Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/516

 512 CKOSS on Assyrian tablets, on Egyptian and Persian monuments, on early Asiatic and Greek coins, and on Etruscan pottery. In Egypt this cross, enclosed in a circle, was the symbol of Kneph ; on eastern monuments it appears often beneath a circle or globe. In its oblique form, X? called by Lepsius crux decussata, and vulgarly, although on no good grounds, St. Andrew's cross, it is no less common in ancient sculpture. The Latin cross, or crux immissa, "j", is also found on coins, medals, and monuments an- terior to Christ. The cruciform sceptres in the hands of Astarte on Asiatic medals, and the symbols in the mysteries of Venus and of Mithra, have been supposed to bear some relation to the four elements which, in the hands of the divine creators, were the agents of creation. The crux commissa or patibulata, "[", some- times called the tau cross from its resemblance to the Greek letter of that name, is a mystic symbol of very ancient and very uncertain origin. Some archaeologists consider this the oldest form of the symbolic cross, and that the Greek cross is only its double. In its most ancient use it was probably a phallic emblem, the type of the active principle of nature. In the crux ansata, f, the Egyptian symbol of life, in which form it most frequently appears, some see the union of Osiris and Isis, the active and passive elements. Sir Gar- diner Wilkinson notes the remarkable resem- blance of the Egyptian word signifying life (onh) to the yohni lingam of the Hindoos. By others it is regarded as the symbol of eter- nal life, or the new life promised to neophytes after initiation into the sacred mysteries. Whatever may have been its hidden meaning, the crux ansata is a common figure on Egyptian monuments, and is constantly seen in the hands of Isis, Osiris, and other divinities; Layard found it on the sculptures of Khorsabad and on the ivory tablets of Nimrud; arid it is carved on the walls of the cave temples of In- dia. When the Serapeum at Alexandria was destroyed by order of Theodosius, the Chris- tians saw in this figure, which they found sculptured on the stones, a sign prophetic of the coming of Christ, and they modelled on the same type the symbol of redemption. After this time the crux ansata appears occasionally on Christian monuments, and some have be- lieved it to be the origin of the monogram of Christ ; but that is undoubtedly of an earlier date than the destruction of the temple of Serapis. The cross was a common symbol among the British, Irish, and Gallic Celts. The shamrock of Ireland derives its sacred- ness from its resemblance to it in form ; and in the mysticism of the druids the trefoil had a peculiar significance. In Scandinavian my- thology the hammer of Thor, the terrible mjolnir, sometimes used to bless the marriage tie, was the cross. Among the stone imple- ments found in the shell mounds of Denmark are cruciform hammers, with the hole for the haft at the intersection of the arms, which are of equal length. These were probably used in the sacrifice of victims to Thor, but the cross of Thor is usually represented as cram- ponnee, v}f. This is a symbol of wonderful diffusion. It is the sacred emblem of Vishnu and the swaslika of the Buddhist ; it is found on Celtic monuments, on Etruscan cinerary urns and those taken by Cesnola from the Phoenician tombs of Cyprus, and on the oldest Greek coins, notably those of Chalcedon, Syr- acuse, and Corinth. The Spanish conquerors of the new world found crosses of stone and of wood erected in Mexico and Central and South America. The Muyscas and the Mayas reverenced it, and among the Toltecs it was called the "tree of nutriment" or "tree of. life." In the ruins of Palenque and in those of some of the Central American cities, of unknown antiquity, it is often met with on sculptured stones, with surroundings which prove its sacred character. The cross was an instrument of punishment among nearly all ancient nations, its use for this purpose having been suggested probably by the practice of tying criminals and captives to trees for torture or death. It was also frequently set up in ter- rorem in public places, like the gallows in later times. Its simplest form was an upright stake, on which the malefactor was sometimes im- paled and sometimes fastened with cords or nails. Of the compound cross, besides those already mentioned, other forms were occa- sionally used: on one, Y, the person was sometimes suspended head downward ; on another, |"~|, he was hung by fastening a hand at one corner and a foot at the other ; and on still another, |"J1, the body was placed on the central upright, and the arms and legs were stretched to the two parallel beams. The cross often had a small projection on which the body rested as on a seat, and sometimes a kind of shelf for the feet. The transverse beam was frequently separate from the upright, and it is probable that this was the only part borne by the criminal to the place of execution. The form of the cross on which our Saviour suffered is not known, but it is generally supposed to have been the crux immissa. On a design re- cently discovered on a wall in a palace of the Caesars on the Palatine, supposed to belong to the beginning of the 3d century, some pagan in derision of the Christians (who were sup- posed to worship an ass's head) had drawn the figure of one crucified with an ass's head. The cross is the crux patibulata or commissa, and over the head of the crucified is fixed an upright rod to support the inscription. (See Garucci, II crocifisso graffito in la casa dei Ce- sari.) This form is also frequent on early Christian tombs. In a sepulchral marble of the 3d century (De' Rossi, Bollettino, 1863, p. 35), found in the cemetery of Callistus, is this