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an emblem of the material sun, in days when the mind of 
people could regard it without pollution or injury. Artemi- 
dorus and Phurnatus mention the phallus as an emblem of 
" education and sound discourse," as being productive of 
benefit ; hence Pausanius states that it was an emblem of 
Mercury, the god of eloquence. 
Macrobius ( Sat) says that square figures, with head and 
phallus, were emblems of the sun, as being "mundi caput, 
et rerum sator." Both Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus 
give unmistakable evidence that in Egypt and in Greece 
this emblem was held in especial reverence. Osiris in 
Egypt, and Dionysus in Greece, were honoured with this 
symbol; so was Shiva in India. " Bhavani" Venus Genera- 
trix was represented of both sexes, and also by a conical 
figure of marble. The reason appears too plainly in the 
temples and paintings of Hindustan (Sir W. Jones, As. 
Res.). St. Jerome, in Hosea, accuses the Jewish women of 
worshipping " Baal Peor," — " Ob obsceni magnitudinem 
membri, quern nos priapum possumus appellare." The use 
of this emblem in the days of the kings of Israel and Judah 
confirms this supposition. We read repeatedly of the 
" Groves," as the English version calls them, that were 
made by their kings, and at times placed even in the 
temple (2 Kings xvii. 7 — 17). Manasseh built up high 
places for Baal, reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove. 
He set up a graven image in the grove that he had made in 
the house of the Lord (2 Kings xxi. 3 — 7). Women wove 
hangings for the " grove," even as among the Greeks and 
Romans, and other nations, altars and statues were conse- 
crated by anointing them, and by placing chaplets, kc, 
upon them. Josiah brought the " grove 91 from the house 
of the Lord (2 Kings xxiii. 6). In Judges ii. 13, we read : 
" The people forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashta- 
roth ;" and in iii. 7, " They served Baalim and the groves," 
