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i

FotewotdIntroduction

PART I THE TETRAMORPH

CONTE}lfS

The Tetramo4hThe LiooThc BullThe EagleThe Man

The HornThe BovinesThe SheepThe GoatThe HorseThe AcsThe Dog

PART III 1ILD ANIMALSThe Deet

Iv

16It2'B

PART II DOMESTIC ANIMALS,16l67E}94106Lt2

tt7The Panther aad Other Wildcats, 127

the Hyena and the MoleThe Wolf 138

PART

PART

I he oar, the ear,end the Hedgehog

The \JeaselThe SnakeThe Ftog and the ToadThe SalamanderThe Crocodile

IV BlRDSThe VulrureThe FalconThe OwlThe SwallowThe NightingaleThe LarLThe Dove and the Raven,

the Crow and the SperrowThe SwanThe Pelican',Jading BitdsThe OstrichThe EggWings and Feathets

V SEA CREATURESThe FishThe DolphinThe Sea Urchin

VI INSECTSThe Bee and rhe FlyThe Scarab and the ScorPionThe Caterpillar and the ButterflY

t4,

t47t13165t7,180

189t9,20921522'226229

24'218267275278248

295t06]09

I l9)34,45

PART

The Ichneumon Wasp and theGrasshopper

The Mantis and the Spider

The UnicornThe Winged HorseThe CentaurThe Lion of the Sea and the

ManticoreThe HippogriffThe Grif6nThe DragonThe BasiliskThe Ouroboros and rhe

AmphisbaenaThe PhoenixThe Sphinx

EpilogueBibliographical Appendix

312

3r6

PART VII FABULOUS BEASTS)65376381191

194397410420427

441453

46'464

FOR]EWOITD E BrsltAtRE DU cHRIst was otginally a book ofa thou-L.rnd p.e", and over a thousand of rhe author! woodcuts.It was published in Brussels just afrer the ouibreak of theSecond orld !ar: one of four uolumes planned by LouisCharbonneau-Lassay, all putsuing his interest in religious sym-bolism- The others were b Floraire du Chfit, b htnraire duChrist, an b ,apidane dn Chrnt. All the material was gath-ered for them, but he did not live o 6nish and publish anv ofthe three. fu Bestiaie alone has survived, and barely. The firmof Descle, De Brouwer et Cie. Published it ih a limitd edi-tion of five hundted copies, almost all of which, along withthe woodblocLs for the illustrations, were lost when a bombset 6re to rhe warehouse where rhey *ere stored. Four otherprintings of tve hundred copies each were printed in Milanfrom surviving copies of the first edition. That is the entirepublishing history of is extraordinary book until its presentaPPerance.

Evidentlg not meny people have had a chance to read it;yet the rumor of it has spread slowly, almost secretly, as if themagic of the old symbols, reinvested thtough the love andsensitivity of the uthor with the power of their ancient meah-ings, traveled on some unknown wavelengths to reach ou!,fifty-odd years later, to another audience. Bits and traces ofthe original book were found here and there; I knew of iclong before I held a copy in my hands-and er that, slowlvbut ine,itably, it became necessary to pass it on to ohers.

lr{r rrrs ti (llfltst

lIr'ho was Louis CharbonneauJ-assay? A narne of impor-tance as it must have been in his lifetime to an inner circle of"les rudirs," it was never amiliar to rhe public, and since hisdearh in 194 it would be forgonen-were ir nor for lr Ber-tiaire. He le one of those remarLable unremarkable lives tharare probably the reason why God does not lose patience en-tirely wirh the human race. He was born in Loudun in 1671,and lived in tt west central part of France ali his life, exceptlor a few years spent at Orly, near Paris. He went to schoolat the monastery of the Brorhers of St. Gabriel, and later ofhis own wish joined the novitiate of Saint-Laurent-sur-Svre,where he pursued his training in history, art, and archaeology-He became a professor and taught at Poitiers and Moncou-tnt until a throat ailment prevented him from lecturing. Butit did not deect him from his search into the past, for hewenr into 6eld wor[ and the excvtions of the many dolmensites in the Loudunnaise region. In 1903 the order of St.Gabriel dissolved. Charbonneau had nevet raken permanentvows, and although he remained all hk life a de"oted andconvinced Carholic. he was now well launched on i{,hat \rs tobe his life work and ws receiving honors and recognirion asan archaeologist and a historian, and it was in rhis way ratherthan as a monL that he chose to serve his religion.

