_Supposed Phallic origin of Serpent-worship--The Idea of
Life--Adoration of the Principle of Generation--The Serpent as a
Symbol of the Phallus--Phallic Worship at Benares--The Serpent and
Mahadeo--Festival of the "Nag panchami"--Snakes and Women--Traces of
Phallic Worship in the Kumaon Rock-markings--The Northern Bulb
Stones--Professor Stephens on the Snake as a Symbol of the
Phallus--The "Dionysiak Myth"--Brown on the Serpent as a Phallic
emblem--Mythology of the Aryan Nation--Sir G. W. Cox and the Phallic
Theory--Athenian Mythology._
Some persons are disposed to attribute to the Serpent, as a religious
emblem, an origin decidedly phallic. Mr. C. S. Wake takes a contrary view,
and says:--"So far as I can make out the serpent symbol has not a direct
Phallic reference, nor is its attribute of wisdom the most essential. The
idea most intimately associated with this animal was that of life, not
present merely, but continued, and probably everlasting. Thus the snake
_Bai_ was figured as Guardian of the doorways of the Egyptian Tombs which
represented the mansions of heaven. A sacred serpent would seem to have
been kept in all the Egyptian temples, and we are told that many of the
subjects, in the tombs of the kings at Thebes in particular, show the
importance it was thought to enjoy in a future state. Crowns, formed of
the Asp or sacred _Thermuthis_, were given to sovereigns and divinities,
particularly to Isis, and these no doubt were intended to symbolise
eternal life. Isis was a goddess of life and healing and the serpent
evidently belonged to her in that character, seeing that it was the symbol
also of other deities with the like attributes. Thus, on papyri it
encircles the figure of Harpocrates, who was identified with AEsculapius;
while not only was a great serpent kept alive in the great temple of
Serapis, but on later monuments this god is represented by a great serpent
with or without a human head. Mr. Fergusson, in accordance with his
peculiar theory as to the origin of serpent worship, thinks this
superstition characterised the old Turanaian (or rather let us say
Akkadian) empire of Chaldea, while tree-worship was more a characteristic
of the later Assyrian Empire. This opinion is no doubt correct, and it
means really that the older race had that form of faith with which the
serpent was always indirectly connected--adoration of the male principle
of generation, the principal phase of which was probably ancestor worship,
while the latter race adored the female principle, symbolised by the
sacred tree, the Assyrian 'grove.' The 'tree of life,' however,
undoubtedly had reference to the male element, and we may well imagine
that originally the fruit alone was treated as symbolical of the opposite
element."
Mr. J. H. Rivett-Carnac, in his paper printed in the journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, entitled "The Snake Symbol in India," suggests
that the serpent is a symbol of the phallus. He says:--"The serpent
appears on the prehistoric cromlechs and menhirs of Europe, on which I
believe the remains of phallic worship may be traced. What little
attention I have been able to give to the serpent-symbol has been chiefly
in its connection with the worship of Mahadeo or Siva, with a view to
ascertain whether the worship of the snake and that of Mahadeo or the
phallus may be considered identical, and whether the presence of the
serpent on the prehistoric remains of Europe can be shown to support my
theory, that the markings on the cromlechs and menhirs are indeed the
traces of this form of worship, carried to Europe from the East by the
tribes whose remains are buried beneath the tumuli.
During my visits to Benares, the chief centre of Siva worship in India, I
have always carefully searched for the snake-symbol. On the most ordinary
class of "Mahadeo," a rough stone placed on end supposed to represent the
phallus, the serpent is not generally seen. But in the temples and in the
better class of shrines which abound in the city and neighbourhood the
snake is generally found encircling the phallus. The tail of the snake is
sometimes carried down the _Yoni_, and in one case I found two snakes on a
shrine thus depicted.
In the Benares bazaar I once came across a splendid metal cobra, the head
erect and hood expanded, so made as to be placed around or above a stone
or metal "Mahadeo." It is now in England. The attitude of the cobra when
excited and the expansion of the head will suggest the reason for this
snake representing Mahadeo and the phallus.
Although the presence of the snake in these models cannot be said to prove
much, and although from the easy adaptability of its form the snake must
always have been a favourite subject in ornament, still it will be seen
that the serpent is prominent in connection with the conventional shape
under which Mahadeo is worshipped at Benares and elsewhere, that it
sometimes takes the place of the Linga, and that it is to be found
entwined with almost every article connected with this worship."
