The Swastika Part 11

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 142. GREEK VASE WITH SWASTIKAS IN PANELS. Conze, "Anfange," etc., and Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 60, fig. 13.]

_The Greek fret and Egyptian meander not the same as the Swastika._--Professor Goodyear says:[171] "There is no proposition in archaeology which can be so easily demonstrated as the a.s.sertion that the Swastika is originally a fragment of the Egyptian meander, provided Greek geometric vases are called in evidence."

Egyptian meander here means the Greek fret. Despite the ease with which he says it can be demonstrated that the Swastika was originally a fragment of the Egyptian meander, and with all respect for the opinion of so profound a student of cla.s.sic ornament, doubts must arise as to the existence of the evidence necessary to prove his proposition.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 143. DETAIL OF ARCHAIC GREEK VASE WITH FIGURE OF SOLAR GOOSE AND SWASTIKAS IN PANELS. British Museum. Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 41, fig. 15.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 144. CYPRIAN POTTERY PLAQUE WITH SWASTIKA IN PANEL.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Cesnola, "Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples," pl. 47, fig. 40.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 145. DETAIL OF CYPRIAN VASE WITH SWASTIKAS IN TRIANGLES. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 1, fig. 11.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 146. DETAIL OF ATTIC VASE WITH FIGURE OF ANTELOPE (?) AND SWASTIKA. British Museum. Bohlau, Jahrbuch, 1885, p. 50, and Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 37, fig. 9.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 147. CYPRIAN VASE WITH SWASTIKAS. Cesnola, "Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples," appendix by Murray, p. 404, fig.

15.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 148. TERRA COTTA FIGURINE WITH SWASTIKAS IN PANELS.

Cesnola, "Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples," p. 300, and Ohnefalsch-Richter, Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop., Paris, 1888, p. 691.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 149. TERRA COTTA VASE WITH SWASTIKA AND FIGURE OF HORSE.[172]]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 150. BRONZE FIBULA WITH SWASTIKA AND REPRESENTATIONS OF A GOOSE AND A FISH. Boeotia, Greece. De Mortillet, "Musee Prehistorique," fig. 1265.]

Professor Goodyear, and possibly others, ascribe the origin of the Swastika to the Greek fret; but this is doubtful and surely has not been proved. It is difficult, if not impossible, to procure direct evidence on the proposition. Comparisons may be made between the two signs; but this is secondary or indirect evidence, and depends largely on argument. No man is so poor in expedients that he may not argue. Goldsmith's schoolmaster "e'en tho' vanquished, he could argue still." The Greek fret, once established, might easily be doubled or crossed in some of its members, thus forming a figure similar to the Swastika (fig. 139), which would serve as an ornament, but is without any of the characteristics of the Swastika as a symbol. The crossed lines in the Greek fret seem to have been altogether fortuitous. They gave it no symbolic character. It was simply a variation of the fret, and at best was rarely used, and like it, was employed only for ornament and not with any signification--not a sign of benediction, blessing, or good luck, as was the Swastika. The foundation principle of the Greek fret, so far as we can see its use, is its adaptability to form an extended ornamental band, consisting of doubled, bent, and sometimes crossed or interlaced lines, always continuous and never ending, and running between two parallel border lines. Two interlacing lines can be used, crossing each other at certain places, both making continuous meanders and together forming the ornamental band (fig. 139). In the Greek fret the two lines meandered between the two borders back and forth, up and down, but always forming a continuous line. This seems to be the foundation principle of the Greek fret. In all this requirement or foundation principle the Swastika fails.

