A number of plant and flower symbols have a different significance from that
which is generally given to them. We are all quite familiar with the grape
vine of Bacchus and the association of that deity with grapes. According to
R. P. Knight, this too, symbolizes a sexual attribute. Speaking of Bacchus,
he writes, "The vine was a favorite symbol of the deity, which seems to have
been generally employed to signify the generative or preserving attribute;
intoxicating liquors were stimulative, and therefore held to be aphrodisiac.
The vase is often employed in its stead to express the same idea and is
often accompanied by the same accessory symbol."
We have often seen in sculptures and paintings, heads of barley associated
with the God of the Harvest. This symbol would appear to be self
explanatory; yet we are told by more than one writer that it contains
another symbolic meaning as well. H. M. Westropp, speaking of this says,
"The kites or female organ, as the symbol of the passive or productive power
of nature, generally occurs on ancient Roman Monuments as the Concha
Veneris, a fig, barley corn, and the letter Delta." We are told that the
grain of barley, because of its form, was a symbol of the vulva.
A great many other female symbols might be mentioned. The pomegranate is
constantly seen in the hands of Proserpine. The fig-cone is carried by the
Assyrian Baal, and the fig in numerous processions has a similar
significance. When we add to these the various forms of tree worship
described above, we see to what an extent the products of nature were used
as symbols in the worship of sex.
Among flower symbols there is one which recurs constantly throughout the art
and mythology of India, Egypt, China, and many other Eastern countries. This
is the lotus, of which the Easter lily is the modern representative. The
lotus appears in a number of forms in the records of antiquity. We have
symbolic pictures of the lion carrying the lotus in its mouth, doubtless a
male and female symbol. The deities of India are depicted standing on the
lotus, or are spoken of as being "born of the Lotus." "The Chinese,"[1]
says the author of Rites and Ceremonies, "worship a Goddess whom they call
Puzza, and of whom their priests give the following account;--they say that
'three nymphs came down from heaven to wash themselves in the river, but
scarce had they gotten in the water before the herb lotus appeared on one of
their garments, with its coral fruit upon it. They were surprised to think
whence it could proceed; and the nymph upon whose garment it was could not
resist the temptation of indulging herself in tasting it. But by thus eating
some of it she became pregnant, and was delivered of a boy, whom she brought
up, and then returned to heaven. He afterwards became a great man, a
conqueror and legislator, and the nymph was afterwards worshipped under the
name of Puzza.' " Puzza corresponds to the Indian Buddha.
[1] O'Brien: The Round Towers of Ireland.
In Egyptian architecture the lotus is a fundamental form, and indeed it is
said to he the main motive of the architecture of that civilization. The
capitals of the column are modelled after one form or other of this plant.
That of the Doric column is the seed vessel pressed flat. Earlier capitals
are simple copies of the bell or seed vessel. The columns consisted of
stalks of the plant grouped together. In other cases the leaves are used as
ornaments. These orders were copied by the Greeks, and subsequently by
western countries.
We may ask ourselves, what is the meaning of this mystic lotus which was
held in sufficient veneration to be incorporated in all the temples of
religion, as well as in myths of the deity. This, too, refers to the
deification of sex. O'Brien, in the "Round Towers of Ireland" states, "The
lotus was the most sacred plant of the Ancients, and typified the two
principles of the earth fecundation,--the germ standing for the lingam; the
filaments and petals for the yoni."
R. P. Knight states, "We find it (the lotus) employed in every part of the
Northern Hemisphere where symbolical worship does or ever did prevail. The
sacred images of the Tarters, Japanese or Indians, are all placed upon it
and it is still sacred in Tibet and China. The upper part of the base of
the lingam also consists of the flower of it blended with the most
distinctive characteristics of the female sex; in which that of the male is
placed, in order to complete this mystic symbol of the ancient religion of
the Brahmans; who, in their sacred writings, speak of Brahma sitting upon
his lotus throne."
Alexander Wilder,[2] states that the term "Nymphe" and its derivations was
used to designate young women, brides, the marriage chamber, the lotus
flower, oracular temples and the labiae minores of the human female.
[2] The Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology.
The lotus then, which is found throughout antiquity, in art as well as in
religion, was a sexual symbol, representing to the ancients the combination
of male and female sexual organs. It is another expression of the sex
worship of that period.
Our present conventional symbols of art are very easily traced to ancient
symbols of religion. We may expect these to be phallic in their meaning, to
just the extent that phallicism was fundamental in the religions where these
symbols originated. From the designs of some of the ornamental friezes of
Nineveh, we find these principles illustrated. On those bas-reliefs is
found the earliest form of art, really the dawn of art upon early
civilization. Here is the beginning of certain designs which were destined
to be carried to the later civilizations of Greece, Rome and probably of
Egypt. These friezes show the pine cone alternating with a modified form of
the lotus: the significance of which symbols we have explained. There are
also shown animal representations before the sacred tree or grove, a phallic
symbol. From these forms and others were designed a number of conventional
symbols which were used throughout a much later civilization. (See "Nineveh
and Its Remains." A. Layard.)