Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

118 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
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BOOK But the true mythology of the subject is connected rather
IL
. with the Yoni than with the Linga. If the latter serves as
Symbols of a sign of power, the former becomes the image of unbounded
wealth and fertility. If the Linga is the sun-god in his
majesty, the Yoni is the earth who yields her fruit under his
fertilising warmth; and it thus represents the sum of all
potential existence. It is the ark which contains all the
livino' creatures of the earth, while the sun is hidden behind
the impenetrable rain clouds ; it is the Argo, which shelters
all the Achaian chieftains through the weary darkness of
their search for the Golden Fleece. In this form the emblem
at once exhibits mysterious properties akin to those of the
Linga, and passes into a legion of shapes, all closely resem-
bling the original form, all possessing in greater or less
degree a talismanic power, but all manifesting the presence
of the essential idea of boundless fertility which the symbol
was specially adopted to denote. The Argo itself is divine.
It was the work of a being akin to, if not identical with,
Argos Panoptes, the all-seeing, who guards the heifer 16. In
its prow Athene, the dawn-goddess, herself places a piece
of wood 1 fromTthe speaking oaks of Dodona, and the ship is
thus endowed with the power of warning and guiding the
chieftains who form its crew. This mystic vessel reappears
in the shell of Aphrodite, and in the ship borne in solemn
procession to the Parthenon on the great Panathenaic
festival, 2 as the phallos was carried before the god in the
o-reat feasts of Dionysos. Over this ship floated the saffron-
coloured robe woven for it by the hands of Athenian maidens,
as the women in the temple at Jerusalem wove hangings for
the Ashera of Baal. This ship again is the bark or boat-
brides of the Lamb. The idea of nence in the Phrygian or Eastern mymonachism
or asceticism for woman thology. ' Nun erzahlt Arnobius, Cyprobably
never entered the head of bele habe mit ihrem Kleide den abge-
Hindu or Buddhists theologians and schnittenen Phallus des Attes bedeekt,
philosophers.
ein Grebrauch, welcher in den Mysterien
1 Seemingly the Phallos, which gave der Isis gleichfalls vorkam, denn zu
her title of Pallas. In the issue this Byblos wurde im Tompel der Baaltis
piece of wood, or pole, is as fatal to Ias6n (Gottermutter) das heilige Holz cpaWos,
(
as the Stauros to Osiris, or the Mistletoe
to Baldur.
pains)
deckt.
von der Isis mit Leinwand be-
Plut. de Is. c. 16. Nun wirdauch
2 The connexion of the robe or veil die Bibelstelle (Ecccli. xvi. 17) klar.'
with the Phallic emblem is brought out, Nork, s. v. 'Attes.'
as we might expect, with great promi-
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