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5ubsc!'nr Pu!'i
i
Fotewotd
Introduction
PART I THE TETRAMORPH
CONTE}lfS
The Tetramo4h
The Lioo
Thc Bull
The Eagle
The Man
The Horn
The Bovines
The Sheep
The Goat
The Horse
The Acs
The Dog
PART III
1ILD
ANIMALS
The Deet
I
v
1
6
It
2'
B
PART II DOMESTIC ANIMALS
,1
6l
67
E}
94
106
Lt2
tt7
The Panther aad Other Wildcats, 127
the Hyena and the Mole
The Wolf 138
PART
PART
I he oar, the ear,
end the Hedgehog
The \Jeasel
The Snake
The Ftog and the Toad
The Salamander
The Crocodile
IV BlRDS
The Vulrure
The Falcon
The Owl
The Swallow
The Nightingale
The LarL
The Dove and the Raven,
the Crow and the Sperrow
The Swan
The Pelican
',Jading
Bitds
The Ostrich
The Egg
Wings and Feathets
V SEA CREATURES
The Fish
The Dolphin
The Sea Urchin
VI INSECTS
The Bee and rhe Fly
The Scarab and the ScorPion
The Caterpillar and the ButterflY
t4,
t47
t13
165
t7,
180
189
t9,
209
215
22'
226
229
24'
218
267
275
278
248
295
t06
]09
I l9
)34
,45
PART
The Ichneumon Wasp and the
Grasshopper
The Mantis and the Spider
The Unicorn
The Winged Horse
The Centaur
The Lion of the Sea and the
Manticore
The Hippogriff
The Grif6n
The Dragon
The Basilisk
The Ouroboros and rhe
Amphisbaena
The Phoenix
The Sphinx
Epilogue
Bibliographical Appendix
312
3r6
PART VII FABULOUS BEASTS
)65
376
381
191
194
397
410
420
427
441
453
46'
464
FOR]EWOITD
E BrsltAtRE DU cHRIst was otginally a book ofa thou-
L.rnd
p.e", and over a thousand of rhe author! woodcuts.
It was published in Brussels
just
afrer the ouibreak of the
Second orld !ar: one of four uolumes planned by Louis
Charbonneau-Lassay, all putsuing his interest in religious sym-
bolism- The others were b Floraire du Chfit, b htnraire du
Christ, an b ,apidane dn Chrnt. All the material was gath-
ered for them, but he did not live o 6nish and publish anv of
the three. fu Bestiaie alone has survived, and barely. The firm
of Descle, De Brouwer et Cie.
Published
it ih a limitd edi-
tion of five hundted copies, almost all of which, along with
the woodblocLs for the illustrations, were lost when a bomb
set 6re to rhe warehouse where rhey *ere stored. Four other
printings of tve hundred copies each were printed in Milan
from surviving copies of the first edition. That is the entire
publishing history of is extraordinary book until its present
aPPerance.
Evidentlg not meny people have had a chance to read it;
yet the rumor of it has spread slowly, almost secretly, as if the
magic of the old symbols, reinvested thtough the love and
sensitivity of the uthor with the power of their ancient meah-
ings, traveled on some unknown wavelengths to reach ou!,
fifty-odd years later, to another audience. Bits and traces of
the original book were found here and there; I knew of ic
long before I held a copy in my hands-and er that, slowlv
but ine,itably, it became necessary to pass it on to ohers.
lr{r rrrs ti
(llfltst
lIr'ho
was Louis CharbonneauJ-assay? A narne of impor-
tance as it must have been in his lifetime to an inner circle of
"les rudirs," it was never amiliar to rhe public, and since his
dearh in 194 it would be forgonen-were ir nor for lr Ber-
tiaire. He le one of those remarLable unremarkable lives thar
are probably the reason why God does not lose patience en-
tirely wirh the human race. He was born in Loudun in 1671,
and lived in tt west central part of France ali his life, except
lor a few years spent at Orly, near Paris. He went to school
at the monastery of the Brorhers of St. Gabriel, and later of
his own wish
joined
the novitiate of Saint-Laurent-sur-Svre,
where he pursued his training in history, art, and archaeology-
He became a professor and taught at Poitiers and Moncou-
tnt until a throat ailment prevented him from lecturing. But
it did not deect him from his search into the past, for he
wenr into 6eld wor[ and the excvtions of the many dolmen
sites in the Loudunnaise region. In 1903 the order of St.
Gabriel dissolved. Charbonneau had nevet raken permanent
vows, and although he remained all hk life a de"oted and
convinced Carholic. he was now well launched on i{,hat \rs to
be his life work and ws receiving honors and recognirion as
an archaeologist and a historian, and it was in rhis way rather
than as a monL that he chose to serve his religion.
In 193), alteady in his sixties, he married nd moved ro
Orly where he took full advantage of rhe libraries and mu-
seums of Paris. He was an ctive member of vatious histor-
ical, archaeological, and religious groups, wrore ppers for
learned journals,
including rlanrn
^"
adu Tiddirioiette',
and edited one hirnselL Rdyonnenent lntelhcwl, until the war
loomed as a serious threat in 19i9. By rhis time, he had re-
turned with his ailing wie ro Loudun, ro beutiful gerden
and house lled with his collections of rr and nriquities.
Probably he looked lorward to a peeceful old age preparing
his booLs for publication. Then came the German Occupa-
rion. In Loudun, rhe commandant ordered all citizens to lurn
over their 6rearms. Charbonneau trudged to headquarters with
r()nri/()trI)
r sack of sorne of his antique firing pieces. "I have about 6fty
guns in my house," he told rhe astonished and suspicious of-
icer, "but as the most recent o them is a hundred years old,
I hrought you some smples to see if you want lhem." He
'nnst
have hd a very charming smile. He was allowed to take
Lis guns home again; and although German troops wre qur-
tcred in his house during the Occupation, not a single item of
his collections was lost or damaged.
The Besriare ppered in 1940, and Charbonneau dedicated
himself ro finishing his other books ahd redying them for
publication, bur circumsrances opposed him: the war, the Oc-
.uption, his wifet ill health and his own. Mme. Charbonneau
died during the war, which he survived by only a year. Never
robust, he fought his incteasing frailty in unsuccessful efforts
to finish his other books. He died the day after Chtistmas in
I946.
When my love afair with Lz Bestiaire du Chrit begar,l
drought it would be possible to meke a much shotter book
out of it that would give a sort o disdllarion of its essence. I
have indeed omitted certain chptets and cut out many repeti-
tions which were probably caused by the srrange order in
which Charbonneau-Lassay arranged, or
jumbled, his crea-
rures, and sometimes even his separate accounts of them. I
have changed his arrangement considerably; anyone forunte
enough to have a copy of the original book and attempting to
trace in it the path of my abridgement-trenslation would find
ir a strenuous gymnstic exercise. I have also omitled some
of the detail of the author's reseatch, though including
enough, I hope, so that other srudehts my follow up his
sources i they wish. But I found it was not possible to make
the book as small as I had at 6rst envisaged it. It seemed de-
termined to be a considerable volume, one that must be taken
seriously.
All the notes referring ro the present text hve been in-
cluded for the sake of che ambitious teader, and they show
the astonishingly wide range of Charbonneau-Lassay's own re-
trl
1HL AIr STt^&Y Ori CHflrSr
search, as well as his remarkable inconsistency in checking
such details s publishing information and even authorship
(for xmple, I have found no one who has ever heard of a
book by Xenophon calle Geoponnu; see note I in Part III,
"The Deer.") Most of the references, of course, are to
French books end
journals
which I have nor had the pos-
sibility of rechecking, but wherever I could nd Latin or Eng-
Iish dtles of books or any other relevant facts, I have added
them in the bibliographical appendix. These added nores,
lrowever, do not preiend to be complete, end I must empha-
sizc rhar this *ork. standing 6rmly on its osn merirs, cannor
be taken for something it is not: a dependable reference book
in any scholarly or scientc sense. But unreliabie as they ate,
rh notes my contain clues of which I haven'r wanted to de-
prire rhe researcher.
Although I have corrected typogrphical errors where it
was possible, the French edition contined a great many and I
cannot guatantee the accurecy of page or le numbers in
books I *as not able to checlc for myself. So I must share
with the author the responsibility for all errors of act or
judgment
rhat appear in rhese pges, t the same time grre-
fully acknowledging the slcillful and enthusiasric help I have
received from a number of people better versed than I in
their various 6elds. Among them are
John
Anrhony West
whom I consulted on references to ancient Egypt; I am in-
debted to him for a number of correcrions and for several of
the editorial notes. Caroline Herricl and Patty Ewing investi-
gared questions abour ancient China, and for general research
into vatious obscure terms end references I am deeply grate-
flrl for the help of Heather Iole and
Jane
Brooks. Others
who have researched, corrected, ptooftead and in general
normously helped and supported the work of rhis book are
Paul
Jordan-Smith, Jean
Sulzbetget, and Rob Baker. I also
wish to thank M. Ie Comte li" d" D",npi".." fot supplying
me wnh handbooks on the birds, animals, nd insects of Eu-
rope, and the Lady Devlin for information abour little-Lnown
l.
()
lr ll v()Rl)
corners of England. Above all, I want to thank
Joseph
Epes
Brown, Henri Tiacol, and the late Ilonka Karasz, whose
knowledge and pprecition of I* Beiairc were what 6rst led
me to it. A special increment of gratitude goes to
Joseph
Brown for lending me his copy of the rre 6rst edition; he
tells me there is only one othet in the United States, *hich
ws owned by Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy
The chapters on te Lion and the Hippogriff were origi-
nally translared by Carol Zaleski, and Gabriela Laignel and
Linda Daniel helped me with the translarion of the early chap-
ters, until I realized that the translting could not be sepa-
rared from the editing and that both had to be done togethe.
by the same hand. The chapter on the SPhinx aPPered in
PARABoLA, Vol. VIII, No.2, under rhe title "Hieroglyph of
Lie," in Irving Friedman's translation, and se"eral orher ex-
cerpts o the present work have been seen in PARABoLA ince
then: portions of rhe chapcer on "The Man" in Vol. VIII,
No. 3, entitled "Tongues of Fire"; of "The Weasel" in Vol.
XI! No. l; of "The Ouroboros" in Vol. XV No. l, and an
excerpr from "The Horse" in Vol. XIV, No.4. I have revised
all the translations and am ultimately responsible for any cuts
or what may be felt as liberties tl(en wirh the rext
Finalln I wish to rhank the original publishers, Descle, De
Brouwer et Cie., for their patience and cooperation in bring-
ing this wonder(ul boo[ back inro circularion.
D.M. Dooling
INTR.ODUCTXON
(t,-FAr(.
cARE, ABovE all, nor to reveal the secrets of the
I holy myst"ri.r, and do not allow them to be indis-
creetly exposed to the daylight of the profane world
'..
Only
the saints-not everyone-mey lift a corner of rhe veil which
covers the things which ate holy....Our most saintly
foundcrs . . . charged the celebration
[of
the mysteties] wi so
many symbolic rites that wht is in itself one and indivisible
can ppear only little by little, as if by parts, and under an in-
6nite variety of details. Howe"er, this is not simply because of
the profane multitude, who must not glimpse even the cover-
ing of holy things, but also because of the weakness of our
own senses and spitit, zici rcquire sign: and matenal means to
ruie theln to the understanding of the immaterial anl the submet."
These words, attributed to St. Dionysius the AreoPagite,
re a vety exect statement of the principal reasons for the use
of symbolism. Ir is to remedy the weatness of out nature and
ro satisfy its need that all religions and mysteries have felt the
obligation to creete for themselves codes of symbols kept se-
cret by a sttict discipline of caution. It was in this way that
the mysteries of Eleusis, of Delphi, of Ephesus end othets
were protected, and the same
Practice
held in the Mithraic
cula and in the Orphic schools. Everyone recognized not only
the danger of persecution but also the mysterious, hierarchical
authority whose validity Pythagoras affirmed with the words:
"It is nor good to tevcal everything to everyone."
rrrra
BIs.t.tARY
o ctittls,r
^.In
all the counrries
where
thev ound themselves,
rhe Grsr
Cfirisrians-oot
finding riches
enough in rheir own rreasut,
^ srarteo rmages-.adapted_
ancient local religious
"yrnb.l;
;
then own prriculr
beliefs; and a'nong the"f ,"-";";";.;-
rcred ro rhe represenraiion
o[ rhe Savior.
Others lent them_
::1"..' :., :r.
expression
of rhe gtear rhemes
o Christian
splrrtuar
lrte. or seemed ro represent
one o Christ,s oe.f"._
:,-"1t".:.
-""
I here was little modfication
o rh. a..epr.d
and otren convenrional
forms: so rhese images
"f,hi"g;;;;
:t
re], o: i.mc,niry
beings are presented
t"-,r,r" ,"*,..i
,r,.
rrrsr Lhrrsrian
arrisi5
excrly ar one sees ,I,"rn ;, tl" a".o.r_
tions of temples.
palaces.
barhs. and orher maior build;..
^r Lahum
or of the Roman provinces.
The aapi;
i" ,ir" ir.*
:i::: ::i
npresenring
Chrisr. remained
rh. s"m. i_age
mar adorned
rhe place
mosics and rhe founrains
.plrshirg
7n
,lr.
q,.y of the Caesars.Rome;
rhe anchor k"pi ,h; f;.-
thar ir had in re remples
of Neprune_poseidon,
and the cen-
.t.i.,-.- ild
,h". griffin.
the hippocamp*
*a rl;pp"s,,f
,;.,;.a
wht.rhe
rrisrs rn Greece
and Ro_" hrd m.; i ,fl"..-
-"" -
-
\/r'en
the earir pilgrims
ro rfie holv pt".""
"na-,i.
Cru_
:*:"
*jr..,:o
to rhe !esr arer their sojourns
in the Near
-Esr
end rn Egypt. rhe srories
rhey b,"rghr
bacL, r. rell a"
th works
ol art and- the producrs
of commerce,
such as fab-
ncs,
,nao
a srrons
inluence
on religious
,nd s..ulr, ,rt in ou.
ocodentt (ountries.
TJre same rtring happened
with rhe first
grear world
rraveters
who during rhe second hal of rhe Mid_
dle.Ages
penerrared
into rhe faitesr parts
ot Asia, to Mon_
goua.
ro Lhrna, or ro rhe African
equaror. The animals- h;.,1.
rrees. trurs. and minerals.
the antasdc
b.i"s. *h" 6ll.;;"1
;"j:#:",11"o;:':*'.y,.;iil:,;*'ri"","*p.*",,
--
Larer e old, symb.ols *ere
s6 pg,mq.s.
all o European
art
nd e enrire
heraldic
code wirh
rhe rich
".""r."
:;;;_
rain.
"For
the Middle
Ages., wrore
Gevaerr,
.rhe
whole uni_
::r,se
\1as ,:vmbot/,. "tt
kner
rhar **,,t;ng
",
*.,i i.
"
srgn, everyrhing
is an imge.
rhar rhe visible
;.
"f
*f."
""fy
IN I ft()l)tr
(
I l()N
in the measure that ir covers the invisible. The medie"al pe-
riod, which consequently ws not rhe dupe of appearances, as
we are, studied very closely the science of symbolism, and
made it the purveyor and servant of mysticismr'"
A book rlhLh goes baclc to the earliest Christian times, the
Phytiotoels, adds to the elements drawn from the old natural-
ists, with images borrowed from Gteek and Oriental writers
and from fables and myths from all parts of che world This
wor[ remained in great favor thtoughout the Christian world,
especially during the four or 6ve centuries which followed the
peace which Constantine granted to the Church' and a consid-
.."ble
"u-b".
of somewhat different vetsions were circulated,
so that we no longer know exactly wht was the original rext'
The fourth-century Conrnentd\ of Phyiologus, attributed co
St. Epiphanius, conrains twenry-six chapters dedicated only to
animals. Works of the same kind, in verse or
Prose'
were
composed in the Middle Ages under the name of bestiaries,
o, ul.,cra.i"" when testricted to the symbolism o birds For
plants there were florilegia, and lapidaries dealt with the mi-
ir.,.rlous p.op"ttie" of precious stones and minerals Other
writers on more general lines, of the same period, gave a
good deal o space to the symbolic meanings of animals,and
bj".r". Th""" u"riou" writings were truly the breviaries of the
.on,"*po.".y artists, and agreed so well *ith the spirit of the
times that Richard de Fournival achieved fame by using them
as a model for hrs Bestiary of Lote.
Although most of che sacred symbols of gteat Christian art
came from ancient religions and writings and wete dissemi-
nated by clerics, monks, and other lettered men, the humble
country folk, in their ields a"d g"'den", along with these
learned ones and feeling with them the same need ro see the
Savior everywhere, chose for themsel"es metaphors fot Christ
that were entirely their own. They saw him as a child in the
color of the pale-pink carnation, stained with his own blood in
the crimson rose; the frrst swallow of spring ws for them the
emblem of his Resurrection, as was also the butterfly; rhe gtay
tltlt 8lsrrARY ()F
CHRtST
ass
-hose
bacL is marked with the cross evoLed rhe journey
to Calvary; Iively legends connecred
the *oodco.k,
th. gold'_
6nch, and the robin ro his crucixion,
""a
rl" t"""ilir.a-*"_
.:*:"
"li
cerrain mineral conglomerates
to the Eucharist,
which is Christ incarnate_
Besides these mentioned sources of inspiration,
an impor_
tant plae musr also be given to ur.io.." fa.to.s ,rhi.h ,, ,i-".
found fresh inrerpretarions
for previous
sy-boli. for-s, ,rd
even produced new ones. In the front rank of such influences
must be plced rhar of Gnosricism. Another is to b. fot rrd in
the combined
efforts of the Hebraic Kabbalah, the .iru"l fo._
muhs of demonic or supersritious pracrices.
asrrological
and
divinarorv
sciences. alchemv in its pure orm
",
*ir""drno..
or Iess wirh magic. tven uirh sorcerv: which. all grouped
ro_
gerher, re commonlv (rhough
incorrectly)
called h"ermetjsm_
rhar i>. the secrer Lnowledge.
because it was given only to rhe
few initiates. Bur during the Middle ag.", Ch.ftirn s.hola."
and clerics. even sainrs. began ro understand
that rhere was
norh,ng wharever wrong in rhe srudv of anvthing which con_
cerned nture or rhe properries
of plants and minerals, includ_
ing rhose branches of knowledge hitherro
closed ro rhem, such
as_alchemu:
or in astrologv. the possible
influences of armo_
spheric conditions.
or ol rfie movemenrs
and conjunctions
of
the stars. on rhe .onceprion
and parrurition
o animals and
lhe germinrion
o planrs. Nevertheless,
ir must be borne in
mind.rfiar those who raughr in the episcopal or monsric
schools opened rheir knowledge
orlv to pup;ls [no*n ro be
clscreer rd o sound judgment,
or it was not easy ro discern
the boundarv between whar rhe Church allowed in is domain
and. whar was forbidden. Discretion was a necessiry in this pe_
riod when the suspicion of magic or of sorcery could lead .._
tirely innocenr people ro rorrure and dearh.
.
From rhe- end o the uelth century, heraldry with its secu_
iar cors-of-rms
had become one of rhe besr codified crea_
tions that human intellect had achieved during medieval timcs.
By che middle of the thirteenth ..r,tu.y, h".rld.y h"d it. ;;;
lNl','lol)t,(: l loN
precise lahguage governed bv strict rules, and irs own art, also
.lridlv ."dified. which remains
(odav
one of the most
Pres-
riious in the world, and which wirhin irs unvielding frame-
-'[
still made room for *orks o astonishing
variety and
marvelous zst.