In 193), alteady in his sixties, he married nd moved roOrly where he took full advantage of rhe libraries and mu-seums of Paris. He was an ctive member of vatious histor-ical, archaeological, and religious groups, wrore ppers forlearned journals, including rlanrn

^" adu Tiddirioiette',and edited one hirnselL Rdyonnenent lntelhcwl, until the warloomed as a serious threat in 19i9. By rhis time, he had re-turned with his ailing wie ro Loudun, ro beutiful gerdenand house lled with his collections of rr and nriquities.Probably he looked lorward to a peeceful old age preparinghis booLs for publication. Then came the German Occupa-rion. In Loudun, rhe commandant ordered all citizens to lurnover their 6rearms. Charbonneau trudged to headquarters with

r()nri/()trI)

r sack of sorne of his antique firing pieces. "I have about 6ftyguns in my house," he told rhe astonished and suspicious of-icer, "but as the most recent o them is a hundred years old,I hrought you some smples to see if you want lhem." He'nnst

have hd a very charming smile. He was allowed to takeLis guns home again; and although German troops wre qur-tcred in his house during the Occupation, not a single item ofhis collections was lost or damaged.

The Besriare ppered in 1940, and Charbonneau dedicatedhimself ro finishing his other books ahd redying them forpublication, bur circumsrances opposed him: the war, the Oc-.uption, his wifet ill health and his own. Mme. Charbonneaudied during the war, which he survived by only a year. Neverrobust, he fought his incteasing frailty in unsuccessful effortsto finish his other books. He died the day after Chtistmas inI946.

When my love afair with Lz Bestiaire du Chrit begar,ldrought it would be possible to meke a much shotter bookout of it that would give a sort o disdllarion of its essence. Ihave indeed omitted certain chptets and cut out many repeti-tions which were probably caused by the srrange order inwhich Charbonneau-Lassay arranged, or jumbled, his crea-rures, and sometimes even his separate accounts of them. Ihave changed his arrangement considerably; anyone forunteenough to have a copy of the original book and attempting totrace in it the path of my abridgement-trenslation would findir a strenuous gymnstic exercise. I have also omitled someof the detail of the author's reseatch, though includingenough, I hope, so that other srudehts my follow up hissources i they wish. But I found it was not possible to makethe book as small as I had at 6rst envisaged it. It seemed de-termined to be a considerable volume, one that must be takenseriously.

All the notes referring ro the present text hve been in-cluded for the sake of che ambitious teader, and they showthe astonishingly wide range of Charbonneau-Lassay's own re-

trl

1HL AIr STt^&Y Ori CHflrSr

search, as well as his remarkable inconsistency in checkingsuch details s publishing information and even authorship(for xmple, I have found no one who has ever heard of abook by Xenophon calle Geoponnu; see note I in Part III,"The Deer.") Most of the references, of course, are toFrench books end journals which I have nor had the pos-sibility of rechecking, but wherever I could nd Latin or Eng-Iish dtles of books or any other relevant facts, I have addedthem in the bibliographical appendix. These added nores,lrowever, do not preiend to be complete, end I must empha-sizc rhar this *ork. standing 6rmly on its osn merirs, cannorbe taken for something it is not: a dependable reference bookin any scholarly or scientc sense. But unreliabie as they ate,rh notes my contain clues of which I haven'r wanted to de-prire rhe researcher.

Although I have corrected typogrphical errors where itwas possible, the French edition contined a great many and Icannot guatantee the accurecy of page or le numbers inbooks I *as not able to checlc for myself. So I must sharewith the author the responsibility for all errors of act orjudgment rhat appear in rhese pges, t the same time grre-fully acknowledging the slcillful and enthusiasric help I havereceived from a number of people better versed than I intheir various 6elds. Among them are John Anrhony Westwhom I consulted on references to ancient Egypt; I am in-debted to him for a number of correcrions and for several ofthe editorial notes. Caroline Herricl and Patty Ewing investi-gared questions abour ancient China, and for general researchinto vatious obscure terms end references I am deeply grate-flrl for the help of Heather Iole and Jane Brooks. Otherswho have researched, corrected, ptooftead and in generalnormously helped and supported the work of rhis book arePaul Jordan-Smith, Jean Sulzbetget, and Rob Baker. I alsowish to thank M. Ie Comte li" d" D",npi".." fot supplyingme wnh handbooks on the birds, animals, nd insects of Eu-rope, and the Lady Devlin for information abour little-Lnown

l. () lr ll v()Rl)

corners of England. Above all, I want to thank Joseph EpesBrown, Henri Tiacol, and the late Ilonka Karasz, whoseknowledge and pprecition of I* Beiairc were what 6rst ledme to it. A special increment of gratitude goes to JosephBrown for lending me his copy of the rre 6rst edition; hetells me there is only one othet in the United States, *hichws owned by Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy

