6

and 'universal queen,' like Semele. 'Pan,' says Pausanias, ‘in the same manner as the most powerful gods, consummates the prayers of men and punishes the wicked; before this Pan a fire, which is never extinguished, burns.'1 This is the later not the earlier cult of Pan; like Zagreus, he has become the equal of the highest gods, and is symbolized in accordance with the Orphik Hymn by immortal fire.' The fabled loud voice of Pan, another connecting link between him and Bromios the Noisy, is the mountain Echo whom he loved. His mythic parentage, again, as the son of Hermes, shows his Aryan character. His cult was not introduced into Attike until after the Persian Wars.2 A noisy, horned, nature-god, whose name was supposed to signify'all,' could not avoid being connected with Dionysos, and so the luckless Pan is thrown into the Dionysiak train, and thoroughly degraded as a goatish, ithyphallic, grotesque monster. 'It was the misapprehension of later times, which, however, was very wide spread, that first transformed the ancient god of pasture into a universal daemon, and his unpretending reedpiping into the harmony of the spheres.' Mr. Boscawen 1 compares the Kaldean Heabani (i. e., ‘Hea makes ') with Pan. Heabani' is always drawn with the feet and tail of an ox, and with horns on his head.'5 I should rather connect the friend of Izdubar with other tauromorphic personages of Semitic regions.

The following example, though not strictly an instance of Statuary, may be here appropriately noticed. The androgynous Demiurge, with female breasts, and holding a scarf or fillet in the right hand and a serpent in the left, stands by the Dionysiak column. The scarf is wrapped round the arm and one end held over the head. This

1 Paus. viii. 37.

2 Herod. vi. 105.

3 Müller, Anct. Art. 501.

4 Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch. iv. 286.

5 Geo. Smith, Chaldean Account of

Genesis, 196.

6 Montfaucon, Supplement v. Pl. 1. Fig. 2. Some sages of the past called it a Kleopatra !

scarf or kredemnon, in addition to a frequent meaning previously noticed,1 here signifies the veiling of darkness, the Demiurge being concealed in the Under-world, the secret home of life-potency. This kredemnon of blackness, the exact opposite to that of Ino,2 is well illustrated by a beautiful sable figure of Night, with rays of darkness round her head, reversed torch, the flaming Sun having sunk to the Under-world, and holding a very large black scarf which surrounds the rays and is star-spotted, and thus equivalent to the kosmic Dionysiak panther-skin. Another similar figure holds the scarf over her head with both hands, and without it are three eight-rayed stars. Europe, i. e. Ereb, the West,5 as the region of night and darkness at times, appears on Kretan coins, holding this scarf over her head when carried away westwards by the Zeus-bull.

SECTION III.

DIONYSIAK COINS.

As in Statuary the shapeless block, often a supposed ouranopipt, preceded the carved figure; so in coinage, using that term in its widest sense, the familiar circular form was the last and highest development of the art, and the successor of other and ruder shapes; and further, as such forms in statuary were peculiarly connected with Dionysos, so were they in coinage. Ploutarchos writes that the money anciently in use at Sparta 'was of iron, 1 Sup. sec. i. Nos. X., XLV.

Sup. VI. i. 2.

3 Montfaucon, i. Pt. ii. Pl. ccxiv. Fig. 1.

Ibid. Fig. 2.

5 The Homerik Erebos, which was in the West (Od. xii. 81); the Assyrian eribu, to 'descend, enter, or set,' as the sun (Rev. A. II. Sayce, Assy

rian Grammar. Syllabary, No. 60). So Aïdes, as king of the Under-world, is called 'Hesperos Theos' (Soph. Oid. Tyr. 177), and a westward position was generally adopted when invoking infernal divinities (Od. x. 528. Cf. Ibid. xi. 37. Mitford, History of Greece, xxii. 2).

