Forlong - Rivers of Life

Serpent and Phallic Worship.
and Deanc), because, says Pausanias, this was the middle of the earth. The Peloponnesians
had a similar Omphalos at Phlius in Akaia, but I fancy this was not so clearly
a boss, so that perhaps the object was a Sri-Linga; see Bryant, II. 109, who very
correctly derives Omphalos from Om-phi-e1, the mouth. or oracle of the Sun. (An. I.
307). I suspect that the peculiar broad-brimmed hat of Italian priests, with boss in
centre, denotes a Yonite instead of the old Phallic Worship with which the ancient
hats of the Flamens were in accordance. Hats, Helmets, Crowns, and Tiaras were
all highly significant objects as will appear from various matters hereafter to be treated
of; here I desire merely to call attention to the, and give this drawing to let my
readers bear this feature in mind. Kings, Chiefs, and Priests do not wear such symbols
all these without thought and meaning, and in the
first line the symbols are clearly meant to de-
note upholders of Lingaite faiths, and those in the
other two columns, Solar, and phallo-Solar cult.
The spear, or Quiris (after which the Quirinal hill is
named) with its wrapper, was the oldest symbol of
the purest Nature-worshippers. The boss upon a
shield was an Omphalos and a highly venerated
part; and added much to the high value all the ancients
set upon their shields. Warriors specially revered
and held sacred rites in connection with their
shields, as sailors did in the case of their rudders;
indeed, both classes here and there still do in the
East. I have already given at page 131, draw-
ings of rudders and a shield adorned by serpents, such as may be abundantly found in
classical atlases and dictionaries; and pointed out that the great Cesar’s first gift, after
his conquests in Britain, to his favourite—the Venus Genitrix of Rome, was a shield
embossed with British pearls, a highly significant ornament, which a Cesar and a Solomon
could appreciate, the latter having made,
we are told, three hundred shields of gold.
which we see from 2 Chron. ix. 16, were for
religious and not war-like purposes. Dr Inman
gives these drawings of what he conceives,
not without reason, to have been their
shape. No. 70 was the very peculiar Argha
and Yoni-like form of the shield of the pious
Templars, all of whose relics teem with
Phallo-Solar ideas.
The orthodox Hislop, in his “Two Babylons,” tells us that the “bouns,” buns, or
bread offered to the gods from the most ancient times, were similar to our “hot-cross buns
185
Fig. 66.—THE SYMBOLISM OF HATS, CROWNS,
HELMETS, &C.
Fig. 67.—SACRED SHIELDS, HATS, CAKES, OR BUNS