The Druids venerated the Bull and Eagle as emblems of the G.o.d Hu, and like the Jews and Indians, "made use of a term, only known to themselves, to express the unutterable name of the Deity, and the letters =OIW= were used for that purpose."
From Herodotus, Aristotle, Plutarch, and others, we get information concerning the triads amongst the Persians, and which were similar in many respects to those recognised by other eastern nations. Oromasdes and Arimanes were ruling principles always in opposition to each other, viz., _good_ and _evil_, and springing from _light_ and _darkness_, which they are said to have most resembled. Eudemus says, "they proceeded from Place or Time." Oromasdes was looked upon as the whole expanse of heaven, and was considered by the Greeks as identical with Zeus. He was the Preserver; and Arimanes, the Destroyer. Between them, according to Plutarch was Mithras, the Mediator, who was regarded as the Sun, as Light, as Intellect, and as the creator of all things. He was a triple deity and was said to have triplicated himself. The Leontine mysteries were inst.i.tuted in his honour, the lion being consecrated to him, and the Sun was represented by the emblems of the Bull, the Lion, and the Hawk, united.
In the ancient religions of America, a species of trinity was recognised altogether different to that of Christianity or the Trimurti of India. In some of the ancient poems a triple nature is actually ascribed to storms; and in the Quiche legends we read: "The first of Hurakan is the lightning, the second the track of the lightning, and the third the stroke of the lightning; and these three are Hurakan the Heat of the Sky."
In the Iroquois mythology the same thing is found. Heno was thunder, and three a.s.sistants were a.s.signed to him whose offices were similar to those of the companions of Hurakan.
Heno was said to gather the clouds and pour out the warm rain; he was the patron of husbandry, and was invoked at seedtime and harvest. As the purveyor of nourishment, he was addressed as grandfather, and his worshippers styled themselves his grandchildren.
Amongst the Aztecs, Tlaloc, the G.o.d of rain and water, manifested himself under the three attributes of the flash, the thunderbolt, and the thunder.
But this conception of three in one, says Brinton, "was above the comprehension of the ma.s.ses, and consequently these deities were also spoken of as fourfold in nature, three _and_ one." Moreover, as has already been pointed out, the thunder-G.o.d was usually ruler of the winds, and thus another reason for his quadruplicate nature was suggested.
Hurakan, Haokah, Tlaloc, and probably Heno, are plural as well as singular nouns, and are used as nominatives to verbs in both numbers. Tlaloc was appealed to as inhabiting each of the cardinal points and every mountain top. His statue rested on a square stone pedestal, facing the east, and had in one hand a serpent in gold. Ribbons of silver, crossing to form squares, covered the robe, and the shield was composed of feathers of four colours, yellow, green, red and blue. Before it was a vase containing all sorts of grain; and the clouds were called his companions, the winds his messengers. As elsewhere, the thunderbolts were believed to be flints, and thus, as the emblem of fire and the storm, this stone figures conspicuously in their myths. Tohil, the G.o.d who gave the Quiches fire by shaking his sandals, was represented by a flint-stone. He is distinctly said to be the same as Quetzelcoatl, one of whose commonest symbols was a flint. Such a stone, in the beginning of things, fell from heaven to earth, and broke into 1600 pieces, each of which sprang up a G.o.d; an ancient legend, which shadows forth the subjection of all things to him who gathers the clouds from the four corners of the earth, who thunders with his voice, who satisfies with his rain the desolate and waste ground, and causes the tended herb to spring forth. This is the germ of the adoration of stones as emblems of the fecundating rains. This is why, for example, the Navajos use as their charm for rain certain long round stones, which they think fall from the clouds when it thunders.
It is said that all over Africa, belief in a trinity of G.o.ds is found, the same to-day as has prevailed at least for forty centuries, and perhaps for very much longer. Chaldaea, a.s.syria, and the temple of Erektheus, on the Acropolis of Athens, honoured and sacrificed to Zeus (the Sun, Hercules, or Phallic idea) the Serpent and Ocean; and Africa still does so to the Tree-Stem or Pole, the Serpent, and the Sea or Water; and this Trinity is one G.o.d, and yet serves to divide all G.o.ds into three cla.s.ses, of which these are types.