The chapters on te Lion and the Hippogriff were origi-nally translared by Carol Zaleski, and Gabriela Laignel andLinda Daniel helped me with the translarion of the early chap-ters, until I realized that the translting could not be sepa-rared from the editing and that both had to be done togethe.by the same hand. The chapter on the SPhinx aPPered inPARABoLA, Vol. VIII, No.2, under rhe title "Hieroglyph ofLie," in Irving Friedman's translation, and se"eral orher ex-cerpts o the present work have been seen in PARABoLA incethen: portions of rhe chapcer on "The Man" in Vol. VIII,No. 3, entitled "Tongues of Fire"; of "The Weasel" in Vol.XI! No. l; of "The Ouroboros" in Vol. XV No. l, and anexcerpr from "The Horse" in Vol. XIV, No.4. I have revisedall the translations and am ultimately responsible for any cutsor what may be felt as liberties tl(en wirh the rext

Finalln I wish to rhank the original publishers, Descle, DeBrouwer et Cie., for their patience and cooperation in bring-ing this wonder(ul boo[ back inro circularion.

D.M. Dooling

INTR.ODUCTXON(t,-FAr(. cARE, ABovE all, nor to reveal the secrets of the

I holy myst"ri.r, and do not allow them to be indis-creetly exposed to the daylight of the profane world '.. Onlythe saints-not everyone-mey lift a corner of rhe veil whichcovers the things which ate holy....Our most saintlyfoundcrs . . . charged the celebration [of the mysteties] wi somany symbolic rites that wht is in itself one and indivisiblecan ppear only little by little, as if by parts, and under an in-6nite variety of details. Howe"er, this is not simply because ofthe profane multitude, who must not glimpse even the cover-ing of holy things, but also because of the weakness of ourown senses and spitit, zici rcquire sign: and matenal means toruie theln to the understanding of the immaterial anl the submet."

These words, attributed to St. Dionysius the AreoPagite,re a vety exect statement of the principal reasons for the useof symbolism. Ir is to remedy the weatness of out nature andro satisfy its need that all religions and mysteries have felt theobligation to creete for themselves codes of symbols kept se-cret by a sttict discipline of caution. It was in this way thatthe mysteries of Eleusis, of Delphi, of Ephesus end othetswere protected, and the same Practice held in the Mithraiccula and in the Orphic schools. Everyone recognized not onlythe danger of persecution but also the mysterious, hierarchicalauthority whose validity Pythagoras affirmed with the words:"It is nor good to tevcal everything to everyone."

rrrra BIs.t.tARY o ctittls,r

^.In all the counrries where thev ound themselves, rhe GrsrCfirisrians-oot finding riches enough in rheir own rreasut, ^srarteo rmages-.adapted_ ancient local religious

"yrnb.l; ;then own prriculr beliefs; and a'nong the"f ,"-";";";.;-rcred ro rhe represenraiion o[ rhe Savior. Others lent them_::1"..' :., :r. expression of rhe gtear rhemes o Christiansplrrtuar lrte. or seemed ro represent one o Christ,s oe.f"._:,-"1t".:. -"" I here was little modfication o rh. a..epr.dand otren convenrional forms: so rhese images

"f,hi"g;;;;:t re], o: i.mc,niry beings are presented t"-,r,r" ,"*,..i ,r,.rrrsr Lhrrsrian arrisi5 excrly ar one sees ,I,"rn ;, tl" a".o.r_tions of temples. palaces. barhs. and orher maior build;.. ^rLahum or of the Roman provinces. The aapi; i" ,ir" ir.*

:i::: ::i npresenring Chrisr. remained rh. s"m. i_agemar adorned rhe place mosics and rhe founrains .plrshirg 7n

,lr. q,.y of the Caesars.Rome; rhe anchor k"pi ,h; f;.-thar ir had in re remples of Neprune_poseidon, and the cen-.t.i.,-.- ild ,h". griffin. the hippocamp* *a rl;pp"s,,f ,;.,;.awht.rhe rrisrs rn Greece and Ro_" hrd m.; i ,fl"..- -"" --

\/r'en the earir pilgrims ro rfie holv pt"."" "na-,i. Cru_:*:" *jr..,:o to rhe !esr arer their sojourns in the Near

-Esr end rn Egypt. rhe srories rhey b,"rghr bacL, r. rell a"th works ol art and- the producrs of commerce, such as fab-ncs,

,nao a srrons inluence on religious ,nd s..ulr, ,rt in ou.ocodentt (ountries. TJre same rtring happened with rhe firstgrear world rraveters who during rhe second hal of rhe Mid_dle.Ages penerrared into rhe faitesr parts ot Asia, to Mon_goua. ro Lhrna, or ro rhe African equaror. The animals- h;.,1.

rrees. trurs. and minerals. the antasdc b.i"s. *h" 6ll.;;"1;"j:#:",11"o;:':*'.y,.;iil:,;*'ri"","*p.*",,--

Larer e old, symb.ols *ere s6 pg,mq.s. all o European artnd e enrire heraldic code wirh rhe rich ".""r." :;;;_rain. "For the Middle Ages., wrore Gevaerr, .rhe whole uni_

::r,se \1as ,:vmbot/,. "tt kner rhar **,,t;ng

", *.,i i.

