DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0165
155
pouring water upon it,1 but more commonly standing near water,
and accompanied by aquatic fowls; in which character he is con-
founded with Priapus, to whom geese were particularly sacred. *
Swans, too, frequently occur as emblems of the waters upon coins;
and sometimes with the head of Apollo on the reverse ;3 when there
may be some allusion to the ancient notion of their singing; a no-
tion which seems to have arisen from the noises which they make in
the high latitudes of the North, prior to their departure at the ap-
proach of winter.4 The pedum, or pastoral hook, the symbol of
attraction, and the pipe, the symbol of harmony, are frequently
placed near him, to signify the means and effect of his operation.
191. Though the Greek writers call the deity who was repre-
sented by the sacred goat at Mendes, Pan, he more exactly answers
to Priapus, or the generative attribute considered abstractedly ;5
which was usually represented in ./Egypt, as well as in Greece, by
the phallus only. 6 This deity was honored with a place in most
of their temples,7 as the lingam is in those of the Hindoos; and
all the hereditary priests were initiated or consecrated to him, before
they assumed the sacerdotal office : 8 for he was considered as a
sort of accessary attribute to all the other divine personifications,
the great end and purpose of whose existence was generation or
production. A part of the worship offered both to the goat
Mendes, and the bull Apis, consisted in the women tendering
their persons to him, which it seems the former often accepted,
though the taste of the latter w as too correct. 9 An attempt seems
1 Bronzi d'Ercolano, tav. xciii.
a Petronii Satyric. cxxxvi—vii.
3 See coins of Clazomenre in Pellerin, and Mus. Hunter.
* Ol. Rudbeck. Atlant. p. ii. c. v. p. 249. 01. Magn. lib. ix. c. xv.
s Toy Se Tpayov aTveOewtfuv (AiyuTrrtoi) KaQanfp Kai -jrapa tois 'EAATjUi reripL^aOai Ae-
yovffi tov Upianov, Sia to ytwrrriKov ixopiov. Diodor. Sic. lib. i. p. 78.
6 Ibid. p. 16. 7 Ibid.
8 Tovs tc iepeiS tovs TrapaXafiovras irarpucas hpucrvvas Kar htyxnrrov, rovrcp rip deep
irpurov fiVEiaOat. Ibid. p. 78.
9 Mev57)Ta irapa Kpn/ivov, OaXaaai]! arxarov,
NeiAou Kepay, aiyiftorai oOi Tpayoi ywat£i fiiayovrau
Pindar. apudStrabon. xvii. p. 802.
pouring water upon it,1 but more commonly standing near water,
and accompanied by aquatic fowls; in which character he is con-
founded with Priapus, to whom geese were particularly sacred. *
Swans, too, frequently occur as emblems of the waters upon coins;
and sometimes with the head of Apollo on the reverse ;3 when there
may be some allusion to the ancient notion of their singing; a no-
tion which seems to have arisen from the noises which they make in
the high latitudes of the North, prior to their departure at the ap-
proach of winter.4 The pedum, or pastoral hook, the symbol of
attraction, and the pipe, the symbol of harmony, are frequently
placed near him, to signify the means and effect of his operation.
191. Though the Greek writers call the deity who was repre-
sented by the sacred goat at Mendes, Pan, he more exactly answers
to Priapus, or the generative attribute considered abstractedly ;5
which was usually represented in ./Egypt, as well as in Greece, by
the phallus only. 6 This deity was honored with a place in most
of their temples,7 as the lingam is in those of the Hindoos; and
all the hereditary priests were initiated or consecrated to him, before
they assumed the sacerdotal office : 8 for he was considered as a
sort of accessary attribute to all the other divine personifications,
the great end and purpose of whose existence was generation or
production. A part of the worship offered both to the goat
Mendes, and the bull Apis, consisted in the women tendering
their persons to him, which it seems the former often accepted,
though the taste of the latter w as too correct. 9 An attempt seems
1 Bronzi d'Ercolano, tav. xciii.
a Petronii Satyric. cxxxvi—vii.
3 See coins of Clazomenre in Pellerin, and Mus. Hunter.
* Ol. Rudbeck. Atlant. p. ii. c. v. p. 249. 01. Magn. lib. ix. c. xv.
s Toy Se Tpayov aTveOewtfuv (AiyuTrrtoi) KaQanfp Kai -jrapa tois 'EAATjUi reripL^aOai Ae-
yovffi tov Upianov, Sia to ytwrrriKov ixopiov. Diodor. Sic. lib. i. p. 78.
6 Ibid. p. 16. 7 Ibid.
8 Tovs tc iepeiS tovs TrapaXafiovras irarpucas hpucrvvas Kar htyxnrrov, rovrcp rip deep
irpurov fiVEiaOat. Ibid. p. 78.
9 Mev57)Ta irapa Kpn/ivov, OaXaaai]! arxarov,
NeiAou Kepay, aiyiftorai oOi Tpayoi ywat£i fiiayovrau
Pindar. apudStrabon. xvii. p. 802.