[348] Paribeni, "Monumenti antichi dell'accademia dei Lincei," XIX, punt. 1, pll. 1-3; and V. Duhn, "Arch. f. Religionswissensch.," XII, p. 161, pll. 2-4; quoted by Blinkenberg, "The Thunder Weapon," pp. 20 and 21, Fig. 9.
[349] Without just reason, many writers have assumed that the pestle, which was identified with the handle used in the churning of the ocean (see de Gubernatis, "Zoological Mythology," Vol II, p. 361), was a phallic emblem. This meaning may have been given to the handle of the churn at a later period, when the churn itself was regarded as the Mother Pot or uterus; but we are not justified in assuming that this was its primary significance.
[350] Gladys M. N. Davis, "The Asiatic Dionysos," p. 172.
[351] The tortoise was the vehicle of Aphrodite also and her representatives in Central America.
[352] Jackson, "Shells, etc.," pp. 57 et seq.
[353] Vide supra, p. 158.
[354] Rendel Harris, "The Ascent of Olympus," p. 80. In the building up of the idea of rebirth the ancients kept constantly before their minds a very concrete picture of the actual process of parturition and of the anatomy of the organs concerned in this physiological process. This is not the place to enter into a discussion of the anatomical facts represented in the symbolism of the "giver of life" presiding over the portal and the "two hills" which are divided at the birth of the deity: but the real significance of the primitive imagery cannot be wholly ignored if we want to understand the meaning of the phraseology used by the ancient writers.
[355] Blinkenberg, "The Thunder-weapon," p. 72.
[356] Aylward M. Blackman, "Sacramental Ideas and Usages in Ancient Egypt," Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, March, 1918, p. 64.
[357] Op. cit., p. 60.