Seen also on the silver coins of Alexander the Great, Seleucus I., Antiochus IV., etc.

It was therefore the same figure as that on the Phoenician medal with the bull's head on the chair ; and which is repeated with slight variations on the silver coins of Alexander the Great, Seleucus I., Antiochus IV., etc.

"■ LuciAN : De Dea Syria, 16. "Not only is no name given to it, but they say nothing concerning the origin or form. Some suppose it to be Dionysus, others, Deucalion, and

others Semiramis." It is called the sign.

<3 Plutarch : Ins and Ositis, 45,

46. *' Nature produces nothing but what is mixed and tempered. . If nothing can come without a cause, and if a good thing can not afford a cause of evil, Nature then must cer- tainly have a peculiar source and ori- gin of evil as well as of good. This is the opinion of the greatest and wis- est of mankind. Some believe that there are two Deities, as though it were rival architects, one of whom they regard as the creator of good things, and the other of the bad. Some call the better one of them GoD and the other D^MON ; as doth Zo- roaster the Magian, whom they assert to have lived five thousand years be- fore the Trojan war. This Zoroaster called the one of these Oromasd, and the other Ahriman ; and affirmed that the former as to things perceptible to the senses, must resemble light, and the other, darkness and ignorance ; also that Mithras was of a nature between the two. For this reason the Persians call Mithras the mediator."

Mithras is the old Persian title of

335

1 68 The Symbolical Language of

doubt expressed concerning the sex proves that the body of the figure was covered, as well as the features effeminate ; and it is peculiarly remarkable that such a figure as this with a golden dove on its head should have been taken for Deuca- lion ; of whom corresponding ideas must of course have been entertained : whence we are led to suspect that the fabulous histories of this personage are not derived from any vague traditions of the universal deluge, but from some symbolical composition of the plastic spirit upon the waters, which was signified so many various ways in the emblematical language of ancient art. The infant Perseus floating in an ark or box with his mother, is probably from a composition' of the same kind, Isis and Horus being represented enclosed in this man- ner on the mystic or Isiac hands ; '" and the Egyptians, as be- fore observed, representing the sun in a boat instead of a chariot ; from which boat being carried in procession upon men's shoulders, as it often appears in their sculptures, and being ornamented with symbols of Amun taken from the ram, probably arose the fable of the Argonautic expedition ; of which there is not a trace in the genuine parts of either of the Homeric poems.*" The Colchians indeed were supposed to be a colony of Egyptians,'" and it is possible that there might be so much truth in the story, as that a party of Greek pirates carried off a golden figure of the symbol of their god ; but had it been an expedition of any splendor or impor- tance, it certainly would have been noticed in the repeated mention that is made of the heroes said to have been concerned in it.

221. The supreme Triad, thus represented at Hierapolis, assumed different forms and names in different mystic tem-

the Sun-God, or more correctly, as Minor, Egypt, and other countries,

will be seen in \!cve, K hordah-Avesta, of after the conquest of Pontus by Pom-

the herald, who goes before and an- pey ; and we find it an element in the-

nounces the coming of the Sun, like Gnostic systems and other mystic doc-

the Aswins. He is the first of the trines, after the Christian era. — A. W. Izeds or Yasatas, the Lord, whose ^^ La Chausse : Roman Museum,

long arms grasp what is in Eastern vol. ii. plates II, 13. India and smite that which is in West- '^^ The reference to Jason and the

ern India (Susiana and Babylonia, ship Argo {Odyssey, xii. 69-72), are

where Ahriman and Zohak ruled), supposed to have been interpolated, what is on the steppes or prairies of "' Herodotus : ii 104. Despite

Ranha (the Amou), and what is at the Mr. Knight's speciousness, the ethnic

end of the land (by the Southern and social, as well as the religious

Ocean). The name does not appear affiliations of the Colchians, show them

to have been borrowed from any west- to have been a Hamitic and probably

ern people, whether Ethiopic or She- Egyptian people, mitic ; but it was carried over Asia

Ancient Art and Mythology. 169

pies. In that of Samothrace it appeared in three celebrated statues of Scopas, called Venus or Aphrodite, Pothos and Phaethon,"" or Nature, Attraction, and Light ; °" and at Upsal in Sweden, by three figures equally symbolical, called Odin, Freya, and Thor ; the first of which comprehended the attributes of Jupiter and Mars, the second those of Juno and Venus, and the third those of Hercules and Bacchus, together with the thunder of Jupiter ; for Thor, as mediator between heaven and earth, had the general command of this terrestrial atmosphere.'" Among the Chinese sects, which have retained or adopted the symbolical worship, a triple personification of one godhead is comprehended in the goddess Pussa, whom they represent sitting upon the lotus, called, in that country, Lin, and with many arms, carrying different symbols, to sig- nify the various operations of universal nature. A similar union of attributes was expressed in the Scandinavian god- dess Isa or Disa ; who in one of her personifications appeared riding upon a ram accompanied with music, to signify, like Pan, the principle of universal harmony ; and, in another, upon a goat, with a quiver of arrows at her back, and ears of corn in her hand, to signify her dominion over generation, vegetation, and destruction.'" Even in the remote islands of the Pacific Ocean, which appear to have been peopled from the Malay shores, the supreme deities are God the Father, God the Son, and the Bird or Spirit ; subordinate to whom are an endless tribe of local deities and genii attending to every individual.'"

222. The Egyptians are said to have signified their divine Triad by a simple triangle,"" which sometimes appears upon Greek monuments ; '" but the most ancient form of this more concise and comprehensive symbol, appears to be that of the three lines, or three human legs, springing from a central disk or circle, which has been called a Trinacria, and supposed to

'^' Plin. xxxiv. 4. "" Ol. Rubbeck : Atlant. ii. pp.

" HoBoi, desire. Phaethon is an 2og, 210.

Homeric title of the Sun, signifying ^^ Missionaries' First Voyage,\i.'a2i'

splendid or luminous ; but afterwards *'* Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 56.

personified by the mythologists into a " They compare the perpendicular

son of Apollo. side to the male, the base to the fe-

■" Mallet : Hist, de Danemarc. male, and the hypothenuse to the off-

Introd. vii. p. 115. Thor bore the spring of the two: Osiris as the be-

club of Hercules ; but like Bachus he ginning, Isis as the medium or recep-

was the god of the seasons, and his tacle, and Horus as the accomplish-

chariot was drawn by goats. Ibid, et ing." The equilateral triangle of the

Oda Thrymi Edd. xxi. Ol. Rhdbeck. Pythagoreans is not here signified,

tab. X. fig. 2S. . *53 -ppjig ;g (-he case on the coins of

the colonies of Magna Groecia. 341

170 The Symbolical Language of

allude to the island of Sicily, but which is of Asiatic origin; its earliest appearance being upon the very ancient coins of Aspendus in Pamphylia; sometimes alone in the square in- cuse; and sometimes upon the body of the eagle or the back of the lion.'" The tripod, however, was more generally em- ployed for this purpose ; and is found composed in an endless variety of ways, according to the various attributes meant to be specifically expressed. On the coins of Menecratia in Phrygia it is represented between two asterisks, with a serpent wreathed round a battle-axe inserted into it, as an accessory symbol signifying preservation and destruction.'" In the ceremonial of worship, the number three was employed with mystic solemnity ; '" and in the emblematical hands above alluded to, which seem to have been borne upon the point of a staff or sceptre in the Isiac processions, the thumb and two fore-fingers are held up to signify the three primary and gen- eral personifications, while the peculiar attributes of each are indicated by the various accessory symbols.

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THE MYSTIC DOVE AND THE ITALIAN WOODPECKER.

223. A bird was probably chosen for the emblem of the third person to signify incubation, by which was figuratively expressed the fructification of inert matter, caused by the vital spirit moving upon the waters. When represented under a human form, and without the emblem, it has generally wings, as in the figures of Mithras ; and, in some instances, the Priapic cap or .(Egyptian mitre upon its head, with the hook or attractor in one hand, and the winnow or separator in the other.'" The dove would naturally be selected in the East in preference to every other species of bird, on account of its domestic familiarity with man ; it usually lodging under the same roof with him, and being employed as his messenger from one remote place to another. Birds of this kind were also remarkable for the care of their offspring, and for a sort of conjugal attachment and fidelity to each other ; as likewise for the peculiar fervency of their sexual desires ; whence they were sacred to Venus, and emblems of love."' On the

'" See Mus. Hunter, tab. vii. No. * Aristotle : De Ccelo, i. 1. " In

15. the holy rites of the gods, we use this

A similar old coin with the symbol number."

on the back of a lion is in the cabinet *" See Phoenician coins of Malta.

of Mr. Knight. *5' ^LIAN : De Aniinalibus, iii. 44..

'" Brass coin in the cabinet of Mr. and iv. 2. Knight.

342

Ancient Art and Mythology. 171

same account they were said by the poets to carry ambrosia from the ocean to Jupiter; "° for, being the symbols of love or attraction, they were the symbols of that power, which bore the finer exhalations, the immortal and celestial infusions called ambrosia, with which water, the prolific element of the earth, had been impregnated, baclc to their original source, that they might be again absorbed in the great abyss of the divine essence. Birds, however, of two distinct kinds appear in the attitude of incubation on the heads of the Egyptian Isis ; and in a beautiful figure in brass belonging to Mr. Payne Knight, a bird appears in the same posture on the head of a Grecian deity ; which by the style of work must be much an- terior to the adoption of anything ^Egyptian into the religion of Greece. It was found in Epirus with other articles, where the Sunnaos, or female personification of the supreme God, Jupiter of Dodona, was Dione ; who appears to have been the Juno-Venus, or composite personage already mentioned. In this figure she seems to have been represented with the diadem and sceptre of the former, the dove of the latter, and the golden disk of Ceres ; which last three symbols were also those of the Egyptian Isis. The dove, being thus common to the principal goddess both of Dodona and .^Egypt, may account for the confused story told by Herodotus, of two pig- eons, or priestesses called pigeons, going from Thebes in ^gypt, and founding the oracles of Dodona and Libya.™ Like others of the kind, it was contrived to vail the mystic meaaing of symbolical figures, and evade further questions. The beak of the bird, however, in the figure in question, is too much bent for any of the dove kind, and is more like that of a cuckoo, which was the symbol on the sceptre of Here, the Argive Juno in ivory and gold by Polycleitiis, which held a pomegranate in the other hand;"" but what it meant is vain to conjecture. Another bird, much celebrated by the Greek poets as a magical charm or philter, under the name of Yunx,"^ appears by the description of Aristotle °" to be the

'^* Homer: Odyssey, xii. "Timid ^^^ ARistory,^: IIisto}y of Animals, doves which carry ambrosia to father ii. 12. The yunx torquilla or wry- Zeus." These lines are supposed to neck, a bird of the woodpecker fam- have been interpolated. . ily, was used in charms and incanta-

See also Athen^us : Deipnoso- tions. It was also tied to a magic

fhista, vl. 421. wlieel, which was turned round

- " Herodotus : ii. 54, et seq. while charms or incantations were

" Pausanias: ii. 17. (Elsewhere used. See XenophoN : Memorabilia,

translated.) iii. II, 17; ViRGiL : Eclogues, viii,

'" Pindar : Pythia, iv. 380, and 21.

Nemea, iv. Also Theocrites. ■

345

172

The Symbolical Language of

larger spotted woodpecker; which, however, we have never observed in any monuments of ancient art; nor do we know of any natural properties belonging to it that could have authorised its use. It seems to be the Pious of the Italians, which was sacred to Mars.'"

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OTHER DELINEATIONS AT HIERAPOLIS.

224. After the supreme Triad, which occupied the adytum of the temple at Hierapolis, came the personifications of their various attributes and emanations ; which are called after the names of the corresponding Grecian deities; and among which was an ancient statue of Apollo clothed and bearded, contrary to the usual mode of representing him."" In the vestibule were two phalli of enormous magnitude ; °°° upon one of which a person resided during seven days twice in each year to communicate with the gods,"" and pray for the pros- perity of Syria ; and in the court were kept the sacred or sym- bolical animals : such as bulls, horses, lions, bears, eagles, etc."' In an adjoining pond were the sacred fish, some of

'" Strabo : V. " The Picentines : a colony of Sabines, a woodpecker fly- ing before ihe men taking the lead, indicated the way ; from which came the name : for the bird was named Picus, and venerated as sacred to Ares or Mars."

'" LuciAN : De Dea Syria. "There is a statue of Apollo, not as was usual to make such ; for all others represent Apollo young and in the attitude of running, but they have given Apollo, in this statue, a beard."

" In another particular they have made an innovation in their Apollo ; they have covered Apollo with gar- ments."

Similar figures of Apollo are upon some of the very early coins of Syra- cuse and Rhegium.

- ' LuciAN : De Dea Syria [Dry-

den's translation]. " The two great phalli standing in the porch with the inscription on them : ' These Phalli, I, Bacchus, dedicated to my step- mother, Juno.' The Greeks erect phalli to Bacchus, which are little men made out of wood, bene nasatos ; and these are caMod Jietirospasta [mov- ing by artificial muscles]. There is also on the right hand of the temple

a little brasen man, whose symbol is enormously disproportionate. There is also in the temple the figure of a female, who is dressed in man's clothes. The priests are self-mutilated men and they wear women's garments. The temple itself stands upon a hill, in the middle of a city (Hierapolis, the holy city, near Aleppo) ; and it is sur- rounded by a double wall. The porch of the temple fronteth the north, and it is two hundred yards in circumfer- ence ; within it are the two phalli be- fore mentioned, each about a hundred and fifty yards high."

- ' LuciAN : [Dryden's Translation].

" To the top of one of these phallic pillars a man ascends twice during the year ; and he remains there seven days at a time. The vulgar imagine that he converseth with the gods above and prayeth for the prosperity of all Syria, which prayers the gods hear, near at hand." " He never sleeps during the seven days."

'* LuciAN : [Dryden's translation].

" Within the temple's precincts were kept o.xen, horses, eagles, bears, and lions ; that are in no way noxious to men, but may be handled freely."

.^46

-^-^>>j>Hi'*^

SJi„)'^l)'V'^-

-^^^C.'.^

Ariadne in Naxt

Ancient Art and Mythology. 173

which were tame and of great size ; and about the temple were an immense number of statutes of heroes, priests, kings, and other deified persons, who had either been benefactors to it, or, from their general celebrity, been thought worthy to be ranked with them. Among the former were many of the Macedonian princes, and among the latter several of the heroes and heroines of the Iliad, such as Achilles, Hector, Helen, Hecuba, Andromache, etc.""

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THE DEIFIED PERSONAGES.

225. The most common mode of signifying deification in a portrait was representing the figure naked, or with the sim- ple chlamys or mantle given to the statues of the gods. The head, too, was sometimes radiated, or the bust placed upon some sacred and appropriate symbol : such as the cornu- copiae,'" the flower of the lotus,'" or the inverted obelisk; which last mode was by far the most frequent ; the greatest part of the busts now extant of eminent Grecian statesmen, poets, and philosophers, having been thus represented, though many of them are of persons who were never canonised by any public decree; for, in the loose and indeterminate system, of ancient faith, every individual could consecrate in his own family the object of his admiration, gratitude, or esteem, and address him with whatever rites of devotion he thought proper, provided he did nothing contrary to the peace and order of societ)% or in open violation of the established forms of worship. This consecration, however, was not properly deification, but what the Roman Catholic Church still prac- tices under the title of canonisation ; the object of it having been considered, according to the modern acceptation of the

'" LuciAN : " They elect a high placed properly in his seat ; and

priest every year, who alone has the Lucian declares that he once saw the

privilege of being clothed in purple god throw the priests down and walk,

and of wearing a golden tiara." by himself in the air. " There are a crowd of persons at- This temple having been in an allu-

tached to the sanctuary ; musicians vial country near the river Euphrates,

with flutes and fifes, galli or sodomites, it is probable that many of the stat-

and fanatic or enthusiastic women." ues which adorned it still exist under

" Near the temple is a sacred lake the accumulated soil, containing great numbers of sacred "" There are many instances of

fish." these in gems.

" Outside the temple is a large brasen " The marble bust called " Clytie " altar and a thousand brasen statues of in the British Museum, is of this char- gods and heroes, kings and priests." acter ; it was more properly, however^ The statue of Apollo sweat blood, an Isis. when he wished to speak, and was not

349

174 The Symbolical Langttage of

words, rather as a saint than a god ; wherefore a deified or " canonised " Roman Emperor was not called Deus^ but Divus, a title which the early Christians equally bestowed on the canonised champions of their faith.

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EMASCULATES AND VIRGINS IN THE SACERDOTAL OFFICE.

226. Among the rites and customs of the Temple at Hier- apolis, as well as in those of Phrygia, the practice of the priests castrating themselves, and assuming the manners and dress of women, is one of the most unaccountable. The leg- endary tale of Combabus adduced by the author of the treatise ascribed to Lucian, certainly does not give a true explanation of it, but was probably invented, like others of the kind, to conceal rather than develop ; for the same custom prevailed in Phrygia among the priests of Cybele and Atys, who had no such story to account for it. Perhaps it might have arisen from a notion of making themselves emblems of the Deity, by acquiring an androgynous appearance ; or, as Phurnutus conjectures, from some allegorical fiction, as of the castration of Heaven or Uranus by Time, or Kronos of Kronos by Jupiter,'" etc. It is possible, likewise, that they might have

'" Phurnutus : De Natura Dear., fered by Osiris, Mithras, Adonis,

vi. p. 147. Esmun (.(Esculapius), and Bacchus ;

The employment of ^a/A' or eunuchs and they are supposed to illustrate in in the sacerdotal office seems to have allegorical symbolism, the cessation of gone side by side with the keeping of the active male or fecundating power singing-women as priestesses. Emas- of the sun at the Autumnal Equinox." culation enables the better perform- (Supplement to the Voyages of Ana- ance of vocal music; and it is as- charsis and Antenor) It took place in serted, that youths deprived of virility Phrygia on the third day of the festi- are employed in the choirs of St. val of Atys. The priests of Cybele Peter's at Rome, and perhaps, at appeared in bands or groups, exhibit- other churches. A reference seems to ing the peculiar raptures of religious have been made to the practice in the frenzy, and appearing like Bacchanals Gospel according to Matthew : " And or Pythonesses intoxicated with the there be eunuchs which have made obsession of the divinity. In one themselves eunuchs for the kingdom hand they brandished the sacred of heaven's sake ; he that is able to knife of sacrifice ; in the other were receive it, let him receive it " (xix. burning torches of pine. Leaving 12). So did Origen, and very possibly the towns, they wandered like dis- others of note in the Christian Church; traded persons over the fields and and the Roman Catholic monks, as mountains in quest of the slain one, well as the Thibetan lamas, are such crying and bewailing. Having swal- figuratively, or as the Jesuit obliga- lowed the mystic potion, their excite- tion expresses it, " as a corpse." ment rose to the highest pitch ; they Among the Asiatics and Egyptians, beat themselves and ran a-muck captives and slaves were so mutilated. through the fields, lacerating one an- In the religious rites "these mutilations other with heavy chains; they were also made in honor or commem- danced, wounded themselves, scourged oration of the dismemberment suf- themselves and each other, and

Ancient Art and Mythology 175

thought a deprivation of virility an incentive to that spiritual enthusiasm, to which women were observed to be more liable than men ; and to which all sensual indulgence, particularly that of the sexes, was held to be peculiarly adverse ; whence strict abstinence from the pleasures of both the bed and the table was required preparatory to the performance of several religious rites, though all abstinence was contrary to the gen- eral festive character of the Greek worship. The Pythian priestesses in particular fasted very rigidly before they mounted the tripod, from which their predictions were uttered ; and both they and the Sibyls were always virgins ; such alone being qualified for the sacred office of transmitting divine in- spiration. The ancient German prophetesses, too, who exer- cised such unlimited control over a people that would submit to no human authority, were equally virgins consecrated to the Deity, like the Roman Vestals ; or chosen from the rest of the species by some manifest signs of his predilection.'" Perpet- ual virginity was also the attribute of many of the ancient goddesses, and, what may seem extraordinary, of some who had proven themselves prolific. Minerva, though pre-eminently distinguished by the title of the Virgin^* is said to have had children by the Sun, called Corybantes ; who appear to have been a kind of priests of that god, canonised for their knowl- edge, and therefore, fabled to have been his children by Divine Wisdom."' Diana, who was equally famed for her

finally having completed their mu- manner by the Israelites. Judah took

tilations in honor of the god about his daughter-in-law for a priestess; and

to appear, they invoked him, offering the book of Deuteronomy prescribed

the bleeding evidences of their de- that " there shall be no kadeshah of

stroyed virility. Many died, of course, the daughters of Israel, nor a kadesh

from this violence, and the accom- of the sons of Israel." Yet under

-panying exposure and haemorrhage ; Rehoboam and Queen Maachah, who

but those who survived wore the seems to have been like Olympias, a

female dress from that time. The priestess of the Dionysiac or phallic

priests of the Syrian Goddess, Isis, worship, " there were also kadeshim in

Astarte and Cybele, were of this char- the land, and they did according to

acter. They not only performed the all the abomination of the nations."

offices of the temple, but enabled the It may have been that emasculation

patrons who visited the sacred enclos- was once an incident of asceticism, for

ures to vary pederasty with fornication, monks are more ancient than Abra-

When strangers were lured thither to ham ; but at later periods, it was a

hear their fatally winning music, both constituent of the vices that prevailed

semi-males and females constituted at very many temples. — A. W.

the choirs ; and as among the Seirens, *" Tacitus : Germany.

Lamiae, and at the shrines of the Tau- "■• Scholiast upon the Oration of De-

rican goddess, their passions as well niosthenes in Androt. " Parthenon ;

as misfortune, in the earlier periods the temple in the acropolis of the Vir-

thus led them to their death. The gin {Parthenos) Athene."

rites of the Sun-god and Mother- s" Strabo : x. page 723. " Cory-

^oddess were celebrated in a similar bantes : Certain deities (daemons), the

351

1 76 The Symbolical Language of

virginal purity, has the title of Mother in an ancient inscrip tion ; '" and Here or Juno is said to have renewed her virgin- ity every year, by bathing in a certain fountain in the Pelop- onnesus, the reason of which was explained in the Argive Mysteries;'" in which the initiated were probably informed that this was an ancient figurative mode of signifying the fer- tilising quality of those waters, which renewed and reinte- grated annually the productive powers of the earth. This figurative or mystic renovation of virginity seems to be signi- fied in the Orphic hymns by the epithet Polu-parthenos; "' which, though applied to a male personification, may equally signify the complete restoration of the procreative organs of the universe after each periodical effort of nature

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THE FISH-SYMBOL.

227. Upon this principle, the placing figures upon some kinds of fish appears to have been an ancient mode of conse- cration and apotheosis, to vail which under the usual cover- ing of fable, the tales of Arion, Taras, etc., were probably invented. Fish were the natural emblems of the productive power of the waters ; they being more prolific than any other class of animals, or even vegetables, that we know. The species consecrated to the Syrian Goddess seems to have been the Scarus, celebrated for its tameness,"° and lubricity ; in which last it held the same rank among fish, as the goat did among quadrupeds."" Sacred eels were kept in the fountain of Arethusa; '" but the dolphin was the common symbol of the Greeks, as the tunny was of the Phcenicians ; both being gregarious fish, and remarkable for intelligence and sagac- ity,"^ and therefore probably signifying other attributes com- bined with the generative. The tunny is also the symbol upon all the very ancient gold coins struck by the Greelcs, in which it almost invariably serves as the base or substratum for

children of Athenii and Helius . . . Avgives say that, every year, Hera

they were not only addressed as min- bathing becomes again a virgin. This,

isters of the gods, but as gods them- which they impute to Hera, is a scene

selves." of the Arcana, from the initiation."

" Gruter : Thesauri, xli. 5. *'* Hymn, li.

" There is no reasonable doubt that *" Xenophon : Anabasis.

the Diana or Artemis of Asia was '*° ^LIAN : De Animal, i. ii.

identical with Tanait or Anait, and '" Plutarch : Craftiness of Ani-

Cybele, the Mother-Goddess of the mats. East.— A. W. *»'^uan: De Animalibus, i. 18.

'"Pausanias: II. xxxviii. "The Plutarch: Craftiness of Animals.

35^

Nereid on a Hippocampus.

Aphrodite on a Sea Monster.

Ancient Art and Mythology. 177

some other symbolical figure to rest upon ; '" water being the general means by which all the other powers of nature act.

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THE ALLEGORIES BASED ON THE DOCTRINE OF EMANATIONS.

228. The remarkable concurrence of the allegories, sym- bols, and titles of ancient mythology in favor of the mystic system of Emanations, is alone sufRcient to prove the falsity of the hypotheses founded upon Euhemerus's narrative; and the accurate and extensive researches of modern travellers into the ancient religions and traditions of the East, prove that the narrative itself was entirely fiction ; no trace of such an island as Panchsea, or of any of the historical records or memorials which he pretended to have met with there, being now to be found. On the contrary, the extreme antiquity and universal reception of the system of Emanations, over all those vast countries which lie between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, has been fully and clearly demonstrated. According to the Hindus, with whose modification of it we are best ac- quainted, the supreme ineffable God, called Brahm, or the great one, first produced Brahma the creator, who is represented with four heads corresponding with the four elements ; and from whom proceeded Vishnu the preserver, and Siva the de- stroyer; who is also the regenerator: for, according to the Indian philosophy, nothing is destroyed or annihilated, but only transmuted ; so that the destruction of one thing is still the generation of another. Hence Siva, while he rides upon an eagle, the symbol of the destroying attribute, has the lin- gam, the more explicit symbol of generation, always conse- crated in his temples. These three deities were still only one in essence ; and were anciently worshipped collectively under the title of Trimurti ; though the followers of the two latter now constitute two opposite and hostile sects ; which, never- theless, join on some occasions in the worship of the universal Triad.'"

- - Six are in the cabinet of Mr. ably the Homeric talents stamped.

Knight, in which it is respectively and may be considered as the first

placed under the Triton of Corcyra, the money.

lion of Cyzicus, the goat of ^gasa, the *** Maurtce : Indian Antiquities,

ram of Clazomenae, the bull of Samos, vol. iv. ad fin. The bull Nanda is the

and the griffin of Teios. For the vehan of Siva ; the eagle was the ve-

form and size of these coins, see Mus. han of Buddha. — A. W. Hunt. tab. 66, fig. I. They are prob-

355

178 The Symbolical Language of

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THE TRIUNE IDEA UNIVERSAL.

229. This triform division of the personified attributes or modes of action of one first cause, seems to have been the first departure from simple theism, and the foundation of religious mythology in every part of the earth. To trace its origin to patriarchal traditions, or seek for it in the philosophy of any particular people, will only lead to frivolous conjecture, or to fraud and forgery ; which have been abundantly employed upon this subject ; nor has repeated detection and exposure either damped the ardor or abashed the effrontery of those, who still find them convenient to support their theories and opinions.'" Its real source is in the human mind itself; whose feeble and inadequate attempts to form an idea of one universal first cause would naturally end in generalising and classing the particular ideas derived from the senses, and thus forming distinct, though indefinite notions of certain attri- butes or modes of action ; of which the generic divisions are universally three ; such as goodness, wisdom, and power ; creation, preservation, and destruction ; potential, instrumen- tal, and efficient, etc., etc. Hence almost every nation of the world, that has deviated from the rude simplicity of primitive Theism, has had its Trinity in Unity ; which, when not limited and ascertained by Divine Revelation, branched out, by the natural subdivision of collective and indefinite ideas, into the endless and intricate personifications of particular subordin- ate attributes, which have afforded such abundant materials for the elegant fictions both of poetry and art.

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THE SIMILARITY OF SYMBOLS NOT CONCLUSIVE PROOF OF A SINGLE ORIGIN.

230. The similitude of these allegorial and symbolical fictions with each other, in every part of the world, is no proof of their having been derived, any more than the primi- tive notions which they signify, from any one particular people ; for as the organs of sense and the principles of intel- lect are the same in all mankind, they would all naturally form similar ideas from similar objects ; and employ similar signs to express them, so long as natural and not conventional signs were used. Wolves, lions, and panthers, are equally

" See Sibylline verses, oracles, etc. authentic by Mr. Bryant's Ancien,

forged by tlie Alexandrian Jews and Mythology; and Mr. Maurice's Indian Platonic Christians, but quoted as Antiq. vol. iv.

356

^^ '4i»!i,Uuwu*Ui£'MJU£^^

Gan^ mt^d s

Ancient Art and Mythology. 179

beasts of prey in all countries; and would naturally be em- ployed as symbols of destruction, wherever they were known ; nor would the bull and cow be less obvious emblems of crea- tive force and nutrition, when it was found that the one might be employed in tilling the earth, and the other in constantly supplying the most salubrious and nutritious of food. The characteristic qualities of the egg, the serpent, the goat, etc., are no less obvious; and as observation would naturally be- come more extensive, or intellect became more active, new symbols would everywhere be adopted, and new combinations of them be invented in proportion as they were wanted.

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APPARENT IDENTITY OF THE HINDU AND iEGVPTIAN SYMBOLS.

231. The only certain proof of plagiary or borrowing is where the animal or vegetable productions of one climate are employed as symbols by the inhabitants of another ; as the lion is in Thibet ; and as the lotus and hooded snake were in .iEgypt ; '" which make it probable that the religious symbols of both those countries came originally from the Hindus. As commercial communications, however, became more free and intimate, particular symbols might have been adopted from one people by another without any common origin or even connection of general principles; though between .^Egypt and Hindustan the general similarity is too great, in points remote from common usage, to have been spontaneous or accidental. One of the most remarkable is the hereditary division into castes derived from the metempsychosis, which was a funda- mental article of faith with both ; as also with the ancient Gauls, Britons, and many other nations. The Hindu castes rank according to the number of-transmigrations which the soul is supposed to have undergone, and its consequent prox- imity to, or distance from, re-absorption into the divine essence, or intellectual abyss, from which it sprang ; and in no instance in the history of man, has the craft of imposture, or the insolence of usurpation, placed one class of human beings so far above another, as the sacred Brahmans, whose souls are approaching to a re-union with their source, are above the wretched outcasts, who are without any rank in the hierarchy ;

'* The Asp or Basilisk, the sacred tians were affiliated. The Hindu or

serpent of .lEgypt had no hood. Mod- Brahman population of India, are of a

em ethnologists consider India as a different ancestry, and were originally

former habitat of the Ethiopians or neither phallic nor serpent worship-

Hamitic race, with which the Egyp- pers. — A.W.

359

i8o The Symbolical Langiiage of

and are therefore supposed to have all the long, humiliating, and painful transmigrations yet before them. Should the most respectable and opulent of these degraded mortals hap- pen to touch the poorest, and, in other respects, most worth- less person of exalted religious rank, the offense, in some of the Hindu governments, would be punished with death; even to let his shadow reach him, is to defile and insult him ; and as the respective distinctions are in both hereditary, the soul being supposed to descend into one class for punishment, and ascend into the other for reward, the misery of degradation is without hope even in posterity ; the wretched parents having nothing to bequeath to their unfortunate offspring that is not tainted with everlasting infamy and humiliation. Loss of caste is therefore the most dreadful punishment that a Hindu can suffer; as it affects both his body and his soul, extends beyond the grave, and reduces both him and his posterity for- ever to a situation below that of a brute.

232. Had this powerful engine of influence been employed in favor of pure morality and efficient virtue, the Hindus might have been the most virtuous and happy of the human race ; but the ambition of a Hierarchy has, as usual, employed it to serve its own particular interests, instead of those of the community in general : whence to taste of the flesh of a cow, or be placed with certain ceremonies upon the back of a bull, though unwillingly and by constraint, are crimes by which the most virtuous of men is irrevocably subjected to it, while the worst excesses of cruelty, fraud, perjury, and peculation leave no stains nor pollutions whatsoever. The future rewards, also, held out by their religion, are not to any social or practical virtues, but to severe penances, operose ceremonies, and, above all, to profuse donations to the priesthood. The Brahmans have even gone so far as to sell future happiness by retail ; and to publish a tariff of the different prices, at which certain periods of residence in their paradise, or regions of bliss, are to be obtained between the diflFerent transmigrations of the soul.'" The Hindus are of course a faithless and fraudulent, though in general a mild and submissive race ; for the same system which represses active virtue, represses aspiring hope ; and by fixing each individual immovably in his station, renders him almost as much a machine as the im- plement which he employs. Hence, like the ancient .Egyp- tians, they have been eminently successful in all works of art that require only methodical labor and manual dexterity, but

"" Maurice : Indian Antiquities, vol. v. 360

Ancient Art and Mythology. i8i

have never produced anything in painting, sculpture, or ar- chitecture, that discovers the smallest trace or symptom of those powers of the mind, which we call taste and genius ; and of which the most early and imperfect works of the Greeks always show some dawning. Should the pious labors of our missionaries succeed in diffusing among them a more pure and more moral, but less uniform and less energetic system of religion, they may improve and exalt the characters of indi- vidual men ; but they will for ever destroy the repose and tranquillity of the mass. The lights of European literature and philosophy will break in with the lights of the Gospel ; the spirit of controversy will accompany the spirit of devo- tion ; and it will soon be found that men, who have learned to think themselves equal in the sight of God, will assert their equality in the estimation of men. It requires therefore no spirit of prophecy, nor even any extraordinary degree of political sagacity, to fix the date of the fall of European dom- ination in the East from the prevalence of European religion.

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HINDU POETRY AND MYTHOLOGY.

233. From the specimens that have appeared in European languages, the poetry of the Hindus seems to be in the same style as their art; and to consist of gigantic, gloomy, and operose fictions, destitute of all those graces which distinguish the religious and poe'tical fables of the Greeks. Nevertheless the structure of their mythology is full as favorable to both ; being equally abundant and more systematic in its emanations and personifications. After the supreme Triad, they suppose an immense host of inferior spirits to have been produced ; part of whom afterward rebelling under their chiefs Moisa- soor and Rhaabon, the material world was prepared for their prison and place of purgation ; in which they were to pass through eighty-nine transmigrations prior to their restora- tion. During this time they were exposed to the machinations of their former leaders, who endeavor to make them violate the laws of the Omnipotent, and thus relapse into hopeless perdition, or lose their caste, and have all the tedious and painful transmigrations already past to go through again ; to prevent which, their more dutiful brethren, the emanations that remained faithful to the Omnipotent, were allowed to comfort, cherish, and assist them in their passage ; and that all might have equal opportunities of redeeming themselves, the divine personages of the great Triad had at different

l82

Ancient Art and Mythology.

times become incarnate in different forms, and in different countries, to the inhabitants of which they had given different laws and instructions suitable to their respective climates and circumstances; so that each religion may be good without being exclusively so ; the goodness of the Deity naturally allowing many roads to the same end.

