The Evolution of the Dragon Part 25

These are questions which we are unable to answer at present because the necessary information is lacking. I have enumerated them merely to suggest that any hasty inferences regarding the bearing of the Susian design upon the general problem are apt to be misleading. Vincent[324]

claims that the fact of the swastika having been in use by ceramic artists in Crete and Susiana many centuries before the appearance of Mycenaean art is fatal to Houssay's hypothesis. But I think it is too soon to make such an a.s.sumption. The swastika was already a rigidly conventionalized symbol when we first know it both in the Mediterranean and in Susiana. It may therefore have a long history behind it. The octopus may possibly have begun to play a part in the development of this symbolism before the Egyptian Bes (_vide supra_, p. 171) was evolved, perhaps even before the time of the Coptos statues of Min (_supra_, p. 169), or in the early days of Sumerian history when the conventional form of the water-pot was being determined (_infra_, p.

179). These are mere conjectures, which I mention merely for the purpose of suggesting that the time is not yet ripe for using such arguments as Vincent's finally to dispose of Houssay's octopus-theory.

There can be no doubt that the symbolism of the Mycenaean spiral and the volute is closely related to the octopus. In fact, the evidence provided by Minoan paintings and Mycenaean decorative art demonstrates that the spiral as a symbol of life-giving was definitely derived from the octopus. The use of the volute on Egyptian scarabs[325] and also in the decoration of an early Thracian statuette of a nude G.o.ddess[326]

indicate that it was employed like the spiral and octopus as a life-symbol.

In Spanish graves of the Early and Middle Neolithic types M. Siret found cowry-sh.e.l.ls in a.s.sociation with a series of flint implements, crude idols, and pottery almost precisely reproducing the forms of similar objects found with cowries and pecten sh.e.l.ls at Hissarlik.[327] But when the aeneolithic phase of culture dawned in Spain, and the aegean octopus-motif made its appearance there, the culture as a whole reveals unmistakable evidence of a predominantly Egyptian inspiration.

M. Siret claims, however, that, even in the Neolithic phase in Spain, the crude idols represent forms derived from the octopus in the Eastern Mediterranean (p. 59 _et seq._). He regards the octopus as "a conventional symbol of the ocean, or, more precisely, of the fertilizing watery principle" (p. 19). He elucidates a very interesting feature of the aeneolithic representation of the octopus in Spain. The spiral-motif of the aegean gives place to an angular design, which he claims to be due to the influence of the conventional Egyptian way of representing water (p. 40). If this interpretation is correct--and, in spite of the slenderness of the evidence, I am inclined to accept it--it affords a remarkable ill.u.s.tration of the effects of culture-contact in the conventionalization of designs, to which Dr. Rivers has called attention.[328] Whatever explanation may be provided of this method of representing the arms of the octopus with its angularly bent extremities, it seems to have an important bearing on Houssay's hypothesis of the swastika's origin. For it would reveal the means by which the spiral or volute shape of the limbs of the swastika became transformed into the angular form, which is so characteristic of the conventional symbol.[329]

The significance of the spiral as a form of the Great Mother inevitably led to its identification with the thunder weapon, like all her other surrogates. I have already referred (Chapter II, p. 98) to the a.s.sociation of the spiral with thunder and lightning in Eastern Asia.

But other factors played a significant part in determining this specialization. In Egypt the G.o.d Amen was identified with the ram; and this creature's spirally curved horn became the symbol of the thunder-G.o.d throughout the Mediterranean area,[330] and then further afield in Europe, Africa, and Asia, where, for instance, we see Agni's ram with the characteristic horn. This blending of the influence of the octopus- and the ram's-horn-motifs made the spiral a conventional representation of thunder. This is displayed in its most definite form in China, j.a.pan, Indonesia, and America, where we find the separate spiral used as a thunder-symbol, and the spiral appendage on the side of the head as a token of the G.o.d of thunder.[331]

[316: Thomas Wilson ("The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and its Migrations; with Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times," _Report of the U. S. National Museum for 1894_, Washington, 1896) has given a full and well-ill.u.s.trated summary of most of the literature: further information is provided by Count d'Alviella (_op. cit. supra_), "The Migration of Symbols"; by Zelia Nuttall ("The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations,"

_Archaeological and Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum_, Cambridge, Ma.s.s., 1901); and Arthur Bernard Cook ("Zeus, A Study in Ancient Religion," Vol. I, Cambridge, 1914, pp. 472 _et seq._).]

[317: Since this has been printed Mr. W. J. Perry has called my attention to a short article by Rene Croste ("Le Svastika," _Bull.

Trimestriel de la Societe Bayonnaise d'etudes Regionales_, 1918), in which Houssay's hypothesis is mentioned as having been adopted by Guilleminot ("Les Nouveaux Horizons de la Science").]

[318: Wilson (_op. cit._, pp. 829-33 and Figs. 125, 128, and 129) has collected the relevant pa.s.sages and ill.u.s.trations from Schliemann's writings.]

[319: _Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie_, Bd. 37, p. 148.]

[320: Seler, _Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie_, Bd., 41, p. 409.]

[321: _Corolla Numismatica_, 1906, p. 342.]

[322: A. B. Cook, "Zeus," pp. 198 _et seq_.]

[323: "Etude Historique et Chronologique sur les Vases Peints de l'Acropole de Suse," _Memoires de la Delegation en Perse_, T. XIII, _Rech. Archeol._, 5^e serie, 1912, Plate XLI, Fig. 3.]

