CHAP. Aryan and No idea is, however, more prominent in most of the shapes which the myth connected with the Linga and Yoni have assumed than that of a mysterious knowledge; nor has any feature in the ancient world Semitic attracted more attention than the great Mysteries in which a knowledge mysteries. hidden from the profane was supposed to be imparted to the initiated. Is the knowledge to which the myths refer the sum and substance of the knowledge conveyed in the mysteries? That it has been and is so throughout India, no one probably will deny or dispute. The wailing of the Hebrew women at the death of Tammuz, the death and resurrection of Osiris, the adoration of the Babylonian Mylitta, the Sacti ministers of Hindu temples, the cross and crescent of Isis, the rites of the Jewish altar of Baal-Peor, wholly preclude all doubt of the real nature of the great festivals and mysteries of Phenicians, Jews, Assyrians, Egyptians, and Hindus. Have we any reason for supposing that the case was essentially different in more western countries, and that the mysteries of the Hellenic tribes were not substantially identical with those of other Aryan and Semitic tribes? It may be doubted whether the Greek mysteries were ever used for the exposition of theological doctrines differing from the popular creed, or even whether any recondite doctrine, religious or philosophical, was attached to the mysteries, or contained in the holy stories of any priesthood of the ancient world. If by this recondite teaching be meant doctrines relating to the nature of God and the Divine government of the world, the judgments of historians like Thirlwall and Grote may perhaps be in accordance with fact; but it can scarcely be denied that the thoughts aroused by the recognition of the difference between man and woman are among the most mysterious stirrings of the human heart, and that a philosophy which professed to reconcile the natural impulses of the worshippers with the sense of right and duty would carry with it a strange and almost irresistible fascination. The Corinthian Aphroditê had her Hierodouloi, the pure Gerairai ministered to the goddess of the Parthenon, and the altar of the Latin Vesta was tended by her chosen virgins. A system which could justify these inconsistencies in the eyes of the initiated, and lead them to discern different forms of the same sacrifice in the purity of the one and the abandonment of the other, might well be said to be based on a recondite, though not a wholesome, Boots or Cinderella. The treasure is a lamp in which burns a liquid which is not oil; with the possession of it are bound up wealth, happiness, and splendour: it is, in short, the Sangreal. The ring which the magician places on his finger is the ring of Gyges.-Plato, II. BOOK doctrine. Nor, indeed, is it supposed that the character of the Hellenic mysteries was less dramatic than those of Egypt or Hindustan. Every act of the great Eleusinian festival reproduced the incidents of the myth of Dêmêtêr, and the processions of Athênê and Dionysos exhibited precisely the same symbols which marked the worship of Vishnu and Sacti, of the Egyptian Isis and the Teutonic Hertha. The substantial identity of the rites justifies the inference of a substantial identity of doctrines. It is no accident which has given to Iswara Arghanautha, the Hindu Dionysos, an epithet which makes him the lord of that divine ship which bore the Achaian warriors from the land of darkness to the land of the morning. The testimony of Theodoret, Arnobios, and Clement of Alexandria, that an emblem similar to the Yoni was worshipped in the mysteries of Eleusis needs no confirmation, when we remember that the same emblem was openly carried in procession at Athens. The vases in the Hamiltonian collection at the British Museum leave us as little in doubt that the purification of women in the Hellenic mysteries agreed closely with that of the Sacti in the mysteries of the Hindus. That ornaments in the shape of a vesica have been popular in all countries as preservatives against dangers, and especially from evil spirits, can as little be questioned as the fact that they still retain some measure of their ancient popularity in England, where horse-shoes are nailed to walls as a safeguard against unknown perils, where a shoe is thrown by way of good luck after newly married couples, and where the villagers have not yet ceased to dance round the Maypole on the green. Real meaning of tree and serpent worship. It may be confidently said that the facts now