BONES FOUND IN THE PYRAMID. 555 DCCLXIV. I have observed above, that the sarcophagi in the pyramids were probably designed to receive the embalmed body of a cow; and in the one opened by Belzoni, among a quantity of earth and rubbish, bones were found, which, on being conveyed to London, were declared to be those of a bull; but, perhaps, the examiners were led to this decision by being more familiar with Apis than with Athor. At all events, the pyramids were destined to contain the mummy of the female animal, the living symbol of that power whose nature they mystically signified by their external configuration. Each face of the perfect pyramid represents an equilateral triangle, with its base on the earth, and its apex pointing heavenward. Under this form, which represents the xteis yuvaixeĩos, or Yoni, Venus has been worshipped, from the remotest antiquity, in Hindoostan, and various other countries of the East. The rudeness of the representation, and the very distant resemblance of the idol to the thing typified, by no means invalidate our inference, which is founded on innumerable authorities, whose testimony it would be impossible to reject or disparage. In India and Greece, the idols and towers erected in honour of the Phallus, were likewise imperfect in their shape; rendered so, not from decorum, - for no man regards his god as an object of shame, — but through the inability of the artists to produce any thing superior; and afterwards, when time had cast over the rough primitive idol the hue and appearance of antiquity, it was venerated for the ages it had endured, and 556 MYSTERY OF THE TRIANGLE. imitated, as far as possible, in consequence of this very veneration. Thus the triangle *, the delta, the pyramid, the cone, and the oblong circlet, infinitely varied and modified in different ages and countries, retained under every change their original typical signification, and were regarded with religious awe and reverence as symbols of the passive power of nature, by which every thing that breathes the breath of life is projected into existence. DCCLXV. As the phallus, therefore, was worshipped as the symbol of the Ἔρως πρωτογόνος, the spirit or intellect, which "brooded o'er the vast abyss, and made it pregnant," so the kteis, or yoni, received adoration as the generative power of nature, by the concurrence of whose passive energy the universe was warmed into life and motion. † To describe the rites and ceremonies by which this worship was accompanied in various countries, forms no por Several antiquarians confound the symbols of the saktis, or female powers of the divinities, with the symbols of the divinities themselves. Thus, the conical emblem of Astarté has been mistaken for that of Baal. — Hamaker, Miscel. Phœnic., p. 119. In India, also, careless investigators have fallen into the same error. "Bacchus, or Osiris, was represented by an equilateral triangle; Siva has the same hieroglyphic: the worship of Bacchus was the same as that which is paid to Siva; it had the same obscenities, the same bloody rites, and the same emblem of the generative power." Paterson, Asiat. Res. viii. 50. But Osiris was not represented by the triangle, which was the symbol of Athor, or Venus. Porphyr. ap Euseb. Præp. Evan. iii. 98. + St. Augustin. De Civitate Dei, l. vi. c. 9.—“ Ob hoc Libero eamdem virilem corporis partem in templo poni, fœmineam Liberæ." i.e. Veneri. -Vide et 1. vii. c. 20. B. · Καὶ προσέτι τῆς Θέμιδος τὰ ἀπόῤῥητα σύμβολα, ὀρίγανον, λύχνος, ξίφος, κτεὶς γυναικεῖος· ὃ ἐστὶν, εὐφήμως καὶ μυστικῶς εἰπεῖν, μópiov yuvaketov. Clem. Alexand. Cohort. ad Gentes, i. 19. ed. Oxon. 1715. PILLARS OF SESOSTRIS. 557 tion of my present design; which is not to amuse the imagination by gay images and florid pictures, but to pursue a question of dry antiquarian research, destitute of every charm, but that of exciting or gratifying curiosity. That the generative power of nature received, under the name of Venus, the adoration of the Pagan world, is universally known, however, and admitted. It only remains, therefore, to inquire whether the triangle, or the pyramid, which is a figure triangular on all sides, was regarded by the ancients as a symbol of the feminine nature. Winckelmann*, speaking of the warlike trophies erected by the Egyptians, in the several countries they subdued, observes," Nous ignorons, si les Hermès caracterisés par la nature feminine, et érigés par Sésostris dans les pays qu'il avait conquis sans resistance, avaient été figurés de la même manière; ou si, pour indiquer le sexe, ils avaient un triangle, par lequel les Egyptiens avoient coûtume de le dessiner."