Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

II
MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK cultns of the full-grown and branching tree. In its earliest
form the symbol is everywhere a mere stauros, or pole ; and
although this stock or rod budded in the shape of the thyrsos
and the shepherd's staff, yet even in its latest developements
the worship is confined to small bushes and shrubs and
diminutive plants of a particular kind. Nor is it possible
again to dispute the fact, that every nation at some stage or
other of its history has attached to this cultus precisely that
meaning which the Brahman now attaches to the Linga and
the Yoni. That the Jews clung to it in this special sense
with vehement tenacity is the bitter complaint of the pro-
phets ; and the crucified serpent, adored for its healing
powers, stood untouched in the temple until it was removed
and destroyed by Hezekiah. This worship of serpents ' void
of reason,' condemned in the Wisdom of Solomon, probably
survived even the Babylonish captivity. Certainly it was
adopted by the Christians who were known as Ophites,
Gnostics, and Nicolaitans. In Athenian mythology the
serpent and the tree are singularly prominent. Kekrops,
Erechtheus, and Erichthonios, are each and all serpentine
in the lower portion of their bodies. The sacred snake of
Athene had its abode in the Akropoiis, and her olive-tree
secured for her the victory in her rivalry with Poseidon.
The health-giving serpent lay at the feet of Asklepios, and
snakes were fed in his temple at Epidauros and elsewhere. 1
That the ideas of mere terror and death, suggested by the
venomous or the crushing reptile, could never have given
1
It is, in fact, the healer, under the
many names, Iason, Iasion, &c., which
serpents played a prominent part in the
rites of Zeus Sabazios, whose worship
bear the equivocal meaning of saving or
destroying life, as they are referred to
was practically identical with that of
the Syrian Tammuz or Adonis. The
16s, poison, or Idofxai, to heal. It is the epithet Sabazios, which, like the words
means by which the waste caused by Adonai and Melkarth, was imported
death is repaired. ' Daher die Phallus- into Greek mythology, is applied not
schlange, auch die Heilschlange 'Aya0o-
Sat/Acou: daher der mit Schlangen umtriirtete
Phallusstab in der Hand des
Hermes lOvcpaWLKos, und des Acsculap,
less to Dionysos than to Zeus ; but the
stories told of this deity remained vague
and shadowy. Sometimes he is a son
of Zeus and Persephone, and is nursed
dessen weibliche Hiilfte, Hygiea ihm by the nymph Nyssa, whoso name redie
Schalo
Symbol des
entgegen tragt, welche ein
Mutterbeckens ist.'—Nork,
appears in Dionysos: sometimes Dionysos
is himself the father of Sabazios,
s. v. 'Arzt.' This shell is the shell of who is, again, a child also of Kabeiros
Aphrodite. or of Kronos.
It is scarcely necessary to add that