Forlong - Rivers of Life

304
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
a harp, and harps and music were the female principles on which the Gods acted. In
this Memnon touched by the solar rays we recognise the so-called “Pointer” or Sun
Gnomon-Stone, which is in the centre of the so-called “avenue” in the Stonehenge Druid
circle, and over whose summit alone (see p. 281) the ray can reach the moat sacred
part. The same idea of the Sun-darter and fertilizer seems to be faithfully portrayed
in the picture of the “Rosary of the blessed Virgin,” which was printed at Venice in
1542, says Dr Inman, 1 to whom I am indebted for this rare engraving. The ray in both
cases is fertilizing the sacred shrine. Memnon is frequently
shown as Horus being nursed by the Virgin
who is then called Aurora; and his picture is then
precisely the same as we usually see in the case of
paintings or sculptures called “Madonna and Child” or
Deva-ki (Mother-God) and Krishna. But to return to
the prolific Ps.
Pola was a celebrated altar, in the Istrian town of
Pola, 2 no doubt, like Jacob’s Beth-el of Genesis xxxv.;
“it represented Rome.” Potela was the Hymen God of
Sklavonians; Polybia was a name for Ceres of “Abundance,”
and it was Pan “the hunter” (Nimrob) who
discovered her cave and so made the earth fertile. Pan
or P’An, seems to be the mouthpiece or “fire of An.”
The Pan or Phan or the Orphics was “the Sovereign
Fig. 142.—THE CONCEPTION, OR APOLLO
FERTILISING TERRA.
Deity and Lord of Elements” (Hol., 320), which his
name Pi-an would entitle him to be called. Phanes
in the Orphic hymns is Protogonus, who is Nature or protogšnia, the first born, D…kh or
Justice, and also pepromšnh or Fate, whose origin is given as follows. From Good or Unity
sprang a DUAD, Ether and Chaos, of which Ether represents Bounds, and Chaos Infinity;
and these uniting produced Intellectuality, which sprang as it were from an
Egg generated by NIGHT, NOX, or Darkness, and this was the “MIGHTY FIRST-
BEGOTTEN ONE” of the ineffable Father, Goodness and Love. Phanes is the first
“Sceptre-Bearer” among the great gods. Orpheus calls him the “bull-roarer
glorying in golden wings” 3 and therefore he is Mithras; but Mithras has been
also Ceres, who is at times the moon, the queen of generation. Porphyry
(262) says: “Mithras as well as the Bull is the Demiurgus of the Universe, the
Lord of Generation.” Proklus makes out that Phanes is to the world of intelligence
what Thetis is to the sensible world. Thetis is the mother of Venus, and Protogonus,
the father of night, who is Venus in Orpheus. Phanes is clearly a form of solar
worship which was in high favour at Kio (Chio), the capital of (Chios) Kios, which
lies under the highest mountain of this considerable island. Phanes was a great
king of this island in its mythic days, and a promontory—a sure Phallic sign—is called
1 Anc. Faiths. I. 99-100.
2 Class. Man, p. 371.
3 Hymn to Proto., 3. He is also Bel, see p. 298 ante.