Important and interesting notices relative to the nature of the deities worshipped by the ancients are to be found in the treatise of Julius Firmicus Maternus, "De Errore Profanarum Religionum ad Constantium, et Constantem Angg." Firmicus attributes to the Persians a belief in the androgynous nature of the deity [naturam ejus (jovis) ad utriusque s.e.xus transferentes]. No doubt this doctrine has always been recognised, by many writers, as being held by the philosophers of India and Egypt, and that it const.i.tuted a part of the creed of Orpheus, but its connection with Persia has not been so generally acknowledged.
Firmicus, after speaking of the two-fold powers of Jupiter (that is, the deity being both male and female) adds, "when they choose to give a visible representation of him, they sculpture him as a female." Again, they represent him as a female with three heads. It was a figure adorned with serpents of a monstrous size. It was venerated under the symbol of fire. It was called Mithra. It was worshipped in secret caverns. The rites of Mithra were familiar to the Romans, but they worshipped them in a manner different from the Persian ceremonies. Firmicus had seen Mithra sculptured in two different ways: in one piece of sculpture he was represented as a female with three faces, and infolded with serpents; and in another piece of sculpture he was represented as seizing a bull.
Cla.s.sic writers abound with references, not simply to a plurality of G.o.ds among the heathen, but to a trinity in unity and unity in trinity, sometimes approaching in the similarity of their broad outlines the doctrine as held by orthodox religionists. Herodotus calls the deity of the Pelasgians, _G.o.ds_, and it is admitted that the pa.s.sage evidently implies that the expression was used by the priests of Dodona. The Pelasgians worshipped the Cabiri, and the Cabiri were originally three in number, hence it is inferred that these Cabiri were the Pelasgian Trinity, and that having in ancient times no name which would have implied a diversity of G.o.ds, they worshipped a trinity in unity. The worship of the Cabiri by the Pelasgians is evident, for Herodotus says, in his second book, "that the Samothracians learnt the Cabiric mysteries from the Pelasgians, who once inhabited that island, and afterwards settled in Greece, near Attica." Cicero testifies that the Cabiri were originally three in number, and he carefully distinguishes them from the Dioscuri. A pa.s.sage in Pausanias states that at Tritia, a city of Achaia, there is a temple erected to the Dii Magni (or Cabiri); their images are a representation of a G.o.d made of clay. "We need not be surprised," said a writer once, "that Pausanias should be puzzled how to express the fact that, though it was the temple of the three Cabiri, yet there was only one image in it. Is not this the doctrine of a trinity in unity?"
Potter informs us that those who desired to have children were usually very liberal to the G.o.ds, who were thought to preside over generation. The same writer also says:--"Who these were, or what was the origination of their name, is not easy to determine: Orpheus, as cited by Phanodemus in Suidas, makes their proper names to be Amaclides, Protocles, and Protocleon, and will have them to preside over the winds; Demo makes them to be the winds themselves." Another author tells us their names were "Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges, and that they were the sons of heaven and of earth: Philocrus likewise makes earth their mother, but instead of heaven, subst.i.tutes the sun, or Apollo, for their father, where he seems to account, as well for their being accounted the superintendents of generation, as for the name of [Greek: tritopateres]; for being immediately descended from two immortal G.o.ds, themselves," saith he, "were thought the third fathers, and therefore might well be esteemed the common parents of mankind, and from that opinion derive those honours, which the Athenians paid them as the authors and presidents of human generation."
