The Evolution of the Dragon Part 27

(m) a.s.syrian Tree of Life and "Winged Disk" in which the G.o.d is riding in a crescent replacing the Disk (Ward, Fig. 695).]

This significance of gates was no doubt suggested by the idea that they represented the means of communication between the living and the dead, and, symbolically, the portal by which the dead acquired a rebirth into a new form of existence. It was presumably for this reason that the winged disk as a symbol of life-giving, was placed above the lintels of these doors, not merely in Egypt, Phnicia, the Mediterranean Area, and Western Asia, but also in America,[345] and in modified forms in India, Indonesia, Melanesia, Cambodia, China, and j.a.pan.

The discussion (Chapter II) of the means by which the winged disk came to acquire the power of life-giving, "the healing in its wings," will have made it clear that the sun became accredited with these virtues only when it a.s.sumed the place of the other "Eye of Re," the Great Mother. In fact, it was a not uncommon practice in Egypt to represent the eyes of Re or of Horus himself in place of the more usual winged disk. In the aegean area the original practice of representing the Great Mother was retained long after it was superseded in Egypt by the use of the winged disk (the sun-G.o.d).

Over the lintel of the famous "Lion Gate" at Mycenae, instead of the winged disk, we find a vertical pillar to represent the Mother G.o.ddess, flanked by two lions which are nothing more than other representatives of herself (Fig. 26). [Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 26.

(a) An Egyptian picture of Hathor between the mountains of the horizon (on which trees are growing) (after Budge, "G.o.ds of the Egyptians," Vol.

II, p. 101). [This is a part only of a scene in which the G.o.ddess Nut is giving birth to the sun, whose rays illuminate Hathor on the horizon, as Sothis, the "Opener of the Way" for the sun.]

(b) The mountains of the horizon supporting a cow's head as a surrogate of Hathor, from a stele found at Teima in Northern Arabia, now in the Louvre (after Sir Arthur Evans, _op. cit._, p. 39). This indicates the ident.i.ty of what Evans calls "the horns of consecration" and the "mountains of the horizon," and also suggests how confusion may have arisen between the mountains and the cow's horns.

(c) The Mesopotamian sun-G.o.d Shamash rising between the Eastern Mountains, the Gates of Dawn (Ward, _op. cit._, p. 373).

(d) The familiar Egyptian representation of the sun rising between the Eastern Mountains (the splitting of the mountain giving birth to "the ridiculous mouse"--Smintheus). The _ankh_ (life-sign) below the sun is the determinative of the act of giving birth or life. The design is heraldically supported by the Great Mother's lionesses.

(e) Part of the design from a Mycenaean vase from Old Salamis (after Evans, p. 9). The cow's head and the Eastern Mountains are shown alongside one another, each of them supporting the Double Axe representing the G.o.d.

(f) Part of the design from a lentoid gem from the Idaean Cave, now in the Candia Museum (after Evans, Fig. 25). If this design be compared with the Egyptian picture (a), it will be seen that Hathor's place is taken by the tree-form of the Great Mother, and the trees which in the former (a) are growing upon the Eastern Mountains are now placed alongside the "horns". In the complete design (_vide_ Evans, _op. cit._, p. 44) a votary is represented blowing a conch-sh.e.l.l trumpet to animate the deity in the sacred tree.

(g) The Eastern Mountains supporting the pillar-form of the G.o.ddess (after Evans, Fig. 66).

(h) Another Mycenaean design comparable with (e).

(i) Design from a signet-ring from Mycenae (after Evans, Fig. 34). If this be compared with the Egyptian picture (a) it will be noted that the Great Mother is now replaced by a tree: the Eastern Mountains by bulls, from whose backs the trees of the Eastern Mountains are sprouting. This design affords interesting corroboration of the suggestion that the Eastern Mountains may be confused with the cow's head (see _b_ and _c_) or with the cow itself. Newberry (_Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology_, Liverpool, Vol. I, p. 28) has called attention to the intimate a.s.sociation (in Protodynastic Egypt) of the Eastern Mountains, the Bull and the Double Axe--a certain token of cultural contact with Crete.

