Pages 161–8—Deal with Jurgen’s matrimonial quarrels with Anaitis, who, for all she is a nature myth and believes in symbolism, is quarrelsome. She does not like Jurgen to “talk so flippantly about her religion” (165) and regrets his dislike of his “in-laws”, such as Apis, the well-known Egyptian god, who “will go about in public wearing a bull’s head”. What is lewd or obscene here? Surely not the terms “sacti-sodhana” and “muntrus”. They may look obscene because they are in an unfamiliar language, but in that language, Sanscrit, counsel are informed, they refer to religious rites of the Brahmins, who are not commonly rated as lewd.
Pages 170–1—Shows that nature myths last only as long as the philologists let them, hence they are Epicureans. But Jurgen, being a doubter, is not sure that death ends all. Is there anything Lewd or obscene in this quaint turning of the tables on the materialists?
Pages 174–7—Continues the matrimonial life of Jurgen and Anaitis, ending with the conviction, forced on him, that the ruling spirit of this land of hers is nothing else but Cybele, the Roman goddess of earth, or Æsred, or Sereda, as she is variously called. And so he became convinced “that all such employment was a peculiarly unimaginative pursuit of happiness” (177). Surely a good moral lesson, if anything.
Page 186—Simply a symbolic way of telling us that “Time begets nothing”. He sleeps in Atlantis, while Briareus watches. Life is a ceaseless round, history is a ceaseless round, of old things. It is a commonplace of Greek mythology that Chronos, [Time] was mutilated by his son Zeus.
Pages 186, 321, 154—Carry reference to the fact that there are such things as eunuchs. If it is wrong to refer to eunuchs, then most literature, not only of the East, but referring to it, should be expunged. St. Philip’s first convert was an eunuch (Acts VIII, 26–40). In “Innocents Abroad” Mark Twain gives the story of the revenge which Heloise’s uncle caused to be taken upon Abelard.
Page 211—Refers to the priests of Cybele. If they were eunuchs, that would not be, as said above, an obscene fact. But they were not eunuchs, as it happened. The priests of Cybele were madmen: that is, they had been deprived of their wits, and had thus “parted with possessions which Jurgen valued”. Above all things the practical-minded Jurgen valued sanity. See Tooke’s “Pantheon,” p. 172: “The Priests of Cybele were named Galli, from a river of Phrygia. Such was the nature of the water of this river, that whoever drank of it immediately grew mad. The Galli, as often as they sacrificed, furiously cut and slashed their arms with knives; and thence all furious and mad people were called Galantes.”
Pages 196–200, 203, 206–7, 124–8, 148–150—References to objects:—
(a) Jurgen’s staff (196–200, 203). The answer to this, like the answer to the insinuations about the lance in chapter 22 (vide supra) is that it was a staff, and nothing else (see p. 95).
(b) Harpocrates, “who held an astonishing object” (206–7). This is attacked along with the reference to the People of the Fields, who practise eudæmonism. Jurgen sees the People of the Fields, “who dwell between the forest and the city of Pseudopolis” (204). These people “did one and all what they had always done” (204) whereas, “whoever heard of the People of the Wood doing anything useful?” So Jurgen, after being informed that the People of the Field never take a holiday (206) decides to see what the People of the Wood do about it (206). He finds them practicing eudæmonism outdoors instead of indoors. Eudæmonism: “The type of utilitarian ethical theory that makes the pursuit, enjoyment and production of happiness the supreme end in moral conduct.”—Funk & Wagnalls’ Dictionary. This was of course the creed of Cocaigne—“Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” The point here is that satyrs do not go indoors, for the reason that for a satyr to go indoors is unheard of. If it is indecent to mention a satyr, then not only should Keats and Swinburne be destroyed, but Elizabeth Barrett Browning should be reprimanded for writing that poem “A Musical Instrument”, which is all about “The Great God Pan”, chief of Satyrs. As to Harpocrates, we refer to Tooke’s “Pantheon of the Heathen Gods”,—a most respectable authority. It is there said (p. 352): “The Egyptians worshipped Harpocrates as the god of Silence * * * They consecrated the tree persea to him; because the fruit was like a heart * * * He was painted with a finger upon his lips, thereby commanding silence.” It is, therefore, probably the persea fruit which Harpocrates is carrying, and the astonishment of Jurgen at seeing the human heart thus publicly displayed is equally nature and good allegory. The custom that led to stiffness was of course Harpocrates’ custom of not speaking to or answering the remarks of others.
(c) Jurgen’s sword (124–8, 148–150). Mention is made of Jurgen’s sword. But, like the staff and the lance (vide supra) all that need be said is that it really is a sword, Caliburn. The book tells just where and how he got it (72, 76).