THE HUMAN-HEADED BIRD.
A figure unearthed among the ruins of Babylon. From Lenormant.
been interpreted as the soul of Semiramis, and may represent either a dead person or the goddess of the dead, and the same idea is expressed in a little figurine of the Greek islands which shows us a
|
AMULET[28]
OF THE MYCENAEAN PERIOD. | ISIS AND THE FISH. |
female deity with a dove on her head. We can scarcely be mistaken if we interpret this little figurine as an amulet denoting the goddess whose emblem is the dove. Whether the figure represent the goddess herself with her emblematic bird or whether it be the portrait of a dead person protected by the dove, is of secondary importance. The main truth on which we insist here is that the dove is the emblem of the great goddess to whom people look for salvation in the dark beyond. Thus flocks of pigeons enjoyed great liberties in Hierapolis, the holy city of Syria,—probably in the same way that the pigeons in St. Mark’s place are befriended in Venice both by the inhabitants and by foreign visitors.
Another emblem of the goddess of womanhood is the fish, as is fully described in Lucian’s most interesting treatise “On the Syrian Goddess.” In Egypt Isis has been represented with a fish surmounting her head as an emblematic ornament.
In some parts of Greece the hare or rabbit has also been sacred to Aphrodite, unquestionably on account of the fertility of that animal. Even to-day in Christian times the Easter hare and the egg are the symbols of spring, and the Easter festival cannot be celebrated without them.
