DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0117
f
107
bnted over the earlh by exhalation. Perhaps Hercules being
crowned with the foliage of the white poplar, an aquatic tree, may
have had a similar meaning : which is at least more probable than
that assigned by Servius and Macrobius.'
138. Humidity in general, and particularly the Nile, was called\
by the ^Egyptians the defluxion of Osiris ;z who was with them j
the God of the Waters, in the same sense as Bacchus was among
the Greeks :3 whence all rivers, when personified, were repre-
sented under the form of the bull; or at least with some of the
characteristic features of that animal.4 In the religion of the
Hindoos this article of ancient faith, like most others, is still re-
tained; as appears from the title, Daughter of the Sun, given to
the sacred river Yamuna.5 The God of Destruction is also
mounted on a white bull, the sacred symbol of the opposite attri-
bute, to show the union and co-operation of both.6 The
same meaning is more distinctly represented in an ancient Greek
fragment of bronze, by a lion trampling upon the head of a bull,
while a double phallus appears behind them, and shows the result.7
The title SflTIIP KOSMOT upon the composite priapic figure
published by La Chausse is well known ;s and it is probable that
the ithyphallic ceremonies, which the gross flattery of the dege-
1 In Mn. viii. 276. Saturn, lib. iii. c. 12.
' * Ov liovuv tov NeiAoe, aAXa Truv iiypov airXws Oo'ipiios airopporjv uaXoiaiv (ot
hiyv-KTioi). Plutarch, de Is. et Osir.
3 OJ Se rrorpurepot to>v Upwv, ov fiovov tov NeiAov Otripiv KaXomiv, ovSe Tmpava ri\v
BaXaaaav a\\a Oatpiv fiev avXvs airaffav tt\v vypo-xowv apxn" Kai Svfa^iiy, airiay
ytvtffews itai a-ntpixaros ovatav vopu^ovrcs. Tvipuva 5e irav ro avx/^VPov Kal TrvpuiSfS teat
fypavriKov, SAus km TroXtfuov t7> iypoTTfTi. Ibid. p. 363.
——Of fxovov 5e tov oivov Aiovvaov, aWa Kai iraiT7}S vypas fpvvtois *EWt)vzs Tjyovvrai
Kvpiov Kai apxni01'- Ibid. p. 364.
4 Horat. lib. iv. od. xiv. 25. et Scbol. Vet. in loc. Rivers appear thus per-
sonified on the coins of many Greek cities of Sicily and Italy.
s Sir W. Jones in the Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 29.
6 Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. i. pt. 1. p. 261.
7 On a handle of a'vase in the cabinet of Mr. Knight.
8 Mus. Itom. s. vii. pi. 1. vol. ii.
107
bnted over the earlh by exhalation. Perhaps Hercules being
crowned with the foliage of the white poplar, an aquatic tree, may
have had a similar meaning : which is at least more probable than
that assigned by Servius and Macrobius.'
138. Humidity in general, and particularly the Nile, was called\
by the ^Egyptians the defluxion of Osiris ;z who was with them j
the God of the Waters, in the same sense as Bacchus was among
the Greeks :3 whence all rivers, when personified, were repre-
sented under the form of the bull; or at least with some of the
characteristic features of that animal.4 In the religion of the
Hindoos this article of ancient faith, like most others, is still re-
tained; as appears from the title, Daughter of the Sun, given to
the sacred river Yamuna.5 The God of Destruction is also
mounted on a white bull, the sacred symbol of the opposite attri-
bute, to show the union and co-operation of both.6 The
same meaning is more distinctly represented in an ancient Greek
fragment of bronze, by a lion trampling upon the head of a bull,
while a double phallus appears behind them, and shows the result.7
The title SflTIIP KOSMOT upon the composite priapic figure
published by La Chausse is well known ;s and it is probable that
the ithyphallic ceremonies, which the gross flattery of the dege-
1 In Mn. viii. 276. Saturn, lib. iii. c. 12.
' * Ov liovuv tov NeiAoe, aAXa Truv iiypov airXws Oo'ipiios airopporjv uaXoiaiv (ot
hiyv-KTioi). Plutarch, de Is. et Osir.
3 OJ Se rrorpurepot to>v Upwv, ov fiovov tov NeiAov Otripiv KaXomiv, ovSe Tmpava ri\v
BaXaaaav a\\a Oatpiv fiev avXvs airaffav tt\v vypo-xowv apxn" Kai Svfa^iiy, airiay
ytvtffews itai a-ntpixaros ovatav vopu^ovrcs. Tvipuva 5e irav ro avx/^VPov Kal TrvpuiSfS teat
fypavriKov, SAus km TroXtfuov t7> iypoTTfTi. Ibid. p. 363.
——Of fxovov 5e tov oivov Aiovvaov, aWa Kai iraiT7}S vypas fpvvtois *EWt)vzs Tjyovvrai
Kvpiov Kai apxni01'- Ibid. p. 364.
4 Horat. lib. iv. od. xiv. 25. et Scbol. Vet. in loc. Rivers appear thus per-
sonified on the coins of many Greek cities of Sicily and Italy.
s Sir W. Jones in the Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 29.
6 Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. i. pt. 1. p. 261.
7 On a handle of a'vase in the cabinet of Mr. Knight.
8 Mus. Itom. s. vii. pi. 1. vol. ii.