The Evolution of the Dragon Part 7

[80: Aylward M. Blackman, "Some Remarks on an Emblem upon the Head of an Ancient Egyptian Birth-G.o.ddess," _Journal of Egyptian Archaeology_, Vol.

III, Part III, July, 1916, p. 199; and "The Pharaoh's Placenta and the Moon-G.o.d Khons," _ibid._ Part IV, Oct., 1916, p. 235.]

[81: "Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt," p. 52. Breasted denies that the _ka_ was an element of the personality.]

[82: For an abstruse discussion of this problem see Alan H. Gardiner, "Personification (Egyptian)," Hastings' _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, pp. 790 and 792.]

[83: _Op. cit. supra_.]

[84: Mr. Blackman is puzzled to explain what "possible connexion there could be between the Pharaoh's placenta and the moon beyond the fact that it is the custom in Uganda to expose the king's placenta each new moon and anoint it with b.u.t.ter."

To those readers who follow my argument in the later pages of this discussion the reasoning at the back of this a.s.sociation should be plain enough. The moon was regarded as the controller of menstruation. The placenta (and also the child) was considered to be formed of menstrual blood. The welfare of the placenta was therefore considered to be under the control of the moon.

The anointing with b.u.t.ter is an interesting ill.u.s.tration of the close connexion of these lunar and maternal phenomena with the cow.

The placenta was a.s.sociated with the moon also in China, as the following quotation shows.

According to de Groot (_op. cit._ p. 396), "in the _Siao 'rh fang_ or Medicament for Babies, by the hand of Ts'ui Hing-kung [died 674 A.D.], it is said: 'The placenta should be stored away in a felicitous spot under the salutary influences of the sky or the moon ... in order that the child may be ensured a long life'". He then goes on to explain how any interference with the placenta will entail mental or physical trouble to the child.

The placenta also is used as the ingredient of pills to increase fertility, facilitate parturition, to bring back life to people on the brink of death and it is the main ingredient "in medicines for lunacy, convulsions, epilepsy, etc." (p. 397). "It gives rest to the heart, nourishes the blood, increases the breath, and strengthens the _tsing_"

(p. 396).

These attributes of the placenta indicate that the beliefs of the Baganda are not merely local eccentricities, but widespread and sharply defined interpretations of the natural phenomena of birth.]

[85: _Op. cit._ p. 241.]

[86: See "The Origin of Early Siberian Civilization," now being published in the _Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society_.]

[87: De Groot, p. 5.]

[88: _Early Religious Poetry of Persia_, p. 145.]

[89: _Op. cit._ p. 264.]

[90: _Ibid._ p. 240.]

The Power of the Eye.

In attempting to understand the peculiar functions attributed to the eye it is essential that the inquirer should endeavour to look at the problem from the early Egyptian's point of view. After moulding into shape the wrappings of the mummy so as to restore as far as possible the form of the deceased the embalmer then painted eyes upon the face. So also when the sculptor had learned to make finished models in stone or wood, and by the addition of paint had enhanced the life-like appearance, the statue was still merely a dead thing. What were needed above all to enliven it, literally and actually, in other words, to animate it, were the eyes; and the Egyptian artist set to work and with truly marvellous skill reproduced the appearance of living eyes (Fig.

5). How ample was the justification for this belief will be appreciated by anyone who glances at the remarkable photographs recently published by Dr. Alan H. Gardiner.[91] The wonderful eyes will be seen to make the statue sparkle and live. To the concrete mind of the Egyptian this triumph of art was regarded not as a mere technical success or aesthetic achievement. The artist was considered to have made the statue really live; in fact, literally and actually converted it into a "living image". The eyes themselves were regarded as one of the chief sources of the vitality which had been conferred upon the statue.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 5--Statue of an Egyptian n.o.ble of the Pyramid Age to show the technical skill in the representation of life-like eyes]

This is the explanation of all the elaborate care and skill bestowed upon the making of artificial eyes. No doubt also it was largely responsible for giving definition to the remarkable belief in the animating power of the eye. But so many other factors of most diverse kinds played a part in building up the complex theory of the eye's fertilizing potency that all the stages in the process of rationalization cannot yet be arranged in orderly sequence.