Again, the Tritopatoreia was a solemnity in which it was usual to pray for children to the G.o.ds of generation, who were sometimes called _tritopateres_. The names of the Cabiri, as Cicero says, are Tritopatreus, Eubuleus, and Dionysius: this fact is supposed to give us a little insight into the origin of the word _tritopateres_, or _tritopatreis_. Philocrus, as we have seen, makes them the sons of Apollo and of the earth: this fact will help us to develop the truth: the two last hypostases emanated from the Creator: thus in the Egyptian Trinity of Osiris, of Isis, and of Horus, Isis is not only the consort, but the daughter of Osiris, and Horus was the fruit of their embrace, thus in the Scandinavian Trinity of Adin, of Trea, and of Thor, Trea is not only the wife, but the daughter of Odin, and Thor was the fruit of their embrace, as Maillet observes in his _Northern Antiquities_ (vol. ii.), there is the Roman Trinity of Jupiter, of Juno, and of Minerva, Juno is the sister and the wife of Jupiter, and Minerva is the daughter of Jupiter: now, it is a singular fact, that in the Pelasgic Trinity of the Cabirim, two of them are said to have been the sons of Vulcan, or the Sun, as we read in Potter (vol. i.) Hence we see, it has been contended, the mistake of Philocrus: there were not three emanations from the Sun, as he supposes, but only _two_: their name tritopateres, which alludes to the doctrine of the trinity, puzzled Philocrus, who knew nothing of the doctrine, and he is credited with coining the story, to account for this appellation: the Cabiri were, as is known from Cicero, called Tritopatreus, Dionysius, and Eubuleus. Dionysius is Osiris, and Eubuleus and Tritopatreus are the two hypostases, which emanated from him: the name of the third hypostasis is generally compounded of some word which signifies the third: hence Minerva derived her name of Tritonis, or Tritonia Virgo: hence Minerva is called by Hesiod (referred to in Lempriere"s Cla.s.sical Dictionary), Tritogenia: hence came the Tritia, of which Pausanias speaks: hence came the Tritopatreus of Cicero: hence came the Thridi of the Scandinavians. We read in the Edda these remarkable words: "He afterwards beheld three thrones raised one above another, and on each throne sat a man; upon his asking which of these was their king, his guide answered, "he who sits upon the lowest throne is the king, and his name is Hor, or the Lofty One: the second is Jaenhar, that is Equal to the Lofty One; but he who sits upon the highest throne is called Thridi, or the Third.""
Pausanias has a number of pa.s.sages which bear upon this subject, and seem to prove conclusively that the Greeks recognised the doctrine of a trinity in unity and worshipped the same. In his second book he says: "Beyond the tomb of Pelasgus is a small structure of bra.s.s, which supports the images of Diana, of Jupiter, and of Minerva, a work of some antiquity: Lyceas has in some verses recorded the fact that this is the representation of Jupiter Machinator." Again, in Book I., when describing the Areopagite district of Athens, he says:--"Here are the images of Pluto, of Mercury, and of Tellus, to whom all such persons, whether citizens or strangers, as have vindicated their innocence in the Court Areopagus, are required sacrifice." "In a temple of Ceres, at the entrance of Athens, there are images of the G.o.ddess herself, of her daughter, and of Bacchus, with a torch in his hand."
That the grouping of the three deities was not accidental is evident from the frequency with which they are so mentioned, and other pa.s.sages show that they were the three deities who were worshipped in the Eleusinian mysteries. Thus in Book VIII., Ch. 25:--"The river Lado then continues its course to the temple of the Eleusinian Ceres, which is situated in territories of the Thelpusians: the three statues in it are each seven feet high, and all of marble: they represent Ceres, Proserpine, and Bacchus." In another pa.s.sage (Book II., Ch. 2) he says:--"By a temple dedicated to all the G.o.ds, there were placed three statues of Jupiter in the open air, of which one had no t.i.tle, a second was styled the _Terrestrial_, and the third was styled the highest."
The learned say, of course, it is clear that the missing t.i.tle should have been the _G.o.d of the Sea_, as the others were the _G.o.d of Heaven_, and the _G.o.d of the Earth_. Another pa.s.sage in Pausanias confirms this:--"In a temple of Minerva was placed a wooden image of Jupiter with three eyes; two of them were placed in the natural position, and the other was placed on the forehead.... One may naturally suppose that Jupiter is represented with three eyes as the G.o.d of the Heaven, as the G.o.d of the Earth, and as the G.o.d of the Sea."
