fOutline of Ixion Chapter Part Two

Introduction: Frances Yates and the Ubiquity of the Vitruvian Man I. II. III. IV. V. Abraham Seidenberg and the Ritual Origin of Mathematics Ixion: The Great Worshipper Interlude: The Pythagorean Mysteries Unlocked A Return to Origins: Joseph P. Farrell, Ancient Religion, and the Nergal-Mars Complex Vitruvius, Leonardo, and After: The Persistence of the Cosmic Man Icon

I. Seidenberg Abraham Seidenberg. The Geometry of Vedic Rituals. 2.95-126 in Frits Staal, ed. Agni: The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar. 2 vols. Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1983. (98-99) The idea in the Baudhayana of converting an oblong into the difference between two squares, followed by converting the difference into a square, is the same as that found in Euclids Elements, Book II. (100-101) The builder of a fire altar was called an agnicit. According to one of the sacred works, the Taittiriya Samhita (5.2.5.5-6), an agnicit should live upon what is obtained freely from nature; even the products of sowing are forbidden. In particular the flesh of birds is forbidden. / The Theorem of Pythagorasused to be attributed to Pythagoras (c. 550 B.C.), but is no longer the general opinion, since, as we now know, the theorem was known in Old Babylonia some 1200 years earlier. Similarly, it would appear, the role of the agnicit was imposed on Pythagoras. (102) In Greece sacrifice could be used to harm an enemy (Republic 364c); in India the same was true (TS 5.4.11), and it may be that disease was considered as an enemy, or as the instrument of an enemy, to be fought with sacrifice. (110) The circulature of the square preceded the squaring of the circle. (110) In the Sulvasutras the circulature of the square is done as follows. In square ABCD, let M be the intersection of the diagonals. Draw the circle with M as center and MA as radius; and let ME be the radius of the circle perpendicular to the side AD and Cutting AD at G. Let GN = 1/3 GE. Then MN is the radius of a circle having an area equal to the square ABCD. This circulature of the square involves no arithmetic. One may imagine an ancient ritualist starting from the square, observing that the inscribed circle is too small, the circumscribed circle too large, and guessing that one should take GN = 1/3 GE.

(114) In the SB (7.1.1.37) the garhapatya is said to measure one vyama (a vyama is the same as a purusa). Professor Staal has translated the passage for me as follows: It [i.e. the garhapatya] measures one vyama, for man measures one vyama, and man is Prajapati, and Prajapati is Agni. Therefore he makes the womb in equal measure. It is circular for the womb is circular. And the garhapatya is this world for this world is indeed circular. W. Crooke. The House in India from the Point of View of Sociology and Folklore. Folklore 29.2 (June 29, 1918): 113145. (115) Even at the present day [in parts of India] the hut roofed with straw or reeds is the normal type of house, and there is a remarkable taboo in some places against the use of bricks or tiles for building. 1* Purusha Skta W. Norman Brown. The Sources and Nature of prusha in the Purusaskta (Rigveda 10. 91). Journal of the American Oriental Society 51.2 (June 1931): 108-118. (113-114) Purusa seemsto be a blend of characteristics of (1) Agni, as the typical male, as the essence of plants, waters, all that moves and stands, and the sacrifice, as the lord of immortality, as the lord of the sacrifice and the sacrifice itself; (2) Srya, as rising above the worlds to the place of immortality; (3) Visnu, as the / encompasser of earth, air, and sky. Purusa is both the essence of creatures and also the inclusive principle, the first principle, the ruler, the immortal, the eternal. He is neither Agni, Srya, nor Visnu alone, nor is he a combination of the three. He is a combination of characteristics derived from them, fused in a rather shadowy way in a new unity, with especial reference to the sun. (-) The emphasis in the hymn is not on the man-like nature of Purusa, but on his qualities of universality and his functioning as the sacrifice, which last is of predominant importance. (114) Verse one: Having covered the earth on all sides, he ruled the ten-finger place (the highest point of heaven). Ftnote 3: I have followed the usual interpretation, which sees in the place

that is ten fingers broad the heart. See G.W. Brown, The Human Body in the Upanishads (Jubbulpore, 1921). (118) When they divided Purusa, into how many parts did they separate him? What was his mouth? What were his arms? What were the thighs and feet called? Footnote: Purusa, being a fusion of elements taken from Agni, Srya, and Visnu, and then being translated to a more exalted plane than that occupied by those deities individually, becomes the source of those deities themselves. In vs. 12 men are derived from parts of Purusa, in vs. 13 deities, in vs. 14 part of the universe. J. Gonda. Vedic Gods and the Sacrifice. Numen 30, Fasc. 1 (July 1983): 1-34. (8) Just as the primeval Person (Purusa) of RV. 10, 90, Prajapati, identified with him, is sacrificed and dismembered, and this event which took place at that archetypal sacrifice represents the transition of the One who was the primeval Totality into the plurality of the phenomenal universe; that is, that sacrifice was the creation of the universe. Of this first creative act every sacrifice is a repetition. But in the ritual of the agnicayana, the construction of the great fireplace, the god, who is the sacrifice, is restored to a unity, his several forms and members are reintegrated and consolidated. That is to say, the fireplace 'symbolizes' the combining of the scattered and uncoordinated elements of the phenomenal universe into one single organic structure.

J. Muir. Progress of the Vedic Religion towards Abstract Conceptions of the Deity. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. No. 1/2 (1865): 339391. (354)

(365) He who knows the golden reed standing in the waters is the mysterious Prajpati. Left at sl. 28 2* Ixionic precursors in the Rig Veda Willard Johnson. Poetry and Speculation of the Rg Veda. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1980. (77-78) Johnson cites from Warrens translation of the Buddhist Introduction to the Jtaka Tales an interesting passage that links the cosmic tree wheel to heaven-hell journey, to encompassing all space in the four directions, to asceticism (skeletonization) and the ultimate fixity in a cross-legged unconquerable position, from which not even the descent of a hundred thunderbolts at once could have dislodged him (78, orig. citation Henry Clarke Warren. Buddhism in Translations. New York: Atheneum, 1963 [1896], 76). (83-84) A major Rg Vedic brhman sequence occurs in 1.152, a hymn dedicated to Mitr-Varunas dispensation of order. The poem begins amid the ceremonial oblation to the hymns patrons, celebrating the victory of creation over chaos: 1. You two are clothed with fatty vestments (the sacrificial oblation), Your unbreakable thoughts are create things. You overcame all disorders (nrta) You are one with order (rt), O Mitr-Varun! 2. Many a one (contestant) has not understood this of them., This Truthfulpowerful mantra, proposed (in contest) by the poet-seer: The fierce four-pointed defeats the three-pointed! Indeed, the god-mockers aged first. [1.152.1-2] (84) The enigmatic abstraction of the four- and the threepointed is the basic enigmatic vehicle whose tenor is rtas victory

