The Non-Christian Cross Part 12

Upon page 46 is another instance of the crux ansata being attached to the solar serpent issuing from the sun's disc.

On Plate XXIII., facing page 52, is another ill.u.s.tration of the reception of the crux ansata from the Sun-G.o.d.

Upon page 82 Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson rightly observes that it is absurd to speak of the crux ansata or Egyptian cross as the _Key of the Nile_, inasmuch as this cross "is less frequently seen in the hand of the G.o.d Nilus than any deity of the Egyptian pantheon."

Upon the remarkable Plate x.x.xI., facing page 136, we see inscriptions describing the reigning Pharaoh as the "Vice-gerent of the Giver of Eternal Life"; or, in other words, of the Sun-G.o.d. Other expressions applied to the Pharaoh are "Giver of Life and Strength like the Sun"; "Who gives all Life, Stability, and Health like the Sun"; and "Approved of the Sun and Giver of Life like the Sun."

It is thus clear that ages before our era the cross was venerated in Egypt as in other lands as the symbol both of Life and of the Giver of Life; and that the deity worshipped as the Giver of Life, and ever a.s.sociated with that salutary symbol the cross, was the Sun-G.o.d.

CHAPTER XVIII.

EVIDENCE OF TROY.

Dr. Schliemann has told us that in his researches upon the site of Troy he found that in pre-Christian if not indeed pre-historic times the cross was, in that cla.s.sic locality as elsewhere, a phallic emblem and the symbol of life; as well as a solar emblem and the symbol of the holy fire with which life was more or less identified. For instance on page 337 of his _Ilios_ (1880 edition) Dr. Schliemann describes a leaden idol discovered by him and of great antiquity. He tells us that it was female in character and had the v.u.l.v.a marked with the triangle, a symbol of the Feminine Principle. And he points out that within the triangle was the Svastika cross.

On page 521 Dr. Schliemann describes an ancient terra cotta vase, with the characteristics of a woman upon it, and on the v.u.l.v.a a St. Andrew's cross.

Upon page 523 is a reference to another vase of similar design. Here also a cross appears to mark the v.u.l.v.a.

On page 353 Dr. Schliemann admits that the Svastika cross drawn within the triangle marking the v.u.l.v.a, shows that this cross was a sign of generation in ancient and pre-historic times. This remark should evidently have been applied by him to the St. Andrew's cross as well, for he shows that also to have been used as a sign of the organ of generation, as has been shown above.

We are here reminded of the fact, already noted, that the Egyptians represented their G.o.d of Generation, Khem, or Amen-Ra Generator, as wearing a conspicuous St. Andrew's cross. And as Khem was the Egyptian Priapus it ought also to be pointed out that it was in ancient times the practice to erect wooden crosses to this conception of the Sun-G.o.d.

An ill.u.s.tration of one example of the crosses erected to Priapus can be seen in figure XI. of plate XXIX. of that well-known work, _Antique Gems and Rings_.[67] And the phallic nature of such crosses cannot be denied.

Returning, however, to the discoveries of Dr. Schliemann upon the site of Troy, we find on page 350 of _Ilios_ that both varieties of the Svastika cross are extraordinarily common upon the articles he discovered.

As an Indian symbol the Svastika cross can only be traced back as far as the fourth or fifth century B.C.; and its occurrence upon these and other relics of earlier ages and other lands, shows us that it is inaccurate and misleading to speak of it as "Indian."

The origin of the Svastika cross, whether the {image "svastika1.gif"}, or the {image "svastika2.gif"}, is unknown; but Dr. Schliemann quotes with approval Professor Max Muller's remarks to the effect that Mr.

Thomas our distinguished Oriental numismatist

"Has clearly proved that on some of the Andra coins and likewise on some punched coins depicted on Sir W.

Elliot's plate ix. _Madras Jour. Lit. and Science_, vol.

