['4] 



This symbol was from the earliest times venerated as 

 a protecting power, and Jacob, on his journey to Laban, 

 slept under its protecting influence : placed erect 

 sometimes as a tree, at others as a cross, and often as a 

 phallus and resting on a crescent, the modified form of 

 the yoni, this symbol set forth the marriage of heaven 

 and earth ; and in the form of a serpent, representing 

 life and healing, it was worshipped by the Egyptians and 

 Jews. In the book of Genesis the phallic tree is intro- 

 duced, where it is called the tree of knowledge of good 

 and evil. From Plutarch we learn that the Egyptians 

 represented Osiris with the organ of generation erect, to 

 show his generative and prolific power, and that he was 

 the same deity as the Bacchus of the Greek mythology 

 and the first begotten love (Epws Tr/awroyovos) of Orpheus 

 and Hesiod. In an excellent work entitled " Discourse 

 on the Worship of Priapus," by Richard Payne Knight, 

 there are a number of plates illustrating the mode in 

 which this phallic worship was carried on by the ancients, 

 some of which are very curious and well worth the 

 ^ : . ( I trouble of studying carefully. One plate represents a 

 celebrated bronze in the Vatican, with the male organs 

 of generation placed on the head of a cock, the emblem 

 of the rising sun, supported by the neck and shoulders 

 of a man, the whole being emblematical of god incar- 

 nate with man, and on the base of which are inscribed 

 the words 2OTHP KO2MOY, " Saviour of the world." 

 Another figure on the same plate represents an ornament 

 in the British Museum, consisting of a male organ with 

 wings and the foot of a man suspended from a chain. 

 Another plate shows two representations of the god Pan, 

 one with the organ erect, the symbol of power, or spring, 

 the other with the organ in a state of tumid languor, and 

 loaded with the productions of the earth, the symbol of 

 the results of prolific efforts. Both these last are copies 

 of bronzes in the museum of C. Townley. On another 

 plate is a copy of another of Mr. Townley's treasures, 

 representing the incarnation of deity, in the shape of a 

 man having sexual intercourse with a goat, the emblem 

 of the new-born deity at the winter solstice, to which is 

 appended the following note by Mr. Payne Knight : " At 

 Mendes a living goat was kept as the image of the 