over chaos. This enigma is the Truthful mantra (i.e., brhman) that represents symbolically the Truth of established order which prevails over disorder and those who mock the gods. The hymn comes from a primal stage of Sanskrit speculation. (84-85) [T]he powerful / four-pointed is the sun. But because caturari (four-pointed) in its only other Rg vedic appearance modifies lightning (vsandhim cturarim, 4.22.2a), it is associated with the term vajra (thunderbolt, both the lightning and subsequent thunder, the familiar weapon of Indra) and second as an image with the circular discus shape. Its fourpointed character is later represented in iconography by the vajra and in solar symbolism by the svastika ([Indras] emblem of wellbeing [eudaemonia]). Their numerical symbolism means completeness, wholeness. (85) The term svastika is not Rg Vedic, though its source, svasti, is frequent and is the goal of Vedic religion. Its fourarmed symbolism represents the sun on its daily fourney, each arm indicating a subsequent position of the sun. (85) [Insert figure of the vajra Xs, which are Ixionic, or rather they show that Ixion is vajraic.] (85) The forces of the three-pointed assail human aspirations for well-being and mar life with incompletenessshortness of life, desease, infertility [!]. Frits Staal. Agni: The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar. Vol. 1. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1983. (1) The larger Vedic rituals were primarily dedicated to Agni and Soma. Agni was not only a god in his own right, but the divine messenger and intermediary. The offerings, primarily of clarified butter (ghee), were poured into sacrificial fires installed on altars, and Agni transmitted them to the gods. (-) The ceremonies were accompanied by recitations from the Rgveda and chants from the Smaveda. (-) One of the most elaborate of these ceremonies was called Agnicayana, the piling of Agni, or, simply, Agni. This ritual originated around 1,000 B.C. (-) Unlike the Rgveda, which remains curiously alien to India, the Yajurveda occupies the

center of Vedic culture. It constitutes the foundation of the ritual and of the edifice of the Vedic schools. (2) [A]round 550 B.C. Vedic culture began to decline. (4) By the time the Vedic rituals had reached their greatest elaboration, these reiterated wishes receded into the background. Their place was taken by a codification of the two kinds of rites we have already met: the grhya or domestic rites and the rauta rites. (9) Vedic ritual is the largest, most elaborate, andbest documented among the rituals of man. (11) Though vedic ritual is generally no related to myths, the construction of the fire altar from a thousand bricksis probably related to a hymn in the Rgveda that refers to a Man with a thousand heads, eyes, and feet. (65) According to ndilyas teaching in the atapatha Brhmana, the construction of the Agnicayana altar is essentially the restoration of Prajpati, the creator god, who created the world through self-sacrifice, viz., through his own dismemberment. Since Prajpati became the universe, his restoration is at the same time the restoration of the universe. Thus, piling up the altar means putting the world together again. Just as Prajpati was the original sacrificer, Agni is the divine sacrificer, and the yajamna is the human sacrificer. The designation of the fire altar as Agni indicates the identity of Agni and Prajpati. Agni, Prajpati, and the yajamna are all identified with each other, with the offering altar, and with the fire installed on it. (65, 67) Prajpati is also identified with the man (purusa) in the sun, which is also both the man in the (right) eye and the golden man (hiranmayapurusa) buried under the first layer, who represents Agni- Prajpati and the yajamna. Above this golden man are the naturally perforated (svayamtrnn) pebbles, in the first, third, and fifth layers, which enable him to breathe, and which represent the three worlds (earth, air, and sky) through which he will have to pass on his way to the fourth, invisible world of immortality. All the bricks of the altar are animated by

Prajpati putting breath in them. Thus the bird comes to life, and with the restoration of Agni-Prajpati, the yajamna gains immortality. Prajpati is Soma. Soma was brought from heaven by a bird of prey (yena). Accordingly, Prajpati and Purusa, both generally conceived of in the shape of a man, also assume the shape of a bird. This is further explained by the doctrine of the original seven seers (rsi), identified with the vital airs (prna), i.e., with life, each in the shape of a purusa. These seven purusas were combined into one Purusa, which is Prajpati and has the shape of a bird. (-) The four squares in the middle are together called tman, body / (p. 67) or self. (-) The atapatha Brhmanamentions ancient authorities who adhered to the view that the altar has the shape of a bird in order to carry the yajamna to heaven. ndilya disagreed with this and insisted on a more roundabout interpretation: the vital airs became Prajpati by assuming the shape of a bird; by assuming that form, Prajpati created the gods; by assuming that form, the gods became immortal; and what thereby the vital airs, and Prajpati, and the gods became, that indeed he (the yajamna) thereby becomes (atapatha Brhmana 6.1.2.36). Prajpati has many other forms. One of his animal manifestations is the tortoise, which represents juice. When the tortoise is buried under the altar, juice is bestowed on Agni, and rain and fertility are induced. (-) He is time, and is in particular identified with the year. Hence the Agnicayana takes a year to complete. (67) In the Soma rituals, the original enclosure with its three fires represents the world of men, and the mahvedi, newly constructed to its east, is the world of the gods. The chants and recitations are the weapons of Prajpati. (68) The yajamnas identity with Prajpati and with the fire altar, the center of which is called its body or self (tman), was generalized into the identity of tman and Brahman in every human being, which is one of the cornerstones of Indian philosophy. (68) Staal cites atapatha Brhmana 10.6.3.1-2, Eggelings translation: even as a grain of rice, or a grain of barley, or a grain of millet, or the smallest granule of millet, so is this golden

Purusa in the heart; even as a smokeless light, it is greater than the sky, greater than the ether, greater than the earth, greater than all existing things;--that self of the spirit is my self: on passing away from hence I shall obtain that self. (71) In the Maitryanya Upanisad, Prajpati, having made himself as the wind, he entered [the unconscious beings he had made]. He did not enter as one. He divided himself into five [breaths]. (-) Prajpati is mortal and immortal: his body (arra) is mortal and his breaths (prnh) are immortal (10.1.4.1). The same text speaks of Prajpati as the foundation of all things, hearkening back perhaps to the Rgveda 10.81.4 (Doniger): You deep thinkers, ask yourselves in your own hearts, what base did he stand on when he set up the worlds? (75) [T]he entire Vedic mythology was reshaped, or at any rate reorientated, as a setting for Agni and Soma, and all the other divinities became counterparts or reflections of them. Agni and Soma, the sacred fire and the sacred drink, and in any case the main deities of the Vedic ritual. (113) Eggeling was probably the first to suggest that the Agnicayana is connected with a late hymn of the Rgveda, the Purusa-skta or Hymn of the Cosmic Man (Rgveda 10.90). (115) In other cultures, similar primeval giants are regarded as the origin and material cause of the universe. Within the IndoEuropean family, such a giant occurs in Norse mythology, where he is called Ymir, and in Iran, where he is called Gaymart. Zaehner (1955, p. 137) sees an Indian influence on Iranian religion with the Purusa-Gaymart connection. (115) The idea of a cosmic sacrifice, in which a primeval person creates the world through his own sacrifice and dismemberment, is the basic theory of ritual adopted in the Brhmanas. Here Prajpati takes the place of Purusa. When the golden purusa is laid down on the first layer of the altar, the Purusa-sman is sung, which repeats the Rgveda 10.90 association of purusa and thousand: You are the measure of a thousand (Taittirya samhit 4.4.11.3o).

