He shows[61] the transfer of the lotus motif to Greece, and its use as an
ornament on the painted vases and on those from Cyprus, Rhodes, and Melos
(figs. 15, 16, 17).
[Illustration: Fig. 18. DETAIL OF CYPRIAN VASE SHOWING LOTUSES WITH
CURLING SEPALS. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Goodyear, "Grammar
of the Lotus," pl. 47, fig. 1.]
Chantre[62] notes the presence of spirals similar to those of fig. 17, in
the terramares of northern Italy and up and down the Danube, and his fig.
186 (fig. 17) he says represents the decorating motif, the most frequent
in all that part of prehistoric Europe. He cites "Notes sur les torques ou
ornaments spirals."[63]
That the lotus had a foundation deep and wide in Egyptian mythology is not
to be denied; that it was allied to and associated on the monuments and
other objects with many sacred and mythologic characters in Egypt and
afterwards in Greece is accepted. How far it extends in the direction
contended for by Professor Goodyear, is no part of this investigation. It
appears well established that in both countries it became highly
conventionalized, and it is quite sufficient for the purpose of this
argument that it became thus associated with the Swastika. Figs. 18 and
19 represent details of Cyprian vases and amphora belonging to the
Cesnola collection in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, showing the
lotus with curling sepals among which are interspersed Swastikas of
different forms.
[Illustration: Fig. 19. DETAIL OF CYPRIAN AMPHORA IN METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
OF ART, NEW YORK CITY. Lotus with curling sepals and different Swastikas.
Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 47, figs. 2, 3.]
[Illustration: Fig. 20. THEORY OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE SPIRAL SCROLL FROM
LOTUS. One Volute. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," fig. 21.]
According to Professor Goodyear,[64] these bent sepals of the lotus were
exaggerated and finally became spirals,[65] which, being projected at a
tangent, made volutes, and, continuing one after the other, as shown in
fig. 20, formed bands of ornament; or,[66] being connected to right and
left, spread the ornament over an extended surface as in fig. 21. One of
his paths of evolution closed these volutes and dropped the connecting
tangent, when they formed the concentric rings of which we see so much.
Several forms of Egyptian scarabæi, showing the evolution of concentric
rings, are shown in figs. 22, 23, and 24.
[Illustration: Fig. 21. THEORY OF LOTUS RUDIMENTS IN SPIRAL. Tomb 33,
Abd-el Kourneh, Thebes. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," p. 96.]
By another path of the evolution of his theory, one has only to square the
spiral volutes, and the result is the Greek fret shown in fig. 25.[67] The
Greek fret has only to be doubled, when it produces the Swastika shown in
fig. 26.[68] Thus we have, according to him, the origin of the Swastika,
as shown in figs. 27 and 28.[69]
Professor Goodyear is authority for the statement that the earliest dated
instances of the isolated scroll is in the fifth dynasty of Egypt, and of
the lotus and spiral is in the eleventh dynasty. The spiral of fig. 19
(above) belongs to the twelfth dynasty.[70]
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SCARABÆI SHOWING EVOLUTION OF CONCENTRIC RINGS.
Fig. 22. CONCENTRIC RINGS CONNECTED BY TANGENTS. From a figure in Petrie's
"History of Scarabs."
Fig. 23. CONCENTRIC RINGS WITH DISCONNECTED TANGENTS. Barringer
collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Goodyear, "Grammar
of the Lotus," pl. 8, fig. 93.
Fig. 24. CONCENTRIC RINGS WITHOUT CONNECTION. Farman collection,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Goodyear, "Grammar of the
Lotus," pl. 8, fig. 95.]
[Illustration: Fig. 25. SPECIAL EGYPTIAN MEANDER. An illustration of the
theory of derivation from the spiral. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus,"
pl. 10, fig. 9.]
