Forlong - Rivers of Life

374
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
and calves, are sacred to Vulcan, the last two being sacrificed to him. Venus or Love
was wedded to him, but forsook him for Mars, the strong god of war, when he left her for
Kabiro (hence probably the Kabiri,) Maya, and the Grace Aglaia, and held intercourse
of a desultory kind everywhere, for he was the father of the two Argonāts, Pak-monius,
Phil-oetus, &c. Once when banished from heaven, he lived for nine months with
Thetis and Eurynome, the daughters of Oceanus, by which we are to understand that
all peoples toyed with Fire, and at one time or another firmly embraced it as their faith.
The sun, when in Virgo—the autumnal or conceptive period, is particularly sacred
to Vulcan, and this is the great marrying time among most nations. In Kaldia, this God’s
name was Al-orus, that is, Phallic Fire, and in Phenicia Dia-Mikius and Krysor,
whom the Greeks termed Xrusos from Chus-Or, a name given by the poets to Apollo. 1
By Babylonians he was called Cuth, or Kooth, the father of those mighty builders spoken
of as Ethiopians, 2 and thought to have first risen to eminence at Chusistan (Kooth-istan),
or the lands on the east bank of the Tigris. Jewish writers heard of these people as sons
of Ham or Am. The Koosean priests of Vulcan were called by the Greeks Krusei, or
Kunes; 3 Philo Biblius supposes Krusor to be Vulcan, whilst Bochart derives this from
Xores-Ur, the artificer of fire. 4
Hephestus, say Pausanias, first formed woman, by his hammer, as Prometheus, his
type in many respects, first formed man. The statement is suggestive of the qualities
of the sexes. The gods were jealous of, and angry with the one, but loved the creation
of the other, and heaped innumerable gifts upon Pandōra, “the all-gifted.” Aphrodité
gave her beauty, Hermes eloquence and cunning, Pallas wisdom, Apollo music, and
Zeus despatched her to earth to tease man; but “Fore-thought” sealed up the box
which “After-thought” could not resist the temptation of opening, and so man received
from Fire all that humanity glories in, and often laments over. Some say womanly
curiosity tempted Pandōra herself to open the box, when out flew all the contents before
she was able to close it, Hope alone remaining.
One of the stories concerning Hephestus bespeaks a strong Eastem source, and shows
that he was the Western Siva. In his struggle to possess Minerva, “Vulcan’s nature
fell from him upon the earth and produced Erik-theus” 5 the Arkite, and also an Ophite
race, which was a great distress to the gods, and led as in Siva’s case, to a joint appeal to
him from all “the court of heaven.” The colour of these gods is the same as that of
Krishna and Mercury, and characteristic; Siva being “the blue-throated one”—Neela-
Kanta, and Hephestus the “blue conical-headed one,” 6 both full of meaning. Hephesuas
had dogs attached to his shrine at Etna, “whose sense of smell was so exquisite that they
could discern whether the persons who came thither were chaste and religious or wicked;”
if the latter, they flew at them, tearing and driving them away; but if chaste, they met
1 Holwell’s Myth. Dict., 113.
4 Ibid., p. 442.
2
Joseph. Ant. Jud., I. 6, and O. Test.
3
Hol. Myth. Dict., p. 122.
5
Tooke’s Panth., p. 157.
6
Ibid., p. 162.