The Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult and Its Mediterranean Relations; With Illustrations from Recent Cretan Finds

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 Excerpt: ...to the temple of Isis at Byblos, where it was still an object of worship in Plutarch's day. At Byblos it must be borne in mind that Isis and Osiris in reality represent Astarte and Adonis.3 In all this we see the columnar idol of the architectonic type taking its rise in the most natural way from the hewn trunk of a sacred tree made use of as 'a pillar of the house,' with the object of securing the presence of the divine ' Stablisher' inherent in the material. The character of the columnar divinity being thus fixed by its structural function in a wooden building can be taken over into stone or metal work, the conventional shape as in the case of Christian crosses supplying here the consecration no longer inherent in the material itself. In this secondary stage, however, the sanctity of such tutelary columns is generally further marked.is at Tyre, Carthage and in the Phoenician remains of Cyprus by the addition of some symbol of divinity such as the orb and crescent, or as both on Semitic soil and at Mycenae by the coupling with it of its sacred animals. § 18.--Egyptian Influences, and the Rayed Pillars of Mycenaean Cypiiis. The extreme antiquity of the anthropomorphic and here often zoomorphic form of cult image in Egypt may make it at first seem unprofitable to look for illustrations of the primitive aniconic cult of the Greek and Semitic world on that side. As a matter of fact, nevertheless, the old religious moment has left clear records in Egyptian monuments. The pre-historic figures of the god Min, discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie at Koptos, still largely partake of the pillar form, and his equivalent materialisation, as a group of trees, survived through the historic period. The obelisk of the SunGod Ra again represents the survival of the old c...