Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism: With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred "Grove," and Other Allied SymbolsInman, Thomas
Religion
Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism: With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred "Grove," and Other Allied Symbols
Inman, Thomas
Christian art and symbolism; Symbolism
Figure 17 is from vol. i. Recherches, etc., plate xxii. In this medal
the triad is formed by a man and two coiled serpents on the one side of
the medal, whilst on the reverse are seen a tree, surrounded by a snake,
situated between two rounded stones, with a dog and a conch shell below.
See supra, Plate ix., Fig. 6.
PLATE XI.
With two exceptions, Figs. 4 and 9,--exhibits Christian emblems of the
trinity or linga, and the unity or yoni, alone or combined; the whole
being copied from Pugin's Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament (London,
1869).
Fig. 1 is copied from Pugin, plate xvii., and indicates a double union
of the trinity with the unity, here represented as a ring, Vanneau.
* There is an able essay on this subject in No. 267 of the
Edinburgh Review--which almost exhausts the subject--but is
too long for quotation here.
Figs. 2, 8, are from Pagin, plate xiv. In figare 2, the two covered
balls at the base of each limb of the cross are extremely significant,
and if the artist had not mystified the free end, the most obtuse
worshipper must have recognised the symbol. We may add here that in the
two forms of the Maltese cross, the position of the lingam is reversed,
and the egg-shaped bodies, with their cover, are at the free end of each
limb, whilst the natural end of the organ is left unchanged. See figs.
85 and 86. This form of cross is Etruscan. Fig. 8 is essentially the
same as the preceding, and both may be compared with Fig. 4. The balls
in this cross are uncovered, and the free end of each limb of the cross
is but slightly modified.
Fig. 4 is copied in a conventional form from plate xxxv., fig. 4, of Two
Essays on the Worship of Priapus (London, 1865). It is thus described
(page 147): "The object was found at St. Agati di Goti, near
Naples.......It is a crux ansata formed by four phalli, with a circle
of female organs round the centre; and appears by the look to have been
intended for suspension. As this cross is of gold, it had no doubt been
made for some personage of rank, possibly an ecclesiastic." We see here
very distinctly the design of the egg- and sistrum- shaped bodies. When
we have such an unmistakable bi-sexual cross before our eyes, it is
impossible to ignore the signification of Figs. 2 and 8, and Plate xii.,
Figs. 4 and 7.
Figs. 5, 6 are from Pugin, plates xiv. and xv., and represent the
trinity with the unity, the triune god and the virgin united in one.
Fig. 7 represents the central lozenge and one limb of a cross, figured
plate xiv. of Pugin. In this instance the Maltese cross is united with
the symbol of the virgin, being essentially the same as Fig. 9, infra.
It is a modified form of the crux ansata.
Fig. 8 is a compound trinity, being the finial of each limb of an
ornamental cross. Pugin, plate xv.
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