world raised above the waters by the power of the deity represented by the symbolical bull; the three cranes being symbols of the three regions of space, earth, sky, heaven, so celebrated in the rites of the Sastra, into which the universe was also distinguished by the cosmogonists of Western Asia and Greece. Whether the three animal heads placed on the back of the Chimæra were symbols of the like import may be properly left to conjecture; the Celtic and Lycian compound idols were certainly of the same character. The idol found and actually brought into England proves that the Chimæra was not a mountain, as Pliny writes, and as Servius, the commentator on the Eneis, believes. About the period when the Chimæra was worshipped, many other compound idols were honoured with religious rites which, since the idol gods were said to have been great pests to the countries in which they abode, shew that their worship was commonly attended with bloody sacrifices, often human. Among these was the Hydra of the Lake Lerna in the vicinity of Argos, in the Peloponnesus. This personage was a daughter of Echidna and Typhon, the parents also of the Chimæra. Apollodorus and Hyginus record the well known fable that the Hydra had nine heads, eight mortal and one immortal; but Euripides states that she had a thousand. Hesiod that she was witness of mournful things, that is, of cruel sacrifices. Apollodorus that Hydra lived in a Xopos, (lophos) or barrow, which indicates a Celtic connexion, from which she was driven by the means of fire cast by Hercules into her cell, as when he destroyed the monster Cacus. The fable of the renascent heads of the Hydra is well known, as also is the manner in which they were subdued by fire. When the Tyrian god had completely subdued the monster, i Plin. lib. i. c. 106. Serv. in En. lib. vi. v. 288. j Hesiod. Theog. v. 313. Euripid. Herc. Furens. v. 438. Apollodor. lib. ii. c. 8, s. 2. Hygin. Fab. Præfat. tradition reports that he buried the head, which was immortal, under a vast stone in the vicinity of Lerna. The disciples of the Indian Vishnu have a compound idol, and a legend that may illustrate the fable of the Grecian Hydra. The god Vishnu, the personification of the Creator, is represented lying asleep on the serpent called Sesha, that is, duration, or ananta, endless, a symbol of infinite duration.k The serpent has many heads, which form a kind of canopy over the head of the god, each giving seemingly constant attention to his expected waking; when, according to the doctrines of the Sastra, he again, on waking, gives action to a new creation and a new order of things, in a new, or rather repeated period. The Hydra was most surely the same as the Indian Sesha ananta. Her heads were figurative of periods which, when ended, were succeeded by others. This doctrine and its rites, Hercules, that is, his votaries and disciples, suppressed, but not till after much and difficult contest, and even when victorious they found it necessary to compound with their adversaries, and give honour and reverence to the immortal part of Hydra, by setting up an amberstone over the spot where it had been deposited with the rites of holy interment. The Sphinx is the earliest example of the human head annexed to the body of a brute animal. The form of the greatest celebrity is the union of the head and breast of a woman to the body of a lion. Such union is seen in the gigantic idol, the Sphinx of the pyramids of Egypt. However this is not always the form of the Sphinx. In the avenue of Sphinxes leading to the temple of Carnac, the head of the ram is seen annexed to the lion. The Theban Sphinx and her riddle are matters of almost universal notoriety. Of her Euripides thus speaks: Nor oughtest thou, winged monster, mountain maid, To have come, O Sphinx, with mournful strains, our grief: k Moor. Hind. Panth. p. 27, 29, fig. 7, 8. 1 Belzoni. p. 137. For soaring 'bove the walls with four-fanged claws Of Cadmeans the pest.m From this testimony it appears that the idol was figured in some instances with wings. The import of the different parts of the different sphinxes may be presumed to have been the same as the similar parts exhibited in the Cherubim of the Israelites. The passage of the poet plainly indicates that the Theban sphinx took without resistance the youthful Thebans, and offered them in sacrifice to the idol on some high eminence, much in the same manner as the Mexicans were wont to sacrifice their human victims. To such conditions it seems the Thebans were subjected till they had solved the riddle propounded by the god, or rather her priesthood. Questions attended by similar conditions were not unfrequent in early times. The riddle proposed by the hero Sampson to the Philistines was accompanied by certain conditions. Calchas, the