From its birth heraldry was pnetrated end dominated by
Christian iconography,
princiPlly thtough ngravings on coins
during the early ;aat ng.'. Heraldrv repaid the debt of its
adoption by Christian symbolism bv finding
'rew
aspects o
""reral "
th. ancient emblems' and by helPing to continue
the use of others which would otherwise have fallen into
oblivion; and also by guarding the secret of numerous rnter-
pretetions rhet we now cao understnd onlv by its means. so
ih"t in , ..rr.. it can very
justly
be said that he who srudies
the Christian symbolism of the Middle Ages, esPecially in the
Vest, will never completely
Penetrate
it if he is not familiar
with the sciehce, the rt, and the spirit of ancient heraldry in
ell its vious forms-that of the Church, of the nobility, and
of the commetcial guilds, And we can also invert this proposi-
tion, so vividly rd so intimetely did Christian symbolism nd
heraldry interpenetrat ech other.
Since in those days theology and heraldry ruled bo sacred
and profane arts, Christian emblems of vices and virtues, like
those of the Tiinity and of the characteristic etributes of the
saints) were not aPPlied thoughtlessly, as happened later much
too often; the discipline of symbolism was effectively main-
trined a.rd resp..t d. In fact' symbols must not be considered
as erbiaty. "Faithfully
transmitted by tradirion," wrote Pro-
fessor Hippeau in the last century, "they constitr.rted a-kind of
artitic orihidoxy which did not allow them to be considered a
solely a product of imaginacion and whima'"

",ill
h"u"
-,r.h
io l."rn about the religious thought of
the Middle Ages, Manv of its symbolic forms are enigmas for
us; we cn ."cogrrir. th.t some are the signs of heraldry,
some ate workmens' tredemarlc, others are decorative
-
end
although this may be the cese, it is only their outer /d;'o'
XI
'tHl
8lstIAfir.
ot. (:
HItsr
d'tre, their exotetic side, and they can and almost always do
have a hidden significance, which is their esoterism. Formerly
this underlying meaning was kept for only a small number of
people. There were schools "generally very exclusive and
little-Lnown," which were not at all schools o philosophn and
whose teachings were conveyed only behind the veil oi certain
symbols which must have been quite obscure for those who
did not.have the key co them. The Ley was given only ro
close followers of proved discretion and iatelligence, who had
undertaken certain commitments. Evidendv all rhis indicates
the presence of reachings profound enough to be rotally or-
eign to rhe ordinary wav of thinking. and a: rhis phenomenon
seems ro have been fairly frequent in che Middle Ages, there
is srrong reason or caurion in speaking of rhat epoch! inrel_
Iectual artainmenrs and or taLing inro
"..ounr
what mighr
have exisred outside of what is known to us wirh certai,it"-
Many things musr have been lost because they were not writ-
ten down, which is also "rhe explanatioh for the almost total
loss of the Druidic teaching. Among the schools alluded to,
we might mention rhe alchemists, whose doctrine was above
all.of a cosmological order. ... One might sey rhat the sym-
bols contained in alchemical writings constirure rheir exorer-
ism, while theit secret interpretation constirutes rheir
The medieval era pracriced and glorified the intensive cul-
ture ol spititualiry, and for it, all beauty was beauty only when
seen in the divine light; the value of anything was measured
by the degree in which it fauored the ascension of rhe soul.
But rhen came th Renaissence and a iregic retreat of the
spirit. Human beings left the ethereal atmosphere of God to
dscend and bteathe that o man. REASON EVERY!HERE
was insctibed on rhe porral of a house of that time in
poitiers.
not far from the well-known university whete learned doctors
taught in the fashion of the day. Renaissance rr. rhe direct
relectioo of a way o thinking no longer imbued with mystical
Christian spirituality, could not be nyrhing bur the glorifica_
tN r n()r)r
(:
fl()N
don of mterial bear:ty. "The symbolism which had been the
very solrl of art in the thirteenrh ceDtury," says mile Mle,
'lhis beautiful idea that reality is but an image, rhat rhythm,
number, and harmony are the grear laws of the universe, this
whole world of thought where dwelt the old theologians and
rhe old artists, seems closed off... one feels the witherirg
and dying of the ancient symbols6."
In fact, not all the symbols died, but many disappeared
from the habitual forms of art. And above all, the true mean-
ing of these emblems was forgorten; room ws mde for rbi-
trary interpretations and the allegorical ideas applied to some
of them changed totlly: for instance, the pelican, the old
symbol of the purifying Christ who washes the sins o his
children with his blood and so returns them to life and grace,
became almost solely, in the eyes of all, an emblem of the Eu-
christ, beceuse the action o pwifitario, by blood ws igno-
randy seen s the gesture o{
feeding,
\9hich belongs to the
vulture in ancient Egypt. And the pelican wes not the only
ne hukd ir this fashion.
Symbolic representations lso suffeted, especially those that
had not evolved from rhe iconography of ancienr Greece and
Rome. The quality of the sacred accorded them by medieval
art no longer had the same value, and the syr.bolic animals
lost their ideal chrei and cme closer lo the anaromic
forms o natural beasts. All rhey retained wete easy, stle, ex-
oteric menings without deprh or substance, without mystery:
the lion was or! the image of srrength and courage, the lamb
of gentleness, the snake of discretion, the phoenix of immor-
tality, the rose of beauty . . . and it was forgotten rhat in the
beginning their function had been to reptesent Christ and his
gifts on the consecrted shield of the knighr-
Other symbols, such as rhe pnther, the stork, the crow)
and so on, were no longer understood at all, and the angels o
Paradise, the beautiful, ethe.eal and radiant .ngels of the By-
zantines and rhe sculptures of Rheims, of Fra Angelico and
Jehan
Fouquet, were changed in the churches of rhe Rneis-
TIID
BS,I'IARY
OI CHRIST
sance inro chubby.
naked ctrerubs;
rhe goars,
rams, doves,
:::::,.1
*d cocks
:el:ed
to atrude io some
of the mosr fas_
::::,]:9.
*o:*, o chrisr and became
onty ,rr.s",i.;';;;
purery
sensul
and quite
inerior
order.
..--Srudies
of archaeology
and sacred
atr made in rfie past
cen_
t-ury have restoted.ro
symbolism,
". ,h".. *.ll_.;jJ;';:
l::l:::.
, p,l, o rhe very igh
esteem
d." ,.;,. r, ;,;;.:
::y:I" T,*
gteater
tecognition:
ir stroutd
6e k"",;,;;
uoersrood
more precisely,
6rst of all by artisrs,
,.a U,
"ff
,i"
clergy-
and,serious
Chrisrians,
at leasr, since
*.
+p."pri","
::: ::::l"b.k :r*
a source
o Jigrrr f.. ,h" .,d;;",;;;;;
ehd or substanrial
nourishmenr
for rhe spirit.
l:_,ll:,1:*.
I have tried to presenr
rhe exact meanings
of
symr,olrc
.rhages
which,
in tlre course
of rhe Chri.;;;l;
ruries and in very
differenr places.
have been tak.. ,.
-...-
trou-s.represehrtions
o_the person
.f
J""r" Chr;,
-i;;.
varo,s
especrs.
Among
tfiese ideograms
ihere
"r" ";;;.h";
coutd provide
marerial
for a whole-book.
I "r" hJ;con.-
dense and. ro keep to the essentials
of eir
Ci.t;il;
;;.: Chrisrian
isrory.
**$;;i;1."'JJ,::".",Ii",.fl
T:::..:i;:il:I.,;
:T:" ::l':.:,rr
h. wishes.
Trre images
of rhe *,ri,r.
"_,-_
pres whrch
illusrrle
rhe text in tL"
"".,i."-*..J
*l,i-,i""",,"r,"',j",'.'i,llor1;;:'fi
"..,;,i:
.c^entury
wood
engraver-s:
I have nor been so presumptuous
as
::
sprre
ro. .orl
ofart,
but only ro h.p"',hr;
;:;i;;;;
ttrerr rmperecrions,
the crude suppon,t.,
t*,,.,.',._,
wrr be enough
ro malce a betrer
und.rstrnjing
o";lf"
"f,n.
passages
they ccompany.
L. C-L.
INTEODUCTION
NOTES
Tme Fisur: TIP Gilfn-Cli't.
t. Ir Ttdit d. lo Hi,arthn
\nglis:
CeletriaL Hierarchb),.ttribut.d to St.
Dcn (Dionysius tfic Armpagitc). Cf. Lecoinu, "L nrique d. la M.$.."
i Rew du Mo"de Cothalir@, 166, VI. xIV No. llr, p. 226.
2- Gcserr, L'HtuAqu., p- 37 -
,- Htrsn., 12 CdthAtuh, vol- I, p- 297 -
4- &'rin. ditin, p- ,4
ture)-
t. Glan, Into.lkti to tk SatT of the Hndu Docties, Chau W.
6. M],, L'dn ftliai*
ll,
p. 491.
T -.,]
I
THE
TE']TRA{ORPH
T HI ]E T tr T R,,.\
"U
O R. ]IT ]F{
YN THF sEFrEs of living beings clajmed bu Christian svmbol-
Iirrn ro fo.- the mysterious crown of Christ' a group of
four animals is notable for the large place it held, and con-
tinues to hold, in sacred art and in mystical literarure. e see
them represented et dmes seParately from one another and at
times united, blended together in the form of a unique being
thar would be strange indeed and disconcerting ro anvone ig-
norant of ecclesiasticel svmbolism
(Fig. l).
These celestial animals are the ones that the Hebrew
prophet Ezekiel, towards the end of the seventh century B c',
"nJ
the .uangelist St.
John
in the first years of the Church,
saw come to life in visions, of which they have left us extraor-
dinary and troubling ac-
counts: the lion, the ox, the
eagle, and man. They form
-hrt
sacred art has nmed
the Tetramorph, "the Four
Forms."
These are the words of
Ezekiel: "Now it came to
pass... s I was among the
caprives by che tiver of
Chebar, that the heavens were
opened, and I saw visions of
God.... And I looked, and,
behold, a whirlwind came out Fis. 1 Tn Ph k ttu Ltu M84e
rt^tr. ()r (|klst
of rhe north, grear cloud, and
a fire infolding
irsell and a
brighmess was about it, and out
of rhe midst thereof as rhe
colour of amber, out of the
midst of rhe fire. AIso out of
the midst thereof came the like-
ness of four living creatures.
And rhis was their appearance;
they had the likeness of a man.
And every one hd four ces,
and every one hd four winss.
And their eet were srraighr
leerr and the sole of rheir feer
was liLe rhe sole of a calfs foot:
and they sparkled like the
colour of burnished
brass. And
they had the hands of a man
under rheir wings on their four
sides; and they four had their
faces and their wings. Their
wings were joined
one ro an_
Fu 2 l|th't.ntu v linntph
orher; they rurned not when
t Mdnt Alo'.
chey *.r,t; ihey ,'"n,
"r..y
;;;
straighr forward.
As for tfie lilteness
"f
,f.,"i. f**, ,fr"f f.,.
had rhe
face
ofa man, and rhe face ofa It",,
";;;'.;;; side; and they four had rhe face of an ox on the left sie;
rhev our also had the face of an eagle. Thus ,nere their aces:
rncl rhe,r wrngi .ere srrerched upward: rwo wings o everl
one_were joined
one ro anorher,
and two covered ,h.i. boa"".
And they went every one straight f".,,".d, *hirh". ,h;
";;; .as to
Bo.
ev ue,ntr and thev rurned nor wen.h.y
".rr:
,
ior the l,keness_of re living creatures.
rheir appearance was
rrke burnrng roals ot hre. and lile rh. pperan.e
of lamps: ir
went up and down among rhe living creatrrres;
"nd
th; fir"
was bright. and our of rhe re wenr Iorth lightning.
And the
ft
^
M
()
X I rl
Iiving creatures ran and returned as rhe appearnce of 0sh
of lightningr."
And now St.
John:
"And immediately I *as in the spirit: and, behold, a throne
was set in heaven, nd one sat on the thone.... And before
the rhrone there was a se of gless lilce unto crystal; and in
the mist of the rhrone, and round about the throne, were
four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the rst beast
was like a lion. and the second beast like a calf, and the third
beasr had a face as a man, and the fourth beast *as liLe a fly-
ing eagle. And the foot beasts had each of them six wings
about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest
nor dy and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God AI-
mighty, which was, and is, and is ro come'? (Fig. 2)."
In St.
John,
as in Ezeliel, rhese four animals, or rather
these fout "living crearures," re the epitome of crearion, be-
cause of ll cretures they are the noblest. e shall see how
Man, Lion, Ox (or Bull), and Eagle were taken to represent
Christ symbolically and how the Christian arts placed them
around him to represent the four Evangelists who hve trans-
mifted to us his story and his teaching.
NOTES
T;rle Fiswe:
futantire
Tenano,ph-
l. Ez.kiel l:l,4-14.
2. R.v.ltion 4:2, 6-8.
[.r!1 risre: The,hb o E<ekkLi i'ion:
lo
a 6thrtu1 iLlunitution.
1I'F{ L, ]L 1 O N
,-T-t
HE KING. Br.Hor D
(he
King: the 6rsr of rhose our kings
I whom God disclosed to the dazzled eyes of Ezekiel on the
banks of the Chebart, and whom St.
John
recognized in his
resplendent vision on Patmos, when rhey sng before rhe
rhrone of rhe sovercign Lamb, beating rheit fiery wings: the
Lion, awesome king of the beasts; the Ox, king of sacriicial
victims; the Eagle, king o the air; and Man, Ling of rhe
world.
Yet rhis lion of the prophets of Israel, sovereign rhough he
ws, ws only senant. That is why, together with the man,
the eagle, and rhe ox, he stood trans6xed with love and
adoration, acclaiming the One who
occupied the throne, by turns lion
and lamb; the One whom
John
saw
ascend to the divine seat, there to
open rhe book sealed with seven
seals2.
But many centrries beFore the
time that
John
rested his head on his
master's heart and elt the Spirit de-
scend upon him, the pre-Christian
tradirions of Europe, Africa, and
Asia surrounding Israel and its reli-
gion had adopred the image of the
Iion to represent what they believed
to be the various attributes of
divinity.
Fis, I S?kha, tt1. lin h.ddi
satld6';
fam
th? ionb al sd I d Thbs.
lllll ll()N
Among rhe Egyptians, the godd"ss Sekhmet pr"udly bore a
lion's head (Fig. l); among the Ammonites, the sun was
adored under the name of Camos, rhe Lion-sun, and in Syria,
as we shll see later on, the royal animal had also a divine
character. For millennia, Tibet has worshipped the Ka-gro-
Mha, goddesses with the heads of lionesses, like Sekhmer of
Egypt, divinely beautiful, who dance naked uPon the corPses
of conquered men and animals.
Among the Greeks, four
harnessed lions drew the
chariot of Cybele, at a stirring
sllop
or paciry majestically-
Cybele, mother of the gods,
the "Good Goddess," image of
the divine bounty which gives
humanity all the good things
which come forth from the
arth.
In Persia, the lion was one
o the animals sacred to the
culr of Mnhra. The feasts o this god were called the "Leon-
tic rites," and often on the sculptures which depict Mithra
sacrificing the bull, the lion and the serpent are sho*n lying
underneath the slain animal. In the Mithraic mysteries, initi
ates of th Fourth Ordet were called "lions" and "lionesses";
and Mithra himsel('1he Invincible Sun," seems to hve been
somerimes personified by a lion-headed god. Even rodan the
heraldic, sword-wielding lion of the Persian state bears on his
baclc the resplendent sun (Fig.2). In ancient Syria, the god of
courge was represenred by a crowned lion_centaur endowed
with four lion! paws and two human arms.
The lion also lends his cla*s to the sphinx and his body to
che grif6n, giving .hem a prt of his narure and of rhe quali-
ties which are attributed to him: royalcy, po*e., watcLfulness,
courage, and
jusrice.
Royalty and power: no doubt this was wLy Alexander the
Fis. 2 Th. h"tu lkn al P'ia
rllt] t, lstl^ltt, ot,
(
lRlst
Great, and after him, Maximilian-Hercules, Probus, Gallienus,
and other rulers, appeated on their coins hooded with the skin
of a lion's head.
Strengrh and courage: over and above the Mithraic influ-
ence, this ccounts for the liont doption as insignia by the
Iegions of Rome.
Watchfulness: the age-old belief, sanctioned as well by clas-
sical Larin authorities, which shows the lion sleeping in the
deserr with his eyes wide open, day or night, must surely have
seemed signiJicanr ro the 6rst Christian symbolists. What did
it matrer to them whether the alleged facts rvere rrue or not?
St. Augustine, in commenting on a rarher strange chatacteris-
ric ttributed ro rhe eagle, tells us thar in symbolism "the im-
portant thing is to consider rhe significance of a facr and not
ro dispute irs euthenticiry]." Thus Chrisrian idealism of by-
gone days always and in everything paid heed ro the symbol
nd nor ro the thing, ro the spirit which gives life and not to
the letter which sucls dry, So it sees in the perpetually open-
eyed lion the image of the ftenrive Chrisr who sees evety-
thing, and who guards souls from evil when they truly wish,
Iike a warchful pastor, a good shepherd.
Here, rhe Far East is in agreemenr wirh the Western and
Christian Middle Ages in seeing rhe lion as a vigilant guard-
ian. Since what long vanished epoch have granite lions,
crouched and ferocious, like those of Angkor Wat, stood
guard in rhe compny of fersorne dragons at the threshold of
India's cemples? For rhe symbolisrs of Asia, as for those of
the
1l/est,
Iions and dtagons never shut their eyes; they would
say, wirh our Brunerto Latini, "All lions of every kind keep
their eyes open even while they sleepa."
William of Normandy, who wrore his Dirine Bestiary at the
beginning of the chirteenth cenrury, also underliaes the sym-
bolic character of che watchful Iion, and gives the following
interpretation:
Qcr
quat il dorr, li oil
E omant a Les *z o*<,
Et dat * luianz et aqr.
rVhen
the lioo slecas, his eye
In sleep his eyes are open,
Cl.at and gleaming ad awake.
Now, he adds, we must undersrand what this means:
Qadd
.en boi
flt
en do;<
Pa lcs laet,
q
znmis,
Q
le jLsi@t a grt toft,
L'Mdn i
'oftit
ntt
Qurd
I'e'?it dr .r
Ea la uircte ctoiz iadoni;
7hen this lion was put on the
Bv the
Jews,
his enenies,
$ho
iudeed
hi-
"o
wrons{ully,
His humanitv sutreted death the"
When he rendered the spiri
fton the bodn
And fell asl"ep on the holy c.oss;
But rhe divin ature kepr watch.
And here the ncient poet is in accord with St. Hry and
St. Augustine who see, in the lion's way of sleeping, an allu-
sion to Christt divine nature which was not extinguished in
the sepulcher, even while his humanity underwent a real death.
Justice:
for the Ancients used to say that the lion will a
tack his prey only if he is compelled by en urgedt need for
food, and that, even ihen, he will never pounce uPon foe
*ho has fallen before the battle can begin. Ir was also said
.hat rhe lion knew how to show aPPrecition for a favor, to
the point where he might teach humans some useful lessons in
gretitude.
The Middle Ages maintined the connections which had
previously linked the lion to the idea of justice. From Italy up
to the Loire, ecclesiastical courts irere often held in the fore-
couts of churches between stone lions which framed the por-
tal, and
judgments were handed down there in accordance
with the well-known expressior irler hones et coram populo:
"between the lions and before the assembled
People."
One
car still see one o these forecourts of
justice, flanled by
e/eather-beaten lions, at the grand portal of the church of St.
Radegund in Poitiers, and lions appear gain at the reshold
rr,,rr^t! ()r (
llt{tsr
of several ancient churches in Rome. at St. Lawrence,ourside-
che-!alls, ar the Church oI rhe Twelve Apostles, ar St.
Lawrence-in-Lucina, and at Sr. Saba.
The concept which links rhe lion ro the virtue ojLrsrice is
supported in Chrisrian symbolism by the Bible's description of
Solomon! throne of justice,
made of ivory and gold, which
resred on six steps guarded by Melve magnificent lions'.
