328 
15. Let us look a little closer at some of the i 
these gods. The magi * we read, authorized the use of fire a 
water as the only emblems of their gods. As the powers repre- 
rented by the sun, and the serpent-river had to act m unison if 
I may so^xpress it, or cease to be efficient, we soon find the sun 
and serpent combined, and recognized by some' 
one and the same; the sun representing the head of the seipe 
wMchentwined the world, as symbolized by the mrde in which 
the serpent holds his tail m his mouth (fig. 4). 
find an emblem which embodies also the idea of the txreeK 
Phoebus « the “far-shooting Apollo "-the sun-who shot to 
death the Python, or serpent, or, m other words, destroye 
identity by amalgamating it with his own. An emblem, more- 
over Jeen in the Assyrian representation of Asshui (fig. ), 
aS °h vt e the Ve sacred witf “the sokr halo (fig. 6)’, 
rx,.ood by .b. 
sections of triple folds shown on the reverse (fig. 7), .while ti he 
un"ted could make nothing of it beyond three folds on a 
staff or bar. We we this > enigma l e^P^ed^beyond^uesLo ^ 
thp Phoenician serpent and tree (ng. )• i 1 . 1 ^ 
Mercury, wbo .t « 1. £ 
fskdr^Spenfcird^t hT^td, probabh- a symbol of the 
moon (fig. 10). This deity is supported on a pedestal con “P° s ® 
water viz the upright and inverted triangles. 
r,nblem we find a serpent intervening between the points of 
emblem, we uu r on the Babylonish monuments, 
* Diogenes Laertius ; Clemens Marquis^Loffiian’s estate 
An illustration is in the Graphic, February 22nd, 187 . 
