Forlong - Rivers of Life
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132 Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands. The goddess of the Concha or vase is shewn in a very striking way in Plate vii. fig. 20, of the Bilder Atlas, as rising vigorously out of the ocean, riding the vernal bull; it has a fish’s tail, in the folds. of which children are gambolling, whilst winged cherubim are urging the hull upwards in his fiery path, in a way which reminds us of that whipping of the altar of Apollo by impetaous creation.; the riding deity here representing woman. Elsewhere may be seen the same goddess riding a fiery horse, which has a fish’s tail but no legs; it carries with it a picture of all animate creation, shewing us that the worship is intensely solo-phallic, and that these phases of faith must never be entirely separated if we would understand aright the ideas of the Greeks and Romans, even up to the last century or so. Where could we find a fitter queen of these faiths than she, Sophia, Wisdom and Power, portrayed in that magnificent statue of the Akropolis, the Athena-Parthenon, Athena, Minerva, Pallas-Athena, or Athena-Polias? for all of which grand titles my eastern friends would be inclined to substitute Sri-linga-Jee, Adāma, or Yeva, according as they were expressing themselves from a Hindoo or Mahomedan point of view. She was no doubt Palla or Phalla the great father, and Athena the great mother, an androgynous deity, such as Zeus and Wisdom always were. Pallas Athena commonly bore the shaft of Zeus, the trident of Neptune, or the Tri-Sool of India—the three-thorned “Enlivener” of Gē in one hand, a globe in the other, on which a new world arises, and so on ad infinitum. The wild. and impetuous paaaions of the goddess are usually indicated by writhing snakes over her Fig. 49.—PALLAS-ATHENA, OR WISDOM AND POWER head and breasts, and issuing from her garments at foot, here only partially shown. Sometimes she seems to rise above passion and trample it under foot, as we observe in an illustration of the Denkmaler der Alten Kunst collection; whilst elsewhere she is the patroness of passion, herself unmoved, but moving all creation, as in the Bilder Atlas (Leipsic, 1860), where she leans against her representation the shield (not the rudder here), at the foot of which is coiled a serpent looking up to her, and a winged lioness with very full breasts, as if imploring her to exercise her potent energies. In Latona’s story we have a similar idea; and in this scultpure of her, where we see a serpent tempting a coy or backward woman, we have a a sort of pictorial pun in the upright column which she and her young ones are made to form between two rocks or cliffs—always male symbols. Fig. 50.—LATONA.
Serpent and Phallic Worship. This drawing is one of a class common on vases. Latona, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, and Queen of Delos, is here flying from the serpent—Jupiter, with some amount of dear, but neither in anger nor altogether willingly, whilst her children seek to cling to the pursuer. The idea, I fancy, is both phallic and solar as connected with Zeus; the very name of the goddess, l»qh 1 —Latin, lateo, seems to tell us of hidden powers of fecundity, which Zeus the Sun developed; so that the flight, if from the gods, represents the seasons, simiIer to the diurnal idea of Daphne or Aurora. Our Serpent-god plays a similar part with Hercules and the Hesperides, in that “garden of apples”—a fruit which signifies more than I dare here explain (see Anct. Faiths.—Apples). Hera got the apples from mother Gē, and when they had served her purpose, entrusted them to the Hesperides, daughters of Night, or of Atlas and Hesperia, or Zeus and Themis, a very imprudent act, which was scarcely to be expected from such a discreet and well-informed person as Juno; but the story is Phallo-Solar. The Hesperides were those who dwelt far away beyond the Borean wind, or—as this was afterwards localized, in Hyperborean lands, then thought to be beyond mother Gē’s domains. Juno, after fertilising her own lands, is in this tale represented as then giving these maids the means of fertilizing their sterile grounds, so that in all this wonderful tale of searching out and capturing apples, or fruit hidden away by Hesperides, and guarded by a great serpent, we no doubt (although I suspect a very gross Phallic tale is the root of the myth) are now merely asked to see the idea of the sun searching out and bringing to life latent fertility, as in the tale of Latona and Delos, which was also a very barren though sunny place, like what Hyperborea was believe to be. We must bear in mind, that as Apollo or the Sun is Python, so the Pillar, Mudhir, or Sun-Stone, as they called it in ancient Ireland is also the Toth, the Solar Serpent of obelisk, which last—“Grimm’s laws” notwithstanding, if such must be—I hold to be resolvable into Ab or Ob and Palos. or Ob-belos, the Serpent shaft or sun, which Bryant and Holwell support me in saying. In historic ages the worship of the Pillar and Phallus was general at all Solar phases, and whether in Asia Minor or on the Campus Martius of Rome—around that fine monument, but very coarse idea of Mars—we see why the annual games of the people, Delphic, or Pythic, Fig. 52.—THE PHALLIC MARS, CAMPUS MARTIUS. Fig. 51.—MAN, WOMAN, TREE AND SERPENT. 133 were so held, and in presence of such gods. Before this Mars, the youth of Rome were annually assembled 1 [sic, s.b. Lhtè, Lēto. L»qh, Lēthē, was something else entirely – see LSJ, s.v. — T.S.]