The lion was also an emblem of
the Resurrection. *il" Ual"
"*-
plains a srained glass window in
the cathedral o Bourges which
shows a symbolic lion near the
tomb of the risen Chrisr, by re-
calling rhe tradition which made
the lion, in Christian arr, an em-
blem of Christ as the risen cod-
Man.6 Mle writes, "In the Middle
Ages, everyone subscribed ro the
idea that the lioness brought forth
young which appeared ro be still-
Fis. t
-th.
lian binin. n\ .!b
h{k b
u.,
])th .tutt_
born. For three days the lion cubs would give no sign of life,
but on the rhitd day, rhe lion would return and animate rhem
with his breath (Fig. l)."
The authors of the bestiaries ol the Middle Ages certainly
ound this legend in Aristotle and in Pliny the Elder; yet Plu-
rarch, better informed about the Orienr and irs creatures. had
wtitten thar, on the contrary, lion cubs come into rhe world
wirh rheir eyes wide open; and for that
'eason,
certain peoples
of his time consecrated tLe lion co the sun7. (This would also
explain the lion's presence alongside Mithra, rhe Sot Inrkas.)
Ahhough Cuvier and the modern naturalists con6rm Plutarch's
opinion, the authors and arrisrs of the Middle Ages, relying
on the scanr euthoriry of Origen8 and of the Ph1siotogus, tol-
lowed the opposite view. In such a thoroughly idealistic world,
which sought to consecrate every truth by means of symbols,
the fable of the Iion cubs born dead and brought ro life on
the drird day by rheir farher en-
joyed
a great vogue; it *as favored
by St. Epiphantus, St. Anselm, Sr.
Ivo of Cha.tres, St. Bruno of Asti
and many othetse. As Mle puts
it, "The apparent death of the lit-
rle lion reptesented the sojourn o
Jesus
Christ in the grave, and his
birth was like an image of the
Resurrectionro."
l7illiam of Normandy, in his
Dnine Bestiary, mighr be t..nslated
as follows:
Qu"r
la
li-"l" foorc
lz
oot
chct a terte ntort:
De r;* a aura ia confort
Iu'qrc li pc\, du tier
jiot
Iz nrfle tt leche par anu:
En tel naniere Le rctpnt
Ne paeit dren aah. nie
Autti
fu
de lhe*-Chit
L'undnit qk por nr'
rt,
Que
pot I'anor de u vtti,
Pain t nauil pot ,ot tenti:
r,,i crce|, i
erc.
bin.
QMnd
D"i\
fu
nn eL nan@t
'lien
iorz i
li
tant soLenert
Et du titt< iot Lc re'pitd
Li ptre, qui le turira
Re'pne
'on
p.tir
oon.
l:iE
,1
I tu rt\etian t th.
When the Iioness gives binh-
H.. .ub drops to e-th, d".d;
He lac[s the force of life
Until the father, on the thnd day
Brcathes or hin and licks him
In ths wan he breathes life into
No other remedy could save him.
(Fi8. 4)
So w* it with
Jesus
Chrt:
The hmnity which he a$umed,
And cl[ed him*l in for Iove
Suffered pain and labor for *
Of wti.h his diliity feh othins
Believe thus and you will do well.
Ihen God was put ;nto the
He xayed only thtee days
And on rhe rhird day asain
received his breath
From the Farher who rou*d him
Just
as the lion bteathrs life
Into his lnde cub".
t'llri Blsrt^ti,r, otr (illIltst.
. tnd
rle custom which previted
before Christianiry. in
Lycia and in Phrygia as in several other reg;ons, of placing
the image of the lion on rhe rombs of kings or illu"t.ior," hel
roes, might have ics source, in parr, in the fabled power of
resurrection which the Ancients acrributed to the lion. In rhe
art of anriquity, his image often accompanies
the palm tree
which throughout the ancient world was an emblem of resur_
rection still more thn of the desert.
The union in
Jesus
Christ of rwo narures. human nd di_
'jne.
has. be:n the rheme of manv allegorical images. including
that ol rhe lion. and it is certainly
jn
the lion rhat rhe r*o ar
rhe lcasr visiblv diferenriated. The Ancienrs were in agree_
rnenr thar all rhe Iion's acrive qualities were locared in h;s
torepans: in his fiead. neck. chest. and front claws; fnr them,
rhe hind quaners
served onlv as the animals phrsical support.
Thus rhey made the forequarters
of che lion the emblem o
Christ! divine narure. and rhe hindquarrers the image of his
humanitv. !as ir nor perhaps U".rr". of rl;. idea rhai the he_
raldic.lion.
calhd the lion rampanr.'was
represenred liring
[mse[
on his hind legs. wirh his roreparrs tuin.d ro the sky
(rrq. 5).
Fis. 5 t,
ton
tP
lrnib
d-
ol-cm, o cdinl Pd. ttr.
llrll LloN
It is also quite narural that mysticl writer saw an image
of the potent speech of rhe Christ in the roar of rhe lion The
formidable voice which resounds through the immense ex-
panses of the desert served es an imge or that of the
Ga.h.. of th. ord and its unequlled rnge. Hosea proph-
.sied of this matchless voice: "Thev shall walk after rhe Lord:
he shall roar lite a lion: when he shall ror, then the children
shall tremble from the westr2." And
Joel,
in turn: "The Lord
also shall roar out of Zionr'." Later on, the Latin liturgy
would make use of the same terms in speaking of the Savior:
De Sion rugiet, et de
lerusalem
dabit vocem ra'': "The Lord
also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice ftom
Jerusalem'a."
Perhaps this is why, in our western regions at leasr,
Preach-
ing pulpits ofren ere suPported by lions ln Chasseignes, near
Lorun
(Vi."n"), and in the same citn ar the Church of
Martray, the pulpits-dating from the fifteenth and sixleenth
centuries-ere made in the form of stone fonrs, and resr their
base on seaced lions.
But the lion sl.ares with numerous animals-which ate also
uthentic emblems of
Jesus
Christ-the negative role of serv-
ing equally as an allegorical image for the Antichrist, for
Satan.
Since the dawn of the Church, the lion has had this evil
signcance quit often, on account of St. Peteri; words: "Be
ser, be
"igilant;
because your adversarv the devil, as a roar-
ing lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may de'ourrt " Fre-
ou.nrlv. in scenes of ancient Chrisrian arr
-here
rhe lion
pursues timid does o. innocent gazelle". rhe onlooLer sees
only the ordinary pursuit of ptey by a famished beast, while in
reality, these images illustrate the text from St. Perer'
Commentators on the sacred books explicitly recognized the
image of the devil in rhe lion
"anquished
bv
voung
DavidL6'
The celebrated reliquary of Abb Bgon, part of the treasure
of the ancient ninth-century abbey of Conques-en-Rouergue,
which was known as "St. Vincentt Lantern," potttayed
ttrl lls.r. l^ltY ot, (:Ilttst
David! combat wirh the lion; and on the damaged inscription
beneath this image, one can still read. . . rir notter David Sa_
tarum s peayiti
"Thus our David overcame Satn.,,
_
In his infernal role, rhe lion is often the emblem of one of
the "three concupiscences,,ro
which Christian asceticism at-
tributed the downfall o souls: concupiscence
of rhe 6esh,,_
whefte
come lusr. glurtonv.
and slothl concupiscence
of the
."::'-lll:i
lusr again. greed. and enuv:
.,cncupiscence
of
pride o life"
-whence pride and wrarh. In these'three 6lia-
tions of the seven deadly sins, the Iion represents pride of life.
NTES
Title Fisure: Th. Lior o hea,a_fron th. tanb f S.ti r_
l. EzLiet l:lo.
l. st. Augu$in, co,uflr,tic, on the
ptuln,.
cJL
4. Latini, Li ba dou risol
r. I Kings l0:18-20.
6. M\le, L'At rclisieu,
lt),
p_29.
7. Pfuiath,
Quettine,
CnqrrL,, Bk. IV .h. ,.
8_ O.ign, Ho y xvl[, .h. 49.
e-
Cl- Hvshn\, Lz Czttpd,./e, le2ot T II. D.22{r.
lO, Mle. p, ctr.
1r. wil|m o Nomand, L Bcidne Diin.,,L naE de L,on." Hippeu edi-
iion, pp. 194-19,
lr.
Joet
l:16.
14. Breqrv ol PonrE. o.e or lir Sun.tv h
qdvhr.
lt. Fi6r Episrl of PGr 5:8.
16. I Sanud t7:14 el J.9.
End Fisute: The A,,.rtizn e i
4od.
!rtHE IELrI-n-
/\ N READI\G THE OId Testmen( rom beginning to end'
LJ"r. i, impressed by the innumerable
(hronss
of victims
that the patriarchs and their sons, the Hebrews, secri{iced to
God. Erodus and Leviticus liturgicallv codified these sacrilices
where sometimes huadreds of victims
-ere
slaughtered at the
same time. One of the reesons fot these impressive holocausts
is given in the sacred text: "For the life of the flesh is in the
bld: a"d I have given it to you uPon the altar to ma[e an
ronement fot your souls: for it is the blood rhat maketh an
aronement fot the soulL."
hether as an offeting under the knife of rhe sacrifrcers of
Israel, or in the mythic snctuaries o the Gentiles where
often the victim was a human being, the ritual outPouring of
blood flowed in ceremonies of all kinds: of glorification, of in-
itiation and propitiation, of aronement and of gratitude These
are al"o the f..nctio.r" that Catholic theolog attributes ro the
mysrerious sacrifrce of the body and blood o
Jesus
Christ on
the altar. which took the place of the abolished sacrifices of
ancient Moseic lw.
1t is this substitution that brought about the acceptance, in
the signs and symbols of Christianitv, of the beasts of the hol-
o..ur-t, th. ancient "victims,"
as aPPropriate symbols of rhe
Savior sacri6ced for humanitv on Golgotha.
The blood of numerous animals was shed before the altar
of Yahweh: the dove, rhe kid, the he-goat, the lamb, the cow,
the heifer, and the calf; but the ptincipal victim \r'es the ox ln
the mythological
conceptions
of ancienr Egypt, the ox or bull
*as one o the svmbols rhrough *hich rie
"rpr*_"
;;;
Amon vas adored in Thebes: in a fivmn o rhis .rf, *g,";.a
on a piece of pottery
in the Bridsh Museum.
Amon is sum-
moned in the name of rhe Celestial Bullr.
In ancienr times, because of its universal
chaiecrer as
,
and Africar, end rrest co the
general chraer
of the ancienr connecrion
of the bull and
other horned nimals ro human fecundity
and the cult of rhe
moon (Fig. l)-
.In
Egvpt. the sacred bull. as well as being rhe incarnarion
or the god Amon was also that o rhe god
prah,
or it was
the. personification
of the divine life force renewrng itself un_
endinglv,in nature.
Perhaps rhis is why. in rhe ;ell_Lno*n
Todrc ot Denderah. the ox is porrraved
on ics knees wirh the
Key ot Life.'rhe az, around irs neck.
lrt: t, I Stt\&t
The rarfier complex myrfioloeies
of
Assyria. Chaldea, Medir. and .;,,
placed rhe symbolic bull in relation
with celescial influences,
and even with
the divine narure;
and the deified bull
was portrayed
with a human facea.
Te impressive
man-headed
oxen. rhe
chetubim of Assyria (Fie. 2), adorned
wi jeweled
riaras, like the
""u"..tgn"
q!
and pontiffs
of their countries. a-nd
provided
wirh great wings
lik. ergle",
lis. t Apr,
haa
t] bnb o
'ai
t.
symbol of fertilnn and the svm-
bolic similarity b"trl,"",,
ih.
shape of its horns and the lunar
crescenr, che head of the bull
.as ofered and treared seoa-
rarely in Egyptian sacrces.
-J
rrs lmage was worn on amulets.
These amulets have been found
in many places in Europe, Asia,
FiF. 2 7t..h,
6unca-h."d.d
b t a Nd.L
I llli at, l. I
are well-known. The wingless human oxen, however,
rpresent the infernal monster Eabani (Fig. l). And
whatever the ncient commenttors on the Bible
may have thought, it is completely possible, if not
certein, rhat in Israel, the gold cherubim which cov-
ered the Arlc of the Covenant with their wings', and
those in Solomon's temple6, were oxen more or less
similar to rhose of the Assyrians.
tal
In the Assyro-Babylonian
pantheon' the god who was spe-
cifically empowered to control thunderstorms was named
Adad; he was "the lord of the celestial 6re." His svmbol was
the bull, whose charge is impetuous lilce that of a storm and
-hose
voice evokes the rumble of thunder' There is a stele
tht shows us Aded riding on his
symbolic ox with ore foot on its
hindquarters and the other on its
forehead' (Fig. 4).
In his splendid work on the theol-
ogy of the Greeks, Victor Magnien
speciies that oxen were sacriced io
Poseidon, black like his garments,
because the noise o the se, Lis em-
pire, lilre rhe bellowing of the bull, is
r's' a Anzd,'hdi ttu tu ;
a result of "powerful bteathings."
The mysterious cul* of Mithra and Otpheus ascribed to
the immolarion of the bull such a special power o puriGcation
and propitiation that the bull sacrilices tool( on the form and
the sacrmental liturgy of a kind of baptism of blood' Con-
sider this impressive rite:
In an excavation hollowed our under a loor made of lat-
ticed wood on which the secrificrs slughter the bound ani-
mal, there stands neked the candidte to teceiv the benefits
of the initiation and the purification through contact with the
.itual blood.
"Through
the slats in the wood," sys Prudentius, "the
blood falls into the hollow and rhe initiate turns his head to-
'I
ltti ,tls.tr^lt\, ()t. (:
Itits t.
wardr rhe drops rhar fall; he exposes his encire body to rhem.
He hans.backwards
so rhr rhey mav sprinlle his face, his
eats. his lips. and his nosrrilsl he immerses his eyes in rhe
warm liquid and not even sparing his palate, inuidates his
tongue in rhe blood and drinks avidlye...Ttren,
when the lasr
agonDed. rremors have emptied rhe veins o the poweril vic_
tim and his life is extinguished,
the initiared on.
"*..g".
f.o_
the excavarion
dripping with blood, and offers hi-""? t. .
venerarion
o rhe people who believe him purifed
by rhis scar_
Ier baprism and broughr close now to diviniry,
Today, near the falls of rhe Zambezi, a cruel custom still
proclaims
the belief in the virtues of hot, living, bovine blooJ;
"The
bull or ox has a ligature around its neck: a well_directej
arrow causes abundant
bleeding; the black native fills a horn
with the blood and then drinks it wich gusto; for other ani_
mals, ir is from a large cur, wirh blood
!*f,i"g
f""", i,, ,i;,
rhe,narives
come to drinL as rhev *ould fiom
"".rp,
,f.. t"",,
,s then sesn up again and frolics once more in the midsr of
the herd'o."
_
Today also in Laos, the buffalo is solemnly sacrificed in ot_
der to ask rhe heavens to foretell rhe furure to humaniry. Re_
pearedlv_b_ut
with lapses of rime berween each stab, so that
death will be slow. rhe sacrificer plunges a large spear into rhe
tlnk ol. rhe animal. and the way in which rhe bualo falls and
dres rndrcres to rhe people whether rhe vear wili be good or
bad, peaceful
or troubledrr.
.
One might believe that the domesticated
bull, like the rnale
buffalo or rhe wild bison, earned humen respect thiough rhe
fear it insprred. In rhe drawings
engraved on the .rlls ;f pr._
historic caves as in rhe mosr 6e,riful Greel worls o arr, re
bull poses as the powerful
chief of the herd. Th.se
",,ci.,,r tesrimonials well.portrav
irs strengrh. rhe speed of irs charge.
rts iurv. rs sexual passion. and rhe imposing gra,ity
of its mo_
lronless srance. Nonetheless.
n was more s rhe herdi prolj6c
sire than as its formidable leader thar the bull was ,alued by
rhe people of rhe 6rst human societiesrr.
Throughout Asia, ir
'I
ll li ,r t' l' I
*,s alwavs rhe embodiment of all the psvchic and phvsical en-
..'1""
"i.i
constitute ihe driving orce in the li"es o[ all be-
i"i.- n
gnro,
the imaqe of the bull was the hieroglyph of the
-^-';
f..ii*' and o, the Greeks he ws the svmbol of the
creative forc;rr.
All the cults of the hcient peoples of lran and Chaldea'
who brought us esttonomy, celebrated
the ram and the bull'
the fathers'of the herds, as the sPring signs of the zodiac But
is it true. as it has been said, that this symbolism
came from
these regions of Asia and later spread to EgyPt nd EuroPe?
tFiqs.
5;d 6), I prefer to think. on the contrarh that it *as
.r-"
"f
i,."f *ll*"*r primitive man became hunter and then
h.tdsman. Before Brahmanism aPPeared in Tibet and India'
before the Sumerians made their rich amulets, even before the
civilizations of Babylonia,
Nineveh, or Susa were born' the
aborisines of the northern slopes of rhe Pvrenees modeled the
"i*
[;*"
"f
the cave o the
'Two
Brothers.' and engraved
,h. .rp"rb oxen of the Magdalenian
c"erns of France and
Spain.
Relvino orincioallv on the visions of Ezekiel and St
John'
ou, 1,.,-Ch,;",1n
iymbolists depicted the ox ald rhe other
three animals, eagle, lion, and man, as hieroglyphs of
Jesus
Christ
(Fig. 7). ther French euthors o the Middle Ages
.h" f.li h;' to their wav of thinking are equallv explicit on
this point: "Turus,
Christus," writes Rabanus Maurusra; and
Fis. t cou kad
1on
th. tonb
o cklq,n 1, ,h .6tuD.
Fis 6 Sitnnh dntkB, M,lnd M!un'
r'ltti
risIt^|tr, ()t] (.
||RtS,t,
er him, St. Bruno d,Astib and St.
yves
of Chartresr6 say
rhe same rhing- Thus. rhev saw rh ox as the symbol of the
:ed::ming
victim which
rhtough the complere
outpouring
of
,r.s btood assured che purification
o our race and ;ts ren-
crairon wrrh
Jusri(e
,rom above. Bur anorher less well_known
Fic. 2.Tt-Btt ! Eali/l i\ntr
source and hearth of light,
, ,(ftun
Rabc"L\
la
tths)
and the orher as rhor. of-,
he. is the illuminating
Word, the Word *t l.f,
"fl"a
tL" n*"t
Lght onro rhe chaos o the worldr-.
the Word whose doctrine
rrlumrnres
soulr: he is also the !ord which is rhe creator of
fe. and e First, Principle_ whose
."iliri"g
.,*"g,; ,;;;;;
and perperuares
phvsical lile in the natural
o.de, on eanhrs,
and ose grace produces
spirirual life in rhe supernarural
or_
der. I ht,ts,,1rom him. rhe iniriai .ou....
".".g..
che sensible
irte of the bodv_ard
the suprasensible
life of rh; soul.
lhrs mvsrcat
conceprion was echoed in rhe liturgy.
in sa_
.red tirerrure
and art, and also in Christian sumbolis, in the
form of the o,(, re rem, and the stas.
.Here
perhaps we should call to ,iind rhe Spanish bull6ght.
rhich. howewer
imperecrly.
compares rlle rii ro tn. "_
deemer marching rowards death. ln tauromachy,
tfie,.Veronica
pass" uhich
consisrs of holding the cape in fronr o rhe bull,s
t"..."; ,: ,r..4 or the compassionare
worhn. in rfie legend
whrch has sprung up around whar was told in the gospel.;ho
offered her veil to the exhausted Saviorre.
symbolism
related the svm-
bolic figure of the ox ro the
personage
of Christ. A close
study of the iconography
of
Jesus
Christ in the irst thir-
teen centuries
shows rhar,
mong
many others, there
wee rwo dominaring
ideas
that had a considerable
influ-
ence: one portrays
him as the
It was in compositions
o an apocalypric
nature,
above all,
I rl ll lr rr I I
that the bull lent his image to Satan and
Personi6ed
the works
of hell: a medieval mnuscripr, or example, shows us Satan in
the orm of a being with the head o a lion, the body and
horns of a bull, bat wings and eagle's claws2o; in Veniers, near
Loudun, a church cornice from the end of the Roman petiod
shows a veriation of the basilisk: an ox with the head o a
cock. In a superb fourteenth-century book from Count Ash-
burnham's collection'zr, the Babylonian god Bel is represenced
-ith
a head that is half human. half ox-
like, a hairy totso, and the legs of a
vulture (Fig. 8).