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ANCIENT RELIGION AND ITS RELATION TO ART.

234. These incarnations, which form the principal subjects of sculpture in all the temples of India, Thibet, Tartary, and China, are above all others calculated to call forth the ideal perfections of the art, by expanding and exalting the imagin- ation of the artist, and exciting his ambition to surpass the simple imitation of ordinary forms, in order to produce a model of excellence worthy to be the corporeal habitation of the Deity; but this, no nation of the East, nor indeed of the Earth, except the Greeks and those who copied them, ever attempted. Let the precious wrecks and fragments, therefore, of the art and genius of that wonderful people be collected with care and preserved with reverence, as examples of what man is capable of under peculiar circumstances ; which, as they have never occurred but once, may never occur again !

Leda, Swan and Eros.

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ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

COMPRISING THE PRINCIPAL DEITIES, HEROES, PERSONS,

SYMBOLS, AND OTHER MATTERS MENTIONED

IN THIS WORK.

[the numerals refer to the pages.]

Aah-Mosis and Thoth-Mosis expelled the Hyk-Sos, or Shepherds, from Egypt, 43-

Ahel, Bel, or Apollo the Sun-god of the Assyrians and Phoenicians, and probably the same as Horns, or Krishna, 63.

Ablution — See Baptism and Parification.

Ablution, or Baptism, generally practiced among all nations of antiquity, I2I ; always preceded initiation into the Egyptian and Eleusinian Mysteries, 121 ; Jewish proselytes immersed after being circumcised, I2i.

Abraham, the patriarch, children {benim) from stones (abenini), 25 ; his prayer supposed to heal the household of Abimelech, 46 ; not surprised or startled when ordered to sacrifice his only son, 123.

Abstinence of the Orphean worshippers of Bacchus, 49 ; from pleasures of bed and table enjoined, 174, 175.

Acacia, a mystical symbol, no.

Acanthus, a symbol, 109.

Achamoth, Sophia, or personified imperfect Wisdom of the Ophites, l6.

Achilles overcame the Amazons, 34 ; shield of, 97 ; represented with the features of a woman, as though double-sexed, 159.

Actmon, metamorphoses of, probably invented from some symbolical composi- tion, 81.

Active, or Male, Principle of the Universe, represented by Bacchus, or Dionysus, 10, 18, 19, 21, 22, 67, 79 ; by the goat, 21, 78, 142 ; by the phallus, or lingam, 12, 15, 142 ; by the bull, 18, 35. 66, 98, 142 ; worshipped by the Arabs as Urotalt, 19 ; comprehended by the Egyptians as Osiris, 21, 58 ; symbolised by fire, 25, 26, 27, 6i ; also by Jupiter, 28, 81, 82 ; by the fig, 29 ; signified by Neptune, 31, 67 ; denoted by Ihe thighs, which were burned in sacrifices, 32 ; by evergreens, 32 ; Celestial Love, 38 ; by Baal-Peor, 49, 132 ; by the phallic manikin, used in the worship of Osiris, 23, the "grove," 49, and Syrian goddess, 172; by Bel & Baal, 54; by Amun, 57; by Priapus, 10, 57, 132; by the pyramid, church-spire and pinnacle, 70; by the cock, 70 ; by the horse, 77 ; by satyrs, 78 ; by Fauns and Paniski, 78 ; by the ChimEera, 91 ; exercised by night, 94 ; represented by the Soter Kosmou. 98 ; by the pine cone, 113 ; by Mars, 126 ; by Pan, 142 ; im- pregnated females of the human species without the co-operation of a male, 158.

Adam, his creation and fall, according to the Ophite theory, 16 ; Lilith, first wife of, 57 ; name of man, as both male and female, 159.

Adjuration by Agamemnon, also by the Athenian women at the Thesmophoria, 165.

Adonis, or Adoni (the Lord), a title of Melkarth the Phoenician Hercules, 2 ; a divinity of the Orphic or mystic faith, corresponding with Bacchus and Osiris, 9, 85 ; same as Priapus, 10 ; an emanation, one of the seven spirits of the planets, 16 ; history disguised by poetical and allegorical fable, 67 ; beloved by Venus-Astart6, 67 ; name of the sun, 85 ; killed by the boar, the emblem of winter, 85, 156 ; mysteries celebrated at Byblos, 84 ; passes six months with Proserpina, and six months with Venus, 80 ; killed by Ares or Mars in the form of a boar, like Atys, 86; his festivals concilia- tory, 87 ; his death and revival celebrated at Athens, 88 ; probably the same as lao, the god of the Jews, 132.

Adrastus, built a circular temple, 61.

Adumbla, the white cow of Scandinavian mythology, 36 ; suckled the sun each winter, 36.

^^!>, or goat-skin, the breast-plate of Minerva, 130; represented the female principle of Nature, 130; employed by Jupiter, Minerva, and Apollo, 131; made by Vulcan for Jupiter, 131.

ALgobolium , or sacrifice of a goat in the Mithraic rites, 123 ; catechumen bathed in the blood, 123.

yEgypt, secret or mystic system preserved by a hereditary priesthood, 3 ; tales concerning Osiris and Typhon, 6 ; phallic symbolism, 12 ; story of Cleopatra, 15 ; " Burning of Lamps, 26 ; the sacred cow at Mo-memphis and the Bulls Apis and Mnevis, 35 ; ancient learning obliterated by the Persian and Macedonian governments, 44 ; alliance with Phoenicians, 49 ; Persians destroyed temples, 5i ; the Hyk-Sos denominated Phcenicians, Greeks, Arabians and Strangers, 74 ; Centaur among sculptures, 77 ; priests wore no garments of animal substance, 89 ; Serapis never known till the time of the Ptolemies, 104 ; the Lotus not now found, 104 ; great antiquity, 106 ; won from the Nile, 108 ; priestly institutions lasted between eleven and twelve thousand years, 108.

/Egyptians, hieroglyphical writing, 6 ; judgment of Amenti, 8 ; originated the mysteries of Bacchus and phallic procession, 10 ; employed the hooded snake in the mysteries, and probably borrowed it from India, lO, 109 ; placed an egg on the monuments, 20 ; abstain from cow's fiesh, 36; worship of Isis, the female principle of generation, 36 ; many symbols appear to be Indian, 37 ; worshipped Osiris as hidden in the embrace of the sun, 37 ; believed the sun to be the body from which emanated the all-pervading spirit, 37 ; their language sacred, being a language of the gods, 38; their magistrates would put a man to death for killing a cat or monkey, 41 ; honored various animals and plants as divine symbols, 42 ; would never reveal anything concerning their symbols, 42 ; the priests probably pretended to more knowledge of them than they really had, 42 ; their priests were sacrificers, 42 ; esteem for hieroglyphics, 42 ; the relation of the conquests and empire of Sesostris, a probable fiction, 42; Hebrews never subject to their kings, 43 ; naval battles six thousand years ago between them and nations beyond the Mediterranean, 43 ; memorials of conquests in Asia, 43 ; the " hornet," " scourge " or plague, 43 ; the new system of interpretation adopted in the second century wholly inconsistent with the ancient system, 43 ; temples filled with lamentations, 50 ; wine held in abomination ; never gave way to ecstatic raptures of devotion, 50 ; celebra- ted "the Mourning for the Only-Begotten," 50 ;' sexual rites not practiced in the temples, 65 ; worshipped Night as Athor, 56 ; worshipped Leto or Latona, 57 ; understood the heliocentric system, 5o ; labyrinths, places for human sacrifices, 65 ; believed in two opposite powers in the world, one generating and the other destroying, 71 ; fire held to be the efficient principle, 71 ; sufferings of Osiris, the mystery of their religion, 71 ; believed that a woman might conceive by the approach of a divine spirit, 72 ; believed Osiris to represent good, and Typhon evil, 72 ; believed that the earth at an ancient period was inhabited by Saurian monsters or lizards, 72; personified universal Nature as Isis, 83; celebrated the Death and Revival oi the deity, 88 ; worshipped Prometheus, 88 ; held heat and moisture to be sexual symbols, 98 ; styled the Moon the Mother of the Universe, 99 ; represented the moon under the symbol of a cat, 100 ; veneration for the lotus, 105 ; obtained their symbols, the lotus and hooded snake from India, 109, 179 ; had images resembling Juggernaut, Ganesa and Vishnu, 109 ; their architecture original, 109 ; originated the Corinthian order, 110 ; embalmed their dead to preserve them till the general confla- gration, 117; used the pyramids for astronomical observations and religious- rites, 117 ; excavated temples in the rock, 117 ; practiced ablution before initiation, 121 ; worship more systematic than that of the Greeks, 127 ; considered Phtha as father of the Cabeirian gods, 127; worshipped Wisdom. or Athene as Neith, 127 ; represented the all-pervading spirit by the Scarabffius or black beetle, 128 ; chief-priests wore bells, 133 ; placed sym- bols of the sun and moon in boats, 133 ; represented Amun by the Ram, 136 ; considered Amun the same as Zeus or Jupiter and Pan, 137; used the designation Amun as a title of courtesy and respect, 137 ; employed the goat as a sexual symbol, 141 ; never worshipped heroes, 154.

JSschylus, the Tragedian, narrow escape from death, for divulging a mystical legend, 5 ; called the Moon the Daughter of the Sun, 99 ; describes his characters as swearing on the point of a spear or sword, 115.

/Esculapius, the cock offered to him in the mysteries, 4 ; the same deity as Hermes, Thoth, and Cadmus, 10 ; the serpent his symbol, 14 ; repre- sented by the Epidaurian serpent, 15 ; Apollo reputed to be his father, 100 ; slain by weapons forged by the Cyclopes, 74; the Emeph of lamblichus, 150.

^ther. Dragon of the, 16 ; a name of Jupiter, 23 ; fire of, ruled by Zeus, 131 1 closely related to sulphur, 135.

^Ethiopia, the country south of ^gypt, 36, 106.

Ethiopian, race occupied India, Affghanistan, Susiana, Arabia, ^Egypt, and other countries, 65 ; constructed Labyrinths, and sacrificed human victims, 65 ; a designation of Prometheus, 88.

Afides, Aides, or Hades, the ancient name of Pluto, 104 ; to be destroyed, 117 ; one of the Cabeirian deities, 150.

Africa, a serpent worshipped in luidaor Whyda, 15 ; cow revered on the Gold Coast, 36 ; Poseidon or Neptune, the chief god, 64 ; human sacrifices common long after the Christian era, 153.

AgathodcEmon, or Radiated Serpent, 16 ; said to have been worshipped by the Albigenses, Cathari, and Paulicians, 17 ; similarity of the name Num or Kneph to that of Numa, king of Rome, hardly an accident, 63.

Agenor, or Belus, tutelar god of Sidon, father of Europa, 65.

Ages, Middle, barbarism and bigotry induced the destruction of ancient art, 7.

Ahaz, king of Judah, said to have " burned his children in the fire," 122.

Ahriman, or Anra-Mainyas, the Potentate of Evil, 62, 72 ; probably the same as Harmannu, the god of Susiana, or Kissia, 62 ; called also Seth, Satan, and Beel-Zebub, go ; to be destroyed at the end of 6,000 years, 117.

Aidoia, the sexual parts (see Phallus) ; of Typhon, 58 ; female, engraved upon pillars by Sesostris, 93,94 ; on Hermaic statues, 114.

Albigenses, Cathari, and Paulicians, reputed worshippers of the Agathodaemon Serpent, 17.

Alcibiades, condemned for divulging a mystic secret, 5 ; priestess of Athens refused to curse, 59.

Alexander, (the Great,) expedition into India, 18, 136 ; his mother a priestess of the Bacchic rites, 50 ; her boast that he was the son of Dionysus the Serpent-God, 80; his body conveyed from Babylon to Alexandria, 81; hearse adorned with goat-elephants, 81 ; shrine of gold melted, 81 ; letter from him to his mother declaring the gods to be only deified mortals a forgery, 164.

Alexandria, Eclectic Jews taught the Apocrypha, or doctrine of Wisdom, 4 ; body of Alexander deposited there, 81 ; new modification of ancient systems of religion and philosophy, 84 ; temple of Serapis, 104.

Alitta, or Elissa, a name of Mylitta, 61.

Allegories, of the Egyptians, attempt of lamblichus to adapt to a new system, 43.

Allegory, the Mystical doctrines expressed by 5, 150; general resemblance in different countries, 5; not found in the Iliad, or Odyssey, 11; of the Minotaur, 64 ; composed of legends and fables, 66, 67 ; of the Centaurs, 76, 77 ; expressed universal harmony produced by the changes of nature, 8l ; the fable of Ceres and Proserpin^ of this nature, 82 ; of the bird Fanina, the Phoenix of the north, 86 ; the dismemberment of Bacchus like the death of Atys, Adonis, and Osiris, 88 ; the story of Prometheus, 88 ; the punishments suffered in Hell, 124 ; mixture by Virgil, 125 ; physical, in popular creed of the Hindus, 155 ; story of Bacchus and Dionysus-Zagreus, 156; confusion of legends, 158 ; Homeric poems and books of the New and Old Testament, turned into, 161 ; Jerusalem Delivered, 161, passim.

All-Prophetic, a title of Jupiter, 47.

Alma, nD?V, Kadesha, or sacred woman, the priestess at Delphi, 47

oracle of Dodona in Greece, founded ; also of Amun, in Libya, 48 ; devoted to prostitution in eastern temples, 54, 56.

Alphabetic writing, 6.

Amalthea, the goat that suckled Jupiter, horn of, 84.

Amazons, or votaries of the Double-Sexed deity, 32 ; passages in the Iliad mentioning them, probably interpolations, 33 ; five statues in the temple of Diana, at Ephesus, 33 ; reputed worshippers of Diana, 33 ; symbolical figure of Elephanta, 33 ; the classical figures not one-breasted, 34 ; re- sembled the Thugs of India in offering human victims, 34 ; reputed to have inhabited Northern Africa and invaded Asia, 34 ; their country called Assyria, 34 ; Eumolpus their leader, 34 ; statue at Athens identical with that of Diana, 34 ; priestesses of Diana, 34 ; instituted the Circular Dance of the Mysteries, 34 ; Diana an Amazonian goddess, 67 ; court of, temple of Mars near by, 69 ; conflict with Theseus, 158.

Ambassador oi Louis XIV. asking the King of the Siamese to embrace Christian- ity, rebuked by him, 39 ; of India, to Augustus, 90.

Amberics, logging rocks, or Baitulia, like the Stonehenge, 147.

Ambrosial ilonts, conical stones depicted on Tyrian medals, 145.

Amenti, judgment of, 8.

America, North, phallic symbols, 12; jugglers and diviners make chaplets and girdles of serpents, 14 ; Mexican captives sacrified, 15 ; savages believed the world supported by a tortoise, 35 ; the pyramid among the symbols of the savages, 70.

Ampelus, derived from Amphi, or oracle, 47 ; beloved of Bacchus, 91 ; the vine personified, 91.

Amphi, or Om-phe, the designation of an oracle, 46 ; Amphi-anax, king of the oracle, 47 ; Ampelus, from om-phi, 47 ; Fompceus, messenger of the oracle 47 ; nymph has the same etymology, 47.

Amulets, rings and fibulae so employed, 65 ; in France, with the classic figures of Zeus and Minerva, and a quotation from Genesis, iii. 8, 129, 130; in England and Ireland, 130.

Amun, same as Zeus, the All-Pervading spirit, 48, 137 ; oracle in Libya established by a sacred woman, or " black dove," from Thebes, 48 ; same as Bacchus, 57 ; hereditary priests kept genealogical records, 108 ; priestly order lasted between 11,000 and 12,000 years, from Menes to the Persian invasion, 108 ; the deity most commonly represented under the symbol of the Ram ; 137 ; same as Zeus and the Pan of Arcadia, 137 ; the luminous sethereal spirit, 137 ; records said to have been compiled by Sanchoniathon, 163.

Ana, or Ana-melech, of Sippara, called also Cannes, probably the same as Poseidon, or Neptune, 65.

Ana%tis,t\i& Mother-Goddess of Armenia. See Venus, Diana, Isis, Ceres, CybeU, Astarti and Aphrodite.

Anak, or anax, a prince, 96; the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, denominated Anakes, 96 ; designation applied to the Anakim, or the sons of Anak, in Palestine, to Agamemnon and Bacchus, 151.

Anchors, an ornament on the Ionic capital, no.

Ancient religions founded on the same principle, 39 ; generally liberal and humane, 39 ; the rites of every country performed according to the law, pleasing to the deity, 40 ; modified anew at Alexandria, 84.

Androgynous, or Double-Sexed Principle, represented by the bearded Venus of Paphos, 29, 104, 149, 159 ; by the tortoise, 29, 34 ; by the goddess Freya, 32 ; the Amazons, 33 ; the buccinum, 34 ; by Atys, Adonis, and Bacchus, 67, 95, 9S ; Diana, 99 ; statue of Apollo, 81 ; the Scarabaeus, or black beetle, 128 ; figure of Bacchus, 136.

dngels, adopted by the Jews from the Chaldeans, 54.

Animals, receiving divine honors, 41 ; regarded as emanations from the Supreme Being, 42 ; worshipped in Kgypt, 42 ; instinctive motions observed in augury, 44 ; kept in the sacred court at Hierapolis, 172.

Anquetil confounded the Persians of the First with those of the Second Dynasty, 62.

Antenna, or sail-yard of a ship, 84.

Antiquity ofEgypl, 106; the sacerdotal caste of, between 11,000 and 12,000 years' duration, 208.

Anubis, Hermes, or Mercury, symbolised by a dog, 113 ; his power like that of Hekate, 113 ; his face gilded, and at other times black, 116 ; the Minister ofFate, 127.

Apap or Aph-ophis, the Great Serpent, 72 ; same as Python, 72.

Aphetor, Aq>rjTa>p, a name of Apollo, 92.

Aphrodisiacs t 29, 45.

Aphrodite, the Greek name of Venus, also Kypris, daughter of Jupiter and Dione, 28 ; name perhaps derived from paredesa, a garden, or beautiful woman, 28 ; called also Hera, or lady, a name of Juno, 29 ; the dove, her symbol, 29 ; standing on a tortoise, 34 ; her bust at Corinth, 45 ; same as Mylitta, and her worship at Corinth, and Cyprus, accompanied by prostitu- tion, 54 ; the most ancient of the Fates, 63 ; six months of each year spent with Adonis, 85 ; represented at Paphos as bearded and double-sexed, 104 ; called " The Chariot" as carrying the gods, 134. See Celestial Venus.

Apis, or Epaphus, the Sacred Bull of Egypt, iS ; Mnevis his mystic father, 19 ; conceived by a ray of light, 19 ; representation of Osiris, 19, 52 ; worshipped by the women tendering their persons to him, 142.

Apocalypse, or unvailing, a designation of the early Christian teaching, 4.

Apocrypha, hidden or occult things, a designation of the esoteric doctrines of the Alexandrian Jews, 4.

Apollo, battle with the Python, 5 ; statue crowned with olive, 17 ; the raven his symbol, 29 ; Chryses his priest, 31 ; standing on a tortoise, 34 ; Olen, his priest and prophet, founded the oracle at Delphi, 46; inspiring exhala- tion from the Earth imputed to him, 47 ; the serpent Python his represen- tative, 47 ; Horus in Egypt, 57, 72 ; meaning of the name, 58 ; same as Abel, or Bel, the younger, 58 ; his figure on coins, 63 ; worshipped in the circular temple of Stonehenge by the Hyperboreans, 68 ; Carinas, 70 ; re- presented by obelisks and simple columns, 70 ; protector of highways, 70; the hawk and lion his symbols, 74 ; the colossal statue androgynous, 81, 99 ; Didumoeus or Didymteus, temple of, 82 ; the Destroyer as well as Deliverer, 91 ; called Sauroktonos, or lizard-killer, Pythios or putrefier, Smintheus, or mouse-killer, Chnisaor, etc., 91, 92 ; identity with Hercules, 92, 93; the Day-Sun, 94 ; his worship as Didymseus mixed with that of Bacchus, 95 ; his lyre, 95; cause of sudden death, 100; father of /Esculapius, 100; carried the ^gis, 131; accompanying his lyre with the

dance, 139 ; the oldest oracle and sanctuary in Didymi, 144 ; bust, 145 ; statue sitting upon eggs, with a serpent coiled around them, 147 ; statue sitting on a conical stone, 148 ; the Mystic Dance, 152 ; — called the Far- Shooter, 152; — entrusted with the care of the child Dionysus-Zagreus, 156 ; invoked by Agamemnon, 165. Apples, an honorary reward at the Olympic, Isthmian and Pythian games,

153.

AfuUius, imposed upon by new system of the Egyptian priesthood, 43 ; invo- cation.of Isis, 83 ; meaning of his " seeing of the sun at midnight," 96 ; de- scription of the Sacred Boat-procession, 134.

Ar, the Boar that slew Adonis, the symbol of Ares or Mars, 83, 86.

Arabs, worshipped Urotalt, or Dionysus, under the form of a Bull, 19; acknowledg- ed only the male and female powers of creation, 19 ; the Hyk-Sos, or Shep- herds of Egypt, 43, 74 ; revered the square stone as the emblem of the celestial Venus, or female productive power, 63 ; Cyclopean buildings, 74 ; many temples were caverns cut in the rock, 117 ; worshipped Peor or Pria- pus, the god of generation, 132.

Arba-Il, or fourfold god, 35.

Architis Venus, the ancient Venus, statue by Daedalus, also on Mount Libanus, 149.

Ares, see Mars.

Argive women mourned the death of Adonis, 85 ; — prophetess perceived the future by tasting the blood of a lamb, 120.

Argonauiic expedition, a fable probably derived from the Egyptian device of the ram-symbol of Amun, in a boat, l58.

Ariadne, the fabled wife of Bacchus, 66 ; probably the same as Persephone, or Proserpina, 66 ; said to have been the daughter of Minos and killed by Diana, 66 ; holding a pine cone, 113 ; Theseus, her fabled lover, 158.

Arion, the steed, offspring of Neptune or Poseidon, and Demeter, 80, 176.

Arisiarchus, charged with impiety for endeavoring to prove the truth of the heliocentric system, 58.

Atistophanes, charged Diagoras and Socrates with impiety in attributing the order and unity of the universe to circular motion, 60.

Ark, of Noah and the Centaurs, 77 ; Sacred Boat of Osiris, 134 ; probably the first suggestion of the fable of the Argonauts, 168.

Armenia, sexual rites of Venus-Anaitis, 54, 67 ; probably conquered by Zohak, the Arabian Serpent-King, 62.

Arrow, of Apollo, called also belos and obelos ; signify the emission of the rays of the sun, 92.

Arsinoi, queen of Ptolemy Philadelphus, called also Hippia, 80.

Artabazes, satrap of Pontus, introduced the Mithraic rites, 53.

Artemis. See Diana, Brimo, Hekatl.

Aryan family, two great branches, the Zend, or Persian, and the Brahman, or Hindu, 62 ; Kuru, a popular title before the separation, 154.

Asa, King of Judah, deposes his mother for making a neuropast, or phallic manikin, like those of Egypt and at the temple of the Syrian goddess and the Venus-Erycina, 49.

Asia, secret or mystic system preserved by the hereditary priesthood, 3; inhabitants worshipped the cross or tau as the emblem of Venus, 30 ;

overrun by the Amazons, 34; conijuests by the Egyptians, 43; great regard for oracles, 50 ; " Mourning for the only-Begotten," 50 , massive architecture, 74 ; the lion on sepulchral monuments, 74 ; symbolical figures worshipped, 144 ; fire and serpent worship generally diffused, 151 ; human sacrifices common, 153; the mystic rites, 157.

Asf, or ur3eus, placed with the winged globe over the porticoes of Egyptian temples, 15 ; apotheosis of Cleopatra, 15.

Aspasia, a mystic title upon the statues of Venus- Architis, 149.

Ass, the symbol of Typhon, 87.

Assyria, name of the country of the Amazons, 34 ; dialect of Assyria ancient and cognate with the " language of the gods," 38 ; worship of Bel and Mylitta, 54, 67 ; Cyclopean structures, 74 ; golden calf of Beth-el placed in the museum, 148.

Astartl, or Aphrodite, the Celestial or Heavenly Venus, a goddess of the mystic rites, 9 ; same as Terra and Isis, 24 ; same as Diana, of the Ephesians, and Anaitis, 34; the "grove," or ashera her symbol, 49; her worship at Eryx, Armenia, and Palestine, accompanied by prostitution, 55 ; kadesh- uth in her temples, 56 ; Persians learned her worship, 6l ; the same as Pasiphae, wife of Minos, 65, 66 ; called Paphia, mother of the Centaurs, 77 ; the deity of the moon, the same as Europa, 103 ; weapons of King Saul placed in her temple, 114 ; See Celestial Venus.

Astaphceus, a spirit of the planets, 16.

Asterisk, same as the radiated head of Apollo, 64 ; meant the male principle, 66 ; of the sun on Carthaginian coins, with a horse, 76 ; a wolf the centre, 8g ; the caps of Dioscuri, 116.

Astral divinities, originally the sole gods, I ; days of the week named after

145-

Astrology, judicial, 51 ; grew out of the doctrine that the active principle of the universe acted by permanent laws, 51 ; Dryden, the poet, sometimes prac- ticed it, 52 ; Dr. Noah Stone, of Connecticut, 52 ; — originated with the Chaldeans, 53 ; — not much regarded by the Egyptians, 53.

Atergatis, the Syrian goddess, same as Astarte, Isis, CybelS, and the Heavenly Venus, 64 ; round-tower pillars at her temple, 74. See Hierapolis.

Atheism, probably not a denial of existence of the gods, but violation of the Mysteries, 40 ; punished with death at Athens, 40 ; the offense of Diagoras and Socrates, 40 ; theoretically the source of judicial astrology, 51 > '1*^ heliocentric system the probable matter divulged, 60.

Athena, or Athene, see Pallas, Minerva, and Neith.

Athenians, made the Eleusinian Mysteries more celebrated than any other wor- ship, 3 ; punished with death those who divulged any thing taught there, 5 ; subjected colonies, 8 ; venerated the olive, 17 ; required the priestess to curse Alcibiades for profanation, 39 ; punished atheism with death, 40 ; — form of Hermes, 149 ; — women celebrating the Thesmophoria, 165.

Athens, impiety punished with death, 5, 40 ; subjected Asiatic colonies, 8 ; Amazons led thither by Eumolpns who instituted the Eleusinia, 34; statue of the Amazon, or Diana, 34 ; priestess refused to curse Alcibiades, 39 ; atheism, not merely a denial of the existence of the gods, but a revealing or calumniating of the Mysteries, punished with death, 40; Ariadne brought thither by Theseus, 66 ; festivals of Bacchus kept, 83.

Index. 1 9 1

dtmoo, the hidden one, the Tammuz of Ezekiel, 72. See Bacchus and Osiris.

Attila, the Getic, worshipped the sword at the Acropolis of Athens, 115.

Attraction, the first principle of animation, called also Eros, Love, and Priapus, 13, 21, 22, 38, 91 ; represented by the loadstone, 59 ; the sun, according to Pythagoras, the attractive force, 59 ; — supposed to be a wreck or fragment of more universal science that once existed, 60.

Attributes, eternal, personified, the source of the theogonies, 25.

Atys, an Asiatic divinity, identical with Bacchus, Adonis, and Osiris, 49 ; the Phrygian Bacchus, 84 ; called also the Minotaur, 84 ; killed by a boar, 86, 155 ; double-sexed, 67, 95, 98; conceived by the goddess Nana, or Anaitis, eating a pomegranate, 112,

Augury and Vaticination, 44 ; first by animals and birds, 44 ; gave place to oracular temples, 45 ; the Bacchic impulse, or prophetic mania, 45 ; college of Augurs at Rome, 51.

Aurora, or morning, borne by the horse Pegasus, 76.

Avatars, Hindu deities, manifested as heris or heroes, 159.

Authority of the Mysteries rejected by the Euhemerists, 162.

Avesta, Zend, its authenticity as the work of Zoroaster denied, 62 ; nothing more than the ritual of the modern Ghebers or Parsees, 62 ; probably genu- ine, 62.

Axieros, Axiokersa, Axiokersos, and Casmilus, the Cabeirian gods, 150 ; same as Pluto, Demeter, ProserpinI, and Hermes.

Baal, of Tyre, Melkarth, the Tyrian Hercules, 2 ; his figure on coins precisely like that of the Grecian Jupiter, 20 ; high places of, 46 ; Peor, the Moabite divinity, 49 ; worship like that of Isis, 85 ; Baal-Zebub, the Phoenician oracle-god, ranked by the Jews as Prince of the Devils, 89 ; sacred bonfires in Ireland, 122 ; children burned or passing through the fire, 122 ; probably the same as Baldur, or Habaldur, the Scandinavian deity, 122 ; worship in Palestine always attended by prostitution, 132 ; statues like those of Priapus or Bacchus, 132 ; Baal-Tamar, or lord of the palm, 151.

Baal-bek, or Heliopolis, the City of the Sun, logging stones, 148.

Babylon, divine creative attribute, personified as male and female, called Bel and Mylitta, 54 ; women prostituted in the temple of Mylitta,

54. Bacchic Orgies, or Orgies of Dionysus, doctrine taught relative to the soul, 4, 119 ; introduced by Melampus, 10 ; learned from the Phoenicians of Bceotia, 10; introduced by Orpheus, II ; figs and the phallus borne in procession, 30 ; proceedings against them at Rome, 40 ; the ecstasies of the votaries, 45 ; drinking to intoxication allowed, 45 ; extravagance of the Grecian women, 49 ; superseded by the Mithraic rites, 53 ; celebrated in the Orkneys, or Hebrides, as well as by the Thracians and Hindus, 68 ; observed in Thrace, where the Cyclopes inhabited, 74 ; the Phrygians commemorate the god asleep in winter and awake in summer, 85 ; — triennial celebration at Delphi, 95 ; women whipped at the triennial festival at Alea, 102 — supposed to have been celebrated by the Jews, 132 ; bells worn, 133.

192 Index.

Bacchus, or Dionysus, flight of, a mystic allegory, 6; a god of the Mysteries, 9; always associated with serpent worship, 9 ; called Priapus, at Lamp- sacus, 10; his worship and the phallic procession introduced by Melampus, 10 ; designation of the Great Serpent showed by Taxilus to Alexander, 15 ; called Bougenes, 18 ; said by Herodotus to be the Arabian deity Urotalt, 19 ; represented the whole generative power, 20 ; the goat also his symbol, 20 ; called also " the first-begotten love," and " Father of gods and of men," 21, 22, 36 ; in mythology, Kronos.or Zeus, the Unknown Father, was reverenced as the Father and he as the Son, 22; statue at Eleusis, 26 ; the fig and phallus borne in his processions, 30 ; carried in the thigh of Jupiter, 32; the foliage of trees and all evergreens sacred to him, 32; the thighs of victims burned in sacrifice, 32 ; why said to be borne at Thebes, 35 ; ecstasy at his orgies, 45 ; the vine a favorite symbol, 45 ; the god the source of prophetic inspiration, 45 ; an Asiatic divinity, and identical with Atys, Adonis, Osiris, and probably Siva, or Maha Deva, and also with Baal- Peor, 49 ; husband of Ariadne, 66 ; sometimes depicted double-sexed, 67 , represented the general emanation of the productive power, 67; worshipped in the British Islands, 68; Sabazius, temple, on Mount Zilmissus, in Thrace, 69 ; invocation in the Baccha, 75 ; the bull, many-headed serpent, and lion, his symbols, 75 ; Satyrs, or Centaurs, accompanying his Indian expedition, 78 ; the goddess Hippa the nurse of the generator, 79 ; a mound in Athens,. 80 : the deer a symbol, 81 ; Kore, or ProserpinS, his reputed mother in the Orphic Mysteries, 83, 156 ; rites celebrated at Eleusis with those of Ceres, 85 ; Ganymedes another form of, 87 ; dismemberment by the Titans, 88 ; grapes sacred to him, 89 ; accompanied by leopards devouring grapes, go ; Ampelus, 91; identity with Hercules, 92; the nocturnal sun, 94; lao or laon, a mystic title, 95 ; called also Hyes, 95 ; same as Castor, 96 ; terminated his expedition in the remotest East, 96 ; tomb at Delos, 96 ; god of the waters, 98 ; the Devourer, 102 ; mystic epithet of Perikionios, III; the pomegranate on his diadem, 112; thyrsus surmounted by pine cone, I r3 ; mystic fan, or winnow, 120 ; called Liknites, 120 ; ivy, or kissos, dedicated to him as a Kissean or Cushite deity, 124; called also Bromius, 132; supposed by Plutarch to have been worshipped by the Jews, 132 ; Amun his father, 137 ; Nyssian dance sacred to him, 139 ; terrestrial genealogy a fable, 140 ; Dendrites, 144 ; story of Zagreus, 156 ; the " new Bacchus," son of Zeus and Proserpina, 156; called Ph-anax, 151.

Baitulia, amberics, ambrosial stones, logging stones, pendre stones, 147, 148.

Baldness of Silenus explained as caused by salacity, 79.

Baldur, a Scandinavian deity, probably the Sun, or Baal, 122.

Bambyki, See Hierapolis and Venus.

Baptism of the man Jesus, and his union with Christ, as taught by sectaries, 17 ; or ablution in fire and water generally practiced, ] 21 ; how performed, 121 ; preceded initiation, 121 ; Jewish proselyte immersed before being circum- cised, 121 ; considered as being regenerated and animated with a new soul, 122; by fire, at the bonfires of Baal, 122; practiced by the Hindus, Romans, Irish, Scandinavians, Italians and Jews, 122 ; purification by blood of a bull, goat or ram in the Mithraic rites, 123.