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Serpent and Phallic Worship.<br />
This drawing is one <strong>of</strong> a class common on vases. Latona, the mother <strong>of</strong> Apollo and<br />
Artemis, and Queen <strong>of</strong> Delos, is here flying from the serpent—Jupiter, with some<br />
amount <strong>of</strong> dear, but neither in anger nor altogether willingly, whilst her children seek<br />
to cling to the pursuer. The idea, I fancy, is both phallic and solar as connected with<br />
Zeus; the very name <strong>of</strong> the goddess, l»qh 1 —Latin, lateo, seems to tell us <strong>of</strong> hidden powers<br />
<strong>of</strong> fecundity, which Zeus the Sun developed; so that the flight, if from the gods, represents<br />
the seasons, simiIer to the diurnal idea <strong>of</strong> Daphne or Aurora.<br />
Our Serpent-god plays a similar part with Hercules and the Hesperides, in that<br />
“garden <strong>of</strong> apples”—a fruit which signifies more than<br />
I dare here explain (see Anct. Faiths.—Apples). Hera<br />
got the apples from mother Gē, and when they had<br />
served her purpose, entrusted them to the Hesperides,<br />
daughters <strong>of</strong> Night, or <strong>of</strong> Atlas and Hesperia, or Zeus<br />
and Themis, a very imprudent act, which was scarcely<br />
to be expected from such a discreet and well-informed<br />
person as Juno; but the story is Phallo-Solar. The<br />
Hesperides were those who dwelt far away beyond the<br />
Borean wind, or—as this was afterwards localized, in<br />
Hyperborean lands, then thought to be beyond mother<br />
Gē’s domains. Juno, after fertilising her own lands, is<br />
in this tale represented as then giving these maids<br />
the means <strong>of</strong> fertilizing their sterile grounds, so that in<br />
all this wonderful tale <strong>of</strong> searching out and capturing<br />
apples, or fruit hidden away by Hesperides, and guarded by a great serpent, we<br />
no doubt (although I suspect a very gross Phallic tale is the root <strong>of</strong> the myth) are now<br />
merely asked to see the idea <strong>of</strong> the sun searching out and bringing to life latent<br />
fertility, as in the tale <strong>of</strong> Latona and Delos, which was also a very barren<br />
though sunny place, like what Hyperborea was believe to be.<br />
We must bear in mind, that as Apollo or the Sun is Python, so the Pillar, Mudhir,<br />
or Sun-Stone, as they called it in ancient Ireland is also<br />
the Toth, the Solar Serpent <strong>of</strong> obelisk, which last—“Grimm’s<br />
laws” notwithstanding, if such must be—I hold to be<br />
resolvable into Ab or Ob and Palos. or Ob-belos, the Serpent<br />
shaft or sun, which Bryant and Holwell support me<br />
in saying. In historic ages the worship <strong>of</strong> the Pillar and<br />
Phallus was general at all Solar phases, and whether in Asia<br />
Minor or on the Campus Martius <strong>of</strong> Rome—around that<br />
fine monument, but very coarse idea <strong>of</strong> Mars—we see<br />
why the annual games <strong>of</strong> the people, Delphic, or Pythic,<br />
Fig. 52.—THE PHALLIC MARS,<br />
CAMPUS MARTIUS.<br />
Fig. 51.—MAN, WOMAN, TREE AND<br />
SERPENT.<br />
133<br />
were so held, and in presence <strong>of</strong> such gods. Before<br />
this Mars, the youth <strong>of</strong> Rome were annually assembled<br />
1 [sic, s.b. Lhtè, Lēto. L»qh, Lēthē, was something else entirely – see LSJ, s.v. — T.S.]
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