This last creation of the Near Eas
ern imagination coincides, curiously
enough, with the sacred iconography of
Babylonia in the time of Daniel; the
cylindrical seals of other Chaldean doc-
uments of rhis period show us in facr
the monster Eabani and other man-
ifesrations o evil in the form of horned
men wirh the hindquartets of oxen
Unrelated to this type of iconography,
ihe representtions of sea oxenr or
dragonli[e oxen with snaLelike or {ish-
shaped bodies, ate also images o evil
monsters which are living vehicles o
the Evil Spirit (Fig.9). To the Am-
monites, the Moabites, the Canaanites
and their neighbors, Molech was an evil
god represenred as having a humar
body with a bulli head. Some of his
statues, made of bronze, were colossal
and hollo*, and his cult ordained that
in certain circumstances they should be
filled wirh children, beore setting fire
ro the logs surtounding them and heat-
ing the statues to a glowing red. In
fis. 3 The
sa'!
B.l or the
t4thrtury A\hbWh ncturtiPt.
Fi. e Th. bulL ol th. tu,
an
z
l,?ra i th. Rondn dh.o b,.
spi(e o rhe prohibirion
of Leviricus:
,'Thou
shalt nor ler any
o rhv seed pass rhrough the fire ro Molech,2,.,
i, ;;;
";: scrrbrng ro rhis abominable
cult that Solomon
ard Manasseh,
[ings of Israelzr,
committed
" "tn
,t", f."rgt,
""u;,-i; posrsy of rhe Israelites.
unril
losih pr, ,r-.ra
-
,1"..
horrorc-
Long before our era. Aegean mythology
had or irs or.r n
part mgrned the Minotur-
a being strangely resembling
the
ox-headed monsiers
of Chaldea. Lile rhem, rtris crerure"rep_
resented the ntithesis
of the chetubim, rhe divire ,uingid
.1"^, *iif
,lr:*
faces o Assyria. in *hici we .""
"."
i;r';
or rhe d,vrne power
uniring material force *iih int;l_
Irgence/{.
According ro Homer. Minos. king of Crete. was
rhe son of
Jupirer
and rhe nrmph Europa. bur he did not full
l:
:blicarion"
ro.re divire powers.
For rhis,
poseidon
pun_
rshed_him
by inspiring in his we.
pasipha,
a monstrous
Ds_
sron ior the mitaculous
bull which he hd failed ro sacrce to
the gods, From this unnrurl
union there rur" bo"n th"
Minotaur, who had the head of an ox and ,f.,. U.ay J"-g;r,
man, Iike the Eabani of the Chaldeans and S""f .f if," r."_
Phoenicians.
The Minoraur became rhe curse of the ishn! of
Crere. and Minos ad him locled
up in the Labyrinth
o
Knossos lhere rhe G.eeks, conquerrd
by the ling o Crere,
were required periodicailv
ro bring him sewn boys-and sewn
rlli ri1t^kY ()tr
.llRtSr I l{ ll l} t, l. l.
girls to devour. Finalln the Greek hero Theseus,
-ith
the help
of the enamored Ariadne, killed the Minotaur, rhus delivering
his country from rhe hareful rtibute.
Lanoe-Villne sees in the story of the Minotaur a very an-
cient solar mythz', and Glotz, in accordance with one of rhe
principal symbolic characterisrics of the bull as sire and fertil-
ir.' oi th" h"rd, presents the Minotaur as the Cretan god of
virile strength. "He demanded victims, like all divinities," he
wrote, "but it is not the mythology of the Cretans, it is the
legend of foreign peoples *ho made out of him a god hungrv
for human blood':6."
Nevertheless. the Cretan monster has coniinued to be c-
cepted as one of the representations of the Euil Spirit, and
Theseus, his conqueror, who deliveted Gteece from his op-
pression, was sometimes likened by Christian teachers to
Christ, the liberator of souls
NO.rES
Title Fiscft, The Wi"ce tsrll,
t'
o- the Hortts Saittis, /tui dn','
?. l.npion' ia id rhd@!.. Ple XXVL
l. S Schli.mn, pp. 9 aDd 71.
a c H. Brcuil. "Le Bison et le Tautcau Cele*e Chalden" in Ra At'hoLoE',
4th s.ris T. XIIa
(1909),
P.
2r0.
,. Exodls 2r:20.
, I Kinqs 6:21,
7. Fron Guirond, Mytholosi Asyro-babrlonicnne" it Molode ktoue' p'
5t.
s. Mag.i.., "Notes sur I'antique thologie des Grecs"'p. ll & 14, in l?'ro-
FL, Ja.-June. July-D..,
le29
9. Prtdcltius, PaiSkP. X, l0ll
10. Pul Acli.rd, lf, Vdi Vndse de I'Ai#' 191t.
lr. Al.x Aym, Urc Fdndite tu Ln, t9rz
12- Cl. P Pie.rcr, Pdith. EsPtid.
ll. Cf. Pompo.is Mela, D. Si/a d;, l, 9.
ra Rt:nus Muius. l, G*Ji . 49. De Uni'a, vll, 8.
r>. Brum 'A*i (A*ensn), D. Novo Munda.
16. Yvcs d Charcs, .mo de C"a,aiaia.
lltri 8Itrt^RY
Ot (rtxtt.
lE. Nue.ou5
'ymbok
inr.rprt.d rh. lame ,da: th. swsril, rh. rosr, rl,.
pom.grnre,
ihe pine .ne and spcia y tll. rm, rhe sras, .d the .ftk.
19. See H. d. Morfiertarq u, B6tne,, .
20. Biblioihque National., no. r0l, 6869.
21. C los
Jsp
B*r. franku. lclz: ch. tvt. p. ,oo.
22. Levicus l8:2t
21. I Kin$ ll:7 nd II Kinss 2l ad 21.
24. E Lenna r, Ai.Juitt d. l,A$/i. et e Bdbtane,Il.
2\. L o-Villn. I? ltrhi dc. Jrud/... t . pp. l\l .r,.9.
26. Glov. cn'lrdnon s@ae. L 7.2, p_ 2e2.
Lnd Fieuft: old Gtec* .oin.
N THE T,VELTTH centurv
the Archbishop
of Tours' Hil-
ld"b"* d" La,ardin,
wrote the following'
Chtistus HOMO, Christus
VITULUS' Chrbtus LEO'
Chtisrus est AVIS, in Chrisro cuhcto ooiore potesr'
Chistus est V,IS.
'
. Chtist is a bird He is in fact por-
orr"i. in Ct'.i",i* svmbolism' in the forms of a dove a peli-
.rn.
"'oho.ni*,
a swan. an ibis. e crne' e stotk' and in many
",i".
f."t *"ff-f.".*' orms. Howe'er, here it is the noblest'
.i. ti"' .f birds that we are speaking of' the roval eagle'
*h.se aracteristics
have st.uck manlind since the begimin3
of time and won its admiration'
-
t" hi" d"u. zekiel saw it like burning coals o 6re; and on
the solitary island o Patmos. when the eves of
John-
the Evan-
*"i;*
.p.""a to the infinite horizons of rhe erernal kingdom'
i" i' fi',r'.
gazed upon *hat the old prophet had onlv
'i-r""a.
if,," "et",na,l"
three orher animals appeared
;;.;;.;ir,,"
long"er as lighrning flashes along the rugged
i*ks .f a't" Cheb-ar while their wings sounded "lile the noise
.inr.", *.,"."'," bur bearing those quivering wings' on
-hich
n,i.'.f.'*t""a. of
"v.",
*hll" the *hole llrmament hailed
the triumohant Lamb.
fi.r"',i.ion" of Ezekiel' and St
Johna
are the ptincipal
Cf,ti".i",
S** for the svmbolism of the eagle, as well as for
,ruli"t,"a
the o,; all ih.." were alreadv endowed
with the
riches of the past.
lTFlI ]E E,\G]LE
rltti IrISt.t^,iY ()t. (rrritt.
It is in Central Asia, as well as arnong the peoples
of the
near Esr..ihar we 6nd the mosr ncienr proven
documenis
on
ll,.-.]-or,:
vaiue
oJ rhe eagh. The ancient
Hindu religion
rready.used
rhe eagle as rhe emblem o Vrshnu,,
and in rfie
:ll ?lch:l&,".
rhe eagle h rhe noble bird ,r'',,
"..;;p;;. lhe krng rn rhe roval images.
that tames rhe lion, an rhar
helps rhe Chaldean
He.cul; in his bartle wirh rhe monsters.
Tie sie.fav::ed
place wa" given,o,t"
"rgl"
in,h",n_
usual rt ol rhe Hirrites of Asia Minor. which is mentioned
in
rhe Pentateucfi
and in the Book of
Kings. and whose crude arristic patterns
seem to have been drawn from rhe re_
gions
of rhe Tigris and the Euohrares.
k is especially
in te relieious
arr of
Syria that rhe eagle appeais with rhe
meanings
which Christianity
later could
appropriarely
trnspose
to aDDly ro rh
Lord
Jesus Christ.
The Syrian
eagle and its sacred
meanings
have been
jlluminarinslv
stud_
ied by te Belgian p.ofe""o.
an sru"..
Franz Cumonr.
He says that ir is in the
region o Hieropolis,
the holv citv o
F* I :.,aa ?csl. o, trab bn
re great Svrian goddess
Atargatis,
lon
Mnb,4.
where
rhe eagle
.shows
itself most frequentlv
on unerai
monu_
ments. rn the role of rransporter
of souls
.,roward
the celesrial
gods-
1Fig. l)." Perhaps
rhis vision
of rhe
""gt.
*""
b",,;;;;
Dv the yr,ns-
as Cumonr
believes_from
rhe Babylonians.
The able of Etana. one of rheir mosr popular
rn"rh". ."..;;
:l
rict, ro:ei
out rhis opinion. The eagh having
devourej
lT,.:'o:r,.
voung. the serpenr.
in revense.
is on the point
of
k ung. rhe maruding
bird which it has manaeed
to entrD in
l,t."l,r' f*
Erana 6ghrs rhe serpent and r."s the.agle, *ho
rnen r,erkes rcset up ro heaven where ir seizes_alrhlugh
it
is unable to lceep-the
insignia of divine royahy.
lllli ll
^(;l'li
This tale, represented in numerous Babylonian works of
art, could hatdly have been unknown in ancient Syria, since
the two countties were in frequent contect Thus by extension
the myth o Etana became the image of the soul and the royal
bird became a
'psvchopomp
l ther is to sy, it was seen as
the carrier, rhe v;hicle, beating blessed souls ro thei celestial
source; for, in accordance with Semitic beliefs, souls came to
earth from re Sun and had ro returr to it ater the death of
the body. The Syrians must have been all rhe more willing to
ccept this symbolism since for them the eagle was already the
bird of the sun.
Like the Egyptians, the ancient peoples o Assvria and
Ch"ldea d.picie the sun mosr often in the form of a disc
with two outstretched
wings, two great eagle wings; and as
the Syrians were descendants of the ancient peoples of Assyria
"rd
h"ld"r, it seems very likely rhat this is the source of the
idea behind the frequent carvings of the eagle on the burial
stones of their dead; the soaring eagle, that is, portrayed the
movement of the soul's departure from earth into space'
e also find, in the very ncient art of Sumer, rhe eagle
with a lion's head which thus unites the sovereignties of both
erth and sky. The recent excevations made by Tello have
pro,ided us with several examples of this lion-headed eagle'
ln Phoenicia, the god Melkarth. of Tvre. immolated himself
for mankind on a funeral pyre,
-here,
metamotphosed
into an
eagle, he fle* off into the sky, the conq'reror of death3
Th" G.."k., and chen later the Romans when they came to
Svria. borrowed frorn the peoples o rhis region the oriental
belief that the sacred eaqle carried souls ro the kingdom of
the sods;
and this is no doubt the reason whv' in Greece and
in Rome, rhe eagle became rhe bird of Zeus and
Jupiter'
It
also explains its presence on Platoi romb'' and *hv a live
bird was placed on the
"r*mit
ot rhe funetal
Pvre
tht was
..".t.d in T"t"us in honor of Sandan-Heracles, the protector
of the city who is pottrayed on its coins From there also
stems the special liiurgy of the Apotheosis, in the Rome of
the Caesls who had been judged
worthy o the honor of divi-
nization- From rhe summit
of an immense
f,,,,..rt pyr", br;it
in
th-e. shape
of a pyramid,
which was to consume
the body or
I'j
.i*; ,i easte was made. to e,cape. charged
u,l .,*,t^e
rhe,,,ut
ot rhe ne-l\ de,fjed being in irs flighr rowardi
2 (ri
f,,r ,taah\
h lr.t\ti

r
(
dr!,
orher side of the world which
nenr, the eagle had evolced
thoughrs
and feelings that ir
and Asian ancestorsrr.
heven
'0
(FiC.2).
This rite
was n.rr resrricted
ro royalry,
and was also used or nu_
rneroLrs other individuals.
The priceless
rreasure re_
cenriy discovered
in Montalban
in Oaxaca, Mexico,
along wirh
marvelous
objec*
o gold and
precrous
srones, contains
beau_
tiful eagles of
sold
and jade
trom very ancient rimes. These
prove thar in their dme, on the
was then unknown
ro our con.i-
in rhe luman
spirit che same
had wkened
in our European
Tfie .stabli,hment
or Christianiry
ua,
fi'llowed
cto.etv br rhe crearion
of ii" Iit-
urgv and :vmbolsm.
and in rhe larter. the
e;gle becrme a. cxcellenr
hgure ro repre-
sent Chrisr. ro whom were
applied the
uords t
Jeremjh:
.Behotd,
he sh.I
corne up and 1v as the eagle. and.,pread
his.uings over
Bozrah:
and r thdi da)
chall rh" hearr
oJ ,he
mishry
men of
Ed"rn hc ., the hear. ot,,".",
i, t..
pangs',."
The use of the eagte as a symbot of di_
vrne
power t^as tridespred.
Embtem
or
irnperial
Rome', rriurrph
and $ortd_$ide
domination,
it also became. for the Chriy
runs, Iirllowing the convetsion of Constanrine and the libera
rrrg t,lict of l14, the embiem of the triumph of the Christian
rrlignrn over persecution and of its universal diffusion.
'I'his
is probably the significance of rhe representation o
rl,c cagle on Christian lamps in the fourth century in Car-
rl,gerr (Fig. ;) and elsewhere, and also on the beautiful frag-
,ucnr of a sarcophagus ar Arles where the eagle appears, its
wings in giiding llight, and on its breasr a crown in the cenrer
,, which one cn sdll see half of a "Chrismon" *ith the I and
rlrc X superimposedla.
'I'he
eagle, bird of the sun and conductor of souls to
ht:rven, was to the ncient peoples also rhe carrier of celestial
lirt and light. The Greeks, nd subsequently the Romans, rep-
resented holding in irs claws the
Iightning bolts of Zeus-Jupiter; the
ligyprians and che Assyrians gave its
wings to the solr disc. It was be-
lit'ved rhat the eagle and the falcon
wcre the only creetures that could
.rare ixedly into the sun's intense
light, and rhat the eagle tested the
legitimacy of its young by making
--
rhem look srraight inro it from the
-'
D,menr of rheiabirth, rhrowins our,t[r:"i:ir:,:'::,-::;'::)
of its nest the eaglet whose eyes
hlinked under the blinding raysD
(Fig. 4). The eagle plays with lightning bolts, said the ancient
poets, when the most rerrible outbreaks of thunder and light-
ning make all other living beings tremble; nd ir is no doubt
for this reason tht rhe ncient Greeks nailed eagles above
their doors, in order to prorecr rhemselves from euil orces
.rnd from being srruck by lighrningr6, which, they believed,
never couched this bird17.
The symbolism of Christ a" {ire and lighr penet.ated the
mosr ancient Chrisrian litutgp
The tales of the Orient, *hich show us the eagle rising to-
tlllt lrtst.t^I\, ()
wrds rhe sun, into the abode of che gods, said that rhe bird
came so close to the divine srer rhc in irs old age its fearhers
became charred, and irs flesh dried up almost cJ-plet"ly; brrt
once ir rerurned to the errh. ir plunged itsel rhree tjmes in
rhe spnng $rer o a ounrain and emerSed regenerated, with
all the youthfulness
of its early yeat". Thi" ab-le was aiready
"ery
old when the Church was born, since Devid was inspne
by it: "Bless rhe Lord," he wrote,
,(who
satisfieth thy
-outh
with good rhings; so that thy yourh i" ,er,"*ed iiLe the
eagle'sr3."
Because of rhe regenertion
rhar che eagle found in the life-
giving fountain, the ancieni Orienrals made ir the emblem nor
of the resurrection
of rhe body, bur of che immortalitv of the
soul, and rhis was one of rhe roles in which ir was adpted by
the Syrians, es rhe prorective
spirit of their rombsre.
.
The Egyptian eagle someiimes
appears carrying in irs beak
the "Cross
of Life," and in the \Iy'esr al"o th"
"gl.
.rd the
idea of Iife were related. Thus it is rhat a stone called
,,the
=cle.i
srone," an iron-oxide geode which encloses: semi_
tuqurd cenrer, was a much soughr afrer raliqman. In his Horrur
Saziratis,
Joannes
de Cuba, an author of rhe later pat of the
fifteentfi cenrurv, wore rh( die eagle takes rhis stone inro its
nesr becuse it counreracrs the grear heat rhar rhe bird gener_
ates to rhe point of endangering its own eggs; the ston-e can
conquer rhe hear even of fire2o. Other ancient aurhors at-
tribured a solar origin ro rhese stones. Those who believed
rhat they possessed
them used to place rhem in contact wirh
women in labor ro aid their deliverp
'Je
hare seen in the previous srudy ot rhe lion that ir was
an emblem o rovahv and t6e Resurrecrion
o'Chrisr, but also
an emblem of Saran the Antichrist, because, a..ording to Sr.
Peter. it is the beast o prev who roars and ,."k" toi.uour.
The eagle also. image o Chrisr in many ways, was taken to
represenr Selan, because ir is nor onlv the noble and ftagni-
cent bird bur also the rapacrous de"rrouer: unde, this aipecr
Deureronomv
had already caregorized ir a*ong the,-iur.
It"asrs, whosc llesh the lsraelnes were not to eat'rl.
!e know that one of the rst emblems chosen co represent
(lhrist
was the 6sh which, by analogy, was taLen as the image
ol d:e t-aithful as well. It was in this role that it was associated
*irh the eagle, giving rhe latter its satanic meaning: the eagle
ws shown trampling with its talons a fish which it often
'rnrck
with its beak. It is a fact, it seemsr rhar the eagle dives
ir times from the heigha o the rky on fish drat sleep trust-
ingly, near the surface of the wter, nd carries rhem o to
(rr
its ll. In the 6fteenth century
Joannes
de Cuba describes
rlre eagl thusi "He has so shrp a vision rhar from rhe air,
where he is so high he can bareiy be seen, he spies the little
lish swimming in the sea and lers himself lall in like a stone,
xDd tkes the 6sh and carries ir to the shore ro er it...
'z2
rlig.
s) 'So
the devil does uith the soul.
d. I O6t Ponn\
Elsewhere in rhe Christian *orks of art, the eagle captutes
a hare, or catches in its claws a young lamb.
A few of the Chutch fathers have cried to explain away che
carnivorous actions of the eagle: when it lalls from rhe clouds
like ligtrcning on rhe tsh of the tranquil warers, sy rhe Sints
F$ 5 Balta .ht \11 lt. Malntsidt.?..h n th. lV$;. ,l! Arnqbnl
rl|tr llstt^fl1 ()
lr c|Ikrst.