Barbarians, and earliest Greeks, worshipped only the sun, moon, earth, star* and sky, i ; — mysteries and sacred rites, 71.

Index. 1 93

Barbarism of the middle ages, 7.

Bards, Miisseus and Eumolpus said to be from Thrace, 11 ; Olen, a priest of Apollo, said to have founded the Oracle at Delphi, 46 ; — sacerdotal, pol- ished and methodised the Greek language, 50,

Barley, a symbol of the female aidoia, 28 ; thrown upon the altar as sacrifices. 31 ; wine made from it by the Egyptians, 31.

Battle-Axe, received divine honors, 114 ; symbol on a coin, 170.

Banho, a personification of Night, 57.

Beads, used to reclion time, and also to enclose the sacred symbols, 31.

Bear, a polar constellation, called also the Wagon, <)•].

Bee, sacred to Venus ; its name in Greek, melitta, being a pun on the name of the Babylonian Venus or Mylitta, 20.

Beetle, or Scarabasus, represented the pervading spirit or ruling providence of the deity, 128 ; androgynous, 128.

Being, Supreme, or Supreme God, the Zeus of the primitive Greeks, 20, 22 ; doctrine of the Ophites or serpent worshippers, 16 ; Akmon, 24 ; mode of existence, 25 ; the primitive pervading spirit and his emanations, 37, 38, 41, 42 ; source of augury and oracles, 44, 45 ; Jupiter All-prophetic, 47 ; active principle of the universe, acting by permanent laws and pre-estab- lished rules, 51.

Bel, or Belos, worshipped in Assyria, 54 ; same as Zeus and Baal, 54 ; father of Europa, 65 ; composite symbols in temple at Babylon, 144.

Belief, generally shaped by mankind to their dispositions, 126.

Bellerophon, rode the horse Pegasus, 76 ; worshipped Athene as Hippeia, 76.

Bellona, a title of Athene, androgynous, 127, 136.

Bells, in religious worship, 131 ; worn at the rites of Bacchus, 132, 133; a charm against the destroying power, 131 ; used by the Jews at new moon,

132 ; employed at eclipses, 132 ; on Hindu statues, 132 ; on priapic figures,

133 ; high priests of Egypt and the Jews hung them to their sacerdotal garments, 133 ; rung at worship by Brahmans and Roman Catholics, 133 ; tolled on occasion of death, 133 ; fairies and trolls driven away, 183.

Belos, or Obelos, the dart of Apollo, g2.

Berbers, the Cyclopeans of Libya probably of that race, 73.

Berekynthian Mother, 166.

Bhagavat-Gita, quoted, 41, 135.

Bird, or egg, which was first ? 13 ; the egg before, 15 ; emblem of the Spirit or Third Person, 170; the mystic dove and Italian woodpecker, or Yunx tor- quilla, 171, 172.

Blood, of victims in Lapland, sprinkled on idols, 30 ; offered to Brimo, 102 ; the corporeal residence of the soul, 119; the shades of the dead tasting it to replenish their faculties, 119 ; doctrine of Hippocrates, Plutarch, the Pen- tateuch and Odyssey, 119; the prophetess of Argos tasted it to possess the knowledge of futurity, 120 ; probably the origin of the sanctity attributed to red and purple, 120 ; mystic baptism, 123.

Boar, \Ar^ emblem of winter, and symbol of Ares or Mars, slew Adonis, 85 ; carried in solemn procession, 86 ; Atys killed by a boar or Mars in that form, 86; Mars wore the skin of this animal, 87 ; Frey killed, 87 ; sacri- fice at Yule, 87 ; pa'ste effigies sacred at feasts, 87 ; Mars represented, 78 ; abhorrence of the flesh, 87.

1 94 Index.

Boat, or sacred ship, employed by Egyptians at festivals for the sun and moon, 133 ; gods of Babylon so transported, 134 ; a general symbol, denoting the plastic spirit floating upon the waters, 167, 168.

Body, material, made by the Demiurge for man after he had eaten of the Tree oi Knowledge, 17 ; soul blunted and obscured, 45.

Baotia, settled by Cadmus the Cabeirian god, 10 ; the temple called the Ser- pent's Head, 15.

Boon Elateia, or driver of cattle, a title of Diana, 102.

Bow, of Apollo, directed the emission of the rays of the sun, g2.

Boxing, in the mystic worship, 152 ; a mode of immolating human victims, 153-

Bracelets, with figures of serpents, 16.

Brahnt, the Great One, source of emanations, 177.

^ra^OTd, " seated upon his lotus throne," 105 ; the creator, produced from Brahm, the Ineff"able God, 177.

Brahmans, retained in the Dekkan the custom of prostitution at the temples, 55 ; a branch of the great Aryan family, 22 ; venerated the lotus-flower, ring a bell at prayers, ablutions and other acts of devotion, 133 ; sell future happiness by retail, 180.

Breast, the right, omitted on symbolical and Amazonian statues, 33 ; the Sar- matian women said to have extirpated, 33.

Bridle, put by Minerva into the mouth of Pegasus, 128.

Brimo, HekatS, Persephone, Artemis, or Diana, appeased with human victims and bloody rites, 102 ; boys whipped at her altar at Sparta, 102 ; the des- troyer, 113.

Brimstone, called Iheion or divine substance, because of its apparent resemblance in odor and properties to lightning, 135.

Britain, mystic lore of ancient priests of, 3 ; employed the symbol of the sun and serpent, 15 ; temple-circle at Abury called the Snake's Head, 15 ; Stonehenge, a circular temple of Apollo, 58 ; Phoenician and Carthaginian merchants traded there for tin, 68; obelisks in Yorkshire, 69; amulets, 190.

Bromius, a name of Bacchus, 95.

Broivn^ Robert^ Jr. Poseidon, I46.

Bryant, Jacob, derives the term " Lycian" from El- Uk the sun-king, 69 ; theory of the Centaurs, 77 ; explanation of the goddess Hippa, cannibalism or human sacrifices, the horse Pegasus and the fish Ceto, 80 ; affirms that Prometheus was a god of the Colchians, and that the Eagle and Heart were the crest and emblem of Egypt, 88 ; tombs or sacred hillocks, 96 ; states that the Greeks mistook the term cohen, a priest, for kuon, a dog, 113, 124 ; declares the pyramids designed for high altars and temples, 117; considers the Cabeiri the priests of the Great Mother, 127 ; considers the Gorgon's head surrounded with serpents a symbol of Divine Wisdom, 130 ; derived Priapus from Peor and Apis, 132 ; derived Nymphsea, etc., from ain and omphe, 141 ; criticised, 161 ; compared with Euhemerus, Sanchoniathon and Eusebius, 162.

Bryant, William CuUen, translation of the Iliad, passim ; renders Lukeios, Lycian, 69.

Bubastis, the Diana of the Egyptians, 57.

Buccinum, or aquatic snail, androgynous, a Hindu symbol, 34.

Builders will not cut timber in the full of the moon, 100.

Index. 195

5«//, worshipped by the Egyptians by the title of Mnevis and Apis, 18,35; the form and symbol of the mystical Bacchus, 18 ; denoted the generative power, l8 ; said to be the eidolon of Osiris, 19 ; an Arabian symbol, 19 ; venerated by the Chinese and in Japan, Hindustan, Scandinavia, etc., 20 ; on coins, 65 ; the Minotaur the symbol first humanised, 65; — meant the same as the lingam, 56 ; wingM, the Egyptian and Hebrew Cherubs, 77 ; a symbol for rivers, 98 ; bore the statue of Zeus at the temple of Hierapolis, 167.

Bulla, or disk, worn by the young men of Italy as an amulet, 130.

Bupalos, constructed a statue of Fortune, 84.

Burial, burning and embalming of the dead, 117.

Burning the dead, thus setting free the soul from the body, 117.

Butterfly, ox psyche, symbol of the ethereal soul, 123.

Byhlos, mysteries of Adonis at, 85 ; Philo of, 163.

Cabeiri, the great gods, Egyptian, the sonsof Phtha, 127; worshipped in Phrygia, Samothrace, Lemnos, and Tenedos, wherever Vulcan was venerated, 127 ; said by Bryant to have been priests of Cybele, 127 ; Zeus or Jupiter, a Cabeirian god, 227 ; mysteries of Samothrace, 150 ; mystical names, 150 further account, 150 ; said by Sanchoniathon to be sons of Sydyc, 157 ; the Dioscuri said to be the same deities, 157.

Cadmii, or Cadmeians, a people occupying Thebes, 10 ; said to have been con- ducted to the site of the Cadmeian or citadel by a cow, 35 ; Bacchus the son of a Cadmeian damsel, 36 ; probably so denominated from the name of their god Cadmus, 151.

Cadmillus, Camillus, Casmilus, same as Cadmus in the Samothracian mysteries, 150.

Cadmus, reputed to have colonised Bceotia, 10 ; a deity identical with Thath, Hermes, and the Phoenician .iEsculapius, 10 ; a Tyrian, the first teacher of the Bacchic mysteries, 10 ; his daughter Ino, or Leucothoe, a sea-goddess, II ; — said to have married an Amazon, 34 ; probably the same as Cadmil- lus or Casmilus in the mysteries, 150; story purely allegorical, 150; said to have been changed to a serpent, 150.

Caduceus, the staff or sceptre of Mercury, encircled by two serpents, 114.

Cairns, or hillocks, symbols of consecration at cross-roads, 148.

Calf, the symbol of Epaphus, the son of lo, 36 ; — the golden, of the Exodus, 54 ; the sacred calf of Bethel carried to Assyria, 148.

Cambyses, King of Persia, conquest of Egypt and cruelty, 44.

Canobus, the filtering-vase his symbol, 121.

Canon, the Phoenician, employed by the Cyclopean builders in constructing the walls of Mycenae and other great works, 74.

Canonisation, a practice of deifying men whose extraordinary powers were re- garded as divine emanations, 153, 154 ; practicedby the priests of the Syrian goddess at Hierapolis, 172 ; also by the Roman Catholic Church, 173.

Cap, worn by the the Dioscuri, 96, Ii5 ; by Anubis, 96 ; a distinction of rank among the Scythians, 116 ; a symbol of freedom and emancipation among the Romans, 116 ; same worn by Mercury and Vulcan, 126.

196 Index.

Capitals of pillars, copied from the seed-vessel of the lotus flower, 109 ; leaves of acanthus and other plants added by the Greeks, 109 ; Corinthian, derived from Kgypt [Assyria], 109 ; not invented from observing a thorn growing round a basket, no ; Ionic, no ; ornamented by honeysuckle and eggs and anchors, symbols of Venus and Mars, no.

Captives, sacrificed to the Sun-god by the Mexicans, 18.

Carthaginians, had serpent-symbols on their coins, 15 : traded in Britain for tin, 68 ; Saturn or Kronos, the chief deity, represented on coins as a Centaur or horse, 78 ; sacrificed their children to their gods, 123.

Castor Z.VL& Pollux, the Great Gods, same as Bacchus and Apollo, 96, 116, 157 ; the four lines in the Odyssey undoubtedly spurious which relate to their deification, 157 ; said to have succeeded to the glory of the Dioscuri, 157.

Castrated men, according to Hippocrates, never bald, 79 ; employed as priests at Hierapolis, the Phrygian temples, and those of Egypt, 174, 175 ; practiced pederasty, 175.

Cat, killing one punished vifith death by Egyptian magistrates, 41 ; a symbol of the Moon and Female Principle, 100.

Cathari, Albigenses and Paulicians venerated the agathodtemon serpent, 17.

Caves, temple at Phygal^, with a statute of Despoina, 79 ; — the ancient tombs, 117; — temples, 117.

Cecrops, a deified hero, 14 ; fabled to have been both man and woman, 159.

Celestial, or sethereal soul, represented by a psyche or butterfly, 113.

Celestial Love, (see Attraction), the emanation of the Divine Spirit, 38.

Celestial Venus, Venus Urania, or the Heavenly Venus, (called also Aphrodite, Astarte, Kypris, Anaitis and Atargatis or Derceto, the Syrian goddess) the designation applied by Herodotus to the Female Principle of the Uni- verse, 20; called also Alilat or Lilith, 20; represented the female or pas- sive productive principle, 28, et passim ; symbols, 28 ; represented by the cow, 35 ; worship adopted by the Babylonian women, and in Cyprus, Ar- menia, Phrygia, Carthage, Italy and Palestine, and at Eryx, with sexual rites, 54, 55, 67 ; also by the Persians, 5l ; a square stone her symbol, 63 ; the most ancient of the Fates, 63 ; mother of the Centaurs, 77 ; declared by Apuleius, the same as Isis, Eleusinian Ceres, and Proserpina, 83 ; com- prehended by the Phoenician names, Europa and Astarte, 103 ; armed like Diana in the temples at Cythera and Corinth, 103 ; called also Hera, 117 ; the pomegranate her symbol, 113; styled by the Delphians the Chariot, 134 ; represented by the Hermaphrodite, 149 ; statue at Samothrace, 169.

Celtic nations, employed oaks as symbols of the Supreme God, 47 ; temples, circular, 61 ; temple in Zealand, 68 ; temple of Apollo at Stonehenge, 68 ; the Cyclopes the progenitors of tribes, 74 ; Mercury, the deity of the an- cient Gauls, 114 ; — nations burned their dead, 117.

Centaurs, conjectured to be the horse-symbol partly humanised, 76; depicted on the temple of Isis at Dendera, 77 ; supposed by E. Pococke to have been named from Candahar, near the Indus, 77 ; reputed by Bryant to be of the " Nephelim race," 77 ; offspring of Ixion and Nephele, 77 ; the designa- tion of ships, 77 ; supposed by Hislop to be the progeny of women prosti- tuted at the temples of Mylitta and Astarte, 77 ; said by Nonnus to be the offspring of Zeus and the Paphian Venus, 77 ; how depicted in Lesbos, 77 • the peculiar form that of the original Satyrs, 78 ; said to be Satyrs, 78 ;

Index.

197

Jupiter sculptured reposing on one, 81 ; Hercules destroying a Centaur, 82 ; conflict with Theseus, 15S.

Cerastes, a name of Zeus, the god of all, 138.

C«r«OT«;« of devotion not held to be important except as a part of the civil government, 40.

Ceres, or Demeter, the goddess and guardian of the Eleusinian Mysteries, 4, 22 85 ; wandering, 6 ; called also Isis in Egypt, Venus and Astarte in Syria, 9 ; called also Demeter or IVlother Earth, 22 ; name more plausibly derived from the Sanskrit Deva-matri, or mother-goddess, 22 ; the personification of the passive or female productive principle supposed to pervade the earth, 23 ; called also Deo, 23 ; wife of the omnipotent father, ^ther or Jupiter, 23 ; called Hertha by the Germans, 23 ; the source of legislation, 27 ; the poppy consecrated to her, 45 ; Despoina, her daughter by Neptune, 79 ;

— and Proserpina, an allegory invented, 82 ; invoked by Lucius as Celestial Venus and Proserpina, 83 ; same as Isis and Proserpina at Cnidos, 83, 157 ;

— called Hera, 113 ; the ancient Bacchus said to be her son, 156; Thes- mophoria, 165.

Cesnola Collection, the statue of the Paphian Venus, or a priest, 29.

Ceto, the great fish, sacred to Dagon or Poseidon, 80 : symbol of a ship, 81 ; the swallowing of Jonah by a great fish, probably his rescue by a ship, 58, 80.

Chaldeans, or Magians, great practitioners of judicial astrology, 53 ; taught the existence of an universal all-pervading spirit, 63 ; first a conquering and civilising nation, and afterwards a learned caste, 53 ; Zoroaster probably a leader or president, 53 ; their chief entitled Rabbi or Rab Mag, 53 ; Mith- raism probably a form of their religion, 53 ; the Jewish Kabala or tradi- tions derived from them, 53 ; Julius Caesar assisted in reforming the Calen- dar by Sosigines (son of Sosiosh), 63 ; knew the heliocentric system, 60.

Chaos, descent of Achamoth to impart life to the elements, 16 ; Tartarus a separate world beyond, 125.

Chaplets of serpents worn by jugglers in North America, 15 ; on the heads of the symbolical figures on coins, 32 ; of poplar or other plants worn by Hercules, 95.

Chariot, a title of Venns, 134.

Charts, the wife of Vulcan, 126.

C/5(j«;« and his boat, a late fiction, 8 ; taken dex.

203

ship of the Ephesian or Amazonian Goddess accompanied by the deflora- tion of women, 67 ; represented by a simple column, 70 ; the deer her symbol, as mother of fecundity, 81 ; the Moon, 81, 139 ; metamorphoses of Actaeon, 81 ; both male and female, 99 ; called the Mother of the World, the Daughter and Sister of the Sun, 99 ; the regulator of pas- sive generation, 99 ; the sea-crab her symbol, 99 ; as goddess of the moon, tempered aethereal spirit and earthly matter to make them harmonise and unite, 100 ; sudden death proceeded from her as well as Apollo, 100; — Juno and Lucina, personifications of the Moon, 100; statues clothed, loi ; attribute of perpetual virginity apparently denoted by the name Artemis, loi ; the name a contraction of Diviana, lOl ; repre- sented with three bodies, also by a female form with phallic radii, loi ; her figures at Ephesus an assemblage of almost every symbol, like Isa ; and with many breasts, loi ; Brimo, the Scythian and Tauric Diana, the De- stroyer, 102 ; appeased with human victims, 102 ; boys whipped at her altar in Sparta, 102 ; same as Hekate and Persephone, 102 ; styled Tauropola, and Boon Elateia, the driver of bulls, 102 ; comprehended with the Celes- tial Venus, Europa, and Astarti as the deity of the Moon, 103 ; represented winged on the ark of Cypselus, 103 ; riding on a griffin, 103 ; represented on coins accompanied by a dog, 113 ; called also Bendeia and Dictynna, 130 ; her bust upon a comucopiae held by Cybele, 145 ; the palm-tree sacred to her and Apollo, 152.

Dictators, Roman, their bodies painted red at triumphs, 120.

DidumiBus, a designation of Apollo, 82, 98, gg, 144, 148.

Diespiter, or Father of Day, a Cretan name of the supreme god, 70.

Dinos, the principle of circular motion in the universe, held and taught by Socrates and Diagoras, 60.

Diomedes, his hippai, or mares, an order of priestesses, 80.

Dionl, the female Zeus, or Dis, 23, 28 ; mother of Venus, 28 ; associated with Zeus at the ancient oracular temple of Dodona, 28, 171.

Dionysus, ste Bacchus.

Dioscuri, the great gods, g6 ; said to be Castor and Pollux, deified mortals and brothers of Helen, g6, 157 ; born from an egg, 96, 157 ; wore the Phrygian cap, surmounted with stars or asterisks, 116, 157; confounded with the ancient personifications of the diurnal and nocturnal sun, or the morning and evening star, 158 ; originally Phoeaician divinities, 157 ; described by San- choniathon as the Cabeiri, Corybantes, and Samothracians, who first invented the mystic ship, or boat, 157.

Diphues, a title of Bacchus, denoting his androgynous nature, 90, 99.

Disa, or Isa, the Scandinavian goddess, represented between two serpents, 15 ; represented by a pyramid surmounted by the cross and circle, 70 ; resem- blance to Diana, loi ; the reindeer sacrificed to her, loi ; a conical figure enveloped in a net, 146 ; the golden heifer her symbol, 147.

Disk, winged, and two asps placed over the porticoes of Egyptian temples, 15 ; also on Carthaginian coins, 76 ; represented the sun, 130.

Dithyrambus and Thriambus, names of Bacchus, to.

Diurnal Sun, Apollo, 94 ; legend confounded with the story of Castor and Pol- lux, 157.

Diviana, Etruscan name of Diana, loi.

204 Index.

Divine truths disclosed at the Greater Mysteries, 4 ; — honors conferred on JIacedonian kings of Syria and Egypt, 7 ; — honors paid to serpents, 14 ; — nature, all animals and even vegetables supposed to be impregnated with, 41 ; — honors paid to animals in Egypt, 44 ; — mind, the human soul supposed to be an emanation, 45, 118; — emblems, implements of war, 115 ; — particle supposed to reside in the blood, 119 ; — Wisdom, per- sonified by Neith and Athene, 127, I2g.

Diviners, of North America, make girdles and chapleta of serpents, 14.

Divus, or DiFos, the title of a deified, or canonised, Roman Emperor, and also a person canonised by the early Christians, 174.

Dodona, the seat of the most ancient oracular temple, and presided over by Zeus, or Jupiter, and Dione, the parents of Aphrodite, 28, 171 ; oracle Pelasgian, or, rather, Druidical, 47 ; responses delivered by Selli, or priests who pretended to receive them from oaks, 47, 48 ; women replaced the Selli, 48 ; the site said to have been selected by a priestess of Amun, from Egypt, 48.

ZJffo-, accompanies Diana, 113; the symbol of Hermes, Mercury, and Anubis, 113 ; the Greeks said to have mistaken the name of the animal, kuon, for that of a priest, cohen, 113 ; sacred to Mars, 116.

Dolphin, a female symbol, 66, 79, 176.

Doric order, no; the only columns known to the ancient Greeks, and derived from the Nelumbo, or lotus, no.

Double power, male and female, symbolised, 29, 98. See Androgynous.

Double-Sexed Deity, 32; the Amazons, votaries, 32 ; Freya and the Paphian Venus, 32 ; symbolised, 34 ; the deities Hercules, Bacchus, Diana, 98 ; et passim. See Androgynous.

Dove, a symbol of the double sex, 2g ; sacred to Aphrodite, 2g, 170; in the Cesnola Collection, 29 ; held by the Despoina, 79 ; on the head of the Mediator, 167.

Dragon (see Serpent) of the .^Ether, Zeus, the father of Dionyisus Sabazius, 11 ) carried as a military standard, 16 ; a Chinese device, 35 ; tan or tanin, in Hebrew, translated serpent, dragon, and whale, but probably means a saurian, 72 ; form assumed by Jupiter when visiting the chamber of Kor8- Persephoneia, 156.

Dramatic poetry originating from the ancient games, 152.

Druids, the ancient priests of Britain, twenty years required to educate, 3 r em- ployed the disk and serpents, 15 ; Dodona an oracle, 49 ; a gloomy hier- archy, 50.

Dijden, the poet, believed in judicial astrology, and computed the horoscope of his son, 52,

Dseus, Deus, or Zeus {eu diptliong), the supreme god, 2.

Duel, as a deciding of civil dissensions and personal disputes, regarded as an appeal directly to the deity, 115.

Eagle, the bird of Jupiter, 75 ; fighting a serpent, or destroying a hare, probably represented the destroying attribute, 75 ; alone, the symbol of creation, preservation, and destruction, 75 ; a symbol of Egypt, and the heart the emblem, 88 ; the fable of Prometheus thus explained by Bryant, 88 ; part

Index. 205

of a composite figure, 103 ; a symbol of deity, 170; the vehan of Siva, 177.

Earth, regarded originally as an object of worship, i ; De-meter or Ge-meter, Mother Earth, 22; Ceres, the female or productive, power of, 23, 27; called by the ancient Germans Hertha, 23 ; — or Terra, and Coslum, the great gods of the Samothracian Mysteries, 24 ; Vesta, as well as Ceres, a personification, 27 ; sustained by the inmost spirit, 41 ; intoxicating exhalations produced prophetic enthusiasm, 46 ; supposed to have been acted upon by the all- pervading spirit through the moon, 81 ; periodically liable to destruction and creation, dissolution and renovation, 117.

Echidna, a serpent, or giant, 14 ; mother of the Scythians, half woman and half viper, 14.

Ecstasy, fits of, enabled the human soul to pierce bej'ond the encumbrances of the body, 45 ; the Pythian priestesses and inspired votaries of Bacchus, 45 ; — containing prophetic power, 45.

Eels, 176.

Egersis, or revival of Adonis, celebrated at Athens, 88.

Egg, the symbol of organic matter in its inert state, 13 ; carried in procession at the celebration of the Bacchic Mysteries, 13 ; consecrated in the Bacchic Mysteries as the image of that which generated and contained all things in itself, 13 ; was it first, or the bird ? 13 ; — before all things, 13 ; the serpent coiled round to express incubation, 14 ; symbol of a bull breaking the shell and animating the contents with his breath, denoted the creation of the world, 20 ; cap of the Dioscuri (the Phrygian cap) derived from, 116 j the psyche or butterfly appears in the form of a grub, 123.

Eggs, and anchors, in the Ionic capital, 1 10; — of the Scarabseus, or black beetle, 128 ; statue of Apollo sitting upon, 147.

Egypt, see jEgypt.

Egyptians, see Egyptians,

Eilithyia, Diana, or the Moon, presiding over child-birth, 100.

Elementary, the primitive religion supposed to have been, i ; the mystic or symbolical worship engrafted, 20 ; Neptune, or Poseidon, not a deity of this character, 68 ; summary in the address of Agamemnon, and in the invoca- tion of the Athenian women celebrating the Thesmophoria, 165.

Elephant, 18 ; skin of, depicted on Minerva's head, 136; the form of Ganesa the Hindu God of Wisdom, 136 ; represented with bull's horns, 136.

Elephanta, sculptured caverns in, 33 ; figure of a double-sexed or Amazonian deity, 33.

Eleusis, Mysteries of (or Eleusinia), more celebrated than other mysteries, 3 ; under the guardianship of Ceres and Proserpina, 4, 22 ; called also teletai, endings, ot finishes, 4 ; two degrees, 4 ; the first, or LESSER, a kind of holv purification, 4 ; the greater, a probation required, 4 ; in the greater, the initiate was made acquainted with the first principles of religion, 4 ; the cock offered to .(Esculapius, 4 ; the end, the knowledge of God, and noetic or spiritual matters, 4 ; impiety to divulge anything thus learned, 5, 40 ; Alcibiades condemned to death for such impiety, 5 ; extremely difficult to obtain accurate information of the doctrines, 5 ; the doctrines conveyed under allegories and symbols, 5 ; the completely-initiated called inspectors, Epoptai or Ephori (seers or clairvoyant), 5 ; said to have been introduced

2o6 Index.

into Greece 175 years before the Trojan war, 11 ; declared by Plutarch to have been established by Eumolpus, II ; no trace of them in the Iliad ox Odyssey, ri ; Orphic Hymns were probably litanies used, 11 ; the phallus and its meaning revealed among the last discoveries to the initiated, 12 ; the ser- pent the great symbol, 14 ; dedicated to the female or passive powers of pro- duction, 22 ; statue of Bacchus, 26 ; said by Herakleitus to have been in- stituted (with the circular dance) by Eumolpus, who led the Amazons against Athens, 34 ; Diagoras, and probably Socrates, accused of atheism for revealing and calumniating the doctrines taught, 40 ; the only part of the Grecian worship that possessed any vitality, 40 ; initiation preceded by a solemn ablution, 121 ; symbol of the ram explained, 150.

Emanations, the system based on the principle that all things were of one sub- stance, from which they were fashioned, and into which they were again dissolved, 41 ; divine honors paid to animals and plants as being such, 41 ; augury originating from the system, 44 ; the human soul, 45 ; the basis of judicial astrology, 51-53; rays of light typified by obelisks, 69; el passim.

Einhleras, see Symbols.

Emperor, of China, sacrifices to the Sovereign of Heaven, 40.

Emperors, Roman, the heads of, on coins, surrounded with a diadem of obelisks, or rays, in token of their deification, 69, 163.

End of the Mysteries, the knowledge of God, etc., 4.

England, ironical method proving William I. the Conqueror, and William III., to have been the same person, 107.

Enigma and fable, the custom of the ancients, 5 ; et passim.

Enthusiasm, enabled the human soul to pierce beyond the encumbrance of the body, 45 ; felt by the Pythian priestesses and inspired votaries of Bacchus, 45 ; produced at Delphi by exhalations from the earth, 46 ; women were capable of the delirium, 46 ; of the Greeks, of the gay and festive kind, 50.

Epaphus, the mystic God, the same as Apis, and son of Jupiter and lo, 36.

Epidauriaiis, kept a serpent to represent yEsculapius, 15.

Epoptai, Ephori, inspectors, or seers, the candidates inducted into the Greater Mysteries, as having learned the wisdom of the Gods, 4, 5.

Erichthonius, a deified hero, 14 ; offspring of Athene, or Minerva, and He- phaistos, 77.

Eros, love, or attraction, a character of Priapus, 13 ; sprung from the Egg of Night, 13 ; the father of gods and men, 13 ; the mystic Bacchus, 22 ; celestial love, 38.

Erythrcean, or Arabian sea or ocean, the Egyptian symbols derived from some people beyond, log.

Eryx, in Sicily, temple of the Phoenician Astarte, or Venus Erycina, 55 ; a thousand sacred prostitutes kept there, 55 ; the deity worshipped by Roman women, 55.

Etruscans, communicated their religion and language to the Romans, 51.

Euhemerus, fraudulently solved the myths as historical, 162, 177 ; derived con- siderable credit from the disgraceful example of Macedonian kings and Roman emperors, 164.

Eumolpus, an old sacerdotal bard, 11 ; said by Plutarch to have introduced the Eleusinian mysteries, 1 1 ; said by Plato to have led the Amazons to Athens,

Index. 20,7

34 ; mentioned by Clement as one of the Hyk-sos, or shepherds of Egypt, 34 ; credited by Herakleitus with having instituted the Eleusinian Mys- teries, 34.

Eusebiiis, gave the example by which ecclesiastical writers justified holy lying, 164.

Euivpa, transportation to Crete, 65 ; the daughter of Agenor or Belus, the Phoenician god, 65 ; the same as Astarte, the deity of the Moon, Diana and the Celestial Venus, 103.

Europe, perforated beads found in, 31 ; oracle established, 49; the lion on sepulchral monuments, 75 ; image of Isa in the North like that of Diana, loi.

Evergreens, Dionysiac plants, i. e., symbols of the generative power and im- mortality, 32.

Evil, Ahriman the potentate, 62, 72 ; Typhon or Seth, 71 ; material fire, 71 ; supposed to be a self-existing property, 72 ; the cask, 73.

Exanetus, of Agrigentum, won the race in the ninety-second Olympiad, 153.

Execration, unknown to the public worship of the ancients, 39.

Expiatory, the Egyptian sacrifices, 50 ; the bloody rites of Brimo, the whip- ping of the Spartan boys at the altar of Diana, and of the Arcadian women at Alea, and human sacrifices, 102.

Eye of Horus, struck out and swallowed by Typhon, 58, 59.

/, the digamma, 58, 157.

Fables, poetical, occupied the place of historical truth in the earlier accounts of all nations, 2 ; the ancients wrapped up in enigma their thoughts concern- ing nature, or the origin of things, 6 ; the Iliad and Odyssey make no mention of the mystic deities, and bear no trace of the symbolical style, II ; of the Amazons, 33 ; of Bacchus, born at Thebes, 35 ; of the Sun sucking the white cow AdunibU, 36 ; of the birth of Horus while both his parents were in the womb of their mother Rhea, 58 ; of Ariadne, 66 ; of Atys and Adonis, 67 ; of Ganymedes, the lines in the Iliad spurious, 86 ; of Jupiter and Europa, 103 ; of future existence, incoherent, made up by the Greeks from various sources, 124 ; mention made by Virgil, 125 ; Greek, 159, 162 ; based on the doctrine of Emanations, 177.

Fairies driven away by church bells, 133.

Fanaticism of the )Q^-a, 41.

Fanina, the Phceaix of the North, 86.

Fasting required in the performing of religious rites, 175.

Fates, the Celestial Venus, or Aphrodite-Urania, declared to be the most ancient, 63 ; sculptured, 73 ; Fortune one of them, 84.

Father, of gods and men, Eros, Attraction, or Priapus, 13 ; the Pan-genetor, 12; the mystic Bacchus, or first-begotten love, Eros Protogonos, 21 ; the Orphic Mysteries dedicated to him, 22 ; Kronos, or Zeus, the unknown, 22 ; mind of, self-generated, 22 ; ^ther or Jupiter, 23 ; of Ouranos, Akmon, 24 ; of Kronos, or Saturn, Ouranus, or Heaven, 25 ; of All, invoked by Agamem non, ro5 ; — God, 169.

Fauns and satyrs, the goat-symbol partly humanised, 21, 79, 140.

2o8 Index.

i<ctnale principle, or deity, or passive power, personified by the Celestial Venus, or Great Mother, 20, 2S ; the Mysteries dedicated to, 22 ; Ceres, a personi- fication, also Juno, Dione, and Hertha, 23 ; the fecundation by j^ther, the Omnipotent Father, 23 ; Rhea, Isis, Astarte, and Ops, 24 ; water a general symbol, 25, 42 ; Vesta, as well as Ceres, a personification, 27 ; Cybele, the Universal Mother, the more general personification, 27, 193 ; enigmatical representations, the Concha Veneris, fig-leaf, barley-corn, and letter Delta, 28 ; the dove, or pigeon, sparrow, and, perhaps, the polypus, also symbols, 29 ; the cross, or tau, a symbol, 30 ; also the myrtle, 32 ; Amazons, wor- shippers of the Great Mother, 34 ; the cow-symbol, 35 ; Adumbla, 36 ; Isa, 37 ; supposed to possess a peculiar divine virtue, 47 ; personified by My- litta in Assyria, and Aphrodite in Greece, 54 ; Night, or Athyr, the source of all things, also a personification, 56 ; a square stone the primitive sym- bol, 63 ; the square, labyrinth, and fish, all symbols, 66 ; Ariadne, a personi- fication, 67 ; personified by the ancient goddess Hippa, 79 ; also by the Ephesian Diana, 81, 89, 91, gg, 101 ; by Venus and Libera, 83 ; and by Isis, 83 ; the cat and the rabbit also symbols, 100 ; personified by Isa, or Disa, lOl ; represented by the lotus, 110; ihe fish on coins, or as part of the composite figure of Derceto, a lepresentation, iii ; pomegranate a symbol, 113 ; also the aegis, or goat-skii-., 130 ; the boat and the chariot, I33i 134 ; figured by aquatic plants, 136 ; the nymphs considered as emana- tions, 141 ; Venus-Architis, 149 ; Syrian goddess, 166.