(k) The famous sculpture above the Lion Gate at Mycenae. The pillar form of the Great Mother heraldically supported by her lioness-avatars, which correspond to the cattle of the design (i) and the Eastern Mountains of (a). The use of this design above the lintel of the gate brings it into h.o.m.ology with the Winged Disk. The Pillar represents the G.o.ddess, as the Disk represents her Egyptian _loc.u.m tenens_, Horus; her destructive representatives (the lionesses) correspond to the two uraei of the Winged Disk design.]

In his "Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult," Sir Arthur Evans has shown that all possible transitional forms can be found (in Crete and the aegean area) between the representation of the actual G.o.ddess and her pillar-and tree-manifestations, until the stage is reached where the sun itself appears above the pillar between the lions.[346] In the large series of seals from Mesopotamia and Western Asia which have been described in Mr. William Hayes Ward's monograph,[347] we find manifold links between both the Egyptian and the Minoan cults.

The tree-form of the Great Mother there becomes transformed into the "tree of life" and the winged disk is perched upon its summit. Thus we have a duplication of the life-giving deities. The "tree of life" of the Great Mother surmounted by the winged disk which is really her surrogate or that of the sun-G.o.d, who took over from her the power of life-giving (Figs. 25 and 26).

In an interesting Cretan sarcophagus from Hagia Triada[348] the life-giving power is _tripled_. There is not only the tree representing the Great Mother herself; but also the double axe (the winged-disk h.o.m.ologue of the sun-G.o.d); and the more direct representation of him as a bird perched upon the axe (Fig. 25, _f_).

The identification of the Great Mother with the tree or pillar seems also to have led to her confusion with the pestle with which the materials for her draught of immortality was pounded. She was also the bowl or mortar in which the pestle worked.[349]

As the Great Mother became confused with the pestle, so, "the Soma-plant, whose stalks are crushed by the priests to make the Soma-libation, becomes in the _Vedas_ itself the Crusher or Smiter, by a very characteristic and frequent Oriental conceit in accordance with which the agent and the person or thing acted on are identified".[350]

"The pressing-stones by means of which Soma is crushed typify thunderbolts." "In the _Rig-Veda_, we read of him [Soma] as _jyotihrathah_, _i.e._ 'mounted on a car of light' (IX, 5, 86, verse 43); or again: 'Like a hero he holds weapons in his hand ... mounted on a chariot' (IX, 4, 76, verse 2)"--(p. 171).

"Soma was the giver of power, of riches and treasures, flocks and herds, but above all, the giver of immortality" (p. 140).

Sir Arthur Evans is of opinion "that in the case of the Cypriote cylinders the attendant monsters and, to a certain extent, the symbolic column itself, are taken from an Egyptian solar cycle, and the inference has been drawn that the aniconic pillars among the Mycenaeans of Cyprus were identified with divinities having some points in common with the sun-G.o.ds Ra, or Horus, and Hathor, the Great Mother" (_op. cit._, pp. 63 and 64).

In attempting to find some explanation of how the tree or pillar of the G.o.ddess came to be replaced in the Indian legend by Mount Meru, the possibility suggests itself whether the aniconic form of the Great Mother placed between two relatively diminutive hills may not have helped, by confusion, to convert the cone itself into a yet bigger hill, which was identified with Mount Meru, the summit of which in other legends produced the _amrita_ of the G.o.ds, either in the form of the soma plant that grew upon its heights, or the rain clouds which collected there. But, as the subsequent argument will make clear, the real reason for the identification of the Great Mother with a mountain was the belief that the sun was born from the splitting of the eastern mountain, which thus a.s.sumed the function of the sun-G.o.d's mother.