Brun_o.d'Asti,
Isidore, and Anseim, ir is rhe image o the Sav_
ior, 6sherman of souls, who akes them from rhe earth ro ele-
vete ro heaven. Bur rhis kindly interpretation has ound lirtle
response. ald the devouring eagle has remained the image of
our relenrless enemy.
Tnb licut4 Sbli:3d .a|h
oa
. Hr6 SanrdE.
l
2.
3.
).
8.
10.
ll.
t2.
t),
Dc Lav,rdin, Operd, p. Ills.
G!non, L 'n,n. Ddnl.,
P.
25.
Mh, a7, i.lisfi,x (t). p. rtO
a.'1or,
'1
^'Bh
r..h;rijr. d.. Sv,j.ns er J;p",hp,. dc..npeFU,,.. jn
&
,"
H.tu.iqb d, F.tro.,. t. L\U. I\o. l. \rJ, to.c. pp lr,, tr.
se vdtl,
L tur.,J 6_Irauo1:,
P
l8.
Dioeene\ Lern s. IV. +,1.
Cl lobli.hus, t)d /.,in. v, 12.
sce f,ior, Mar.tr 2r. 1912.
C. R. P Dela(.e,
"Lahpes.h.rienns
de CahEc.,, in Rk d,An ati;
x"r.. rdun, p
,8.
rrCj-1,,I
N.
.S.
ed \,,ol.,
f,, / at,nq _.
tt, t zt.La,_
(r9r0).
Pp.62,6r.
It. Cl. Ld{cq d M rcn, Di.,ioarr.. T_ V vot. I, cot. 2,4rr_ No.4,704.
lr. Sec Pliny, Nddr,/
gnio4,
Boot X, l.
lo. .i:
Rr. A.Jdemre de. ln."rpn... \..t,.h r,
I \r.
l-. Ct. PlLn dp d/., Boot JJ.
16.
l9- Cuhont. or..ir,, p_ 14r_
20.
Joeies d Cuba, dr,j .td,ndrn. rI,
paii
IIt.
..Ds
pircs,,.
x.
21. Deurronomv 1,1-17
22.
Jonnes
e ub. o|' .n.,
par
rr, "Da Oysux.-
End Fi|ure: I2tr.nhq .d\itdt dt St. Md
jr
de No).
T' Irt r0 irt A i\
,"f!HF
suul or Chrirt was
joined
on earrh
I bodv
-h;ch
s,rffered a.d died on Calvary,
likeness artisrs from every Christian era have
picturing the events of his terrestrial life. But
rymbolicallT
he is represenred only in the con-
ventionl form attribured to che angel, of a
winged man (Fig. l).
The beneficent spirits had already been
given this form in Chaldean arr and in the art
of ancient Greece long before our era. Primi-
rive Christran art adopted ir as a convenrion
to represent the angels who, in the Bible,
sometimes mnifest rhemselves as handsome
young menl and also, sometimes, represent
the Chrisr taken as Aggelos, as "Angel": that
is to say, as "rhe one sent," a messenger from
the Father, and the bringer of salvarion
(le shall
"ee
this 6uman body and it'
-ings
with a human
and in whose
shown him, in
in the Tetramorph which, like Ezekielt ani- FiE.l t2tE.dtut:t
mels, unites the four faces in one image The
rdlare al
s't
T"t.".o.ph, evoking for the Chrisr]an the
st' Bdisu in jah'
our Evangelisrs, represents the "good news," the docrtine un-
kno*n till then that Christ brought rc the world, and refers to
his angelic character as the Fathert messenger.
Commentators on the sacred books began very early to
designate the angels as manifestations of the divine Word,
l ti ntisrt^tr, ()r
r: Illtst.
which-Christ
wr to represen!
in the course o the coming
ages. In.rhe Bibie,,ir is the angels who transmit rhe word of
..:od.ro
humans_or
example. those who appeared to Abra_
hm'. ro
Ja.obr. and to Moses in rhe burning
busha; it was
the angel o rhe Lord also who comforted
the
;",r,
;;;
k)Yl
**'.li*****
)rt-;ll Zech",iah
s ar^ sranriing
/ZffiNNl---
among rhe m,rtre,,..,",
";;
@re*til4'ffi
..
ll1
,.,,,lii,ffi.,li
"
.,:
;
",";,,:,*
' cord'ng ro rhe uords
of Sr.
.
lohn'.
.
Somerimes
arrist. became the interp.eterso
or rhese theo-
log'crI opinions
and
ave
Christ rhe convenrional
pperance
ol. rhe.ngel
adopted br their era. Ar,,t".,;-..,t"y
".U- stiruted
Jesus
direcdy for the biblical
".,g"1,
this rlas tte .as.
with Nicolas Fromenr, who in his beau;fui nf."."*-.**.i
painring
of rhe burning bush, in the Cathedral
of Ai*_en'-
Provence, placed
rhe Savior in the midst of rhe flames. Some-
trmes he eren wears rings like the angels. as re see him on
rhe cenrrat ,nedallion
o an alta. cros" o medieval workman_
ship (Fig. 2).
This is not rhe place for a detailed study of the diverse hu_
man forms which
Christian art chose ro represent
aagels, and
:::,::1,!t"
J".,,
Chr,;sr as rhe suprerne
Anser: lel us say
ontv rhr in the rrsr Chrisrian
cenrLrrie. rhe
"r,l"a"*
C",to_
I tt r M
^
N
lics as well as the Gnostics showed angels with humn bodies
Jrcsseil in girdled robes and equipped with a pair of bird's
',,'gs.
The
-rddle
oI rhe i.sr millenarr was somerimes more
rlcalistic, and in the sixth cenrury, angels appear on a minia-
rrrLe of ,(orras Indiopteustes, formed by a human face carried
I'y several pairs of elegantly arranged
w;ngs (Fig. 3). During the Roman-
rsque era, wesrern medieval art de-
picted them in many ways, all of
them hieratic and often with multiple
wings. In the latter part of the Mid-
rilc Ages the angel .as further hu-
rnanized, and the marvelous spirits
painted by Fra Angelico are radiant
apparitions of the most delightfully
i<iealized human type.
At the same time, the custom oI
portraying St. Michael in the form of
a knight in armor caused the repre-
senration, at times, of aronymous an-
gels also in war dress, considering
Iis. I s-,prrn o/ Kosms
Indicplu*er 6l..trtor.
try t AnP?l
han
d 1)!h-
1'h t tni.tuh, Pt.\mtinc
t 1.ttln.hnt tu tt'itu]
.t
\.
Ena?s
oI rhru.
angels as the miliria of Godi; celestial armies. At Ewelme in
Oxfo.dshire, rhe artist who decorated rhe to-b of the
Duchess of Suffolk at the end of the fiteenrh century sur-
rounded it wirh alternating angel-priesrs and
angel-knighrs, the latter armed from head to
roe and carrying grear shields; all wirh folded
wingse.
The lasr three centuries of the Middte
Ages saw the adoption of a mote immaterial
form which reduced the angel to the human
face alone, framed by two wings, a very ethe-
real 'igure which through rhe suppression of
the body and limbs likens rhe angel to the
"Bird of Paradise" of the symbolists of rhar
time. This creation. still rimid and rare in the
ll.i ::'l'1"':,:l'l'"
''
s

u;r.
kqrren ,r (
npr,,veJ
r-) re
:::,:, ll.
r,treenrh....,r
cv.rmple
on ,r,. r,.,,,,,,;r
,,,"ii.
:',:i":h,:h,r,.round.
rhe chorr in the a,*n.
i. ",...;
rn Parisr
but rhi" eler.rrcd
rvpc ws suon I"*.,"d
b",r* ;;;;
earrhv Lrse mode
"
ir bv rh" R"_
naissance.
u hich applre<J
ir ro
i.,:L';:*,:':;,';,,,..
^
O
tri;ffig"_"
ccllent doctrine,,
to mankind.
.d, tl tt.
(.cbn
4
The symbot
of rhe hand is one of rhose
wh;ch have been
pssed
down
through
the millenni:
;;;."11;1,,."i
..';;;
I,; ::':H,":::,:I"i.::.:,1:,:l
:^j::..::r1",,"
s,wereigntv
and cre;rive
energy.
irresi,tibrc
:::::.
,,.
t".'.
..r co[,mdnd.
ot iu,rice and direction.
of o,"_
Jnd muni,iccnce.
trery,ahere.
*t.";, ,"^.-
:::l:"
.""" .orl
in rhe rrcompri.hment
.i r,r, ..r,"[,.
aurie\.
, Inrde,..trc
p,orr\
d5,ures o ador.rtion.
"..f",",1.rj
,nvc'ror,.
uthll,,,s
the requirernenr.
,,f
1.,,,*"
,,J p.,j".,
"
I
Arredv
iro,n
rhe heginning
.f ,1.
O,,,"I,","
"1,, "r,".
hum"n
b<ins\ Ii,ed
jn
cavern,
or dart ,hctrers.
, ,h" ;,,;;;;
rhe Fonr,de
Caurne.
C.rrg1s.
and Cabreret.
ror evarnple,
tfie
::,:,j:j:f"d
h-nd i" ri,ed parrn
ourwrrds.
,. ,, ,, .ili ."".
on amuters worn
today (Fie.5).
,In,t
enrrat A,ia. ,,..
;. ,.,"
6egrnning
of
rhe Brahman
cult.ttre
hand r^as
r. reore,enrarion
"iSlr,"
.;,f,..
^ "
ffi,
1,,:or^l:,r:,r-,,-.,t"",',: :,
,. a rerr rund
r.ia,,g
,o ii;
rv,ruo,c
Jnrcrop
or d coiled
rope,,.
And
","*
fr,_;;i.*
,: ,.i,":
,l: rv\
e,rdni,
nts rro,o rhe ace ., ;;" ,;"_;;;
nmrda
Avalolrrr.Lrari
rnded
in hand" dj",,ib,,,,s
R,ft,.,:;;
rgvpt.
rhe I',rrrd
u,r' rfie,rgn,,l (he
parrnnl
genrrosrrv
uj
,\rru,r hanJs disprnsing his grace werc also iound ar r6e ends
,,t rlrt rays ol light that fill .o'" the solar diskr'. and we see
,r rlrrrs i the pu.e a.r of te',,ple rvalls and burial places.
I l,c arr of rhose times reveals rhat among certain oriental
;,,'1,les,
as among the Egyptians, the posture of adoration is
,',,, o1 kneelins and Iifting rhe open hands to rhc level of rhe
1,,.rJrr. Th is the position of the hands of supplianrs sho.n
',,
rl,c little votive sratuettes oI Asia Minor, as well as the fig-
,rrrs standing in ronr of the solar disk on the great ca.ued
l",Lrlder o Ellatoun in I"ycaoniar{ (Fig. 6).
fhe hand as a symbol of the divine was also the instrurnent
,,r sacred gesrures in the celebrations of tltc old Babvlonin
, rrits. and "among the hymns
-hich
ofren express sut,lime
l"rlings in magni6cenr poetry, one of rlre most beautilLrl is the
l,vurn to Ishtar which is entirled 'Prayer of the elevarion of
rlrt' handr'."' In ancienr Caucasia and rhe region of thc Cas-
l,irn
Sea. as it was elsewhere, the hand was ttre dual symLol
,n Jivine bounty and power and of human supplication; and in
,u,cient Greece, in the culs of all such denies as AescLrlapius
,rnd Hygeia who dispensed the gifi of health, divine aid was
'yrnbolized
by the succoring hand. The hand appears in Car-
rh"ge on rhe steles characterized by the mysterious triangle of
1:,a. . M .r c l4da tb. \sb\ il IaD
I r
^
k r r)
lh'.*{** }.ni''"
rt-ie.
-).
and this same area wourd rater
be amiliar with
the ralirman
so widespread
,odr1 ;n ,li oi
northern
Africa,
known as
..Fatimai;
t",,,
1fig.
8).
Thus in tlre whole
ancient world,
the outstrerched
hand ex_
pressed
the presence
o- di_
vinity,
somewhac
in the wav in
whrch
in Brahmanisr
rhouehr
''Vishnu's
foot ' symboli,es
iis
real presence.
On the secular
level also in those times
rhe
open hand was
rhe sien of lov_
altv, welcome,
eood frtrh-,na
friendship.
Another
non_
t,, .
Lto.a religiou,
usage
is shown in the t tu. tdthaqtqtra
ht. i h L,tLn", ,,lt
B;,_'*.
-;:i:-_;,,
;,.,.:,,.:,:..
:i:
:h.]l
j;j.d,:f"":"il:T:f
,11i;
.nr ci.rs,n
a se.penr!
body,
and-teli.
us. ar lea,r
jn.e
language
of rhe
"-r".;.,
,lr,
"".
must acr rautiousiv
.rt all rimesr-
rFig. u).
...^rhus.
(
hrrsnsn
svmboL,m
found
rhar the sign of the hand
:l'1"".1""
evel:wher:
br differenr
nations
for reasons
thar
rhe dorr.ne
corJd easih adopr:
so the lr"rd ,rpidly;;.r;;
one or rhe svmhots
used specificallv
for God rhe t,,h".
";;
tor Chrisr. As a g.ne.al
rule. when
it represenrs
rhe Son and
not rhe Fa,her. rh. 1363;" placed
on a....".
b",*".r
rl;;;
nd omegr (frg.
t0r. or crries a crucitorm
nim6u, F;. lll
or appears
in some orher
conrexr thar leaves
no
;r.";" ;i
ttr meaning.
There were [rw ercepnons
ro rhis rule.
_-
accororng.ro.
Sr.
_Augusrine
and rhe Farhers
of the Church
,, was
rne rett hand
lhr rhe earlv,vmbolists
consecrated
as
sranorns
preemrnen(lv
or rhe jusrice
of the Ch,;"r-Krng,
,.,ll,.d upon
"hen.
afrer his
tq tu , t-., L, .1.
,,'nvcrsion. he ordered rhe +i t^.-
",y"-.
"]'"rc.rs
thc right was the image ol his rnercy, his goodness,
rrr,l his gcnerosity. Cerrain ancienr representarions show him
".rrlr
rhc right hand, the "Hand of Mercy," Iarger than the
l,lr, to show that in the Saviort hearr mercy is more than
jus-
r, r. In church in rhe
l l,urrcs-Pyrnes, St. Peter is
;,,'rrrayed
in the sme man-
,,",. uo doubt as represenring
tlrc
(latholic
Church.
Ir was rhis divinely rescu-
rrrg hand that Consrantine
'.,,rl.ins of new coins. A" on
atu..,a--,tr.'
rl,,''e he had issued pre-
t.t"ltL'".a'\'r'r'1'
F'-'r'r'\'-a"
!r('usly, he was porrrayed riding in a charior drawn by four
lrorses inco the heavens; only on rhe larer coins he (aises
a
lr,rnd towards nother Hand which reaches down to him lrom
rlrt sky, and which can only be the hand of Christ whose di-
vinity he had
jusr
recognizedl3.
The laying on of hands is one of the oldesr
gestues rhat we [now. In Genesis, we see
Isaac Iaying his hands
"n
his sons Esu and
Jacob,
nd Egyptian monuments show us fig-
ures in analogous postures. This imposition of
rhe hand or of both hands was also parr oI a
grear number o iniriarions inro the mysrerres
of pre-Christian culrs in Asia. Europe. and Af-
rica. In the gospels
Jesus
is constancly placing
his hands on someone to bless nd heal (Fie-
12). Following the example of rheit master af--
ter he had lei rhem, the aposdes continued the
laying on of handsl', and rhis custom entered
into the ffrst litLrrgy of the sacraments and into rhe blessing
ceremonies2o. The origin of this rite seems ro be based on an
invisible physical realiry which has been more or less well-
rlrr r,stt^tr, ()t (,1
lltsr
known since rhe early days of humal civilizations, which is
thar
-a
considerabh quanriry
of magneric lluid escapes through
the lingers of the ourstretched hand. The Ancien* even thn
hd rhe irm aith that.:rrer having raised rheir hands to
hea,en ro ca rnd receivc the divine influr, ir
qas
rhen con-
centrated and in rurn cornurunicated
to orhers by placing their
oursrretched ffngers on t6eir heads. This dtu;n" inflr*,r."
"hown
bv Chrr,rian iconographr
as tighr rav. coming from rhe
hnd (Fis. ).
The hand of Christ is sometimes shown as blessing and ar
orhers as rhe symbol of his omnipotence and of the unlver_
sality of his empire. Ir holds then in its palm the seven apoc_
alyptic starsr', as nnages of ttre immensities
of the firmamenr
(Fig. l4), or rhe globe of the world surmounted
by rhe cross.
in this role, the Lordis hand is rarely separated rom the
whole image or'hi" person.
'I
tre i.onog.aph,c
image picrured
in figrrre I4 shows rhe .even.rr.,
rog"th",
""
;." no."r,
wirhin the circumference
of the circle of the firmament. It is
bortowed from an illLrmination in a twelfth_cenrury
manu_
script2?.
,.
The frequent saying in Chrisrian literarve: Digitus Dei est
rr: "che 6nger o God is here,,, refers as often to"Ch.i"r ,s it
does ro the Father. Ordinarily rhe finger thus described does
Fts tr Thc hctuj ol abtnt
o, llth 4,4nt! nt ,Jt ;n Nh.
Dr . d. Chr.
t tE. ]a Th htrl ol Cht
,,or imply the idea of benediction but rather that of action and
lrrwcr.
In iconography, the hand which rePresents this Digint
l)ti ctt hit ol rhe sacred writings musr be a right hand wirh
,'rrlv rhe index 6nger extended, rhe orher fingers being folded
(;rs in the pointing hand), because the exretsion of the index
linger alone is rhe natural gesture o
irnperative command allowed only to
rhe one in authority.
Among all the ancienr peoples whose
civilizations are known to us, especially
rhose of Asia, Europe, and North A-
rica, and up to modern times, the im-
,rge of the heart is used much more as
rhe ideogram or knowing, for reason-
i"g, and for undersranding, than or af-
Iecrive or physical loue'7r. The sages of
ligypt alfirmed that the heart is the
'"urce
of all that man knows, and all
that he can do; and from it, they said,
human activity receives its inspirations
and its force in the .ealm of thought as
well as in that of physical acrion.
The *hole point of view of ancient
rimes, both in the Orient and Occident, was summed up by
Pliny in the words: "Inside irself, the heart in irs winding pas-
sages provides the irst home of the soul and rhe
l,lood . . . there the Intelligence resides'?a " Srartine with such
conceprs, the religious rhought of rhe ancient Egyptians quite
naturally also made the heart of rhe supreme God the seat
and source of divine perfecrions. And consequently we see old
texts expressly evoking the diuine Heart. Ramses II, after be-
ing ill-supporred by his officers in a ba*le, ended his re-
proaches io rhem bv saving:
'l
will no longer carrv vou in mv
hearr,'r' (Fies. It and 16).
In one of the hymns composed by the Pharaoh Amenhotep
IV (Akhenaten) and hls lovely wife Neferriti to Aten, the im-
tt
f;r. 1, The h.d."t tuth
.dst,.? n rb. ll
4 fus
|
0
Fry t.,
'l
)-?. hi,rslyPt
age o rhe Divinirt svmbolized bv rhe sotar di,c, ur real in
the course o a long rerr:
"Thou
hast creat.d the earrh rn
chine lreart, when thou wast alone . . . thou hast made the sea_
sons to give birch and growrh ro all thou hast created... rhou
hast made the distanr sky rhar rhou mightest rise up inro ir
nd see from there all rhat thou hast creared. rtou rt.-r"..
Thou appearesr in the form of rhe ivrng Aten: rhou risesr
shining, thou goesr away rnd..trr.,"ir,
thou arr in my
-The
same
_concepr
is expressed in the funerary inscription
of a priest o Memphis, the rexr and meaning of which have
been established by Maspro, Breasred, and Eiman. F.om rhis
ic appears that the theologians
of the Memphis school made a
distinction, in the work of the Aurhor of
"ll
thir,g", b.t*e"n
rhe roh of creative thought, which they calle the-act;on of the
heart, an rhat of creationt instrumenr, which thev called th.
a,tron oJ tl,e tonque. thp sordi . Anorher rheological school
that we learn about from the monuments of rhe time of th.