Fertility, or fecundity, Proserpina the goddess of, 83.

Festival, great phallic, the 1st of May, among the ancient Britons and Hindus, 12 ; the country-feast of Bacchus and Phallephoric procession, 30 ; crosses worn at in honor of the gods, 32 ; — deemed by Plato a time when allowable to drink wine to drunkenness, 45 ; the Juul, or Yule, in Scandinavia, a boar offered to Frey, 87.

Fig, an emblem of the Male Principle, 29 ; borne in the processions of Bac- chus, 30.

Fig-leaf, an enigmatical representation of the most distinctive characteristic of the female sex, 2S.

Fillet, or diadem, the badge of sovereignty, 32 ; borne by Chryses, the jiriest of Apollo, 32.

Filtering-vase, the representation of Canobus, 121.

Fir, consecrated to Pan, 48,

Fire, the element supposed to contain the male or active productive principle of nature, 25 ; the principle of motion, 26, 127 ; touching it a part of the marriage ceremony among the Romans, 26 ; perpetual, consecrated by Nuina as the first of all things and the soul of matter, 2U ; preserved in all the principal temples, 26 ; adored everywhere, 26 ; consecrated, on the altar at Delphi, 26 ; held by the Hindus to be the essence of all f.ctive or male power in nature, 26 ; — the sacred, the only symbol of the Persians of their god, 61 ; personified by Proserjiina, 83 ; Vulcan, or Hephaistos, the general personification, 116, 126 ; set free the soul, 117 ; ablution, or baptism, 121 ; the agency of dissolution of all things, and necessary for the complete dis- solution of the body, that the spirit or vital principle (nous) might receive complete emancipation, 117, 118, 119 ; ablution, or baptism, amystic repre- sentation of this purification by fire after death, 121 ; purification by the

Index. 209

fire of Baal still in use among the Hindus and Irish, 122 ; probably this did not signify burning alive, 122 ; — supposed to be the medium through which the soul passed from one state to another, 126 ; in the bodies of liv- ing things, Krishna, 135 ; — electric, supposed to impregnate rain, and to be of a sulphurous nature, 135 ; torch carried by the elephant as a symbol, 136.

Fi>sl,of the goddesses, Rhea, 24 ; of the deities, Osiris, 37 ; — cause, all existence connected with it by a chain of gradation, 52 ; — of April, phallephoric pro- cession of Roman women to the temple of Astarte. or Venus Erycina, 55.

First-Begotten, Love, Eros, Cupid, or Attraction, the Mystic Bacchus, 21, 36 167; the Orphic Mysteries in commemoration, 22. See Only Son, Bac- chus, etc.

Fis/i, upon coins, a symbol of the female sex, 66, 158 ; KrSnos, a figure of a winged horse terminating in, 78; Ceto, the effigy of Dagon, a ship, 80 ; story of Jonah, 80 ; Derceto (Atargatis, the Venus of Ascalon), represented like a woman, with the lower extremities like a tail, iii ; the Triton (Dagon or Ceto), 112 ; in the hair of the jegis, 130; springing from the temples of a bust of Apollo Didymteus, 144 ; kept at the temple of the Syrian goddess, 172 ; symbol of consecration, etc., 176.

Flame, or gloiy, imitated by the hair of Proserpina, 83 ; — heavenly, the soul, or nous, a vital spark, 118 ; — of sulphur, employed in purification, 135.

Flower, of the lotus or Nymphaa nelumbo, white, 105 ; the upper part of the base of the Hindu lingam, 105 ; in the hand of Isis, 105 ; the basis of the three orders of architecture, log ; petals of the honeysuckle in the Ionic capital, no ; symbolised the female sex. III ; — of the pomegranate, pre- figured the male generative attribute, 112.

Flowers, crowns of, substituted for laurel and sacred plants, at entertainments considered an act of luxury, not of devotion, 32.

Fly, an emblem of the Destroying Attribute, 8g ; Baal-Zebub, or Jupiter Fly, 89.

Fohi, a Chinese deity, 60.

Force and Wisdom, divine, represented by Neith, and Athene, or Bellona, 127.

Forehead, a third eye in that of the statue of Jupiter, 73 ; also of Thor, the Scandinavian deity, 73 ; also of the Hindu god Siva, orMaha Deva, 73 ; perhaps of the Cyclopes, 73.

Forgeries, numberless, 164; letter of Alexander to his mother, 164.

Fortune, 84 ; one of the Fates, 84 ; statue by Bupalus, 84.

Frenzy, enthusiastic, at the Orgies, 49 ; the women more susceptible, 49.

Frey. the deity of the Sun, and mourned by the Scandinavians, 85 ; fabled to have been killed by a boar, and hence a boar offered to him at the Yule- feast, 87.

Freya, the Scandinavian goddess Venus double-sexed. 32 ; the day of the week (Friday) named from her, 146 ; a personage of the Northern Triad, 189.

Frogs around the sacred palm at Delphi, to denote the sun fed by humidity, or the female principle, 151.

Fruit of the pomegranate, consecrated to Proserpina, 112 ; eaten by her at the instance of Pluto, 112 ; eaten by the goddess Nana, who thus became preg- nant, 112 ; abstained from rigidly by women celebrating the Thesmophoria, 112.

Futurity, the darkness of, penetrated by giving the celestial faculties of the soul entire liberty, 46 ; oracles, 46 ; judicial astrology, 51.

2 1 o Index.

O, or gatnma^ changed to C in Latin, as Geres to Ceres, 23.

Gabriel, acknowledged by the Chaldceans as a subordinate emanation, and named from the meaning (man of God or divine man), 34 ; afterward adopted by the Jews during their captivity, and engrafted as an angel upon the Mosaic System, 54.

Games, Olympic, victors crowned with oleaster, or wild olive, 18 ; grecian victors crowned with laurel, olive, etc., 32 ; simple mimicr}' forming a part of the very ancient games at Delos, 152 ; olive, fir, and apples, the honorary rewards, 153, 154 ; a blessed life promised by Plato to victors,

153- Ganesa, the Hindu god of Wisdom, son of Maha Deva, always accompanied by

a rat, 92 ; his image found in an Egyptian temple, near Djirjeh, 109 ;

represented by the figure of an elephant half-humanised, 136. Ganymcdes, cup-bearer of Jupiter, fictitious, 86 ; a mighty genius who regulated

the overflowing of the Nile, 86 ; same as Atys, Adonis, and Bacchus, 86. Garmr, the dog, the slayer of Tyr, or Tuisco, the devourer, 116. Geese, sacred to Priapus, 142.

Gemeter, said by Diodorus to be the same as Demeter, 22.

Gems, figures of Amazons on, 34 ; of Zeus and Minerva, and an Hebrew inscrip- tion from the Bible, 129 ; devices, 143. Genaidai, the companions of Venus, 28.

Generative power or principle, see Phallus, and Active or Male Principle. Generator, of Light, Apollo, 69 ; Bacchus, 79. Cenetullides, the companions of Venus, 28. Genius, Ganymedes, 86 ; the soul, the divine emanation supposed to have the

direction of each individual, and to be finally emancipated by fire, 118. Germany, mystic lore, 3

Ghehers, or Parsees, the A vesta their ritual, 62. Giants (earth-born), wars of, 6 ; the serpent-mother of the Scythians, so-called,

14 ; war with the gods, 72 ; Apop, or Aph-ophis, of Egypt, so-called, 72. Gio, or lo, the Scandinavian name of the earth, 37.

Girgik, temple near, containing images of Juggernaut, Ganesa, and Vishnu, 109. Gladiator, the fighting, 140.

Gnosis, or knowledge, a designation of the mystical doctrines, 4. Goat, symbol of the Active Male Principle, and generative powei, 21 ; fauns and

satyrs, 21 ; a sacred animal in Egypt, 21 ; symbol of the god Pan, 21, 140;

the Grecian Aphrodite sitting on one, 29 ; satyrs, fauns, and paniski, caprine,

78, 140; composite figure, 81, 82, 95 ; on a monument with Anubis, 11.3 ;

women tendering their persons at Mendes, 142 ; Jupiter suckled by one,

143 ; on gems, 143 ; Isa riding one, 169. Goats, by skipping about, indicated the site of the Oracle at Delphi, 46 ;

figures of, adorned a mystic tomb, cista, or chest at Rome, 96 ; female.

held sacred at Mendes. Goat-skill, the ^gis, or breast-plate worn by Minerva, Jupiter, and Apollo, 130

Index. 2 1 1

131 ; probably symbolical, 131 ; Roman women whipped to assure con- ception, 143 ; Juno Sospita, 143.

Goat-elephant, or Trag-elephas, a composite figure, 81 ; effigies among the ornaments of the hearse of Alexander the Great, 81.

God, a supreme, suggested by general predominance of order and regularity in the universe, 2 ; — of Nature (the Creator) unfolded in the Greater Mysteries, 4 ; supreme, of the Ophites, 16 ; self-generated mind, 22 ; the same adored by Hindus and Christians, 40 ; tutelar deities and subordinate spirits, his mediators, 44 ; the oak his symbol, 47 ; called by the Cretans Lticetius and Diespiter, 70 ; the eagle the symbol, 75 ; Brahm, 177.

God of Destruction, in India, gS.

God of the Waters, Osiris, gS ; Bacchus, gS.

Goddess, Ino, a daughter of Cadmus, 11 ; the Celestial Venus, Alilat, or Lilith, 20 ; Mother, Deva-matri, or Demeter, 22 ; Hertha, 23 ; Rhea, the first, 24 ; — of Love, or desire, Venus, Kypris, or Aphrodite (of the Greek pantheon), 28 ; Eeinos, or Binos, 28 ; Venus, symbolised by the planet, 30 ; Venus, the sexual attribute expressed by the cow, 36 ; — of Nature, Isa, 37 ; — Hippa, her name by paronomasia, the source of the legends and sym- bols of horses and centaurs, 7g ; — of destruction, Proserpina, 82 ; — of death, Libitina, 83 ; Isis, 83, 84 ; Diana, of the Moon, gg ; of Force and Wisdom, Neith, Bellona, or Athene, 127 ; — Scandinavian, Isa or Disa, 136, 147 ; Venus-Architis, I4g ; the Syrian, her temple at Hierapolis, and peculiar worship, 166.

Gods, their actions intermixed with those of men in the earliest traditions of nations, 2 ; their fa^ror or anger assisted or obstructed the achievements of renowned warriors, 2 ; Supreme, suggested by order and regularity in the Universe, 2 ; such ineffable personage called Zeus, Dseus, or Deus, before the dignity of that character was debased by the poets, 2 ; — Father, Priapus, Eros, or the Mystic Bacchus, 13, 21 ; crowns of laurel, olive, etc., worn at sacrifices and feasts in their honor, 32 ; guardians to mortal men, 32 ; their worship declared by Krishna to be the worship of himself, 41 ; Numa forbade the Romans to represent them under any form, 63 ; war with giants, 72 ; of Egypt and Babylon, were carried in arks or sacred boats, 134; sacrifices, men who perished in boxing, so regarded, 153; names conferred on men, 153 ; — begetting children on women, 158 ; at Hierapolis, 167 ; in Hindustan, 177.

Gold Coast of Africa, cow revered as a sacred symbol, 36.

Golden Heifer of the Muscovites, probably a symbol of the goddess Disa, or Isa,

147-

Good ?ji6. Evil, regarded as a necessary mixture in the world, 71 ; the doctrine of all the Mysteries, 71 ; fire the efficient principle of both, 71 ; personified by Osiris and Typlion, 71 ; represented also by Ormazd and Ahriman, Zo- roaster and ZohakJ, 72 ; similar doctrine in India, 72 ; signified by the war of the gods and giants, 72 ; a false notion to consider them as in- herent properties, 72 ; distributed by Jupiter from two casks, 73.

Gorgon, or Medusa, a symbol of the Moon, 130 ; the female personification of the Disk, 130 ; a barbarian title of Minerva, 130 ; regarded by Bryant as a symbol of the divine wisdom, personified as Metis or Medusa, 130.

Gospel, the Hindus contend that it is perfectly consistent with their Shastras, 39

2 1 2 Index.

Grapes, leopards accompanying Bacchus devouring clusters, go ; wolf devour ing, 89.

Great Gods, of the Samothracian Mysteries, said to be Coelum and Terra, 24 1 Castor and Pollux, the same as Bacchus and Apollo, so distinguished, 96.

Great Mother, designation of Cybele, 9 ; Deva-matr, 22 ; the omphalos or navel-stone her symbol, 47 ; called also Nympha, 47.

Great Pyramid, 117.

Great Whole, the luminaries of heaven and the smallest reptiles that elude the sight alike integral parts, 52 ; general movement derived from the first Divine Impulse, 52 ; prediction and astrology thence deduced as an art, 52.

Grecian Women, their general state of reserve and restraint, 49 ; their extrav- agant religious enthusiasm at the Orgies of Bacchus, 49 ; their savage ferocity, 49.

Greeks, their primitive religion elementary, and consisted of a worship of the Sun, Moon, Stars, Earth, and Waters, or rather of the spirits presiding over them, I ; found a Hercules in every country, 2 ; worshipped the Supreme God, as Zeus, Dseus, or Deus, 2 ; their poets preserved the knowledge of their sacred mythology, 3 ; their Mysteries, 6 ; — Homeric, estimated value by weight, 5 ; received the name and rites of Dionysus, or Bacchus, from Melampus, 10 ; said to have derived the Mystic religion from Orpheus, 11 ; did not generally know the rites of initiation and worship of Bacchus until after the Trojan war, 11, 124; represented the phallus alone, 12 ; personified it as Priapus, the Eros, or Attraction, Father of Gods and Men, 13 ; deified heroes represented with bodies terminating in serpents, 14 ; egg and phallus borne with a serpent in their Mystic pro- cessions, 15 ; used a composite figure of the Mystical Serpent, 16 ; bore the image of the bull Epaphus on their coins, 18, 36 ; represented the Mystic Bacchus as a bull, or composite, 19 ; denominated the first of the goddesses, Rhea, 24 ; employed lamps as symbols on coins, 26 ; called the Universal Mother of the Phrygians Cybele or Kubele, from the cubic form of her statues, 27 ; symbolical animals, 29 ; probably borrowed their idea of the Amazon, or double-sexed figure from the image at Ele- phanta, 33 ; probably the source of much of the Hindu mythology, 37 ; never presumed to think attainable an adequate knowledge of the number or attributes of the gods, but worshipped them all, 3S ; Diagoras and Socrates their only martyrs to religion, except those who actively violated or insulted the Mysteries, 40 ; attributed sanctity to groves, 48 ; their enthusiasm generally of the gay and festive kind, 50 ; their temples filled with dances, 50 ; employed wine in their sacred rites, 50 ; brought judicial astrology from Babylon, but paid little attention to it, 53 ; maintained sacred prostitutes in the temples, 55 ; personified Night as the goddess Leto, or Latona, and Baubo, 56 ; never regarded speculative theories impious unless they tended to reveal the Mystic doctrines or disprove the ex- istence of a deity, 60 ; their most ancient temples circular, 61 ; a square stone their primitive symbol of the Celestial Venus, 63 ; had little infor- mation of the British Islands, 69 ; employed the eagle and lion as symbols, 75 ; represented Mars by a boar, 87 ; made the ass a symbol, 88 ; knew nothing of the Phoenician Hercules in the Homeric times, 93 ; considered Bacchus as the god of the waters, also as the patron of wine, 98 ; consid-

Index. 2 1 3

■ered the Moon as the Mediatress between the celestial and terrestrial world, who tempered in generation the subtility of aethereal spirit to the grossness of earthly matter, so as to make them unite, gg, lOO ; resorted to human sacrifices, 102 ; received the worship of Serapis from the Ptolemies of Alexandria, 104 ; became acquainted with Egypt in the reign of Psam- metichus, 106 ; borrowed architecture from Egypt, log ; only knew the Doric order in very ancient times, no; represented Juno and Mars by a staff and spear, 114 ; took oaths by implements of war, 115 ; adopted the Phrygian cap as a symbol of freedom, 116; burned the bodies of their dead, 117; regarded Vulcan as the husband of Charis in the primitive system, and of Venus in the Mystic, 126 ; had little trumpets at the Bacchanalia, 132 ; wore bells at the orgies of Bacchus, with phalli, lunute, etc., 133 ; probably found composite figures when they first settled in Western Asia, which they exaggerated into monsters, 144 ; knew not the order of days of the week, 145 , adopted the legendary tales of other nations, I5g,

Griffin, Diana riding upon, 44 ; another kind on the helmets of Minerva, I2g.

Grove, sacred, of Dodona the oaks gave the reponses, 47 ; sanctity attributed to groves by barbarians of the North and the Greeks, 48 ; designation of any sacred place, though destitute of trees, 48 ; symbols of Venus-Astarte set up all over Palestine, 4g.

Halaldur, son of Odin, 122.

Hades, Afides, Aides, the ancient name of Pluto, the lord of the Underworld, 104.

Halios, chief of all the gods, the royal sun, 37.

Hand, priapic, 30.

Hare, probably the emblem of fertility, 175.

Harmonia, wife of Cadmus, changed to a serpent, 108.

Harmony of the world produced by the contention and mixture of good and evil, 71 ; the succession of production and destruction, 82 ; represented by the lyre supported by two goat-lions, 82 ; of the universe, like that of a bow or harp alternately tightened and relaxed, 71.

Hawk, the Egyptian emblem of power, symbol of Osiris and Typhon, 74.

Health, serpent an accessoi-y symbol to guardian deities, 14, 175.

Heart, the symbol of Egypt, 88 ; the symbol of man morally, iig.

Heat, the male or active principle, personified also by Diana, gg.

Heaven, Apis conceived by a ray from, ig ; personified as Ouranos, 24 ; emascu- lated by Kronos or Time, 25 ; Lord of, sacrificed to by the Emperor of China, 40 ; birds and animals acting by the immediate impulse of, 55 ; dreams descend to instruct men, 56 ; heights of disposed by Isis, 83.

Hetii, goddess of youth, wedded to Hercules, q3.

Hebrews, the ancient, at no time from their emigration to their captivity subject to the kings of Egypt, 43 ; probably descended from the Hyk-sos race, 43 ; Rabbi Hillel Hanassi invented their present chronology, log.

H'ecatS, or Hekate, her Mysteries at jEgina instituted by Orpheus, 11 ; the doj» her symbol, 113.

Heifer, golden, an idol of the Muscovites, 147

2 1 4 Index.

Helen, the divinities Castor and Pollux her brothers, g6 ; Menelaus decreed not to die because of possessing, 125 ; same as Selene, the Moon, 157.

Heliocentric system, known by the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and taught to the savans of Greece, 60.

Heliopolis, or City of the Sun, in Egypt, the abode of the bull Mnevis, ig, 35 ; — or Baalbek, in Syria, vibrating stones seen there, 148.

Helios, the Attic name of the sun, substituted for Eelios in the Odyssey, 126.

Hell, Milton's, taken from the Tartarus of Hesiod, 125.

Hephaistos, Phtha, or Vulcan. See Vulcan.

Herald, bears the staff or sceptre, 114.

Hercules (tutelar deity, from Sanskrit, Heri, lord or deity, and culyus, a state or tribe), Greeks and Romans found one in every country, 2 ; Phoenician, called also Mel-Karth, the lord of the city (Tyre), 2 ; the same as Kronos, or Saturn, and Jupiter Sabazius, 16 ; crowned with oleaster, 17 ; the Grecian hero, overcame the Amazons, 34 ; caught the bull from Crete, 66 ; the lion his symbol, 75 ; picture of, destroying a Centaur, 82, gi ; lion's skin, 87, 143 ; destroying the Hydra, g2 ; the Phoenician, the lion humanised, g2 ; his adventures and the Grecian confounded, g3 ; the hero of the Iliad and Odyssey a mere man, g3 ; the same as Mars and Apollo, g3 ; terminated his expeditions in the extremity of the West, g6, g7 ; called Soter or Saviour, 98 ; represented with womanish features, 159 ; fables of Omphale and lole, 159.

HerS, the Greek name of Juno, 23 ; the title also of Venus, 2g ; also of Ceres or Demeter ; also of Athene. See Juno.

Hermaic pillars, four-square, 63 ; — statues the peculiar mode of making them learned by the Athenians from the Pelasgians, 114, 149.

Hermaphrodite, the form of statues of Venus-Architis and the Paphian god- dess, 149.

Hermes (see Thoth and Mcrcun'), styled Pompceus, as being the messsenger of the oracle ipm-phe), 47 ; used the sinews of Typhon for harp-strings, 82 ; nearly related to Hephaistos or Vulcan, 126 ; same as Casmilus, or Kadmi- lus, or Kadmiel, of the Samothracian Mysteries, 150.

Herm-Herakles, 126.

Heroes furnish the first materials for history, 2; deified, 159; or /imj, same manifestation as the Hindu avatars, 159 ; of the Iliad, 160.

Hertha, the ancient earth-goddess of the Germans, 23.

HierapoUs, the holy city, called also the Bambyke, the city where Atar-gatis, or Venus, the Syrian goddess, had her principal temple, 74, iir, 166 ; pecu- liar delineations, worship, etc., 172.

Hierarchies of the North, performed human sacrifices.

Hierarchy, the great Northern, at Upsal, in Sweden, 20 ; the Egyptian knowl- edge of the hieroglyphics supposed to have perished with, 42 ; permanent, 127 ; the Hindu, 180.

Hieroglyphics, symbolical characters used by the Egyptians, 7, 42.

Highlanders, in the army of the Pretender, swore by their weapons, 115.

High Priest, at Jewish festivals, 132 ; bells on raiment, 133 ; at the sacred boat-festival, 134.

Hillocks, sacred, the mounds, or high places, called tombs of the deities, 96 ; Mercury, piles of stones by the sides or intersections of roads, 148, 149.

Index. 2 1 5

Hindus, have voluminous poetical cosmogonies, 3 ; still employ the phallus, or lingam as a symbol of the universal generator, 12, 142 ; celebrate the first of May by a great phallic festival, 12; employ as a symbol the cobra de capella, or hooded snake, i5 ; represent the naga, or serpent, with five heads, 16 ; hold fire to be the essence of the active or male power in Nature, 26 ; use a rosary, 31 ; reverence for the Cow, 36 ; in the Dekkan, maintained dancing-girls, or Devadasis, in their temples, 55 ; their idol in the temple of Juggernaut a pyramidal stone, 70 ; three-eyed god, 73 ; have a deity, Rama, who resembles Hercules, 94 ; call the Jumna the daughter of the Sun, 98 ; symbolise the Moon by the rabbit, 100 ; the Destroyer drawn by a bull, 102 ; burn the bodies of their dead, 117 ; have bells on their statues, 133 ; express combinations of attributes by symbols loosely connected, 144 ; still practice the anointing of sacred stones, 148 ; give a child, when ten days old, the name of one of their deities, 155 ; originated the symbols of the Lotus and hooded snake, 109, 179 ; taught transmigration, 179 ; peculiar character of their art, 180, 181.

Hindu women^ carry the lingam in procession between two serpents, 15.

Hippa, signifies the parent of all, 79 ; the nurse of Bacchus and Soul of the World, 79 ; the horse a symbol, as a pun on the word hippa, 79 ; wor- shipped in Thessaly and Thrace with the rites of fire and chanting, 80 ; the same as Cybele, 80 ; the name given to the principal goddesses, 113 : the personification of femininity, 113.

Hippai, priests of Hippa, 79 ; the mares of Euraelus and Diomecles, 80.

Hippia, a title of the goddess Athene, 76, 80.

Hippios, designation of the daughter of Ceres by Neptune, 79 ; a title of the gods Poseidon, or Neptune, Mavs, Dionysus, 80.

Hippocrates, asserted that the Sarmatian women extirpated the right breast, 33 ; taught that castrated men were never bald, 79.

Hippon, defined by Hesychius, 79.

HipponooSy the original name of Bellerophon, 76.

Hippopotamus, or river horse, symbol of Typhon, 74.

History, earliest, actions of gods intermixed with those of men, 2 ; Phoenician by Sanchoniathon, "pretended," 163.

Honeysuckle, an architectural ornament, no.

Hea, or Oannes, supposed to be identical with Dagon and Poseidon, 68.

Hooded Snake (see Cobra de Capelld), the mystical serpent of the Hindus, Phoenicians, and Egyptians, 16 ; associated with the winged disk, 76 ; borrowed from the Hindus, 109, 172.

j%io^ of Attraction, 120, 128, 142.

Horned Bull, a temple or palace of in China, 20 ; — revered in Japan and all over Hindustan, 20 ; treated with equal honor in the West by the Cim- brians and Scandinavians, etc., 20.

Hornet, the Hyk-sos, or shepherds, from Egypt, 43.

Horse, sacred to Neptune and the rivers, 76 ; winged, Pegasus, 76 ; humanised as the Centaur, 77 ; a pun on the name of the goddess Hippa, 79 ; signified a ship, 79, 80 ; a part of the composite symbol of the griffin, 129.

Horus, the Apollo of Egypt, 57 ; the son of Osiris and Isis, born while they were in the womb of their mother, Rhea, 58 ; his statue at Coptos, 58 ; his eye smitten out and swallowed by Typhon, 59 ; he and his priests wear a

2 1 6 Index.

single lock of hair on the right side of the head, 59 ; the bone of, 59 ; the mundane house of, 64 ; the origin of the Greek Charon, 134 ; enclosed in the ark, 168.

'TAfA {hulfd), and 'TAM (hule), 138.

Human sacrifices, made to the Minotaur, 64 ; common among ^Ethiopian or Hamitic nations, 65 ; offered to Brimo, 102 ; performed by the stem northern hierarchies, 102 ; also by the Greeks and Romans, 102 ; whipping the Lacedasmonian boys and the Arcadian women as substitution, 102 ; ex- piatory, 102 ; said to be offered by Ahaz and other Jewish kings, 122 ; offered by the Carthaginians and other nations, 123 ; Abraham and Jephthah, 123.

Humidity, personified by Neptune, 78 ; lizard, the symbol, 91 ; everything moist called the outflowing or emission of Osiris, 98 ; personified by Diana, 99 ; represented the female principle, 151.

Hundred-handed, 144.

Hundred-headed, 144.

Hydra, a Hindu symbol, 75 ; Hercules destroying, 92 ; a reproduction of the many-headed Naga, 92 ; the destruction by Hercules referring to the entering of the Sun into the zodiacal sign near the constellation of that name, 92.

Hyes, or Hues, a name of Bacchus, 95.

Hygeia, mound at Athens, 80.

Hyk-s$s, or shepherds, the hornets of the Old Testament, 43 ; expelled from Egypt into Syria, 43 ; said by Josephus to have been the ancestors of the Israelites, 43 ; the same view accepted by Prof. Lesley, 43 ; said to have been Phoenicians, Arabians, and Hellenes or Greeks, 74 ; perhaps the progenitors of the Libyan Cyclopean shepherds, 74.

Hymn to Osiris, 37 ; to Demeter, 84 ; to -4.pollo, 159.

Hymns, Orphic, appear to have been invocations, or litanies, used in the Mysteries, 11 ; their date long subsequent to the Homeric times, 12 ; identify Prometheus with Kronos, or Saturn, 88.

Hyperboreans, said to have founded the oracle at Delphi, 46 ; said by Hecatasus to inhabit an island beyond Gaul, where Apollo was worshipped in a circu- lar temple, 68

lacchus, a name or variant of Bacchus, 9 ; — Sabazius, the serpent-deity of the Mysteries, i5 ; Sabazius, a variant reading of Jaho-Tzabaoth, 69 ; not the Theban Bacchus, 150 ; associated, bearing a torch, with Demeter and Proserpina, 157.

lamblichus, the Alexandrian Platonist, declared invocation in the Egyptian and Assyrian dialects pleasing to the gods, 38 ; attempted to adapt the ancient allegories of the Egyptians to an entirely new system, 43.

lao an emanation of Ilda-Baoth, and the spirit of a planet, 16 ; or laon, an ancient mystic title of Bacchus, 95 ; probably the origin of the name of the Roman god Janus, 95 ; the god of the Jews, 132.

Ice, held by the ancient nations of the North to be the source of all organised being, 56 ; the goddess Isa, 37 ; the primitive state of water, 147 ; per- sonified by the goddess Isa, or Disa, 147.

Index. 217

Jdeler^ proved the years of the world and the whole present chronology of the Jews an invention of the Rabbi Hillel Hanassi, 344 A.D., 109.

Idol, women of, dancing-girls in the Hindu temples, 55 ; in the temple of Jug- gernaut a pyramidal stone, 70.

Idols, Hindu, holding a radiated shell, 34 ; worshipped by the Israelites with the accompaniment of prostitution, 54.

Ilda-Baoth, or Son of Darkness, the Creator, or Demiurge, 16 ; creates Man and Satan Ophiomorphos, 16 ; forbids man to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, 17 ; creates the material body for his prison, 17 ; gave the law in the wilderness, 17 ; sends John the Baptist, and provides for the birth of Jesus, 17; stirs up the Jews against Jesus, 17; Jesus placed at his right hand, 17.

Ilithiyce, or Eilitbyas, presiding over child-birth, 100.

Illyrians said to have been cognate with the Celts and Gauls, and the Cyclo- peans, their progenitors, 74.

Imitation, dancing an art, showing and expressing things arcane and occult, 138, 152; the old comedy proceeded from, 152; practiced in the mystic cere- monies, 152.

Impulse, Divine, general movement of the Great Whole derived from, 52.

Incarnation, Krishna, 135.

Incubation typified by the mystic bird, 170.

/Bi/m, worship of a serpent called Dionysus, or Bacchus, 15 ; expedition of Alex- ander, 15, 18; perpetual fires burning in the pagodas, 26; the Gymno- sophisls, 49 ; the Devadasis, or Bayaderes, of the temples, 55 ; Bacchus worshipped on the banks of the Ganges, 68 ; mythology admitted the Creator and Destroyer as characters of the Divine Being, 72 ; the monkey a sacred animal, 129 ; the elephant introduced into the West, 136 ; the god Ganesa, 136. See Hindus.

Indian aspect of the story of the dethroning of Kronos, or Uranus, 25 ; many of the Egyptian symbols, 37 ; lingam, or phallus, represented the male creative principle, 66.

Infernal regions , called also Hades, or Hell, the Underworld and abode of the spirits or shades of the dead, presided over by Pluto and Proserpina, 103.

Infinity, we can form no distinct or positive idea of, 22.

Initiation, the induction of a candidate into the Mysteries consisted of an expla- nation of allegories and symbols, 5 ; the gods exhibit themselves, 6 ; sacred ceremonies kept private from the common people, 6 ; the means of acquir- ing a knowledge of the Deity, 119.

Inmost Spirit, sustaining the Heaven, Earth and Ocean, 41.

Inspectors (seers), epoptai, ephori, the persons initiated into the Greater Mys- teries, 5.

Intellectual, or noetic (spiritual), the God of Nature, 4.

I'lterpolation, in the Iliad, relating to Ai-iadne, Bacchus, and Theseus, 66 ; in the Odyssey, of the abduction of Ariadne by Theseus, and her death at the island of Dia, 66, 67 ; in the Iliad, reference to Ganymedes, 86 ; in the Odyssey, the account of the punishments inflicted in the Underworld, 124 ; also the reference to the deification of Castor and Pollux, 157.

Interpreters, of oracles, denominated Peter, and perhaps Orpheus, Pompaeus, Ampelus and Patrick, 47 ; spoke with a muttering voice, 90.

2 1 8 Index.

Jnvocadofis, the Orphic hymns, II ; of Bacchus, 75, 165.

!.■>, fabled mother of Epaphus, or Apis, and the same as Isis, 36 ; name of the Earth in Gothic, 37 ; lo, and Gio, Scandinavian name of the Earth,

37-

/f/^, mystic fable of her amour with Hercules, 159.

loiiians, the sanctuary and oracle of Apollo in Didymi more ancient than any other building, 144.

Ionic, capital, no; emigration, 144.

/yanians gave the evil powers the names peculiar to the religion of their adversaries, 62.

Irish annually extinguish their fires, and rekindle them from a sacred bonfire, 26 ; named every child from some imaginary divinity, 155.

Israelites, their ancestors, the Hyk-sos, had dominion over the Egyptians, 43 ; supposed the prayer of Abraham to have healed the household of Abime- lech, 46 ; worshipped Baal-Peor, and kept the orgies of Bacchus with the accompaniment of prostitution, 49, 54.

Jsa, Isi, or Disa, the Scandinavian goddess, 15 ; signified ice, or water in its primordial state, 37 ; represented by a pyramid, 70 ; represented with many breasts, etc., like Diana, loi ; riding on a ram, and holding an owl, 136 ; represented by a conical figure enveloped in a net, 146 ; unquestionably the Isis whom the Suevi worshipped, 147 ; depicted with a child, 147 ; represented by the golden heifer, 147.

Isa, Sanskrit, also the name of the goddess of Nature, 37.

Isiac tablet depicts the goddess holding a lotus-flower, 105.

Isis, the Egyptian goddess, under whose protection persons weie most com- monly instructed in the Mystic faith, 9 ; a cow her symbol, 35 ; the female and receptive principle of generation, 36 ; same as Venus in many respects, 36 ; called Isa in the Sanskrit, 37 ; two goddesses by this name worshipped in Greece before the Pantheic Isis of later times, 37 ; always at the temples, 36 ; birth of her son Horus while herself unborn, 58 , called also Muth and Athyr, the Mother, the Mundane House of Horus, 64 ; formerly the same as Venus and Libera, but afterwards generalised so as to compre- hend all the goddesses, 83, 84 ; a counterpart of Venus, or Astarte, 84 ; has intercourse with Osiris, she as the Moon and* he as the Sun, 99 ; her figure represented sitting on a monkey, 129 ; worshipped by the Suevi, unques- tionably the same as Isa, 147 ; drove away Typhon with her sistrum, 131 ; occasionally depicted in a net, with Horus upon her lap, 147 ; enclosed in the mystic ark, or boat, 168.

Ithyphalli, borne by the Athenians at the reception of Demetrius, as at the celebration of the Bacchic Mysteries, 98.

hiida, or Whydah, in Africa, worship of the serpent, 15.

luno, Etruscan name, derived from Dione, 23.