III., the place of the more definite figure of the sun is often taken by the Svastika, and that the Svastika has been inserted within the rings or normal circles representing the four suns of the Ujjain pattern on coins. He has also called attention to the fact that in the long list of the recognised devices of the twenty-four Jaina Tirthankaras the sun is absent; but that while the eighth Tirthankara has the sign of the half-moon the seventh Tirthankara is marked with the _Svastika, i.e._, the sun. Here then, I think, we have very clear indications that the Svastika, with the hands pointing in the right direction, was originally a symbol of the Sun, perhaps of the vernal sun as opposed to the autumnal sun, the _Sauvastika_, and therefore a natural symbol of light, life, health, and wealth. That in ancient mythology the sun was frequently represented as a wheel is well known. Grimm identifies the Old Norse _hjol_ or hvel, the A.-S. _hvehol_, English 'wheel,'

with {kappa upsilon with tonos kappa lambda omicron rho}, Sk. Kakra, wheel; and derives jol, 'yule-tide,' the time of the winter solstice, from hjol, 'the (solar) wheel.'"

Both the {image "svastika1.gif"} and the {image "svastika2.gif"} occur upon the famous footprints of Buddha carved upon the Amaravati Tope, and Dr. Schliemann remarks that we find the Svastika or Sauvastika cross

"In Ezekiel ix. 4, 6, where--in the form of the old Hebrew letter Tau--it is written as the sign of life on the forehead, like the corresponding Indian symbol. We find it twice on a large piece of ornamental leather contained in the celebrated Corneto treasure preserved in the Royal Museum at Berlin; also on ancient pottery found at Konigsberg in the Neumark and preserved in the Markisches Museum in Berlin; and on a Bowl from Yucatan in the Berlin Ethnological Museum. We also see it on coins of Gaza, as well as on an Imperial coin of Asido; also on the drums of the Lapland priests."

It is noteworthy that in the neighbourhood of Troy, as in Cyprus and other places, a cross of four equal arms, like our sign of addition, in days of old shared with the Svastika crosses the veneration of the people and was evidently more or less akin to those crosses in signification. Dr. Schliemann tells us that this cross of four equal arms "occurs innumerable times on the whorls of the three upper pre-historic cities of Hissarlik," and that if, as Burnouf and others suggest, the {image "svastika2.gif"} and {image "svastika1.gif"} represented primitive fire machines, this other cross "might also claim the honour of representing the two pieces of wood for producing the holy fire by friction."

Elsewhere in the same work Dr. Schliemann quotes with approval the opinion of Professor Sayce that the Svastika cross, {image "svastika2.gif"} or {image "svastika1.gif"}, "was a symbol of generation."

As phallic worship and Sun-G.o.d worship were admittedly always closely connected, it is not surprising to find that Dr. Schliemann also very highly commends a dissertation on the {image "svastika2.gif"} and {image "svastika1.gif"} by Mr. Edward Thomas, whose conclusion is that

"As far as I have been able to trace or connect the various manifestations of this emblem, they one and all resolve themselves into the primitive conception of solar motion, which was intuitively a.s.sociated with the rolling or wheel-like projection of the sun through the upper or visible arc of the heavens."

It may therefore be considered proven that the inhabitants of cla.s.sic Troy like those of the Land of the Nile and other countries, recognised a close affinity between the productive forces and the sun, and were one in accepting a cross of some description as the natural symbol whether of Life or of the Giver of Life.

CHAPTER XIX.

EVIDENCE OF CYPRUS.

Although now, owing to the march of events, the island of Cyprus is out of the way and seldom visited, it was once otherwise. For in days of old it occupied a favoured position between the countries then foremost in the arts of civilisation.

In those days Cyprus was a centre of Phoenician enterprise. And, as we are told in that fine work _'Kypros, the Bible, and Homer: Oriental Civilisation, Art and Religion in ancient times,'_ "The oldest extant Phoenician inscriptions, _themselves the earliest examples of letters properly so called_, come from Cyprus."

