The symbolical language of ancient art and mythology : an inquiry / by Richard Payne Knight.

  • Knight, Richard Payne, 1751-1824.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The symbolical language of ancient art and mythology : an inquiry / by Richard Payne Knight. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    • This is the same proclamation as was made by the bride at the nuptial ceremony j and indeed the idea of a sacred marriage is conveyed by the rites of initiation. “ Those who are initiated sing: ‘ I have eaten from the drum; I have drank from the basin [cymbal]; bearing the earthen cup, I have gone to the nuptial chamber.’ ” * In his relation to the sun, as lord of Heaven, demiurge and Father of Creation, Bacchus was denominated IIvpi7Cai<5j Puri- paisy or Son of Fire, and was represented with the phallic sym- bolism ; as was Zeus by that of a serpent, denoting the essen- tial spirit that preceded all things. Hence, in the mystic cista or ark which was opened to the view of the epopta or seer, were exhibited the egg, the phallus and the serpent, typifying the primal essence, the demiurgic power and the organic substance which is rendered operative—thus constituting a symbolism as lofty in sentiment or as gross in sense as is the mind of the person witnessing the spectacle. After Pontus in Asia Minor, previously held by Persia, had been conquered by Pompey, the worship of Mithras super- seded the Dionysia, and extended over the Roman Empire. The Emperor Commodus was initiated into these Mysteries; and they have been maintained by a constant tradition, with their penances and tests of the courage of the candidate for given to the Buddha pontiffs of antiquity, as well in Phoenicia as in Greece. The Greek term ‘Zeus’ is simply the form ‘Jeyus’ inflected, and is the term employed to express the Ruling Saintly Pontiff of his day. Such was the Jeenos, ‘ the King of Gods and men,’ that is of the devas (priests) and people in Greece, long before the Homeric days.” “The succession of the Lamaic rulers in Greece appears, judging by the accounts left us by Hesiod, to have been set- tled by the pure decision of the ruling Pontiff, in lieu of the method at present adopted in Tartary. ‘ There is one new personage begotten by Zeus (the Pon- tiff) who stands pre-eminently marked in the Orphic Theogony, and whose ad- ventures constitute one of its peculiar features. Zagreus [Chakras or ruler of a continent], ‘ the horned child,’ is the Son of Zeus by his own daughter (or votary) Persephone (Parisoopani or Durga, called also Kori or Gouree). He is the favorite of his father ; a child of magnificent promise, and predestined to grow up to succeed to supreme dominion.’ This intended successor to the Pontificate appears to have been murdered by the Tithyas [Titans] or Heretics. With the usual Buddhistic belief, however, of transmigration, the young Lama is described as born again from the consort of the Jaina Pontiff, the Soo-Lamee [Semele] or Great Lama Queen. Other accounts represent this new incarna- tion, who had the name of ‘ Dio-Nausus,’ as being born upon the holy mountain of ‘ Meroo,’ a history converted by the Greeks to the * meros,’ or thigh of Zeus ! ” —{India hi Greece, chap, xvii.) * PSELLUS; Manuscripts.