ANTAEUS THE GIANT. 599 



lead a "simple life agreeable to nature," are the true 

 powers of physical regeneration, prevention, cure of and 

 exemption from disease. Man, in sound contact with the 

 earth, seems to be the great problem solved of a long, 

 healthy, and bappy life. So much from the material and 

 earthy side of the question, and the giant of Libya is the 

 Earth-son, a mighty wrestler, as long as his body is a prime- 

 conductor of the recuperative forces of the earth. But he 

 was a son also of Poseidon, the " god of the Mediterranean 

 Sea," who was also "the god of the fluid element of the 

 world." Of this divinity, Heroditus (ii. 50 ; iv. 188) states 

 " that the name and worship of Poseidon was imported to 

 the Greeks from Libya, but he was probably a divinity of 

 Pelasgian origin, and originally a personification of the fer- 

 tilizing power of water, from which the transition to re- 

 garding him as the god of the sea was not difficult." "His 

 palace was in the depth of the sea, near Aegae in Euboea, 

 (xiii. 21 ; Od., v. 381,) where he kept his horses with brazen 

 hoofs and golden manes. With these horses he rides in a 

 chariot over the waves of the sea, which become smooth as 

 he approaches, and the monsters of the deep recognize him 

 and play around his chariot. He was further regarded as 

 the creator of the horse, [symbol of genius,] and was ac- 

 cordingly believed to have taught men the art of managing 

 horses by the bridle, and to have been the originator and 

 protector of horse races." 



Poseidon, the " god of the fluid element," the creator of the 

 horse, thus stands the mythical representative of genius and 

 virtue. The horse in all symbolisms represents the intellec- 

 tual principle, genius,* power, force of thought, and thus his 

 achievements herald the triumphs of the mind. But water 

 (fluid element) is the great "fertilizer," great cleanser, washer, 

 baptizer, and hence, is the symbol of virtue and regeneration, f 



* The horse signifies genius ; the ass, stupidity ; the mule, (a dole- 

 ful cross between them, cursed with barrenness,) common sense. 



f Water signifies the spiritual things of faith. A.C. 680. To give 

 water (Gen. xiii. 24) signifies the common influx of truth; such influx 

 is the illumination which gives the faculty of apperceiving and un- 