Professor Goodyear devotes an entire chapter to the Swastika. On pages
352, 353 he says:
There is no proposition in archæology which can be so easily
demonstrated as the assertion that the Swastika was originally a
fragment of the Egyptian meander, provided Greek geometric vases are
called in evidence. The connection between the meander and the
Swastika has been long since suggested by Prof. A. S. Murray.[71]
Hindu specialists have suggested that the Swastika produced the
meander. Birdwood[72] says: "I believe the Swastika to be the origin
of the key pattern ornament of Greek and Chinese decorative art."
Zmigrodzki, in a recent publication,[73] has not only reproposed this
derivation of the meander, but has even connected the Mycenæ spirals
with this supposed development, and has proposed to change the name of
the spiral ornament accordingly. * * * The equivalence of the Swastika
with the meander pattern is suggested, in the first instance, by its
appearance in the shape of the meander on the Rhodian (pl. 28, fig.
7), Melian (pl. 60, fig. 8), archæic Greek (pl. 60, fig. 9, and pl.
61, fig. 12), and Greek geometric vases (pl. 56). The appearance, in
shape of the meander may be verified in the British Museum on one
geometric vase of the oldest type, and it also occurs in the Louvre.
On page 354, Goodyear says:
The solar significance of the Swastika is proven by the Hindu coins of
the Jains. Its generative significance is proven by a leaden statuette
from Troy. It is an equivalent of the lotus (pl. 47, figs. 1, 2, 3),
of the solar diagram (pl. 57, fig. 12, and pl. 60, fig. 8), of the
rosette (pl. 20, fig. 8), of concentric rings (pl. 47, fig. 11), of
the spiral scroll (pl. 34, fig. 8, and pl. 39, fig. 2), of the
geometric boss (pl. 48, fig. 12), of the triangle (pl. 46, fig. 5),
and of the anthemion (pl. 28, fig. 7, and pl. 30, fig. 4). It appears
with the solar deer (pl. 60, figs. 1 and 2), with the solar antelope
(pl. 37, fig. 9), with the symbolic fish (pl. 42, fig. 1), with the
ibex (pl. 37, fig. 4), with the solar sphinx (pl. 34, fig. 8), with
the solar lion (pl. 30, fig. 4), the solar ram (pl. 28, fig. 7), and
the solar horse (pl. 61, figs. 1, 4, 5, and 12). Its most emphatic and
constant association is with the solar bird (pl. 60, fig. 15; fig.
173).
[Illustration: Fig. 26. DETAIL OF GREEK VASE. Meander and Swastika.
Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," fig. 171.]
[Illustration: Fig. 27. DETAIL OF GREEK GEOMETRIC VASE IN THE BRITISH
MUSEUM. Swastika, right, with solar geese. Goodyear, "Grammar of the
Lotus," pl. 353, fig. 173.]
[Illustration: Fig. 28. GREEK GEOMETRIC VASE. Swastika with solar geese.
Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 353, fig. 172.]
Count Goblet d'Alviella, following Ludwig Müller, Percy Gardner, S. Beal,
Edward Thomas, Max Müller, H. Gaidoz, and other authors, accepts their
theory that the Swastika was a symbolic representation of the sun or of a
sun god, and argues it fully.[74] He starts with the proposition that most
of the nations of the earth have represented the sun by a circle, although
some of them, notably the Assyrians, Hindus, Greeks, and Celts, have
represented it by signs more or less cruciform. Examining his fig. 2,
wherein signs of the various people are set forth, it is to be remarked
that there is no similarity or apparent relationship between the six
symbols given, either with themselves or with the sun. Only one of them,
that of Assyria, pretends to be a circle; and it may or may not stand for
the sun. It has no exterior rays. All the rest are crosses of different
kinds. Each of the six symbols is represented as being from a single
nation of people. They are prehistoric or of high antiquity, and most of
them appear to have no other evidence of their representation of the sun
than is contained in the sign itself, so that the first objection is to
the premises, to wit, that while his symbols may have sometimes
represented the sun, it is far from certain that they are used constantly
or steadily as such. An objection is made to the theory or hypothesis
presented by Count d'Alviella[75] that it is not the cross part of the
Swastika which represents the sun, but its bent arms, which show the
revolving motion, by which he says is evolved the tetraskelion or what in
this paper is named the "Ogee Swastika." The author is more in accord with
Dr. Brinton and others that the Swastika is derived from the cross and not
from the wheel, that the bent arms do not represent rotary or gyratory
motion, and that it had no association with, or relation to, the circle.
