Forlong - Rivers of Life

Serpent and Phallic Worship.
wearying dream before the advancing tide of human knowledge and exact science.
Tennyson never wrote more truly than when he thus described the ephemeral nature of
all “Religions,” although every race, nay, every earnest pietiest, oft declares of his
own, that “it will never pass away,” no, “not a jot or tittle!” whilst it is changing
all around him, if he had but eyes to see and ears to hear.”
“ Our little systems have their day
They have their day and cease to be;
They are but broken lights of Thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.”
In vain does “the Blind Bard of Delos” and thousands of others down to our
own day now try to bewitch us into madness whose feet are stayed on Reason, and
whose anchor is not only “common sense,” but keen and sceptical science; we listen
and oft admire, but smile when asked to join in the worship which he sincerely and
often beautifully offers to his deity. Seldom did the Delos Bard do so more
rapturously than when looking, we may imagine, from the lofty precipices of
Parnassus over the holy dwellings of Krisa, down far away into its lovely bay, or, as
with eyes over Delos, Samos, Lemnos, and Sacred Syrus, he cried with exuberance of
pious joy:
“ With thee each rock, each headland brow
Of lofty mountain rang,
While Rivers in their seaward flow,
And toppling cliffs, with waves below,
And creeks thy praises sang.” 1
But we must leave the Poet and the past for a time, and here relate all the prominents
facts concerning this—one of the most important of the Sun and Serpent-shrines of
earth.
That which we now call Delphi was the oracle of the Python and then of Apollo;
it flourished long before the days of the Hellenes, or of the tales and myths, for we
have not yet any correct histories, of the early tribes who worshipped here. Trophonius,
the Basileus, and his brother, Aga-Menes, or “Man of Love,” built, says
mythic tale, this shrine fot King Hyreus; query Hur or Sol? 2 but this hereafter, when
we investigate the kingly name of Attica and the origin of the Basilica of Romans, and
of the great modern Faith, whose priest rules from the seven hills, of which the foremost
still is that of Pallas. Delphus, Delphua, Delphoi, Delphis, &c. have all a feminine
signification, perhaps as connected with D, Delta, the “door of life,” womb, or the Delta,
as the most fertile part of a land. The Delta of Egypt was a synonym for Isis, but
the roots D-el or Del, D or De, Di, Diu,. Dev, Div, T, Teu, Zeu, To, So, Go, &c., have
never yet been properly investigated by competent men; Bryant and Faber had not
sufficient knowledge of Phallic faith and Eastern lore; and their mistakes are, in the light
of our present knowledge, often very quaint. D added to a word, as to Oanes—which
1 Hymn to Apollo, xxii. 4, quoted by Pococke, I. in G. 303.
2 It was adorned with Serpents.
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