Ivory, familiarly known in the time of Homer, 18 ; the modius, or polos, of Venus

made from it, 45, 67. Ivy, chaplet^ of, 32 ; women crowned with, celebrating the clamorous nocturnal rites of Bacchus, 68 ; called in Greek kissos, and so, by a pun on a title of Bacchus, is adopted as his symbol, 80, 124 ; garland on the neck of a leopard in marble, go. Ixioii, the fabled father of the Centaurs, by Nephele, 77.

Index. 219

J-

Jablonski, 137.

Jacob, the patriarch of the Hebrews, funeral at Abel-Mizraim taken for the re- ligious custom of " Mourning for the Only-Begotten," or Protogonus, 50; anointed a stone with oil, according to a general mode of worship, 148.

Jaho- Tzabaoth, the name given by the Tyrians to the Sun-god in autumn, and apparently adopted from them as the title of the Hebrew tutelar god, 69.

Janus, the two-faced god of the Romans, probably derived his name from lao, or laon, the mystic name of Bacchus, 95.

Japanese, the consecrated founder, half-serpent, 14 ; venerate the symbol of the Horned Bull, 20 ; represented Creation by the bull breaking the Mundane Egg, 20 ; sacred images placed upon the lotus, 105.

Jephthah, regarded human sacrifices not unacceptable to the Deity, and included his daughter in his vow, 123.

Jerusalem, the first Temple built with foundations of Cyclopean architecture, 74 ; Round-Tower pillars, 74 ; filled with innocent blood, 122 ; — Delivered, an allegory, 161.

Jesus, the man, 17 ; Christ entered into him at baptism, 17 ; put to death, invested with a body of aether, and placed at the right hand of Ilda- Baoth, 17.

Jewish Kabalists, 16.

Jews, Michael their reputed tutelar angel, 17 ; received the law from Ilda-Baoth, the Creator, "Son of Darkness," 17 ; stirred up against Jesus, 17 ; religious fanaticism sanguinary and violent, 41 ; their ancestors asserted by Josephus to be the Hyk-sos, or Shepherds of Egypt, 43 ; adopted the Chaldean custom of honoring the subordinate emanations or archangels, 54 ; did not adopt the view of the generative attribute, 54 ; considered the true Crea- tor as their national god, 54; copied Persian ideas, 62, 90; genealogies lost and chronology unsatisfactory, 108 ; their year of the world and chronology invented A.D. 344, by the Rabbi Hillel- Hanassi, 109 ; wel- comed the new moon with noise, 132 ; worshipped lao, or Adonis, 132 ; kept festivals like those of Bacchus, 132 ; the high-priest wore the spotted fawn-skin, bells, etc., 132, 133 ; carried an Ark like the Egyptians, 134 ; — Eclectic, like Philo and Aristobolus, allegorised the Old Testameni, 161.

John the Baptist, an agent of Ilda-Baoth, 17 ; his pun on the words abenitn, or stones, as becoming benim, or sons, as in the story of Deucalion, 25.

Jonah, the swallowing by a great fish probably a figurative description of his rescue by a Phoenician or Philistine ship bearing the effigy of Dagon, or Ceto, 80.

Josephus distinctly asserts that the ancestors of the Israelites once held dominion over the Egyptians, 43.

Josiah, king of Judah, found kadeshim and kadeshuth at the temple of Solomon and at high places, 54.

JudaJi, mistook his daughter-in-law for a "sacred woman," 54 ; kings of, built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire, 122.

Judea, Zadok, or Zedek, the head of the sacerdotal family or caste, 53.

Judgment oj Atnenti, the source of the legend of Charon, 8.

Juggernaut, temple of, the idol a pyramidal stone, 70 ; said to lie in a dormant

2 20 Index.

state four months, 85 ; his figure, with those of Ganesa and Vishnu, at Djirjeh, log.

Jugglers and diviners of North America wear girdles and chaplets of serpents, 14.

Julius Cmsar, aided by a "Chaldean" (Sosigines, or son of Sosiosch), to reform the calendar, 53 ; losing his sword, the Gauls placed it in a temple, and he declined to take it again, 114.

Jumna, or Yamuna, a sacred river of the Hindus, 98.

Juno, or Here, the same as Ceres, 23 ; name derived from Dione, also from the Sanskrit Voni and the Hebrew Juneh, a dove, 23 ; Vesta her sister, 27 ; the Graces her attendants, 29 ; probably the same as Dione, 48 ; Nephel^, the "fallen woman," mother of the Centaurs, mistaken for her, 77 ; called also Lucina, and the same as Diana, 100 ; represented by a spear, 114 ; symbols, 130 ; — Sospita, 143 ; the Argive, 171.

Jupiter, or Zeus, the original Supreme God of the Greeks, 2 ; called by them Dseus, or Deus, 2 ; fables concerning him believed only by the vulgar, 3 ; called Sabazius and the Dragon of the ^ther, 16 ; crowned with olive, 17 ; a figure like his on a Phoenician coin labelled Baal-Thurz, 20 ; Thor, 20 ; also styled yEther, 23 ; Vesta his sister, 27 ; represents the male principle, 28 ; all-prophetic, 47 ; statues crowned with oak and fir, 48 ; oracle of Amun, 48 ; worshipped by the Persians as the Spirit of the Universe, 61 ; distribution of good and evil, 73 ; ancient statue at Argos with three eyes like Maha- Deva, 73 ; the father of the Centaurs, 77 ; reposing on the back of a Cen- taur explained, 81 ; Proserpina his daughter, 81 ; sources of the fable of Europa, 102, 103 ; engraving discovered in France, 129 ; suckled by a goat, 130, 143 ; employed the aegis, 131 ; frightened the Titans with it, 131 ; ruled the ^ther, 131 ; bore the thunderbolt, 135 ; the Egyptian Amun, 137 ; the Knosian dance sacred to him, 139; the Nymphs his daughters, 141'; his mother called Nympha, symbolising his descent, 141 ; ancient kings bore the name, 155 ; Bacchus his son, by Ceres or Proserpina, 156; the son of Semele, 157 ; the myth of Leda, 157 ; statue at the temple of the Syrian goddess, 167 ; receiving ambrosia, 171.

Juul, or Yule, the Scandinavian festival, a boar offered to Frey, to conciliate the productive power by the destruction of the adverse or inert power, 87.

Kabala, the doctrine of emanation, 16 ; apparently derived from the doctrines of the Chaldeans, or Magians, 53.

Kadeshim, and Kadeshuth, men and women set apart to prostitution at the temples, 54 ; forbidden by the Israelitish law, 56, 350 ; Note, 872.

Kadmiel, or Kasmilus, the name of one of the gods of the Samothracian Mys- teries, 10. See Casmilus and Cadimis,

Keeper of the boundary between life and death, Thoth, or Mercury, 116.

Key, worn as an amulet in Italy, corresponding to the cross and circle, 30.

Kissos, a name of Bacchus, probably because he was from Kisssea, or Susiana,. 80 ; the term signifying ivy, explains the using of that plant in his worship. 80. See Ivy.

Index. 2 21

Kneph, or Num, the Egyptian deity known as the agathodsemon, 17 ; the re- semblance of the name to that of Numa, the reputed king of Rome, 63.

Kore, the daughter, Persephone, the mother of Bacchus, or Zagreus, 49, 156 ; the story of Ariadne another form of the myth, 65 ; the goddess of destruction, 82 ; called also Soteira, or Savior, 83 ; the same as Kura, or Demeter, 83, 156. See Ceres and Proserpind.

Kradephoria, or carrying of palms, 132.

ICHshna, the incarnate Deity and avatar, 41, 135.

Kronos (see Saturn and Time), horrid acts, commemorated in the Mysteries, 6 ; the unknown Father, reverenced as Supreme and Almighty, 22 ; identified with Time, and the allegory of devouring his own children interpreted, 24 ; emasculates his father, 25 ; another hypothesis suggested, 25.

ICteis gunakeios, 28.

ICuieli, the Great Mother. See Cybelt

Kura, the female personification of the sun, a name of Ceres, or Demeter, at Cnidos, 83.

JCuru, a popular title among the Aryan tribes before their separation, the prob- able source of the name of Cyrus, or Kur, 154.

Labyrinth, a device on Grecian coins, 64 ; said to have been built by Daedalus as a prison for the Minotaur, 64 ; artificial winding caverns common in countries occupied by the ^Ethiopian race, and used as temples, where human victims were sacrificed, 65 ; the Pyramids, 117.

Lake Mceris, the country below it a bog in the time of Menes, 108.

Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, called also Deva-Matraand Shri, the probable origin of the names of Demeter and Ceres, 22.

Lamentations, in Egyptian temples, 50 ; for Osiris, Adonis, and Frey, 85.

Lamps, kept burning in the pagodas of India, 26 ; burning of lamps, 26.

Lampsacus, gold coinage, 8 ; Bacchus venerated by the name of Priapus, 10 ; coins, 95.

Laomedon,'kmg of Troy, had a wooden statue of Jupiter with three eyes, 73; not the father of Ganymedes, 86.

Latona, personification of Night, 57 ; wife of Jupiter and mother of Apollo and Diana, 57 ; the Mygal6, or shrew-mouse, her symbol, 57.

Latirel, wreaths and chaplets, 32 ; supposed to have a stimulating and intoxi- cating quality, 46.

Leda, birth of Castor and Pollux from the egg which she produced, 157 ; the myth another version of the Eastern legend, 157.

Leopards, devouring grapes and drinking the juice, accompanying Bacchus, 90 destroying the Bull, 90 ; drawing the chariot of Bacchus, go ; with a garland of ivy, 90.

Lesley, J. P., declared the Jewish legends unhistorical, and identified the He- brews with the Hyk-sos race, 43.

Leto, oblivion. See Latona.

Leucothol, danghter of Cadmus, and nurse of Bacchus, the son of Semel4, a sea- goddess, II.

2 2 2 Index.

Libanus, or Lebanon, statue of Venus-Architis, or AstartS, 149.

Libations, or spondai, the designation of treaties and covenants, 45 ; drawing

blood a libation of the soul, 102. Liber, the Latin name of Bacchus, 9, 58. Libera, the goddess of generation, the same as Venus, Proserpina, and Libxtina,

the goddess of Death, 83 ; the Proserpina of the Romans, 157. Libitina, goddess of Death, the same as NephthJ, Venus, and Libera, 83. Libya, the oracle of Amun, established, 48 ; Cyclopean tribes, 73, 74 ; deserts

afford no food or shelter for men or cattle, 107. Lightning, borne to Jupiter by the Pegasus, 76 ; supposed affinity with sulphur,

135-

Liknites, a name of Bacchus, from the liknos, or fan-like basket, in which he was cradled, 120.

Lilith, the Night-goddess, 20 ; the first wife of Adam, 57.

Lingam (the sign), the phallic or generative symbol carried by the Hindu women in procession between two serpents, 15 ; signifies the placing of the male emblem in that of the female, 66 ; analogy to Pan, 142 ; always in the temples of Siva, or Maha Deva, 177.

Lion, flaming, a form of Bacchus, 75 ; more commonly an emblem of Apollo or Hercules, being the representative of the destroying attribute, 75 ; found on the sepulchral monuments of almost all nations of Europe and Asia, 75 ; represented killing some other symbolical animal, 76 ; devouring a horse or a deer, 81, 82 ; in a composite figure with a goat, 82, 95 ; represented as killing a boar, 86 ; the Chimaera, gi ; spouts of fountains shaped like lions' heads, 97 ; the sun in the sign of Leo when the Nile overflows, 97 ; union of the bull and lion, 112 ; on the handle of a vase, 136; the statue of the Syrian goddess drawn by, 167.

Living stones, 148. See Baitulia, Amberics.

Lizard, the symbol of humidity, or the female principle, 91 ; — Killer, Apollo, delivering the particles of matter from the bond of Attraction, or Love, 91 ; Saurians believed once to inhabit the earth, 72.

Local gods and goddesses everywhere worshipped, 38.

Locheia, a name of Diana, 100.

Ijick of hair, single, worn on the right side of the head of Horus and his priests, 59.

Lodestone, the magnet, or siderite stone, called the bone of Osiris, or Horus, represented the principle of attraction, 59.

Logging rocks, 147. See Baitulia, Ambrosial stones,

Loki, or Saturn, the evil potency of the Northmen, 146.

Lophoi Hemtaioi, or hillocks of Mercury, sacred piles of stones by the side of roads, or at their intersection, to denote their consecration to Mercury, 148.

Lord of Heaven, worshipped by the Emperor of China, 40.

Lotus, or water-lily, Nymphaa nelumbo, 47 ; the mystic symbol, called polos, 01 modias, 104 ; a native of Eastern Asia, and not now found in Egypt, 105 ; description, 105 ; a symbol of Ihe productive power of the waters, employed in every part of the Northern hemisphere, 105 ; employed in Egyptian sculpture, 106 ; the three orders of architecture different modifications of symbolical columns formed in imitation, 109-111 ; flower on Rhodian

Index. 223

medals, 112 ; the Chinese goddess Pussa sitting upon this flower, 169 ; the

symbol borrowed from the Hindus, 179. Louis XIV! s ambassador asks the King of the Siamese to embrace Christianity,

and is reproved, 39. Love (see Attraction, or Eros, the First-bom, or Only-Begotten), the mystic

Bacchus, Priapus, Father of Gods and Men, 13, 21, 22, 112 ; how symbol- ised at the temple of the Syrian goddess, 167. Lucetius, or Luminous, a title of Jupiter, in Crete, 70. Lucina, Juno, the same as Diana, a personification of the Moon, lOO. Lukaios, an epithet of a deity, especially Apollo, 69. Lukegenetes, a title of Apollo, 69. Lukeios, See Lukaios. Lusios, a name of Bacchus, 9. Luson, a name of Bacchus, 9. Lux, light, a contraction from Lukl or Lukos, 5g. Lycomedes, daughters of the fabled associates of Achilles, a mystic tale, not in

the Iliad or Odyssey, 159. Lyre, representation of the goddess Harmonia, 82 ; strung by Hermes, or Thoth,

with the sinews of Typhon, 82 ; device upon, 140.

Maachah, the queen-mother of Judah, made a mephallitzeth, or phallic manikin, like those of Egypt and Hierapolis, and those employed by the Roman women in the worship of Venus-Erycina, 49 ; a priestess of the orgies of Baal, 50, 54.

Macha Allah, the god of Life and Death among the Tartars, represented with entwined serpents, human skulls, and scalps, 14 ; trampling upon the elephant, 136.

Magians, the sacerdotal caste of the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians, 53 ; Zoroaster the traditional head of the order, 53 ; the Kabala probably originated from them, 57 ; said to teach that the gods will alternately con- quer and be subjected for periods of 3,000 years, 117.

Magisterial seats, or Prytania, presided over by Ceres, 27.

Magistrate, supreme (Greek, demiurgus), suggests the idea of a Supreme God, 2 ; an Egyptian, would put a fellow-subject to death for killing a cat or monkey, 41.

Maha Deva, or Siva, probably the same as Bacchus, 49 ; an ante-Vedic deity, represented with a third eye, 73 ; the Pramathas his servants, 88 ; the lingam in his temples, 177.

Male power, or principle. See Active, or Male Principle.

Manslayers, or Oiorpata, a designation of the Amazons, 34.

Mars, or Ares, and Venus, 82 ; Harmonia their daughter, 150 ; symbolised by the Ar, or Boar, that slew Adonis, or Atys, 85, 86, 88 ; considered as the Destroyer, 87 ; represented by a staff and spear, 114 ; called also Quirinus, or spear-god. by the Romans, who called themselves Quirites, 115 ; dog sacred to him, 116.

Marvellous, men naturally love, 2.

2 24 Index.

Matrons, Grecian, their extravagance in celebrating the orgies of Bacchus, 49 ; Roman, whipped with a thong of goat-skin as a remedy for barrenness, 143.

Matter contains the elements of all things, 22 ; Rhea, the personification, 24 ; seminal particles animated by the sun, and nourished and matured by the humidity of the moon, 99 ; the soul (nous) imprisoned in it, 118 ; the lord of. Pan, so called by the Arcadians, and also the husband of Rhea, 136.

May, the first of, a great phallic festival among the ancient Britons and Hindus, 12.

May-pole, a phallic symbol, 12.

Mediator, Mithras, the Persian, 123, 167 ; the mystic third figure in the temple at Hierapolis probably the same as the mystic Bacchus, 167.

Mediatress, the moon, subject of the sun, and ruler of the earth, causes the two to harmonise, 99, 100.

Medtcsa, or the Gorgon, the female head on the ^gis of Minerva, a symbol of the Moon, 130 ; the female of the disk or symbol of the sun, representing the Female Principle, 130 ; said to be the face in the moon, also a symbol of Divine Wisdom, 130.

Meilichios, Moloch, or King, a title of Jupiter, at Sicyon, 70.

Melampus introduced into Greece the name of Dionysus, or Bacchus, his wor- ship, and the phallephoric procession, 10 ; probably got his knowledge from Cadmus, 10.

Melkarth (the Lord of the City), the Hercules, or tutelar deity, of Tyre, 2 ; temple at Tyre, with round-tower pillars, 74.

Mendes, the goat honored there with singular rites of worship, 21, 142 ; the goat so called, 142 ; a part of the phallic worship, 142 ; female goats also sacred,

143-

Menes, the first king of Egypt, reigning some 11,000 or 12,000 years before the Persian invasion, 108.

Mercury, Hermes, or Thoth, a tortoise placed under his feet, 34 ; styled Pom- pasus, as the messenger of the god of the oracle, 47 ; strung the lyre with the sinews of Typhon, expressive of harmony, by the mixture of good and evil, 82 ; the dog his symbol, 113 ; holding a purse and the caduceus, 114 ; as Anubis, the minister of Fate, and as Thoth, the parent of arts and sciences, 137 ; the ram his symbol, 113, 136, 150 ; hillocks of, beside roads, or at their intersection, he being the guardian of all ways, 148 ; the Pelas- gian, represented by a human head on an inverted pillar, etc., 149 ; one of the Cabeirian divinities, the same as Casmilus, or Kadmilus, 150; — or Thoth, carries a branch of palm, 151.

Merry-making, peculiar to the " country-feast," or minor rite of the Dionysia, 30.

Metempsychosis, a fundamental article of faith among all ancient nations, 179.

Mexico, captives sacrificed to the sun, 15.

Michael, name given by the Ophites to Satan Ophiomorphos, 16 ; — and other emanations engrafted upon the Mosaic system, 54.

Mimetic, all dancing among the Greeks, 138.

Mimicry, a part of the Ionian games at Delos, 152.

Mind, Divine, the human soul an em.ination of, 45, I18 ; distempered, 46 ; nous, our daemon, or divinity, 118 ; a god in us, nS ; said by Hippocrates to be generated in the left ventricle of the heart, 119 ; — the Divine, the perfec- tion of wisdom, 127.

Index. 225

Minerva, a serpent in her temple at Athens, 15 ; fabled to have been delivered by Vulcan from the head of Jupiter, 127 ; the same as Neith of the Egyp- tians, Bellona, and AthenS, 127 ; regarded as both male and female, 128 ; the owl her symbol, 128 ; putting a bridle into the mouth of Pegasus, 128 ; represented in later periods by a woman armed with shield, helmet, breast- plate, and spear, 129 ; her helmet decorated with symbols like the owl, serpent, ram, griffin, sphinx, or flying horse, 129 ; the yEgis, or breast-plate, a goat-skin symbol, 130 ; the Gorgon, or Medusa, a symbol of the moon, 130; sometimes bore the thunderbolt, 135 ; represented, like Ganesa, with the elephant's skin upon her head, also with an elephant drawing her chariot, 136 ; the ram, 136.

Minotaur, the Bull-symbol partly humanised, 64 ; the same as Atys, the Phrygian god, 64 ; the Labyrinth a cave-temple where human sacrifices were offered, 65 ; the astronomical sign of the sun in Taurus, 65 ; evidently also the symbol of the Male Principle, 66.

Mises, a title of Bacchus, denoting the double sex, 90.

Mistletoe, a symbol of the Divine Operative Spirit, 47.

Mithraic rites superseded the Mysteries of Bacchus, and became the foundation of the Gnostic system, 53 ; the baptism, or purification, by blood, the Tauro- holium, ^gobolium, and Criobolium, 123.

Mithraism, or Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of the Persians, 53.

Mithras, the sun, the Persian mediator, 123, 167.

Mnevis, the mystic father of Apis, represented by a bull at Heliopolis, in Egypt, 18, 19, 20.

Modius, polos, or hemisphere, placed on the head of Venus, 45 ; — of Fortune, 84 ; — of Pluto, 104 ; the seed-vessel of the lotus, 104.

Moisasoor, 181.

Moist Principle, the source of all things from the beginning, loi. See Hu- midity, The Female Principle, et passim.

Moloch, the Fire-god, Hercules, Melkarth, or tutelar deity, 2, 92 ; children passing through the fire to, in the Valley of Gehenna, or Tophet, 122.

Money, the first portraits upon, those of Macedonian princes of Egypt and Syria, 7 ; first circulated by tale, and not by weight, and consisted of spikes, or obelisks, 8 ; the obolos or spike, and drachma or handful, the usual coins, 8 ; first coinage probably by the Lydians, 8.

Monkey, death the penalty in Egypt for killing, 41 ; a sacred animal in Egypt and in some parts of Tartary and India, 129.

Moon, the spirit presiding over it an object of ancient worship, i ; sustained by the Inmost Spirit, 41 ; worshipped by the ancient Persians, 6c ; the goddess Diana her symbol, 81, 99 ; nourishes and matures the seminal particles of terrestrial matter, 99 ; her orbit placed between the sun and the earth so that she, as mediatress, primary subject of the one, and sovereign of the other, causes them to harmonise and unite, 99, 100 ; builders refuse to cut timber at the full, 100 ; represented by the Egyptians under the symbol of a cat 100 ; Europa and Astarte the same personage and deity, 103 } the Medusa, or Gorgon, on the .i^gis of Minerva, a symbol, 130 ; said to have the face of the Gorgon, 130 ; — new, welcomed by the Jews with noises, 131 ; her personification borne by the Egyptians in boats, 133 ; Arcadia said to be formed before the moon, and the Arcadians to be older, meaning.

2 26 Index.

doubtless, before the moon, or female principle, was worshipped, 137) Helen, 157.

Mother-Goddess, or " Mother of the Gods," same as the Magna Mater, or " Great Mother," Rhea, 24 ; worshipped by the Amazons, 34 ; the omphalos, or navel-stone, at Delphi, her symbol, 46, 47 ; Leda, the mother of the Dioscuri, 157. See CybeU, Rhea, Celestial Venus, Ceres,

Mother of the World, a title of Diana, gg.

Mother, the Great, orgies of, 9 ; Mylitta, her Assyrian appellation, 20 ; the designation applied to Ceres, 22 ; represented by the cubical block, whence her name, Kubele, supposed to have originated, 27,

Mounds, or high places. So.

Mountain, every one had its local deity, I ; the favorite place of worship of the ancient Persians, 61 ; also sought for the same purpose by the Greeks, 62.

"Mourning for the Only-Begotten" or the First-Born, the designation given in the Bible to the lamentations at the several Mysteries, 50, 130.

Mouse, a Priapic animal, 92.

Mouse-killer, or Smintheus, a title of Apollo, g2.

Mundane House of Horus, a designation of Isis as his mother, 64.

Musaus, the Orphic bard, 11.

Music accompanied devotion among the Greeks, 50.

Mygale, Mus Araneus, or the shrew-mouse, the symbol of Latona, 57.

Mylitta, the Assyrian designation of the Mother-Goddess, 20 ; the name of the bee, melitta, a pun, 20 ; the same as the Venus of the Greeks, 34 ; Babylo- nian women prostituted at her temple, 54, 67, 77 ; her worship adopted by the Persians, 61.

Myrtle, a symbol both of Venus and of Neptune, 31.

Mysteries, a secret or mystic system existing in the more civilised countries of Greece, Asia, and Egypt, preserved generally by an hereditary priesthood in temples of long-established sanctity, 3 ; of Eleusis, the more celebrated and known, 3 ; two degrees in the Eleusinia, the first degree preparatory, and the second, or " Greater," completing the rites, 4 ; difference in the several countries more in form than in substance, 4 ; the secret doctrines called gnosis, or knowledge and wisdom, including all science of a higher character, 4 ; called also Apocrypha, or hidden things, 4 ; the disclosures, or apocalypse, 4 ; neophytes, mystie, and epoptai, or seers, 4 ; their end and purpose the knowledge of the First, the Lord, and the noetic, or spiritual, science, 4 ; Nero dared not ask initiation, because of the murder of his mother, 5 ; the divulging of the doctrines punished as impiety, 5, 40 ; peril of .iEschylus, 5 ; difficulty to obtain accurate information, 5 ; doctrines conveyed under allegories and symbols, 5 ; the last, or epoptic, stage of initiation consisted of explanations, 5 ; the mythological story, 6 ; the Orphic made the legend of Charon a part of the rites, 8 ; the protecting deities, 9 ; the Bacchic said to have been brought from the Egyptians by Orpheus, also the initiation of Hekate, II ; no mention of them in the Iliad or Odyssey, 11 ; the Eleusinian said to have been introduced 175 years before the Trojan War, II ; credited to Eumolpus, 11, 34 ; the Orphic Hymns, II ; the mani- kins or images of Osiris, 12 ; the Egg also carried in procession at the orgies of Bacchus, 13 ; — Christian, serpent in, 16 ; dedicated to Eros Protogonos, or mystic Bacchus, 22 ; also to the female, or passive power, represented

Index. 227

at Eleusis by Ceres, 22 ; Samothracian, the Great Gods, 24 ; violating or insulting, punished with death, 40 ; based on the hypothesis that there is a faculty in the soul capable of elevation to seership, 46 ; the Bacchic, held at night, 49 ; Mithraic superseded the Bacchic, 53 ; the contention of good and evil, thus producing the harmony of the vi^orld, taught, 71 ; the philosophical, or psychological, system of the ancients explained, 118; dancing always a part of the rites, 139; all Egyptian priests first initiated into the rites of Pan, 142 ; — of the Cabeiri, celebrated at Samothrace, 150 ; the Cabeirian substantially like the Eleusinian and Sabazian, 150 ; mimiciy and imitations a part of the ceremonies, 152 ; the games connected with the worship, 153.

Mystic egg, or mundane egg, the Egg of Night, 13 ; Eros, Love, Attraction, Bacchus, or Priapus, said to have sprung from it, 13 ; the symbol of the Universe, 13; incubated by the World-Serpent, 14; produced Castor and Pollux, the Great Gods, 96, 157.

Mystic symbols taken from the signs of the zodiac, or, more probably, the signs of the zodiac from mystic symbols, 97.

Mystic system, faith, or doctrines, preserved in the more civilised countries, 3 ; the basis of the ancient worship, 4 ; called gnosis and wisdom, and included all science of a higher character, or esoteric, 4 ; difficult to obtain accurate information, 5 ; taught under allegories and symbols, 5 ; study of coins a principal means of obtaining a competent knowledge, 9 ; the deities under whose protection persons were most commonly instructed, g ; introduced into Greece by Orpheus, 11 ; not referred to in the Iliad or Odyssey, 11 ; of immemorial antiquity in Egypt and all over Asia, 12 ; engrafted on the old elemental worship, 21 ; Kronos, or Zeus, and the mystic Bacchus, or first-begotten Love, only one Being, 22 ; placed the sun in the middle of the universe, with the planets moving around, 59 ; Aristarchus, of Samos, censured by Cleanthes for impiety for teaching this, 60 ; the crime of Socrates and Diagoras probably of the same nature, 60 ; not known to the Greeks when the Odyssey was written, 124.

Mystic winnow, or basket, of Bacchus, 120.

Mythology, tht theology of ancient and pagan nations affords all the most inter- esting and important subjects of ancient art,l ; — of Pindar more consistent than that of any other poet, 124 ; popular, confounded the hero in Thebes with the ancient god Bacchus, 156 ; turned into history, 162.

Naga, the cobra de capella. See Hooded snaie.

Names, Zeus, Dseus, and Deus, given by the primitive Greeks to the Supreme God, 2 ; of gods conferred on children, 154, 156 ; giving those of gods and heroes to newly-discovered lands a source of fable, 160.

Nana, goddess, mother of Atys, became pregnant from eating a pomegranate, 1 12.

Nature, the personified universe, as the female principle, represented by Isa, 37 personified by Isis, 83 ; Venus, 126.

Nazir, or dedicated person, Samuel, the prophet, 56.

Neith, the Egyptian Minerva, 127; name resembles Analtis, 127.

2 28 Index.

Nelumho. See Lotus.

Nephell, rendered by Hislop, a fallen woman, who had observed the rites of

Mylitta, 77 ; fabled mother of the Centaurs, 77. NephtM, or Nephthus, the Egyptian Goddess of Death, and yet the same as

Venus and Libera, 83. Neptune, or, more properly, Poseidon, the god of building, fortification, and the waters, 48 ; sent the bull into Crete, the reputed father of the Minotaur, 64, 66 ; not an actual sea-god, 64 ; an Hamitic divinity, worshipped in Libya, Africa, and Crete, the same as Dagon, and Cannes, or Ana-melech, 64, 65, 63 ; father of the Cyclopean Shepherds, 65, 74 ; belonged to the old elementary worship, 68 ; not an elemental deity, but the building-god, standing in close relation to the giants, 68 ; supreme ruler in the " Outer Sphere," where Zeus practically disappears, 68 ; chief god of the Phoinikes, or Phoenicians, 68 ; same as Hea, of Babylon, 68 ; the horse sacred to him, 76 ; his daughter by Ceres, 79 ; called Hippios, 80 ; the horses Pegasus and Arei6n his sons, 80. Nero dared not compel the priests to initiate him into the Eleusinia, 5. Net, the figures of Disa, or Isa, Isis, and Apollo, enveloped in, 146, 147. Night, the egg of, 13 ; Eros, Bacchus, sprung from, 13 ; Lilith, 20 ; — personified as Leto, or Latona, and Baubo, 57 ; represented with a vail, 57 ; seeing the sun at midnight, 96. Nocturnal Sun, Bacchus, 94 ; seen in the Mysteries at midnight, 96. Noise, of bells, the ^gis, sistrum, cymbals, a charm and means of consecration,

131 ; the trolls and fairies driven away, 133. Noos, or phren, the higher or divine soul, the pneuma, or spirit of the New

Testament, 120. See Soul. North America, jugglers and diviners make girdles and chaplets of serpents, 14 ;

pyramid a symbol, 70. North of Europe, Thor represented with the head of a bull, 20 ; sanctity imputed to groves, 48 ; the general system, 53 ; Bacchus and .'Vpollo worshipped, 68 ; obelisks of stone sacred to the sun, 69 ; hierarchies performed human sacri- fices, 102 ; paid divine honors to the spear, 114 ; the duel and the ordeal regarded as appealing to the Deity, 115 ; Skalds, 118 ; barbarians, their belief in future life, 125 ; trolls and fairies driven away, 123 ; representation of Isa, 136 ; days of the week consecrated to gods, 146 ; hillocks on the roads, 148. Norway and Sweden, divine honors paid to serpents, 14 ; oath by the shoulder

of the horse, 80. Numa, fabled King of Rome, said to have consecrated the Perpetual Fire, 26 ; forbade to represent the gods under any form, 63 ; resemblance of his name to Num, or Kneph, the agathodsemon of Egypt, something more than an accident, 63. Nymph, nymphe, has always a female idea, 47 ; designation of a young woman, 141 ; supposed by Bryant to be derived from ain, an eye or fountain, and omphe, an oracle, 141 ; relates, doubtless, to the female principle, 141. Nympha, a name of the Mother-goddess, 47 ; the namfe of the mother of Jupiter

141. Nymphea nelumho, the lotus, or water-lily, 104. See Lotus. Nyinphaum, an oracle-temple, 141.

Index. 229

Nymphs, a race of females, descended from Jupiter, or Oceanus, 99, 141. Nyssian dance, sacred to Bacchus, 139.

Oak regarded at Uodona, and by the Celtic nations, as a symbol of the Supreme God, 47 ; kinship of Druidism signified with the ancient Pelagic worship, 48.

Obelisk, first coins in that form, 8 ; stars represented by them ranged in a circle, found in Northern Europe, 69 ; most frequently employed by the Egyptians, 71 ; spiral, to symbolise the thunderbolt, 136 ; symbol of deifi- cation, 173.

Ocean, sustained by the Inmost Spirit, 41 ; fabled origin of the nymphs, 99 ; — Erythraean, the Egyptian symbols, especially the Nelumbo and Hooded Snake, copied beyond, log.

Oceanus, father of Philyra, mother of Cheiron, 7S ; father of the nymphs and river-gods, 141.

Ochus, persecutions in Egypt, 44.

Odin, the All-Father, hall of, 125 ; one of the Scandinavian triad of deities, 169.

Oleaster, or wild olive, victors crowned with at the Olympian games, 18.

Olen, a priest and prophet of Apollo, built the Oracle at Delphi, 46.

Olive consecrated to Minerva, 17 ; statues and victors crowned with it, 17, 32.

Olympian Jupiter, three-eyed, 73.

Olympic Games, the victors crowned, 18 ; the honorary rewards. 157, 159.

Omadios, or Omestes, the devourer of raw flesh, a title of Bacchus, 102.

Omphe, or amphi, an oracle, 46.

Omphalos, the navel, designation of the oracle-stone at Delphi, 46.

One-eyed, priests of Horus, 59.

Only- Begotten, Protogonos, the mystic Bacchus, etc., 22 ; mourning for, 50, 150.

Ophites, or Serpent-worshippers, a sect of Gnostics, 12 ; constructed a doctrine of Emanations, 16 ; their theory of creation, etc., 16 ; secret signs of recog- nition, 17 ; the Cyclopeans, 74.

Ops, consort of Saturn, the analogue of Isis, Astarte, and Rhea, 24 ; the name a supposed contraction of of his, a serpent, 74.