I refer to the question here and suggest certain aspects of it that seem worthy of investigation merely for the purpose of stimulating some student of early Egyptian literature to look into the matter further.[92]

As death was regarded as a kind of sleep and the closing of the eyes was the distinctive sign of the latter condition the open eyes were not unnaturally regarded as clear evidence of wakefulness and life. In fact, to a matter-of-fact people the restoration of the eyes to the mummy or statue was equivalent to an awakening to life.

At a time when a reflection in a mirror or in a sheet of water was supposed to afford quite positive evidence of the reality of each individual's "double," and when the "soul," or more concretely, "life,"

was imagined to be a minute image or homunculus, it is quite likely that the reflection in the eye may have been interpreted as the "soul"

dwelling within it. The eye was certainly regarded as peculiarly rich in "soul substance". It was not until Osiris received from Horus the eye which had been wrenched out in the latter's combat with Set that he "became a soul".[93]

It is a remarkable fact that this belief in the animating power of the eye spread as far east as Polynesia and America, and as far west as the British Islands.

Of course the obvious physiological functions of the eyes as means of communication between their possessor and the world around him; the powerful influence of the eyes for expressing feeling and emotion without speech; the a.n.a.logy between the closing and opening of the eyes and the changes of day and night, are all hinted at in Egyptian literature.

But there were certain specific factors that seem to have helped to give definiteness to these general ideas of the physiology of the eyes. The tears, like all the body moisture, came to share the life-giving attributes of water in general. And when it is recalled that at funeral ceremonies emotion found natural expression in the shedding of tears, it is not unlikely that this came to be a.s.similated with all the other water-symbolism of the funerary ritual. The early literature of Egypt, in fact, refers to the part played by Isis and Nephthys in the reanimation of Osiris, when the tears they shed as mourners brought life back to the G.o.d. But the fertilizing tears of Isis were life-giving in the wider sense. They were said to cause the inundation which fertilized the soil of Egypt, meaning presumably that the "Eye of Re"

sent the rain.

There is the further possibility that the beliefs a.s.sociated with the cowry may have played some part, if not in originating, at any rate in emphasizing the conception of the fertilizing powers of the eye. I have already mentioned the outstanding features of the symbolism of the cowry. In many places in Africa and elsewhere the similarity of this sh.e.l.l to the half-closed eyelids led to its use as an artificial "eye"

in mummies. The use of the same objects to symbolize the female reproductive organs and the eyes may have played some part in transferring to the latter the fertility of the former. The G.o.ds were born of the eyes of Ptah. Might not the confusion of the eye with the genitalia have given a meaning to this statement? There is evidence of this double symbolism of these sh.e.l.ls. Cowry sh.e.l.ls have also been employed, both in the Persian Gulf and the Pacific, to decorate the bows of boats, probably for the dual purpose of representing eyes and conferring vitality upon the vessel. These facts suggest that the belief in the fertilizing power of the eyes may to some extent be due to this cowry-a.s.sociation. Even if it be admitted that all the known cases of the use of cowries as eyes of mummies are relatively late, and that it is not known to have been employed for such a purpose in Egypt, the mere fact that the likeness to the eyelids so readily suggests itself may have linked together the attributes of the cowry and the eye even in Predynastic times, when cowries were placed with the dead in the grave.

Hathor's identification with the "Eye of Re" may possibly have been an expression of the same idea. But the role of the "Eye of Re" was due primarily to her a.s.sociation with the moon (_vide infra_, p. 56).

The apparently hopeless tangle of contradictions involved in these conceptions of Hathor will have to be unravelled. For "no eye is to be feared more than thine (Re's) when it attacketh in the form of Hathor"

(Maspero, _op. cit._ p. 165). If it was the beneficent life-giving aspect of the eye which led to its identification with Hathor, in course of time, when the reason for this connexion was lost sight of, it became a.s.sociated with the malevolent, death-dealing _avatar_ of the G.o.ddess, and became the expression of the G.o.d's anger and hatred toward his enemies. It is not unlikely that such a confusion may have been responsible for giving concrete expression to the general psychological fact that the eyes are obviously among the chief means for expressing hatred for and intimidating and "brow-beating" one's fellows. [In my lecture on "The Birth of Aphrodite" I shall explain the explicit circ.u.mstances that gave rise to these contradictions.]

It is significant that, in addition to the widespread belief in the "evil eye"--which in itself embodies the same confusion, the expression of admiration that works evil--in a mult.i.tude of legends it is the eye that produces petrifaction. The "stony stare" causes death and the dead become transformed into statues, which, however, usually lack their original attribute of animation. These stories have been collected by Mr. E. S. Hartland in his "Legend of Perseus".