It has been remarked that Pausanias records the tradition that this story of the three-eyed Jupiter comes from Troy, and it is known that the Trojans acknowledged a trinity in the divine nature, and that the Dii Penates, or the Cabiri of the Romans, came from Troy. Quotations from the translation of the Atlas Chinesis of Monta.n.u.s, by Ogilby, show that the three-eyed Jupiter was an oriental emblem of the trinity:--"The modern learned, or followers of this first sect, who are overwhelmed in idolatry, divide generally their idols, or false G.o.ds, into three orders, _viz._, celestial, terrestrial, and infernal: in the celestial they acknowledge a trinity of one G.o.dhead, which they worship and serve by the name of a G.o.ddess called Pussa; which, with the Greeks, we might call Cybele, and with Egyptians, Isis and Mother of the G.o.ds. This Pussa (according to the Chinese saying) is the governess of nature, or, to speak properly, the Chinese Isis, or Cybele, by whose power they believe that all things are preserved and made fruitful, as the three inserted figures relate."
In the doctrine relating to the Virgin Mary as held by the Church of Rome, there is a remarkable resemblance to the teaching of the ancients respecting the female constantly a.s.sociated with the triune male deity.
Her names and t.i.tles are many, and though diversified, mostly pointing to the same idea. Some of these are as follows:--"The Virgin," conceiving and bringing forth from her own inherent power. The wife of Bel Nimrod; the wife of a.s.shur; the wife of Nin. She is called Multa, Mulita, or Mylitta, or Enuta, Bilta or Bilta Nipruta, Ishtar, Ri, Alitta, Elissa, Bettis, Ashtoreth, Astarte, Saruha, Nana, Asurah. Amongst other names she is known as Athor, Dea Syria, Artemis, Aphrodite, Tanith, Tanat, Rhea, Demeter, Ceres, Diana, Minerva, Juno, Venus, Isis, Cybele, Seneb or Seben, Venus Urania, Ge, Hera. "As Anaitis she is the "mother of the child;" reproduced again as Isis and Horus; Devaki with Christna; and Aurora with Memnon."
Even in ancient Mexico the mother and child were worshipped. Again she appears as Davkina Gula Shala, Zirbanit, Warmita Laz. In modern times she reappears as the Virgin Mary and her son. There were Ishtar of Nineveh and Ishter of Arbela, just as there are now Marie de Loretto and Marie de la Garde.
She was the Queen of fecundity or fertility, Queen of the lands, the beginning of heaven and earth, Queen of all the G.o.ds, G.o.ddess of war and battle, the holder of the sceptre, the beginning of the beginning, the one great Queen, the Queen of the spheres, the Virgo of the Zodiac, the Celestial Virgin, Time, in whose womb all things are born. She is represented in various ways, and specially as a nude woman carrying an infant in her arms.[13]
The name _Multa, Mulita, or Mylitta_, Inman contends is derived from some words resembling the Hebrew _meal_, the "place of entrance," and _ta_, "a chamber." The whole being a place of entrance and a chamber. The cognomen Multa, or Malta, signifies, therefore, the spot through which life enters into the chamber, _i.e._, the womb, and through which the fruit matured within enters into the world as a new being. By the a.s.sociation of this virgin G.o.ddess with the sacred triad of deities is made up the four great G.o.ds, _Arba-il_.
We are here reminded of the well-known symbol of the Trinity which seems to have been as abundantly used in ancient times, at least in some countries--Egypt for instance. This is the triangle--generally the equilateral--which of course symbolised both the trinity in unity and the equality of the three. Sometimes we get two of those triangles crossing each other, one with the point upwards, the other with the point downwards, thus forming a six-rayed star. The first represents the phallic triad, the two together shew the union of the male and female principles producing a new figure, each at the same time retaining its own ident.i.ty.
The triangle with the point downwards, by itself typifies the Mons Veneris, the Delta, or door through which all come into the world.
The question has arisen:--"How comes it that a doctrine so singular, and so utterly at variance with all the conceptions of uninstructed reason, as that of a Trinity in Unity, should have been from the beginning, the fundamental religious tenet of every nation upon earth?"
Inman without hesitation declares "the trinity of the ancients is unquestionably of phallic origin." Others have either preceded this writer or have followed suit, contending that the male symbol of generation in divine creation was three in one, as the cross, &c., and that the female symbol was always regarded as the Triangle, the accepted symbol of the Trinity. The number three, was employed with mystic solemnity, and in the emblematical hands which seem to have been borne on the top of a staff or sceptre in the Isiac processions, the thumb and two forefingers are held up to signify the three primary and general personifications. This form of priestly blessing, thumb and two fingers, is still acknowledged as a sign of the Trinity.