This, if true, relieves the Swastika from all relation with the circle as
a symbol of the sun. Besides, it is not believed that the symbol of the
sun is one which required rotary or gyratory motion or was represented by
it, but, as will be explained, in speaking of the Assyrian sun-god Shamash
(p. 789), it is rather by a circle with pointed rays extending outward.
D'Alviella[76] presents several figures in support of his contention. The
first (_a_) is on a fibula from Etruria (fig. 190 of this paper). His
explanation is that the small circle of rays, bent at right angles, on the
broad shield of the pin, represents graphically the rotary movement of the
sun, and that the bent arms in the Swastikas on the same object are taken
from them. It seems curious that so momentous a subject as the existence
of a symbol of a great god, the god of light, heat, and thus of life,
should be made to depend upon an object of so small importance. This
specimen (fig. 190) is a fibula or pin, one of the commonest objects of
Etruscan, Greek, or Roman dress. The decorations invoked are on the broad
end, which has been flattened to protect the point of the pin, where
appears a semicircle of so-called rays, the two Swastikas and two possible
crosses. There is nothing about this pin, nor indeed any of the other
objects, to indicate any holy or sacred character, nor that any of them
were used in any ceremony having relation to the sun, to any god, or to
anything holy or sacred. His fig. _b_ is fig. 88 in this paper. It shows a
quadrant of the sphere found by Schliemann at Hissarlik. There is a
slightly indefinite circle with rays from the outside, which are bent and
crooked in many directions. The sphere is of terra cotta; the marks that
have been made on it are rough and ill formed. They were made by incision
while the clay was soft and were done in the rudest manner. There are
dozens more marks upon the same sphere, none of which seem to have
received any consideration in this regard. There is a Swastika upon the
sphere, and it is the only mark or sign upon the entire object that seems
to have been made with care or precision. His third figure (_c_) is taken
from a reliquaire of the thirteenth century A. D. It has a greater
resemblance to the acanthus plant than it has to any solar disk
imaginable. The other two figures (_d_ and _e_) are tetraskelions or ogee
Swastikas from ancient coins.
D'Alviella's next argument[77] is that the triskelion, formed by the same
process as the tetraskelion, is an "incontestable" representation of
solar movement. No evidence is submitted in support of this assertion,
and the investigator of the present day is required, as in prehistoric
objects, to depend entirely upon the object itself. The bent arms contain
no innate evidence (even though they should be held to represent rotary or
gyratory motion) representing the sun or sun gods. It is respectfully
suggested that in times of antiquity, as in modern times, the sun is not
represented as having a rotary motion, but is rather represented by a
circle with diminishing rays projecting from the center or exterior. It
seems unjustifiable, almost ridiculous, to transform the three flexed
human legs, first appearing on the coins of Lycia, into a sun symbol, to
make it the reliable evidence of sun worship, and give it a holy or sacred
character as representing a god. It is surely pushing the argument too far
to say that this is an "incontestable" representation of the solar
movement. The illustrations by d'Alviella on his page 71 are practically
the same as figs. 224 to 226 of this paper.
Count d'Alviella's further argument[78] is that symbols of the sun god
being frequently associated, alternated with, and sometimes replaced by,
the Swastika, proves it to have been a sun symbol. But this is doubted,
and evidence to sustain the proposition is wanting. Undoubtedly the
Swastika was a symbol, was intentional, had a meaning and a degree of
importance, and, while it may have been intended to represent the sun and
have a higher and holier character, yet these mere associations are not
evidence of the fact.