Ramses pharaohs (nineteenth
dynasr6 about 1200 B.c.) ex_
presses a theory according to which God, the supreme God
whose narure
tlireraiv. namer is mvstery. is presenred as being
formed o rhree disrinct enritjes .hich maLe up , ,.r. TII
unity: Ptah, Horus, and Thorh.
ptah
is the Supreme nerson,
the perfecr inrelligence;
Horus, according .o b.l;"f.hi.h
was already ancienr ar that time, is the comprehensive
and af-
fecrive Hearr of rhe di"inirr. rhe spirir rhr animares all ot:
lile: Thorh is rhe
tJord.
rhe insrrumenr o rhe divine works.
,
Ptah is delinrared as rhe Sr_preme Being. because in a way
the whole rnd comes rom him. Accordrng ro rhe evidence
menrioned above, he is "He who becomes Heart. he who 6_
cmes Tongue."
Horu'. rhe dirine Hearr. was represenred
in sacred arr in
rhe form of a fcon. From rhe rime oj the fourrh dvnasty.
abol:. 2575 to 246, 8.c.. he appeared under this symbol; fr
instance, on the beautiful starue of Chephren in rhe Cairo
museum, rhe sacred bird leans his heart, his whole body,
I'III] MAN
,rgainst thc nape of the pharaoh whom he prorects and in-
'pires,
and wirose head he enfolds with his spread wings (Fig.
I7). The singular attitude of the lalcon god means uety much
nrore rhan
.iust
an rtendn.e on the phroh, the bacL of
whose neck he covers and
wrms at the very sensitive
spot which neurology calls the
"Bridge of Varolius," which
pLrts him into almost immediate
contact with rhe cervical nerve
gaoglion that cerrein nato-
rnists have named the "Tiee of
Life." Could ir not be said rhat
by means of this wrm touch
the divine Bird, symbol of the
hearr of rhe deitn in some way
fecundates Chephren's spitit in
rhe brain, in that hostelty
where, according ro the sges
of that epoch, the thoughts
conceived and born in the heart sray a
-hile
before thev can
be sent out into the world by the movement of the tongue
and the ope"ing of the lips, in the utterance of words?
The sublime hymn in honor of rhe eternal ord with which
St.
John
begins his Gospel has been inscribed in the Christian
lnurgy since its inception nd forever after: "In the beginning
was the ord, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was cod.... All things were made by him...ln him was lifc;
and rhe life ws the lisht of men.... That was rhe true light,
which lighreth every man thar cometh into rhe wotld.. . And
the ord was made flesh, and d-elt among us... And of his
fullness have all
-e
received....'?8" At *re close of each cele-
brarion of rhe Mass, the church acclims and reclls the gifrs
of the
rVord,
and its dues.
In symbolic terms, it is rhe human tongue that rePresents
this eternal Word, the Christ; but in fact, in litetature as well
FiE 1, Th.
thd,
h Ch.?t,i
,,"1 L. i;-
","
rllrl [lstt^[],
o, (lrlrsr
as ia. art, the tongue is idenrilied
wnh the lips whi.h are more
visible, more expressive,
everr more imporranr
b"."r". rh.;
form. rhe chie gare of rhe brearh. *h.f
r" ,+*1",1,a
.__
prratronl
thev.call fort6 or put
".rop
to th;s facror rhar is
,,.*"i.".,:
Ilte. Ontr through rhem can pass exhatarrons
chrged wrrh rhe prti.ular
rnfluences
rhar have such,peci6c
roles in variou_s
Iirurgies.
as uell as in magic. The Carholic
Lhur.h lancrilies
breathing rom rhe firsr momenrs
of rhe
bap,ismel lirurgv/..
and inrroduces
it into he. exorci"m.;
anj
in the rites.of
Holv Saturdar.
the ."l.b.r",
b.gi"" ;;';;;;:
rng rhree rimes on rhe $arer that he blesses in the ra.e of
Cod. ro uhom he
"avs:
7i, ha, ,inplier
aquat no ore benedicito:
-
lhol rhysell, O God. with thv mourh bless rhese pure wa_
l:.,.
,.n.I he,catls,upon
Virrue.
rhe porer
Irom on hrgtr,
nd agrn t'rerhes rhree (imes
on rhe \aarer,
addins:
-M1,
rle virlue
of rhe Hotv Chosr make *;. *,,* r,,ir,r'"
give it the power ro regenerarelo.,,
Here. rhe lips of che.priesr.
bv means of words and brearh,
can rake the place of the divine mourh and breathing whose
image and inrerprerers
rfiev re. This sme role de,ol;s upon
them when rhey pronounce
the sacrmentl words
of rhe con_
secarion
of rhe bread and wine in the canon of the Mass:
"This
is my Bodyr this is my Blood.',
..-r..t!:,n,."1
mouth. the lips guard rhe door. or rhe, srop
rhe brearh,or iet ir pass s rhey do speech. Acting *ith rhe
rongur. and che vocal
cords. it is thev who giue tl., *ord ir"
rorm.,irs
ctarirv. its beautv. its power ro aci. h is cfiey _ho
sel the vows of love or airh with
the ljss of lovaltv, qivins
rhem.their
supreme
consecrarion,
rrd .h",',h;;-;;;.:;;
;;
echo
's
heard o Gerhsemane:
.,Forrhuith
he
lludasJ
came to
Jesus.
and sard. Hail. master: and tissed trimr.i,
,.
,
P".T"
mnv passges
in the scriptures
rhr prise pure
r,p' uvid praved rhat his mighr be opened by rh. Lo,d i._
selt. so lht he- mighr praise him 6tringly.r;
and he atrribures
the pnvrtege
of perfecr praise ro rhe lips ot innocenr
children:
fx orc lantiun et laoentim pefed*
tauden:..Out
o rfie
'I
llll M^N
itrouth of innrs and of sucklings thou hast perfected
lraise]r."
Our illuminarots of the first 6fteen centuries of the
(lhristian
era, especially in Byzantium and the Orientra, re-
l,roduced
a humber of times ihe scene where Yahweh's
seraphim place a burning coal from the altar on the lips of
rl,c prophet Isaiah, saying to him: "Lo, this hath touched thy
lrps; and thine iniquity is taken away" (Fig. l8)."
It is the divine
rVord,
expressing
itself rhrough human lips, that our
forefathers honored by giving the
name Chry'o'on, "golden mouth,"
to
John,
holy bishop of Constantino-
ple, who lived in the fourth centutn
and that of Chtysologtts, " golden
word," to St. Peter, archbishop of
Ravenna, a century later.
To symbolize
Jesus
Christ under
the aspect of the divine ord, the
artists of antiquity sometimes mede
use of animal and other forms that
had been chosen by the wrirers of
Scripture: the lion roaring in the
desett, the bellowing bull in the pas-
ture, the eagle crying in the cloud,
the swn singing its final song, the
cock saluting the dawning day, the
nightingalet nocturnal melodies-and
also, the thunder that follows light-
ning, and the trumpet, the conch, and the bell, which call and
command. The anatomical shape of the tongue does not lend
itself at all to such images, so in most cases, when rtis$ have
tried to show the Savior as che
\iord,
they have done so, fol-
lowing rhe text of the Apocalypse, with a sword blade bew.""
the lips: "And out of his mourh goeth a sharp sword; that
*irh it he should smite the nations,6." The word strikes and
penetrates lite a slvord, Few artis$ heve risked using the im-
t''E )B Sdathn psnhins ltich\
iil\ .h
ft,
10rh .dturt.
rrrr, alslt^tl, (1
tl
age of the rongue
itself, and the resulrs of their daring hav
l_il.";1,
*og:
1\b:,.'t
the end of the fif,.".,h
."";,;;';i;
symbolists
of t,Erroi le Internele
.f,.""a i, *^l'"*i.I.',lli
/1
r:.i.,i**'i:i...,/lh
a
y
probably
"lr,d_;; the "lingual
V" formed
Si ,t" ,r,i.i.1r,,rt*_
shped pepille
on rhe human
rongue,
and to
thc rnrtrt letrer
of rhe accompanving
inscrip_
,,..:.L*.,..1.-T
St.
)ohn:
Verbun,"-
f.a,.
e,r: the !ord was made flesh,- (Fis.
i)..,
rnrs,rmge,rs
verv similar
ro rfie wax t,ngues
wnrch
moihers
ofer at rhe tomb o Sr.
Radegund,in
Poiriers
so tar rheir childrtn
may
speak readily ard clearly.
t,,. t",,":'
-Th.
K"bl,r";
",j',.**r
hermetic prorr..
y,"!
*,,:"y o rtre Mrddh Ages preerred
,. .J" ;;, ?;;
rherr inirires.
of rhe Hebrew
lerter
7ol
re_
versed
and doubled _en
rrngemenr
_hi.L
p..du.",,r;";,,
quire lile rhar o human ips (..
20 ,nd
2l). The lerrer
lod
fia" aavs "." .""- \
sidered
a divine svmbot.
here ,ppt;ed ro
[
"..
rhe Erernal
Word.
,,yod,..
.r;d R.r,;
Gunon. "besides
b.;ng rt" fi."r l.rt..
"i
Fu )n rh. F"b-q \
lni,IIT::*.*.,.
constirutes
in t,,u
.*.,:I;:'i;,;:"^
a divine name. r,hether
alone o, *r.r*d
rree rimes,8.
Sr.
Jerome says rat yod
is
rhe svmbol
of the principle
ot
goodnessra."
_The
two ro rogerher
mirror the,.ht_
raldic
or
"gliding
flight.. made
by ruo
wrngs
oursr.erched
and joined
rogeter;
and this rcsemblance
*i"f*.."
,f,?-"f-_
bolic idea, for the
rirord
ri.; ;i;i';" tis.2t n hdn
he
power,
and speed of rhe most agile spirit.
";,tiip'
f,-a U *'r".
l5*^:1r.."
the
,,fiigit,,.,i.,"a'iy
,r" two
Todr
put ro_
r::.. ::-::l-":
.":""ds
for the Hory i;;,_;ff.p';;
above rhe terrestrial
sphere, for *1.'".'.U","
,ii'ffi
Fis. 22 T'nsw\ af
.
iis 6 tt'isit $
a'
tt Hd, SPi;t: tlth<tury rtrh
ton
lt udK'
of the sea. Then it evokes the creating and fecundating Spirir
which, the Bible says, moved over the first wters among the
shadows covering rhe abyss, "in the beginning," *hen "God
created the heaven and che earthao."
The description of the descent of the Holy Ghosr upon rhe
Apostles in the feast o Pencecost was naturally symbolized by
rongues of flame. The sacred text tells how, when the Apos-
rles were assembled, "thete appeared unto them cloven
tongues, like as of fire, and it st upon each of them. And
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began ro spealc
with othet tongues, as the Spirit gve them utterancear." Art-
ists of rhe Middle Ages represented the fiery tongues' in
which dwelt the Holy Spirit, by straight rays coming from the
hand of the All-Po*erful or from the beak of the diuine
birda'z. Sometimes the flames undulate like blazing swords that
spring from a cloud or from the beak of the holy doveat (Fig
22)- With the dawning of the Renaissance, artists geve ihese
tongues the form of ery drops or rears placed on the Apos-
tles' brows, something like the flames that the illuminators and
the even earlier paincers-the Byzantines, for instanceaa-put
on che brows of certain angels, or on those of some of the
ideal personifications of great virtues, such as Giottot
Charityat.
At about this sme time anothet symbol
-as
added, that of
the innet fruit, the edible nut, of the almond tree, *hose
Er
()
slr.rpe. i' lil,e rhat of rhe human rongue.
Lile rhe tongrres
of
l: ]l:
*l*, recrred
ro rle git J tongr,.,
rhar rhe"Apos_
ue5 recc,ved
ar
penrecost.
These tongues
of fi,e whi.h.d;_
:**.-
,p:l rhe Aposrles
onlr after Chrisrs death seem nor
,o rerer ro h,m: houerer.
ir rnusr be remernbered
rhat he had
said
"But rhe Comforrer,
which is the U"fy Cf,"",, lvf.,.-
.i"
l:,t..
-:Jl. send in mv name.
he shalr ,"".h
,;
;ll
rhmgs....4."
. l,l,
n. best and wonr
or a things. a, Ae,op say.. is the
',unran
tongue.
lhe spjnr l rhe oid
phrvgian
fabulisr,till
l.i
',::]l
i"
rhe game
or conrraries
so d",, ,o ro,.",
"u._
Dorrss. we have
rusr seen hou rhe ,rord
ol s:lvarion
cane r"
r rr trt\
t1!. ?]
'r'1,,
ln, sPnt.!4
ur.!\v rotrla, rl
llnn
an nE At,\tL\.
rrs l,y the tongue and lips of Christ; nevertheless, speaking in
rl," narne of the teacher of rhe whole world, his disciple Sr.
hmcs
lrfirms that "the rongue is a lire, a world of iniquityaT."
(
irrJer this spcct ir symbolizes the Evil Spirit; and Christian
'yml,olists
d'en show it as forked like that of serPnr or
|cadrd with an arrow or harpoon, a shape they attribute to
rlrr ongues of drago"s. Ir is supposed to wound like a darr or
r"."..y a mortal poison, for evil speech al-ays causes pain or
Irrot' the elevenrh ro the sixteenth centuries, medievai
.culptu.e often placed in the symbolic decoration of churches
rhe faces of men, women, or devils, exhibiting monstrous
rongues. A Saran on the lowers of Notre Dame de Paris
sricks out a long, pointed rongue over rhe city; one o rhe
Jcvils on the Cathedral at Boutges has one that is wide and
t,rndulous.
At Santa Maria Formosa de Venise, at Rheims,
.trange figu.es loli out rheit tongues ro one side. Very dif-
irent leelings are exptessed by these hideous faces. /e read
,r, them despondency or brearhless anguish, as the case may
l,r, and often mockery and scorn, as t Magdalen College at
Oxford. Else-here the procruding tongue my be the symbol
"f
greed or even of the most repugnant lust4s.
Yet, in its orher aspect, the tongue rep.esenrs the logor, the
creative Word. *hich has remained abo"e the world since its
beginning like a gliding bird, if one may so desctibe it, to en-
sr-rre the continuation of life, its petperual fecuadation, and ro
inspire rhe wise. It is in fact by means of it that chosen souls
lift themselves as lar as it is possible ro go toward the un-
klowable mysteries,
-hich
they know to be the flecessary
cloaL in which divinity must hide itself from our eyes while
we live on earth.
tnk Fio.: Th. bL\ins hand: h Re Abbet in Pna!.
l. GensG la, 19, pssim.
2. .i,.l. 22:12i .t. T*tulln, Dc .mc Chti\ti, v-
r!
nnstAtaY
(),r
c|lRIS,t.
,. Da,il li24-2E.
6. Zecri
l:8_ll.
7. Sr.
Jon ljt_r.
L D|drcn,
HAon.
dc D@, and Je SaD! I_:u..,
. -tukl.
r: L)lr.
rro;E),;
;;.'"'J';H'"^t
*ttai\.'..
:n Butta,;
M.a.
'u.
(
i.
JwalDubEuit. rt tosr, T i.p.2n
hE_t.
,,, Lr. ,or, /i.(,46. pi
tI r- v
-
,l^
12. Tomb
{ Er-Ah h.. cr e. e_nli"l,l;:,,
."-,rr*
a-" i*";."i
r!"J:'Xll;I
)Lii.il
B.:ff,lfi
":;11.,;,
l]. M.rci M\tre\
IV,
D,200.
pl
Vrr ,
il ,,i1,u:_)*"*;_:* "-*Ji*,"
," ,.*",
:^
:; lL
'
h P,o ,4L.k,
Xxxvlj-xx\\,llr
(ro2 41.
p. t2t, t1e ,.
l: :r
reild
& Chipi., Hi*r,
* ra" a"^ ra*r$ui.; ;1.
ili";
t d. d? M
, Attrun
de ta ,ie
d. Ca. o. z>.
'"
ii,*;;
,if,,!l:,
in*ndL
.
yrr.
p..ia.
^.
,66,
hd Euse.ius.
r,r o/
19- AcB 8:lZJ8j 9:t2,17:
r.
:l
^T]",jfi."11,y**;".e@,
rasc. Lxvrr,Lxlx,
cor re!4rl
22. C d! Sr -Lt,
or. dL
G.e nore s abve), T. ry, p. 4$ d M kt,
," iii li,l,r6,,
f ,I l:k,lj:H,,;,,
t(
k i de D n k ., de \
.,, , ,'ry. l\o al nl'l\,
Bk, x|. 9,
.,_ !y, P ot., o. lt7.
26. C Mor.t,
Ri./ /iar. n 6a
.z' ra*-.,azr
a,". tr,
.r.
raFre du verb.
C,ekur..,pp.
to?-irs.
il ,.1_T_.,:l-:,:o
,.1,,I.
vor
r. cor.2-
a.d p,ss,m.
,,.
"omr
ore,u,x
of for Hotv Sar.d,,
Jr. 5r. Mrirh* 26:40
,1. Pstms
8:2. Douar-Rhehs
rc6n"
ll
i::,Plill",,,-
.,,..r,o L..i?r.e.
op./, rs( 7 5..or
r,7B 80.
17. Si.
lo[" lJ4.
]i 3,:::,::
.t,,',"..,._2rbve.
r. (xvn,
ra... ra7, p. r4o.
;; :,i'i:Ti.
r'er
ro Eu)'rus'i
op'''.,-,r".a
s,',i.
""i",
o,o
,2. C de Sinilurent,
Ldnkt,
p. t4t, s. tr.
4t. Ibi-, p- 142, ,e- )4.
44. Ci. iden, Guide,'f. ll, p. 279, pl. Xry, 2-
4t- lbid., pl. XXll, ).
.1.
St.
John
l4:2.
17. Ede oJ.m.s
':6.
48. Cf. Di P Fri.dd-Le6lpin, "La dco.ation mon*rueuse dans I'Art
.ten," in Atow Ck.h,
-f.II,
no. l0 (My l9rl), pp. l7rl78.
l:nd Figur: Tk Hanl oflutie

tlx Fre".h ,.ins', k L t Nre
MBdf,; 12th .tury-
DO{E,STNC
ANN{ALS
T ll-.1 lE F{ O It i\
.-T't HF. aNcrENT s\ MBol IsM of a numbe. o rhe horned
I *i-a" rhe bull, the ram. rhe wild sheep. rhe buck goar,
the deer, the oryx, the unicorn-presents a common charactet
in addition to aspects peculiar to each one; the horn expresses
active force, strength, domination, rhe
power o command. This is indeed one
o the earliest known manifestations of
symbolism: in the oldesr human societies
rht we know of in the epochs known as
Aurignacian, Chellian, Magdalenian, and
Solutrian, the staff of authority, at once
rragic wand and scepter, was made of
reindeer horn, and Dchelerre mentions
rhat during the petiod when the last
great dolmens were built "symbolic bulls'
horns had an importnce in European
lerishism equal to rhat of rhe axe1" with
uhich it is somerimes associated2
(Fig. l).
A recently-discoveted
piece o Elamite
pottery worked moe rhan rhree thousand
years before our era ctries the stylized
image of an ibexr; the animalt horns are
so huge that their exaggeration can only
mean to elpress tLeir symbolic impor-
tance (Fig. 2). Much larer, the Gauls of
a,dkt 6
o;fua s.
Fis. 2 Snbol]. oa
l'rrr: trtrslr^tY (rr (.
ltRrst.
western France pur rhe horns of roebuck and beef animls in
the rombs of rheir dead, along with the ritual lamp, an<J their
warriors' helmets were adorned with animal hornsa (Fig. l).