The ancients tell us plainly enough that they are derived from the cosmogonic elements. They are primarily the material and elementary types of the spiritual trinity of revelation--types established by revelation itself, and the only resource of materialism to preserve the original doctrine. The spirit, whether physical or spiritual, is equally the _pneuma_; and the light, whether physical or spiritual, equally the _phos_ of the Greek text: so that the materialist of antiquity had little difficulty in preserving their a.n.a.logies complete.
The Dahomans are said by Skertchley to deny the corporeal existence of the deity, but to ascribe human pa.s.sions to him; a singular medley. "Their religion," he says, "must not be confounded with Polytheism, for they only worship one G.o.d, Mau, but propitiate him through the intervention of the fetiches. Of these, there are four princ.i.p.al ones, after whom come the secondary deities. The most important of these is Bo, the Dahoman Mars; then comes Legba, the Dahoman Priapus, whose little huts are to be met with in every street. This deity is of either s.e.x, a male and female Legba often residing in the same temple. A squat swish image, rudely moulded into the grossest caricature on the human form, sitting with hands on knees, with gaping mouth, and the special attributes developed to an ungainly size. Teeth of cowries usually fill the clown-like mouth, and ears standing out from the head, like a bat"s, are only surpa.s.sed in their monstrosity by the snowshoe-shaped feet. The nose is broad, even for a negro"s, and altogether the deity is anything but a fascinating object.
Round the deity is a fence of k.n.o.bbed sticks, daubed with filthy slime, and before the G.o.d is a flat saucer of red earthenware, which contains the offerings. When a person wishes to increase his family, he calls in a Legba priest and gives him a fowl, some cankie, water, and palm oil. A fire is lighted, and the cankie, water, and palm oil mixed together and put in the saucer. The fowl is then killed by placing the head between the great and second toes of the priest, who severs it from the body by a jerk. The head is then swung over the person of the worshipper, to allow the blood to drop upon him, while the bleeding body is held over a little dish, which catches the blood. The fowl is then semi-roasted on a fire lighted near, and the priest, taking the dish of blood, smears the body of the deity with it, finally taking some of the blood into his mouth and sputtering it over the G.o.d. The fowl is then eaten by the priest, and the wives of the devotees are supposed to have the children they crave for."
The princ.i.p.al Dahoman G.o.ds, described by Skertchley, are thus mentioned by Forlong:--
Legba, the Dahoman Priapus, and special patron of all who desire larger families.
Zoo, the G.o.d of fire, reminding us of Zoe, life.
Demen, he who presides over chast.i.ty.
Akwash, he who presides over childbirth.
Gbwejeh, he or she who presides over hunting.
Ajarama, the tutelary G.o.d of foreigners, symbolised by a whitewashed stump under a shed, apparently a Sivaic or white Lingam, no doubt called foreign because Ashar came from a.s.syria, and Esir from the still older Ethiopians.
Hoho, he who presides over twins.
Afa, the name of the dual G.o.d of wisdom.
Aizan, the G.o.d who presides over roads, and travellers, and bad characters, and can be seen on all roads as a heap of clay surmounted by a round pot, containing kanki, palm oil, &c.
"So that we have Legba, the pure and simple phallus; Ajarama, "the whitened stump," so well known to us in India amidst rude aboriginal tribes; and Ai-zan, the Hermes or Harmonia, marking the ways of life, and symbolised by a mound and round pot and considering that this is the universal form of tatooing shown on every female"s stomach,--Mr.
Skertchley says, a series of arches, the meaning is also clearly the omphi. Mr. S. says that Afa, our African Androgynous Minerva, is very much respected by mothers, and has certain days sacred to mothers, when she or he is specially consulted on their special subjects, as well as on all matters relating to marrying, building a house, sowing corn, and such like."[14]
Some years ago a writer, speaking of the Sacred Triads of various nations, said: "From all quarters of the heathen world came the trinity," what we have already revealed shows that the doctrine has been held in some form or other from the far east to the extreme verge of the western hemisphere.