A row or band of Swastikas can not be made by continuous lines; each one is and must be separated from its fellows. The Swastika has four arms, each made by a single line which comes to an end in each quarter. This is more imperative with the meander Swastika than with the normal. If the lines be doubled on each other to be carried along to form another Swastika adjoining, in the attempt to make a band, it will be found impossible. The four lines from each of the four arms can be projected, but each will be in a different direction, and no band can be made. It is somewhat difficult to describe this, and possibly not of great need. An attempt to carry out the project of making a band of Swastikas, to be connected with each other, or to make them travel in any given direction with continuous lines, will be found impossible. Professor Goodyear attempts to show how this is done by his figure on page 96, in connection with pl. 10, fig. 9, also figs. 173 and 174 (pp. 353 and 354). These figures are given in this paper and are, respectively, Nos. 21, 25, 26, and 27. Exception is taken to the pretended line of evolution in these figures: (1) There is nothing to show any actual relations.h.i.+p between them. There is no evidence that they agreed either in locality or time, or that there was any unity of thought or design in the minds of their respective artists. (2) Single specimens are no evidence of custom. This is a principle of the common law which has still a good foundation, and was as applicable in those days as it is now. The transition from the spiral to the Greek fret and from the Greek fret to the Swastika can be shown only by the existence of the custom or habit of the artist to make them both in the same or adjoining epochs of time, and this is not proved by showing a single specimen. (3) If a greater number of specimens were produced, the chain of evidence would still be incomplete, for the meander of the Greek fret will, as has just been said, be found impossible of transition into the meander Swastika. It (the Swastika) does not extend itself into a band, but if spread at all, it spreads in each of the four directions (figs. 21 and 25). The transition will be found much easier from the Greek meander fret to the normal Swastika and from that to the meander Swastika than to proceed in the opposite direction. Anyone who doubts this has but to try to make the Swastika in a continuous or extended band or line (fig. 26), similar to the Greek fret.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 151. DETAIL OF GREEK VASE WITH SWASTIKAS AND FIGURES OF BIRDS. Waring, "Ceramic Art In Remote Ages," pl. 33, fig. 24, and Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 46, fig. 5.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 152. DETAIL OF CYPRIAN VASE. Sunhawk, lotus, solar disk, and Swastikas. Bohlau, Jahrbuch, 1886, pl. 8; Reinach, Revue Archaeologique, 1885, II, p. 360; Perrot and Chipiez, "History of Art in Phenicia and Cyprus," II; Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 45, fig.

3.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 153. DETAIL OF GREEK GEOMETRIC VASE WITH SWASTIKAS AND FIGURES OF HORSES. Thera. Leyden Museum. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus,"

pl. 61, fig. 4.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 154. BRONZE FIBULA WITH LARGE SWASTIKA ON s.h.i.+ELD.

Greece. Musee St. Germain. De Mortillet, "Musee Prehistorique," fig. 1264.

1/2 natural size.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 155. GREEK VASE, OINOCHOe, WITH TWO PAINTED SWASTIKAS.

De Mortillet, "Musee Prehistorique," fig. 1244. 1/4 natural size.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 156. CYPRIAN VASE WITH SWASTIKAS AND FIGURE OF ANIMAL.[173] Cesnola, "Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples,"

pl. 45, fig. 36.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 157. ARCHAIC GREEK POTTERY FRAGMENT. Santorin, Ancient Thera. Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 42 fig. 2.]

Figs. 133 and 134, from Naukratis, afford palpable evidence of the different origin of the Swastika and the Greek fret. Evidently Grecian vases, though found in Egypt, these specimens bear side by side examples of the fret and the Swastika, used contemporaneously, and both of them complete and perfect. If one had been parent of the other, they would have belonged to different generations and would not have appeared simultaneously on the same specimen. Another ill.u.s.tration of simultaneous use is in fig. 194, which represents an Etruscan vase[174] ornamented with bronze nail heads in the form of Swastikas, but a.s.sociated with it is the design of the Greek fret, showing them to be of contemporaneous use, and therefore not, as Professor Goodyear believes, an evolution of one from the other. The specimen is in the Museum at Este, Italy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 158. CYPRIAN VASE WITH LOTUS AND SWASTIKAS AND FIGURE OF BIRD. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 60, fig. 15.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 159. CYPRIAN VASE WITH TWO SWASTIKAS. Cesnola Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," fig. 151.]

