Forlong - Rivers of Life

300
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
was the grandson of Erek-theus, the golden serpent and god-man, the son of Vulkan. 1
He was carried about in a chest representing Ceres. His name is very suggestive,
signifying he who tortures, splits, grinds, or makes bread, if we may take the liberty
of using the Greek K for c; wbich they were very free in doing, as well as in the case
of p P, and f Ph,—causing the unlearned, especially in Europe, to stumble grievously.
The, f I have elsewhere and pictorially shown, contains an evident double
entendre. It was a common form of charm and amulet, and is so seen to hang from
the neck of Apis; the bar or shaft when not vertical was a nail, spike, or thorn, and
therefore the whole a. Linga-in-yoni; otherwise, the male triad, see my Plate XIII,
where both amulets, as usually seen on the Apis, are given. The priest, or Ra-phan,
Greek Ramphas, was called Pata, and so all priests are Patas, Paders, or Padres, words
which go back to much beyond Latin days, to Pater as the father or Generator; Patria,
the place of generation, or native country—a feminine form, as the former, usually before
the days of statuary, figured as the penates or male form. Saturn was called by Romans
their most ancient Pater, and his priests Patres; but thousands of yearn before Rome the
ancient Amonian Petors used to dance round the Amonian Fire-Shrine, holding in their
hands their holy Petaurum (Petor-Am, a kind of pole or phallic symbol), this in honour
of the Sun, 2 which appears to have been the origin of “the Pyrrhic-dance,” wrongly
fancied to have been named after Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles; for of course the word
simply signifies a Fire-dance, or dance to or round a fire; which is still common in Asia;
and elsewhere. Bryant says that this Egyptian dance was in honour of Hermes;” or
Maha Deva, and “was called Betarmus, a compound of Bet-Armes, or Armon, more
properly Hermes and Hermon; Bet among the Amonians denoting a temple,” as we
know it was from the very earliest to the latest periods of Jewish story. Petra
was in the most ancient times always a sacred object, but not necessarily a stone; it
might be an omphe. “Thus Olympus near Pisa, though no rock but a huge mound
or hill, was of old termed Petra, as relating to Oracular influence; hence Pindar. speaking
of Iamus (from Ham, the Sun)—who was supposed to have been conducted by Apollo
to Olympia—says that they both came to Petra Elibatos upon the lofty Kronian mount,”
which Elibatos, Bryant expalins, “signifies Eli-Bat or Solis domus vel templum, as well
as the actual Deity there worshipped.” In this world we have the origin of our
Elizabeth, for the house or temple of a god is always a woman or ark. The temple of
Elis had a Petra. Pindar says the Delphic Pytho was a petrašssa Petraessas, and in the
adjoining capital, Orkomenians all worshipped a Petra which fell from heaven; 3 and
so from Euripides we learn that the sacred cavern of the Akropolis of Athens “was
called Petræ Makræ, Petræ Kekropiæ, which, by-the-bye, reminds us of that most
ancient of sacred things with all peoples, “the Abyss,” or cave, revered alike in this
Akropolis, as by Jews on Mount Moriah. All goddesses like Ceres sit or rest upon a
1
Clas. Man., p. 87.
2
Bryant I. 386. This Petaurum is often mentioned by Roman writers, and appears to have been
latterly used as a leaping pole, a suggestive article, especially when we remember what the Keltic heav-
3
ings and leapings signified.
Pausanias quoted by Bryant, I. 36.