stated furnish a clue which will explain all the phenomena of tree and serpent worship. The whole question is indeed one of fact, and it is useless to build on hypothesis. If there is any one point more certain than another, it is that, wherever tree and serpent worship has been found, the cultus of the Phallos and the Ship, of the Linga and the Yoni, in connexion with the worship of the sun, has been found also. It is impossible to dispute the fact; and no explanation can be accepted for one part of the cultus which fails to explain the other. It is unnecessary, therefore, to analyse theories which profess to see in it the worship of "In den Eleusinischen Mysterien wurde ein Phallus entblösst und den Fingeweihten gezeigt (Tert. ad Valent. p. 280); und Demeter wird dadurch, dass Baubo ihre Tels entblösst, zur Heiterkeit gestimmt. Clem. Al. Protr. p. 10; Arnob, adv. Gent. v. p. 218. Dies lasst voraussetzen, dass desgleichen in den Eleusinien wirklich geschah, was mann also τὰ ἱερὰ δείκνυσθαι nannte. Vgl. Lobek. Aglaoph. p. 49."-Nork, iv. 53. The form of dismissal at the Eleusinian mysteries, κγξ ἔμπαξ, has been identified by some with the "Cansha Om Pacsha," with which the Brahmans close their religious services. -Nork, i. vii. PHALLIC TREES AND SERPENTS. the creeping brute or the wide-branched tree. A religion based on the worship of the venomous reptile must have been a religion of terror; in the earliest glimpses which we have of it, the serpent is a symbol of life and of love. Nor is the Phallic cultus in any respect a cultus of the full-grown and branching tree. In its earliest form the symbol is everywhere a mere stauros, or pole; and although this stock or rod budded in the shape of the thyrsos and the shepherd's staff, yet even in its latest developements the worship is confined to small bushes and shrubs and diminutive plants of a particular kind. Nor is it possible again to dispute the fact, that every nation at some stage or other of its history has attached to this cultus precisely that meaning which the Brahman now attaches to the Linga and the Yoni. That the Jews clung to it in this special sense with vehement tenacity is the bitter complaint of the prophets; and the crucified serpent, adored for its healing powers, stood untouched in the temple until it was removed and destroyed by Hezekiah. This worship of serpents "void of reason," condemned in the Wisdom of Solomon, probably survived even the Babylonish captivity. Certainly it was adopted by the Christians who were known as Ophites, Gnostics, and Nicolaitans. In Athenian mythology the serpent and the tree are singularly prominent. Kekrops, Erechtheus, and Erichthonios, are each and all serpentine in the lower portion of their bodies. The sacred snake of Athênê had its abode in the Akropolis, and her olive-tree secured for her the victory in her rivalry with Poseidôn. The health-giving serpent lay at the feet of Asklepios, and snakes were fed in his temple at Epidauros and elsewhere.1 That the ideas of mere terror and death, suggested by the venomous or the crushing reptile, could never have given way thus completely before those of life, healing, and safety, is obvious enough; and the latter ideas alone are associated with the It is, in fact, the healer, under the many names, Iasôn, Iasion, &c., which bear the equivocal meaning of saving or destroying life, as they are referred to lós, poison, or idouai, to heal. It is the means by which the waste caused by death is repaired. "Daher die Phallusschlange, auch die Heilschlange 'AyatoBaiuar: daher der mit Schlangen umgurtete Phallusstab in der Hand des Hermes i0upaλikós, und des Aesculap, dessen weibliche Hälfte Hygiea ihm die Schale entgegen trägt, welche ein Symbol des Mutterbeckens ist."-Nork, S.v. "Arzt." This shell is the shell of Aphrodite. It is scarcely necessary to add that serpents played a prominent part in the rites of Zeus Sabazios, whose worship was practically identical with that of witches' Sabbat. 