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God 2

The evolution of the second twin into God 2 as we know him --Jupiter, Zeus, Re, the Jade Emperor--is a reflection of a political reality and as such, it happened in the empires of Europe, the near east, India, China, Japan and the kingdoms of Africa.
It did not happen, however, among peoples like the Lugbara or the Hopi, where the minimum needs of civic order were fulfilled by the council of elders. Even the fairly new Maya and Aztec kingdoms of Mexico, though myth gives Quetzalcoatl a later king role, his emblems remain those of God 1.
By at least 3000 BC, however, wherever such a person came into power, the idea of a ‘chief’, ‘lord’, ‘ruler’, or ‘king’ god was fully developed. He was of course thought of as a mature man, married, and wearing the emblems of the youth after initiation: belt, necklace, earrings, bracelet, crown. But he was also given powers earlier not fully clarified or which belonged to one or both of the twins. It was he who brought order out of chaos, enforced the laws and administered justice--in Chinese myth he often appears as a ‘magistrate’. He is generally thought of as a sky god as well as ruler of this earth, is patron god of lords, a state rather than a tribal deity. And as such he appears frequently in art.
With ‘kings’, a class structure also emerged from the old age class structure: God 1 is a peasant, cowherd, shepherd; God 2 belongs to the lords and masters; and God 3 to the priestly caste.
Even with this new distinction, however, God 2 never quite shakes off the marks of his former twinship. He may carry one emblem of his youthful days; he may have as constant companion a ‘fool’; dwarf, hunchback or jester; and since his role as judge, governor, is visually static, he may still be shown in art as winning his initiation ‘battle with a wild animal’ as described in ACTION.

This Sassanian king, ShapurII (late 3nd century) fits at all points our concept of majesty, crowned, with neck chain, and the belt of his high office (as in ‘belted knight’ or ‘belted earl’, that is, initiated into that rank.) The crown is our most familiar symbol of majesty but it appears also in simpler forms: the headband of the Maya ruler, the Kwakiutl chief and the Swazi adult male. It also appears as the wreath of Olympic victors and Lords of the May, and on the head of the bride at her wedding. Shapur does not here wear a ring, for us the principal emblem of marriage, but the ring is also a token of authority in ‘this world’. The Roman equites as well as the Roman bride wore it, and it is part of the regalia of German kings, French counts, and the Prince of Wales.

His girdle is also a feature of both marriage and the second stage of life. In China and in Rome the gift of a girdle means marriages. Initiates in Iran, India, Tibet, Samothrace, adult males in Australia and Crete all use it as a token of their rank. The Mayan king and Thor wear it: even the megalithic god whose statues were found in Spain, Cyprus and south France wears a girdle along with his bow or axe, and so does his consort.

King Harold, he of the Battle of Hastings, has neither belt nor ring here, but he carries another very important emblem of kingship in the west, the cross and orb--cross and circle.


Both these scenes, from the near east, portray the investiture of a king by a divine priest figure, and in both he receives a circle emblem like that of Jupiter, Vishnu, Adad, Ahura Mazda and many others. His crown, however, is a double one like that of the Pharaoh (see HATS ETC.) Right, an Elamite king from a stele in the Louvre; left, a king of Ur before the god Nannar, who carries in his right hand his underworld club.
(Stele or Ur-Nammu in the University Museum, Philadelphia. ) Note the additional emblems of Sun as royalty, and the tree. (See SACRED LANDSCAPE.)

Right , a Roman coin showing the Emperor Constans and his empress; left, a Germanic bracteate of the same period. Emperor and empress are wearing diadems and ‘necklaces’ with brooches. The German king is also crowned, but from the crown sprout two feathered’ horns’ and he is marked with the swastika, a truncated form of cross-in-circle. The animal below him is probably a bull, which was also animal of the near eastern God 2 Adad and of Cretan royalty. (See ANIMALS, Bull)

Cernunnos of the Gallic world, ‘horned’ like the German king,here appears in a form rather like that of the Hindu chakramundi, king of both worlds. The torc and the domesticated animals to one side portray his rulership of this world, but he also dominates the wild animals on his other side. His antlers belong to a specific type of crown worn by those Gods 2 where the domesticated animal imagery previously referred to holds sway. The Irish king was known as the ‘king of horns’ and a god ranking by crowned horns is widespread in the near east. It arises not only with domestication, but with the number pattern which assigns one horn or feather to youthful gods and three to those of the third stage. (See NUMBER). It causes, of course, confusion with the previous imagery in which wild animal = God 1 or 3, since some wild animals are horned, but at one stage it was definitely part of the iconography of God 2 in west and near east, and traces of it appear elsewhere; i.e. Navaho Elder Brother on attaining adulthood is given antlers by Changing Woman, and in America Sun is thought to have two horns.
But his torc is an even more certain emblem of lordship than his antlers: in the Celtic world it was a historical mark of leadership. Such collars in Germany, Crete and Mesoamerica carry the same message as the Lord Mayor’s chain of office.

