Count Goblet d'Alviella, in "La Migration des Symboles," traces many
ancient symbols from what he believes to be their place of origin to their
modern habitat. The idea he elucidates in his book is indicated in its
title.
_The sacred tree of the Assyrians._--This he holds to be one of the oldest
historic symbols; that it had its origin in Mesopotamia, one of the
earliest civilized centers of the world. Beginning with its simplest form,
the sacred tree grew into an ornate and highly complex pattern, invariably
associated with religious subjects. Two living creatures always stand on
either side, facing it and each other. First they were monsters, like
winged bulls or griffins, and after became human or semihuman
personages--priests or kings, usually in the attitude of devotion. The
Count says the migration of both these types can be readily traced. The
tree between the two monsters or animals passed from Mesopotamia to India,
where it was employed by the Buddhists and Brahmins, and has continued in
use in that country to the present time. It passed to the Phenicians, and
from Asia Minor to Greece. From the Persians it was introduced to the
Byzantines, and during the early ages, into Christian symbolism in Sicily
and Italy, and even penetrated to the west of France. The other type--that
is, the tree between two semi-human personages--followed the same route
into India, China, and eastern Asia, and, being found in the ancient
Mexican and Maya codices, it forms part of the evidence cited by the Count
as a pre-Columbian communication between the Old World and the New. He
argues this out by similarity of the details of attitude and expression of
the human figure, the arrangement of the branches of the sacred tree, etc.
_The sacred cone of Mesopotamia._--This was worshipped by the western
Semites as their great goddess, under the image of a conical stone. Its
figurative representation is found alike on monuments, amulets, and coins.
On some Phenician monuments there is to be seen, super-added to the cone,
a horizontal crossbar on the middle of which rests a handle. This shape
bears a striking resemblance to the _Crux ansata_ (fig. 4), and, like it,
was a symbol of life in its widest and most abstract meaning. The
resemblance between them is supposed to have caused them to have been
mistaken and employed one for the other in the same character of symbol
and talisman. It is alleged that the Ephesian Artemis was but the sacred
cone of Mesopotamia anthropomorphized, although, with the halo added to
Artemis, the allegation of relationship has been made in respect of the
_Crux ansata_.
_The Crux ansata, the key of life._--This is probably more widely known in
modern times than any other Egyptian symbol. Its hieroglyphic name is
_Ankh_, and its signification is "to live." As an emblem of life,
representing the male and female principle united, it is always borne in
the hands of the gods, it is poured from a jar over the head of the king
in a species of baptism, and it is laid symbolically on the lips of the
mummy to revive it. From Egypt the _Crux ansata_ spread first among the
Phenicians, and then throughout the whole Semitic world, from Sardinia to
Susiana.
_The winged globe._--This was a widely spread and highly venerated
Egyptian symbol. From Egypt it spread, under various modifications,
throughout the Old World. It is formed by a combination of the
representations of the sun that have prevailed in different localities in
Egypt, the mythology of which ended by becoming a solar drama. Two uræus
snakes or asps, with heads erect, are twisted round a globe-shaped disk,
behind which are the outstretched wings of a hawk, and on its top the
horns of a goat. It commemorates the victory of the principle of light
and good over that of darkness and evil. It spread readily among
the Phenicians, where it is found suspended over the sacred tree
and the sacred cone, and was carried wheresoever their art was
introduced--westward to Carthage, Sicily, Sardinia, and Cyprus, eastward
to Western Asia. Very early it penetrated on the north to the Hittites,
and when it reached Mesopotamia, in the time of Sargonidæ, the winged
circle assumed the shape of the wheel or rosette, surmounted by a scroll
with upcurled extremities and with a feathered tail opening out like a
fan, or a human figure in an attitude sometimes of benediction, sometimes
warlike, was inscribed within the disk. Then it was no longer exclusively
a solar emblem, but served to express the general idea of divinity. From
Mesopotamia it passed to Persia, principally in the anthropoid type. It
was, however, never adopted by Greece, and it is nowhere met with in
Europe, except, as before stated, in the Mediterranean islands. When
Greece took over from Asia symbolic combinations in which it was
originally represented, she replaced it by the thunderbolt. But the
aureole, or halo, which encircles the heads of her divinities, and which
Christian art has borrowed from the classic, was directly derived from it.