[324: "Canaan," p. 340, footnote.]

[325: Alice Grenfell, _Journal of Egyptian Archaeology_, Vol. II, 1915, p. 217: and _Ancient Egypt_, 1916, Part I, p. 23.]

[326: S. Reinach, _Revue Archeol._, T. XXVI, 1895, p. 369.]

[327: L. Siret, "Questions de Chronologie et d'Ethnographie Iberiques,"

1913, p. 18, Fig. 3.]

[328: Rivers, "History of Melanesian Society," Vol. II, p. 374; also _Report Brit. a.s.sociation_, 1912, p. 599.]

[329: M. Siret a.s.signs the date of the appearance in Spain of the highly conventionalized angular form of octopus to the time between the fifteenth and the twelfth centuries B.C.; and he attributes it to Phnician influence (p. 63).]

[330: Cook, "Zeus," p. 346 _et seq._]

[331: This is well shown upon the Copan representations (Fig. 19) of the elephant-headed G.o.d--see _Nature_, November, 25, 1915, p. 340.]

The Mother Pot.

In the lecture on "Incense and Libations" (Chapter I) I referred to the enrichment of the conception of water's life-giving properties which the inclusion of the idea of human fertilization by water involved. When this event happened a new view developed in explanation of the part played by woman in reproduction. She was no longer regarded as the real parent of mankind, but as the matrix in which the seed was planted and nurtured during the course of its growth and development. Hence in the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphic writing the picture of a pot of water was taken as the symbol of womanhood, the "vessel" which received the seed.

A globular water-pot, the common phonetic value of which is _Nw_ or _Nu_, was the symbol of the cosmic waters, the G.o.d _Nw (Nu)_, whose female counterpart was the G.o.ddess _Nut_.

In his report, "A Collection of Hieroglyphs,"[332] Mr. F. Ll. Griffith discusses the bowl of water (a) and says that it stands for the female principle in the words for _v.u.l.v.a_ and woman. When it is recalled that the cowry (and other sh.e.l.ls) had the same double significance, the possibility suggests itself whether at times confusion may not have arisen between the not very dissimilar hieroglyphic signs for "a sh.e.l.l"

(h) and "the bowl of water" (woman) (f).[333]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 6.

(a) Picture of a bowl of water--the hieroglyphic sign equivalent to _hm_ (the word _hmt_ means "woman")--Griffith, "Beni Hasan," Part III, Plate VI, Fig. 88 and p. 29.

(b) "A basket of sycamore figs"--Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," Vol.

I, p. 323.

(c) and (d) are said by Wilkinson to be hieroglyphic signs meaning "wife" and are apparently taken from (b). But (c) is identical with (i), which, according to Griffith (p. 14), represents a bivalve sh.e.l.l (g, from Plate III, Fig. 3), more usually placed obliquely (h). The varying conventionalizations of (a) or (b) are shown in (d), (e), and (f) (Griffith, "Hieroglyphics," p. 34).

(k) The sign for a lotus leaf, which is a phonetic equivalent of the sign (h), and, according to Griffith ("Hieroglyphics," p. 26), "is probably derived from the same root, on account of its sh.e.l.l-like outline".

(l) The hieroglyphic sign for a pot of water in such words as _Nu_ and _Nut_.

(m) A "pomegranate" (replacing a bust of Tanit) upon a sacred column at Carthage (Arthur J. Evans, "Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult," p. 46).

(n) The form of the body of an octopus as conventionalized on the coins of Central Greece (compare Fig. 24 (d)). Its similarity to the Egyptian pot-sign (l) (which also has the significance of mother-G.o.ddess) is worthy of note.]

Referring to the sign (g and h) for "a sh.e.l.l," Mr. Griffith says (p.

25): "It is regularly found at all periods in the word _?awt_ = altar,[334] and perhaps only in this word: but it is a peculiarity of the Pyramid Texts that the sign shown in the text-figures _c_, _h_, and _i_ is in them used very commonly, not as a word-sign, but also as a phonetic equivalent to the sign labelled _k_ (in the text-figure) for _?'_ (_kha_), or apparently for _?_ alone in many words.

"The name of the lotus leaf is probably derived from the same root, on account of its sh.e.l.l-like outline or _vice versa_."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 7.

(a) An Egyptian design representing the sun-G.o.d Horus emerging from a lotus, representing his mother Hathor (Isis).

(b) Papyrus sceptre often carried by G.o.ddesses and animistically identified with them either as an instrument of life-giving or destruction.

(c) Conventionalized lily--the prototype of the trident and the thunder-weapon.

(d) A water-plant a.s.sociated with the Nile-G.o.ds.]

The familiar representation of Horus (and his h.o.m.ologues in India and elsewhere) being born from the lotus suggests that the flower represents his mother Hathor. But as the argument in these pages has led us towards the inference that the original form of Hathor was a sh.e.l.l-amulet,[335]

it seems not unlikely that her identification with the lotus may have arisen from the confusion between the latter and the cowry, which no doubt was also in part due to the belief that both the sh.e.l.l and the plant were expressions of the vital powers of the water in which they developed.

The identification of the Great Mother with a pot was one of the factors that played a part in the a.s.similation of her attributes with those of the Water G.o.d, who in early Sumerian pictures was usually represented pouring the life-giving waters from his pot (Fig. 24, _h_ and _l_).

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Fig. 24.