dipped in vinegar while it was red hot, to make it brittle and unmalleable, so that it might not be applied to any other use. Besides, it was heavy, and difficult of carriage, and a great quantity of it was but of little value. Perhaps all the ancient money was of this kind, and consisted either of pieces of iron or bronze, which, from their form, were called obeliskoi; whence we have still a quantity of small money called oboloi, six of which make a drachme or handful, that being as much as the hand can contain.'1 To the same effect writes the learned Isidoros, Bishop of Hispalis (Seville), A.D. 600-636-The obol was made formerly, from bronze, like an arrow, whence also it received the name Obel (Arrow) from the Greeks.'2 Obolos and Obelos are only Ionik and Attik differences in pronunciation,3 and belos is a glance, an arrow, or their effect. Obeliskos, the diminutive, is any small pointed instrument. Speaking of obelisks, Plinius remarks that 'monarchs have entered into a sort of rivalry with one another in forming the elongated blocks known as obelisci and consecrated to the divinity of the Sun. The blocks had this form given to them in resemblance to the rays of that luminary, which are so called in the Egyptian language. Mesphres, who reigned in the city of the Sun [Han, On, Heliopolis], was the first who erected one of these obelisks, being warned to do so in a dream.'4 So Herodotos notes that the Kamic King whom he calls. Pheron presented two stone obelisks to the temple of the Sun.5 These obols or obelisks are identical with the sacred conical stones above referred to, which formed the germ of statuary, and like them were frequently supposed to have been heaven-fallen thunderbolts, and represent

the spears, rays, arrows, or golden-locks of the beaming sun; for, as Macrobius observes, Under the name of arrows the darting of the rays is shewn.' By the Nile, Euphrates and in Syria, monetary transactions were anciently conducted by weighing the metals employed. Barter appears to have sufficed for the earlier Phoenicians, chiefly engaged in traffic with barbarous peoples, and it was reserved for the Lydians to originate a regular coinage. Thus the solar disk was substituted for the solar rays. Pheidon of Argos, cir. B.c. 750, according to the Parian Chronicle, first introduced copper and silver coinage into Hellas from Asia, and at the same time deposited in the temple of Here a number of the ancient obeliscal arrows.3 Aigina was then part of his dominions, and his coining is said to have been carried on in the island; hence the Aiginetan standard which prevailed generally in early times and in later was used throughout the Peloponnesos, except at Korinthos. Plinius says, 'the form of a sheep was the first figure impressed upon money, and to this fact it owes its name pecunia.' He is speaking only of Roman history, but there is an Eastern parallel, for the shekel is, in the Book of Job, called kesitah, a lamb, the weight being possibly made in that form.'5 Gesenius observes that most of the ancient interpreters understand by kesitah a lamb, a sense which has no support either from etymology or the kindred dialects; '6 and Professor Jevons remarks, 'I am informed by my learned friend, Professor Theodores, that this translation probably arises from an accidental blunder, and that the original meaning of the word kesitah was that of

1 Sat. i. 17.

2 Vide Rawlinson's Herodotus, i. 563 et seq., where the contrary opinion of Col. Leake is considered. Etym. Magnum, In voc.

liskos.

Obe

4 Plin. xxxiii. 13.

4

5 Humphrey, The Coin Collector's Manual, 8.

Cf. Wilson, Eng. and Heb. Lex. In voc. Money.

"a certain weight," or "an exact quantity." " It is quite admitted that kesitah properly means 'something weighed out,' but how could this idea become confused with a lamb, and why should there be such unanimity in so singular a mistake?? There is nothing at all incredible in supposing either that the coin bore the rude figure of a sheep, or that being also a weight, it was actually in that form. Lion-shaped weights, with ring handles on the `back, have been found at Khorsabad; and 'on the tombs at Thebes there are representations of men weighing rings of gold, the weights having, like these, the form of some animal, as stags, sheep, and gazelles.' 4 With kesitah the English cosset, a lamb brought up without the dam,'5 has been compared ; but this latter word, though curiously resembling kesitah, means more properly 'pet lamb' or 'pet' generally, being connected with the Old English cosse, 'kiss.' 6

Dionysiak Coins are such as illustrate the Dionysiak Myth; either directly, by bearing figures or symbols evidently Bakchik; or indirectly, by designs which, though not manifestly of this character, are found on examination to belong more or less to the same cycle of idea. It will be well to take the former class first, as all reasoning must be from the known, and their consideration will materially assist the further examination of the subject.

The Lists of Coins mentioned, though far from exhaustive are, it is believed, sufficient for the purpose.7