Oracle, temple at Dodona, 28, 48 ; — of Zoroaster, 38 ; how produced, 45, 46 ; — at Delphi, built by Olen and the Hyperboreans, 46 ; anciently called om-phe, or amphi, 46 ; Pompasus, 47 ; interpreter called Peter, 47 ; influ- ence in public counsels, 50 ; those best favored who paid best, 51 ; — Del- phic, commanded women to be scourged at Alea, 102 ; Nymphjeum, 141 ; hanging-stones consulted, 148.

Ordeal, or trial by fire and water, regarded as an appeal to the Deity, 115.

Orders of architecture suggested by the lotus, 105-107.

Orgies, or Mysteries, of Dionysus, egg consecrated, 13 ; — in Judah presided over by Queen Maachah, 49 ; the Cabeirian and others substantially alike, 150. See Mysteries.

Oriental sages, 43.

Origin of evil, Typhon, or the Hittite god Seth, 71, 72 ; the Great Serpent, or Saurian, Apop, or Aph-ophis, 72.

Orpheans, ascetics and devotees, like the Gymnosophists of India. 49.

230 Index.

Orpheus credited with introducing the Mysteries into Greece, 11 ; his personal existence denied by Aristotle, 11 ; name perhaps signifies an interpreter of the oracles, 47.

Orphic Mysteries included the legend of Charon and his boat, 8 ; — faith, the mystic system, 9 ; — Hymns, invocations or litanies, used in the Mysteries II ; — Mystagogy, all theology the out-birth, II ; — language, 13 ; — Hymn, 38 ; placed the sun in the centre of the universe, 59 ; — Hymns celebrate Hippa, 79 ; — Hymns identify Prometheus with Kronos, or Saturn, 88 ; — Hymns call Pan the mover of all things, 138.

Orthia, or Orthosia, a title of Brimo, or Diana, at Sparta, 102.

Osiris, the god of the Mystic religion in Egypt, 6, 9 ; the same as Bacchus, or Dionysus, of the Mysteries, 9 ; phallic manikins employed in his rites, 12 ; the bull Apis his terrestrial representation, 19 ; hymns to, 37 ; bone of the lodestone, 59 ; the potency of good, 71 ; the hawk his symbol, 74 ; loves and misfortunes, 84 ; dead or absent forty days in each year, 85 ; dismem- berment by Typhon, 88 ; outflowing of the Nile so termed, 98 ; his potency in the Moon, gg.

Ouranos, or Uranus, the vault of heaven personified. See Heaven.

Owl, the symbol of Minerva, 128 ; decoration of her helmet, 129.

Oysters in sympathy with the Moon, or female principle, 28.

Pagan, from pagus, a village, or rural canton, a term applied to the votaries of the ancient religion, after its outlawry by the Roman Senate,

Palestine, Egyptian conquest doubted, 43 ; religious prostitution, 54.

Pallas. See Athena and Minerva.

Palm, symbol, 1 5 1.

Pan represented under the form of a goat, 21 ; fir-trees and caverns consecrated to him, 48 ; character like Saturn, 78 ; the most ancient deity of the Arca- dians, and perhaps the same as Amun of the Egyptians, 137 ; called also Zeus, 138 ; the husband of Rhea, and therefore the same as Kronos, or Saturn, 138; director of the mystic dances, 139; not known to the earliest poets, 140; confounded with Priapus, 141; represented by the- sacred goat of Mendes, 142 ; all priests in Egypt initiated into his Mys- teries, 142.

Panchaa, pretended island, 162, 177.

Paniski, or Paniskoi, 78 ; subordinate ministers of Pan, 140.

Pantheic figures, of Diana, 81 ; of the Deity, 143 ; of Cybele, 145 ; — temples, 166.

Paphinn Venus, bearded, or double-sexed, 2g, 32, 104, I4g ; mother of the Cen- taurs, 77.

Paradesa, 28.

Paris, his statues taken from those of Atys, 86.

Parsley used to crown Roman victors, 153.

Pasiphah, wife of Minos, and mother of the Minotaur, 64.

Passive Principle of Nature. See Female Principle.

Pedum, a pastoral crook, or hook, 142.

Index. 23 1

Pegasus, the winged horse, 76 ; Minerva putting a bridle in his mouth, 128.

Penance, the whipping of the Arcadian women, 102.

Peor, the Moabitish god, equivalent to Bacchus and Priapus, 49, 141.

Perikionios, or surrounded with columns, as in a temple-circle, a title of Bacchus, III.

Perpetual Jire, consecrated by Numa, 26.

Persecution not incurred anciently because of religious opinions, 40.

Persephonl, or Persephoneia. See Proserpina.

Perseus, a fictitious personage, 157 ; floating in a box or ark, 168.

Persia, mystic lore of ancient priests, 3 ; kings never put their portraits on coins, 7.

Persians, employed no statues, but worshipped fire, 61 ; adopted the rites of Astarte, 62.

Personification, a means of multiplying divinities, 25.

Petasus, a cap placed on statues of divinities, 116.

Peter, ham pete h, to open or reveal, the interpreter of an oracle, 47.

Phahhon, 169.

Phalhis, symbol and procession introduced into Greece, lo ; an image, or manni- kin, carried by Egyptian women, 12 ; the triple symbol, 12 ; May-pole festival, 12 ; symbol of the sexual attribute, 12, 142 ; personified as Priapus, 13 ; boine with figs, 29 ; a mepkallitzeih, or mannikin, made by Queen Maachah, 49; double, 98; symbolised by the pomegvanate-flower, 112; images of Pan, 141 ; two enormous pillars in the temple of Hierapolis, 172.

Pharisees, Pharsi, or Asideans, Persian religionists in Judea, 53, 90.

Phil(C, 36, 106, 109.

Philyra, daughter of Oceanus, fabled mother of the Centaur Cheiron, 78.

Phcenix, 86.

Phren, the mind, or principle of thought and perception, 120.

Phtha, Hephaistos, or Vulcan, the primitive element, and father of the Cabeiri, or chief gods of Egypt, 127.

Phidtalmios, an epithet of Neptune, or Poseidon, 144.

Picus, the sacred woodpecker, 172.

Pillars of Sesostris, 93 ; architectural, 109.

Pine-cone on the thyrsus, or mace, of Bacchus, 112, 113.

Pipe, symbol of harmony, 142.

Place of the gods, a phrase applied to Isis and the Syrian goddess, doubtless referring to the womb of the Great Mother, 64.

Planets worshipped, i ; depicted upon the crescent of Cybele, 145.

Pluto not worshipped in the primitive religion, 103 ; adopted in the Mystic worship, 104 ; the same as Hades, 104 ; how he procured the stay of Pro- serpina in the Under- World, 112.

/'/aOT«j, a designation of Jupiter, 87.

Poetry, Greek, produced by the ecstatic raptures of devotion, 50.

Poets debased the dignity of the Supreme Being, 3.

Pollux. See Castor and Pollux , also Diosctiri.

Polos, the round cap, or hemisphere, on the head, called also modius, 84 ; worn by Pluto and other divinities, 104 ; the seed-vessel of the lotus, 104.

Polu-parthenos, 176.

232 Index.

Polypus, 45.

Polytheism, the result of the doctrine of Emanations, 38 ; had a lax and com prehensive creed, 60 ; not believed in by the intelligent among the an- cients, 92.

Pomegranate, fruit sacred to Proserpina, 112 ; its arcane meaning, 112 ; inter- dicted in the Thesmophoria, 112 ; Nana becoming pregnant with Atys, 112 ; the name rhoia a pun for Rhea, 112 ; held by Juno, 171.

Pompasus, Mercury, the messenger of the oracle, 47.

Pompeius, the interpreter of oracles, 47.

Poplar, chaplet worn by Hercules, 95, 97.

Poppy, sacred to Ceres and Venus, 45.

Poseidon, the more correct name of the Building-god, the divinity of the Libyan and ^thiopic nations, but better known a3 Neptune, 64. See Neptune.

Pothos, 169.

Priapus, originally a name of Bacchus, 10 ; personification of the phallus, 13 ; the same as Eros, Attraction, and the mystic Bacchus, 13 ; statues made of fig- wood, 29; "black-cloaked," 57; name derived from Briapuos, or clamorous, also from Peor and Apis, 132 ; geese sacred to him, 142 ; simi- larity to the Pan of Egypt, 142.

Priesthood, hereditary, 3, 108 ; initiated into the rites of Pan, 142.

Primitive religion of the Greeks, elementary, i ; Pluto not worshipped, 103.

Probation required of initiates before the final disclosures, or epopteia,^.

Prometheus, a title of the sun, and his binding, a symbol of winter, 88 ; more probably an Ethiopian god, worshipped by the Colchians, and having in his temple the device of an eagle over a heart, an Egyptian crest and symbol, 88 ; same as Kronos, or Maha-Deva, 88.

Prophetic po7ver supposed to be attended by ravings and mania, 45 ; supposed to be produced by intoxicating exhalations from the earth, 46 ; female sex more receptive, 49 ; abstinence essential, 175.

Proserpina, Kore, or Persephone, Queen of the Under- World, mother of the mystic Bacchus, 49, 156, 157 ; Goddess of Destruction, called also the Pre- server, 82, 87 ; same as Ceres and Isis, 83 ; same as Diana, 103 ; personifi- cation of the passive or female principle, 103 ; she eats the pomegranate, 112.

Prostitution a religious rite in Babylon and other countries, 54, 67.

Prytania, Greek council-houses, 26, 27.

Psuchi, or Psych/, the soul, or power of animal motion and sensation, 120 ; typified by the butterfly, 123.

Purification, first characteristic of initiation into the Mysteries, 4 ; by water and fire, 121, 122 ; by the blood of a bull, goat, or ram, 123.

Purple, a sacred color, applied to the statues of deities and the bodies of Roman consuls and dictators, 120.

Purse, symbol of the productive attribute, 114.

Pnssa, or Chinese Venus, comprehending the triple godhead, 169.

Putrefaction, a symbol, 8g.

PyraHhca, the Persian fire-temples, 61.

Pyramid, a religious symbol, 70; employed most by Egyptians, 71, 118.

Pythagoras taught the heliocentric, or solar, system as a Mystery, or arcanum,

sg.

Pythian ptiestess declared all religious rites acceptable to the Deity, 40 ; ecstasy

Index.

233

and enthusiasm, 45 ; favored those most who paid best, 51 ; always a virgin,

175- Pythios, a title of Apollo, 91. Python, battle against Apollo, a symbol, 6, 21 ; name of Apollo, 47.

Rabbit, a Hindu symbol of the Moon-goddess, 100.

Radiation, or diadem of obelisks, a symbol of deification, 6g, 173.

Ram, a symbol of Mercury, 113, 136 ; blood shed for mystic purification, 123 ; depicted on the helmet of Minerva, 129 ; symbol explained in the Eleu- sinian Mysteries, 150 ; Isa riding on one, i6g.

Rama, the Hindu hero, an avatar of Vishnu, 94.

Raphael, a subordinate emanation, engrafted by the Jews upon the Mosaic system, 54. See apocryphal book of Tobit.

Ray from heaven. Apis miraculously conceived, 19.

Rea, 24.

Red or purple, a sacred color, 120.

Regeneration of the soul after death, a pagan dogma, 121.

Renovation a part of the system of the universe, alternating with dissolution, 116.

Res, 24.

Rewards in the Under-World, 124.

Rhaabon, a chief of inferior spirits in the Hindu system, 181.

Rhadama7ithus (from the Egyptian Ro-t-amenti, the judge of Amenti, a name of Osiris), the associate of Kronos, and judge in the Under-World, 124.

Rhea, first of the goddesses, 24 ; mother of Osiris and Isis, 58 ; also of Typhon, 71 ; the pomegranate-symbol, rhoia, suggested as a pun upon her name, 112 ; Pan her husband, 138 ; the same as the Syrian goddess, 166.

Rivers had guardian deities, i, 65 ; the horse sacred to, 76.

Romans, found a Hercules in every country, 2 ; worshipped the hooded snake, 16 ; ceremony of marriage, 26 ; made no alterations in the religious insti- tutions of conquered countries, 40 ; women worshipped Astarte, or Venus- Erycina, 55 ; derived their religion and language from the Etruscans, 51 ; forbidden by Numa to worship images, 63 r represented Juno and Mars by a staff or spear, 114 ; women scourged with thongs of goat-skin, 143.

Rudder, 84.

Runic monuments, 30.

Rustam, a Persian hero, 94.

Sabazius, the Serpent-deity, 16 ; a title of Bacchus, 69.

Sacred language employed in the Mysteries, 13, 38 ; — animals, 18 ; — symbols, 18, et passim.

Samothracian Mysteries, \!cie. Great Gods, 24 ; a "sacred language" employed, 38 ; the Cabeiri worshipped, 127 ; the Pelasgian Mercury, called also Cas- milus, or Cadmilus, explained, 150; — received from the Pelasgi, 151.

Sanchoniathon said to have compiled a Phoenician history, 163.

234 Index.

Saturn, "horrid acts," 6; devouring his own children, 24; cutting off the genitals of his father, 25 ; said to be identical with Chronos, or Time, 25 ; appeared under the form of a horse to Philyra, 78 ; the same as the Arca- dian Pan, 138.

Satyrs, ministers of Bacchus, forms of the goat-symbol, 21, 140; probably the same as Centaurs, 78 ; equine and caprine, 78, 143.

Saurians once believed by the Egyptians to have principally occupied the earth, 72.

Sanroktonos, or Lizard-killer, a title of Apollo, gi.

Scandinavians, mystic lore and cosmogony, 3 ; phallus employed, 12 ; revered Thor under the symbol of a bull, 20 ; used the cross, 30 ; worshipped Freya, 32 ; fabled that the sun in winter sucked the cow Adumbla, 36 ; mourned for Frey, 85 ; ideas of the future life, 125 ; worshipped Odin as the Supreme God, 155.

Scarabaus, or black beetle of Egypt, 128.

Scarus, a fish sacred to the Syrian goddess, 176.

Scylla, a combination of emblems, 134.

Seasmis personified, 73.

Secret system. See Mysteries, Orgies, and Eleusinia.

Sects, the worshippers of Vishnu and Siva, in Hindustan, very hostile to each other, 177.

Selloi (same as Galli), the priests of the oracle at Dodona, 47, 48.

Semiramis, 220,

Serapis, a god of the later Egyptians, 24 ; the cross, \, found in his temple, 30 ; probably a general personification, 104.

Serpent (see Hooded snake and Water-snake), represented the Principle of Life, 14 ; coiled round the Mundane Egg, 14, 147 ; the general symbol of immor- tality, 14 ; employed by the Greeks, Scythians, Parthians, Japanese, Tartars, Scandinavians, jugglers of North America, Africans, ancient and modem Hindus, Phcenicians and Carthaginians, Egyptians, Druids, and inhabitants of the Friendly Islands, 14-16 ; the hooded snake the favorite symbol, 16 ; the five-headed serpent of the Hindus, 16 ; probable reason of its adoption, 17 ; — worshippers in early Christian sects, 17 ; flying, 35 ; — Python, 91 ; the Hydra, 92 ; the caduceus, 114 ; the aegis and Medusa's head, 130; trans- formation of Cadmus and his wife Harmonia, 150 ; water-snakes in the sacristy at Delphi, 151.

Sesostris, stories of his empire and conquests fictitious, 43 ; reported to have erected pillars in the countries of Asia which he conquered, 93 ; conjectured to have been the same as Ra-Meses, and to have reigned at Thebes, 107.

Sexual rA!:%, 114.

Shell, or Concha Veneris, a female symbol, 28 ; radiated, 34.

Siamese shun disputes, and believe that God delights in a variety of forms and ceremonies, 39.

Sibyls always virgins, 175.

Silenus, 78.

Silvanus, 78 ; Sylvanus, 138.

Sistrum, of Isis, loi ; Typhon vanquished by its noise, 131.

Siva, the third in the Hindu Trimurti, called also Maha-Deva, or the Chief God, represented with three eyes, 73 ; the destroyer and generator, 177 ; enmity between his votaries and those of Vishnu, 177.

Index. 235

.sky an object of worship, i.

Smin-theus, a title of Apollo, supposed to mean Mouse-killer, 92.

Snake. See Serpent, Hooded snake, and Water-snake.

Socrates, when dying, commanded the sacrifice of the cock, as if about to be initiated, 4 ; his reputed offense of atheism probably but the revealing of arcane and occult knowledge, 40, 60 ; cultivated dancing, 139.

Solar system, a mystic doctrine of the Orphic system, taught by Pythagoras, the open teaching of which was declared by Cleanthes to be an impiety, 59. See Sun.

Solomon, Cyclopean architecture and round pillars in his temple, 74 ; employed the palm and other profane symbols, 152.

Soteira, Savior, or Preserver, a title of Proserpina, the ruler of the world of the dead, 83.

SilTHP K02M0r, soter kosmou, savior of the world, a Priapic figure, 2S. See Worship of Priapus, by R. Payne Knight.

Soul, an emanation of the Divine Mind, and of a prophetic nature, 45, ir8 ; the principle of reason and perception personified into the familiar djiemon, 118 ; imprisoned in matter, 118 ; supposed to reside in the blood, 119 ; two souls, the nous or phren, and the psuc/i/, or power of animal motion and sensation, 120 ; purified by fire, 120, 121 ; symbolised by the psyche, or butterfly, 123 ; fate of the umbra, or terrestrial soul, 124.

Soul of Matter, Fire, 26 ; of the world, the goddess Hippa, 79.

Sparrow, symbol of the female principle, 29.

Spear, symbol of the destructive power, 95, no ; emblem of Juno and Mars, 114

Sphinx, wife of Cadmus, 34 ; a composite symbol, 129, 134, 167.

Spintria, tickets issued by the Emperor Tiberius for admission to his private entertainments, 56.

Spires and pinnacles of churches, emblems of the sun, 70.

Spirit, vital, represented by the Serpent, 14 ; the mystic Bacchus, or love, its emanation, 36 ; fabled to dwell in the sun, 37 ; the First Cause, 38, 53 ; all things participate in its essence, 41 ; signified by the mistletoe, 48 ; wor- shipped by the Persians, 5l ; symbolised by Jupiter reposing on the back of a Centaur, 8l ; — upon the waters, 112 ; — invoked by Agamemnon, 165.

Spondai, or libations, 45.

Square area, or stone, a symbol of the female productive power, 63.

Staff, or sceptre, 31 ; caduceus of Mercury, 114.

Statues, of the bull, 20 ; of the gods, the Greeks long without, 62.

Stonehenge, the circular temple of Apollo, in England, 68.

Stones, square, 63.

Stones, amberics, ambrosial stones, logging-rocks, pendre-stones, pillars, stones of God, baitulia, 147 ; cairns, 148.

Sulphur, called also theion, or divine substance, supposed to have an affinity with the divine nature, 135.

Sun, anciently worshipped, i ; reputed by the Scandinavians to suck the white cow Adumbla, 30 ; Osiris concealed in his embraces, 37 ; formed by the Divine Spirit, 38 ; signified by Apollo, 57 ; said by Pythagoras and others to be placed in the centre of the universe, 59 ; Bacchus Sabazius, 69 ; wor- shipped as Jupiter and Apollo, and by human sacrifices in Mexico, 70; spires, pinnacles, and weather-cocks on churches, 70 ; sethereal fire, 71 ;

236 Index.

Frey, the Sun-god, 87 ; Prometheus a name of the sun, 88 ; Apollo the diurnal, and Bacchus the nocturnal, 94 ; supposed to impregnate the air, 99; called also Baal, 122 ; his children by Minerva, 175.

Sunnaos, or bedfellow, 171.

Supreme Being, idea suggested by supreme magistrate, or demiurgos, 2 ; taught in the Mysteries, 4 ; reverenced as Kronos, or Zeus, 22 ; self-generated, 22 } the idea of having parents, 25 ; all things his emanations, 41.

Stipretne councils, held in the Prytania, or fire-temples of Greek cities, 26.

Supreme magistrate, or demiurgos, suggested the idea of a Supreme God, 2.

Swans, 190.

Swine (see Boar), the flesh abhorred by the Egyptians and Jews, also in Pontus and other countries, 27.

Sword, an oath taken upon it inviolable, 115.

Symbols, secret doctrines conveyed, 5 ; sacred, as the means of conveying divine truth, 6 ; on coins, 7 ; of immemorial antiquity in Asia and Egypt, 12 ; et passim.

Syrian Goddess, Atar-gatis, or Derceto, Astarte, Mylitta, Rhea, Cybele, Isis, the Celestial Venus, or Mother-goddess, round-tower pillars in her temple at Hierapolis, 74; her image, III, 166; served by galli, or castrated priests, 174 •, the fish sacred to her, 176.

Taautos, Tat, or Thoth, or perhaps Seth, 24.

Taras, son of Poseidon, and reputed founder of Tarentum, 176.

Tartars, princes carry the dragon for their militaiy standard, 14 ; worship Macha Allah, 14, 136 ; place the picture of the lion on tombs, sacred edifices, and utensils, 75 ; regard the monkey as sacred, I2g.

Tartarus, the fabled place of punishment after death, 125.

Taurobolium, the sacrifice of the bull for purification, 123.

Tauropola, a title of Diana, 102.

Teletai, or perfectings, the common Greek designation of the Mysteries, 4.

Temenos, or temple-circle, mentioned by Hecatseus, probably Stonehenge, 68.

Temples, of the sun, in Mexico, 15, 70 ; Grecian, image of the bull, 18 ; of Vesta, circular, 27 ; oracular, 46, 47 ; — primitive, were circles of rude stones, 61, 68 ; of Juggernaut, 70 ; at Thebes, 106 ; symbolical of the female power, III ; at Delphi, 151 ; pantheic, that of the Syrian goddess most known, 166.

Terra, rrj epa, 24 ; one of the Great Gods in the Samothracian Mysteries, 24.

Terrestrial soul, the umbra, at p sue hi, 124.

Thamyris, a very ancient part of Thrace, mentioned by Homer, 11.

Thebes, Boeotian, or Cadmasan, 10 ; signifies a cow, 35 ; Bacchus said to have been bom there, 35.

Thebes, Egyptian, temples and ruins scattered ten miles on both sides of the Nile, 106; Sesostris, 107; records of the priests for between 11,000 and 12,000 years, 108.

Themis (Coptic, Thmei), the guardian of assemblies of men and gods, 27.

Theocrasy, a method of curtailing the number of deities, 150.

Theodosius demolished the temples, 30.

Theogony exhibits the first system of religion in every nation, 2 ; of Hesiod, 73.

Index. 237

Theseus (Theos-Zeus), a symbolical personage, 66, 67 ; when supposed to have

started into existence, 157, 158 ; a probable personification of Hercules, 158. Thesmophoria, the Mysteries of Ceres, observed only by women, fabled to have

come from Egypt, 165. Thigh, sacrificed as the most honorable part, being regarded as the seat of the

generative attribute, 32. Third figure, at Hierapolis, 167 ; the dove, 170.

Thor, signifying a bull, the Scandinavian god, equivalent to Jupiter, 20 ; repre- sented sometimes with three eyes, 73 ; the eagle pictured on his head, 75 ;

one of the Scandinavian triad, and mediator, i6g. Thoth, parent of the arts and sciences, 127. See Mercury. Thradan, the origin of mystic religion in Greece, 11 ; rites of Bacchus, 6S. Three bodies of Diana, loi ; — statues at Samothrace, and figures at Upsal, 169 ;

lines or legs from a central disk, 169. Thunder and lightning carried by the horse Pegasus to Jupiter, 76. Thunderbolt, Krishna, 135 ; represented by two obelisks, 135. Thurz, Baal (the lord bull), a pun on Baal-Tzur, or Baal of Tyre, 20. Thyrsus, the staff of Bacchus, always surmounted by a pine-cone, 113 ; said by

Plutarch to have been carried by the Jews at festivals, 132. Time, See Saturn. Titans, wars of, 6 ; name, perhaps, from the Hebrew tan, a dragon or Saurian,.

72 ; dismembered Bacchus, 88, 156. Titles applied to children derived from attributes of the Deity, 155 ; those of

founders of families so applied, 158. Tombs, coins placed there as sacred symbols, 8 ; beads found in them, 31 ,

covered with pictures of the lion, 75 ; — mystic, cistae, or chests, 96 ;

symbols, J 20. Torch, held erect to signify life, and reversed to denote death, 26 ; carried by

the elephant, 136. Torch-bearer, Dionysus, 94. Tortoise, a symbol of Venus, 29, 35, 113. Tragelaphus, a goat-elephant, 81. Tragodiai, or tragedies, goat-songs, 21. Trajan^s column, 106. Transmigration of souls, into their different bodies, or perhaps conditions, 124 ;

a doctrine common to Hindus and other nations, 179. Trees, v/orship of oaks, 47 ; firs devoted to Pan, 48 ; Bacchus the patron,

144- Triads, Egyptian, 38 ; the Supreme, represented at Hierapolis, 168 ; — at

Samothrace, Upsal, among the Chinese, and on the Pacific islands, 169 ; the

Hindu Trimurti, 177, 179 ; the idea universal, 178. Triangle, Egyptian symbol of the Triad, 169. Triform division, the first departure from simple theism, and the foundation of

religious mythology, 178. Trimurti, the three Hindu deities, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, 177, Trinacria, 169.

Trinity in unity in almost every nation, 178. Tripod, 170. Triton, a composite representation terminating in a fish, 112.

238 hidex.

Triumph, painting the statues red, also the bodies of the consuls and dictators, 120.

Tunny, \li>.

Turrets, Cybele crowned with them, 27 ; also the Syrian goddess, 167.

Tuscan order, m.

Tutelar deity , Hercules, of Tyre, 2 ; Cybele, of cities, 27.

Tiao principles, active and passive, or male and female, 25, et passim.

Tyndarus swearing the suitors of Helen, 80 ; Castor and Pollux said to have been his sons, 157.

Typhon, the evil potency of the Egyptians, brother of Osiris, and the same as Seth, or Satan, the Hyk-sos and Hittite god, 6, 71 ; said to have been emas- culated (or dethroned) by Horus, whose eye he struck out, 58 ; the destroy- ing power, 71 ; represented by the hippopotamus, 74 ; the harp strung with his sinews, 82 ; represented by an ass, 87 ; dismemberment of Osiris, 88, 157 t Typhonian rock, fable of Prometheus, 88.

Umbra, or shade, the terrestrial soul, 124.

Universal -powtT, 84; — conflagration, 117.

Upsal, seat of the Northern hierarchy, 20, 136 ; three statues, l6g.

Uranus, Ouranos, or Heaven, 24.

Uriel, or Uraeus, 16 ; an emanation adopted by the Jews as an archangel, 54.

Urns, sepulchral, emblazoned with a reversed torch, 26.

Urotalt, the Arabian name of the Supreme Being, 19.

Urus, auroch, or European buffalo, 19.

Vail, the Night-goddess depicted with one, 57 ; upon the head of Proserpina, 83.

Vailed cone, or egg, 95.

Vailing, muesis, or initiation, 4.

Vase employed as a symbol of the vine, 45.

Vaticination, the art derived from the dsemon, or guardian spirit, 119.

Vemis, or Aphrodite (for the Great Mother of the Asiatics, see Celestial Venus), the Graces her ministers, 29 ; the planet symbolised by the y, or cross of Serapis, 30 ; symbolised by a cow, 36 : represented holding a poppy-head, 45; Vulcan her husband, 126; detected in an amour with Mars, 126; dancing, 139 ; Harmonia her daughter, 150 ; statue at Samothrace, 169.

Vesta, daughter of Rhea, and first of the goddesses, symbolised by fire, 27.

Victims, human, in Mexico, 70 ; — to the Minotaur, 64, 65 ; offered to Brimo, 102 ; sacrificed by the hierarchies of Northern Europe, also by the Greeks and Romans, 102; children so offered, 123; Abraham and Jephthah, 123; perished in boxing and gladiatorial matches, 153.

Victors in the games crowned with olive or oleaster, 1 8, 32.

Victory, personified, 84, 123, 134.

Vine, a favorite symbol of Bacchus, 45, 90 ; personified as Ampelus, 91 ; Hercules destroying it, 93.

Index. 239

Virgin, mother of the Scythians, half-serpent, 14 ; Diana of Ephesus not of this character, 67 ; Minerva, also mother of the Corybantes, Diana, also " the Mother," 175, 176.

Virgins, the Sibyls and German prophetesses, 175.

Virginity the attribute of Diana, but hardly correctly so, loi ; an attribute of various goddesses, 175 ; that of Juno renewed every year, 176.

Vishnu, slew a serpent, 72 ; — or Juggernaut, lay dormant four months, 85 ; images at Girjeh, or Djirjih, with Ganesa and Juggernaut, log ; the steers- man of the sacred ark, 134 ; the Preserver, the second person in the Hindu Triniurti, 177.

Votaries of Bacchus, inspired, 45.

Vulcan, the personification of fire, n6, 126, 127 ; husband of Charis, 89 ; his- band of Venus, 126 ; father of the Cabeiri, 127 ; made the fegis, 131.

Vulgar, or the populace, the great preservers of ancient customs, 48.

Vulttire of Prometheus probably a symbol of the Winter and Destroying Power, 88.

Wagon, a name of the constellation Great Bear, 97.

Watch-night, the Nyktelia, a night-festival of the Mysteries, 34.

Water, typifies the passive, or female, principle, 25, et passim; symbolical ol Bacchus, as well as Neptune, 67 ; Osiris, god of, 98 ; poured by Pan upon the phallus, ijl ; swans the emblem, 142.

Water-snake, worshipped in the Friendly Islands, 15; — or Hydra, compre- hended both symbols, the serpent and the lizard, 92 ; at Delphi, 151.

Waves, imitated by the raised curves at the extremities of roofs. 111 ; on Phoenician coins, 128.

Weather-cocks, on churches, originally emblems of the Sun-god, 70.

Week, days of, called by names of the planets, 145.

Wheel, a symbol of the universe, carried in mystic processions, 60.

Whipped, a Jew, for neglect or violation of the ritual, 41 ; Lacedaemonian boys, at Sparta, and Arcadian women, at Alea, 102 ; Roman matrons, to promote fecundity, 143.

Wine always accompanied devotion among the Greeks, 50.

Wings, upon Eros, or Cupid, emblems of spontaneous motion, 13 ; on Mercury, 116 ; — on the thunderbolt, 135 ; of Cybele, 145.

Winnow, mystic, of Bacchus, 120, 128.

Winter, the boar an emblem, 85 ; — solstice, the period of Yule, 87 ; the binding of Prometheus a symbol, 88.

Wisdom, the secret doctrine of the Mysteries, 4.

Wolfi'P&nnx), an emblem of the destroying power, 89, 178.

Women, Hindu, carried the lingam in procession. 15 ; — Italian, wear Priapic amulets, 30 ; — Sarmatian, said to destroy the right breast, 33 ; — Cyrenean, would not eat the flesh of the cow, 36 ; — Barcsean, abstained also from the flesh of swine, 36 ; — only, officiated at the oracle, 46, 48 ; the term nymph relates to them, sexually, 47 ; — Grecian, their enthusiasm, and even ferocity, when celebrating the orgies of Bacchus, 49 ; prostituted

240 Index.

themselves in ihe temples of Mylitta, Astarte, the Celestial Venus, Nana Aaiatis, Venus-Erycina, and in Rome and India, 54, 55, 67 ; — British, cele- brated the nocturnal rites of Bacchus, 68 ; their constitutions affected by the moon, 99 ; — Arcadian, whipped annually at the festival of Bacchus, 102 ; — Roman, whipped with thongs of goat-skin to promote fecundity, 143 ; — Athenian, invocation at the Thesmophoria, 165 ; — enthusiastic, at the temple of the Syrian goddess, 173 ; more liable than men to spiritual enthusiasm, 175.

Woodpecker, the yunx, or wry-neck, sacred to iVIars, 171, 172.

Worship, mystic and symbolical, in Asia, of immemorial antiquity, 12 ; princi- ples of, 50, ei passim.

Wreaths of foliage, 32.

Writing, alphabetic and hieroglyphic, 6, 42 ; symbolical, 70.

Yamuna, or Jumna, 98.

Year, represented by the barbarians of :'iie North, 145. Yule, the feast of Frey, kept at the winter solstice, 87. Yunx torquilla, or the wry-neck, 171.

Zadok, the head of the sacerdotal family in Judea, 53.

Zebiib {Baal), the oracle-god of Ekron, made by the Jewish Pharisees identical with the Hittite god Seth, or Satan, and styled Prince of Devils, 62, 89; — or Jupiter-Fly, the destroying attribute, 89 ; name conjectured to mean Baal of the Temple, or Lord of the Oracle, 90.

Zend Avesta. See Avesta.

Z^tis. the Grecian name for the Supreme Being, Dseus, or Deus, 2 ; the same as Kronos, 22 ; the all-pervading spirit of the universe, 6r ; called also Meilichios, or Moloch, 70; correspondent with Amun, 137; the name given to Pan, or the great All, 138 ; horned, 138 ; invoked at the Thesmo- phoria as the all-ruling Spirit, 165 ; statue at the temple of the Syrian goddess, 167. See Jupiter.

Zodiac, use in astrology, 52 ; the signs taken from myslic symbols, 97.

Zoroaster, Zerdusht, Zerathustra, the sacred college of Chaldseans, or Magians, or the president (Rab-lMag) of the college, 53 ; the Avesta claimed by Persians of the second, or post-Parthian, dynasty to be the work of Zoroaster, 62.

Hands with Necromancer's Emblems.

[edit]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Drawn from the Antique by A. L. RAWSON.

THE FIGURES REFER TO FOLIOS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGES.

See the same names in the Index.

Refers to the numbered paragraphs m the text.

No. I.

Gnostic Gem. — Metropolitan Museum

Abra.xas god from King's Gems, semes (shemesh) ILAM-IAO, Jeho- vah the great sun (god). " lao is Adonis, Adonis is the Semitic and Mosaic Adonai, the Lord" (Movers). lao is the highest of all the gods; he gives life to all, and in lieaven is the SuN. In the winter, when the nights are longest, he dwells in the Under World as (Aides) Zeus Chthoxios, in Hades ; in spring when the harvest is ripe he is Zeus, the god of the weather ; in summer he is the scorching Helios ; and in autumn the season of fruits he is lAO tlte source of all beauty, love, and life." Phoenician in origin but adopted in many other lands.