D'Alviella's plate 2, page 80, while divided into sections _a_ and _b_, is
filled only with illustrations of Swastika associated with circles, dots,
etc., introduced for the purpose of showing the association of the
Swastika therewith, and that the permutation and replacing of these signs
by the Swastika is evidence that the Swastika represented the sun. Most of
the same illustrations are presented in this paper, and it is respectfully
submitted that the evidence does not bear out his conclusion. If it be
established that these other symbols are representatives of the sun, how
does that prove that the Swastika was itself a representative of the sun
or the sun god? D'Alviella himself argues[79] against the proposition of
equivalence of meaning because of association when applied to the _Crux
ansata_, the circle, the crescent, the triskelion, the lightning sign, and
other symbolic figures. He denies that because the Swastika is found on
objects associated with these signs therefore they became interchangeable
in meaning, or that the Swastika stood for any of them. The Count[79] says
that more likely the engraver added the Swastika to these in the character
of a talisman or phylactery. On page 56 he argues in the same line, that
because it is found on an object of sacred character does not necessarily
give it the signification of a sacred or holy symbol. He regards the
Swastika as a symbol of good fortune, and sees no reason why it may not
be employed as an invocation to a god of any name or kind on the
principle, "Good Lord, good devil," quoting the Neapolitan proverb, that
it will do no harm, and possibly may do good.
Prof. Max Müller[80] refers to the discovery by Prof. Percy Gardner of one
of the coins of Mesembria, whereon the Swastika replaces the last two
syllables of the word, and he regards this as decisive that in Greece the
meaning of the Swastika was equivalent to the sun. This word, Mesembria,
being translated _ville de midi_, means town or city of the south, or the
sun. He cites from Mr. Thomas's paper on the "Indian Swastika and its
Western Counterparts"[81] what he considers an equally decisive discovery
made some years ago, wherein it was shown that the wheel, the emblem of
the sun in motion, was replaced by the Swastika on certain coins; likewise
on some of the Andhra coins and some punched gold coins noted by Sir
Walter Elliott.[82] In these cases the circle or wheel alleged to
symbolize the sun was replaced by the Swastika. The Swastika has been
sometimes inscribed within the rings or normal circles representing what
is said to be the four suns on Ujain patterns or coins (fig. 230). Other
authorities have adopted the same view, and have extended it to include
the lightning, the storm, the fire wheel, the sun chariot, etc. (See
Ohnefalsch-Richter, p. 790.) This appears to be a _non sequitur_. All
these speculations may be correct, and all these meanings may have been
given to the Swastika, but the evidence submitted does not prove the fact.
There is in the case of the foregoing coins no evidence yet presented as
to which sign, the wheel or the Swastika, preceded and which followed in
point of time. The Swastika may have appeared first instead of last, and
may not have been a substitution for the disk, but an original design. The
disk employed, while possibly representing the sun in some places, may not
have done so always nor in this particular case. It assumes too much to
say that every time a small circle appears on an ancient object it
represented the sun, and the same observation can be made with regard to
symbols of the other elements. Until it shall have been satisfactorily
established that the symbols represented these elements with practical
unanimity, and that the Swastika actually and intentionally replaced it as
such, the theory remains undemonstrated, the burden rests on those who
take the affirmative side; and until these points shall have been settled
with some degree of probability the conclusion is not warranted.
As an illustration of the various significations possible, one has but to
turn to Chapter IV, on the various meanings given to the cross among
American Indians, where it is shown that among these Indians the cross
represented the four winds, the sun, stars, dwellings, the dragon fly,
mide' society, flocks of birds, human form, maidenhood, evil spirit, and
divers others.
Mr. Edward Thomas, in his work entitled "The Indian Swastika and its
Western Counterparts,"[83] says:
As far as I have been able to trace or connect the various
manifestations of this emblem [the Swastika], they one and all resolve
themselves into the primitive conception of solar motion, which was
intuitively associated with the rolling or wheel-like projection of
the sun through the upper or visible arc of the heavens, as understood
and accepted in the crude astronomy of the ancients. The earliest
phase of astronomical science we are at present in position to refer
to, with the still extant aid of indigenous diagrams, is the Chaldean.
