Fig. 297.—British. From Akerman.
Eva is in all probability the source of the word ivy, German epheu, for the evergreen ivy is notoriously a long-lived plant, and even by the early Christian Church[557] Ivy was accepted as the emblem of life and immortality. As immortality was the primary dogma of the Druids, hence perhaps why they and their co-worshippers decked themselves with wreaths of this undying and seemingly immortal plant.[558] The figure of the Græco-Egyptian “Jupiter,” known as Serapis, appears (supported by the Twins) surrounded by an ivy wreath, and that the ancient Jews ivy-decked themselves like the British on festival occasions is evident from the words of Tacitus: “Their priests it is true made use of fifes and cymbals: they were crowned with wreaths of ivy, and a vine wrought in gold was seen in their temple”.[559] The leaf on the British Viri coin here illustrated has been held to be a vine “which does not appear to have been borrowed from any Roman coin,” but, continues Sir John Evans, “whether this was an original type to signify the fertility of the soil in respect of vines or adapted from some other source it is hard to say”.[560] If the device be a Vine leaf it probably symbolised the True Vine; if a fig leaf it undoubtedly was the sign of Maggie Figgy, the Mother of Millions, and the Ovary of Everything: the Sunday before Easter used to be known as Fig Sunday, and on this occasion figs were eaten in large quantities.
Fig. 298.—Thrones.—Fiery Two-winged Wheels. From Didron.
Fig. 299.—The Trinity under the Form of Three Circles. From a French Miniature of the close of the XIII. Cent. From Didron.