+ Perhaps, however, the barbarous conqueror, if his wars are to be regarded as historical events, did not condescend to adopt the language of symbol, since, according to Diodorus, the aidoiov avòpòs was sculptured, in its natural form, on the pillars of the brave. ‡ Hist. de l'Art, &c. t. i. p.8. On the symbolical signification of the triangle, see likewise D'Hancarville, Recherches sur les Arts, &c. t. i. p. 178, 179. — And Hyde, Hist. Rel. Vet. Persar. p. 115. Conf. Joseph. Ant. Jud. 1. viii. 10. 3.-— Herod. ii. 102.—Margaret, Queen of Denmark, who succeeded her husband Haquin, in 1376, having subdued the Swedes, exercised the most tyrannical sway over them; “addunt, in dedecus quoque gentis suæ, et veluti socordiam exprobando viris; ea parte, quam in fœminis natura tectam vult, num 558 VISHNU AND PRIT THIVI. DCCLXVI. The same symbol was adopted by different nations to express the same idea; but among no people, perhaps, was it reproduced so frequently, or with so much variety and so many modifications, as among the Egyptians.- Everywhere on their monuments it makes a conspicuous figure, generally in connection with female divinities supposed to preside over the production of living beings; more particularly Athor and Isis; the former the Goddess of the vivifying power, the latter of maternity. In all cases it is emblematical of the sex.* Nature itself, in the opinion of the Orientals, has impressed this mysterious figure on the bosom of the lotust; whence the religious adoration of that flower in India and Egypt. The generative influence of the sun was represented, in symbolical language, by a bull. But in the mythology, and mystic philosophy of the Egyptians, the female power was supposed to be of more efficacy than the male, whence the superior influence of women in civil society, and Apis himself was worshipped less on his own account, than for the sacred figure of mum signasse."-Pontanus, Rer. Danicar. Hist. fol. p. 544, 545. edit. 1631.-Elias Brennerus, Thesaur. Numm. Suegoth. p. 20. Tab. iii. "Vishnu and Prit'thivi (Venus) are severally typified by an equilateral triangle (which likewise gives an idea of capacity), and conjointly, when their powers are supposed to be combined, by two such equal triangles intersecting each other."-Asiatic Researches, i. 135. "The Indians commonly represent this mystery of their physiological religion by the emblem of a nymphæa or lotus, floating like a boat on the boundless ocean; where the whole plant signifies both the earth and the two principles of its fecundation; the germ is both Meru and the lingam; the petals and filaments are the mountains, which encircle Meru, and are also a type of the yoni.”—Asiat. Res. i. 134. DESCRIPTION OF APIS. 559 the yoni or delta which he bore upon his forehead. "This Apis, or Epaphus, is the calf of a cow which can have no more young. The Egyptians say that on this occasion the cow is struck with lightning, from which she conceives and brings forth Apis. The young one so produced, and thus named, is known by certain marks: the skin is black, but on its forehead is a white star of a triangular form."* Plutarch accounts differently for the production of Apis. "The priests," he observes, "affirm that the moon sheds a generative light, with which, should a cow wanting the bull be struck, she conceives Apis, who bears the sign of that planet." And Larcher, a diligent antiquarian, remarks that this taurine divinity was sacred to the moon, whose influence over the production of living beings was believed as an article of faith among the ancients. † DCCLXVII. It appears to have been inconsistent with the character of many ancient nations, - among which the Egyptians may be regarded as the chief,— * Herodotus, l. iii. c. 28. - In the common text of this historian we find λευκὸν τετράγωνον ; but Beloe has very properly adopted the reading approved by Jablonski, (Panth. Ægypt. 1. iv. c. 2.) Wesseling, Diss. Herodot. p. 175., and Valckenaer; which substitutes λevkóv tɩ tpíywvov, in accordance with all existing monuments. I have elsewhere described a figure of Apis with the triangle on the forehead.-Vol. i. p. 21. "Ipse Sol mundum omnem suâ luce compleat, ab eoque Luna inluminata graviditates et partus adferat maturitatesque gignendi. Quæ copulatio rerum, et quam consentinens ad mundi incolumitatem coagmentatio naturæ, quem non movet; hunc horum nihil unquam reputavisse certo scio."- Cicero, De Naturâ Deorum, 1. ii. c. 46. p. 216. ed. Davis. |