Even earlier, in the same symbolic spirit, the porentates of
ancient Asia wore horned crowns! as shown on the stele of
Naram Sin, king of Assyria. On another monumenr. rh;s
horned cro-n is called ihe crown of domination. characreris-
one wrirer) drew attention
co the more or less pre-
cise similarity in shape
between the horns or
antlers of rhese animals
and the crescenr moone.
It is claimed by some with
tic of the diviniry,." This idea was
found everywhere in the ancient
world, as well as amulets or talis-
mans shaped Iike bovine heads,
which have alredy been spoken of6.
Hermeric signsT or schemaric fig-
ures of horned heads (Fig. 4) are
l*. 4 lr.hnhtn rxk.nrrs\
.
al"o found. requenrll carred on
ttq. I
Lnli. tulnt t \ h t,n\
rocks^ or on rhe most ancienr mon_
uments. Often these drawings suggest a symbolism close to
that of the chalice, whose function is ro receive, contain, and
preserve;
by their bowl-shapes, like cross-sections
of cups,
rhey seem to indicare the reception of higher i.,flu.n."s, diui.,"
or magnetic forces coming from above.
_
The horned s(ulls of bovines, of the male goar, and the
deer, were associated wirh the lunar .rlt,
""d
rh. Greek poet
Nonnus (to quote only
aPprent reson rhac while for the Ancients of the West rhe
bulll; horns had a connecrion wirh the moon. those of the ram
were linked with rhe sun, because rhey curled like the solar
spirais of the ancienr symbolism.
In any case, in all rhe old civilizarions, the horn was the
.,,nbol o{ the acrive
dominanr
orce: and tor rhe Hebreus'
:';HJi",",r'"
ii"'r'"'*a
the power both ogood
and'
l"it ,1 ,'r* i,i.**re
o Yahweh
God o t"'ael rhe altar of
:;: il;J;;;;;
was buir'l o acacia
rnood and Moses
;i;.J,; ,'. ",, ..-",'
h"rn'
'owred
'ith
,.
i,.r"s,nr
"nd
in rhe spec;al
liturgr of certatn
i1
"acriGcial
rires, rhe priesr marl'ed
these horns
li:\-=
**+f***r:rffiE
the sufpliant.
An anrient
Mvcenaean
har' re-
ffi
orodurced
by Ddcheletre.
sho$s the rrnge-
lIE
-..r
o the horns on the altars
durrng tne
t!!
,*"
'fr""-ra
vears
preceding
rhe Christran
r.!. 1'.'a /'"d
errr rFis.
5).
,.,.-
.d
u t L
"i.
'l,I-;,r,
a horn filled with consecrared
"'r.'1".,
;r ,i" nl"'nacle,
rhar the Lings of lsrael were an-
;:;;:::':';;
'.1'r,.
.'", Boor' o Kings
rn s'l
Jerome-s
r.,nslation of rhe Bible'
rhe \ulgate
we read hese woros:
'|)i#,'.",,al.iti
,,
n,-"
"
it;'
inperiun
res'l
'uo:
et f
,l,iii,),",J,,,
,,,1,' ui:
-rhe
Lord
'harr
;udge
rhe e.nds or the
#;";;ilJ;ii
-';e empire to his king and shalr exalt the
;:;';;';
c-h;i";'i
rn r'he desc'iprion
o his propheric
vi-
"*".""ii.t""1"
6rst of a monster
^rmed
with ten horns'
i?*ir,
""",-il.
i*gest,
makes war upon the saints or God'
ir,,""'i" ,".i
,i,ion
"
v"u"g
he-goat
fighrs
with.a ram;
ffi'hJ;;i
,"J i'*"ai"'"rt
grow back again;
all these
il;;";;;,;;;.;;'s
which animate
the spirir orEvir ''
1T.".,;";;fi-,
like rhar o rhe Hebreu
Bibre' also ac-
:J:::t""ffi';;,i.
'"-u'L
"r
rhe acti'e
power o both
l#","l'.,i. r-n. lid o a romb in the Abbel
o st call
ii"-. ,*. r.."a
and ho'ned
Personges
rePresentrng
two
.r*.,;;;;;i
r.;."':
Vice and
Vi,ue in birter
combat'6
iFL.'.ile,a
oren. as in rhe case ofsr'
N;er ofrrores'
Fu 6 Ht t! ,lDLdht
@ tt,, ,,,t,rt,,,,,,
,,t St. <;,tLl
medieval
Chrisrian
art shows the deadly
sins as horned
personagesrT.
.F-*0,
r., rare erceprons.
abundance
goe" hand in hand
wirh power.
So ,hi.
jde
of powcr
hhich ir.l" e".,.","
.."1
neoed wrth
rhe ,rninrals
horns resulted
t, ,h" Ir,;;;;;r;;,;
wirh,rhe
,rmhol
or t-orrune.
rhe horn o plenry.
Tl,. ..;"; ;;
tors rrter. rccordrng
to Ovid
u.
wa. finLed
by rhe C*.1,
,;,i
rhe g.ar
Arnalera.
who.e
mill. rhev aid.
uas
si,., b" .;;
'wo
nvmprrr
.Adrr\reia
rnd Jo ro nour:sh
th. i.fmr
2"r". Th.
::1,:l:
r
rn graritude praced
Amarrheia
"..,*-.h;,,;;;:
:::r-ol
c:k
ihe
rwo n,mphs
one of her horn. ,4hjch
e endowed
;j:l,h:""..
or hrr;n8 iiicrr rn abundance
wrth
air the e;rth,
.
Th;,H_eltenized
Egyptians
oAlcxandria,
in the last cen-
lTl l. i.
* ,,,:",1.
b,,rrou.d
the srmt_.or
o' ,r," r.,.-.r
?1."1*,,.ln
rhe creeks.
rel:tins
ir ro rh. g".",o,;ry
ot rh",.
::::,ll;.:,;,_:,1, 1,,h,"
,",:. ,11l
it .as artri"bured
,. Li.
E;;-
ur-ss or arr good ,hinBs.
An Alerandrine
"trru"tt"
ol b"d
l;1",:.""
l,
rr,e muserim
oi liIe.
5trows rhe
..god
o rhe
word
pornrir,g
wirh hi. linger
ar hi, lips. ,h."..grr"-;;
.pe..h.
nd hotding in hi, l"h h,nd,h"
cornucopia
hfled uirh
grapesr".
Another
iir.le sratue shows
.he
god
Amon, rhe Zeus
oi Fgrpr.
ctorhcd
in r rm! hide and hotd;ng,h.
h;;;i
plenry in h;s hndr,.
In rhe Far East, the equivalent of the cornucopia has al-
'u,rys
[,een and still remains the gourdzr.
Dom Leclercq srares that rhe horn of plency, which ap-
l,rared
quite often in rhe art of rhe early Church, neuer had
,,uy symbolic value there and played a
pt,.ely decotative role". This is true in
,1ost cases; however, when rhe horn is
',,."'ounted
with a crown of flowers
rarrying the monogram of Chrisr, wirh a
Jove supporting it on either side'?r or
"heo
it is placed on rhe cro's} tfig T).
ir certainly seems allo-able to see i" it a
.ymbol of the blessings lrom on high
.orning to the soul through the Eucha-
r*r. At the end o rhe fifre.nrh cenru'1.
rl,c symboli.r a L L,to,l" lnte,ne e ac-
,,'mpanied an image o the cornucopia
",,h
words i'om rhe Magniicat: He
l,ath filled the hungry with good
things'?5." The horn of plenty, rhen, the
Lorn of rhe goar Amaltheia in rhe
charming old fable, becomes an emblem
,,r rhe munificence of Chrisr. AnJ ir i'
interesting that the cornucopia of the Er-
taile Intemelle contains, among the fruits
of rhe earth, three crosses (Fig. 8) which
ian only mean thar rhe sufferings oi rhis
life are often in rhemselves providential
gilts uhose mvsterious ralLre is nor rer-
ognized at once but which generate fL,-
ture happiness. This is ptecisely the
spirituality has always held.
It must be added that since every coin has its other side,
dre horn of plenty is also a symbolic image of heresy "when ir
pours forth evil things in the form o scorpions, repriles, and
dragon5zo."
it I Ti ttsinsj
,1 tit' r ti. n tb.
view that Catholic
rllI
tjsll^R\' ()t. (
Ittrtsr
NOTES
Til. Iisur: The .a,lukw ol pcdr
dnt!
trotp"nq, fon d t2th-t?ntw,
et hi
s.
r De.hh(.
Md"41, T. I,
P.67t.
,. .'.
de Mo'sJn lHk?dn. p.hnnteu,
e. )-t.
.. t6n
I Mr Ju Mdp. T. ll. tart, *',40. r7
4. Findrgs rom rh er.avadols f AIaire ; L.pinay nd L. Cfia.bnnu,
IA, r .h;ktp," .;reumu,
,Vnde.).,"d,,
,h"," ., .,.h" S;;;
N.nrr'5e, l8o2 tqOl

c Tabou s. Ndbkio.lQ,.
a_ ,).
6. Se b"ve,
p
t, The Bu .l.D:o r
-.
.r.h.e
{e.-jfid,
*_ph. in:he rouqe. sJ[e de r su?i.ne M6ron de
Mrsrh, Sth du MDh .k
8. See D.hdtte,
on .n., T. II.
p
r
9. Non.us. Diotr ..
12. Dclehe, ol..n., T. II,
pad
I. D.470
lr. I Samut l6:j. rrj I Kinss r:19.
l. I K.n8,
,:tn,
nour-Rheh\
L,sion.,r.
rJy l snuet
..10.
It Drrrl I nd n
,u
i;;.o*",,"
Dehin, Guid. de tdnku, t.a4, et ,1,arnatu,e,
zn ir|. p.
-
Oi ,h. Ninhotan , rt. hoi,. s.. Rend Cudnon ,n ihd" t* io,at".,
#10r, NoLmber lgrh
lo. C M"rer, rr).k4., p I2r,, Dl tl
20. Cf. L. Heucv, C,kt.s@ de:
fu,_rc, d, t._, ,.
F.90
n? rL ULa d, lnL_e. a.
\tj_
2r. C.Dumoul,rr.
-i,.t ,, Ln6 aatons .rlte ch* k Anu_nt, p_
,2. IrhTq 3nd M,,o. Di.tu1a L. t. tll..oJ. ll.."t.2.qo.
:4 Aa4mr utemrh dm, pp."rued
6v.he Ah6 Bprseron..re
r Ie
peur
25. Sr. Luke l: rt.
26. A bier de Mo.huh, l;d,i T. I, p. l2o_
L ,1 Fis.: Sisnr latins to ttle jjaboln
. the anindt ,k t dnd the .q.
Y?YYY
a MoNG THE srrr animals. first of all we have the barn-
Ay"'d o*. rhe bullock or steer. which is no other than the
bull adapted by rhe countryman to the role of setvant for
what an old monstic rule calls "the holy work of the hands."
Among sacriicial animals, it was the pure victim, which must
perforce lead a life of chastity, even as Christ by his very na-
tute d;d in his life on earth.
Briely, we can say that the ox ws c times taken as the
image of the saints; for example, the twelve btass oxen who
upheld the immense vat, the "molten sea," which Solomon
placed in the remple of Yahweh in
JerLrsalemr,
were seen by
commenretors on the sacred books as excellent representations
of the twelve aposcls who supported the Church in its in-
fancy2. The ox was also taken as the image of all rhose who
worked "in the 6eld of God," especially of the teeching pon-
tiffs and the prechers, because of its continence and the
srrength of its voice (Fig. 1). This symbolism was common
enough among literary circles in the Middle Ages to explain
how the words of the illustrious Dominican Albertus Magnus,
speaking of his silent, hardworking disciple Thomas Aquinas,
could be understood by eueryone: "Let this ox be; his bellow-
ing .hall echo through all the worldt."
The 6rst Chriscian commentetors and symbolisrs recognized
various symbols of the Redeemer in each different form of bo-
vine offered as sacrifice in the ancient religion of Israel. The
calf, image of Chrisr- "Vitulus Christus," as the Archbishop
TT]I ]E ]EC)\'JiNES
rllr nr.\
of Mainz. Raba-nus
Maurus. wrore
rn rhe ninrh cenrurvr _
represenrs
re Savior as a victim
ree fr"..f",
i".rr"" t..
yourh
males ir a^ virgin
animal. ,.d
"1."
b..rr". ih. ..rdi_
::l-.
.1,"' sacrifice..specified
in the Boo[ . N,,lb.,s,,
,;_
:-,1::.,:i",
rr be, wirhour
spor or bremisi,.
rh repre_
sertriron
of rhe mysric nJ
Christli.e
cal is not frequenr
in
Christian
art. bur we nonerh"l.."
6nd some
beauciful
examoi".
(see
Title Figure, p.
6l).
It is generally
believed
rhar
Christianitv
from rhe very
beqinninq
forbade
its ollowers
t" s"..ific. ,";I
mals during
a liturgical
ceremonv.
Altfiougtr
rhis is true in a general
sense. rhe rirual
sacritices
of animals
persisted
for a long time in several
countries
of rhe Christian
Near Easrn. In Armenia.
esoeciell,
r reasr unut.rhe
time of the Crusade,.
rhe bi"h"p.
"nj
o.i"...
gave. tnerr bressing
to rhe slaughrer
of an;mal" *fiic
rh."
provroecl
irlanquers
where
rhe clergv
and the archul
met and
:ll-_"*:li:l
The immolation
of rhe vicrim
*," ,^l.d .,,;t,
patarug.
a word whose
usage was otfierwise
re_
::ff,i.1 ::
. sacramenr
of rhe Euchari,r.
Beside.
the larnb,
:J.^.1 :jj 1
requirement
on Easter Dav. rh. o*. c,t. .o*,
:l::P,
,1",:':,
pig were sacriced.
as *elr as rhose _iid
ani-
mars-and
brrdr which
Mosaic
law classified
as pure.
These
l:T,l:...._.:':
quire
frequrnr:
,t* ,..1 pr,..-.1*"
s,"j,y
::"^l:-*.
pnncipar
.saints'
days. on davs on *hi.h
a chur.h,
::, i,"1. :.
,
Yl'klhl
monumenr
ws consecrared,
and rhe
rn':o. nintr': anl rurrierh
dav rollowing
rhe death of a believer-
-L
r-or rhe sun.ty
natal rhe vicrim was brought ro rhe door of
ro thr toor of a cross. where
it was covered wirh
scrier .toth: rhe priest
then bles"ed some salr and recired
rour^chosen
psalms
and some passges
rom Leviticu:,
rom
the Second
BooJ< ol Kings. lrom the
-Epi"rle
of Sr.
paui
ro rhe
F4 t Cct iL
l'rd. al ik
thw.h o th? G|. Itn.
lrrr B()vrNlis
I lebrews, and from rhe Gospel of St. Luke; then followed
srvcral long prayers evoking the sacrilices of ancient la- and
that of
Jesus
Chrisr on Calvary. Finally the victim was fed the
',rlt,
and then its throat was cul7. The met was then cooked
,rnd earen by everyone together. This meal, like the first meals
which Christians at in common' was named aga1e, that is,
iiqast of love. The hlood of the victim was nor colleed and
the remains of its llesh could not be sved in peoplei; houses
with other unblessed, ordinary foods. The rzatal and the ritual
l,anquet of friendship had to follow immediarely the eucharis-
tic sacrce of consecrated bread and wine. By its very liturgy
and by ns denominarion ot pataras, the whole matal and ban-
quet could be considered a sacramental ritual. The victim of
the Sunday natal had to have been born during that same
year8 and be sufficiently large to provide the rneal, which al-
Iows one ro think thar it *as most oten either a bull or a
heifr .lf.
In telling us of the apostasy of the Hebrews at rhe foot of
Mount Sinai, as they turned away frorn Yahweh to prostrare
themselves before the sacred calf of rhe counrry o Canaan,
the book of Exodus made this ani-al one of the symbols of
the spirit of evile. The calf of cast gold, this "golden god,"
r;a. . Th" dd." dll: tlJih .dnnt.
became
1n
act the image of the
,'demon
o riches,, in Chris_
rian
'vmboljsm
And ar rimes ,h" g.ld..
.rld.""
";,
,;;;;.
senr .uprd,rv
bur simpll idlarrv. in remembrance
o the
aposrsy oi tsraet,,, (Fis.
2).
^
The- symbol of rhe heifer as rhe flawless virgin victim.
sacri-
ficed for the remission
of sins ourside rhe ."*p .f f",J i"
rhe same as.that of rhe calf. but rhe red t",f., o, ,t" __ .f
the same color which i. menrioned in ,he Boot o Numbers
had a wrv_ speci6c meaning in Ctrrisrian
lymbolism.
Tl,e Lord
ii1
unlo Mose,:
"Spcak
unro rhe rhitdren or i,raet. that rhey
flng rhee red heier uirhout,por.
uherein is no bhm;sll,
bleazr rhe priesr. that he mar bring her torrh,irhout
rhe
camp. and one shall slav her beore hi, tace: A.d El"a,,. r;"
priesr. shatl caLe of her blood with his finger,
and
"ilLi.';; her blood directty before rhe rabernacle
Jf " .""g."g*r""
seven rimesrr." Then the bibiical rexr goes on ro say th;r rhe
ahes of rhe red heiGr. which was ro be c.n,umed
b1 rhe tire
r(elrs
stughrer. re ro be mixed wirh
,a
water
o
"epara_ rion," wter rhr,'is
a purilicarion
for sinr,.,,
ln all rhese lirurgica
apptrcarion:. which were
commenre<l
on r lensrh bv rhe Alexandrian pfiito
ludeus
in rhe lirst rew
years
of our era, rhe mystics
"f
rh. Iiddl"
As""
"^;-p._ pireLic
alhgories in e.pa,,ion
otJesus Chris,. ,.;,g *i;.f,
hrs b,,d! ws dren.hed
"irh
blood. They .,d" .f;h" *d
heifer '1he
image of the Redeemeri;
bieedins tesfi. The heife;
is
'hp
Re.h ol"Chti.r.'
pr"clai-e,J
Rbanu, M",..,,
t;';;;
n,mh .enrurv.
and he erplains thrs by the animals color .
In India rhe red cow symbolizes
the dawn, and the black
.ow. rhe dus(. rhe <eeming
birrh and dearh ., ,h. ,,, " ;;
.''.,,"'':
*:: rotd me tfiar i, atso svmbotizes
rhe two ex_
,r,.T: *or or humn lile: rhe beginning o life ty irs milL_
rhr.h represenrs
all maternal m;ll. as ir is rhe besr o all wet_
nu*e,_and
rhe end o lie becuse *h..
-",
p..;,,;,
the onomaropoeii.
sound thar imitate.
rhe lowing of a cow:
moo! .. he ad"ances
his lips in a
-ou"-",,,
of .,lr'iing 1.",ti,,
rl,.
',rrge
of dcadr which comes with the last breath. This
,,,y ,,rirntal concept is relted ro tht of rhe sacred ,q.ur,r of
rlr" llindus. and we know how important everything is thr
r"l,rres to breath in the metaphysics of several of the great
ln rncient Egypt the cow ws one of the psychagogic ani-
r',.rls: Ra-Sun rose iDto the sky on the back of a cow, and ir
".,'
,ien red cows rhat dragged the mummies to the tombs
l.l,'re being sac.ificed; the divine cow, iike the divine bull,
carried souls to the orher world'6.
In anorher connection. the di-
vine cow Harhor, goddess of rhe
Theban mountains. whose name is
similar to Horus, the heart of di-
viniry, was also rhe goddess of
dawn and dusk, of the appearance
nd extinction of light, as in
AsiarT (Fig.3). Was it as the an-
cient goddess of sunset in Asia,
Egypt, Cyprus, and Phoenicia rhar
the medieval iconography of the
West, inluenced by old tradirions,
attached the cow ro the triumphal
chariot of the persohified Moon'3?