Frontlspiece, Soorya. — From the original

The original is a carving in marble nearly six feet high, by Hindu art- ists in some remote age of anticjuity, perhaps before the great gods were given more than one pair of arms. Soorya is the spirit residing in the sun which causes all things to grow, as the lotus emblem held in each hand indicates. The sign of the female principle is made by both hands, as the priest now makes it, by elevating the thumb and two lin- gers, and it is also the sign of the Holy Trinity. The smaller figure of a priest at the left shows a phallik sign with the right hand and holds a cup (the sign of the female) in the left. A female warrior with sword and shield stands on the right. Before the feet of the god Arun the charioteer seated on an elephant's head, guides the seven horses of

Page.

42 2 List of Illustrations.

No. Page.

the sun, the seven day.s of a quarter of a moon. The small figures on the sides are for the winds, waters, fruits and flowers. At the top a monster's head — the sun as a boar ; the destroyer. The statue was found in 1833 on Saugur island at the mouth of tlie flanges, India, by Mr. P. G. Sinclair, an East India Company's pilot, and sold by him to Mr. J. W. Rulon, of Philadelphia, where it now is, in possession of his son, by whose leave this drawing was made.

3. Gods .vxd Goddesses Before Persephone — Moiitfaucflii 5

4. YouNi; Bakchos c>n a Tiger. — Boiir. Mus 9

The young god holds in his hand the sacred Kanthar, the two-handled drinking cup. Rawlinson, Herod, ii, 74, says : " It is connected with deep drinking, as being raised with both hands and emptied at a draught, a fashion in which Marius is said to have copied the god." A vine with clusters and leaves hangs on the tiger's neck, and a Thyrsos lies under his feet. The god is crowned with ivy. He may as well 1)6 called Dionysos as Bakchos, unless the comic masks indicate " the in- ventor of comedy," another title of Bakchos. The group represents both the creative and the destructive powers in nature combined. See Richard Payne Knight's Worship of Priapus,\s. 74, also Cabinet Seerel. pp. 20, 32, 45, S9, 112, 113.

5. Seili",nos. — Bourbon Museum 10

The god of humidity and moisture, and so of " thirsty souls." A dweller in fertilizing streams. The word means a bubbling fountain.

" He gives drink of delicious sweetness." His son Evanthes gave ( Jdysseus wine which Polyphemos said was sweeter than honey. He is also a god of Wisdom, for Platon said Sokrates learned of him. The p(jets made him son of Aphrodite, or of the Naiad Chione and of Pion- }sos, or of Adonis, or Pan, whiclr was to say he was a union of water and sun or wind. A very different idea of this god is given by R. Payne Knight ( IVorship of J'l-iapus, pp. 41, 42).

6. Seilenos. — Bourhou Museum 10

The names of the ancient artists who designed these two pictures of the

god of generous drink are lost, but their work remains for our admira- tion and delight. They are well worth stn<h- for the several attributes cif Seilenos, and the beatity of their grouping and execution.

7. Xymphs and Water Gods. — Mou/faueiiu 11

8. Three Graces. — Bourlwii Museum 14

A Hindu personification of the bright ravs of the sun, or of the tlashing rays, as young women with wings. Neail)" all the famous artists ot ancient and modern times have made groups of the f iraces ; sometimes as three, then four, or more, led I'V -Apollo or Merem}'. The names ol the three are Thaleia (the blooming one), Aglaia (the shining), and Euphrosyne (joy), sometimes called Pasiphae (all brilliant). See Note 157-

List of Illustratious. 42 3

No. P.M. I.,

9. Perseus and Persephone. — Causeiis 15

10. Venus on a Shell. — Bout-. Mus 29

Found at Gragnano, Italy, painted on a stuccoed wall in a garden. The shell is an emblem of the feminine principle, as also the leaf in her hand, and the tunny fish. See Cabinet Seen/, p. 69.

1 1. Apollon and Python. — Mus. Francaise 30

Also may be named Herakles and Hydra, Kadmos and Serpent, Em- blem of light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance, good and evil. Apollon was the Purifier (sunlight on fog in marshes). The original of the picture is called Cadmus and the Dragon, although the lion's skin of Herakles and dart of iVpoUon are there.

12. A.MAZONS AND GREEKS. — Roman Campana 31

The Amazons were mysterious beings, slaughtered or overcome by Achilleus, Herakles, Theseus, and Bellerophon, and said to have been beautiful, fierce, and powerful, as might be said of the clouds in sun- shine. Another view of the Amazons was that they were female war- riors whose right breast had been amputated to free the arm in using

the bow, spear, or sword, and an attempt was made to trace the word to a supposed root " mazos," meaning a female breast. Some authors locate them on the island Hesperia, west, near the Atlantic Ocean. The gardens of the Hesperides are in an island which no bark ever approaches, where the ambrosial streams perpetually flow by the Couch of Zeus, and it is near the land of the Gorgons, and of that everlasting darkness which is the abode of Ahi and Pani, of Geryon, Kakus, and Echidna.

13. The Herakles of the Farnese Palace. — Rome 33

Herakles, like Theseus, is both god and hero. As a hero he is son of Jupiter and Alkmene ; and others say of Amphitryon. Juno was jeal- ous and sent two serpents to destroy the infant. This means that the rising (infant) sun strangles (disperses) the dark morning clouds, called serpents (offspring of the great night-dragon or serpent). Herakles in this figure is the sun at noon, at his greatest strength, irresistible as a giant with a club.

14. The Nymph Deianeira and Kentaur Nessos. — Guido . 3S

The Nymph was intrusted by Herakles to the Kentaur Nessos to be carried over a river, and he made love to her on the way across, against her wish, and was shot by the sun-god. The dying Nessus re- quested the Nymph to give his shirt, which was red with his blood, to Herakles. When the god put the shirt on he was on fire with torment and died in the flames on Mount Oita. The sun sets in a bank of fiery clouds, crimson, scarlet, gold and purple. See other references to Herakles. Deianeira is the Hindu Dasyanari, the wife of the fiend, the enemy of the day.

424 List of Illustrations.

No. Page.

15. Theseus, Eurytos anh Ariadne. — Gat. dcs Peints .... 38

Eurytos was father of lole (loved by Herakle.s), teacher of the use of the bow to Herakles. Eurytos and Kteatos were sons of the grinders MoHon and Aktor (the clouds were formed by the winds).

Coins. — Britisti Museum and Am. Num. Soc 42

16. Sun as a man and a lion. Hadrian.

17. •' Rev. Moon as a woman in a crescent ; star and sea-crab.

1 8. Athena with helmet and earrings.

19. " Rev. Owl and olive sprig; A(th)E (for Athens) in a simk square.

20. Boar's Head.

21. SvRAKOsioN (Syracuse). Arethusa, earring, hair in a net and band, curls like flames, surrounded by dolphins (tun- nies).

It is conjectured that the meeting of the two fishes opposite her nose is to hx the date of the coin between the reign of Gelon, 485-478 B. C and that of Kimon, later, when the island on which the city was built was connected with the main land by a causeway.

22. '• Rev. Chariot and four horses driven by ApoUon who is crowned by Victory.

This is a union of the horse, emblem of humidity, chariot, of the fe- male principle, and of the sun as the male. Trophy in the space be- low.

23. Herakles in the garden of the Hesperides.

24. V.ASE ; two-handled kanthar ; two dots.

25. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Emperor, Cesar.

26. " Rev. Perseus cutting off the head of Medousa; Pallas assisting (the sunlight cuts off the cloud or disperses it). Sebaste (Samaria).

27. Thasos. Satyr carrying off a nymph (wind blowing a cloud away).

28. Akanthos. Lion killing a horse (sun drying up fog).

29. Eo\PT. Hadrian head; (money of) Imperial Caesar 'J'rajan Hadrian the Venerable.

List of lllii.strations. 42 s

Nn- I'ACJE

30. " Rev. Serapis on a ram ; 6th year.

31. Bakchos (Bacchus) or Dionysos. — Rom. Mus 46

Homer makes Zeus say Dionysos is his son by Semele (the earth), (See .Vote 812), which is to say, of the hc.'.ven and of the earth. The two names in later time Greek poetry came to denote very different ideals. Dionysos was the son born out of darkness, the worker through the long day of life, contender with and conqueror of enemies (clouds), sleeper in the dark, silent land (night), and he who rises again from sleep in the dawn-land. He is also the night-sun as Apollon is the day-sun. The nature of divinities is read in their names, and Brown, in " The Great Dioiiysiak Hfyt/i," gives forty-three epithets of this god, each descriptive of some attribute. A few of these are : Agrionios, the savage, referring to an early time when human sacrifice was offered to the god ; Bromios, the noisy, as patron of the noisy and vociferous rit- ual ; Choiropsalas, the sow-seeker, a phallic epithet (see Clement Alex- andrinus, Protrept. ii. 39, and Aristophanes, Sphejies, 1364, and Peter, ii, 22). The word Bakchos is said to mean to howl or shout wildly. Associated with this god are many emblems ; the serpent as a symbol of the sun, of time and eternity, of earth-life, fertilizing moisture, and as a phallic emblem; sesame (always put in the mystic chest), made into cake pyramids and knobbed cakes ; also salt, ivy, pomegranate, ser- pents and ferules. Dionysos was also said to be the son of Persephone, , of 16, of Arge, of Dione, and of Amaltheia. See Myth, of the Aryan Nations, Sir G. W. Co.\. The name Dionysos is referred to the Assy- rian Daiannisi, or Dian-nisi, judge of men, and it corresponds to the Egyptian Rhotamenti, Rhadamanthys, the King of the Under World. The Dionysiak myth is a treatise on life, as conceived by the various people who invented it. Dionysos is the kosmic spirit of the material world, son of Zeus the first cause and all-father, and of Semele the foundation of nature (Brown). Orpheus says :

" The sun whom men call Dionysos as a surname. One Zeus, one Aides, one Helios, one Dionysos."

32. Birth of Bakchos. — Gal. des Feints 50

Bakchos is the sun, and was said to be a son of Dionysos and Aphro- dite, that is the Dawn in its loveliness and splendor, unruffled by cloud or wind. Apollo with his foiu- horses ushers in the da)', and Pan pipes a welcome, while Hermes bears the infant aloft to Zeus who waits on a cloud attended by his eagle. A'arious nymphs, gods and goddesses are near, and Narcissus (Narkissos) the weary sun, goes to sleep (turns into a flower).

2,:>,. Persian Banner ; emblem of the Sun 54

34. The Mystic Egg ; see Note 60.

The Solar Egg is a manifestation of the Kosmic Egg, supported by two serpents of plenty, each crowned with the modius of Serapis. On some

42 6 List of Illustrations.

No. Page,

ancient Roman tombs we see a human head with two serpents as wings; on others a head with wings; the cherub. In this group of the egg with serpent wings we ha\e the sun as the agathodaimon rising " with healing on his wings," which are the horses of Indra, the golden pinions of Protogonos, as " on wings of glory up the east he soars," I I}'perion the climber. This is the w'inged solar circle of Kaldea, Assur, Egypt, and Persia, where it originated. It means the brooding and generative power of nature.

35. The A'irgin Mary and child Jesus, in a circle of roses and flames, an emblem of maternity. See Notes 576, 577.

36. The Venus of Cyprus. — Met. Museum. The hermaphrodite, with male and female emblems.

37. The Arda — Nari — Iswara. — Moor' s Pantlicon.

With both male and female emblems. The tiger, bull, spotted leopard garment, and a stream of vitalizing fluid issuing from the male side of the head, the origin of the spiritual river Ganges, the stream of all liv- ing souls.

38. The Bull Apis of Egypt.— 7?. Payne Knight, IV. of P.

39. Persian emblem. — Causeus.

40. Herakles (Sandon) killing a boar. — Met. Mas. Sun drying the fog. From " King's Gems."

41. Tyre.

Colony of Tyre the metropolis — the two sacred stones, double altar, in- cense altar flaming, and shell under an oak from which hang two acorns.

42. Emble.m of the Dog Star Sirius. — Causeus.

43. The god Atys, Adonis, Tammuz. — Alontfaue-on.

44. Kerberos. — Causeus.

See Engraving No. 211 for another form.

Coins. — Am. Numismatical Society 62

45. Alexander II. king of Epirus ; head in elephant's skin.

47 48

49 50

" i?('(-'. A I hena armed ; eagle. See Note 92. Bull. Bakchos on a coin of Cyziciis. Dkmetrios II Nikator, Philadelphos.

" Re'o. Cerks with phallic emblems. Hekakles killing a bull. Herakleia.

List of Illustrations. 427

No, I'AI,E.

51. Bull butting; fish below. Tliurium.

52. Priest sacriiicing on flaming altar ; cock and serpent.

53. Athexa.

54. " Rev. Owl on a vase; goddess of plenty near; olive branch. Athens.

55. Syrakosion. Arethousa in a circle of dolphins.

56. Archelaus. Horse.

57. Alexander II. king of Epirus.

58. " Rev. Zeus holding eagle and staff; eagle at his feet.

59. Lion with wings. Leontopolis.

60. Dejietrios II.

61. " Rev. Shrine of Kyeele ; goddess on a goat's back.

62. Herakleia. Head of god in an olive wreath. Hair of flames.

63. Zeus. Jupiter. — Marble at Rome 65

Zeus lived in the clear blue sky, and some poets said he is the blue cether, unruffled by wind or storm, and is accompanied by the immortal gods on Olympos. He never takes part in affairs of mankind, but del- egates others to do his will. This is Zeus Ouranion. " The thought of Zeus as the One God and Father of All was the birth of religion." The Zeus Pater of Greeks, Dyaus Pitar of Hindus became Jupiter at Rome. The birth and amorous exploits of Jupiter are the subjects of many lines in the Iliad and Odyssey, in Hesiodic and Orphic theogon- ies, and in Ovid's Metamorphoses. See other engravings of Zeus be- low, and \ 4.

64. Ceres Demeter. — Florence Museum 69

.Max Miiller sees in the name Demeter the Hindu Dyava Matar, female as Dyatis Pitar is male ; as such they made her the Dawn-Mother. Others say she is Ge-Meter, earth-mother. In the myth of Proseq^ine (Persephone) she is called Mother Earth.

65. Rhea Kyeele. — Florence Museum 73

This goddess is the Latin ideal ripener of fruits. iSIax JMiiller says the Avord is from a Sanskrit root Sri meaning to cook or ripen. Sri (Lakshmi) is the wile of Vishnu, and she rose from the sea like Venus. See Notes I44, 148, also engraving XXXIV in Cabinet Secret.

42 8 List of Illustrations.

Nil. Pagr.

66. Venus de Medicis — Flor. Miis 79

Anli(|ue marble found at Rome and set up in the garden of the Medicis in 15S0; carried to Florence in 1680, and to Paris by Napoleon I., and restored to Florence in 1 815.

Coins. — Am. Num. Soc 86

67. Cyrene. Head of king with ram's horn of Ammon, and two plants.

68. " Rev. The sacred Silpion, and Atrato.

69. Perinthos. Alexander Severus, emperor.

" Ri'v. Zeus seated, eagle, Gaia and Thalassa below; above Helios with horses to his car, and Selene with bulls. Star and crescent above. Inscription ; all in Zodiac, and border of dots. See* 219.

70. Thasos. Head of Bakchos crowned with ivy.

71. " Rev. Herakles as an archer, disk, and Thasion.

72. ISTRiA. Day and night sun.

73. " Rev. Hawk on a tunny ; Istrie.

74. LvKiA. Apollon, olive wreathed, bow and quiver.

75. " Rev. Lyre from tortoise-shell, name in square.

76. Zeus on an ass, holding vase, dove in a vine, dog.

77. Abdera, Thrace. Griffin (eagle and lion).

78. Demetrios. Ceres with phallic symbols.

79. ^Nus. Goat, altar, and inscription in sunk square.

80. Lion killing a bull. Alexis. Leontopolis.

81. BizvA, Thrace. Emperor IMarcus Julius Philippus, Au- gustus ; head olive wreathed.

82. " Rev. Asklepios (Aesculapius), Apollon, Hygeia, and Telesphoros, altar with serpent. Fortune and Zeus above.

83. ^-Enus. Goat looking back.

S4. lo AT Canopus. — Bourbon Museum 91

The word lo denotes in Greek the brilliance of the moon, and there- fore the same as Isis, the honied o/u\ as in tlie engraving. The myth relates that Zews loved her and jealous Juno changed her into a heifer. The new moon and red heifer wore syinl:)ols in Jewish worship. Sev- e]-al horned divinities are figured in pi. VII, Cabint:t Seerr/.

List of Illustrations. 429

No. Page.

85. Discord on Olympos — Poussin 91

86. Bakchik Procession — Ovid Met 102

The god Bakchos in a car drawn by leopards. He carries a ttiyrsos, and is crowned by vine leaves. His attendants dance, blow trumpets, burn torches, drink wine, and Seilenos is borne drunk on a braying ass. Crowds of people in the windows, doorways, and elsewhere look on.

87. Rhea. Ceres. — Pal. Royal. 105

88. x\phrodite Dancing. — Gal. des Peiiits 105

To the music of ApoUon, and the lively attraction of Eros, the gods and goddesses engage in the mazy dance. Aphrodite, Hermes, Her- akles, and a winged Victory.

89. Ganvmedes and Eagle. — Boiir. Mas 115

90. Angel, Child and Demon — Bour. Mus 115

Coins. British Museum, Worlidge, &c 117

91. Ptolemy, ram's horn.

92. " Rev. Isis on a column inside an inscription.

93. Young Herakles seated on a lion's skin, club, column, bow and quiver.

94. Demetrios. Head diademed, bearded.

95. " Rev. Kybele on a goat.

96. Katanion (Catania). Arethousa, olive leaf and wreath.

97. Abdera. Grififin. Sop in field.

98. Baal head on a Phoenician coin.

99. Leontopolis. Lion killing a bull.

100. Svrakosion. Arethousa, hair banded and netted, ear- ring, tunnies and Syrakosion in the field.

10 1. Medousa. Antique gem from Worsleyana.

102. Philippus. Horse bearing boy with palm branch ; vase.

103. Demetrios. Head in lion's skin.

104. " Rev. Victory.

105. Egypt. Horus in a flower.

106. Bakchic Ecstasy. — Rom. Campana 121

See \ 70, 74.

430 List of Illustrations.

Ni>. Page.

107. llAUBO AND Ceres. — -Gal. des Feints 121

Baubo was one of the names of the night goddess ; Ceres was the mother earth. The two meet at Eleusis to mourn for Kore Persephon- hia, the grain that was sown ; that is in Plouton's dominions.

Coins. — Am. Num. Soc. and Br. Afiis 127

08. Thunuerholt ; king Antiochos I. See '^^ 183.

09. THL'NUERiioLT ; king Alexandres J olive wreath.

10. Thuxderkoli' ; Ptolemy Epiphanes.

11. Sf.leukos I. Elephant with bull's horns.

12. Antiochos VI. Elephant carrying a torch.

13. Lampsak.^s. Horse ending in a fish tail.

14. A'elia. Griffin with lion's head.

15. Chios. Griffin, \ase and bunch of grapes.

16. CuM.t:. Arethousa, earring, waved hair.

17. '• Jic'i'. Shell, mouse and inscription.

18. CuiLK. Shell, side and hinge end.

19. " JicT. Skylla ; woman and two dog heads, dolphin tail and shell.

20. PHffiNicLA. Vaga. ;\Ian attacking a lion.

21. " Rev. Cow suckling a calf.

22. Alli!;,\. Head with olive wreath.

23. " Rev. Skylla, two dog heads and two swans.

24. SvHARis. Athena in horse-tail helmet.

25. " Rev. Cow looking backward.

26. Phienicia. Acre. Head of ruler in dotted border.

27. •' Rev. Prow of ship Phoenician incription.

28. TAREXit •^L Horse with wings, a fish tail, and shell.

29. " Rev. Taras on a dolphin, disk, wreath, shell, fish and trident. Scrolls for water.

T,o. (BIOS. Woman headed sphinx, and vase.

List of Illustrations. 43 1

No, Pace.

131. I'HiT.xiciA. Cock and her pheasants 127

132. '■ Rev. Hfad of ruler with diadem and inscription: Caius Papilius Mutilius, General of the Samnites.

133. Ph(Kxicia. Rev. Bull on a crocodile. Insc. below.

134. Mauritania. King Masinissa : inscription, bird, wreath and altar.

135. Phunicia. Rev. Lion killing a bull ; palm branch.

136. Poseidon. Marble group 131

See Eng. No. 3, 320.

Coins. — Br. Mus. and Am. Num. Soc 135

137. Janus. See S i34-

138. Ephesus. Diana and Deer, bow and branch.

139. SvRi.\. Antiochos VI., rayed crown.

140. " Rev. DiosKOUROi mounted ; olive wreath.

141. K,4MARINA. Bull with man's face. Meaning the sun in the underworld.

142. Thurion. Bull butting ; lion's head below, eera.

143. Tortoise. Eretria.

144. Paljiyra. Three Kabeiroi (Cabiri).

145. Etruria. Eagle's head.

146. Two Sphinxes. On a coin unnamed.

147. Ptolemy. Head of king with diadem.

148. " Rev. Ptolemy Soteros (savior) in a circle; also an eagle, date and mint mark.

149. Syria. Antiochos Soteros (savior) in dotted border.

150. " Rev. Zeus, or ApoUon, seated Antiochos Soteros.

151. Krotona. Tripod, serpents, scroll (for water) border.

152. Rhegium. Lion's head, flames for mane.

153. Etruria. Head with polos.

154. Aic-E. Ram's head.

155. Leontinu.m. Lion's head ; four barleycorns.

432 List of Ilbistrations.

No. Page.

156. Phcexicia. Tripolis, Kastor and Polydeukes, olive dia- dem and stars, in beaded border 135

157. " Rev. Ceres with cornucopia and staff; inscription, (money) of the Tripolitans. The sacred and free city.

158. Sybaris. Bull on a fish.

159. Philetairos. King of Pergamos, olive wreath.

160. " Rev. Pallas crowning name of king, bunch of grapes. Goddess seated ; shield and bow.

161. Alexander the Great. Engra\ing one fourth size of the original gold coin.

162. " Rev. Bellerophon killing the Chimaira.

163. Seleukos I. Head with cow's horns.

164. Bull of India. — JMoor' s Paiitlieon 137

Colossal stone bull ; Tanjore pagoda, India.

165. LiNGAJL — Moor' s Pantheon 137

Brahn:ia, bull, lingam, Ganesa, Prajapati. iScc.

166. Theseus, Ariadne and Minotauros. — Boiir. Mas. . . . 141

The myth of the Minotaur says : At the prayer of Minos Poseidon sent a bull by whom Pasiphse became mother of a composite monster like Echidna, Orthros, Geryon, or Kerberos, called Minotauros. He was shut up in the labyrinth made by Daidalos in Crete, where the Athenians fed him with \-oung children, until Theseus, aided Ity Ari- adne, killed him. The monster is the miasma, who is slain bv the sun. The Minotaur signifies the savage passions which our nature contains. The thread which .Vriadne gave to Theseus is the divine mind in us. The labyrinth the obliquity and variety of life (Taylor from ( >l\"mpi- odoros). " In this monster we see (Jsar-Hapi of Egyq.it, the Calf of ■Sinai, the Bulls of Jeroboam, the >iIolekh (Moloch) of Syria, the Ha- mon of Kart-hada, the Melikertrs of Korinthos, the Palaimon of Ten- edos, the Laphystios or Clutton-Zeus of ,\los, the mythic Ph.alaris of Akragas, who feasted on children (Aristotle), the burning Talos, the giant of i:ironze of .Sardinia, and Dionysos the raw-flesh-eating. The child-devouring .Minotaur was probably an idol of brass with a human figure and bull's head (Movers, Phonizier, i. ;i). Human sacrifice has left ils traces all round the Mediterranean Sea. See Diodorus, IV . 76, and .Strabo, X. 4.

167. EuROPii. — Palais Royal 141

Sec Eng. No. 177.

List of Illustratious.

433

No- Pa,.,:.

1 68. Herakles, Tf.lephos and Deer. — Boar. Mas 144

Telephos, the far-shining, is son of Aleos the bUnd and Aiige the liril- liant, and he was exposed on Mount Parthenion, wheie he was suckled by a doe. He went to Delphoi to learn who was his mother,

and was sent to Teuthras, king of Mysia, where he met his mother who did not recognize him, and is offered her for his wife. It is the story of <3idipous and lokaste repeated with little variation. Her- cules prevents Telephos from killing his mother. Telephos is the dawn.

169. Bakchos and Ariadne at Naxos. — Boitr. JSTiis 144

Theseus on his way to Athens abandoned Ariadne in the island of Naxos, where Bakchos found her. Another legend says : " Beautiful Ariadne, daughter of Minos, whom Thestus was conducting to the sacred Athens, was slain by Artemis in Sea-girt Dia (Xaxos) through the testimony of Dionysos." In the Theognis we read, " Dionysos Chrysokoraes (the golden-haired) made the blond-haired Ariadne, daughter of Minos, his spouse, and for him Kronion (Zeus) made her immortal and e\'er young. The word is Greek Ariagne and means Very Holy. This was a favorite subject with ancient artists, .\riadne was daughter of ilinos (son of Zeus) and the all-brilliant Pasiph;e (mother of the Minotaur).

170. Marsyas Teaching Olympos. — Boiir. Mus 147

The myth says Marsyas found the reed pipe that Athena thre\v awav for fear its use would spoil her beauty, and challenged .VpoUon with his lyre to a trial of skill. He failed and was skinned by the god. See Eng. No. 213. He is here teaching the young Olympos the use of the pipe. This was a favorite subject among ancient artists, and a group in marble was found at Herculaneum which is much broader in suggestion than this, and represents Marsyas as a satyr. See Cab- inet Secret^ pi. II., also Eng. No. 178-

171. Pan and Ero.s. — Boiir. 2/its 147

Pan is a satyr who is master of the reed and pipe music, and he is the purifying breeze, called by the Hindus (Sanskrit) pavana, by the Latins, Favonius and Faunus. He is the gentle wind, the soft zephyr. When the wind whistles among the reeds by the riverside it is said Pan makes love to Syrinx (reed).

172. Herakles Stealing Oxen. — Gal. des Pciiit.': 152

The oxen and sheep are clouds, and are the property of Eurvtos, the Kentaur (cloud), whose daughters are set to keep them, when Herak- les (the sun) steals them by dispersing the vapors. Eurytos and Autolykos taught Herakles to shoot with the bow and to wrestle. These names denote the light and splendor of morning. Since the sun disperses the clouds in the daytime the oxen may have been hid- den in a cave of light, for intense light obscures, and the myth says the

434 Li^i of Illustrations.

No, Page.

oxen were hidden in the cave of Cacus, whom Herakles killed with his club and liberated the cattle. Others say the cave of Cacus is the dark thundercloud. Then the club of Herakles is the lightning.

173. Car of Juggernaut. — (Jaganauth). Photo 152

Formerly drawn in religious processions of India, when fanatics lay before its wheels and were crushed. It is now laid up by order of the English Government at Streeveliputur, in the Presidency of Ma- dras. It is decorated with hundreds of large and thousands of small carved figures in wood, of gods and monsters and ornamental objects. .See " 120.

174. Zeus of Pheidia.s. — Bour. Miis 155

175. VouNt; Zeus and Eagle. — Bour. Miis 155

176. Satyr, Aphrodite and Eros. — Gal. dcs Feints 159

177. Europe. — Palais Royal 159

Daughter of Agenor, King of Phcenicia, and of Telephassa. Pindar said Europe is daughter of Tityos the giant, who was killed by an arrow of Artemis, and condemned to work like Ixion, Sisyphos, Tan- talos and Prometheus. Europe means the splendor of the morning, seen first in the purple-land, Phoinikia (Phrenicia). She is the dawn borne across the blue heaven by the lord of the pure ether (Zeus), who assumed a bull's form. Kadmos and Telephassa (far-shining) search for her all the long day. Telephassa died in Thessaly, and Kadmos was told at Delphoi that his search is in vain. The beautiful being who gave such great pleasure to all who beheld her will no more be seen. She became mother of Minos, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthus by Zeus in Crete. See Eng. No. 167.

178. Marsyas and Olympos. — Bour. Mus 164

Mars}"as is one of the most noted of the Satyrs, who animate forests and groves and make the branches of the trees dance to the wild music of the winds, while the clouds whirl in the air above. The)- are companions of Dionysos, lord of the wine-cup and of Herakles, the burly heedless giant. After the storm has passed the stillness is called the sleep of the Satyrs.

179. Kentaurs and Kentauresses. — Bour. Mus 167

Those trwo groups were drawn from two silver vases now in the liour- bon Museum at Naples, Italy. The figures are finel)- designed and wrought with exquisite skill. In the upper group the Kentaur bears a I1i\rs()s and a pine cone ; in the lower a pine branch is in its place. The Kentauresses each carry a lion's skin over the arm. The beau- tiful lamps aboxe, neai the border of eggs and spear points, are for two lights each.

List of Illustrations. 435

No. Pagk.

iSo. Kentaur and Eros. — Roman Mus 171

When Ixion in pride attempted to seize Here the bright queen of the air, Zeus placed in his way the mist-maiden Nephele, and the Ken- taur was born. The sun at high noon calls out the clouds which move like horses across the sky. They are the Gandharvas of the Vedas.

t8i. Fortune. — Bourbon Museum 177

Tyche or Fortune is the notion of blind chance, scattering favors with- out heed to the needs or deserts of any one. Another view is that she directs human affairs more or less as she may be propitiated, and so she is represented with a rudder in one hand and the horn of Amaltheia in the other. She also stands on a globe or holds one in her hand to indicate her power over its affairs, when she is properly one of the fates (parete, Eumenides). Many other titles are given her ; Akraia (wealth bringer), and Agatha (the good). The separate head shows a peculiar style of dressing the hair.

1 82. The second figure holds a rudder and cornucopia (horn of Amaltheia), and bears on her head an Isis form of or- nament or emblem.

I S3. The winged figure bears a palm branch and seems float- ing in the air. This was a later ideal.

184. The Boar That Killed Adonis. — Ovid. Atet iSo

The boar was the biting frost that kills the spirit of the fruits and flowers, the beautiful Adonis whom Aphrodite loves. When he is brought before the warm summer he melts and dies.

1 8 c;- Ganymedes. — Gal. dcs Pcints 183

Ganymedes was seized and borne aloft by the Eagle of Zeus. The myth means the act of fructifying nature, attended by Power and Wis- dom. Pindar said Ganymedes was a mighty genius who caused the overflowing of the Nile by moving his feet. He is Atys, Adonis, Bakchos, or Zeus himself in a new disguise. Speaking of a certain needlework, Virgil says : —

" There Ganymedes is wrought with living art. Chasing through Ida's groves the trembling hart : Jove's armor-bearer bird in open day With crooked talons bears the boy away."

He is the morning light carried to heaven on a bright tinted cloud. Hebe was to be the wife of Herakles.

186. Ganymedes on Olympos. — Palais Royal. 183

Banquet of the gods in the distance. Ganymedes is the immortal cup-bearer to the gods — the rain-cloud.

436 List of Illustrations.

No. ■ \'\<.E.

1S7. Death of Adoms. — Oviit. Met 1S6

Adonis, Tammuz, Atys is the spirit of fruits and flowers who is killed by the biting frost, the boar. The summer, Venus, warm and loving, must have iVuit and flowers, therefore Adonis is brought to life again every spring. In the myth Adonis is in the underworld, as Perse- phone is, a part of the year, and in the region of light the other part.

188. Prometheus and Vulture. — Palais Royal 1S9

Hesiod says Prometheus is a son of the Titan lapetos, and his brothers are Epimetheus, Atlas and Alenoitos. -Eschylus says mankind were hopeless in savagery until Prometheus stole hre from heaven and taught them its use. Hesiod sa^s that men began to live in a golden age which was followed by a silver age, then a l:)razen, and we are now in an iron age. The poet also says Zeus owed his throne to the e-xertions of Prometheus, but when he befriended man with the gift of fire Zeus became angry and punished him by causing a vulture to gnaw always at his liver which is renewed every day. Tortures and death have no lasting power over him, for he is delivered b)- the bright and lovely lo, and his release brings Zeus to humiliation. Zeus had punished him for teaching man the use of lightning and fire, and so awakened their senses, providing them with comforts of life, teaching them how to plow and build, to cross the sea and open mines, and so Prometheu> became the second creator and preser\^er of mandkind. His son Deukalion was another restorer of mankind, after the mythical flood.

189. Venus and AV(.)unded Adonis. — Pal. Royal 189

The Summer-Heat (\'enus) mourns for the frost-bitten flow'ers and fruits (Wounded Adonis).

190. Bakchos, \'ine, and Tiger. — ]Vorship of Priapiis 193

See description in paragraph 1 26, and also in Richard Payne Knight's Worship of Friapiii.

191. Apollon. — Unknown antique 196

This statue in white marble was found in 1505 near the harbor of Antium, Italy. It is supposed to be a copy of a bronze because of the form of the cloak. The left fore-arm. the ftngcis of the right hand,

and small parts of the leg have been restored. Its name, the Pythian .Apollon, was given from the action which is the instant after sending an arrow through the great serpent, which means that the sun's ray> have pierced the dark morning clouds. It is also called the A]iollo Belvedere from its location in that garden bv Pope Julius II.

Coins. — British Aliiseuin 19S

192. Chimaira. SegestK. Lion's head and body, goat's head from the back, and serpent tail.

193. " Rev. Dove in an olive wreath. The word chimaira in Greek means a \ear old goat, and also means winter.

List of Ilhistrations. 437

N.I, Page.

194. Bull on a coin of Magnesia 198

195. Camarina. Young Bakchos with bull's I'lOrns ; fish in a circle of scrolls or curved lines of water. See *^\ 157.

196. " Rev. Aphrodite on a swan, curved and crescent lines of water ; fish, kam. See ^ 157, and Note 586.

197. Antiochos I.

198. " Rev. Apollon on egg-shaped basket; bow and arrow and Pegasos at his foot. King Antiochos.