(116) Also, following Rgveda 10.90.15, the number of beans put in the openings of the human head is also twenty-one. Also, Prajpatis creative activity is generally expressed by the verb srj/sarj, emit, discharge, and often by nir-ma, mete out, measure, build. [Is nir related to ner in ner-gal?] (117) Prajpati created the gods, who subsequently put him together again through sacrifice. Agni is born first, from Prajpatis mouth. But since Agni is the eater of food, viz., the devourer of everything, Prajpati reflected: there is no other food here but myselfbut surely he would never eat me. But Agni, the ungrateful child, turned to him with wide open mouth and Prajpati, terrified, could only save himself by reproducing himself. (118) One Vedic rite is called Purusamedhahuman sacrifice. (119) In the SB, When the human victim is killed, its juice (rasa) flows into the earth, which grows the rice out of which the puroda cakes are prepared. In the White Yajurveda, the heads of the five victims of the Agnicayana are kept in the sacrifice, but the bodies are thrown into water that is mixed with the clay from which some of the bricks for the altar are made. (-) In the Pravargya and in the Agnicayana there survives a tendency to preserve the body of the victim, so that the sacrificer can absorb its powerful rasa juice. This liquid is subsequently related to and identified with sacrificial beverages such as Soma and gharma, the boiled milk of the Pravargya. (120) According to Mus, the myth of the dismemberment of Purusa/ Prajpati is not of Aryan origin. There are no references to it in the earlier Veda, but it is common in the religious ethnography of South East Asia and its pacific dependencies. Mus also observed that there is attested, parallel to the myth, the practice of putting to death a human being for the collective profit of those who offered him, a sacrifice which is followed by a dismemberment, or even the dismemberment of the victim while he is still alive. He adds: The cruel form which the sacrifice of meriah used to take, hardly more than a century ago among certain primitive tribes of India, is well known. The man was bound to the stake and each person tore off a piece of his flesh until there was

nothing left of him. Then the participants would each go and bury his own portion in his best field. [Citation P. Mus. Barabudur: esquisse dune hisoire du bouddhisme fonde sur la critique archologique des textes. I. Hanoi, 1935, p. 116] Left at p. 120

J. Muir. On Manu, the Progenitor of the Aryyan Indians, as Represented in the Hymns of the Rigveda. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 20 (1863): 406-430. (410) [T]he authors of the [Vedic] hymns regarded Manu as the progenitor of their race. Butthey also looked upon him as the first person by whom the sacrificial fire had been kindled, and as the institutor of the ceremonial of worship. (411) RV 2.10.1: When Agni, the invoker, like a first father (is) kindled by Manush (or man) on the place of sacrifice. (412) 7.2.3: Like Manush, let us continually invoke to the sacrifice, Agni who was kindled by Manu. Muir notes: Syana explains the last words as meaning formerly kindled by the Prajpati Manu. (414) RV 10.53.6: Be a Manu, and generate the divine race. [In Vedic religion, the Cosmic Man is associated with creation of all things and with sacrifice, which re-creates and re-constitutes the cosmos and its law (rta). The main god of the Rigveda, Indra, is the creator of the cosmos and the ruler of the gods through soma. Who is a god and who is not? This ambiguity is the background for the Ixion story perhaps.]

II. Ixion: The Great Worshipper S. Mahdihassan. The Genesis of the Four Elements: Air, Water, Earth and Fire. 251-256 in H.K. Sherwani, ed. Dr. Ghulam Yazdani Commemoration Volume. Hyderabad, A.P.: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Oriental Reserch Institute, 1966. (255)

Jeanine Miller. The Vision of Cosmic Order in the Vedas. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985. (12) The contemplative exertion whereby the divine creative flame is released (tapas)this in itself being the sacrificial offering of Deity (yaja), the giving up of blissful homogeneity so that a world of heterogeneity may beis itself the primordial step, the origin of all. The One thereby becomes two: the

absolute beyond conception shrouded in darkness and remaining in darkness even in the period of manifestation, and the Creative Deity (the demiurge) born of the dire of divine contemplation (tapas), personified in Agni, in Varuna, in Visvakarman and Prajpati. Here may be glimpsed the original idea of the unfoldment from within without, the first step, hence the projection. (-) The colourful language of myth expressed all this as the dragon of chaos (more and more anthropomorphized as time went one) being rent asunder, dismembered, by the demiurgein this case personified as Indraas a result of which the waters of life are let loose, the sun is set on high, the darkness of chaos is changed into a world with division, spheres, realms, numbers. (-) At the terrestrial level, creation is repeated in a similar way, buthere the great personification of natures creativity, the god Tvastr, is depicted as presiding over all births and shaping all forms. W. Norman Brown. The Creation Myth of the Rg Veda. 20-33 in W. Norman Brown. India and Indology: Selected Articles. Ed. Rosane Rocher. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1978. [Orig. published in Journal of the American Oriental Society 62 (1942): 85-98.] (23) Though the dityas represent dynamism, freedom, and liberation, their triumph behind Indra is in the context of law, of rta, which is a rule to be followed. [Paradoxically, Vedic sacrifice is the basis of cosmic order, though it is the only real liberation, the only real freedom. See W. Norman Brown. Man in the Universe: Some Continuities in Indian Thought. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1966: p. 10 Behavior far outweighs dogma in Hinduism. p. 11 To keep out universe operating smoothly, every being in it has a function. (-) Each god and each human must assiduously devote himself to his function. If he fails in performing it, to that extent the operation of the universe is impaired. Liberation is ascent through the dome of the heavens to immortality at the top of the Sat (p. 19).] [Paradox: Freedom is performance of cosmic duty. Freedom is fixity in ritual, both public and private sacrifice, alongside external and internal asceticism, individual vowholding.]

(29) Evidently the place of the gods, for the moment of their birth, was on high. But Indra, as though with consciousness of a mission before him, refuses to join the gods, and he answers in the second verse of the hymn: I shall not go [straight] forth to dangers here. Let me go forth from the side to avoid them. Many deeds not done before must I do. I have both to fight and to question. (-) [W]hen he had been born up, he saw his mother leaving him. I must follow her, the hymn continues, I shall go with her. Then in Tvastrs house Indra drank the soma, which in other passages (3.48.4; cf. 1.61.7) he stole. [Interior citations: RV 4.18] (29) The drinking of soma was the most important thing that ever happened to Indra, and presumably he knew beforehand that it would be. As soon as he drank it he was filled with heroic might (4.18.5); he swelled to a terrifying size and filled to two worlds, that is, Sky and Earth (3.36.3), and acquired the vastness for which he is noted (10.89). (30) At some point, Indra fights the gods who had left him. See RV 4.18.11; 8.96.7) (31) Victorious, Indra became lord of the cosmos (3.30). He supported the sky, spread out Mother Earth (6.72.2; cf. 10.62.3; 2,13,5). He created by setting the worlds apart and starting the sun on its revolution (6.30.5; 8.36.4; 10.29.6; 10.54.3; 9.63.7). See footnote 65 (!): This is stated metaphorically as Indra fixing earth and sky to his car, like wheels on an axle (10.89.4). He is called father of the sky etc., who is after all his own father, but the paradoxical epithet seems based upon the fact that he gave the sky its present function, and thus is its father. (31) His mighty deed is that he gains the sun (10.43.5), which he set in the sky after slaying Vrtra; he set its wheel in motion (1.130.9); he rolls the suns disk (4.16.12). (-) He made the sun shine. With the sun he makes a pathway trough the darkness (6.21.3). It is possible that here belongs the touch of Indra conquering the Sun and stealing his wheel (10.43.5; 1.175.4; 4.30.4). It may have moved too fast.

