Goblet d'Alviella - The Migration of Symbols - Ch. 2 Probable Meaning of the Gammadion lyrics

III. Probable Meaning of the Gammadion. We have seen that most nations represented the sun by a circle. Some, also, have depicted it by a cruciform sign, more particularly the Assyrians, the Hindus, the Greeks, the Celts, etc. (see fig. 2). This symbolism doubtlessly renders the idea of the solar radiation in the four directions of space. But the sun does not restrict itself to darting its rays in all directions, it seems, further, animated by a circular movement from east to west. The latter action may have been symbolized, sometimes by changing the Disk into a Wheel, sometimes by adding to the four extremities of the solar Cross feet, or broken lines, usually turned in the same direction. Sometimes the curve of the rays was rounded off, perhaps either to accentuate still further the idea of a rotary motion by a figure borrowed from the elementary laws of mechanics, or else by an effect of that tendency, which, in primitive writings, has everywhere substituted the cursive for the angular. Thus was obtained the tétrascèle (cf. fig. 15d), which, as I have said above, is simply a variety of the gammadion. M. Gaidoz has defined the gammadion as a graphic doublet of the Wheel. 1 The expression is exact, and is even a very happy one, provided it means, not that the gammadion is derived from the Wheel by the suppression of a part of the felloe, but that it is, like the Wheel, a symbolical representation of the solar movement. For the very reason that the gammadion represents the sun in its apparent course it has readily become a symbol of prosperity, of fecundity, of blessing, and—with the help of superstition—it has everywhere received the meaning of a charm, as in India the very name swastika implies. Moreover, after having figured the sun in motion, it may have become a symbol of the astronomical movement in general, applied to certain celestial bodies, the moon, for example—or even to everything which seems to move of itself, the air, water, lightning, fire—in as far as it really served as a sign of these different phenomena, which fact has still to be made good. 1—This, in brief, is the whole theory of the gammadion. This theory is not the outcome of any à priori reasoning; it is founded on the following considerations: A. The form of the gammadion. B. The connection between the tétrascèle and triscèle. C. The a**ociation of the gammadion with the images, symbols, and divinities of the sun. D. The part it plays in certain symbolical combinations, where it sometimes accompanies and sometimes replaces the representation of the solar Disk. A. The branches of the gammadion are rays in motion. To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to cast one's eyes on the manner in which, at all times, the idea of solar movement has been graphically expressed (fig. 22). The first of these figures (a) is an ancient fibula found in Italy. At the top is seen a Disk from which radiate small rays, bent at right angles; these rays seem to have been modelled on the branches of the gammadions sketched immediately beneath. The second (b) is taken from the "whorls" of Troy. Crooked rays, turned towards the right, alternate with straight and undulating rays, all of which proceed from the same Disk. The third (c) comes from a reliquary of the FIG. 22 Fig. 22. 1 thirteenth century, on which it forms a pendant to the lunar crescent, with an image of Christ between them. That this is a representation of the solar Disk results not only from its parallelism with the Crescent, but also from the fact that on a number of mediæval Christian monuments Christ is thus represented between the sun and moon. 2 The same image—a Disk with five inflected rays—is met with on coins of Macedon (d), where it alternates sometimes with the tétrascèle (e). Mr. Samuel Beal, who distinguishes two parts in the gammadion,—an equilateral cross and four hooks,—thinks that the purpose of the former is to symbolize the earth; as for the hooks, they might serve to indicate the direction of the solar movement round our planet. 3 But the figures which we have reproduced here give more than sufficient proof that the arms of the gammadion, if they are solar rays, are so in their whole length; besides, the Disk which sometimes forms their point of intersection is certainly an image of the sun; lastly, there is no indication that, either in cla**ic antiquity, or in India, the earth was ever symbolized by an equilateral cross. B. The triscèle, formed by the same process as the tétraskèle, was an undeniable representation of the solar movement. This a**ertion is especially obvious in the case of triskèles formed of three legs bent, as in the FIG. 23. VARIETIES OF THE TRISCÈLE Fig. 23. Varieties of the Triscèle. 