THE MIGRATION OF SYMBOLS. 779 



ond modification — which was justified after the event by the 

 legend of Mercury throwing down his rod between two fighting 

 serpents — reveals a symbolic intent, or is due, as most of the 

 learned think, to a fancy of Greek art. But, in either case, the 

 innovation made it possible for the caduceus to be preserved in 

 modern symbolism to represent the two ever-present attributes of 

 Mercury — Industry and Commerce. In like manner it has been 

 perpetuated in India, where it was introduced by the Greeks, till 

 our time; and M. Guimet observed numerous examples of it 

 among the votive offerings in some of the Vishnuite temples. 

 Nothing is lost in symbolism that is worthy to live and can be 

 transformed. 



Symbols are also subject to the law of the struggle for exist- 

 ence. It was artistic perfection that secured the longevity of the 

 thunderbolt — another figure which was long believed to be of 

 Hellenic origin- Nearly all peoples have represented the fire 

 from the sky by an arm, sometimes also by a bird of strong and 

 rapid flight. It was symbolized among the Chaldeans by a tri- 

 dent. Cylinders going back to the most ancient ages of Chaldean 

 art exhibit a water- jet gushing from a trident which is held by 

 the god of the sky or of the storm. The Assyrian artist who first, 

 on the bas-reliefs of Nimroud or Malthai, doubled the trident or 

 transformed it into a trifid fascicle, docile to the refinements and 

 elegancies of classic art, by that means secured for the ancient 

 Mesopotamian symbol the advantage over all the other representa- 

 tions of thunder with which it could compete. The Greeks, like 

 the other Indo-European nations, seem to have represented the 

 storm-fire under the features of a bird of prey. When they re- 

 ceived the Asiatic figure of the thunderbolt, they put it in the 

 eagle's claws and made of it the scepter of Zeus, explaining the 

 combination, after their habit, by the story of the eagle bringing 

 thunder to Zeus when he was preparing for the war against the 

 Titans. Latin Italy transmitted the thunderbolt to Gaul, where, 

 in the last centuries of paganism, it alternated, on the Gallo-Roman 

 monuments, with the two-headed hammer. It is also found on 

 amulets of Germany, Scandinavia, and Brittany. In the East it 

 penetrated to India, following Alexander, where it is found com- 

 peting with other symbols having the same significance. Siva, 

 who succeeded Zeus on the coins of the Indo-Scythian kings, after 

 the light of Grecian civilization was extinguished in the North- 

 east and in India, holds in his hand sometimes the thunderbolt and 

 sometimes the trident ; and while the latter remains exclusively 

 the arm of the god in the later imagery of the Hindoo sects, the 

 thunderbolt found its way to the Buddhists, who carried it with 

 their symbolism to China and Japan. It is still met under the 

 form of the dordj, a little bronze instrument in the shape of a 