_The caduceus._--This is one of the interesting symbols of antiquity. It
appears in many phases and is an excellent illustration of the migration
of symbols. Its classic type held in the hand of Mercury and used to-day
as a symbol of the healing art--a winged rod round which two serpents are
symmetrically entwined--is due to the mythographers of later times, and is
very remote from its primitive form. In the Homeric hymn it is called "the
golden rod, three-petaled of happiness and wealth," which Phoebus gave to
the youthful Hermes, but on early Greek monuments the three leaves are
represented by a disk surmounted by an incomplete circle. In this shape it
constantly appears on Phenician monuments; and at Carthage, where it seems
to have been essentially a solar emblem, it is nearly always associated
with the sacred cone. It is found on Hittite monuments, where it assumes
the form of a globe surmounted by horns. Numerous origins and manifold
antecedents have been attributed to it, such as an equivalent of the
thunderbolt, a form of the sacred tree, or a combination of the solar
globe with the lunar crescent. Some examples seem to indicate a transition
from the sacred tree surmounted by the solar disk, to the form of the
caduceus of the Hittites. Our author believes it was employed originally
as a religious or military standard or flag, and that it was gradually
modified by coming in contact with other symbols. Some Assyrian
bas-reliefs display a military standard, sometimes consisting of a large
ring placed upon a staff with two loose bandelets attached, sometimes of a
winged globe similarly disposed. This Assyrian military standard may be
the prototype of the labarum, which Constantine, after his conversion to
Christianity, chose for his own standard, and which might equally well
have been claimed by the sun worshipers. Under its latest transformation
in Greece, a winged rod with two serpents twined round it, it has come
down to our own times representing two of the functions of Hermes, more
than ever in vogue among men, industry and commerce. It has survived in
India under the form of two serpents entwined, probably introduced in the
track of Alexander the Great. It was also met with in that country in
earlier times in its simpler form, a disk surmounted by a crescent,
resembling our astronomical sign for the planet Mercury. This earliest
type of the caduceus, a disk surmounted by a crescent, appears at a remote
date in India, and seems to have been confounded with the trisula.
_The trisula._--This form of the trident peculiar to the Buddhists was of
great importance in the symbolism of the Hindus; but whether it was an
imitation of the type of thunderbolt seen on Assyrian sculptures, or was
devised by them spontaneously, is uncertain. Its simplest form, which is,
however, rarely met with, is an omicron ([Greek: o]) surmounted by an
omega ([Greek: ô]). Nearly always the upper portion is flanked by two
small circles, or by two horizontal strokes which often take the
appearance of leaves or small wings. The points of the omega are
generally changed into small circles, leaves, or trefoil; and the disk
itself is placed on a pedestal. From its lower arc there fall two spires
like serpents' tails with the ends curving, sometimes up and sometimes
down. This is a very complex symbol. None of the Buddhist texts give any
positive information in regard to its origin or meaning, and few symbols
have given rise to more varied explanations. The upper part of the figure
is frequently found separated from the lower; sometimes this is plainly a
trident superposed upon a disk-shaped nucleus. The trident may possibly
have symbolized the flash of lightning, as did Neptune's trident among the
Greeks, but more probably it is the image of the solar radiation. Among
the northern Buddhists it personifies the heaven of pure flame superposed
upon the heaven of the sun. Though undoubtedly a Hindu emblem, its
primitive shape seems to have early felt the influence of the caduceus,
while its more complex forms exhibit a likeness to certain types of the
winged globe. Still later the trisula was converted by Brahmanism into an
anthropoid figure, and became the image of Jagenath. The vegetable kingdom
was also laid under contribution, and the trisula came into a resemblance
of the tree of knowledge. Although we have learned the probable
signification of its factors in the creeds that preceded Buddhism, we know
very little about its meaning in the religion that used it most, but it is
a symbol before which millions have bowed in reverence. The plastic
development of the trisula shows with what facility emblems of the most
dissimilar origin may merge into each other when the opportunity of
propinquity is given, and there is sufficient similarity in form and
meaning.
_The double-headed eagle on the escutcheon of Austria and Russia._--Count
D'Alviella tells the history of the migration of the symbol of the
double-headed eagle on the escutcheon of Austria and Russia. It was
originally the type of the Garuda bird of southern India, found on temple
sculptures, in carved wood, on embroideries, printed and woven cloths, and
on amulets. It first appears on the so-called Hittite sculptures at Eyuk,
the ancient Pteria in Phrygia. In 1217 it appeared on the coins and
standards of the Turkoman conquerors of Asia Minor.
In 1227-28 the Emperor Frederick II undertook the sixth crusade, landing
at Acre in the latter year, and being crowned King of Jerusalem in 1229.
Within thirty years from these dates the symbol appeared on the coins of
certain Flemish princes, and in 1345 it replaced the single-headed eagle
on the armorial bearing of the holy Roman Empire. Thus, the historic
evidence of the migration of this symbol, from the far east to the nations
of the west by direct contact, would seem complete.
_The lion rampant of Belgium._--This lion was incorporated into the Percy
or Northumberland escutcheon by the marriage of Joceline of Louvain, the
second son of Godfrey, the Duke of Brabant, to Agnes, the sister and heir
of all the Percys. The Counts of Flanders, Brabant, and Louvain bore as
their coat of arms the lion rampant facing to the left, which is the
present coat of arms of the King of Belgium. The story is thus told in
Burke's "Peerage" (1895): Agnes de Percy married Joceline of Louvain,
brother of Queen Adeliza, second wife of Henry I, and son of Godfrey
Barbalus, Duke of Lower Brabant and Count of Brabant, who was descended
from the Emperor Charlemagne. Her ladyship, it is stated, would only
consent, however, to this great alliance upon condition that Joceline
should adopt either the surname or arms of Percy, the former of which,
says the old family tradition, he accordingly assumed, and retained his
own paternal coat in order to perpetuate his claim to the principality of
his father, should the elder line of the reigning duke become extinct. The
matter is thus stated in the old pedigree at Sion House: "The ancient arms
of Hainault this Lord Jocelyn retained, and gave his children the surname
of Percy."
