Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism: With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred "Grove," and Other Allied Symbols — John Shaqi
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
Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 are Buddhist (see Fig. 6, supra), and symbolise
the triad.
Figs. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are from Pugin, and simply represent the
trinity.
Figs. 18 and 19 are common Grecian emblems. The first is associated
with Neptune and water, the second with Bacchus. With the one we see
dolphins, emblems of the womb, the name of the two being assonant in
Greek; with the other, the saying, sine Baccho et Cerere friget Venus,
must be coupled.
PLATE XIII.
Consists of varions emblems of the triad and the unit, drawn almost
exclusively from Grecian, Etruscan, Roman, and Indian gems, figures,
coins, or sculptures, Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate, Raponi's Recueil,
and Moor's Hindu Pantheon, being the chief authorities.
PLATE XIV.
Is a copy of a small Hindoo statuette in the Mayer Collection in the
Free Museum, Liverpool. It probably represents Parvati, the Hindoo
virgin, and her child. The right hand of the figure makes the symbol
of the yoni with the forefinger and thumb, the rest of the fingers
typifying the triad. In the palm and on the navel is a lozenge,
emblematic of woman. The child, perhaps Crishna, equivalent to the
Egyptian Horus and the Christian Jesus, bears in its hand one of
the many emblems of the linga, and stands upon a lotus. The monkey
introduced into the group plays the same part as the cat, cow, lioness,
and ape in the Egyptian mythology, being emblematic of that desire which
eventuates in the production of offspring.
Fig. 1, the cupola, is well known in modern Europe; it is equally so in
Hindostan, where it is sometimes accompanied by pillars of a peculiar
shape. In one such compound the design is that of a cupola, supported by
closely placed pillars, each of which has a "capital," resembling "the
glans" of physiologists; in the centre there is a door, wherein a nude
female stands, resembling in all respects Figure 61, except in dress and
the presence of the child. This was copied by the late Mr. Sellon, from
a Buddhist Dagopa in the Jumnar Cave, Bombay Presidency, a tracing of
his sketch having been given to me by William Simpson, Esq., London.
The same emblem may be found amongst the ancient Italians. Whilst I
was staying in Malta during the carnival time in 1872, I saw in all
directions men and women selling cakes shaped like the yoni shown in
Fig. 1. These sweetmeats had no special name, but they came in and went
out with the carnival.
Fig. 2 represents Venus standing on a tortoise, whose symbolic import
will be seen by referring to Fig. 74, infra. It is copied from Lajard,
Sur le Culte de Venus, plate iiia., fig. 5, and is stated by him to be
a drawing of an Etruscan candelabrum, existing in the Royal Museum at
Berlin. In his account of Greece, Pausanias mentions that he saw one
figure of Venus standing on a tortoise, and another upon a ram, but he
declines to give the reason of the conjunction.
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