There is another possible link in the chain of a.s.sociations between the eye and the idea of fertility. I have already referred to the development of the belief that incense, which plays so prominent a part in the ritual for conferring vitality upon the dead, is itself replete with animating properties. "Glaser has already shown the _anti_ incense of the Egyptian Punt Reliefs to be an Arabian word, _a-a-netc_, 'tree-eyes' (_Punt und die Sudarabischen Reiche_, p. 7), and to refer to the large lumps ... as distinguished from the small round drops, which are supposed to be tree-tears or the tree-blood."[94]

[91: "A New Masterpiece of Egyptian Sculpture," _The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology_, Vol. IV, Part I, Jan., 1917.]

[92: In all probability the main factor that was responsible for conferring such definite life-giving powers upon the eye was the identification of the moon with the Great Mother. The moon was the Eye of Re, the sky-G.o.d.]

[93: Breasted, "Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt," p. 59. The meaning of the phrase rendered "a soul" here would be more accurately given by the word "reanimated".]

[94: Wilfred H. Schoff, "The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea," 1912, p.

164.]

The Moon and the Sky-World.

There are reasons for believing that the chief episodes in Aphrodite's past point to the Red Sea for their inspiration, though many other factors, due partly to local circ.u.mstances and partly to contact with other civilizations, contributed to the determination of the traits of the Mediterranean G.o.ddess of love. In Babylonia and India there are very definite signs of borrowing from the same source. It is important, therefore, to look for further evidence to Arabia as the obvious bond of union both with Phnicia and Babylonia.

The claim made in Roscher's _Lexicon der Mythologie_ that the a.s.syrian Ishtar, the Phnician Ashtoreth (Astarte), the Syrian Atargatis (Derketo), the Babylonian Belit (Mylitta) and the Arabian Ilat (Al-ilat) were all moon-G.o.ddesses has given rise to much rather aimless discussion, for there can be no question of their essential h.o.m.ology with Hathor and Aphrodite. Moreover, from the beginning, all G.o.ddesses--and especially this most primitive stratum of fertility deities--were for obvious reasons intimately a.s.sociated with the moon.[95] But the cyclical periodicity of the moon which suggested the a.n.a.logy with the similar physiological periodicity of women merely explains the a.s.sociation of the moon with women. The influence of the moon upon dew and the tides, perhaps, suggested its controlling power over water and emphasized the life-giving function which its a.s.sociation with women had already suggested. For reasons which have been explained already, water was a.s.sociated more especially with fertilization by the male. Hence the symbolism of the moon came to include the control of both the male and the female processes of reproduction.[96]

The literature relating to the development of these ideas with reference to the moon has been summarized by Professor Hutton Webster.[97] He shows that "there is good reason for believing that among many primitive peoples the moon, rather than the sun, the planets or any of the constellations, first excited the imagination and aroused feelings of superst.i.tious awe or of religious veneration".

Special attention was first devoted to the moon when agricultural pursuits compelled men to measure time and determine the seasons. The influence of the moon on water, both the tides and dew, brought it within the scope of the then current biological theory of fertilization.

This conception was powerfully corroborated by the parallelism of the moon's cycles and those of womankind, which was interpreted by regarding the moon as the controlling power of the female reproductive functions.

Thus all of the earliest G.o.ddesses who were personifications of the powers of fertility came to be a.s.sociated, and in some cases identified, with the moon.

In this way the animation and deification of the moon was brought about: and the first sky deity a.s.sumed not only all the attributes of the cowry, i.e. the female reproductive functions, but also, as the controller of water, many of those which afterwards were a.s.sociated with Osiris. The confusion of the male fertilizing powers of Osiris with the female reproductive functions of Hathor and Isis may explain how in some places the moon became a masculine deity, who, however, still retained his control over womankind, and caused the phenomena of menstruation by the exercise of his virile powers.[98] But the moon-G.o.d was also a measurer of time and in this aspect was specially personified in Thoth.

The a.s.similation of the moon with these earth-deities was probably responsible for the creation of the first sky-deity. For once the conception developed of identifying a deity with the moon, and the Osirian beliefs a.s.sociated with the deification of a dead king grew up, the moon became the impersonation of the spirit of womankind, some mortal woman who by death had acquired divinity.