|
|
|
||||||||
Numbers
The numbers three, two and one may be used to identify the gods of the various age groups. We ahave already seen two horns on God 2, a single horn or feather on God 1, and , three eyes, a triple necklace, a triple tiara, on third stage gods. In the next section, which shows an array of hats and other head anomalies, we will see more.
In Celtic lands and in India, however, Goddess 3 may herself appear triple or, in India, even repeated nine times as a kind of visual magnification of her power. Sometimes, too--but rarely--a god or goddess is shown with dual or triple functions in one figure. The 600 BC figure of Min, below, from the British Museum, carries the sun disc and two feathers of God 2, and his ‘whip’ was once a thunderbolt. However, he is shown, as God 1 sometimes is, ithyphallic. In fact Min, one of the earliest of Egyptian gods, was celebrated at Thebes in more than one form. He was a god of spring planting, identified with Horus the Youth, but he was also a harvest god and identified with the Pharaoh.
This terracotta statuette of a goddess from 8th century BC Boetia (British Museum) is clearly triple, as the swastika between two birds indicates. This triple pattern is discussed in depth in SACRED LANDSCAPE, Tree, and also in ANIMALS. The necklace, discs and swastikas (cross in circle) belong to Goddess 2, the breasts and birds to Goddess 1/3. Her bell shape too probably belongs to the underworld/yin/female iconography. So clear is the imagery, in fact, that no worshipper would have been confused by it: this was THE goddess.
The three gods, 1, 2, and 3, may also appear as a group, as with the three pagan mounds at Uppsala in Sweden, or as three pillars. (See SACRED LANDSCAPE, Tree.) Here, in examples from the west and the far east, they are pictured together.
Cernunnos, with his two horns, sits throned between Apollo on the left and Mercury on the right, in this Romano-Celtic sculpture. Apollo and Mercury are both shown as youths here, but both have a God 3 role, Apollo as god of healing, Mercury as the magician Hermes Trismagistus.
In this common image from popular China, Yu Huang, the Jade or Pearly Emperor, crowned, is flanked by Lao-Tze, the "Old Boy", and Tao Chun. The modern trinity repeats the imagery of the old: the Emperor is in the prime of life, Tao Chun young, Lao-tze old. The Emperor is crowned, the other two have hats. Tao Chun is sometimes replaced by a youthful topknotted Sakyamuni Buddha.
A further example will be found in the Cretan ring under Goddess 2.
This numerology, in the beginning, deals only with 1, 2 and 3. With increasing cosmological knowledge, however, other numbers take on a religious significance, particularly 7, 9 and 12. Seven as part of the lunar cycle and identifying the days of the week, gives us the Seven Sages of China, the Seven Wonders of the World, the god names for our seven days of the week....Nine, 3x3, also appears: in the Babylonian flood epic the ark is described as nine cubits by nine cubits, an obviously impossible shape for a ship, but this is just a numerical way of designating its sacredness. Twelve, representing the twelve months, gives us the Knights of the Round Table, the twelve Labors of Hercules, Plato’s ideal city divided into twelve segments in tune with the universe, and twelve Olympians instead of three. And, since 2+1=3, an underworld number, and 12+1 gives is 13, this number is clearly a sinister one.
A three headed god from a vase from northern Gaul, now in the Cabinet des Medailles, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. The Gallehus Cup shows us a three headed figure too.
UPPERWORLD AND UNDERWORLD
UNDERWORLD
PERSONNAGES GOD 1 TWINS GODDESS 1 GOD 2 GODDESS 2 GOD 3 GODDESS 3 NUMBERS HATS ETC. ACTIONS ANIMALS LANDSCAPE COLOR