Leaped into the light of morning,
O’er the precipice plunging downward
Gleamed like Ishkoodah, the comet.”
The water flowing from his footsteps sufficiently proves the phallic nature of this creator. I refer to the earlier utterances concerning the phallic and fertilizing nature of the horse’s foot and the horse’s steps, and especially do I recall Hippocrene and the foot of Pegasus.[[632]] We meet with the same idea in Psalm lxv, vv. 9 to 11:
“Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it; thou makest it very plenteous.
“The river of God is full of water; thou preparest their corn, for so thou providest for the earth.
“Thou waterest her furrows: thou sendest rain into the little valleys thereof; thou makest it soft with the drops of rain, and blessest the increase of it.
“Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.”
Wherever the fertilizing God steps, there is fruitfulness. We already have spoken of the symbolic meaning of treading in discussing the nightmares. Kaineus passes into the depths, “splitting the earth with a foot outstretched.” Amphiaraus, another chthonic hero, sinks into the earth, which Zeus has opened for him by a stroke of lightning. (Compare with that the above-mentioned vision of a hysterical patient, who saw a black horse after a flash of lightning: identity of horse’s footstep and flash of lightning.) By means of a flash of lightning heroes were made immortal.[[633]] Faust attained the mothers when he stamped his foot.
“Stamp and descend, stamping thou’lt rise again.”