(32) The waters [released by Indras action from the embryo of the sun] made their may to the ocean, which is the atmospheric ocean. (-) At Varunas prayer the cosmic order (rta) was born. [Indra is the son of Tvastrs house, Sky (Dyaus, the original Zeus) and Earth. Indra steals fire (soma) from Tvastr, who is a Hephaestus figure. Indras expansion has to be seen as the original microcosm-macrocosm. It is the missing archetype, the narrative complement to the altar-Purusa theme and the RV 10.90 Purusa sukta.] H.D. Griswold. The Religion of the Rigveda. London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1923. (24) Rta is a concept binding together an order at once 1) moral, 2) liturgical, and 3) cosmic. [One might add a fourth realm, the hereafter of the gods in their blissful heaven.] (98) It is not difficult to see how the Greek Zeus tradition would have difficulty coming to terms with the Vedic Dyus, who is a mere worshipper of the mid-air solar track, Indras realm: These two [Dyus and Prithiv] To all beneficent, support the mid-airs sage (RV 1.160.1) (99) Later in the hymn, we see Agni/Indra the great sage as cosmic measurer: He who with insight measured out the spaces twain, / With props unaging (RV 1.160.4)

James L. Boyce. Ixion: Origins and Meanings of a Myth. Unpublished Ph.D. diss. Chapel Hill, 1974. (8) The first reference to Ixion is in the Iliad: This passage contains only the briefest reference to a wife of Ixion who by her union with Zeus bears Peirithous. (11) Pindars Second Ode contains little information about Ixions initial crime. He says that Ixion was the first among mortals to murder a kinsman. [M]ore detail is addedby the tragedian Aeschylus. According to his version Ixion became a suppliant

seeking absolution from his crime of murder and was finally cleansed by Zeus. (12-13) Didorus Siculuss account: Now the other of the sons of Lapithes, Periphas, married Astygyia the daughter of Hypseus and had eight sons, the eldest of whom was Antion. Antion married Perimela the daughter of Amythaon and had a son Ixion. Ixion, so the tradition goes, promising that he would give many wedding-gifts to Esioneus married Isioneus daughter Dia by whom he had a son Peirithous. Later when Ixion did not deliver the wedding-gifts for his wife, Esioneus took his mares instead as security. But Ixion summoned Esioneus, promising that he would comply in every way, and threw Esioneus once arrived into a pit full of fire. Because of the enormity of the transgression no one was willing to purge away the murder. Finally, however, he was purified by Zeus, according to the mythical accounts. But Ixion became enamored of Hera and brazenly spoke to her about a liaison. Then Zeus fashioned a cloud in the likeness of Hera and sent it to Ixion who lay with the cloud and begot the creatures of human form called Centaurs. / Finally, the myths continue, Ixion because of the enormity of his sins was bound by Zeus on a wheel, and after he died suffered eternal punishment [Bibliotheca 4.69.3-5.] (17) In a lexical reference the Etymologicum Genuinum describes the ancient practice of murderers mutilating the corpse in order to purify themselves from the blood of the victim. There, too, the Perrhaebides, as well as the Laius, of Aeschylus are cited as authorities for the fact that such murderers also sought to purify themselves by first tasting and then spitting out the blood of the victim. The actual verse from Aeschylus is very likely preserved in Plutarchs comment that according to Aeschylus people say, (-) The other fragment which may come from the last part of the Perrhaebides derives from Eustathius remark that for the ancients the blood of a pig was thought necessary for purification. (19) The Anecdota Graeca notes that Zues is called the alastor, avenger, of those who do evil, and further that Aeschylus in the

Ixion applied to him the epithet preumenes alastoros, merciful avenger. (22) In the Philoctetes [of Sophocles] the chorus describe the suffering of the hero of that drama as being surpassed in sadness only by the fate of Ixion, who as the chorus comment, once dared approach the bed of Zeus and now is held prisoner on a whirling wheel by the mighty son of Cronus. (22-23) Aeschylusincorporated in his version a profound moral tone and assigneda certain moral stature to Ixion. In contrast Euripides / brings on the stage an Ixion who appears as a kind of boaster of sophistic reasoner, perversely defending his crimes and coming near to disputing the very existence of duty and virtue. (23) Ixion was evidently characterized by Euripides as a tyrant who capitalized on his opportunities and as a result gained the hatred of his oppressed subjects. (27) A scholion to Iliad 1.268 says that Ixion was [d]riven mad after his initial crime was committed. A scholion to Odyssey 21.303 called Ixion the son of Zeus. But not only was he not careful to repay kindness to Zeus, but in his natural wickedness he made an attempt at union with Hera. But the goddess suspected and reported to Zeus the madness of Ixion. [Interesting, for the madness that Ixion was supposedly cured of reappears in the Hera incident.] (-) Then Zeus, greatly angered at him, visited upon him a punishment equal to death. For since he had tasted of ambrosia he was not able to die. But Zeus fashioned winged wheels, bound Ixion to the spokes of the wheels and compelled him to be borne along beneath the celestial sphere shouting that it is proper to do benefactors good in return. From the cloud, however, was born to Ixion a son of hybrid form; the lower portion had the shape of his mother, for clouds look like horses; and the upper portion from the navel to the head had the shape of his father Ixion. This son roamed through Magnesia with an uncontrollable urge for intercourse; for he was like his father in his intemperance. And many times he approached the mares on Pelion. From this it is said that the race of Centaurs was sprung.

(27-28) From comments by the scholiasts on several lines of Pindars / Second Pythian the following version can be constructed: [A]lthough he had received a pleasant existence with the children of Cronus who were kindly disposed towards him, he was not strong enough to bear the course of life among the gods and the lengthy bliss which transcended his nature, when in his demented state he lusted after Hera. (-) Zeus ordered him to say that it was proper to repay benefactors with good things and not to harm them with the opposite. (29) The scholiast to Euripides Phoenissae 1185: Some say that he cast him into Tartarus; others that the wheel was also fiery. (30) Apolloduros: Zeus bound him to a wheel on which he was borne by winds through the air. Such is the penalty he pays. (33) A turning point in the tradition about Ixion is represented by Apollonius Rhodius. Up to his time all of the accounts know only of the punishment of Ixion as located in the upper world or in the air. (-) Apolloniushas Hera describe how she would rescue Jason even if he should sail to hades to free Ixion from his bondsand thus becomes the first known author to locate the punishment in the underworld. Thus Ixion becomes associated with Tantalus, Sisyphus and Tityus as Hades-dwellers. (33-34) Vergils version of the Ixion in Hell theme introduces the idea of Ixions wheel being entwined with snakes. In the Aeneid, Ixion has no wheel, but rather has a rock poised above his head about to fall and has a banquet around him that he cannot touch. (36-38) Lucians humorous treatment: Hera: This Ixion fellow, Zeus; what kind of a character do you think he is? Zeus: Why hes a good man, Hera, and great at a party; for he wouldnt be here with us if he werent worthy of our entertainment. Hera: But he isnt worthy; indeed hes insolent. So dont let him stay any longer. (-)

Hera:

He would sigh and whimper, and whenever I handed the cup back to Ganymede when I had finished drinking, he would ask to drink from the same cup, and when he got it, he would stop in the middle of a drink and kiss it and bring it up to his eyes and stare at me again. / [Surely this lovesickness is out of place for the original Ixion as true worshipper. It is a residue of his great piety.]

