Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

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THE QUICKENING SUN. 113
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, 1 on the
circular altar of Baal-Peor, the Priapos of the Jews, thus re-
producing 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, the fair Adonis, done
to death by the boar, as Surya Bai is poisoned by the
Rakshas' claw, and Eustem slain by the thorn of winter.
Here also, on the third day, they rejoiced at the resurrection
of the lord of light. 2
Hence, as most intimately connected
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.
As such the symbol was from the first venerated as a
protecting power, and the Palladion thus acquired its magic
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 Phallosworship
' nicht aus der moralischen Verdorbenheit
der Vcilker .... sondern
aus ihrer noch kindlich naiven Denkweise
erklart werden muss, wo man unbekummert
um die Decenz des Ausdrucks
oder des Bildes stets dasjenige
wahlte, welches eine Idee am passendsten
bezeichnete. Welches Grlied konnte
aber bezeichnender an den Schopfer
mahnen als ebendas schaffende Organ?'
—Nork, Beal- Wurtcrbuch, s. v. Phallus-
cult, 49.
1 This Ashera, which in the authorised
English version of the Old Testament
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.
2 That Adonis was known also by
the name Ia6 cannot be doubted. The
epithet specially applied to this darling
of Aphrodite is afipSs, tender ; and in
the oracle of the Klarian Apollon the
god of the autumn is called afiphs 'law.
That Adonis was known to the Cyprians
VOL. II. I
by this name is stated by Tzetzes and
Lykopkron, 831. 6 "A5wj/ts Tavas irapa.
KviTpioLS Ka\e7raL—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. Aeyerai fjikv 6 "AZwvis
vtto rov crvbs Zia