The Duke of Alba wears his lordly chain.

And on a man--except in India--it is a fairly reliable emblem of role. Not so where women are concerned. As soon as necklaces were invented they became wildly popular and some very active factories have been found in Europe which date from the Aurignacian. Before long the feeling crept in that if all women wanted, and had, necklaces, the powerful goddess of the underworld might take offense if she, as well as Goddess 2, did not sport one. Thus, though Inanna of Sumer took off her ‘this world’ emblems of crown, necklace and ring when she descended to the underworld, goddesses 1 and 3 elsewhere and thereafter had no hesitation in wearing them: flower necklaces, maybe; triple necklaces; necklaces of skulls; but necklaces all the same.

Moses in the Middlke Ages was often given horns, the ‘leader’ of the Jews as opposed to Aaron with his staff, and so Michelangelo portrays him. Alexander the Great, too, was supposed to have horns.

This Chinese portrait of the Three Emperors shows a gradation in headgear from the uppermost, which has two hornlike flaps, to the later crown with square flat top, which probably represents crown plus symbol of the ‘square earth.’ The Yao god who is Governor of This World wears the same flat headdress, with a circling orb and of course a necklace.




Oddly, this King of Kongo shows a very similar crown, and both this and the Chinese example strongly resemble the ‘mortarboard’ which is our own emblem of graduation to adulthood. To trace the reasons why might make a very intriguing master’s thesis.


Sun, from a stele at Santa Lucia Cotzuma, being offered a heart in sacrifice by a ball player. His crown itself is a little idiosyncratic, but note the ‘horns’, the spectacular necklace and bracelets, and the circular emblem like that of so many Gods 2 on the other side of the world.

Chinese ‘horns’, necklace, girdle? Who can this be? Petroglyph from Dry Fork Canyon, Utah. (Courtesy F.A. Barnes)


This Ottonian king, his vestment borrowed from Byzantium, wears all the royal insignia: crown, orb and cross, belt, and even the circular brooch which held Augustus’ toga. The setting of his throne, too, is significant. The four pillars descend from the four pillars of the four directions which in many parts of the world are thought to hold up the sky--here, his canopy. (From a 10th Century Carolingian MS)


The Christ in Majesty of the portal of Moissac wears only a crown, but he is surrounded by the animals of the four apostles, themselves descended from the animals assigned to the four directions. Thus, like the king above, he sits in the center of the four quarters of the world.


Another Christ in Majesty, this one from the Cleves Book of Hours, is uncrowned, but attended by circle (orb) and cross, and sits on the rainbow, an attribute of many western Gods 2 like Thor. Below him a red demon (see COLOR) hides in his seagirt grotto (See SACRED LANDSCAPE, Cave) and small figures rise from a greensward below. The imagery is equally valid for the Christ of the resurrection and God 2 bringing new life in spring and driving God 1-3 back into the underworld.


Axe

The double axe as emblem of God 2 is closely linked to the circular thunderbolt. Stone axes when found are called ‘thunderstones’ in the east (e.g. Vietnam) as well as in Europe. The connection axe-thunder-lightning probably goes back to the Stone Age. Zeus in Caria, the Slavic Radigast, Thor, Adad, Shango in Africa, are all gods not only of the thunderbolt but of the double axe. In Crete and Scandinavia it is associated with the (sun) disc and an early Japanese king describes himself as “Commanding with the Battle Axe”.
On the other hand, this axe association applies only to the double axe with blades each side of the shaft. The single-bladed axe, by long association of ‘woodsman, woodcutter’ with priest (See SACRED LANDSCAPE, Tree) belongs to third stage gods like the Celtic Esus. In Mesoamerica, too, the small axe is a sacrificial tool.
A similar distinction must be made between Thor’s and Perkun’s ‘throwing hammer’ and the artisan’s or smith’s mallet, which belongs to third stage gods.
No other weapons are reliable indicators of god type except double axe and club: a clue, perhaps, to the antiquity of the system.



Again, the Chinese axe which is emblem of royalty.



Worshipper carries the axe of thundergod Shango, called a ‘thunder axe’ on this Yoruba textile. The Ashanti, too, have a god of thunder and thunderbolts are called his axes. Thus, over much of Europe, Africa, and the near east, God 2, the ruler god, is considered the bringer of thunder and thus of rain. Not so in America, where there may be multiple Thunders belonging both to upper and underworld, and underworld bringers of rain.

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