- markable idea how the little child chooses "the vine for
his nurse." This Dionysian allusion is very old. In the significant blessing of Jacob it is said of Judah (Genesis, chap. xlix, verse 11):
"Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the
choice vine."
A Gnostic gem has been preserved upon which there
is a representation of an ass suckling her foal, above
which is the symbol of Cancer, and the circumscription
D.N.I.H.Y.X.P.S.: Dominus Noster Jesus Christus, with
the supplement Dei filius. As Justinus Martyr indignantly
observes, the connections of the Christian legend with that
of Dionysus are unmistakable. (Compare, for example,
the miracle of the wine.) In the last-named legend the
ass plays an important rôle. Generally speaking, the ass
has an entirely different meaning in the Mediterranean
countries than with us—an economic one. Therefore, it
is a benediction when Jacob says (Genesis, chap. xlix,
verse 14):
"Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens."
The above-mentioned thought is altogether Oriental.
Just as in Egypt the new-born sun is a bull-calf, in the
rest of the Orient it can easily be an ass's foal, to whom
the vine is the nurse. Hence the picture in the blessing
of Jacob, where it is said of Judah:
"His eyes are ruddy with wine and his teeth white with milk."
The mock crucifix of the Palatine, with an ass's head,
evidently alludes to a very significant background.