1 act of running, so frequently seen on coins of Asia Minor. On Celtiberian coins the face of the sun appears between the legs. The same combination is found, above the image of a bull, on a votive stele of Carthage, reproduced by Gesenius. 2 Is it possible to better interpret the idea of motion, and of its application to the image of the sun? I will further instance the coins of Aspendus, in Pamphylia, where the three legs, ranged round a central disk, are literally combined with animal representations of the sun, the eagle, the wild boar, and the lion. 1 Lastly, on certain coins of Syracuse the triscèle permutes with the solar Disk above the quadriga and the winged horse. 2 Moreover, the connection between the triscèle and the tétrascèle is manifest from their very shape. The transition from one to the other is visible on the "whorls" of Troy as well as on coins of Macedon and Lycia. FIG. 24. SYMBOLS ON LYCIAN COINS. (LUDVIG MÜLLER, figs. 48 and 49.) Fig. 24. Symbols On Lycian Coins. (Ludvig Müller, figs. 48 and 49.) C. The images oftenest a**ociated with the gammadion are representations of the sun and the solar divinities. Greek coins often show, side by side with the gammadion, the head of Apollo, or the reproduction of his attributes. On a piece from Damastion, in Epirus, the gammadion is engraved between the supports of the Delphic tripod; 3 on painted vases from Rhodes and Athens it figures beside the omphalos. 4 A crater in the Museum of Ancient Art in Vienna shows an image of Apollo bearing it on his breast (see our Plate I.); on a vase from Melos it precedes the chariot of the god. 5 Even amongst the Gauls it accompanies, on coins, the laurelled and nimbus-encompa**ed head of paragraph continues Apollo Belenus. 1 To be sure, it is also found on Greek medals a**ociated with the images of Dionysos, Hercules, Hermes, and of several goddesses. But, in addition to the explanations of this peculiarity which I have given, it must be borne in mind how readily polytheistic nations and cities a**ign to their principal god the emblems as well as the attributes of other divinities—witness, in cla**ic antiquity, the use of the Caduceus, the Thunderbolt, the Cornucopia, and so forth. Amongst the symbols accompanying the gammadion there is none nearly so frequent as the solar Disk. The two signs are, in a manner, counterparts, not only amongst the Greeks, the Romans, and the Celts, but also with the Hindus, the Japanese, and the Chinese. I have already given some examples (figs. 17, 18, 20). On a "whorl" FIG. 25. WHORL FROM HISSARLIK. (SCHLIEMANN. Ilios, No. 1990.) Fig. 25. Whorl from Hissarlik. (Schliemann. Ilios, No. 1990.) from Hissarlik this parallel order is repeated three times. FIG. 26. Fig. 26. 2 Sometimes, as if to accentuate this juxtaposition, the gammadion is inscribed in the disk itself. Sometimes, on the contrary, it is the solar Disk which is inscribed in the centre of the gammadion, as may be verified particularly on a Tibetan symbol reproduced by Hodgson, 1 and also on a coin from Gnossus, in Crete, where, perhaps, it depicts the Labyrinth. FIG. 27. CRETAN COIN. (Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xx. (new series), pl. iii., No. 6.) Fig. 27. Cretan Coin. (Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xx. (new series), pl. iii., No. 6. On a Gallic coin, of which numerous specimens have been found in the Belgian province of Limburg and in the Namur country, a tétrascèle is visible, formed by four horses' heads ranged in a circle round a Disk. FIG. 28. GALLO-BELGIAN COIN. (HUCHER. L'art gaulois, p. 169.) Fig. 28. Gallo-Belgian Coin. (Hucher. L'art gaulois, p. 169.) It is impossible not to recognize here an application of solar symbolism, as M. Eug. Hucher has so frankly admitted, in language whose terms exclude all preconceived ideas upon the solar nature of the tétrascèle, or even on the affinity existing between the Gallic symbol and the gammadion: "These four busts of horses," he writes, "are evidently the rudiments of the four fiery steeds which draw the chariot of Helios in Etruscan and Greek antiquity. But the fact cannot be ignored that the gyratory arrangement, not in use amongst the Greeks, is a product of the Celtic imagination." 1 What, perhaps, is the product of the Celtic imagination, is the ingenious transformation of the arms of the gammadion into horses' busts. Would it not be possible to find in Greek symbolism precedents, and even models for this metamorphosis?—witness the co*ks' heads and lions' busts which take the place of the rays of the triscèle on Lycian coins. 