The migration of this lion rampant is interesting. It was in the twelfth
century the coat of arms of the King of Albania. Phillippe d'Alsace, the
eldest son of Thierry d'Alsace, was Count of Flanders, sixteenth in
succession, tracing his ancestry back to 621 A. D. The original and
ancient coat of arms of the Counts of Flanders consisted of a small shield
in the center of a larger one, with a sunburst of six rays. Phillippe
d'Alsace reigned as Count of Flanders and Brabant from 1168 to 1190 A. D.
He held an important command in two crusades to the Holy Land. During a
battle in one of these crusades, he killed the King of Albania in a
hand-to-hand conflict, and carried off his shield with its escutcheon of
the lion rampant, which Phillippe transferred to his own shield, took as
his own coat of arms, and it has been since that time the coat of arms of
the Counts of Flanders and Brabant, and is now that of Belgium. The lion
in the escutcheon can thus be traced by direct historic evidence through
Northumberland, Flanders and Louvain back to its original owner, the King
of Albania, in the twelfth century. Thus is the migration of the symbol
traced by communication and contact, and thus are shown the possibilities
in this regard which go far toward invalidating, if they do not destroy,
the presumption of separate invention in those cases wherein, because of
our ignorance of the facts, we have invoked the rule of separate
invention.
_Greek art and architecture._--It has come to be almost a proverb in
scientific investigation that we argue from the known to the unknown. We
might argue from this proverb in favor of the migration of the Swastika
symbol and its passage from one people to another by the illustration of
the Greek fret, which is in appearance closely related to the Swastika;
and, indeed, we might extend the illustration to all Greek architecture.
It is a well-known fact, established by numberless historic evidences,
that the Greek architecture of ancient times migrated--that is, passed by
communication and contact of peoples, and by transfer of knowledge from
one man to another, and from one generation to the succeeding generation,
until it became known throughout all western countries. The architects of
Rome, Vicenza, Paris, London, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, and San
Francisco derive their knowledge of Grecian architecture in its details of
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian styles by direct communication, either
spoken, written or graphic, from the Greek architects who practiced, if
they did not invent, these styles.
_The Greek fret._--This has migrated in the same manner. As to its
invention or origin, we have little to do in the present argument. Whether
the fret was the ancestor or the descendant of the Swastika is of no
moment to our present question. It has been demonstrated in the early part
of this paper that both it and the Swastika had a common existence in
early if not prehistoric Greece, and that both were employed in perfected
form on the same specimen of Archaic Greek pottery. Figs. 133 and 134
demonstrate that these two signs migrated together from Greece to Egypt,
for the particular specimen mentioned was found at Naukratis, Egypt. From
this high antiquity the Greek fret has migrated to practically every
country in the world, and has been employed during all historic time by
the peoples of every civilization. The fret is known historically to have
passed by means of teachers, either through speaking, writing, or drawing,
and never yet a suggestion that its existence or appearance in distant
countries depended upon separate invention or independent discovery.
Why strain at the gnat of independent invention of the Swastika when we
are compelled to swallow the camel of migration when applied to the Greek
fret and architecture? The same proposition of migration applies to Greek
art, whether of sculpture, engraving, or gem carving. These ancient
Grecian arts are as well known in all quarters of the civilized globe at
the present day as they were in their own country, and this was all done
by communication between peoples either through speaking, writing, or
drawing. So far from being separate inventions, the modern sculptor or
engraver, with full historic knowledge of the origin or, at least,
antiquity of these arts, and with an opportunity for inspection and study
of the specimens, is still unable to reproduce them or to invent original
works of so high an order. The imaginary and newly invented theory that
culture is the result of the psychologic nature of man manifesting itself
in all epochs and countries, and among all peoples, by the evolution of
some new discovery made to fit a human need--that as all human needs in a
given stage are the same, therefore all human culture must, _per se_, pass
through the same phases or stages--is a theory to which I refuse adhesion.
It receives a hard blow when we take down the bars to the modern sculptor,
requiring of him neither original invention nor independent discovery, but
permitting him to use, study, adapt, and even servilely copy the great
Greek art works, and we know that with all these opportunities and
advantages he can not attain to their excellence, nor reach their stage of
art culture.
VII.--PREHISTORIC OBJECTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE SWASTIKA, FOUND IN BOTH
HEMISPHERES, AND BELIEVED TO HAVE PASSED BY MIGRATION.