Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/363

 Sculpture. 333 These rude symbols had been all-sufficient to the nomadic tribes, but ceased to satisfy them as soon as the conditions of a settled life brought them in touch with people possessed of a higher grade of civilization and, as a natural consequence, of a more spiritual religion, whose gods assumed defined shapes, and were depicted under animal or human forms. They, too, wished to have a god that might walk before them ; and the molten calf was made. It was a type common to all the known nations of the ancient world. The man-headed bull of Assyria, the apis of Egypt, Baal apis of Phoenicia, Zeus transformed into a bull ; i.e. the Oriental myth migrating to Europe, are familiar instances of this widely diffused cultus, and symbolic signification. Perhaps the first step towards this transformism is to be seen in the horns about the altar ; evidently viewed as the emblem of the figure, since that was always the part seized by the suppliant (Fig. 207). 1 If in Exodus the honours rendered to the golden calf made by Aaron are described as an idolatrous practice, it proves none the less that when the Mosaic books were written, the cult was believed to go back to remote antiquity, even by those who were loudest in reprobating it. 2 Sundry passages formally attest that under the kings, gold- plated bulls or calves, and images, were the object of worship in multitudinous sanctuaries, be it in Samaria, at Bethel, or Dan — ■ (respecting the molten calf at Dan having been possessed of a bull's head, see former chapter, 1 Kings xii. 28, and Jtidges xviii. — Hosea viii. 6; x. 5; 2 Kings x. 29), whilst rude figures of the same nature, probably made of baser materials — the bâmôth being the most conspicuous example — were to be seen on every mound or hill-top. We find no reference in the Bible as to Jehovah 3 having been worshipped at Jerusalem under the form of a bull ; for here the ark with its mysterious symbol occupied the place of honour in the temple ; and the serpent was the only image displayed and adored. The Mosaic tradition which was attached to the latter accounted for its presence in the sanctuary {Numb. xxi. 9). 1 Stade, loc. cit., p. 465. Amos ii. 14. 2 Exod. xxxii. 8 The modern transliteration, " Iahveh," occurs throughout in the French text. Partly, however, because the work, in its English garb, is intended for the general reader, partly for the sake of early associations, I have adhered to the old familiar name of Jehovah. — Ed.