"srgn, everyrhing is an imge. rhar rhe visible ;.

"f *f." ""fy

IN I ft()l)tr ( I l()N

in the measure that ir covers the invisible. The medie"al pe-riod, which consequently ws not rhe dupe of appearances, aswe are, studied very closely the science of symbolism, andmade it the purveyor and servant of mysticismr'"

A book rlhLh goes baclc to the earliest Christian times, thePhytiotoels, adds to the elements drawn from the old natural-ists, with images borrowed from Gteek and Oriental writersand from fables and myths from all parts of che world Thiswor[ remained in great favor thtoughout the Christian world,especially during the four or 6ve centuries which followed thepeace which Constantine granted to the Church' and a consid-.."ble

"u-b". of somewhat different vetsions were circulated,so that we no longer know exactly wht was the original rext'The fourth-century Conrnentd\ of Phyiologus, attributed coSt. Epiphanius, conrains twenry-six chapters dedicated only toanimals. Works of the same kind, in verse or Prose' werecomposed in the Middle Ages under the name of bestiaries,o, ul.,cra.i"" when testricted to the symbolism o birds Forplants there were florilegia, and lapidaries dealt with the mi-ir.,.rlous p.op"ttie" of precious stones and minerals Otherwriters on more general lines, of the same period, gave agood deal o space to the symbolic meanings of animals,andbj".r". Th""" u"riou" writings were truly the breviaries of the.on,"*po.".y artists, and agreed so well *ith the spirit of thetimes that Richard de Fournival achieved fame by using themas a model for hrs Bestiary of Lote.

Although most of che sacred symbols of gteat Christian artcame from ancient religions and writings and wete dissemi-nated by clerics, monks, and other lettered men, the humblecountry folk, in their ields a"d g"'den", along with theselearned ones and feeling with them the same need ro see theSavior everywhere, chose for themsel"es metaphors fot Christthat were entirely their own. They saw him as a child in thecolor of the pale-pink carnation, stained with his own blood inthe crimson rose; the frrst swallow of spring ws for them theemblem of his Resurrection, as was also the butterfly; rhe gtay

tltlt 8lsrrARY ()F CHRtST

ass -hose bacL is marked with the cross evoLed rhe journey

to Calvary; Iively legends connecred the *oodco.k, th. gold'_6nch, and the robin ro his crucixion,

""a rl" t"""ilir.a-*"_.:*:"

"li cerrain mineral conglomerates to the Eucharist,which is Christ incarnate_Besides these mentioned sources of inspiration, an impor_

tant plae musr also be given to ur.io.." fa.to.s ,rhi.h ,, ,i-".found fresh inrerpretarions for previous sy-boli. for-s, ,rdeven produced new ones. In the front rank of such influencesmust be plced rhar of Gnosricism. Another is to b. fot rrd inthe combined efforts of the Hebraic Kabbalah, the .iru"l fo._muhs of demonic or supersritious pracrices. asrrological anddivinarorv sciences. alchemv in its pure orm

", *ir""drno..

or Iess wirh magic. tven uirh sorcerv: which. all grouped ro_gerher, re commonlv (rhough incorrectly) called h"ermetjsm_rhar i>. the secrer Lnowledge. because it was given only to rhefew initiates. Bur during the Middle ag.", Ch.ftirn s.hola."and clerics. even sainrs. began ro understand that rhere wasnorh,ng wharever wrong in rhe srudv of anvthing which con_cerned nture or rhe properries of plants and minerals, includ_ing rhose branches of knowledge hitherro closed ro rhem, suchas_alchemu: or in astrologv. the possible influences of armo_spheric conditions. or ol rfie movemenrs and conjunctions ofthe stars. on rhe .onceprion and parrurition o animals andlhe germinrion o planrs. Nevertheless, ir must be borne inmind.rfiar those who raughr in the episcopal or monsricschools opened rheir knowledge orlv to pup;ls [no*n ro beclscreer rd o sound judgment, or it was not easy ro discernthe boundarv between whar rhe Church allowed in is domainand. whar was forbidden. Discretion was a necessiry in this pe_riod when the suspicion of magic or of sorcery could lead .._tirely innocenr people ro rorrure and dearh..

From rhe- end o the uelth century, heraldry with its secu_iar cors-of-rms had become one of rhe besr codified crea_tions that human intellect had achieved during medieval timcs.By che middle of the thirteenth ..r,tu.y, h".rld.y h"d it. ;;;

lNl','lol)t,(: l loN

precise lahguage governed bv strict rules, and irs own art, also.lridlv ."dified. which remains (odav one of the most Pres-riious in the world, and which wirhin irs unvielding frame--'[ still made room for *orks o astonishing variety andmarvelous zst.