famed herald of the Greeks, forfeited his life because he failed to answer rightly a question concerning the fertility of a pregnant sow. The prophet Elijah was subjected to a similar forfeiture in his controversy with the priests of Baal. The priests failed in the contest, and suffered of course the penalty incurred. Such were the laws recognized in ancient times. Besides these idols of compound animal form, there were others of great celebrity in ancient Greece, which may be termed compound human forms. Such were the Titans whom the Ascrean describes in terms of the following purport: Fierce were they: and their strength beyond compare. Fifty the heads of each, and all alike, Tower'd proud above their limbs compact and firm.9 m Euripid. Phœniss. v. 819. p 1 Kings xviii. 40. n Judges xiv. 12. • Lycophron. v. 426. a Hesiod. Theog. v. 670. It is impossible to imagine that these persons were other than symbolical idols. The same may be affirmed of Geryon of three bodies and three heads, who reigned, that is, was worshipped in Erytheia, which some contend was Ireland.r A figure with three heads and six hands has been found in the remote regions of Siberia, with an inscription signifying that it represented the true God.s Figures of this kind many and various are found among the images and idols of Hindosthan, particularly Brahmà with four faces, the celebrated Trimurti with three faces, and idols with many hands. In some the hand is open and the palm turned outward, signifying a liberal distribution of gifts. This symbol is very ancient. It is written of the Deity in the Book of Psalms, "Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good:"t a rhetorical figure; whether taken from the idol or not is immaterial. Thus it appears that the use of compound figures is very ancient, and it may be said to have been universal. Bodies and limbs are given at will to designate the powers and attributes ascribed to the personage represented. The import of every part is in general sufficiently obvious, or may be rendered plain by a reference to the instances explained or illustrated as above. Again, let it be remarked, that none of these monster forms were real beings: whether brute or human, they were fabricated to exhibit definite doctrines or known principles. These compound symbolical forms, first devised and used for the better expression of common affairs, are still retained for some purposes: they are adopted in the composition of heraldic arms, or armorial bearings. It has been supposed that symbolical figures were depicted on the shields of some of the warriors at the siege of Troy. Agamemnon bore on his shield three serpents, the symbol of the god Archemorus, Vallancey. De Reb. Hib. No. 14. s Parsons, Rem. of Japhet, chap. vii. 185. Dionys. Perieg. v. 557. t Psalm civ. 28. taken most probably as a charm to ensure victory." Many other instances might be adduced from ancient history. By the knights of the middle ages of European history such symbols were borne not only on the shield, but on the surcoats worn over the armour: whence the phrase coat of arms. The figures adopted for these purposes were generally such as might be supposed to indicate the character of the bearer of the arms, and were in consequence compounds of the lion and the eagle, and animals of powerful and warlike character. This use of symbols is especially seen in the arms of nations: the black eagle of Germany and Russia is the symbolical raven of the Scandinavians, changed to the form of the eagle, the common ensign of the Roman legions. The flowers de lis, or de luce, which is the English form of the word, are said to refer to the marshes of Friezeland and Holland, from whom the French claim descent. In those countries the iris, or flag flower, grows in abundance. The lions of England are symbols of courage and strength. One of the supporters, the unicorn, a creature altogether imaginary like the griffin or flying dragon, is a symbol of power, energy, and activity. But these things are somewhat foreign to the subject of the Treatise: we therefore pass on to the subject of a new combination of symbolical objects, the combination of inanimate with animate forms; a combination somewhat strange, and yet scarcely more strange than the manyheaded, many-armed, and many-bodied figures just now noticed, but a combination which produced the image in the human form worshipped not as a symbol, but as the god really present, and as such the ultimate object of human worship. It has been shewn in the introductory chapter that in the earlier ages of mankind the form of the world was believed to be that of a cube; whence it came that substances of that form were used as symbols of the world, and * Guillim. Herald. chap. i. sec. 1. u Iliad. A. v. 26. |