(-) Zeus: Is he so drunk on nectar? But I guess its our own fault; weve been too nice to men in even inviting them up to drink with us. They cant be blamed then if, after theyve drunk the same as we and seen heavenly beauties like theyve never seen on earth, they fall in love and want to enjoy them. For loves a powerful thing and gets control no only of men, but sometimes of us gods. Hera: Its your master all right, and completely! And it drags you along, leading you by the nose, they say, and you follow wherever it leads you and change readily into whatever form it commands. Really, youre just a possession and plaything of love. And as for Ixion I know why youre feeling sympathy for him; because you yourself once seduced his wife, when she bore Peirithous for you. / (-) Zeus: For what harm can you suffer from the replica, if Ixion makes love to a cloud? Hera: But I will seem to be the cloud and he will be doing the shameful thing to me because of the resemblance. [This whole discourse surely speaks of the theme of the man who resembles the gods. Is it shameful, or is it praiseworthy to be deified? Perhaps we see a Greek response to shamanism or other developed ancestor cults that preceded the Olympian religion.] (-) Zeus: Well then, if he says that, hell be sent down to Hades and bound to a wheel, the scoundrel, and hell be whirled around on it forever, and suffer endless torment in payment, not for his passionfor now thats not so terriblebut for his boasting. [Here we have a further developmentthree separate crimes of

Ixion. 1) First he kills a kinsman, 2) next he has passion for Heras divine beauty, and last 3) he goes back down to Earth and brags that he has become Zeus in every way, having been with Hera. Illustrated here is the ambivalent status of Ixion. Each crime seems to be excusable and necessitates the addition of another crime.] (43) Hyginus account has Mercury appearing to carry out Ixions underworld punishment. Servius says Ixion was a close friend or ally of Zeus, amicissimus Iovi. (44) A scholion by Lactantius Placidus to Statius Thebaid introduces the notion that Zeus struck Ixion with a thunderbolt before sending him to Hades. (50) A scholiast, commenting on Lucian Piscator 12, explains Centaurus as penetrating (kentein) the air (aura). (92) The neck-amphora from Cumae (Plate 5) by the Ixion painter, the tongues of flame radiate, not outwardbut inward as if to lick at the body of Ixion (93). Immediately below the wheel rises as the symbol of punishment a winged Erinys (93). The upward glances of Hermes and Hephaestus together with the figure of the Erinys emerging beneath the wheel would seem to indicate that the punishment of Ixion here depicted takes place in the air. This conception is further strengthened by the presence of the two winged female figures who sit on either side of the wheel and grasp its outer rim with their right hands as if to set it in motion. These figures have been variously identified, but they are most commonly interpreted as Nephelae, personifications of the clouds, through whom reference is perhaps made to the crime of Ixion and among whom the punishment is taking place. By a different but still similar interpretation they would be personifications of the Aurae who are setting the wheel in motion through the air. (101) The engraved bronze mirror in the British Museum (Plate 10), has an ivy-wreath border.

(128) To be notedis a relief from around 1100 found between the Duomo and the Baptistry at Torcello near Venice, on which Ixion appears stretched supine around the external circumference of a wheel. To the right and left of him stand two Erinyes dressed in long attire and holding torches in their hands. (129-130) Note an illustration of the winged Aer (Plate 22) stretched Ixion-fashion over the circle of the universe. The wheel of the heavens is kept in motion by the four winds, one blowing from each corner. Through them, in recollections of the Aurae on the Cumae vase and the wind on the Side relief, the clockwise revolution of the wheel is symbolically expressed. (155) [T]he material under consideration is comparatively meager. The primary literary and mythographic references with any substantial detail or linking of motifs number no more than about twenty; the artistic representations number about seventeen. (193) In this later tradition [Latin, of Ixion as amongst the great sinners Tantalos, Sisyphus, etc.], the apparent focus of the myth alters from that in the earlier tradition, namely that Ixion, in addition to his whirling punishment on the wheel, was compelled by Zeus to cry a message for all to hear: It is unnecessary to honor benefactors. [Is the real sin of Ixion the shamanic-Hermetic religion of transcendence, with its cosmotheanthropic rhythm and concomitant individualism?] (222) Boyce notes the cosmic character of the image of the wheel which points beyond its symbolic expression of the duty of thankfulness to the thought presented at the conclusion of the myth and developed more broadly in the concluding praises of the victor, namely the omnipotence of Zeus. (225-6) The interpretations of Bowra and Burton that Pindar was passed over by Hieron for Bacchylides to celebrate his Olympic chariot victory of 468 B.C. (225).

(234) Boyce believes that Pindar organized the Ixion material around the maxims 1) one must be gracious to ones benefactors, and 2) one must know oneself and thus discharge the human duty to moderation. This focus is not the original context of the material, but is a reflection of Pindars purpose in the Odes. (239) Pindars interpretation of the origin and character of the Centaurs shows his design to change the ambiguous or positive associations of Ixion, for the wildness and incivility of the Centaurs is emphasized, but the technological, medical, and gnoseological virtues of Chiron afre not mentioned. Boyce thinks that Pindar invented the Ixionic origin of the centaurs, but we think it much more likely that Pindar merely reinterpreted the material to suit his purpose of showing Ixion to be a great sinner, period. (269) On the subject of the etymology of Ixion, F.G. Welcker saw the point of contact in Ixion the iktes, suppliant, an aspect to which, he argued, Aeschylus also alludes when he has Athena compare Orestes suppliant status with Ixions. Welcker sought added support for this derivation in two of the various names offered for Ixions father, Antion and Peision, respectively from antian, to request of ask, and pethein, to gain by request. [Citation F.G. Welcker, Die Aeschylische Trilogie Prometheus un die Kabirenweihe zu Lemnos nebst winken ber di Trilogie des Aeschylos berhaupt. Darmstadt: E.W. Leske, 1824, p. 549.] (272) Though he otherwise followed a one-sided interpretation of Ixion as a great sinner, Weizscker associated the name Ixion with ischus, the powerful one. [Citation P. Weizscker. Ixion. Ausfhrlickes Lexikon der griechischen und rmischen Mythologie. Vol. II, 766-772. No page number cited.] left at sl. 284 Edgar Wind. The Criminal-God. Journal of the Warburg Institute 1.3 (January 1938): 243-245.

Is it possible that Ixion is taken to heaven and then crucified because he is a hold over from an earlier scapegoat custom? David M. Knipe. The Heroic Theft: Myths from Rgveda IV and the Ancient Near East. History of Religions 6.4 (May 1967): 328-360. (338) Turning to Snorri's Edda we find inn two manifestations used by Zeus. In Skldskaparml 4-6 inn as an eagle steals the giant Suttung's mead, not from the heavens, but from the depths of a rock, the mountain Hnitbjrg. With the help of Suttung's brother, Baugi, inn bores a hole with an auger called Rati, changes into a serpent to gain entrance, and sleeps for three nights with Suttung's giantess daughter, Gunnl. She grants him three draughts of mead, and he changes into an eagle and flies off with the prize in his beak, Suttung (also now in eagle form) in such close pursuit that inn spills some of the mead. The magic drink is presented by inn to the sir and to men of poetic genius. The tale has an abbreviated parallel in the poetic Edda, Hvaml 104-10 (where we also have in the Rnatals ttr [strophes 138-45] inn's other famous means of acquiring the mead that makes him fertile and fluentthe ordeal of hanging in the wind-whipped tree for nine nights through, a sacrifice to himself).