The Greek fret has been in common use in all ages and all countries adopting the Grecian civilization. Equally in all ages and countries has appeared the crossed lines which have been employed by every architect and decorator, most or many of whom had no knowledge of the Swastika, either as an ornament or as a symbol.[175]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 160. FRAGMENT OF TERRA COTTA VASE WITH SWASTIKAS, FROM RUINS OF TEMPLE AT PALEO-PAPHOS. Depth, 40 feet. Cesnola, "Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples," p. 210.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 161. WOODEN b.u.t.tON, CLASP, OR FIBULA COVERED WITH PLATES OF GOLD. Ogee Swastika, tetraskelion in center. Schliemann, "Mycenae," fig. 385.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 162. DETAIL OF GREEK VASE WITH FIGURE OF GOOSE, HONEYSUCKLE (ANTHEMION), AND SPIRAL SWASTIKA. Thera. "Monumenti Inedite,"

LXV, p. 2, and Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 46, fig. 7.]

_Swastika in panels._--Professor Goodyear, in another place,[176] argues in a manner which tacitly admits the foregoing proposition, where, in his endeavor to establish the true home of the Swastika to be in the Greek geometric style, he says we should seek it where it appears in "the largest dimension" and in "the most prominent way." In verification of this declaration, he says that in this style the Swastika systematically appears in panels exclusively a.s.signed to it. But he gives only two ill.u.s.trations of the Swastika in panels. These have been copied, and are shown in figs. 140 and 142. The author has added other specimens, figs.

141 to 148, from Dennis's "Etruria," from Waring's "Ceramic Art," and from Cesnola and Ohnefalsch-Richter. It might be too much to say that these are the only Swastikas in Greece appearing in panels, but it is certain that the great majority of them do not thus appear. Therefore, Professor Goodyear's theory is not sustained, for no one will pretend that four specimens found in panels will form a rule for the great number which did not thus appear. This argument of Professor Goodyear is destructive of his other proposition that the Swastika sign originated by evolution from the meander or Greek fret, for we have seen that the latter was always used in a band and never in panels. Although the Swastika and the Greek fret have a certain similarity of appearance in that they consist of straight lines bent at right angles, and this continued many times, yet the similarity is more apparent than real; for an a.n.a.lysis of the motifs of both show them to have been essentially different in their use, and so in their foundation and origin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 163. DETAIL OF GREEK VASE. Sphinx with spiral scrolls, and two meander Swastikas (right). Melos. Bohlau, Jahrbuch, 1887, XII, and Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 34, fig. 8.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 164. DETAIL OF GREEK VASE. Ibex, scroll, and meander Swastika (right). Melos. Bohlau, Jahrbuch, 1887, XII, p. 121, and Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 39, fig. 2.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 165. DETAIL OF A GREEK VASE IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

Ram, meander Swastika (left), circles, dots, and crosses. Salzmann, "Necropole de Camire," LI, and Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 28, fig. 7.]

_Swastikas with four arms, crossing at right angles, with ends bent to the right._--The author has called this the normal Swastika. He has been at some trouble to gather such Swastikas from Greek vases as was possible, and has divided them according to forms and peculiarities. The first group (figs. 140, 143, 146, 147, 148, and 150) shows the normal Swastika with four arms, all bent at right angles and to the right. In the aforesaid division no distinction has been made between specimens from different parts of Greece and the islands of the Grecian Archipelago, and these, with such specimens as have been found in Smyrna, have for this purpose all been treated as Greek.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 166. CYPRIAN VASE WITH SWASTIKAS AND FIGURES OF BIRDS.

Perrot and Chipiez, "History of Art in Phenicia and Cyprus," II, p. 300, fig. 237; Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 48, figs. 6, 12; Cesnola, "Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples," Appendix by Murray, p.