2 We may observe, by the way, that the horse, and the co*k, as well as the eagle, and the lion, are essentially solar animals. It is interesting to verify the fact that the same combination has been produced, doubtlessly through the spontaneous agency of similar factors, in Northern America. There have been found, FIG. 29. ENGRAVED SHELL FROM THE MISSISSIPPI MOUNDS. (HOLMES. Bureau of Ethnology, vol. ii., p. 282.) Fig. 29. Engraved Shell from the Mississippi Mounds. (Holmes. Bureau of Ethnology, vol. ii., p. 282.) amongst the engraved shells of the mounds or tumuli of the Mississippi, several specimens of solar Crosses inscribed in circles, or squares, each side forming a support to a bird's head turned in. the same direction—which, as a whole, forms a veritable gammadion. D. In certain symbolical combinations the gammadion alternates with the representation of the sun. Edward Thomas has pointed out the fact that, amongst the Jains of modern India, the sun, although held in great honour, does not appear amongst the respective signs of the twenty-four Tirthankaras, the saints or mythological founders of the sect. But, whilst the eighth of these personages has the half-moon as an emblem, the seventh has the swastika for a distinctive sign. 1 Moreover, as the same writer remarks, the swastika and the Disk replace constantly each other on the ancient coins of Ujain and Andhra. Another proof of the equivalence between the gammadion and the image, or, at least, the light of the sun, is found amongst the coins of Mesembria in Thrace. The very name of this town, Μεσημβρία, may be translated as "mid-day," that is, the "town of noon," as Mr. Percy Gardner calls it. 2 Now, on some coins, this name is figured by a legend which speaks for itself: It is impossible to show more clearly the identity of the gammadion with the idea of light or of the day.—"But," objects Mr. Greg, "the day is not necessarily the `sun."—In addition to this distinction being rather subtle, how can one continue to doubt, in face of the facility with which in Greece, as in India and elsewhere, the gammadion interchanges with the Solar Disk and vice versa? 3 I will take the liberty of calling attention to the adjoining plate (II.), where I have brought together several peculiar examples of those transpositions. They are arranged in two cla**es of combinations, which, by their regularity no less than by their frequency, seem to imply a symbolical intention. In the first is visible a grouping together of three signs gammadions, or Disks, round the one central Disk; in the second it is these same signs, to the number of four, which are arranged in a square or lozenge, either round a fifth an*logous sign, or else, between the branches of an equilateral cross. I should here like to attempt, in connection with the general meaning of the gammadion, an explanation of these symbolical arrangements—in so far, of course, as on certain Disks these signs are not merely ornaments, intended to fill up the empty spaces. The three first numbers of the first combination (litt. A) are taken from the "whorls" of Hissarlik; 1 the fourth from a sepulchral vase from Denmark; 2 the fifth from Silesian pottery; 3 the sixth, which represents a foot-print of Buddha, from the bas-reliefs of Amaravati; 4 the seventh, a curious example of the trisula, from the Græco-Buddhist sculptures of Yusufzaï, in North-western India. 5 To these must be added, on the following page, the image taken from Hindu symbols and reproduced by Guignaut, after Nicolas Müller. It is this latter figure which will a**ist us in explaining the others, or, at least, in formulating a conjecture as to their signification. The subject is a tree, standing apparently for the Cosmic Tree of Hindu mythology, which sprang PLATE II. from the primordial egg in the bosom of the chaotic ocean. It spreads out into three branches, each of which supports a sun, whilst a fourth and FIG. 30. HINDU SYMBOL. (GUIGNAUT, vol. iv., 2nd part, pl. ii., fig. 16.) Fig. 30. Hindu Symbol. (Guignaut, vol. iv., 2nd part, pl. ii., fig. 16.) larger sun is placed at the bifurcation of the branches. Guignaut informs us, in his translation of Creuzer, that this image was a symbol of the trimurti, the Hindu Trinity. We need not here investigate this very questionable proposition. I think, however, that the learned Frenchman was right when he added, in a foot-note:—"There are here three suns, and yet it is always the same sun." 1 In reality might not the object of this combination be to represent the sun in the three points or positions which circumscribe its apparent daily course, its rising, its zenith, and its setting; which the figurative language of Vedic mythology has rendered by the Three Steps of Vishnu? We know that at all times popular imagery, in order to represent movements, or changes of position, has resorted to the artifice of multiplying the image of the same personage, or object, whilst a**igning to it a different attitude each time. It is the process of juxtaposition applied to the idea of succession, or, as M. Clermont Ganneau has expressed it: "The reappearance of the actors to mark the succession of the acts." 2 Do we ourselves represent otherwise, in our astronomical diagrams, the phases of the moon, or the different positions of the sun in the ecliptic? The same meaning seems to me to be applicable to the three swastikas incised round a Disk on a Foot-print of Buddha (litt. A, No. 6). In fact, Buddha's Feet were originally the Feet of Vishnu; Buddhism was content to attribute to the footsteps of its founder the marks already worshipped by Hindu tradition. 