Fig. 204.—The Trinity, in Combat with Behemoth and Leviathan. From Christian Iconography (Didron).
In Fig. 204 the Celestial Invictus is depicted as a Trinity; three feathers are the emblem of the British Prince of Wales, and there is evidently some recondite meaning in the legend that St. Barbara insisted upon her father making three windows in a certain building on the grounds that “three windows lighten all the world and all creatures”. Upon Dioscorus inquiring of his daughter why she had upset his arrangements for two windows, Barbara’s reply is reported to have been: “These three fenestras or windows betoken clearly the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the which be three persons and One Very God”. The word person is radically the same as appear and appearance, and the portrayal of the Supreme Power as One, Two, or Three seems evidently to have been merely a matter of inclination: Queen Vera or Virtue may be regarded as One or as the Three Graces or Virtues. The mythic mother of St. David is said to have been Gwen of the Three Paps, and this St. Gwen Tierbron, or Queen of the Three Breasts, may be equated with the Lady Triamour, and with the patron of Llandrindod or St. triune dad Wells. On the horse ornament illustrated ante (No. 14, Fig. 134, [p. 286]), three hearts are represented: on Fig. 205 three circles, together with a palm branch,[374] associated with the national horse.
Fig. 205.—British. From Barthelemy.
Fig. 206.—Decoration on British chalk drum. From A Guide to Antiquities of Bronze Age (B.M.).
The emblems on [page 499] depict two flying wheels, and likewise Three-in-One: near St. Just in Cornwall used to be three interlaced stone circles, and the phenomenon of three circles is noticeable elsewhere; there is little doubt, says Westropp, that in the three rings of Dunainy on the Knockainy Hill the triad of gods, Eogabal, Feri, and Aine, were supposed to dwell.[375]
Fig. 207.—Temple at Abury. From The Celtic Druids (Higgens, G.).
Avebury consists of two circles within one, and that “Avereberie” was regarded as the great periphery may be concluded from the name Avereberie which is equivalent to periphery, Varvary, or Barbara. The bird emblem existing at Farr is suggestive that the county of Forfar was once inhabited by worshippers of Varvara, Barbara, the Fair of Fairs, or Fire of Fires.