412, pl. 44, fig. 34.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 167. CYPRIAN VASE WITH LOTUS, BOSSES, BUDS, SEPALS, AND DIFFERENT SWASTIKAS. Cesnola Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 48, fig. 3.]

_Swastikas with four arms crossing at right angles, ends bent to the left._--Figs. 141, 142, 144, 149, 151, 152, 153, 154, 156, and 157 represent the normal Swastika with four arms, all bending at right angles, but to the left. The vases on which they have been found are not described as to color or form. It would be difficult to do so correctly; besides, these descriptions are not important in our study of the Swastika. Fig.

155 represents a vase or pitcher (oinochoe, Greek--[Greek: oinos], wine, and [Greek: cheo], to pour) with painted Swastika, ends turned to the left. It is in the Museum of St. Germain, and is figured by M. De Mortillet in "Musee Prehistorique." Fig. 156 represents a Cyprian vase from Ormidia, in the New York Museum. It is described by Cesnola[177] and by Perrot and Chipiez.[178] Fig. 157 is taken from a fragment of archaic Greek pottery found in Santorin (Ancient Thera), an island in the Greek Archipelago. This island was first inhabited by the Phenicians, afterwards by the Greeks, a colony of whom founded Cyrene in Africa. This specimen is cited by Rochette and figured by Waring.[179]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 168. CYPRIAN VASE WITH BOSSES, LOTUS BUDS, AND DIFFERENT SWASTIKAS. Cesnola Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 48, fig. 15.]

_Swastikas with four arms crossing at other than right angles, the ends ogee and to the left._--Figs. 158, 159, and 160 show Swastikas with four arms crossing at other than right angles, many of them ogee, but turned to the left. Fig. 161 is a representation of a wooden b.u.t.ton or clasp, much resembling the later gold brooch of Sweden, cla.s.sified by Montelius (p.

867), covered with plates of gold, from Sepulcher IV, Mycenae (Schliemann, Mycenae, fig. 385, p. 259). The ornament in its center is one of the ogee Swastikas with four arms (tetraskelion) curved to the left. It shows a dot in each of the four angles of the cross similar to the Suavastika of Max Muller and the _Croix swasticale_ of Zmigrodzki, which Burnouf attributed to the four nails which fastened the cross _Arani_ (the female principle), while the _Pramantha_ (the male), produced, by rotation, the holy fire from the sacred cross. An almost exact reproduction of this Swastika will be found on the s.h.i.+eld of the Pima Indians of New Mexico (fig. 258).

Dr. Schliemann reports that the Swastika in its spiral form is represented innumerable times in the sculptured ceiling of the Thalamos in the treasury at Orchomenos. (See figs. 21 and 25.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 169. DETAIL OF EARLY BOEOTIAN VASE. Figure of horse, solar diagram, Artemis with geese, and Swastikas (normal and meander, right and left). Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 61, fig. 12.]

He also reports[180] that Swastikas (turned both ways) may be seen in the Royal Museum at Berlin incised on a bal.u.s.trade relief of the hall which surrounded the temple of Athene at Pergamos. Fig. 162 represents a spiral Swastika with four arms crossing at right angles, the ends all turned to the left and each one forming a spiral.

Waring[181] figures and describes a Grecian oinochoe from Camirus, Rhodes, dating, as he says, from 700 to 500 B. C., on which is a band of decoration similar to fig. 130. It is about 10 inches high, of cream color, with ornamentation of dark brown. Two ibexes follow each other with an ogee spiral Swastika between the forelegs of one.

_Meander pattern, with ends bent to right and left._--Figs. 163, 164, and 165 show the Swastika in meander pattern. Fig. 163 shows two Swastikas, the arms of both bent to the right, one six, the other nine times. The Swastika shown in fig. 164 is bent to the right eight times. That shown in fig. 165 bends to the left eight times.