J. Muir. Contributions to a Knowledge of the Vedic Theogony and Mythology. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series 1.1-2 (1865): 51-140. (60) Yska proceeds in the latter part of his work to divide the different deities, or forms of the same deities, specified in the fifth chapter of the Naighantuka or Vocabulary, which is prefixed to his work, into the three orders of terrestrial (Nirukta vii. 14ix. 43), intermediate or atmospheric (x. 1xi. 50), and celestial (xii. 1-40).

(61) There are 33 gods referred to in the Rg Veda, eleven for each levelearth, atmosphere, and sky. Sataphatha Brhmana 11.6.3.5 lists Indra as Heaven and Prajpati as Earth. (63) The deities are often depicted as children of the earth and sky and as great worshippers who attained their divinity through asceticism (tapas). See John Muir, ed. and trans. Original Sanskrit Texts On the Origin and History of the People of India, their Religion and Institutions. Vol. 4. General Books (reprint), 2010, pp, 47-53. (73) When, gods, ye moved, agitated, upon those waters, then a violent dust issued from you, as from dancers. 7. When, gods, ye, like strenuous men, replenished the worlds, then ye drew forth the sun which was hidden in the (ethereal?) ocean. 8. Of the eight sons of Aditi who were born from her body, she approached the gods with seven, and cast out Mrttnda (the eighth). [I think the eight sons are planets and the eighth is Mars, but I do not remember the reference at the moment. Later, the sons (the Adityas) are always said to be twelve for the twelve monthsproto-zodiac?] (77) Mitra and Varuna are day and night, a binary. Mitra is the sun. Varuna is the setting sun (black sun?). Rg Veda 1.25.18: I beheld [Varunas] chariot upon the ground. Both gods are associated with untold power and martial strength (79). Varuna upholds heaven and earth (80). (81) 6. May thy destructive nooses, O Varuna, which are cast seven-fold, and three-fold, ensnare the man who speaks lies, and pass by him who speaks truth [This is the Atharva Veda, book 4, hymn 16. How does this relate to the Enuma Elishs nets of Marduk?]. (83) Varunas laws are daily transgressed by sinful creation, and much is heard of the nooses and nets he uses to seize and punish transgressors (Rg Veda 1.24.15, 4.74.4, 10.85.24). (88) Varuna corresponds in name to the Ouranos of the Greeks.

(89) In the Purusha Skta (R.V. x. 90, 13) Indra is said to have sprung, along with Agni, from the mouth of Purusha. In one of the latest hymns (x. 167, 1) he is declared to have conquered heaven by austerity (tapas). (90) Indra is invested with the ruddy luster of the sun (x. 112, 3). He casts down those who attempt to scale the sacred mountains (R.V. 1.32.2, etc.) or hurls them back when they attempt to scale the heavens (ii. 12, 12; viii. 12, 14.) (96-97) The growth of much of the imagery thus described is perfectly natural, and easily intelligible, particularly to persons who have lived in India, and witnessed the phenomena of the seasons in that country. At the close of the long hot weather, / when every one is longing for rain to moisten the earth and cool the atmosphere, it is often extremely tantalizing to see the clouds collecting and floating across the sky day after day, without discharging their contents. And in the early ages when the Vedic hymns were composed it was an idea quite in consonance with the other general conceptions which their authors entertained, to imagine that some malignant influence was at work in the atmosphere to prevent the fall of the showers of which their parched fields stood so much in need. It was but a step further to personify both this hostile power and the beneficent agency by which it was at length overcome. Indra is thus at once a terrible warrior and a gracious friend, a god whose shafts deal destruction to his enemies, while they bring deliverance and prosperity to his worshippers. The phenomena of thunder and lightning almost inevitably suggest the idea of a conflict between opposing forces: even we ourselves, in our more prosaic age, often speak of the war or strife of the elements. (98) R.V. 2.17.5: He has supported the earth, the universal nurse. By his skill he has propped up the sky from falling. (114-115) Srya, a Vedic solar deity, may be the prototype for Ixion. He is the preserver and soul of all things stationary and moving / and the vivifier of men. He is far-seeing, all-seeing; beholds all creatures and the good and bad deeds of mortals. (-) He upholds the sky. (-) In x. 170, 4, the epithets visvakarman, the architect of the universe, and visvadevyarat, the sovereign deity, are applied to him. (-) In vii. 60, 1, and vii. 62, 2, he is said to declare men sinless to Mitra, Varuna, etc.

(115-116) In many passagesthe dependent position of Srya is asserted. Thus he is said to have been produced, or caused to shine, or to rise, or to have his path prepared, etc., by Indra; by Indra and Soma. (-) He is declared to be god-born (x.37, 1), to be the son of the sky (ibid.), to have been drawn by the gods from the ocean where he was hidden (x. 72, 7), to have been / placed by the gods in heaven (x.88, 11); and to have sprung from the eye of Purusha (x. 90, 13). He is also said to have been overcome by Indra (x. 43, 5; iv. 30, 6), who carried off one of the wheels of his chariot (i. 175, 4) [further citation: 4.17.14, 6.56.3] (116) Ushas is in one place said to be his wife (vii. 75, 5); while in another passage (vii. 78, 3) the Dawns are by a natural figure declared to produce him, and in a third passage to re veal him (vii. 80, 2). The Atharva Veda contains a long hymn to Srya, xiii. 2. The Mahabharata (iii. 166 ff.) has a hymn to the same god, in which he is styled the eye of the world, and the soul of all embodied beings (v. 166); and his divine chariot is referred to (v. 170). (122) Agni is the god of sacrifice: He is the domestic priest [Brahmin] appointed both by men and gods, who performs in a higher sense all the various sacrificial offices which the Indian ritual assigned to a number of different functionaries. (124) Agni was generated by Indra between two clouds (ii. 12, 3) . [Is this the origin of the idea that Ixion generates Centaurus from a cloud?] (130) In one place (viii. 44, 23), the worshipper naively says to Agni: If I were thou, and thou wert I, thy aspirations should be fulfilled; and again, viii. 19, 25 f.: If, Agni, thou wert a mortal, and I an immortal, . . . . I would not abandon thee to wrong or to penury. My worshipper should not be poor, nor distressed, nor miserable. All gods are comprehended in him (v. 3, 1); he surrounds them as the circumference of a wheel does the spokes (i. 141, 9 ; v. 13, 6). (131) Tvashtr is the Indian Vulcan, the artist par excellence who is versed in all magical devices. He forges the thunderbolts

