Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/657



HAVE said that the phallic origin attributed to the cross is destitute of evidence. In a work like this, which will be in the hands of general readers, it is impossible to enter into the subject.

I believe I have conscientiously examined the question. If I saw that there was sufficient evidence to substantiate the theory, I would adopt it without hesitation. But I think a better claim may be made for the lightning, and a better still for the ancient instrument of two sticks used for producing fire by friction.

An article on Sun worship in the “English Leader,” copied into “Public Opinion” (Sept. 14, 1867), assumes the identity of the cross with the phallus. The article is full of assertions, rather bold and reckless than well supported by evidence.

It asserts on the authority of the Abbé Pluche that the crux ansata was the symbol of the annual inundation of the Nile. The speculations of the learned on the signification of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, previous to the discoveries of Champollion, are, however, devoid of weight. “The crux ansata,” it adds, “that is, the cross and circle, was the sign of Venus or sensual love,—the goddess from whose name our word venery is derived,—and it is still the astronomical