199. Gela, Sicily. Man-faced bull ; gelas above.

200. Athena. Skylla and griffin on helmet.

201. Phcenicl\. Head of Ceres with wheat ears in the hair.

202. " Rev. Horse, palm tree and Phoenician letters krka, for Karka, the name of a city.

203. A(jRiGENTUJL Two cormorants on a rabbit. See Note 392-

204. Akanthus. Bull with lion's head. See ^| 158.

205. Leontini. Lion's head; mane as flames.

206. Phienicia. Head (of king) with helmet.

207. '■ Rev. Isis with rays and necklace, mlk (melek-king)

LEPD.

208. Agrigentum. Cormorant on a serpent, akragantinon.

209. " Rev. Sea-crab, starfisli, and fish below.

210. Agrigentuinl Cormorant, akraciyntos.

211. " Rev. Sea-crai! ; Victory below.

212. Herakles between Vice and Virtue. — Gal. des Feints 202 This composition has a double meaning : the choice of a young man between truth and integrity, or of deceit and craft ; and the mythologi- cal in which the sun chooses his way among dark or light clouds as

he goes across the heavens.

438 List of Illustrations.

No- Pace.

213. Apollon Skinning Marsyas. — Gal. dcs Feints 202

In the contest between Phoibos and Marsyas the prize was awarded by Minos to the satyr when the god doomed the umpire to wear ass's ears as a punishment. His servant discovered the secret of the ears, and unable to keep it, whispered it into a hole in the ground. A reed grew up from the place and repeated the words to the winds who scattered the news to all the world. On a second trial the victory was given to ApoUon, who skinned Marsyas for presuming to contend with him in music. The meaning is ; the sun and wind produce superior music to that made by the rushing winds in the dark hours of night.

214. Apollon. Meleager. — Rom. Miis 205

215. Diana drawn by Nymphs. — Gal. ties Pdnts 211

As though the moon was drawn by clouds or stars.

2 1 6. Diana returning from a hunt. — Palais Royal. 211

Diana is said by one poet to have killed the hunter Orion in Ortygia, while another said she killed him accidentally, having aimed at a mark on the sea which Phoibos said she could not hit. Asklepios tried to raise him from the dead, and Zeus struck the healer with a thunderbolt. In this picture the goddess has other game — fruits, one of which the rustic in a hat is tasting. See Cabinet Sctret, pi. No. xx.xii.

217. Pi.ouTGN AND Kerberos. — Ro?n. M/IS 21S

Plouton and Serapis are similar ideals, but not identical. Plouton is also Ais, Hades, Aidoneus, Polydegmon, the king of the underworld, and Zeus Katachthonios, the unseen king who can make himself and others invisible. The cap on his head is a sign of that power, and is the tam-kappe or nebel-kappe of Teutonic legends. As Plouton, the richest of all monarchs, he is like Kuvera of the Ramavana. Poseidon built the ^\'alls that enclose the realm of darkness, the land of the great majority," and the gates are guarded b)- Kerberos, the fearful dog with three heads. This monster is said to have belonged to a terrible brood : Hydra, Chimaira, Geryon, Orthros, and Sphinx, who arc children of Echidna and Typhon, and are ideals of the hurricane and llashes of lightning \vhich precede a fall of rain. Geryon has two heads. Hesiodos gave Kerberos fifty hiads, and Horace calls him the hundred footed beast. The Kg\ptians called him tl'ie Dog of Typhon. and in their astronomv Kcrl)crcis takes the place of the Great Hear. See Engraving No. 45 for a curious iigure of Kerberos.

Coins. — Duteiis 221

218. Va(;a, Hercules and lion's skin. Sun hot at noon. He holds the lion by the tail and swings his club. A^aga.

219. " Rev. Cow suckling a calf. Phcenician letters vo(;a.

List of Illustrations. 439

No, Page.

2 20. Perga ill Pamphylia. ApoUon with olive wreath and

quiver 221

221. " 7?("'. Artemis with spear and myrtle ; deer. Inscrip- tion, Artemis of the Pergaians..

222. Syracuse, Sicily. Arethousa ; hair as flames, fish swim- ming meet at the end of the nose ; shell under chin ;

SVRAKOSION.

223. " Rev. Horse head, palm branch, Phoenician letters.

224. Triquetra on a coin of Sicily.

225. Four Seasons. Hadrian coin. Inscription, Happy times.

226. Gaza, Philistia. Saturn on a winged horse (Pegasos?) ending in a fish tail ; fish below in water of waved lines.

227. " Rev. Owl with Isis emblems in circle of dots.

228. Antiochou Epiphanous Dionysous.

229. " Rev. Elephant carrying torch in trunk and the horn of Amaltheia (cornucopia) in the tail. Inscription, (money) of King Antiochos the Illustrious, Dionysos.

230. Etruria. Wheel of four spokes.

231. " Rev. Wheel of four spokes, three dots, G and leaf

232. Etruria. Vase with serpent coiled around it, two handles, cover ; between the two stars and caps of the Dioskuroi. Inscription, v/Elia.

233. Delphos. Egg-shaped altar with serpents coiled around it, on a pile of loose stones, dividing the word del- ph-on.

234. Triquetra. With one wing on a coin of Sicily.

235. Seilenos on an ass, holding a two handled cup ; dove on a vine, and dog under the ass. Mende in Make- donia.

440 List of Illustrations.

N,i, Page-

236. ScARAB/Eus cut in dark hard stone. Sacred emblem of Egypt. The Cut is one quarter size of the original 221

237. " Rc'7'. or back view with inscription in hieroglyphs. (Seyffarth) " The governor of the people, lord of both countries (up- per and lower Eg}'pt), king, crusher ; justifier ; chosen of Amen, the .strong one, the crusher of the wicked. Glorifying the kingdom, the whole offspring of the Lord (Amen), Master of the Lands ; Amen's favorite, the splendid (Siii-SHA-NK), the fervid, the deliverer of life, the destroyer of malefactors."

238. Neapolis, Italy. Man-faced bull, forepart ; star and vase. Curved lines for water below.

239. Neapolis. Bull between two fish. See ^| 97.

240. Ram.\. — Asiatic Rcscarclics.

Hindu god. *' The source of being and cause of destruction, Upen- dra and Mahendra the younger and the elder Indra (Muir)." Name in Sanskrit below.

241. Brahjia. — Asiatic Researches.

The self-existent principle. He is generated from the great mundane egg, in which he manifests himself. Both created and uncreated. Mahadeva created Brahma, Vishnu, and Indra, and is the Priapos of India. (Muir, Sanskrit Texts, part IV., p. 27), Name in Sanskrit below.

242. Krishna. — Asiatic Researches.

" Krishna of the Yadava race, son of Aditi, called ^'ishnu, younger brother of Indra. -\s the son of Nanda, the bull, he is called Go- vinda. Krishna is the god who transcends all, the minutest of the minute, the vastest of the vast, the gi-eatest of the great." Krishna is made to say " I am both priest and victim ; and righteousness (dharma) present and past, the creator and annihilator of the aggre- gate of existences." Name in Sanskrit below.

243. (j-NNESA. — Asiatic Rcsearclies.

Eldest son of Siva (fire) and Parvati (mountain goddess); god of pru- dence, policy, and wisdom, and in Japan also of marriage. Al.^o called Pollear, and compared with the Latin Janus.

Coins. — Br. Mkscidii 229

244. .Alexander. Head of king in elephant's skin ; cegis.

245. " Rev. I'ai.i.as Athene armed, eagle, and (money) of .Alexander — alex.vnai'ov. Mint stamp.

246. Makonic.a, Thrakia. Fore part of horse between two globes ,; .mai' (dxea).

247. '• Rev. Ram's heah in a dotted sunk square.

List of Ilhistrations. 441

No. Page.

248. PopULONiA. Chimaira, with goat's head at the end of the lion's tail 229

249. Metapontum. Ceres, soteria (Soteria) Savior.

250. " Rev. Wheat head and meta (pontum).

251. Abdera, Thrakia. Griffin.

252. " Rev. Artemis, deer, bow, and branch ; polykrathe, Polykrates.

253. Maronea. Horse with Kanthar on his back, maron

(EA).

254. " Rev. Vine in a sunk square; in the border,

EPIMEDROTO.

255. Crete. Head of Ariadne, diademed.

256. " Rev. Dog between two tunnies, apeion.

257. Thrakia. Dikaia. Head of king or Herakles, with lion's skin.

258. " Rev. Sunk square.

259. Malta. Headoflsis; of the Maltese, barley.

260. " Rev. Osiris with four wings, crook and whip. See

H 223.

261. Krotona. Cormorant on a stool.

262. ■• Rev. Tripod with three ring-handles: shell. qpot(onaj, for Crotona.

263. Cyprus. Paphos. Image of Aphrodite in the center, dove over each wing of the temple, and one in the paved court ; KOINON KYPRION. Money of the Cypriotes.

264. Amphipolis, Thrakia. Head of Apollon, olive wreath.

265. " Rev. Lamp burning in a square, and in tlie border amphipoliteon.

266. Tyche, Fortune, draped figure, rudder and horn of Amal- theia.

267. Selinus. Pallas.

26S. •■ Rev. Cock and Sun. .\ovino.

442 List of Illustrations.

No. Page.

269. Tripoli. Apollon with quiver 229

270. " Rev. Europe on the Bull ; tripoleiton.

271. T.^RENTUM. Taras on a dolphin ; curls or scrolls for waves. TA T.

272. " Rev. Taras on a horse.

273. Syracuse. Head of Arethousa, olive branch on hair; hair plaited and waved in front ; earrings, necklace of pearls. Four tunnies in the field, all swimming one way. SYRAKOSION (money) of the S3Tacusans. Struck by Gelon, 485-478 B. C.

274. " Rev. Chariot and two horses driven by a boy, Vic- tory flying above, lion springing belovi'.

275. Isis. — Moor' s Pantheon 233

The goddess of fecundity and consort of Osiris, tlie sun, and therefore

the moon. The Greek lo, the homed one (See Eng. No. 85). Iris and Osiris were the parents of Horus, the Egyptian ideal youth, or savior, represented as Har-pi-chru-ti, the Horus-child, in Greek Harpokrates.

276. Mars. Ares. — Rom. Mus 237

A Latin god, at first worshiped as the softener of tlie earth and rip- ener of fruits and grains. In later time the Greek Ares was the per- sonified storm-wind and was added to the Mars ideal who then was called the god of war.

277. Plouton and Other Deities in Hades. — Cartari . . . . 243

278. Nemesis. — Cartari 243

The word nemesis means righteousness, and it is said her nature and duty is to see that good and evil are more evenly distributed among mankind. She is also called Adrasteia, the being from whom there is no escape. Hesiodos says she is the daughter of Night (Leda) and sister of Helen and Apollon. Pausanias sa)s a statue of her at Rhamnus in Attica was esteemed the finest work of art in marble ex- tant. After Alexander's time she was represented with Avings.

279. Kore. — Cartari 243

The secondary or female principle in nature, called the daughter, t In earth Kore, but in Hades Persephoneia (Proserpine). The personifi- cation of heat, the preserver and destroyer ; the cause of fertility and

of fermentation. She is sometimes drawn with a veil on her head. See Engraving .\o. 52, p. 156, in 77/f Eleuxiiiian and Bacchic Mip- tcries (Bouton, 1891). Sec Note 259.

List of Illustrations. 443

No. Page.

280. Kybele. — Cartari 243

See Note 420, p. 169.

281. Mars, Ares. — Gal. des Feints 249

Mars the ripener speeds over the grain fields from the equator north and south at the rate of about twelve miles a day.

282. Victory. — Unknown artist 249

The recently discovered antique marble statue of a winged Victory, life-size, was an event of great importance in the art world. It was mutilated as shown in the view.s when found. The general action is like that of other ancient figures of Nike. It is one of the finest pieces of sculpture remaining from the ancient w^orld. Sylla raised a temple at Rome in honor of Nike as the daughter of the giant Pallas, who was said in the Latin legend to be father of Minerva (Athena). Athena and Nike are sisters.

283. Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan. — Ovid Met. . 255

Herodotos says the Skythians worshiped Ares as patron of corn and cattle, and gave his figure a sword, one of the forms of the Hindu Linga. As such he was father of all living things, Marspiter, or Mas- piter, the parent of the twins Romulus and Remus. As the ripener and grinder of grain he is Pilumnus and Picumnus, the god of bakers (Breal, Herculus et Cams). Mars is also the god who crushes with a thunderbolt (Miiller).

284. Minerva. — Rom. Mus 258

The Latin name of Athena, Pallas, Max Muller connects the word with the Greek menos, and Sanskrit ananas, mind. The purely intel- lectual Minerva is a more majestic idea than the Plellenic Athene. The myth was not expanded.

285. Zeus. — Gal. des Feints 261

286. Athena Pallas. — Antique 261

Recently discovered this figure of Pallas is full of interest. Archaic in style and workmanship, but rich in emblems of the great goddess. The horse-tail helmet has a sphinx of extra large proportion ; the necklace is of serpents and brooch a Medousa head. Her right hand supports a small winged victory, and her left rests on the edge of a shield, on the inside of which is a large serpent, and on the outside is a winged Medousa head.

287. Farnese Vase. — Bour. Mus 265

Sardonyx, eighteen inches diameter. Was presented to the Museum by Elizabeth Farnese, wife of the Bourbon King of Naples. The subject

is the prosperity of Egypt, The country is represented by the young woman reclining on the sphinx and holding up two heads of wheat. Two other young women on the right, with a cup and a horn are

444 ^^^i of Illustrations.

No. Page.

daugliters, the delta. .'\ farmer is in the center standing. The old man on the left sitting against a mulberry tree and holding the horn of plenty, is Father Nilus, and overhead are the winds.

288. Medousa's Head. — Bou7-. Miis 265

This is on the reverse side of the Farnese Vase. The Gorgons are the three daughters of Phorkys and Keto, Stheino, Euryale, and Medousa. The Gorgo of the Odyssey is the liideous head of a mon- ster belonging to tlie underworld, and in the Iliad she is a being with an awful face and a terrific glance ; as said in the myth to look on the head of Medousa will change the beholder to stone. The Gorgons are the storm-clouds that fly across the night sky. Darkness is a swallower, a devourer. The night has a bright head, the moon, which can be cut off. So the Medousa combines beauty and hideous- ness, a beautiful woman with snakes for hair (Cox). Robert Brown, Jr., says " the petrifying stare of Medousa is the moon-glare on the darkness, when the color, sound, and motion of the world of day have gone." See Note 684, and coin No. 27, page 42, Perseus cutting off Medousa's head.

Coins. — B)-. Ahis 271

289. Bactria. Head of King Eukratidcs.

290. " Rn\ Dioskuroi, mounted, spears, palm branches, caps and stars. Inscription Eukratides the Great King. Mint mark.

291. Etruria. Wheel with si-\ spokes.

292. " Rev. (below) Vase with two handles in two rings.

293. Etruria. Ausculum. Wheel.

294. " Rev. Wheel, five dots in a group.

295. Calenus. Cock and Sun. A.

296. Popuhinia. Devil-fish.

297. Ci'M.E. Head of king diademed.

298. " Rev. Cornucopia with flowers. Name of citv.

299. PosEiDrtNiA. Poseidon advancing with trident. Name,

300. " Rei'. is the same die incused.

301. Curious Idol found in Thibet.

302. lhn;Ri.\. Head of king ; helmet with wings ; fish. 30;,. " Rev. Composite; man's and hog's heads.

List of Illustrations. 445

No. Page.

304. Aphrodite ; olive wreath and diadem ; hair in flames, border of serpents: field dotted with crescents 271

305. TuD^, Umbria, Italy. Dog sleeping.

306. Skylla. Man with three dogs, and two lish tails.

307. A'f,L-4. Lion over flames ; barleycorn above. 30S. CuM.E. Head with Petasos and olive wreath.

309. " Rev. Skylla; woman, three dog heads.

The mythical skylla work then- will among storm-beaten rocks and charybdis in the awful whirlpools (Cox). The Seirens bask on the rocks among the sunlit waters and lure mariners by their singing to shipwreclv and ruin. They are half women and half fishes, daughters of Echidna and Melusina. .Skylla is daughter of Phorkys and Keto, and sister of the Gorgons, Harpies, Kentaurs, Titans, Graiai, and Phaiakians.

310. CH.4R0N. — jMoiitfaucoii 275

" The gaper," " the all-swallowing," and similar epithets denoted the imaginary boatman who was supposed to ferry souls over the river which was said to separate the living from the dead. The fable was adapted from the Egyptians, whose dead were ferried over the Nile,

or over an artiticial lake near each great temple, in a boat of a pecu- liar shape to represent in a crescent form the female principle. The Greeks added that an obolus (2 cents) and a golden bough must be presented to Charon without which he refused passage. Poetically Charon is the all-devouring darkness of night, which swallows ever}" living thing in time and restores none — except Herakles, or some other sun-god.

311. Isis. — jMoiitfaucoit 277

With cow's horns and ears, rays, vail and necklace. The emblem in

the forehead denotes the female principle.

312. Tripod. — Montfaucon 277

Copper. .Serpent coiled with head rayed ; ram's heads on the legs ; semicircular basin ; tiger or leopard's claws for feet ; two cocks below.

313. Canopus — Causeus ... 277

Egyptian water jar with emblems of humidity.

314. Venus emblems on a coin of Cyprus. — Br. Miis 277

315. Bacchantes and Fauns. — Boiir. AFiis 2S1

These three groups are from Pompeii, and are samples of a large number of similar designs. Graceful and charming in form and sug- gested motion these pictures were valued accessories to the luxurious decorations of a Pompeian palace.

446 List of IlliLstrations,

No. ■ Page.

316. NEREin AND Hippocampus. — Boiir. Miis 285

The N't^td-ids are said to be daughters of Xereus {the wise old deity of the deep calm sea) and of Doris, and to be fifty in numbers, whose names are given by Ovid i^Works and Days). The most noted are Amphitrite, Galateia, Dynamene, Pherousa, Proto, Kymodeke, words denoting dwellers in the waters, their powers, strength, office or abode. For other pictures of them see Cabinet Secret, pi. xxk, xlix, and below.

317. Nereid and Sea M(")Nster. — Bour. Mus 285

Seldom has the imagination been exercised on a more beautiful or more harmless subject than the lovely beings who comfort Prome- theus in his agony and with Thetis cheer Achilleus when his heart is riven with his grief for his dead friend Patroklos. Each fountain and lake, river and marsh, well, tree, hill, valley : in short, every portion of the world was said to have its guai'dian Nereid, who was always employed in good deeds.

318. Pan and Goat. — Roman Campana 289

The reed pipe of Pan, the harp of Orpheus and the lyre of Hermes

are variants of the idea that all the gods are cheered by the music of the winds set in motion by the sun among the reeds, the trees, or elsewhere. "Pan is the purifying breeze." He is the child of the morning, rests at noon and rages if disturbed. He is said to be son of Hermes and the nymph Dryops ; or of Hermes and Penelope, or of Odysseus and Penelope, or of Ouranos and Gaia, or finally, of Aither and a Nereid. He had goat's legs and feet and small horns, and was full of laughter and play.

319. Aphrodite on a Goat. — Causcus 289

Intended to exhibit the reproductive principle in nature. See \ 191, 1'}^^ and Notes 115 and 749.

320. Poseidon and Amphitrite. — Bour. Mns 293

Poseidon was said to be wiser than Apollon (Iliad xxi.), and to have mysterious wisdom and prophetic powers. Jupiter (Zeus) and Aido- neus (Aides, Hades, Plouton,) were brothers and sons of Kronos. The world was divided among the three brothers, Zeus having the heavens, Poseidon the sea, and Aidoneus the underworld. He was supreme king of the waters, including humidity in all its forms. Even the " walls of Troy " were his, /. <^., made of his mist or cloud. He was said to love I>emeter, the earth, and their children are the woman and the horse, and many others, almost innumerable, the re- sult of the union of water and earth (and hfe). The wile of Poseidon is Amphitrite, who is pictured as dwelling in the lowest depths of the sea, riding on the white crested billo\vs, her horses, and alwa)'s pres- ent at the birth of Apollon. In the (Jdyssey she is the sea, purple- facfd and loud-sounding. Sometimes called Salatia, the sea. Stc Eng. No. 348.

List of Illustrations. 447

No, Pace.

321. Mars and Venus. — Bour. Mas 297

A pictorial union of summer heat (Venus) and the ripener of grains

and fruits (Mars).

322. Venus and INIars. — Bour. Mus 297

323. Hermes drawn by Cocks. — Gal. des Feints 303

The sun rising causes the soft breezes to blow.

324. Kadjios and Hermione. — Ovid Mdamor 303

The myth of Kadmos says his grandfather was Phoroneus (iire-bearer), and his grandmother was Kerdo (clever), or Peitho (persuasion) : his father was Agenor. King of Phoenicia, and mother Telephassa (far- shining), and his sister Europa, who was carried away to Cyprus by the bull (Zeus). The search of Kadmos and Telephassa for the lost Europa is the long journey of the sun across the heavens from east to west. Kadmos is then no other than the sun. The myth credits Kadmos with bringing 1 6 letters of the alphabet to Greece, to which Simonides of Ceos added five, and Epicharmus the Sicilian five more. He is said to have killed a dragon who had devoured many of his men, and sowed his teeth which grew up armed men and fought as is said in the Argonantic story, only Athena helped instead of Medeia. Ovid says Kadmos and Hermione were changed to serpents, at their own request, because of the jealousy and persecution of Juno.

325. Siva, Parvati and Bull Nanda. — PJioto 507

326. Hindu figure of the ripener (Kybele) 307

327. Boxer. A very superior figure in bronze found in ex- cavating ancient ruins in Rome, Italy. — Lanciani 307

328. Zeus smiting the Titans. — Bour. Mus 313

Engraved from a very fine cameo in the Bourbon Museum. This sub- ject has been reproduced in one fonn or another more times than any other work of art of its kind. The Titans are the great powers of nature, Arges, Steropes and Brontes, the three Kyklopes, are the dazz- ling and scorching flashes which plow up the storm-clad heavens. These are explained by S. P Andrews to be the Static, Motic, and Dynamic forces (circles) in nature ; and the twelve Titans are as in this table :—

I, 2, Kronos and Rhea Time and succession.

3, 4, Japetos, and Themis .... Motion and direction. 5, 6, Hyperion and Theia. . . .Aboveness and beneathness. 7, 8, Okeanos and Tethys .... Water and mistiness. 9, 10, Koios and Phoebe Quality and negation.

II, 12, Kreios and Eurybia. ..Power and extension, or Mnemosyne Memory.

Zeus also contends with the hundred-handed monsters, called fleka-

Twelve Titans

44^ i^^^^ ^if Illustrations,

No. Paor.

toiicheircs. These and the Titans are the giants who cannot be killed 1-Hil only reduced to slavery as the workers in the laboratory of nature. Other powers engage the mighty Zeus ; —

I Atropiis. Past Remorse ]

,, ^ Lachcsis Present Despair \ Necessity.

tates

I Klotho Future Foreboding

I Allekto 1 r Hatred.

P .. J Megaira \ Eumenides -| Jealousy.

Tisiphone j Revenge.

The Forty Harpies Slander.

329. Marsvas seated. — Boiir. Miis 313

330. Sculptor at work. — Boiir. Mas 313

331. Daedalus and Icarus. — Bour. Mus 313

Daedalus is the cunning workman, the unequaled smith in metals, the solar artificer, the Sun himself, and Icarus is another Phaethon, in a new attempt to make fame on his father's reputation. Daedalus made the labyrinth in t.'rete for the Minotaur, and wings of wax for his ambitious son. See Ovid, Met. VUI. 3.

332. Leda and Jupiter as the Swan. — Palais Royal. 316

Leda i.s the night, the mother of the gods, and by her Zeus became father of two pairs of twins at one birth ; as shown in the picture. From two eggs were born Helen and Pohdeukes, and Klytaimnestia

and Kastor. This is a poetical view of the origin of the human race which is as near the tiuth as any other.

I^-^. Theseus and Kentaur. — Palais Royal 319

Theseus is said to be a great solar hero, a child of Aithra, the pure air, or according to another poet, son of Poseidon, or of Aigeus. Ai geus denotes the dash of waters on the shore, so he is Poseidon. Theseus is the core of a double account, the mythical god, and the Attic hero-king. The god does a number of great deeds, more or less like those of Hercules, which repeat the account of the war of the gods of hght, Indra, (Jidipous, Herakles (and Theseus) against the powers of darkness, X'ntya, Ahi, Sphinx, ^:c. In the enemies overcome Ity Theseus Sinis Pityokamptes is a robber ; that is to say, the storm- wind is an obscurer of the sunlight. Phaia, the .sow of Krommyon {l)oar of Erymanthos, Chimaira), is the dense fog on the clift ; Skei- ron, the monster who hurls travelers from the clifis is the fierce wind ; Kerkyoii (Kerkopcs), who kills l>y wrestling is probably the whirl- wind, and as the whirlwind is the child of the son and air, it is the story of Laios, or Akrisit)s, or AmuUus, or other beings who destroy their children. In Alopfi the story of Auge, Scmele, Danae is re- pealed. The robber Piokroustes (Procrustes) is the hammerer, the beater, the heavy wind with rain or snow. Theseus and Kentaur is

List of Illustrations. 449

Nil Pace.

sun and cloud. The king-life of Theseus was full of adventures. His father was Aigeus (/Egean Sea), who married Medeia the wise woman, who aided Jason. He had labors to perform before his father would recognize him. He killed the minotaur of Knossos, aided by Ariadne, and abandoned her in Naxos later ; the minotaur is the pestilence which devours young men and maidens ; the sun dispels pestilential miasma. Thucydides says Theseus consolidated the Attic Demoi into one Athenian state, improved the laws and i-uled with success and honor. Theseus, the mythical, is the enemy of Amazons (as were Herakles, Achilleus and Bellerophon), and they were dark clouds. Antiope, stolen by Herakles, became the bride of Theseus and mother of Hippolytos, who is the reflexion of the sun in water ; Phaidra, wife of Theseus, is the gleaming, and loves Theseus, and also loves Hippolytos, who is killed but raised to life again by Asklepios. Theseus was one of the company in the Argo to recover the golden fleece, and in the hunt of the Kalydonian boar, and in the war of the Epigonoi at Thebes, and he made an excursion into Hades, from whence Herakles rescued him. The chief Lykomedes of Sky- ros hurls Theseus the old, decrepid, deposed king of Athens from a cliff, and the sun has set.

334. Mercury. Hermes. — Lantin 321

The inventor of music and song. The myth says he made a lyre in his infancy of a tortoise-shell and seven sheep-gut cords. Feeling hungry he stole fifty cattle from the pastures of the gods, and kindled the first fire that warmed the earth on the bank of the Alpheios river he cooked and ate two of the oxen. For his success in this enter- prise Phoibos named Hermes the Master Thief He is the twilight who obscures (steals and hides), but he is also sound, and so Hermes is the whispering breeze of the early morning or evening. In the evening he is Psychopompus, the guide of souls from this to the un- seen world. When he drives the clouds across the heavens he is the messenger of Zeus and all the gods. He is the god of boundaries, guardian of gymnasia, and patron of gymnastic games. His staff had magic powers, even to raising the dead to life. The early figures of Hermes were without wings, which in the later statues were at- tached to his cap and sandals. In Egj'pt he was Anubis.

335. Judgment of P.\ris. — Gal. dt-s Feints 327

Paris in the Greek myth is the son of Priam, the last kiug of Troy, and of Hekabe (Hecuba). He was exposed on Mount Ida, rescued and reared by a shepherd. He married (Enone, daughter of the river Kebren. He is said to have been the most beautiful of men. The poets say he seduced Helen, wife of Mcnelaos, the Greek, and so caused the war of Troy. The decision by which he gave the apple to Venus (.\phrodite), when Juno (Hebe) and Minerva (Athena) were competitors was .a favorite theme of many poets and artists. The story is : All the gods and goddesses, except Discord (Eris) were in- vited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. In revenge Eris threw

450 List of IlltLstrations.

ti" Page.

an apple (orange, quince, or j^omegranate) into tlieir midst, inscribed " For tlie most beautiful (woman)." Juno promised ])iiwer to Paris, Minirva glory in war, and \^enus the most beautiful woman for wife, and Helen was bis reward. Aphrodite is the embodiment of the lo\cliness of the dawn. Paris is the Hindu Pani, darkness personi- fied ; the cheat and thief who steals away golden treasures (Helen), the bright and beautiful tints of evening. The ten years siege of Troy are the ten hours of night before the gold and scarlet clouds appear again in the east, sunendered by Paris at the fall of Troy. The Argo- nautic voyage for the recovery of the Golden Fleece (bright morning clouds) is only another myth to explain the phenomena of victory of light over darkness.

336. Nereid on a Sea Monster. — Bour. Miis 333

337. Aphrodite. — Bour. Mus 333

Aphrodite, Himeros, Pothos and Eros, wafted by the gentle zephyrs over the sea. That is Longing, Desire, Attraction, and Love attend- ing the pleasant Summer Heat. See Note 847.

33S. A'ase with the ship Argo. — Bow. Mus 337

The Argonautic myth rises like the dawn in the far east where Iswara Arghanautha, the Hindu Dionysos, is Lord of the divine ship which in lireece bore the Achaian heroes from the land of darkness to the land of the morning. A\'Tierever tree and serpent worship prevailed the cultus of the Phallos and the Ship,, the Linga and the Yoni, with the worship of the sun was found also. Every civilized people have had this cultus in one form or other at some stage in its histor}'. See Tr,-i- and Serpent IVors/iip, (Bouton). In no other people has this myth been developed into so highly poetical and beautiful a form as the Greeks- The final conception was of a lost treasure, the Golden P'leece, recovered. This was the thread of the legend and on it they strung a great many minor legends about the heavens, and light, clouds, waters, winds and darkness. The number of the Argonauts was fifty, like the chilchen of Danaos and Aig)'ptos, of Thestios and .Vsterodia. Orpheus was invited for his harjj whose sweet tones no living thing can resist, and he is the only one who can surely pilot the ship -Argo on this perilous voyage. The ship was endowed with the pow cr of understanding the thoughts of men, and the gift of speech. Before the start Orpheus sings of all events from Chaos to the present. It is the story of the return of the sun, Jason, to the east, where the golden fleece, the bright morning clouds, is recovered and brought again to the west, to Greece, where the myth says it still remains hid- den away from mortal eyes.

339. ]'uss,.\. — Bor/,}//;;' s Bnvrs of Life 34°

The Hindu ideal figure of the universal mother, Kwan-Von. The water)' principle in matter. The Queen of Heaven, Lady of Bounty, (loddess of a Thousand Arms, are a few of the many titles. She sits

List of Illustrations. 45 1

No. Page,

on her lotus throne under her lord, Il'u, Thi-an, or Zi-anu, and both are contemplating the creative energies of nature, the chief emblem of which is the womb. " This is a most perfect ideograph of a religious ideal," and is an arcanum of mytholog)'. See | 221. In India she is called Alaut, and the Lady Isani ; Kybele in Greece and Rome, and Disa in Germany and the north : Mut in Egypt, and in all countries she is now the Holy ^'irgin, Mater Dolorosa. See 1 192.

340. PiCUS. — Ovid Alctainorphoses 344

Picus and his wife Canens were notable for many good qualities ; he

for his great personal beauty and his love of horses, and for a kindly disposition. These and other parts attracted the love of the Dryads of the hills of Latium, Naiads of the fountains. Nymphs of the Tiber (once called Albula), and of many other rivers and localities. But to one nymph only was he attracted, the daughter of Ionian Janus, the sweet singer Canens. ^Vhen Picus hunted a boar in a wood where Kirke gathered herbs for her magic spells, she saw and loved him, and invited his attentions. He refused and she changed him into a woodpecker (Latin picus). Ovid makes Kirke say to Picus " By ex- perience thou shalt learn what one slighted, what one in love, what a woman can do — and that woman Kirke." Compare Shakspear's

" Hell has no fiercer fiend Than woman scorned."

And for another example See Introduction to Cabinet Secret, the plate Joseph and Potiphar's Wife.

341. Ariadne in Naxos. — Botir. Alits 347

See Eng. No. 166.

342. Xereid on a Hippocampus. — Gal. des Feints 353

343. Nereid on a Sea Monster. — Gal. dcs Feints 353

344. Ganymedes. — Moor's Pantheon 357

345. Leda, Swan and Eros. — Bourbon Museum 362

A very beautiful composition from Pompeii, which is a fore-runner of

the picture No. 332, in time, as that represents the sequence of this. The fructifying seed is provided with wings in many departments of nature ; the pollen of flowers, of grain, of trees ; the seeds of many trees, and wings are supplied by birds and bees. Leda is the ideal of motherhood — the universal mother. The myth says she was mother of the Dioskouroi and Deianeira, the brightest and the gloomiest of beings ; and of Helen the treasure of the Argonautic expedition, the most lovely and tenderly beautiful tints of morning or evening cloud ; and of Klytaimnestra who murdered her husband Agamemnon ; of Apollon, the sun god, and as she is Leto or Latona, the Night, she is the great womb of nature out of which came and now come all ani- mated beings. Eros holds a jar containing four eggs ; the artist sup- plied an egg for each of the four children shown.

452

No. 346-

List of Illustrations.

347-

Poseidon and Amphitrtte. — Bour. Afiis 363

Libyan pantheon. Called by the (h-eeks Zeus Poseidon. Is not >.ep- tune. Known also as the " earth-shaker " or producer of earthquakes, and " rain-bringer," and " gatherer of clouds," and " he who lets loose the winds." The poets say, he struck his trident on the rocks of the Akropolis (at Athens), and brought forth water (some say the horse came out). See Poseidon, by Robert Brown, Jr., and Mythology of Aryan A'ations, by Sir i). W. Co.\, also Eng. No. 320.

Cupid .\xi> Psyche. — MiDitfaticun 365

34S. Necromancer's Emblems. — From the middle ages 423

Pine cone, lizard, serpent, hook, dial, caduceus, frog, agathodaimon, tortoise, disk, balances, flail, urn, Serapis-bust with modius, knife, woman aud hawk, ram's head, tripod, sacred plant, woman and child.

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