BOOK
II.
Judah and of Israel the rites connected with these emblems assumed
- their most corrupting form. Even in the Temple itself stood the
Ashera, or the upright emblem/ on the circular altar of Baal-Peor,
the Priapos of the Jews, thus reproducing the Linga and Yoni of
the Hindu. For this symbol the women wove hangings, as the
Athenian maidens embroidered the sacred peplos for the ship
presented to Athene at the great Dionysiac festival. Here, at the
winter solstice, they wept and mourned for Tammuz (Athamas), the
fair Adonis, done to death by the boar, as Siirya Bai is poisoned by
the Rakshas' claw, and Rustem slain by the thorn of winter. Here
also, on the third day, they rejoiced at the resurrection of the lord
of light^ Hence, as most intimately cormected with the reproduction
of life on earth, it became the symbol under which the sun, invoked
with a thousand names, has been worshipped throughout the world
as the restorer of the powers of nature after the long sleep or death
of winter.
more or less manifestly their original character, the moral effect on the people varies greatly, and the coarser develope- ments of the cultus are confined to a comparatively small number. Professor Wilson says that "it is unattended in Upper Egypt by any indecent or indeli- cate ceremonies" ("On Hindu Sects," Asiatic Review, vol. x-ii.); and Sir WilUam Jones remarks that "it seems never to have entered into the heads of the Hindu legislators and people that anything natural could be offensively obscene — a singularity which pervades all their writings, but is no proof of the depravity of their morals; hence the worship of the Linga by the followers of Siva, and of the Yoni by the followers of Vishnu. "— Works, vol. ii. p. 311. In other words, the origin of the Phallos- worship " nicht aus der moralischen Ver- dorbenheit der Volker . . . sondern aus ihrer noch kindlich naiven Denk- weise erklart werden muss, wo man un- bekiimmert um die Decenz des Aus- drucks Oder des Bildes stets dasjenige wiihlte, welches eine Idee am passend- sten bezeichnete. Welches died konnte aber bezeichnender an den Schopfermahnen als ebendas schaffende Organ?" — Nork, Real-lVorterbuch, s.v. Phalluscult, 49.
' This Ashera, which in the author- ised English version of the Old Testa- ment is translated "grove," was in fact a pole or stem of a tree; and hence it is that the reforming kings are said to hew it down, while the stone altar, or Yoni, on which it rests, is broken up.
- That Adonis was known also by
the name lao cannot be doubted. The epithet specially applied to this darling of Aphrodite is a$p6s, tender; and in the oracle of the Klarian Apollon the god of the autumn is called a^phs 'loto. That Adonis was known to the Cyprians by this name is stated by Tzetzes and Lykophron, 831. 6 "ASo^u is Tavas irapa KuTTplois KoAetTat — Tavas here being merely a transcriber's error for 'lavas. Adonis again stands to Dionysos in the relation of Helios to Phoibos, or of Zeus to Ouranos. Aiyerai ixiu 6 "ASoivis vwh rov ffvhs Siacpdaprjuai' Thy 5'
' ASccvif oi/x eTfpov dAAo ^t6vvcrov elvat vofjil^ova-i. Plut. Symfos. iv. quest, v. 3; Movers, Phonizie, ch. xiv. ; Colenso, 0>r the Pentateuch, part v. appendix iii. Thus we come round again to the oracle of the Klarian Apollon, which teaches that the supreme god is called, according to the seasons of the year, Hades, Zeus, Helios, and lao.
(ppa^eo rhv •wi.vTo>v virarov Bihv ^fifiev aw,
Xeifiari fnfv t' 'AiSrjv, Ai'a t' ("iapos aoxo/^ffoto,
'HeAioi S« 64oovs, fxfTOTrd'pov S' a0phy 'loti.
Hades is thus supreme lord while Persephone abides in the unseen land, and the name of Zeus here retains something of its original meaning. He is the god of the bright sky from which the rain falls, the Indra or sap-god of the Hellenes.