1 The other signs which adorn this mark seem to singularly complicate its symbolism. But it must not be forgotten that the Buddhists have accumulated, on the sacred Foot of their Master, almost all the symbols they have been able either to invent or borrow. Tradition counts as many as sixty-five! Moreover, most of these signs are also solar symbols, at least the Rosettes, the Trident, and the trisula, the latter representing, as I shall hereafter show, the effulgence, or the radiation of the solar fire. Edward Thomas has fully admitted that there must be some connection between the three diurnal positions of the sun and the incised symbols on the foot-print at Amaravati. But if, in the central Disk, he discerns the noon-day sun, it is the trisula, on the heel, which seems to him to represent the rising sun, whilst the swastikas depicted on the toes might typify the last rays of sunset. As for the other swastikas, the two signs on the heel might symbolize the Asvins, the third, the god Pûshan.—For my part, I see nothing which can justify these latter comparisons. Mr. Thomas was more fortunate when he connected an image, taken by Sir Henry Rawlinson from an obelisk at Koyunjik, with the Hindu symbolism relating to the three positions of the sun. 2 Three solar Disks are there represented side by side; the middle one sends forth straight rays, and a hand holding a bow (see above, fig. 11); the two others, of rather smaller dimensions, emit rays which are bent at the extremities, as if by an effect of centrifugal force. 1 This interpretation may be further applied to the three Wheels placed on the points of the trisula in a Græco-Buddhist bas-relief of Yusufzaï (litt. A, No. 7). If, as I believe I shall prove, 2 the central Disk of the trisulas was an image of the sun before it became, with the Buddhists, the Wheel of the Law, as much may be said of the three Wheels which here crown the points of the ancient symbol. In Greece, I am not aware that the mythology alludes to the "three strides" of the sun. But symbolical images sometimes take the place of figures of speech. Does not, for example, the triscèle, formed of three legs radiating round a disc, admit of the same interpretation as the Hindu tree with its four suns? There is, moreover, presumptive evidence that the Greeks distinguished three positions of the sun, and even that they selected distinct personages to represent those principal moments of its daily life. Near Lycosura, in Arcadia, stood the sanctuary of Zeus Lycæus, where, according to Pausanias, bodies cast no shadow. It was situated on a mountain between two temples, one, to the east, was sacred to the Pythian Apollo, the other, towards the west, was dedicated to Pan Nomios. 1 Apollo, the slayer of the Python, well represents the morning sun dispelling the darkness in the east. As for the Lycæan Jupiter of Arcadia, it is the sun in all its mid-day glory, at the hour when bodies cast the least shadow. 2 Lastly, Pan, the lover of Selene, has incontestably a solar character, or at least is connected with the sun when setting. M. Ch. Lenormant has brought into prominence the light-giving character of this divinity, whom Herodotus compares, without hesitation, to Chem or Min, an Egyptian personification of the nocturnal or subterranean sun. 3 Our own popular traditions seem also to have preserved the remembrance of the three solar steps, at least in those parts of Germany and England where, till lately, the villagers climbed a hill on Easter-eve, in order to perform three bounds of joy at sun-rise. "And yet," adds Sir Thomas Browne, "the sun does not dance on that day." 4 It must be remarked that popular language still speaks of the "legs of the sun," referring to those rays which sometimes seem to move about on the ground when their focus is hidden behind a cloud. Let us now pa** to the second group (pl. ii., litt. B), which represents combinations of four secondary figures ranged round a central one. 1 I will here venture—always by way of hypothesis—an explanation similar to the preceding ones. Equilateral crosses representing the sky, or the horizon, have been found on Assyrian monuments. Their extremities are sometimes ended by little disks, 2 It may be questioned, not only whether these disks do not represent so many suns, as is the case in the preceding combinations, but also whether they do not relate to four different