From its birth heraldry was pnetrated end dominated byChristian iconography, princiPlly thtough ngravings on coinsduring the early ;aat ng.'. Heraldrv repaid the debt of itsadoption by Christian symbolism bv finding 'rew aspects o""reral " th. ancient emblems' and by helPing to continuethe use of others which would otherwise have fallen intooblivion; and also by guarding the secret of numerous rnter-pretetions rhet we now cao understnd onlv by its means. soih"t in , ..rr.. it can very justly be said that he who srudiesthe Christian symbolism of the Middle Ages, esPecially in theVest, will never completely Penetrate it if he is not familiarwith the sciehce, the rt, and the spirit of ancient heraldry inell its vious forms-that of the Church, of the nobility, andof the commetcial guilds, And we can also invert this proposi-tion, so vividly rd so intimetely did Christian symbolism ndheraldry interpenetrat ech other.

Since in those days theology and heraldry ruled bo sacredand profane arts, Christian emblems of vices and virtues, likethose of the Tiinity and of the characteristic etributes of thesaints) were not aPPlied thoughtlessly, as happened later muchtoo often; the discipline of symbolism was effectively main-trined a.rd resp..t d. In fact' symbols must not be consideredas erbiaty. "Faithfully transmitted by tradirion," wrote Pro-fessor Hippeau in the last century, "they constitr.rted a-kind ofartitic orihidoxy which did not allow them to be considered asolely a product of imaginacion and whima'"

",ill h"u" -,r.h io

l."rn about the religious thought ofthe Middle Ages, Manv of its symbolic forms are enigmas forus; we cn ."cogrrir. th.t some are the signs of heraldry,some ate workmens' tredemarlc, others are decorative

-

endalthough this may be the cese, it is only their outer /d;'o'

XI

'tHl 8lstIAfir. ot. (: HItsr

d'tre, their exotetic side, and they can and almost always dohave a hidden significance, which is their esoterism. Formerlythis underlying meaning was kept for only a small number ofpeople. There were schools "generally very exclusive andlittle-Lnown," which were not at all schools o philosophn andwhose teachings were conveyed only behind the veil oi certainsymbols which must have been quite obscure for those whodid not.have the key co them. The Ley was given only roclose followers of proved discretion and iatelligence, who hadundertaken certain commitments. Evidendv all rhis indicatesthe presence of reachings profound enough to be rotally or-eign to rhe ordinary wav of thinking. and a: rhis phenomenonseems ro have been fairly frequent in che Middle Ages, thereis srrong reason or caurion in speaking of rhat epoch! inrel_Iectual artainmenrs and or taLing inro

"..ounr what mighr

have exisred outside of what is known to us wirh certai,it"-Many things musr have been lost because they were not writ-ten down, which is also "rhe explanatioh for the almost totalloss of the Druidic teaching. Among the schools alluded to,we might mention rhe alchemists, whose doctrine was aboveall.of a cosmological order. ... One might sey rhat the sym-bols contained in alchemical writings constirure rheir exorer-ism, while theit secret interpretation constirutes rheir

The medieval era pracriced and glorified the intensive cul-ture ol spititualiry, and for it, all beauty was beauty only whenseen in the divine light; the value of anything was measuredby the degree in which it fauored the ascension of rhe soul.But rhen came th Renaissence and a iregic retreat of thespirit. Human beings left the ethereal atmosphere of God todscend and bteathe that o man. REASON EVERY!HEREwas insctibed on rhe porral of a house of that time in poitiers.not far from the well-known university whete learned doctorstaught in the fashion of the day. Renaissance rr. rhe directrelectioo of a way o thinking no longer imbued with mysticalChristian spirituality, could not be nyrhing bur the glorifica_

tN r n()r)r (: fl()N

don of mterial bear:ty. "The symbolism which had been thevery solrl of art in the thirteenrh ceDtury," says mile Mle,'lhis beautiful idea that reality is but an image, rhat rhythm,number, and harmony are the grear laws of the universe, thiswhole world of thought where dwelt the old theologians andrhe old artists, seems closed off... one feels the witherirgand dying of the ancient symbols6."

In fact, not all the symbols died, but many disappearedfrom the habitual forms of art. And above all, the true mean-ing of these emblems was forgorten; room ws mde for rbi-trary interpretations and the allegorical ideas applied to someof them changed totlly: for instance, the pelican, the oldsymbol of the purifying Christ who washes the sins o hischildren with his blood and so returns them to life and grace,became almost solely, in the eyes of all, an emblem of the Eu-christ, beceuse the action o pwifitario, by blood ws igno-randy seen s the gesture o{ feeding, \9hich belongs to thevulture in ancient Egypt. And the pelican wes not the onlyne hukd ir this fashion.

