The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migration: With Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times — John Shaqi
The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migration: With Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric TimesWilson, Thomas
Religion
The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migration: With Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times
Wilson, Thomas
Industries, Primitive; Swastikas; Symbolism
He describes the Egyptian lotus and traces it through an innumerable
number of specimens and with great variety of form. He mentions many of
the sacred animals of Egypt and seeks to maintain their relationship by or
through the lotus, not only with each other but with solar circles and the
sun worship.[58] Direct association of the solar disk and lotus are,
according to him, common on the monuments and on Phenician and Assyrian
seals; while the lotus and the sacred animals, as in cases cited of the
goose representing Seb (solar god, and father of Osiris), also Osiris
himself and Horus, the hawk and lotus, bull and lotus, the asp and lotus,
the lion and lotus, the sphinx and lotus, the gryphon and lotus, the
serpent and lotus, the ram and lotus--all of which animals, and with them
the lotus, have, in his opinion, some related signification to the sun or
some of his deities.[59] He is of the opinion that the lotus motif was the
foundation of the Egyptian style of architecture, and that it appeared at
an early date, say, the fourteenth century B. C. By intercommunication
with the Greeks it formed the foundation of the Greek Ionic capital,
which, he says,[60] "offers no dated example of the earlier time than the
sixth century B. C." He supports this contention by authority, argument,
and illustration.
[Illustration: From figures in Goodyear's "Grammar of the Lotus," p. 27.
Fig. 15. TYPICAL LOTUS ON CYPRIAN VASES.
Fig. 16. TYPICAL LOTUS ON RHODIAN VASES.
Fig. 17. TYPICAL LOTUS ON MELIAN VASES.]
He shows[61] the transfer of the lotus motif to Greece, and its use as an
ornament on the painted vases and on those from Cyprus, Rhodes, and Melos
(figs. 15, 16, 17).
[Illustration: Fig. 18. DETAIL OF CYPRIAN VASE SHOWING LOTUSES WITH
CURLING SEPALS. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Goodyear, "Grammar
of the Lotus," pl. 47, fig. 1.]
Chantre[62] notes the presence of spirals similar to those of fig. 17, in
the terramares of northern Italy and up and down the Danube, and his fig.
186 (fig. 17) he says represents the decorating motif, the most frequent
in all that part of prehistoric Europe. He cites "Notes sur les torques ou
ornaments spirals."[63]
That the lotus had a foundation deep and wide in Egyptian mythology is not
to be denied; that it was allied to and associated on the monuments and
other objects with many sacred and mythologic characters in Egypt and
afterwards in Greece is accepted. How far it extends in the direction
contended for by Professor Goodyear, is no part of this investigation. It
appears well established that in both countries it became highly
conventionalized, and it is quite sufficient for the purpose of this
argument that it became thus associated with the Swastika. Figs. 18 and
19 represent details of Cyprian vases and amphora belonging to the
Cesnola collection in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, showing the
lotus with curling sepals among which are interspersed Swastikas of
different forms.
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