Fig. 15.—The Pine- or Cedar-Cone as Seen in the Hand of a Winged Figure from Nimroud.
Whether the cedar-cone of the Sicyonian statue of Æsculapius was representative of the reproductive organ or of fire or not, it is certain that it was largely in use by the Babylonians, Assyrians, and others, to restore health as well as to overcome witchcraft and the like. One sees it in the hand of the winged, eagle-headed figure from Nimroud, now in the British Museum, and a cut of the same is given here. Two similar genii or figures, very like the gryphon of Greek mythology connected with Apollo, are represented watching, like the cherubim at the gate of Eden, over the priests who attend about the sacred tree of life,—that apple-, fig-, palm-, or somo-tree, serpent-guarded, which yields fruit or ambrosia, in which, as De Gubernatis says, “the life, the fortune, the glory, the strength, and the riches of the hero have their beginning,”[412] and which is so prominent in the sculptures and records of Oriental peoples. The object is often seen extended under the king’s nose, apparently that he may inhale the vitalizing emanations from it, after the manner of the ancients’ notion of the mode of reception of the “breath of life.”[413] It even appears on the tree of life in some of its conventional forms. Thus, Layard says: “The flowers at the end of the branches are frequently replaced in later Assyrian monuments and on cylinders by the fir- or pine-cone, and sometimes by a fruit or ornament resembling the pomegranate.”[414]
In connection with what he has to say about the cones on the tree of life, George Smith expresses the opinion that “the Accadians brought the tradition of the fir-cones with them from their original seat in the colder, mountainous land of Media, where the fir[415] was plentiful.”
Fig. 16.—The Tree of Life.
The use of the fir-cone in the cure of disease has been made evident by recent translations of cuneiform inscriptions.[416] It is said by Lenormant that in a magic fragment as yet inedited the god Hea, the averruncus par excellence, the vivifier and preserver of the human race which he has created, prescribes to his son Marduk, the mediator, a mysterious rite which will cure a man whose malady is caused by an attack of demons. “Take,” says he, “to him the fruit of the cedar, and hold it in front of the sick person; the cedar is the tree which gives the pure charm and repels the inimical demons, who lay snares.”[417]
In the cedar-cone, then, in the hand of the figure of Æsculapius we have the symbol and instrument of “the life charm,” of which the god Hea was the master and the son the dispenser; and I may add (as Lenormant has suggested) that when fruits of this nature adorn the sacred plant they characterize it more emphatically than ever as the tree of life.
CHAPTER XIII.
DIBBARA,[418] A GOD OF PESTILENCE.
There does not appear to be an exception to the rule, that every people has, to a greater or less extent, referred the causation of epidemic and other diseases to supernatural powers.[419] In Oriental countries evil spirits were believed to be accountable for it; and, indeed, in the West, the Red Indians entertained the same notion, as the reader of Mr. Dorman’s interesting book[420] is well aware. The uncultured mind cannot, it would seem, grasp the idea that things which the senses cannot readily perceive may, nevertheless, be entirely natural.