Symbolic representations lso suffeted, especially those thathad not evolved from rhe iconography of ancienr Greece andRome. The quality of the sacred accorded them by medievalart no longer had the same value, and the syr.bolic animalslost their ideal chrei and cme closer lo the anaromicforms o natural beasts. All rhey retained wete easy, stle, ex-oteric menings without deprh or substance, without mystery:the lion was or! the image of srrength and courage, the lambof gentleness, the snake of discretion, the phoenix of immor-tality, the rose of beauty . . . and it was forgotten rhat in thebeginning their function had been to reptesent Christ and hisgifts on the consecrted shield of the knighr-

Other symbols, such as rhe pnther, the stork, the crow)and so on, were no longer understood at all, and the angels oParadise, the beautiful, ethe.eal and radiant .ngels of the By-zantines and rhe sculptures of Rheims, of Fra Angelico andJehan Fouquet, were changed in the churches of rhe Rneis-

TIID BS,I'IARY OI CHRIST

sance inro chubby. naked ctrerubs; rhe goars, rams, doves,:::::,.1 *d cocks :el:ed to atrude io some of the mosr fas_::::,]:9. *o:*, o chrisr and became onty ,rr.s",i.;';;;purery sensul and quite inerior order...--Srudies

of archaeology and sacred atr made in rfie past cen_t-ury have restoted.ro symbolism, ". ,h".. *.ll_.;jJ;';:l::l:::. , p,l, o rhe very igh esteem d." ,.;,. r, ;,;;.:::y:I" T,* gteater tecognition: ir stroutd 6e k"",;,;;uoersrood more precisely, 6rst of all by artisrs, ,.a U,

"ff ,i"clergy- and,serious Chrisrians, at leasr, since *. +p."pri","::: ::::l"b.k :r* a source o Jigrrr f.. ,h" .,d;;",;;;;;ehd or substanrial nourishmenr for rhe spirit.

l:_,ll:,1:*. I have tried to presenr rhe exact meanings ofsymr,olrc .rhages which, in tlre course of rhe Chri.;;;l;

ruries and in very differenr places. have been tak.. ,. -...-trou-s.represehrtions o_the person .f J""r" Chr;, -i;;.

varo,s especrs. Among tfiese ideograms ihere "r" ";;;.h";coutd provide marerial for a whole-book. I "r" hJ;con.-dense and. ro keep to the essentials of eir Ci.t;il; ;;.:Chrisrian isrory.

**$;;i;1."'JJ,::".",Ii",.fl T:::..:i;:il:I.,;:T:" ::l':.:,rr h. wishes. Trre images of rhe *,ri,r.

"_,-_pres whrch illusrrle rhe text in tL""".,i."-*..J *l,i-,i""",,"r,"',j",'.'i,llor1;;:'fi

"..,;,i:.c^entury

wood engraver-s: I have nor been so presumptuous as::

sprre ro. .orl ofart, but only ro h.p"',hr; ;:;i;;;;ttrerr rmperecrions, the crude suppon,t., t*,,.,.',._,wrr be enough ro malce a betrer und.rstrnjing o";lf" "f,n.passages they ccompany.

L. C-L.

INTEODUCTION

NOTESTme Fisur: TIP Gilfn-Cli't.t. Ir Ttdit d. lo Hi,arthn \nglis: CeletriaL Hierarchb),.ttribut.d to St.

Dcn (Dionysius tfic Armpagitc). Cf. Lecoinu, "L nrique d. la M.$.."i Rew du Mo"de Cothalir@, 166, VI. xIV No. llr, p. 226.

2- Gcserr, L'HtuAqu., p- 37 -,- Htrsn., 12 CdthAtuh, vol- I, p- 297 -4- &'rin. ditin, p- ,4 ture)-t. Glan, Into.lkti to tk SatT of the Hndu Docties, Chau W.6. M],, L'dn ftliai* ll, p. 491.

T -.,]

I

THETE']TRA{ORPH

T HI ]E T tr T R,,.\ "U O R. ]IT ]F{

YN THF sEFrEs of living beings clajmed bu Christian svmbol-Iirrn ro fo.- the mysterious crown of Christ' a group offour animals is notable for the large place it held, and con-tinues to hold, in sacred art and in mystical literarure. e seethem represented et dmes seParately from one another and attimes united, blended together in the form of a unique beingthar would be strange indeed and disconcerting ro anvone ig-norant of ecclesiasticel svmbolism (Fig. l).