of Indra, which are described as formed of gold, or of iron, with a thousand points and a hundred edges. (133) In x. 17, 1 f. Tvashtr is said to have given his daughter Saranyu in marriage to Vivasvat: Tvashtr makes a wedding for his daughter. (Hearing) this the whole world assembles. The mother of Yama, the wedded wife of the great Vivasvat, disappeared. 2. They concealed the immortal (bride) from mortals. Making (another) of like appearance (savarnm), they gave her to Vivasvat. Saranyu bore the two Asvins, and when she had done so, she deserted the two twins. These two verses are quoted in the Nirukta, xii. 10 f., where the following illustrative story is told: Saranyu, the daughter of Tvashtr, bore twins to Vivasvat the sun. She then substituted for herself another female of similar appearance (savarnm), and fled in the form of a mare. Vivasvat in like manner assumed the shape of a horse, and followed her. From their intercourse sprang the two Asvins, while Manu was the offspring of Savarn (or the female of like appearance). (See Roth's interpretation of R.V. x. 17, 1 ff. and remarks thereon, in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, iv. 424 f.; and the same writer's translation, in his Illustrations of the Nirukta, p. 161, of a passage of the Brhaddevata, given by Sayana on R.V. vii. 72, 2, relating the same story about Vivasvat and Saranyu which is given in the Nirukta). [On the Avins, see Spess, Soma, p. 43: In Sanskrit the word avin, derived from ava (horse), means literally possessed of horses or horse-headed, (-) They are described in the hymns as continually drinking their soma mixture aboard their chariot yet never becoming intoxicated. The asvins are lotus-crowned (44) and the lotus may have been imported from India to Egypt, where the pharaohs are shown with plant-crowns (see Berlant). Also see 44ff. for the important notion that the Asvin twins represent the most primal sets of energy-generating opposites.] (133) Tvashtr is represented as having for his most frequent attendants the wives of the gods. (135) In the Mrkandeya Purana, section 77, Tvashtr is identified with Visvakarman and Prajpati. Compare verses 1, 10, 15, 16,34, 36,38, and 41. Weber (Omina und Portenta, p. 391 f.) refers to a passage of the Adbhutdhyya of the Kausika Stras,

where Tvashtr is identified with Savitr and Prajpati. described as the Indian Bacchus. Louis

Soma is

Renou. The Vedic House. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 34 (Autumn 1998): 142-161.

(147) The shape of the site [for building a house] is either that of a brick (d) [sic, should read l] or of a circle (mandaladvpa), according to some texts. Other texts speak of square or rectangular shapes (147-148). (151) According to Baudyana's ulbastra, a l forms a rectangle that is 16 or 12 feet in length, 12 or 10 feet wide [Citation Bal. Sut. 4]. (159) If we rely on Vedic texts, we are in the presence of a type of house that is extremely rudimentary, composed of an armature of posts, connected at the summit by transverse beams onto which a thatched covering is attached. The walls are woven mats. Neither stone nor brick are used. Brick, however, is well known in the tradition of the Yajurveda, but its use there is limited to the "stacking" of the fire altar (agnicayana) and of accessory annexes. John Robert Gardner. The Developing Terminology for the Self in Vedic India. Ph.d. diss. University of Iowa, 1998. (295-296) Most of the fifteen occasions of prusa in the later RV are found in RV 10, and seven of these are in the Purusa Skta. [I]t is safe to assume it is a later inclusion in the Vedic literature. This does not mean, however, that it is a later development or idea. Accounting for the relatively sudden and isolated appearance of / prusa in the literature is not an easy matter, and one which scholarshave not examined in any detail. (296) If, as Elizarenkova suggests, the prusa represents a borrowing from another language (1995: 67), there could be reasons of hegemony of the Vedic priesthood in this development. The ascendant power of Agni over the wrathful pareseya in 8.71.2a suggests this as well, considering that this

could well be a later hymn. If the use of prusa reflected a borrowing from another language, it would serve to promote the supremacy of the Vedic gods over the people of that language to underscore Agnis power over their wrath. [Citation Tatyana J. Elizarenkova. Language and Style of the Vedic Rsis. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.] In many references in RV, prusa denotes a mortal individual rather than an essence or subtle being. (299) Gardner follows Brown in defining prusa as essence. (302) Purusa is elevated beyond human statusthe only such declaration of universal totalityassociated with the prusa in the RVand one which is not made of tmn either. (303) At 5.12.1a, prusa is the sacrificial presser. (304) As a word for the self, the model of the micromacrocosmic equivalencies begins with this hymn. Such significations for any other element of the vocabularyis a marked contrast. The prusa literally begins as an abstract signifier of the metaphysical integration of the universe. At best the atman is the essence or animator of the sacrifice or its fee. (-) purusa arrives alreadydeveloped with a quite complex notion of self. (334) [P]rusa proves to be a containerin which the tmn is placed. That container, the social person, is comprised of breaths, mind, heart, etc. (346) That verily is the share of Varuna, which is the barley corns. With his own share he satisfies (propitiates) Varuna. He becomes one of the size of one span (distance between outstretched index and thumb). That big is the indeed the prusa, as great as his prns. As much/big as is (his) tmn, that one he releases from Varuna. Agni is the year [KS 10.4 look up in abbreviations] [Relate to the Greek notion of the brick/palmspan association in the pentadoron, etc.]

David L. Spess. Soma: The Divine Hallucinogen. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press, 2000. [Other notes associated with asvins above] (58) The origin of the English word man is derived from the Sanskrit name Manu, the first man. (59) Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta in India for the Seleucid Empire, tells us that the Greek myth of the Hyperboreans was of Indian origin. He mentions that these Indian Hyperboreans live a thousand years. He also says that wine was never drunk by the Indians except at sacrifices when soma juice was consumed. This indicates that at this time soma was a fermented drink. (62) [L]egends, such as those of Prester John, the mythical Eastern Christian king, also describe paradise as being in India. The paradise of Prester John contained a fountain of youth which preserves health for three hundred and three years, three months, three weeks, and three days. (63-64) A number of Rg Vedic / hymns clearly state that at one time the gods gained immortality through drinking soma. But through supernormal means, the Atharvans (soma priests) discovered the gods ancient secret of the preparation of the entheogenic soma drink that allowed human beings to obtain the same immortal status as the gods. (64-65) Soma was believed to grant its users paranormal abilities such as psychogen- / esis (mind-born creations or transmutations). Current research has suggested that elixir alchemy was first developed in China among the Taoists. It can be shown, however, that Chinese elixir theories were derived from the elixir theory in India that came from the Rg Veda. The notion of a rejuvenation elixir appears to have been transmitted to China from India at a very early date and from the Chinese and Indians to the Arabs, from which it was transmitted through Arabic alchemical and scientific writings to Jewish philosophers and to Roger Bacon.