Further on the same writer says:--"The Nag panchami or fifth day of the
moon in Sawan is a great fete in the city of Nagpur, and more than usual
license is indulged in on that day. Rough pictures of snakes in all sorts
of shapes and positions are sold and distributed, something after the
manner of valentines. I cannot find any copies of these queer sketches,
and if I could they would hardly be fit to be reproduced. Mr. J. W. Neill,
the present Commissioner of Nagpur, was good enough to send me some
superior valentines of this class, and I submit them now for the
inspection of the Society. It will be seen that in these paintings, some
of which are not without merit either as to design or execution, no human
figures are introduced. In the ones I have seen in days gone by the
positions of the women with the snakes were of the most indecent
description and left no doubt that, so far as the idea represented in
these sketches was concerned, the cobra was regarded as the phallus. In
the pictures now sent the snakes will be seen represented in congress in
the well-known form of the Caduceus Esculapian rod. Then the many-headed
snake, drinking from the jewelled cup, takes me back to some of the
symbols of the mysteries of bygone days. The snake twisted round the tree
and the second snake approaching it are suggestive of the temptation and
fall. But I am not unmindful of the pitfalls from which Wilford suffered,
and I quite see that it is not impossible that this picture may be held to
be not strictly Hindu in its treatment. Still the tree and the serpent are
on the brass models which accompany this paper, and which I have already
shewn are to be purchased in the Benares Brass Bazaar of to-day--many
hundreds of miles away from Nagpur where these Valentines were drawn.
In my paper on the Kumaon Rock Markings, besides noting the resemblance
between the cup markings of India and Europe, I hazarded the theory that
the concentric circles and certain curious markings of what some have
called the "jew's harp" type, so common in Europe, are traces of Phallic
worship carried there by tribes whose hosts decended into India, pushed
forward into the remotest corners of Europe, and, as their traces seem to
suggest, found their way on to the American Continent too. Whether the
markings really ever were intended to represent the Phallus and the Yoni
must always remain a matter of opinion. But I have no reason to be
dissatisfied with the reception with which this, to many somewhat pleasant
theory, has met in some of the Antiquarian Societies of Europe.
No one who compares the stone Yonis of Benares, sent herewith, with the
engravings on the first page of the work on the Rock Markings of
Northumberland and Argyleshire, published privately by the Duke of
Northumberland, will deny that there is an extraordinary resemblance
between the conventional symbol of Siva worship of to-day and the ancient
markings on the rocks, menhirs and cromlechs of Northumberland, of
Scotland, of Brittany, of Scandinavia and other parts of Europe.
And a further examination of the forms of the cromlechs and tumuli and
menhirs will suggest that the tumuli themselves were intended to indicate
the symbols of the Mahadeo and Yoni, conceived in no obscene sense, but as
representing regeneration, the new life, "life out of death, life
everlasting," which those buried in the tumuli, facing towards the sun in
its meridian, were expected to enjoy in the hereafter. Professor Stephens,
the well-known Scandinavian Antiquary, writing to me recently, speaks of
the symbols as follows:--"The pieces (papers) you were so good as to send
me were very valuable and welcome. There can be no doubt that it is to
India we have to look for the solution of many of our difficult
archaeological questions."
"But especially interesting is your paper on the Ancient
Rock-Sculpturings. I believe that you are quite right in your views. Nay,
I go further. I think that the northern Bulb-stones are explained by the
same combination. I therefore send you the Swedish Archaeological Journal
for 1876, containing Baron Herculius' excellent dissertation on these
object.... You can examine the many excellent woodcuts. I look upon these
things as late conventionalized abridgments of the Linga and Yoni, life
out of death, life everlasting--thus a fitting ornament for the graves of
the departed."
The author further says:--"Many who indignantly repudiate the idea of the
prevalence of Phallic Worship among our remote ancestors hold that these
symbols represent the snake or the sun. But admitting this, may not the
snake, after all, have been but a symbol of the phallus? And the sun, the
invigorating power of nature, has ever, I believe, been considered to
represent the same idea, not necessarily obscene, but the great mystery of
nature, the life transmitted from generation to generation, or, as
Professor Stephen puts it, 'life out of death, life everlasting.'" The
same idea, in fact, which, apart from any obscene conception, causes the
rude Mahadeo and Yoni to be worshipped daily by hundreds of thousands of
Hindus.
Brown, in his "Great Dionysiak Myth," says:--"The Serpent has six
principal points of connection with Dionysos: 1.--As a symbol of, and
connected with, wisdom. 2.--As a solar emblem. 3.--As a symbol of time and
eternity. 4.--As an emblem of the earth, life. 5.--As connected with
fertilizing moisture. 6.--As a phallic emblem."
