The Svastika is apparently the simplest form of the Guilloche [scroll
pattern or spiral]. According to Wilkinson (11, Chap. IX), the most
complicated form of the Guilloche covered an Egyptian ceiling upward
of a thousand years older than the objects found at Nineveh. The
Svastika spread far and wide, everywhere assuming some fresh
mythological and mysterious significance. In the north of Europe it
became the Fylfot or Crutched cross.
Count Goblet d'Alviella is of the opinion (p. 57) that the Swastika was
"above all an amulet, talisman, or phylactere," while (p. 56) "it is
incontestable that a great number of the Swastikas were simply motifs of
ornamentation, of coin marks, and marks of fabrics," but he agrees (p. 57)
that there is no symbol that has given rise to so many interpretations,
not even the _tricula_ of the Buddhists, and "this is a great deal to
say." Ludwig Müller believes the Swastika to have been used as an ornament
and as a charm and amulet, as well as a sacred symbol.
Dr. H. Colley March, in his learned paper on the "Fylfot and the Futhore
Tir,"[54] thinks the Swastika had no relation to fire or fire making or
the fire god. His theory is that it symbolized axial motion and not merely
gyration; that it represented the celestial pole, the axis of the heavens
around which revolve the stars of the firmament. This appearance of
rotation is most impressive in the constellation of the Great Bear. About
four thousand years ago the apparent pivot of rotation was at [Greek: a]
_Draconis_, much nearer the Great Bear than now, and at that time the
rapid circular sweep must have been far more striking than at present. In
addition to the name Ursa Major the Latins called this constellation
_Septentriones_, "the seven plowing oxen," that dragged the stars around
the pole, and the Greeks called it [Greek: elikê], from its vast spiral
movement.[55] In the opinion of Dr. March all these are represented or
symbolized by the Swastika.
Prof. W. H. Goodyear, of New York, has lately (1891) published an
elaborate quarto work entitled "The Grammar of the Lotus: A New History of
Classic Ornament as a Development of Sun Worship."[56] It comprises 408
pages, with 76 plates, and nearly a thousand figures. His theory develops
the sun symbol from the lotus by a series of ingenious and complicated
evolutions passing through the Ionic style of architecture, the volutes
and spirals forming meanders or Greek frets, and from this to the
Swastika. The result is attained by the following line of argument and
illustrations:
The lotus was a "fetish of immemorial antiquity and has been worshiped in
many countries from Japan to the Straits of Gibraltar;" it was a symbol of
"fecundity," "life," "immortality," and of "resurrection," and has a
mortuary significance and use. But its elementary and most important
signification was as a solar symbol.[57]
He describes the Egyptian lotus and traces it through an innumerable
number of specimens and with great variety of form. He mentions many of
the sacred animals of Egypt and seeks to maintain their relationship by or
through the lotus, not only with each other but with solar circles and the
sun worship.[58] Direct association of the solar disk and lotus are,
according to him, common on the monuments and on Phenician and Assyrian
seals; while the lotus and the sacred animals, as in cases cited of the
goose representing Seb (solar god, and father of Osiris), also Osiris
himself and Horus, the hawk and lotus, bull and lotus, the asp and lotus,
the lion and lotus, the sphinx and lotus, the gryphon and lotus, the
serpent and lotus, the ram and lotus--all of which animals, and with them
the lotus, have, in his opinion, some related signification to the sun or
some of his deities.[59] He is of the opinion that the lotus motif was the
foundation of the Egyptian style of architecture, and that it appeared at
an early date, say, the fourteenth century B. C. By intercommunication
with the Greeks it formed the foundation of the Greek Ionic capital,
which, he says,[60] "offers no dated example of the earlier time than the
sixth century B. C." He supports this contention by authority, argument,
and illustration.
[Illustration: From figures in Goodyear's "Grammar of the Lotus," p. 27.
Fig. 15. TYPICAL LOTUS ON CYPRIAN VASES.
Fig. 16. TYPICAL LOTUS ON RHODIAN VASES.