DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0050
40
another: for, like the serpent, it is extremely tenacious of life;
every limb and muscle retaining its sensibility long after its sepa-
ration from the body.1 It might, therefore, have meant immortality,
as well as the double sex : and we accordingly find it placed under
the feet of many deities, such as Apollo, Mercury, and Venus 53?
and also serving as a foundation or support to tripods, pateras,
and other symbolical utensils employed in religious rites. Hence,
in the figurative language of the poets and theologists, it might
have been properly called the support of the Deity; a mode of
expression, which probably gave rise to the absurd fable of the
world's being supported on the back of a tortoise; which is still
current among the Chinese and Hindoos, and to be traced even
among the savages of North America.3 The Chinese have, in-
deed, combined the tortoise with a sort of flying serpent or dragon ;
and thus made a composite symbol expressive of many attributes.4
52. At Momemphis in iEgypt, a sacred cow was the symbol of
Venus,5 as the sacred bull Mnevis and Apis were of the male
personifications at Heliopolis and Memphis. The Phoenicians
employed the same emblem: 6 whence the Cadmeians are said
to have been conducted to the place of their settlement in
Beeotia by a cow; which pointed out the spot for building the
Cadmeion or citadel of Thebes, by lying down to rest upon it.T
This cow was probably no other than the symbolical image
1 ./Elian, de Animal, lib. iv. c. xxviii.
2 Tijf HXcioji' 6 4>eiotas A(ppooirriv c7ro[Tj(Te x^WVi)v iraTovaav, oucoupias cvixfioXov,
tuis ywai|i, km atam-ris, Plutarch. Conj. Piiap. 138.
The reason assigned is to serve the purpose of the author's own moral
argument; and is contradicted by the other instances of the use of the
symbol,
3 Lafitan Mceurs des Sauvages. T. i. p. 99.
+ Kercher. China illustrata, p. 187. col. 2.
5 OJ Sc Mw/xc^iTai -rr\v A<ppoSiTT)v Tijmai, km. rperperat $n\eia 0ovs Upa, KaBturep
(v Mc/wpei 6 Attis, tv 'HXiou 5c tto\h & Mrcvu. Strabo. lib. xvii. p. 552. See also
eund. p. 556. and /Elian, de Anini. lib. xi. c. 27.
e Porphyr. de Abstinen. lib. ii. p. 158.
i Pausatf. lib. ix. p. 773. Schol. in Aristoph. Bkt^x- 125G. Ovid.
Metaraorph.
another: for, like the serpent, it is extremely tenacious of life;
every limb and muscle retaining its sensibility long after its sepa-
ration from the body.1 It might, therefore, have meant immortality,
as well as the double sex : and we accordingly find it placed under
the feet of many deities, such as Apollo, Mercury, and Venus 53?
and also serving as a foundation or support to tripods, pateras,
and other symbolical utensils employed in religious rites. Hence,
in the figurative language of the poets and theologists, it might
have been properly called the support of the Deity; a mode of
expression, which probably gave rise to the absurd fable of the
world's being supported on the back of a tortoise; which is still
current among the Chinese and Hindoos, and to be traced even
among the savages of North America.3 The Chinese have, in-
deed, combined the tortoise with a sort of flying serpent or dragon ;
and thus made a composite symbol expressive of many attributes.4
52. At Momemphis in iEgypt, a sacred cow was the symbol of
Venus,5 as the sacred bull Mnevis and Apis were of the male
personifications at Heliopolis and Memphis. The Phoenicians
employed the same emblem: 6 whence the Cadmeians are said
to have been conducted to the place of their settlement in
Beeotia by a cow; which pointed out the spot for building the
Cadmeion or citadel of Thebes, by lying down to rest upon it.T
This cow was probably no other than the symbolical image
1 ./Elian, de Animal, lib. iv. c. xxviii.
2 Tijf HXcioji' 6 4>eiotas A(ppooirriv c7ro[Tj(Te x^WVi)v iraTovaav, oucoupias cvixfioXov,
tuis ywai|i, km atam-ris, Plutarch. Conj. Piiap. 138.
The reason assigned is to serve the purpose of the author's own moral
argument; and is contradicted by the other instances of the use of the
symbol,
3 Lafitan Mceurs des Sauvages. T. i. p. 99.
+ Kercher. China illustrata, p. 187. col. 2.
5 OJ Sc Mw/xc^iTai -rr\v A<ppoSiTT)v Tijmai, km. rperperat $n\eia 0ovs Upa, KaBturep
(v Mc/wpei 6 Attis, tv 'HXiou 5c tto\h & Mrcvu. Strabo. lib. xvii. p. 552. See also
eund. p. 556. and /Elian, de Anini. lib. xi. c. 27.
e Porphyr. de Abstinen. lib. ii. p. 158.
i Pausatf. lib. ix. p. 773. Schol. in Aristoph. Bkt^x- 125G. Ovid.
Metaraorph.