Some of the forms of this Triad are as follows:--India--Brahma, Vishnu, Siva: Egypt--Knef, Osiris as the first; Ptha, Isis as the second; Phree, Horus as the third: the Zoroastrians--The Father, Mind, and Fire: the Ancient Arabs--Al-Lat, Al Uzzah, Manah: Greeks and Latins--Zeus or Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto: the Syrians--Monimus, Azoz, Aries or Mars: the Kaldians--The One; the Second, who dwells with the First; the Third, he who shines through the universe: China--the One, the Second from the First, the Third from the Second: the Boodhists--Boodhash, the Developer; Darmash, the Developed; Sanghash, the Hosts Developed: Peruvians--Apomti, Charunti, Intiquaoqui: Scandinavia--Odin, Thor, Friga: Pythagoras--Monad, Duad, Triad: Plato--the Infinite, the Finite, that which is compounded of the Two: Phenicia--Belus, the Sun; Urama, the Earth; Adonis, Love: Kalmuks--Tarm, Megozan, Bourchan: Ancient Greece--Om, or On; Dionysus, or Bacchus; Herakles: Orpheus--G.o.d, the Spirit, Kaos: South American Indians--Otkon. Messou, Atahanto.
CHAPTER V.
_The Golden Calf of Aaron--Was it a Cone or an Animal?--The Prayer to Priapus--Hymn to Priapus--The Complaint of Priapus._
In the thirty-second chapter of the Book of Exodus we have the following remarkable account of certain Israelitish proceedings in the time of Moses and Aaron:--"When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, up, make us G.o.ds, which shall go before us; for _as for_ this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings, which _are_ in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring _them_ unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which _were_ in their ears, and brought _them_ unto Aaron; and he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf, and they said, "These _be_ thy G.o.ds O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt." And when Aaron saw _it_, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, "To-morrow is a feast to the Lord." And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play."
There is no doubt this is a most remarkable, and, for the most part, inexplicable transaction. That it was an act of the grossest idolatry is clear, but the details of the affair are not so readily disposed of, and some amount of discussion has in consequence arisen, which has cast imputations upon the conduct of the ancient Jews not very favourably regarded by the moderns.
The conduct of Aaron is certainly startling, to say the least of it, for when the people presented their outrageous demand, coupled with their insolent and contemptuous language about the man Moses, he makes no remonstrance, utters no rebuke, but apparently falls in at once with their proposal and prepares to carry it out. The question is, however, what was it that was really done? What was the character of the image or idol, he fashioned out of the golden ornaments which he requested them to take from the ears of their wives, their sons, and their daughters?
The suggestion that anything of a phallic nature is to be attributed to this transaction has been loudly ridiculed and indignantly spurned by some who have had little acquaintance with that species of worship, but it is by no means certain that the charge can be so easily disposed of. That phallic practises prevailed, more or less, amongst the Jews is certain, and however this matter of the golden image may be explained, it will be difficult to believe they were not somehow concerned in it.
It may be a new revelation to some to be told that in the opinion of some scholars the idol form set up by those foolish idolators was not that of a calf at all, but of a cone. The Hebrew word _egel_ or _ghegel_ has been usually taken to mean calf, but, say these gentlemen, erroneously so, its true signification being altogether different. It is pleaded that it was not at all likely that the Israelites should, so soon after their miraculous deliverance from the house of bondage, have so far forgotten what was due from them in grateful remembrance of that, as to have plunged into such gross and debased idolatry as the adoration of deity under the form of an animal. Also that it would have been inconsistent with their exclamation when they saw the image, "This is thy G.o.d, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt," and with Aaron"s proclamation, after he had built an altar before the idol for the people to sacrifice burnt offerings on, "To-morrow is a feast to the Lord." It is urged from these expressions that the only reasonable and legitimate inference is, that the golden idol was intended to be the similitude or symbol of the Eternal Himself, and not of any other G.o.d.
Certainly it is, as we have said, remarkable, and presents a problem not at all easy of solution. Dr. Beke contends that in any case, it is inconceivable that the figure of a calf should have been chosen to represent the invisible G.o.d--he concludes, therefore, that the word _egel_ has been wrongly translated.