positions of the luminary, which would, perhaps, suggest no longer its daily course, but its annual revolution, marked by the solstices and equinoxes. However this may be, the symbol of four Disks united by a Cross, spread, as a subject of decoration, through Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and India, being sometimes simplified by the substitution of a central Disk for the Cross (pl. ii., litt. B, Nos. 9 to 13), sometimes complicated by the introduction of the gammadion (Nos. 8, 16, and 18 to 23), without counting the variations produced by the partial or general transpositions of the Disks and gammadions. No. 17 represents a Cross whose gamma character results precisely from the addition of a Disk to the right of each arm. Nos. 14 to 18 may be considered as forming a transition to the symbols 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23, where it is no longer the gammadion which is inscribed in or alongside the Disks, but where the Disks themselves are placed between the branches of the gammadion. Perhaps also the combinations reproduced at the bottom of the plate may come directly from the equilateral cross, with disks placed between the branches . The latter, after having ornamented Hissarlik pottery and the most ancient coins of Lydia, was preserved even on the coins and coats of arms of the Christian Middle Ages, its intermediate stages being the pottery of the "palafittes" in Savoy, and, later, the numerous Gallic coins on which the disks between the arms are sometimes changed into Wheels and Crescents. 1 In these four disks or points, Mr. Greg discerns stars or small fires. 2 I wonder what fires would be here for. We might as well accept the four nails of Emile Burnouf. I much prefer to believe that, in conformity with the usual interpretation of the Disk, they were originally representations of the sun; and do not these suns, perhaps, represent, to use Guignaut's expression, "always the same sun" at a different point of the celestial horizon? The theory that the gammadion symbolizes the sun's motion, has met with the objection that the ancients were not acquainted with the rotation of the sun on its own axis. But, properly speaking, there is here no question of a rotatory motion. What they wished to denote in bending the rays of the disk, was the circular translation in space which the sun seems to undergo during the day, or the year. The proof of this is found in the symbolism of the Wheel, which likewise served to represent the progress of the sun, without, for that reason, implying a knowledge of the solar rotation. An ancient rite, occurring in different branches of the Indo-European family, consisted in making the circuit of the object intended to be honoured, or sanctified, keeping, meanwhile, the right side turned towards it, that is to say, following the apparent direction of the sun. Known in India by the name of pradakshina, and still practised by the Buddhists of Tibet round their sacred stones, this custom has survived to our own times in different parts of Europe. Dr. MacLeod relates that the Highlanders of Scotland, when they came to wish his father a happy New Year, made in this manner the circuit of the house, in order to ensure its prosperity during the year. At St. Fillans, by Comrie, in Perthshire, this circumambulation, called deasil (deisul), was performed round a miraculous well, to which people came in search of health. A similar custom seems to have existed in the Jura Mountains. 1 Another objection is, that a certain number of gammadions have their branches turned towards the left, that is to say, in the opposite direction to the apparent course of the solar revolution. 2 Prof. Max Müller has remarked that, perhaps, in this case, it was intended to represent the retrograde motion of the autumnal sun, in opposition to its progressive movement in the spring. 3 Unfortunately, the eminent Indian scholar produces no evidence in support of this hypothesis. 1 Would it not be simpler to admit that the direction of the branches is of secondary importance in the symbolism of the gammadion? When it was desired to symbolize the progress of the sun, namely, its faculty of translation through space, rather than the direction in which it turns, little attention will have been paid to the direction given to the rays. Although, in general, the form of the swastika predominates, the branches are turned towards the left in a great number of gammadions or tétrascèles which are undeniably connected with the personifications or the symbols of the sun. 2 The same peculiarity may, moreover, be remarked on triscèles whose solar character is not disputed, 3 and even on direct images of the sun, such as Disks whose rays, bent in order to render the idea of motion, are turned towards the left as well as towards the right. 