The representation of the sun in this system commences with a simple
ring or outline circle, which is speedily advanced toward the
impression of onward revolving motion by the insertion of a cross or
four wheel-like spokes within the circumference of the normal ring. As
the original Chaldean emblem of the sun was typified by a single ring,
so the Indian mind adopted a similar definition, which remains to this
day as the ostensible device or cast-mark of the modern Sauras or sun
worshipers.
The same remarks are made in "Ilios" (pp. 353, 354).
The author will not presume to question, much less deny, the facts stated
by this learned gentleman, but it is to be remarked that, on the theory of
presumption, the circle might represent many other things than the sun,
and unless the evidence in favor of the foregoing statement is susceptible
of verification, the theory can hardly be accepted as conclusive. Why
should not the circle represent other things than the sun? In modern
astronomy the full moon is represented by the plain circle, while the sun,
at least in heraldry, is always represented as a circle with rays. It is
believed that the "cross or four wheel-like spokes" in the Chaldean emblem
of the sun will be found to be rays rather than cross or spokes. A cast is
in the U. S. National Museum (Cat. No. 154766) of an original specimen
from Niffer, now in the Royal Museum, Berlin, of Shamash, the Assyrian god
of the sun. He is represented on this monument by a solar disk, 4 inches
in diameter, with eight rays similar to those of stars, their bases on a
faint circle at the center, and tapering outwards to a point, the whole
surrounded by another faint circle. This is evidence that the sun symbol
of Assyria required rays as well as a circle. A similar representation of
the sun god is found on a tablet discovered in the temple of the Sun God
at Abu-Habba.[84]
Perrot and Chipiez[85] show a tablet from Sippara, of a king,
Nabu-abal-iddin, 900 B. C., doing homage to the sun god (identified by the
inscription), who is represented by bas-relief of a small circle in the
center, with rays and lightning zigzags extending to an outer circle.
In view of these authorities and others which might be cited, it is
questionable whether the plain circle was continuously a representation of
the sun in the Chaldean or Assyrian astronomy. It is also doubtful
whether, if the circle did represent the sun, the insertion of the cross
or the four wheel-like spokes necessarily gave the impression of "onward
revolving motion;" or whether any or all of the foregoing afford a
satisfactory basis for the origin of the Swastika or for its relation to,
or representation of, the sun or the sun god.
Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter[86] announces as his opinion that the Swastika
in Cyprus had nearly always a signification more or less religious and
sacred, though it may have been used as an ornament to fill empty spaces.
He attributes to the _Croix swasticale_--or, as he calls it, _Croix
cantonnée_--the equivalence of the solar disk, zigzag lightning, and
double hatchet; while to the Swastika proper he attributes the
signification of rain, storm, lightning, sun, light, seasons, and also
that it lends itself easily to the solar disk, the fire wheel, and the sun
chariot.
Greg[87] says:
Considered finally, it may be asked if the fylfot or gammadion was an
early symbol of the sun, or, if only an emblem of the solar
revolutions or in movements across the heavens, why it was drawn
square rather than curved: The [Z], even if used in a solar sense,
must have implied something more than, or something distinct from, the
sun, whose proper and almost universal symbol was the circle. It was
evidently more connected with the cross [cross] than with the circle
[circle] or solar disk.
Dr. Brinton[88] considers the Swastika as derived from the cross rather
than from the circle, and the author agrees that this is probable,
although it may be impossible of demonstration either way.
