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.

    341/458
    169 Ancient Art and Mythology. pies. In that of Samothrace it appeared in three celebrated statues of Scopas, called Venus or Aphrodite, Pothos and Phaethon,®” or Nature, Attraction, and Light and at Upsal in Sweden, by three figures equally symbolical, called Odin, Freya, and Thor; the first of which comprehended the attributes of Jupiter and Mars, the second those of Juno and Venus, and the third those of Hercules and Bacchus, together with the thunder of Jupiter; for Thor, as mediator between heaven and earth, had the general command of this terrestrial atmosphere.*^® Among the Chinese sects, which have retained or adopted the symbolical worship, a triple personification of one godhead is comprehended in the goddess Pussa^ whom they represent sitting upon the lotus, called, in that country, Lin, and with many arms, carrying different symbols, to sig- nify the various operations of universal nature. A similar union of attributes was expressed in the Scandinavian god- dess Isa or Disa ; who in one of her personifications appeared riding upon a ram accompanied with music, to signify, like Pan, the principle of universal harmony; and, in another, upon a goat, with a quiver of arrows at her back, and ears of corn in her hand, to signify her dominion over generation, vegetation, and destruction.®*® Even in the remote islands of the Pacific Ocean, which appear to have been peopled from the Malay shores, the supreme deities are God the Father, God the Son, and the Bird or Spirit; subordinate to whom are an endless tribe of local deities and genii attending to every individual.®** 222. The .Egyptians are said to have signified their divine Triad by a simple triangle,®*® which sometimes appears upon Greek monuments; ®*® but the most ancient form of this more concise and comprehensive symbol, appears to be that of the three lines, or three human legs, springing from a central disk or circle, which has been called a Trinacria^ and supposed to Plin. xxxiv. 4. iJo0o?, desire. Phaethon is an Homeric title of the Sun, signifying splendid or luminous ; but afterwards personified by the mythologists into a son of Apollo. Mallet : Hist, de Danemarc. Introd. vii. p. 115. Thor bore the club of Hercules ; but like Bachus he was the god of the seasons, and his chariot M^as drawn by goats. Ibid, et Oda Thrymi Edd. xxi. Ol. Rudbeck. tab. X. fig. 2S. Ol. Rubbeck : A/lant. ii. pp. 209, 210. Missionaries’ First Voyage, p. 343. 852 Plutarch : Isis and Osiris, 56. “ They compare the perpendicular side to the male, the base to the fe- male, and the hypothenuse to the off- spring of the two : Osiris as the be- ginning, Isis as the medium or recep- tacle, and Horus as the accomplish- ing.” The equilateral triangle of the Pythagoreans is not here signified. This is the case on the coins of the colonies of Magna Grajcia.