File:Ancient pagan and modern Christian symbolism (1874) (14590311618).jpg

Identifier: ancientpaganmode00inma (find matches)
Title: Ancient pagan and modern Christian symbolism
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Inman, Thomas, 1820-1876 Newton, John, M.R.C.S.E
Subjects: Symbolism Christian art and symbolism
Publisher: New York : P. Eckler
Contributing Library: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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the Asherah. He bears the strung-bow and arrows, emblemsof virile power, borne afterwards by the sun-god Apollo, andthe western son of Venus. An erect serpent occupies theother side, and ends with forky tongue near the orifice. Theglans is covered with symbols. On the summit is a triad of,sun emblems; beneath are three altars, over two of which arethe glans-shaped caps, covered with bulls* horns, alwaysworn by the Assyrian guardian angels, and intense emblemsipf the male potency. For in ancient symbolism, a part of Figtire 174. 125 a symhcl stands for the whole; as here, the horns representthe bull, and the glans the phallus. Above the third altaris a tortoise, whose protruded head and neck reminded theinitiated of the phallus ; and the altars are covered with apattern drawn from the tortoise scales. We have, besides,a vase with a rod inserted, emblem of sexual union, and acock, with wings and plumage ruffled, running after a hfen inamorous heat. The glans only of the other is copied.
Text Appearing After Image:
Figure 175. Fig. 175. At the top are the sun-symbols, as before.Beneath is the horse-shoe-like head-dress of Isis, and thereare two altars marked with the tortoise-emblem in front.Over both rises the erect serpent, and upon one lies the headof an arrow or a dart, both male symbols. The miphletzethwhich Queen Maachah placed in or near the Asherah, pro-bably resembled these Assyrian phalli, or the Asherim. 126 And now we come to the Asherah, a much more complexand difficult symbol than any other which we have named.This object has long puzzled antiquarians, and though itis continually recurring in the sculptures from Nineveh, ithas not yet been fully explained. In Fig. 176 we see it

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