These celestial animals are the ones that the Hebrewprophet Ezekiel, towards the end of the seventh century B c',

"nJ the .uangelist St. John in the first years of the Church,

saw come to life in visions, of which they have left us extraor-dinary and troubling ac-counts: the lion, the ox, theeagle, and man. They form-hrt sacred art has nmedthe Tetramorph, "the FourForms."

These are the words ofEzekiel: "Now it came topass... s I was among thecaprives by che tiver ofChebar, that the heavens wereopened, and I saw visions ofGod.... And I looked, and,behold, a whirlwind came out Fis. 1 Tn Ph k ttu Ltu M84e

rt^tr. ()r (|klst

of rhe north, grear cloud, anda fire infolding irsell and abrighmess was about it, and outof rhe midst thereof as rhecolour of amber, out of themidst of rhe fire. AIso out ofthe midst thereof came the like-ness of four living creatures.And rhis was their appearance;they had the likeness of a man.And every one hd four ces,and every one hd four winss.And their eet were srraighrleerr and the sole of rheir feerwas liLe rhe sole of a calfs foot:and they sparkled like thecolour of burnished brass. Andthey had the hands of a manunder rheir wings on their foursides; and they four had theirfaces and their wings. Theirwings were joined one ro an_Fu 2 l|th't.ntu v linntph orher; they rurned not whent Mdnt Alo'. chey *.r,t; ihey ,'"n,

"r..y ;;;straighr forward. As for tfie lilteness "f ,f.,"i. f**, ,fr"f f.,.had rhe face ofa man, and rhe face ofa It",,

";;;'.;;;side; and they four had rhe face of an ox on the left sie;rhev our also had the face of an eagle. Thus ,nere their aces:rncl rhe,r wrngi .ere srrerched upward: rwo wings o everlone_were joined one ro anorher, and two covered ,h.i. boa"".And they went every one straight f".,,".d, *hirh". ,h;

";;;.as to Bo. ev ue,ntr and thev rurned nor wen.h.y ".rr: ,ior the l,keness_of re living creatures. rheir appearance was

rrke burnrng roals ot hre. and lile rh. pperan.e of lamps: irwent up and down among rhe living creatrrres;

"nd th; fir"was bright. and our of rhe re wenr Iorth lightning. And the

ft ^

M () X I rl

Iiving creatures ran and returned as rhe appearnce of 0shof lightningr."

And now St. John:"And immediately I *as in the spirit: and, behold, a throne

was set in heaven, nd one sat on the thone.... And beforethe rhrone there was a se of gless lilce unto crystal; and inthe mist of the rhrone, and round about the throne, werefour beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the rst beastwas like a lion. and the second beast like a calf, and the thirdbeasr had a face as a man, and the fourth beast *as liLe a fly-ing eagle. And the foot beasts had each of them six wingsabout him; and they were full of eyes within: and they restnor dy and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God AI-mighty, which was, and is, and is ro come'? (Fig. 2)."

In St. John, as in Ezeliel, rhese four animals, or ratherthese fout "living crearures," re the epitome of crearion, be-cause of ll cretures they are the noblest. e shall see howMan, Lion, Ox (or Bull), and Eagle were taken to representChrist symbolically and how the Christian arts placed themaround him to represent the four Evangelists who hve trans-mifted to us his story and his teaching.

NOTEST;rle Fiswe: futantire Tenano,ph-l. Ez.kiel l:l,4-14.2. R.v.ltion 4:2, 6-8.[.r!1 risre: The,hb o E

1I'F{ L, ]L 1 O N,-T-t HE KING. Br.Hor D (he King: the 6rsr of rhose our kingsI whom God disclosed to the dazzled eyes of Ezekiel on the

banks of the Chebart, and whom St. John recognized in hisresplendent vision on Patmos, when rhey sng before rherhrone of rhe sovercign Lamb, beating rheit fiery wings: theLion, awesome king of the beasts; the Ox, king of sacriicialvictims; the Eagle, king o the air; and Man, Ling of rheworld.

Yet rhis lion of the prophets of Israel, sovereign rhough hews, ws only senant. That is why, together with the man,the eagle, and rhe ox, he stood trans6xed with love andadoration, acclaiming the One whooccupied the throne, by turns lionand lamb; the One whom John sawascend to the divine seat, there toopen rhe book sealed with sevenseals2.

But many centrries beFore thetime that John rested his head on hismaster's heart and elt the Spirit de-scend upon him, the pre-Christiantradirions of Europe, Africa, andAsia surrounding Israel and its reli-gion had adopred the image of theIion to represent what they believedto be the various attributes ofdivinity.