(Fig.4). Practices as old and of
the same origin, concerning the
cow as well as the bull. are still in
in the religious lives
of certain Mediterr
triesle. On the other hand, the
horns of rhe cow as well as those
of the bull recall the shape of the
The thoughrless frolicking of the young calves and heifers
|r rhe pastures was regarded by rhe ancient masters o spir-
,rual life as a symbol of dizzy recklessness, "rhe impulsiveness
I ,
i Tl{ N@i ctiot: 12tb nrtut\
'irnr.
fM1
ln brryt^ .l PDr.
Irsr,^,i.t, ()t
tHat throws youth in the parh of violent passions?o-,, Frorn an-
other ngle, rhe coi, was at .imes taken as the svmbol of lacl
of inrelligence. of srupidirvr and *hen seen walLing ater a
bull
-ho
refuses the yoLe, it is the symbol of rhe soul rhat
follows blindly rhe instigetors of schisms and heresies, which
rebel against rhe yoke of rhe Church. It has also been one of
the signs for abject passionsrr.
NOTES
Tii. fiwe: Cal m the
f.de
o t'. .hth o t CdL-Bnrc.
L I Kin8s 7:2r.
2. Ct Hush of Sr. Victoi, ,n.eltz,.d, tV, tl_
t
Ci St. Ar-no D'A,u. in l"'rr, : Hu8 oi S,. v,cto,, o,,,.. llt,5o, ..
4. Rrbanu Maurus, D. U,eJ.. VIL s.
6. See L.cler.q nd Mron, Did,oridir., s.dion CXIV .t. 260-2668.
-.
N.i. shnrfirl.. l,bnrv or s, tere \en6. Ms. 45-. \ llt, 6.
E- RihuL Amentun, Oxtotd, leor, p. r.
r0. Cl Brbier de Moi6uh, Tdit,T.1, p.2]6.
lr. Rbnus M!.us, ,4/L8o'id.
14. De cuernnr, ,[.),rlogk, ]t I, p. i87.
ri. C[ Rm Pr]n. l, ,.,,, dL routfe d k phlo,apik de, /,hd, (telo,.
r6. C-1. MJiprrc, i Uea. n..io1. d,t.
l,c1td*
au Cdtre. T. V. pp. 440.,ti,:
virey, R.lio,, p. 140.
17. Sre Leps. Penor,, 7 h" L. wotl, vot- I, p. 7\b.
t! !..91h.
d. Mohauk. o|,. ..1 L p. rir. & pt,e vl. iis. 7i.
10. S H. de Monrherinr. t4 8rddn.J. Vt.
2A. Fel- 'Ayza., ia Refl d? t'A .haia,2 s.i.,. T. XiI, (lBB0), p. 26.
21. Hueh ol Sr. Vi.t.. op .ir, Boo[ IV 9.
E-,1 l'$*e: Ft*, d t\th.dt"tr Anlk-Sdxon dnlildry, in tA. Bibliathgw
Niondle,
pn.
-f
l: l,: S ljl I) 1;, P
.frHr
r\4AcE or rhe ram. inherited lrom primiri,e peoples.
I
"s
one o the favoritc religious symbol' o ancient cirili-
zrions. In Egypr, from rhe rime of the most ancienr Phar-
ronic dynasties, the god Amon-Ra, the all-powerful Sun, was
rvorshipped in the forrn of a ram. crowned with the solar disk
(Fig. 1). The ram ws rhe symbolic animal of Kneph, one of
ri! 1H d . rt" dn ol
^ndt,
fio
, p.nl;\,i ri
-krnb\
aTh.6e:.
FiR.2 Th. h 'h.ddA
sad
Krl,h
th? kngb al R M 11.
rhe oldest representatiors of the creator-godr, who was gener-
ally pictured with a ram's head (Fig. 2). The image of Osiris
had lour heads and four horns. one head and one horn for
each of the cardinal points2. Larer the ram became, like the
bird, the sign of the idea of human survival, and hence of the
_
The Creels
borrowed
the svmbolim
of rhe ram rorn the
F,*.::1,;1., 11,,.,.
highcst
expressron
",h.
,ri,i"i,,.
z.;;, ;;;
l::"""
.
".
F:d
AT.l
of Egvpt
and is portrayed
with a
il:::,1*::
wrth rami horns: on rhe coins of Lvsimachos,
,,irexnder
rhe Great was thus represenred
as Zeus Amon".
_
r-or rhe ancienr Mazdeans
of
persia
in rhe old cuits of
ruran.and
rn rhe most ancienr Brahmanism,
,t" *rn rl*
,i"
:i:Pl:*
the vehicte
of^Agni,
one
"r,h.
,;;;;;,
p;;:
rt^ll1, (.r,] (|llttst.
pl.',
*
p,.
'pi'it.
rhe ieri,.t,.irl";;-"p;;;;:";.;
It.^ //
,!".y.^,,,
prin.iple.
rodav vursar
Buddfiism
has debased
Aeni
(!-
kinr).
-rhe
god
"f
pr*
-a
-p*iy;"g
hre ot rhe ncienr
ages, ro rhe sim_
ple roJe of rhe god
of the hearth.
with
rwo heads and four hands;
bui
ofren (so rencious
js
tradirion) rhis
monstrous
personege
i" aorr,,"d
o,
Agnii ram of older times.
In China, rhe ram is srill con_
necred wirh rhe idea of rhe propaga_
tron of tife. wich ir Iad in the
oidest European
civilizarions:
the
tirual
ralismar
used ro ensure tfie
hpprness
o a marriage,
in the
sense o its ferriliry,
shows
a oerson
wirh a ram's head, prinred
in black
ink on yellow
p"p".;
1Fiq. t1.
In Gaul. rhe,arrr plrv.d
"n
i--
porranr.ole
in the still lareelv un_
known culr of the Druids:-a
.,-t
head was an attribure
of the three_
headed god,
as we see in the tri_
cephalous
divinity in the Carnavalet
Museum
in Paris,
as well as on a
srele o rhe Duquenelle
collecrion ;"
Rheirns,
and on two other Gallic
hs I Chwa pap? L,\on
[ot
r' hpP1 cni
t, ,t na,,a.
ttI s titr,
.rtlrs foirnd in the same ciry. In rhe familial cult of the Gauls
rlr ram was the god of the hearth. The ram also plays a part
rrr rhe pte-Christian archeology of Germany, Iberia, Italy, and
N,,rrh Afric6.
'l'he
marks of favor with which this animal was perceived in
all of rhe ancient world were too obvious to be overlooked by
l il,ristian symbolists, who followed suit by admitting it ro the
hl.raric fauna of Christ with almost all the meanings which
llrJ been ascribed to it by their predecessors. Like certain
,'rlrcr male crearures such as rhe bull, the stag, and the cock,
rlrc ram also was for the fathers of the primitive Church one
, the emblems of Christ's spiritual fertility. The idea of unit-
ing n with the idea of the popgation of lie was not new in
rhc lirst Christian centuries. In Egypt the sacted sratue of the
r;rnr in the temple of Mendes was said to make women fertile.
.rs it was believed in a certain wey ro contin the soul of Osi-
ris; his name, Ba, is in fact synonym for the word "soul7."
Sometimes the Greeks and Latins placed the head of a ram,
('r
that of lion, on the end oa certein phallic amulets to rep-
rcsent the force o the reproductive principl wirh which man
rs equipped by the grace of Providences.
\i'e must not forget that on the circle of the zodiac, which
it would seem was transmitted from the Chaldeans to rhe
Phoenicians, to rhe Greeks, and to the Egyptianse, the sign of
the Ram, Aries, bestrides the months of March and April,
and that o the Bull, Taurus, rules rhe months of April and
May, thus endowing by successive parrs the three months of
spring which compose rhe season when life stirs mosr strongly
in all nature. And over all this love and all this life, whose
manifestacion is a resurrection as well as a bitth, presides the
great fesr of the Resurrecrion of Christ.
The way in which rams 6ght head-on, striling their adver-
saries with their foreheads, made them in the eyes of the Ao-
cients an emblem of courage and warlike srrength. And vith
the ram s with che bull, the unicorn, the buck goar, and the
rhinoceros, the idea of scrength and power has been con-
nected by se-old symtolism ro rhe horns on its head. Ir was
these traditionai and already very old ideas wfiich gave the
name "ram" to one of che most useful inst.u-er,r" rhut th"
milirary genius of rhe Ancients use in sieges, in Asiaro as
well as among rhe Gree[s and the Romans. lt was essenrially
a heavy wooden beam armed at one end with a ramt hea
made of casr iron or bronze, and hung lrom irs center. It was
swung back and fort6 to barer do*n the walls or gates of
ciries under siege.
The ram
-as
also taken as rhe hieroglyph o the divine
voice of rhe erernal !7ord, because, says St. Ambrose. the
ewes follou ir, voice. Ir is possible in facr thar rhe docilnv of
r6e llocl in ollowing rhe voice o: rhe ram. rherr chiei. Ieader,
and father, made oI ir even for the ancient pre-Christians
the
emblem of the guide of souls rowards rheir eternal destina_
tions: and this is perhaps whr rhe verv .arne Sr. Ambrose says
elsewhere that the ram r. raken as the svmbol of rhe divine
Word e'en bv rho"e who do nor beireve in the coming or the
Messiah"."
The ram, lite the lamb nd rhe ewe, was offere<l as a
bleeding sacrihce ro Cod. and ro rhe god, or a rhe;ncienr
peoples: and lile rLe maioriry o rhe victim. orrered in rhe an_
cienr sacri6ces. it became or the Christians the image of
Christ as vicrim. I hir svmbol perseuered
rhrougholr the-Mi,J_
dle Ases. rccordjns ro the re.rimony ot Rb,;s Maurus and
the anonymous wrner of Clairvaux, who saw in the rm rhe
Word incarnate offered in sacri6ce or our redemotionrr.
Much earlier, in rhe mystical commenrary
".
ef*1,-,"
sa.riice on Mr. Morrah. where, ram was subsrrruted or rhe
ptrirch's
sonrr, rhe animal sacri6ced in Isaac,s place was
suggested as rhe gure of Christ slain instead of sinful
humanity.
I would add that in Muslim Morocco, under the name of
"Abrahami; Sacri6ce" a feasr is srill celebrared which includes
the slaughrer
of a ram under a rent Iocred two or three mir-
utes from the mosque; s soor as the vicrim has received the
Illr, tsrl^[\. 0l (llntsr
,1.;rrh blow it is rhrown onto dre saddle oI a ho.se'"an *ho
,|.,'lrrs off ar a gallop to the mosque: if the ram is still ative
wh.rr it arrives, the people of the Maghreb say it is a sign of
11rxl
trtune for the coming yearra.
l)l:rixus, rhe son of the king of Orchomenus, is the
Joseph
,'l Greel mythology. Inuired to her bed by Demodice. the
wrlr of his uncle, the king of Iolcos, Phrixus refused to give
rrr to lrer guilty desires, and ws then ccused by het ol lrav-
r,1.1 rttempted ro force her. Soon thereafter a horrible plague
,.'uaged the kingdom of Orchomenus, a"d the oracle, mistak-
rrrg rhe signs, pronounced rhat rhe plague *ould not cease un-
l(ss Phrixus and his sister Heile *ere sacrificed. But the great
Zcus took pity on the inno-
,"nts, and as they were being
l"J to their deaths. he caused a
,loud ro en"etop them, and
wirhin the cloud was a celestil
rxrn! covered with a resplendent
g,lden leece. Phrixus and his
'ister
seized rhe beauriful animal
s,ith all their strengrh. recogniz-
irrg it as their savior; and the
,,r,n rose, slo-ly t first. bove
r|c earth and finally, as swiltly
,rs the kire carrying off its pren
,r soared away
-irh
its human
, rrgo roward rhe cotntry of
(lolchis.
But as they were passing over the Euxine Sea, rhe young
Itele, rerri6ed by the noise of a storm which was making the
*a,es boil, let go and fell into the *ater: this part of rhe sea
has been called the Hellespont ever since. Phrixus, who held
i.,st. was let down gendy in Colchis and in a gesture of pious
gratirude, Le offered the marvelous ram as a sac.ice, on the
rltar of Zeus. He hung the golden ffeece as homage on tree
.onsecrted to rhe god Ares, the war god of the Greeks, and
l:\! ) titt .!rM routk
tllll R,i srl^RY oIr
(l
llnls
placed nearby a fearful monsrer, the Drgon of Colchis, to
guard the rich tresure (Fig. 4).
The gods were stisfied with the gratitude of Phrixus and
willed that henceforth the fleece be a pledge insu.ing abun-
dance and good fortune for rhe place in
-hich
it was found.
The ram irself was placed by them in rhe constellations of the
zodiac, at the Lead of the months bringing life and
joy
to the
earth. It wes the golden ieece of this savior ram that the hero
Jason
and his companions, the Argonauts, would later succeed
in taking from Colchis, by killing, with Medea's help, the
dragon which guarded it.
In the days when troubadours and minstels sang our great
epics, rhe Golden Fleece of the Greek story symbolized, for
"those who knew," two treasures apparehtly very different.
The search for it by the Atgonaurs was seen as foreshadow-
ing rhe "quest for the Holy Grail," by the Knights of the
Round Tble. The Holy Grail was in facr the Eucharist; it
was Christ. On the other hand, for rhe alchemists the same
enterprise of the Argonauts stood for the search for the phi-
losopher's scone; and this unique stone, so powerful to Lnowl-
edgeable alchemists, was also Christ, hidden within a symbol.
Abour 1447, Pope Eugene IV represented the conquest of
the Golden Fleece by the Argonauts on the bronze doors of
Saint Petet's in Rome. Christian spirituality saw in Phrixus
and Helle the image of human souls, and in the celestial ram,
that of
Jesus
Christ *ho offers them the possibilicy of salva-
tion by Iifting them bove the earth by means of its fleece,
that is to say his doctrine and his law. Phrixus holds onto his
savior untiringly, with all his might, and reaches the happy
shores of Colchis; Helle
-eaLens,
is discouraged and lets go
of the divine ram, and fails inro the abyss where death re-
But in Christian art, of all the creetures which have had the
honor of symbolizing Christ, it is the lamb that has been the
most popular, just as in all rhe sac.iGcial culcs it was the virgi-
nal victim par excellence; its white color, its grace, its youth
l'lli slIll li l'
,,ll ,narke,l it for rhis tole, and in the biblical account of rhe
i'..',r1.* .f rhe human race. rhe lamb on Abel" altar
-as
,i,i i.", i,.,rn."f
oering rhar rhe Crearor
looked upon -ith
il',,.. " Jar *" 1",". "* its protective and expiatorv roles
-"..
a.ri""i bv Moses for th" 'b'"""1
but we quote here
;i; ;;;; I"aiah a.'d
Jeremiah
that were applied to the
,,".'""
",
f*rt
Chrisr as prophecie" of hrs role as redemptive
l',.i*,
;r"
Lord hath lard on him the iniquirv o us all He
-.'.
"."*t".a,
and he was aflicred'
vet he opened
not his
",,*,f,'fr.
i' broughr
as a lamb ro the slaughte"
and as a
;i,";;;r";; i", t",'".'
is dumb. so he openeth not his
,
*-'6,'.
"u,, I *a. Iike a lamb or an ox rhat is brought to
l
*
1 Ttu lnb th *td Lonr
"
\\d.rt: tJth dtul1.
rhe slaughterr6."
Later, recalling
these ancient
texts,
John
rhe BPlist wes to
sav of
Jesus
as he dtew near
him in the valleY of
Jordan,
"Behold the Lamb of Godr7."
Here ate the words of an-
other lohn,
on Parmos:
"a;d r b"h.ld. and. Io, in the
midst of the throne and of the
four beasts, and in the midst of
the eldets, stood a Lamb as ic
had been slain, having seven
horns and seven eYes, which are
r'.
'even
Soirir or God sent orth into all rhe earrh And he
.,-"
""i
,fu the book out o the right hand of him rhat sat
,ro.r,1",1ror".
And
when he had taLen rhe book' rhe our
i'1,".
".i
f",. and r*entv elders fell down beore rhe Lamb'
i;;;;;.,;"..
or rhem ha.p". and golden vials rult or
,'L.^. ,,f"1 are the pravers o sarnts And thev suns new
*.-
"*
1"-. Thou ari *o,rhy to take the bool' and to open
'r"?,L,ii*"f,
for thou *ast slain' and hast redeemed
us to
.i1, ,1, blood out o e'erv kindred' and tongue' and peo-
J..
,ra .,ri"., and hast made us unto our God kings and
Fis. 6 1h. Lb .nd th.
,th h . hhinb oi
Y Ol (
ltrsr
priesrs:
and we shll reisn on rhe
ertfir3 (Fis r).,'
As exphtorv and propirrarorv
victim,
the Iamb was in rhe tirsr place among
the symhos nd emblem.
of Ie"u"
Christ. The earliest artjsrs ro picrure it
rn rhe car.ombs
seemed to preer rhe
aspecr oi the sullering
earthly vicrim to
rhe rriumphant heavenly
one, lor thex
oldest images
sho" fiim lyrns dotrn
rather rhan standing.
Before anvon.
dared ro repre,ent
the cross in the arr
of rhe caracombs,
the lamb aooears
Iving by a ship's rn.hor.,
-u..".;",,"
hieroglyph
for the cross. We se ir thus
on a cemerery
stone in Romera (Fiq.
6)
and we find it again by rhe..o* ir""l
as soon s ir appeated in Christian ico-
e. , fl,. Lanb r,t.d nography;
almost ar the same momenr,
"
-:
,":.-::
"
"
lh. i'.'j.
.,.-",: rhe head of rhe divine
and e\en lons arer rr fiad been freed by C",.,,n,in" t"
emerge inco the light of dan rhe Church did nor yer
dare to
repre..nt rhe bodv o rts deirv on rhe Romrn inrr.r.err
of
"-.:.1:,
Th: lamb uas rhe svmbol chosen ro rale itr ptace;
:*:i,'.'*
rhe hrst cru.rfix. one might sav rt. p.._.,u.;6*,
ror Lhusrran,..t his custom o placing
tfie Iamb on the cro"s
pers,sred.
rn rhe Easr \ well a, rhe sest. long afrer rhe
!r,,..1
hj::.:0,.j.
rhe repre,enration
"r
,r ..,, u.,r.;,g
the body ol Chrisr (Fis. 8).
As the slain victim,
the lamb appears also in orher
po,trres
,.omerimes
sranding.
or srrerched
on rhe ground,
$rth blood flouingi rr orhers ir is on an altar rr.tor" oot
Iies rhe-Boo!
spoLen.of in rhe Apocalvpsero.
ln rhe
"ymbo_
1-
.,
,t..-:*:::,.1.
rhe Lamh ryiog on rhe se:ied booL repre_
sents rhe Shekhinah.
rhar i". rhe presenre
of rhe glory of od
llrri s lr,1 rrl
on tlre Ark of the Covenanr,'. Ar other cimes, it is dre lance
instead of the cross rhat proclaims the ttiumph of Christir
love, since it is the hearr that is pierced (Fig. 1). We see ir
carved like this in ivory on the beauriful Roman crozier ar
Menen, "the divine Lamb, retutned to life, pulls out from its
wound the iron rhat had pierced its heart,, (Fig. 9)."
The symbolic compositions which link the lamb's image
with the idea of rhe Eucharisr quite naturally cake the mind
back to another lamb which. since rhe rime of Moses, the
Hebrews consume according ro special rites and whose blood
ransomed their lives. Scriprure recounrs how on the eve of the
Hebrews' departure Irom Egypt, Moses ordered rhem at che
Lordir command to scrifice a lamb for each family. Each was
to take a male yearling wirhout blemish and kill it in the eve-
ning of the fourteenth day of the month, and mark wirh its
blood rhe doorposts and the lintel of the door of the house
within which rhe roasted lesh of the lamb was to be eaten,
with ualeavened bread and bitter herbs. "And rhus shall ye eat
it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feer, and your
staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord's
passover." And that nighr rhe Lord passed over Egypr and
smote the first-born of the land, but the houses of rhe
]:is. I fh. ,n,bok cnnlfxion.
l;o
th. RDna Mb.u .
IiE. | ])th-.dht! o?
[1oh
Mdkn