(66) Another early ascetic group, called the vrtyas, were were great miracle workers. (-) Their ascesis involveda practice based on the internal vibrations (vipra) within the matrix (hrdyakasa, or space within the heart), the universal womb of creation associated with the Anthropos. (-) They entered ecstatic states and cosmicized their subtle bodies into replicas of the universe. (68) Within the matrix of the heart-cave-womb in the soma ceremony a golden embryo is generated that becomes the internal body of light or Anthropos. [See Staal] (71) As the Rg Veda reflects, The Pole Star and Big Dipper figure in the archaic myths of most cultures, but their use as the source and holder of the elixir of immortality in a developed cosmogony and cosmology comes from the soma ceremony of the Rg Veda. (78) During the formulation of alchemy in Greco-Roman Egypt in the first and second centuries C.E., there were direct trade links with India. A statuette found at Pompeii of the Hindu goddess Laksm, who is associated with the lotus plant, has been dated to this time. According to Greek sources, the Persian mystic and magus Ostanes (500 B.C.E.) was the first to explain both magic and alchemy to the Greco-Egyptians. According to Pliny, he was the first writer on magic and a direct pupil of Zoroaster. Ostanes was obviously an Indo-Iranian well acquainted with the magical/alchemical rituals of the entheogenic haoma/soma ceremonies. left sl. 94 Eivind Lorenzen. Canon and Thumbs in Egyptian Art (Review of Erik Iverson, Canon and Proportions in Egyptian Art). Journal of the American Oriental Society 97.4 (OctoberDecember 1977): 531-539. (532) 4 small cubits constitute the fathom-unit, equalling the distance between the thumbs with the arms outstretched. It is furthermore claimed that the fathom corresponds to a height from the sole of the foot to a measuring point at the hairline. It is

also postulated that the length of the forearm from elbow to the tip of the medius is identical with the royal cubit which equals 7 handbreadths. (536) See figure that compares Vitruvius to Egyptian art! 538 (print out and scan!). And

(537) If Hultsch's Xylon, equalling 3 royal cubits, turns out to have something to do with the height to the mouth on a lst-canon figure in the Vitruvian circle, the result would be that 2/3 of the mouth-height would correspond to the radius, as the logical determination (and unit) of the measurement-circle itself (see fig. 3). Since mouth-opening rituals were celebrated whenever a statue had been finally completed, there can scarcely be any doubt that the height to the mouth reflected more than mere metrological interest. The purpose of this technical drawing experiment is to demonstrate that the original Ukh-Hotep divisions can be used directly on the 1st- and the 2nd-canon grids, and that Vitruvius' man in the circle, which has been questioned by so many, may lead to new knowledge with regard to the mechanics of the Egyptian modules.

W. Crooke. The House in India from the Point of View of Sociology and Folklore. Folklore 29.2 (June 29, 1918): 113145. Left at sl 1

III. Interlude: Pythagorean Mysteries Unlocked Adam Drozdek. Greek Philosophers as Theologians: The Divine Arche. Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, 2007. (53-54) All of human conduct should be in agreement with the divine. This is the principle; all of life is so ordered as to follow God (137 = 58D2, 86-87). The principle means that God is not only / the guardian of the world order, but also can become someone to be approached and imitated. [Citation Leopold Schmidt. Die Ethik der alten Griechen. Berlin: Hertz, 1882, 167] (54) Pythagorean notions of natural human imperfection and the ability of a select few to become master worshippers has as its corollary the idea of constant piety and worship of the divine whereby one can always keep in mind that God watches over human progress (Iamblicus Life of Pythagoras 175 = 58D3). (54) But no explicit theology was left by Pythagoras or by his immediate followers. (55) The tetraktys is the source and the root of everflowing nature (SE 7.94; Aetius De placitis philosophorum 1.3.8). [It is] a system of the first four positive integers. It is no doubt that Empedocles knew the old oath, otherwise he would not refer to the four roots (31B6.1) and the source of all mortal things (31B23.10). The tetraktys was considered to contain the nature of the universe and was called kosmos, ouranos, pan (Plutarch, De Is. et Os. 75). (-) It is also called the oracle of Delphi (Iambl., VP 85). (-) [T]he tetraktys refers to the harmonious nature of the world. The world is ordered on all levels. It was also the harmony in which the Sirens sing (Iambl., VP 82), thus linking Pythagoreanism to the notion of a music of the spheres. (58) For Philolaus, the limiters and unlimiteds always existed, and they were used to create the cosmos. (59) Unlimiteds are continua, like air or water, and limiteds are discrete, like the limit-setter fire. Things can be purely one or the other, like void, which is pure unlimited(s). Also, of course, things can be harmonies of limiteds and unlimiteds.

(61) For Philolaus, there are odd, even, and odd-even numbers. They are ontological entities, and without limit, no thought or knowledge would be possible. (62) In a short cosmogonic statement, Philolaus says that the first thing fitted together (harmonized), the one in the center of the sphere, is called the hearth (44B7). The first act of creation was the creation of the one, an act of harmonia which used limiters and unlimiteds to that end. Then, one becomes the source of all numbers. [W]hen the one had been formed instantly the nearest parts of the infinite were drawn in [as a breath] and defined by the definite (Aristotle, Met. 1091a15-18). Void is the bounded breath that comes in the unbounded breath (ouranos) and separates individual natures and creates numbers. (63) The one does not incorporate all the limiters and unlimiteds. The one is a fulcrum of the cosmos and its core, the central lace around which the cosmos is spun. It becomes larger and more elaborate by including the unlimiteds and fusing them with limiters. In this process, unlimited void fills the space between things and this filling function endows it with a positive, limiting aspect: an unlimited plays the role of a limiter due to the presence of limiters or limited things. (63) Alexander Polyhistor: [T]he beginning of all things is the monad. From the monad there arises the indeterminate dyad which then serves as passive material to the monad, while the monad serves as active cause. From the monad and indeterminate dyad there arise numbers; from numbers, points; from points, lines; from lines, plane figures; from plane figures, solid figures; from solid figures, perceivable bodies compounded of the four elements, fire, water, earth, air. (DL 8.25 [Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philosophorum]). (63) But what about the four elements? They may be assumed to pre-exist as unlimiteds. The monad, or the one, is the arche of all things, but not in the absolute sense. The monad itself is woven out of unlimiteds and limiters. (64) Four principles define a rational animal, according to Philolaus: Brain, heart, navel, and genitals.

The head [is the principle] of intellect, the heart of soul and sensation, the navel of rooting and first growth, the genitals of depositing of seed and generation. The brain [is] the principle of man, the heart that of animal, the navel that of plant, the genitals that of all together, for all things flourish and grow from seed (Theol. arith. 25.17-26.3). The seed appears to be a package that incorporates the unlimiteds, the limiters, and the harmonia. Each living beings growth and development is incorporated in nuce in the seed. (65) Notice that harmony is referred to in the singular, and thus could be a world-soul for Pythagoras and his followers. (66) Ascesis: Self-control is self-limitation, and limit is good. (67) Aetius, 2.4.15: Philolaus locates the hegemonikon in the central fire, which the demiurgic God set down under the sphere of the whole like a keel. Here is a blatant statement of Pythagoras theism. (68) For Philolaus, limiters and unlimiteds are uncreated. Also, eternal harmonia is fitting them together. [I]t is possible that for Philolaus harmonia is simply God, or at least an attribute of God. The harmonia aspect in the divine is what is Pythagorean in the two great Pythagoreans. (69) Anaximander: The universe is not created ex nihilo, but separated from the substance of God. (-) Pythagoreans rectified the concept of divinity even further. God is not infinite and, although not the source of infinity, he is independent of it. God is neither infinite nor finite, God surpasses the limitations of the two: God is beyond the finite and the infinite. (-) Could God be infinite if infinity was evil? Pythagoreans retain Anaximanders idea that God is source of moral law, but reverse the idea of God as infinite.

IV. A Return to Origins: Joseph P. Farrell, Ancient Religion, and the Nergal-Mars Complex Frothingham sl. 26, p. 199 (!)