4 Lastly, it sometimes happens that the same monument includes several gammadions whose branches are turned respectively in the opposite direction. 1 Tradition, as we have seen, counts the two forms among the signs of good omen which adorn the feet of Buddha. The Musée Guimet possesses two statues of Buddha decorated with the gammadion, one, of Japanese manufacture, bears the swastika; the other, of Chinese origin, the sauwastika. I must here call attention to an ingenious theory brought forward, in 1891, by M. E. Harroy, director of the Ecole moyenne de Verviers, at the Archæological and Historical Congress of Brussels, to account for the origin of the gammadion, and its connection with the equilateral cross. 2 He believes he has discovered, in the arrangement of certain cromlechs, indications which would point to their having formed a sort of astronomical dial, as exact as it was primitive. For its construction FIG. 31. Fig. 31 he only requires three stones. At twenty paces from a point of observation, A, let us place, he says, a stone, B, in the direction in which the sun rises on the 21st of June; then at the same distance from A place a second stone, C, in the direction in which the sun rises on the 21st of December. The line B C will point north and south; A E east, and A E´ west. A B, A E, A C, and A E, will give the directions in which the sun rises on the 21st of June, the 21st of September, the 21st of December, and the 21st of March respectively; A C´, A E´, A B´, and A E´, the directions in which it will set on the same dates. This cross, illustrating the course of the sun, will naturally become the symbol of the luminary, and four strokes might have been added to the extremities of the lines in order to give "the notion of impulsion of the rotatory movement of the regulating orb." I will draw attention to the fact that, as the points B and C approach or go further apart, according to the latitude, this figure can only depict a cross in a fairly narrow zone of the terrestrial globe, and that, consequently, the explanation of M. Harroy is solely applicable to our latitudes. Even here, moreover, however simple the reasoning processes are which might have led to the construction of this natural observatory, there remains to be proved satisfactorily that such an idea was ever entertained and put into practice by our prehistoric ancestors. I have admitted above that the gammadion, in so far as it was a symbol of the astronomical movement, may have been applied to the revolutions or even to the phases of the moon. The fact is all the more plausible since the equilateral cross seems itself to have been employed to symbolize lunar as well as solar radiation; if we may judge from a Mithraic image, where the points of the Crescent supporting the bust of the lunar goddess are each surmounted by an equilateral cross. 1 In this manner the frequent attribution of the gammadion to lunar goddesses, such as the different forms of the Asiatic Artemis, might also be accounted for. On coins of Gnossus, in Crete, the lunar Crescent FIG. 32. CRETAN COIN. (Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xx., new series, pl. ii., fig. 7.) Fig. 32. Cretan Coin. (Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xx., new series, pl. ii., fig. 7.) takes the place of the solar Disk in the centre of the gammadion. A coin, which is believed to belong to Apollonius FIG. 33. LUNAR TÉTRASCÈLE. (BARCLAY V. HEAD. Numismatic Chronicle, vol. vii. (3rd series), pl. xi., fig. 48.) Fig. 33. Lunar Tétrascèle. (Barclay V. Head. Numismatic Chronicle, vol. vii. (3rd series), pl. xi., fig. 48.) ad Rhyndacum, shows a gammadion flanked by four Crescents. On the sepulchral stelai of Numidia the two gammadions surmounting the image of the dead (see our fig. 17, where one of them is, so to speak, underlined by a Wheel) may be seen to give place, sometimes to two radiated Disks, sometimes to a Wheel and a Crescent, sometimes to an equilateral Cross and a Crescent, and, lastly, sometimes to two Crescents. 1 From which it might be concluded that the gammadion serves equally to replace the image of the sun and that of the moon. M. Schliemann found at Hissarlik, in the strata lying above the "burnt city," a terra-cotta sphere divided into parallel zones by horizontal lines. In the middle zone are thirteen gammadions drawn up in line side by side. The celebrated explorer of Ilium believed he discovered therein a terrestrial sphere, on which the gammadions, symbols of fire, seemed to indicate the torrid zone. Mr. R. P. Greg, faithful to his theory, prefers to discern therein a representation of the universe, where the swastikas would seem to symbolize the supreme power of Zeus. 1 May I be allowed to ask, in my turn, if there may not be seen herein a celestial sphere, on which the thirteen gammadions represent thirteen moons, that is to say, the lunar year?