Possibly the a.s.sociation of the tops of mountains with cloud- and rain-phenomena and the G.o.ds that controlled them played some part in the development of the symbolism of mountains. [When I referred (in Chapter II, p. 98) to the fact that what Sir Arthur Evans calls "the horns of consecration" was primarily the split mountain of the dawn, I was not aware that Professor Newberry ("Two Cults of the Old Kingdom,"

_Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology_, Liverpool, Vol. I, 1908, p. 28) had already suggested this identification.]

In the Egyptian story the G.o.d Re instructed the Sekti of Heliopolis to pound the materials for the food of immortality. In the Indian version, the G.o.ds, aware of their mortality, desired to discover some elixir which would make them immortal. To this end, Mount Meru [the Great Mother] was cast into the sea [of milk]. Vishnu, in his second avatar as a tortoise[351] supported the mountain on his back; and the Naga serpent Vasuki was then twisted around the mountain, the G.o.ds seizing its head and the demons his tail twirled the mountain until they had churned the amrita or water of life. Wilfrid Jackson has called attention to the fact that this scene has been depicted, not only in India and j.a.pan, but also in the Precolumbian _Codex Cortes_ drawn by some Maya artist in Central America.[352]

The horizon is the birthplace of the G.o.ds; and the birth of the deity is depicted with literal crudity as an emergence from the portal between its two mountains. The mountain splits to give birth to the sun-G.o.d, just as in the later fable the parturient mountain produced the "ridiculous mouse" (Apollo Smintheus). The Great Mother is described as giving birth--"the gates of the firmament are undone for Teti himself at break of day" [that is when the sun-G.o.d is born on the horizon]. "He comes forth from the Field of Earu" (Egyptian Pyramid Texts--Breasted's translation).

In the domain of Olympian obstetrics the a.n.a.logy between birth and the emergence from the door of a house or the gateway of a temple is a common theme of veiled reference. Artemis, for instance, is a G.o.ddess of the portal, and is not only a helper in childbirth, but also grows in her garden a magical herb which is capable of opening locks. This reputation, however, was acquired not merely by reason of her skill in midwifery, but also as an outcome of the legend[353] of the treasure-house of pearls which was under the guardianship of the great "giver of life" and of which she kept the magic key. She was in fact the feminine form of Ja.n.u.s, the doorkeeper who presided over all beginnings, whether of birth, or of any kind of enterprise or new venture, or the commencement of the year (like Hathor). Ja.n.u.s was the guardian of the door of Olympus itself, the gate of rebirth into the immortality of the G.o.ds.

The ideas underlying these conceptions found expression in an endless variety of forms, material, intellectual, and moral, wherever the influence of civilization made itself felt. I shall refer only to one group of these expressions that is directly relevant to the subject-matter of this book. I mean the custom of suspending or representing the life-giving symbol above the portal of temples and houses. Thus the plant peculiar to Artemis herself, the mugwort or Artemisia, was hung above the door,[354] just as the winged disk was sculptured upon the lintel, or the thunder-stone was placed above the door of the cowhouse[355] to afford the protection of the Great Mother's powers of life-giving to her own cattle.

In the Pyramid Texts the rebirth of a dead pharaoh is described with vivid realism and directness. "The waters of life which are in the sky come. The waters of life which are in the earth come. The sky burns for thee, the earth trembles for thee, before the birth of the G.o.d. The two hills are divided, the G.o.d comes into being, the G.o.d takes possession of his body. The two hills are divided, this Neferkere comes into being, this Neferkere takes possession of his body. Behold this Neferkere--his feet are kissed by the pure waters which are from Atum, which the phallus of Shu made, which the v.u.l.v.a of Tefnut brought into being. They have come, they have brought for thee the pure waters from their father."[356]

The Egyptians entertained the belief[357] that the sun-G.o.d was born of the celestial cow Mehetweret, a name which means "Great Flood," and is the equivalent of the primeval ocean Nun. In other words the celestial cow Hathor, the embodiment of the life-giving waters of heaven and earth, is the mother of Horus. So also Aphrodite was born of the "Great Flood" which is the ocean.

