regarded them as "the principle of life."[1] In the Egyptian Book of the Dead a scarab of green stone with a rim of gold is addressed by the deceased as "my heart, my mother, my heart whereby I came into being."[2] As will be shown, gold and green stones were in Egypt closely associated with water and with deities supposed to have had their origin in water. They thus link with amber. Gold, like amber, had origin from the tears of the northern goddess Freyja.
The Aurignacian evidence regarding green symbolism is sufficient to warn us against accepting the view that it had a necessary connection at "the starting point" with a religious system based on the agricultural mode of life.
But although it may not be possible to get back to the "starting point" at which green acquired a symbolic value, it is evident that the widespread use of that colour in religious art, and especially in the art of Ancient Egypt, dates from the time when the necessary pigment was forthcoming. The earliest green paint was made from ground malachite mixed with fat or vegetable oil. After the introduction of metal-working, green and blue pigments were derived from copper. It would appear therefore that blue and green symbolism in religious art became widespread as a result of direct and indirect Egyptian influence. "In the Egyptian language," writes Dr. Rivers,[3] "there are two words for green and one for blue." Principal Laurie of the Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh, has shown, as a result of experiments conducted by him, that "Egyptian blue" and the two shades of Egyptian green were derived
- ↑ Brinton, The Myths of the New World, p. 294.
- ↑ Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, vol. i. p. 355 et seq. Chapter xxx. of the Book of the Dead has "O my heart (which I owe) to my mother! O my heart (who belongest) to my essence." Erman, Aeg. Rel. 2162, quoted by Prof. H. W. Hogg, Journal of the Manchester Oriental Society, 1911, p. 79.
- ↑ Primitive Colour Vision.