As, moreover, when face to face with the relics of the Phoenicians we are, as Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter also remarks, "In the very midst of ancient Canaanitish civilisation as depicted in the Old Testament," it will be seen that a study of the antiquities of Cyprus should have a special interest for us Christians.

Let us therefore see what the ancient remains found in the island in question, and others referred to in the work mentioned as ill.u.s.trative of the same, can tell us regarding phallic worship in general and the pre-Christian cross in particular.

One of the first points to be noted in the ill.u.s.trations supplied by Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter is in a cut of an ancient Cyprian coin on Plate X.; upon which coin we see over a temple gateway the phallic symbol since adopted by the Moslems, and commonly spoken of as the '_star_ and crescent' although, as already shown, it originality represented the radiate Sun or Male Principle in conjunction with the Crescent moon or Female Principle.

Upon Plate XIX. we see several examples of the Svastika cross occurring upon an ancient Cyprian vase.

On Plate XXV. we are shown a gold leaf taken from an ancient grave, upon which the Svastika cross occurs.

Figure 10 upon the same plate shows us a gold leaf discovered at Amathus upon which we see the Sun and Moon in conjunction, the Sun in this instance being represented as a disc in the horns of the crescent.

Upon Plate XXVI. we have representations of stone pillars at Atheniaon, upon the capitals of which are phallic emblems, including that of the Sun as a disc within the horns of the Crescent moon.

On Plate x.x.x. we have in figure 7 a cut of an important cylinder now stored in the Berlin Museum, upon which are represented both the Sacred Tree and the Ashera. The winged Sun-disc appears over the former and the Crescent moon over the latter.

Figure 11 upon the same plate shows us a Ma.s.seba representing the Male Principle, surmounted by the star-like form which represented the radiate Sun; and an Ashera, representing the Female Principle, surmounted by the Crescent moon.

Just as in modern Christianity we make a distinction without alleging much difference between the Father and the Son, even so in ancient times a distinction of a similarly vague kind was made between the All-Father _Fire_ and His Image and First-begotten Son _Light_. The disc of the Sun seems to have represented the former and the Sun-star or radiate Sun the latter where both were represented in one ill.u.s.tration, as for instance in figure 12 on the plate last mentioned.

The ill.u.s.tration in question is an important one. On the left is an Ashera under a Crescent moon; in the centre is a Ma.s.seba under the Sun-star or radiate Sun; and on the right is an altar under a sun disc.

The phallic meaning of all this is evident; and a kind of Trinity is presented to us, _viz._ (1) The Female Principle and perhaps the primeval Darkness, needing impregnation or illumination ere the same can cause aught to be; (2) the Male Principle and Light, the First-born Son of Fire; and (3) Fire itself, the one origin of all things and Father of Spirits, made manifest unto mortals by His First-born Son, and best symbolled, as is Light, by the Solar Orb.

On Plate x.x.xI. we have in figure 4 a representation of the G.o.ddess Ishtar, the bride of the Sun-G.o.d. Over her we see the phallic symbol of the radiate Sun and Crescent moon in conjunction.

On Plate x.x.xII. we see in figure 23 the Svastika cross under a tree, in a representation of a scarab from Ialysos. This cross coupled with the presence of two bulls, one on either side of the tree, seem to show that the Male Principle is referred to.

On Plate XL. we have a cut of a votive arm, holding in its hand that phallic symbol the apple, and obtained from the sanctuary of Apollo at Voni.

On Plate LVIII. in representations of the stone capitals of two votive pillars from the shrine of Aphrodite at Idalion, we see various phallic emblems; including the familiar Sun disc and Crescent moon in conjunction.

The same remark applies to Plate LIX., where two more such pillars are ill.u.s.trated.

Upon Plate LXIX. are given no less than 134 ill.u.s.trations of ancient religious symbols, and the phallic character of nearly if not quite all is plainly apparent.