In his report upon the hieroglyphs of Beni Hasan,[358] Mr. Griffith refers to the picture of "a woman of the marshes," which is read _sekht_, and is "used to denote the G.o.ddess Sekhet, the G.o.ddess of the marshes, who presided over the occupations of the dwellers there. Chief among these occupations must have been the capture of fish and fowl and the culture and gathering of water-plants, especially the papyrus and the lotus". Sekhet was in fact a rude prototype of Artemis in the character depicted by Dr. Rendel Harris.[359]

It is perhaps not without significance that the root of a marsh plant, the _Iris pseudacorus_[360] is regarded in Germany as a luck-bringer which can take the place of the mandrake.[361]

The Great Mother wields a magic wand which the ancient Egyptian scribes called the "Great Magician". It was endowed with the two-fold powers of life-giving and opening, which from the beginning were intimately a.s.sociated the one with the other from the a.n.a.logy of the act of birth, which was both an opening and a giving of life. Hence the "magic wand"

was a key or "opener of the ways," wherewith, at the ceremonies of resurrection, the mouth was opened for speech and the taking of food, as well as for the pa.s.sage of the breath of life, the eyes were opened for sight, and the ears for hearing. Both the physical act of opening (the "key" aspect) as well as the vital aspect of life-giving (which we may call the "uterine" aspect) were implied in this symbolism. Mr. Griffith suggests that the form of the magic wand may have been derived from that of a conventionalized picture of the uterus,[362] in its aspect as a giver of life. But it is possible also that its other significance as an "opener of the ways" may have helped in the confusion of the hieroglyphic uterus-symbol with the key-symbol, and possibly also with double-axe symbol which the vaguely defined early Cretan Mother-G.o.ddess wielded. For, as we have already seen (_supra_, p. 122), the axe also was a life-giving divinity and a magic wand (Fig. 8).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 8.

(a) "Ceremonial forked object," or "magic wand," used in the ceremony of "opening the mouth," possibly connected with (b) (a bicornuate uterus), according to Griffith ("Hieroglyphics," p. 60).

(c) The Egyptian sign for a key.

(d) The double axe of Crete and Egypt.]

In his chapter on "the Origin of the Cult of Artemis," Dr. Rendel Harris refers to the reputation of Artemis as the patron of travellers, and to Parkinson's statement: "It is said of Pliny that if a traveller binde some of the hearbe [Artemisia] with him, he shall feele no weariness at all in his journey" (p. 72). Hence the high Dutch name _Beifuss_ is applied to it.

The left foot of the dead was called "the staff of Hathor" by the Egyptians; and the G.o.ddess was said "to make the deceased's legs to walk".[363]

It was a common practice to tie flowers to a mummy's feet, as I discovered in unwrapping the royal mummies. According to Moret (_op.

cit._) the flowers of Upper and Lower Egypt were tied under the king's feet at the celebration of the Sed festival.

Mr. Battis...o...b.. Gunn (quoted by Dr. Alan Gardiner) states that the familiar symbol of life known as the _ankh_ represents the string of a sandal.[364]

It seems to be worth considering whether the symbolism of the sandal-string may not have been derived from the life-girdle, which in ancient Indian medical treatises was linked in name with the female organs of reproduction and the pubic bones. According to Moret (_op.

cit._, p. 91) a girdle furnished with a tail was used as a sign of consecration or attainment of the divine life after death. Jung (_op.

cit._, p. 270), who, however, tries to find a phallic meaning in all symbolism, claims that reference to the foot has such a significance.

[339: Evans, _op. cit._, p. 50.]

[340: Her Latin representative, Diana, had a male counterpart and conjugate, Dia.n.u.s, _i.e._ Ja.n.u.s, of whom it was said: "Ipse primum Ja.n.u.s c.u.m puerperium concipitur ... aditum aperit recipiendo semini". For other quotations see Rendel Harris, _op. cit._, p. 88 and the article "Ja.n.u.s" in Roscher's "Lexikon".]

[341: Rendel Harris, p. 73.]

[342: No doubt the two uraei of the Saga of the Winged Disk.]