Referring to the last of these, he proceeds--"The serpent being connected
with the sun, the earth life and fertility must needs be also a phallic
emblem, and so appropriate to the cult of Dionysos Priapos. Mr. Cox after
a review of the subject, observes, 'Finally, the symbol of the Phallus
suggested the form of the serpent, which thus became the emblem of life
and healing. There then we have the key to that tree and serpent worship
which has given rise to much ingenious speculation.' The myth of the
serpent and the tree is not, I apprehend, exhausted by any merely phallic
explanation, but the phallic element is certainly one of the most
prominent features in it, as it might be thought any inspection of the
carvings connected with the Topes of Sanchi and Amravati would show. It is
hard to believe, with Mr. Fergusson, that the usefulness and beauty of
trees gained them the payment of divine honours. Again, the Asherah or
Grove-cult (Exod. 34, 13; 1 Kings 17, 16; Jer. 17, 2; Micah 5, 14) was
essentially Phallic, Asherah being the Upright. It seems also to have been
in some degree connected with that famous relic, the brazen serpent of
Nehushtan (2 Kings 18, 4). Donaldson considers that the Serpent is the
emblem of desire. It has also been suggested that the creature symbolised
sensation generally."
The Sir G. W. Cox referred to above, in his "Mythology of Argai Nations,"
says:--"If there is one point more certain than another it is that
wherever tree and serpent worship has been found, the cultus of the
Phallos and the Ship, of the Linga and Yoni, in connection with the
worship of the sun, has been found also. It is impossible to dispute the
fact, and no explanation can be accepted for one part of the cultus which
fails to explain the other. It is unnecessary, therefore, to analyze
theories which profess to see in it the worship of the creeping brute or
the wide-spreading tree. A religion based on the worship of the venomous
reptile must have been a religion of terror; in the earliest glimpses
which we have of it, the serpent is a symbol of life and of love. Nor is
the Phallic cultus in any respect a cultus of the full-grown and branching
tree. In its earliest form the symbol is everywhere a mere stauros, or
pole; and although this stock or rod budded in the shape of the thyrsus
and the shepherd's staff, yet, even in its latest developements, the
worship is confined to small bushes and shrubs and diminutive plants of a
particular kind. Nor is it possible again to dispute the fact that every
nation, at some stage or other of its history, has attached to this cultus
precisely that meaning which the Brahman now attaches to the Linga and the
Yoni. That the Jews clung to it in this special sense with vehement
tenacity is the bitter complaint of the prophets; and the crucified
serpent adored for its healing powers stood untouched in the Temple until
it was removed and destroyed by Hezekiah. This worship of serpents, "void
of reason," condemned in the Wisdom of Solomon, probably survived even the
Babylonish captivity. Certainly it was adopted by the Christians who were
known as Ophites, Gnostics, and Nicolaitans. In Athenian mythology the
serpent and the tree are singularly prominent. Kekrops, Erechtheus, and
Erichthonios, are each and all serpentine in the lower portion of their
bodies. The sacred snake of Athene had its abode in the Akropolis, and her
olive trees secured for her the victory in her rivalry with Poseidon. The
health-giving serpent lay at the feet of Asklepios and snakes were fed in
his temple at Epidauros and elsewhere. That the ideas of mere terror and
death suggested by the venomous or the crushing reptile could never have
given way thus completely before those of life, healing, and safety, is
obvious enough; and the latter ideas alone are associated with the serpent
as the object of adoration. The deadly beast always was, and has always
remained, the object of the horror and loathing which is expressed for
Ahi, the choking and throttling snake, the Vritra whom Indra smites with
his unerring lance, the dreadful Azidahaka of the Avesta, the Zohak or
Biter of modern Persian mythology, the serpents whom Heraktes strangles in
his cradle, the Python, or Fafnir, or Grendel, or Sphinx whom Phoibos, or
Sigurd, or Beowulf, or Oidipous smite and slay. That the worship of the
Serpent has nothing to do with these evil beasts is abundantly clear from
all the Phallic monuments of the East or West. In the topes of Sanchi and
Amravati the disks which represent the Yoni predominate in every part of
the design; the emblem is worn with unmistakeable distinctness by every
female figure, carved within these disks, while above the multitude are
seen, on many of the disks, a group of women with their hands resting on
the linga, which they uphold. It may, indeed, be possible to trace out the
association which connects the Linga with the bull in Sivaison, as
denoting more particularly the male power, while the serpent in Jainaison
and Vishnavism is found with the female emblem, the Yoni. So again in
Egypt, some may discern in the bull Apis or Mnevis the predominance of the
male idea in that country, while in Assyria or Palestine the Serpent or
Agathos Daimon is connected with the altar of Baal.