363 CHAP. BOOK II. The edu cation of man. serpent as the object of adoration. The deadly beast always was, and has always remained, the object of the horror and loathing which is expressed for Ahi, the choking and throttling snake, the Vritra whom Indra smites with his unerring lance, the dreadful Azidahaka of the Avesta, the Zohak or biter of modern Persian mythology, the serpents whom Heraklês strangles in his cradle, the Python, or Fafnir, or Grendel, or Sphnix, whom Phoibos, or Sigurd, or Beowulf, or Oidipous, smite and slay. That the worship of the serpent has nothing to do with these evil beasts is abundantly clear from all the Phallic monuments of the East or West. In the topes of Sanchi and Amravati the disks which represent the Yoni predominate in every part of the design; the emblem is worn with unmistakeable distinctness by every female figure carved within these disks, while above the multitude are seen, on many of the disks, a group of women with their hands resting on the linga, which they uphold. It may, indeed, be possible to trace out the association which connects the Linga with the bull in Sivaism, as denoting more particularly the male power, while the serpent in Jainaism and Vishnavism is found with the female emblem the Yoni. So again in Egypt, some may discern in the bull Apis or Mnevis the predominance of the male idea in that country, while in Assyria or Palestine the serpent or Agathos Daimon is connected with the altar of Baal. These are really questions of no moment. The historical inquiry is ended when the origin of the emblems has been determined. For the student who is willing to be taught by the facts which he regards as ascertained, this chapter in the history of human thought will involve no more perplexity than the fact that there was a time when human speech had none but sensuous words, and mankind, apparently, none but sensuous ideas. If from these sensuous words have been involved terms capable of expressing the highest conceptions to which the human mind has yet risen, he may be well content to accept, as a necessary stage in the education of man, the condition of thought which fastened on the processes of natural reproduction. If our limbs are still shackled and our movements hindered by ideas which have their root in the sensuousness of the ancient language, we shall do well to remember that a real progress for mankind might in no other way have been possible. If the images of outward and earthly objects have been made the means of filling human hearts and minds with the keenest yearnings for Divine truth, beauty, and love, the work done has been the work of God. ( 365 ) SECTION XIII.-THE SUN-GODS OF LATER HINDU MYTHOLOGY. II. Krishna. If it be urged that the attribution to Krishna of qualities or CHAP. powers belonging to other deities is a mere device by which his devotees sought to supersede the more ancient gods, the answer must Vishņu as be that nothing is done in his case which has not been done in the case of almost every other member of the great company of the gods, and that the systematic adoption of this method is itself conclusive proof of the looseness and flexibility of the materials of which the cumbrous mythology of the Hindu epic poems is composed. As being Vishnu, Krishna performs all the feats of that god. "And thou, Krishna, of the Yâdava race, having become the son of Aditi and being called Vishnu, the younger brother of Indra, the all-pervading, becoming a child, and vexer of thy foes, hast by thy energy traversed the sky, the atmosphere, and the earth in three. strides." 1 of Krishna He is thus also identified with Hari or the dwarf Vishņu, a myth Parentage which carries us to that of the child Hermes as well as to the story of the limping Hephaistos. As the son of Nanda, the bull, he is Govinda, a name which gave rise in times later than those of the Mahâbhârata to the stories of his life with the cowherds and his dalliance with their wives; but in the Mahâbhârata he is already the protector of cattle, and like Heraklês slays the bull which ravaged the herds. His name Krishna, again, is connected with another parentage, which makes him the progeny of the black hair of Hari, the dwarf Vishnu. But he is also Hari himself, and Hari is Narayaṇa, "the god who transcends all, the minutest of the minute, the vastest of the vast, the greatest of the great." In short, the interchange or contradiction is undisguised, for "he is the soul of all, the omniscient, the all, the all-knowing, the producer of all, the god whom the goddess Devaki bore to Vishnu. Elsewhere Krishna speaks of himself as the maker of the Rudras and the Vasus, as both the priest and the victim, and adds, 3 "Know that Dharma (righteousness) is my beloved firstborn mental son, whose nature is to have compassion on all creatures. In his character I exist among men, both present and past, passing through many varieties of mundane existence. I am Vishnu, Brahma, Indra, and the source as well as the destruction of things, the creator 1 Muir, Sanskrit Texts, part iv. p. 118. 2 lb. 206. • lb. 224. |