Forlong - Rivers of Life

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Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
Neptune, the male Sea-god of Rome, was identical with Poseidon of Greece, and his
temple and festivals were in the Campus Martius. Poseidon was a brother of Jupiter and
Pluto, and a mighty representative god-man of the waters, and of what the Sea symbolised;
his was the teeming womb of fertility, and therefore woman. His hosts are dolphins
and innumerable sea-nymphs and monsters. His chariots are yoked with horses, which
he is said to have created and taught men to manage. His symbol is the phallic trident,
or rather the Tri-sool, or “giver of life” of Siva, which can cleave rocks, produce
water; and shake Heaven and Earth. The Nephthus of Egypt was the goddess of the
coasts of the Red Sea and the wife of the wicked Serpent deity Typhon. The Dolphin
as a highly emblematic fish often stands for Neptune himself, although. it probably
first rose in importance from a mere punning on the words Delphis delf…j, a Dolphin,
and dšlfuj Delphus, the womb; and occasionally the Pudenda as already shown. Delphax
dšlfax was also a young pig which was occasionally offered to Juno; Delphi was
goddess Earth’s symbolism chasm, and Delphinius was her Apollo, and from Dolphin
springs the name Delphin or Dauphin, the eldest son of the King of France.
The male Palm or Cedar is shown rather indecently in Figs. 5 and. 8 of my Plate
IV. as springing from a dolphin and man; in one case in the water, and the other in an
ark or altar. In Fig. 4, Plate V., Neptune or Siva stands in god-like form, with his
symbolic Tri-sool in hand, thrust down upon the world, and in the other hand, a young
dolphin; one foot rests upon the Ark-boat of life. Elsewhere we see a man standing
on a dolphin and playing with fertility as a woman and child; or he leans upon a rock
which denotes the male deity—EL who is TSUR; but I must pass on, and will here ask
attention to some gleanings from Phallo-Serpent sculpturings among existing and
very civilized races with whom I found it an ever active and prosperous faith.
Most persons who could afford it have customarily marked their faith as indelibly as
possible on any great works erected by them, and on their tombs. On the tomb of Epaminondas
was a serpent (Bryant, II. 465), to denote that he was an Ophite or Theban;
and in a circle or Yoni on the “Adamantine shield” of the Theban Herakles, were, says
Hesiod, two dragons suspended with high uplifed heads. My Indian sketch-book can
give many similar pictures. I take this one copies from a small sarcophagus-looking
building on the artificial weir and embankment of the magnificent reservoir of Kankrouli
in the Odepore state of Rajpootana. It is one of a very common description, and
probably denotes the faith and death of a soldier who fell near here; or who had something
to do with the construction of this large and important public work. In many cases
such figures signify more than this; the man on the horse being the Sun, and the lance
the phallus, with which the ancient Roman crossed the standard of their legions; whilst
the two great dilated cobras denoted the continuity of fertile force. This is especially
the case if we find these emblems about doors to Sivaik shrines, and on temple walls,
and similar places. I copied this one from amidst a profusion of phallo-serpent objects,
and close to one of the holiest shrines in India, where dwells one of those saintly