Page:Psychology of the Unconscious (1916).djvu/284

 Father and the Holy Ghost. So, too, do the two thieves belong inwardly to Christ. The two Dadophores are, as Cumont points out, nothing but offshoots[57] from the chief figure of Mithra, to whom belongs a mysterious three-*fold character. According to an account of Dionysus Areopagita, the magicians celebrated a festival, "[Greek: tou~ triplasi/ou Mi/throu]." [58] An observation likewise referring to the Trinity is made by Plutarch concerning Ormuzd: [Greek: tri\s e(auto\n au)xê/sas a)pe/stêse tou~ ê(li/ou]. The Trinity, as three different states of the unity, is also a Christian thought. In the very first place this suggests a sun myth. An observation by Macrobius 1:18 seems to lend support to this idea:

"Hæ autem ætatum diversitates ad solem referuntur, ut parvulus videatur hiemali solstitio, qualem Aegyptii proferunt ex adyto die certa, æquinoctio vernali figura iuvenis ornatur. Postea statuitur ætas ejus plenissima effigie barbæ solstitio æstivo exunde per diminutiones veluti senescenti quarta forma deus figuratur." [59]

As Cumont observes, Cautes and Cautapates occasionally carry in their hands the head of a bull, and a scorpion.[60] Taurus and Scorpio are equinoctial signs, which clearly indicate that the sacrificial scene refers primarily to the Sun cycle; the rising Sun, which sacrifices itself at