for the sake of love by thy phallus, O Ammon ?" The 

 Hebrew letter j~| was the sign of the cross, or phallus,, 

 which was also used by the Phoenicians, being derived 

 from the Arabic v^, the symbol of the life-giver. This 

 passage evidently had reference to the violent death of 

 Adonis, who, at the autumnal equinox, was attacked by 

 a wild boar, which tore away his generative organs and ren- 

 dered him consequently impotent, until he was born again, 

 when he acquired fresh powers and grew in beauty and 

 stature, ready to re-unite with Venus at the spring equinox. 

 On the mithraitic monuments the spring equinox is 

 represented by lighted and elevated torches, trees covered 

 with leaves, entire bulls, and young men holding lighted 

 torches ; while the autumnal equinox is represented by a, 

 hydra, or long serpent, a scorpion, reversed and extin- 

 guished torches, trees loaded with autumn fruits, a bull 

 with its generative organs torn away, and old men hold- 

 ing reversed and extinguished torches. The Rev. G. 

 W. Cox, M.A. and scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, in 

 his "Mythology of the Aryan Nations," says : " The male 

 and female powers of nature were denoted respectively 

 by an upright and an oval emblem, and the conjunction 

 of the two furnished at once the altar and the ashera, or 

 grove, against which the Hebrew prophets lifted up their 



voice in earnest protest In the kingdom both of 



Judah and Israel the rites connected with these emblems 

 assumed their most corrupting form. Even in the temple 

 itself stood the Ashera, or the upright emblem on the 

 circular altar of Baal-Peor, the Priapos of the Jews, thus 

 reproducing the Linga and Yoni of the Hindu. For 

 this symbol the women wove hangings, as the Athenian 

 maidens embroidered the sacred peplos for the ship 

 presented to Athene at the great Dionysiac festival. - 

 Here, at the winter solstice, they wept and mourned for 

 Tammuz, the fair Adonis, done to death by the boar. 



Here, also, on the third day, they rejoiced at the 



resurrection of the lord of light. Hence, as most inti- 

 mately connected with the reproduction of life on earth,,, 

 it became the symbol under which the sun, invoked 

 with a thousand names, has been worshipped throughout 

 the world as the restorer of the powers of nature after 

 the long sleep or death of winter." 