Several authors, among the rest d'Alviella, Greg, and Thomas, have
announced the theory of the evolution of the Swastika, beginning with the
triskelion, thence to the tetraskelion, and so to the Swastika. A slight
examination is sufficient to overturn this hypothesis. In the first place,
the triskelion, which is the foundation of this hypothesis, made its first
appearance on the coins of Lycia. But this appearance was within what is
called the first period of coinage, to wit, between 700 and 480 B. C., and
it did not become settled until the second, and even the third period, 280
to 240 B. C., when it migrated to Sicily. But the Swastika had already
appeared in Armenia, on the hill of Hissarlik, in the terramares of
northern Italy, and on the hut-urns of southern Italy many hundred,
possibly a thousand or more, years prior to that time. Count d'Alviella,
in his plate 3 (see Chart I, p. 794), assigns it to a period of the
fourteenth or thirteenth century B. C., with an unknown and indefinite
past behind it. It is impossible that a symbol which first appeared in 480
B. C. could have been the ancestor of one which appeared in 1400 or 1300
B. C., nearly a thousand years before.
William Simpson[89] makes observations upon the latest discoveries
regarding the Swastika and gives his conclusion:
* * * The finding of the Swastika in America gives a very wide
geographical space that is included by the problem connected with it,
but it is wider still, for the Swastika is found over the most of the
habitable world, almost literally "from China to Peru," and it can be
traced back to a very early period. The latest idea formed regarding
the Swastika is that it may be a form of the old wheel symbolism and
that it represents a solar movement, or perhaps, in a wider sense, the
whole celestial movement of the stars. The Dharmachakra, or Buddhist
wheel, of which the so-called "praying wheel" of the Lamas of Thibet
is only a variant, can now be shown to have represented the solar
motion. It did not originate with the Buddhists; they borrowed it from
the Brahminical system to the Veda, where it is called "the wheel of
the sun." I have lately collected a large amount of evidence on this
subject, being engaged in writing upon it, and the numerous passages
from the old Brahminical authorities leave no doubt in the matter. The
late Mr. Edward Thomas * * * and Prof. Percy Gardner * * * declared
that on some Andhra gold coins and one from Mesembria, Greece, the
part of the word which means day, or when the sun shines, is
represented by the Swastika. These details will be found in a letter
published in the "Athenæum" of August 20, 1892, written by Prof. Max
Müller, who affirms that it "is decisive" as to the meaning of the
symbol in Greece. This evidence may be "decisive" for India and
Greece, but it does not make us quite certain about other parts of the
world. Still it raises a strong presumption that its meaning is likely
to be somewhat similar wherever the symbol is found.
It is now assumed that the Triskelion or Three Legs of the Isle of Man
is only a variant of the Swastika. * * * There are many variants
besides this in which the legs, or limbs, differ in number, and they
may all be classed as whorls, and were possibly all, more or less,
forms intended originally to express circular motion. As the subject
is too extensive to be fully treated here, and many illustrations
would be necessary, to those wishing for further details I would
recommend a work just published entitled "The Migration of Symbols,"
by Count Goblet d'Alviella, with an introduction by Sir George
Birdwood. The frontispiece of the book is a representation of Apollo,
from a vase in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, and on the
middle of Apollo's breast there is a large and prominent Swastika. In
this we have another instance going far to show its solar
significance. While accepting these new interpretations of the symbol,
I am still inclined to the notion that the Swastika may, at the same
time, have been looked upon in some cases as a cross--that is, a
pre-Christian cross, which now finds acceptance by some authorities as
representing the four cardinal points. The importance of the cardinal
points in primitive symbolism appears to me to have been very great,
and has not as yet been fully realized. This is too large a matter to
deal with here. All I can state is, that the wheel in India was
connected with the title of a _Chakravartin_--from _Chakra_, a
wheel--the title meaning a supreme ruler, or a universal monarch, who
ruled the four quarters of the world, and on his coronation he had to
drive his chariot, or wheel, to the four cardinal points to signify
his conquest of them. Evidence of other ceremonies of the same kind in
Europe can be produced. From instances such as these, I am inclined to
assume that the Swastika, as a cross, represented the four quarters
over which the solar power by its revolving motion carried its
influence.