Fis, I S?kha, tt1. lin h.ddi satld6';fam th? ionb al sd I d Thbs.

lllll ll()N

Among rhe Egyptians, the godd"ss Sekhmet pr"udly bore alion's head (Fig. l); among the Ammonites, the sun wasadored under the name of Camos, rhe Lion-sun, and in Syria,as we shll see later on, the royal animal had also a divinecharacter. For millennia, Tibet has worshipped the Ka-gro-Mha, goddesses with the heads of lionesses, like Sekhmer ofEgypt, divinely beautiful, who dance naked uPon the corPsesof conquered men and animals.

Among the Greeks, fourharnessed lions drew thechariot of Cybele, at a stirringsllop or paciry majestically-Cybele, mother of the gods,the "Good Goddess," image ofthe divine bounty which giveshumanity all the good thingswhich come forth from thearth.

In Persia, the lion was oneo the animals sacred to theculr of Mnhra. The feasts o this god were called the "Leon-tic rites," and often on the sculptures which depict Mithrasacrificing the bull, the lion and the serpent are sho*n lyingunderneath the slain animal. In the Mithraic mysteries, initiates of th Fourth Ordet were called "lions" and "lionesses";and Mithra himsel('1he Invincible Sun," seems to hve beensomerimes personified by a lion-headed god. Even rodan theheraldic, sword-wielding lion of the Persian state bears on hisbaclc the resplendent sun (Fig.2). In ancient Syria, the god ofcourge was represenred by a crowned lion_centaur endowedwith four lion! paws and two human arms.

The lion also lends his cla*s to the sphinx and his body toche grif6n, giving .hem a prt of his narure and of rhe quali-ties which are attributed to him: royalcy, po*e., watcLfulness,courage, and jusrice.

Royalty and power: no doubt this was wLy Alexander the

Fis. 2 Th. h"tu lkn al P'ia

rllt] t, lstl^ltt, ot, ( lRlst

Great, and after him, Maximilian-Hercules, Probus, Gallienus,and other rulers, appeated on their coins hooded with the skinof a lion's head.

Strengrh and courage: over and above the Mithraic influ-ence, this ccounts for the liont doption as insignia by theIegions of Rome.

Watchfulness: the age-old belief, sanctioned as well by clas-sical Larin authorities, which shows the lion sleeping in thedeserr with his eyes wide open, day or night, must surely haveseemed signiJicanr ro the 6rst Christian symbolists. What didit matrer to them whether the alleged facts rvere rrue or not?St. Augustine, in commenting on a rarher strange chatacteris-ric ttributed ro rhe eagle, tells us thar in symbolism "the im-portant thing is to consider rhe significance of a facr and notro dispute irs euthenticiry]." Thus Chrisrian idealism of by-gone days always and in everything paid heed ro the symbolnd nor ro the thing, ro the spirit which gives life and not tothe letter which sucls dry, So it sees in the perpetually open-eyed lion the image of the ftenrive Chrisr who sees evety-thing, and who guards souls from evil when they truly wish,Iike a warchful pastor, a good shepherd.

Here, rhe Far East is in agreemenr wirh the Western andChristian Middle Ages in seeing rhe lion as a vigilant guard-ian. Since what long vanished epoch have granite lions,crouched and ferocious, like those of Angkor Wat, stoodguard in rhe compny of fersorne dragons at the threshold ofIndia's cemples? For rhe symbolisrs of Asia, as for those ofthe 1l/est, Iions and dtagons never shut their eyes; they wouldsay, wirh our Brunerto Latini, "All lions of every kind keeptheir eyes open even while they sleepa."

William of Normandy, who wrore his Dirine Bestiary at thebeginning of the chirteenth cenrury, also underliaes the sym-bolic character of che watchful Iion, and gives the followinginterpretation:

Qcr quat il dorr, li oil

E omant a Les *z o*

rr,,rr^t! ()r ( llt{tsr

of several ancient churches in Rome. at St. Lawrence,ourside-che-!alls, ar the Church oI rhe Twelve Apostles, ar St.Lawrence-in-Lucina, and at Sr. Saba.

The concept which links rhe lion ro the virtue ojLrsrice issupported in Chrisrian symbolism by the Bible's description ofSolomon! throne of justice, made of ivory and gold, whichresred on six steps guarded by Melve magnificent lions'.

The lion was also an emblem ofthe Resurrection. *il" Ual"

"*-plains a srained glass window inthe cathedral o Bourges whichshows a symbolic lion near thetomb of the risen Chrisr, by re-calling rhe tradition which madethe lion, in Christian arr, an em-blem of Christ as the risen cod-Man.6 Mle writes, "In the MiddleAges, everyone subscribed ro theidea that the lioness brought forthyoung which appeared ro be still-

Fis. t -th. lian binin. n\ .!bh{k b u., ])th .tutt_

born. For three days the lion cubs would give no sign of life,but on the rhitd day, rhe lion would return and animate rhemwith his breath (Fig. l)."

The authors of the bestiaries ol the Middle Ages certainlyound this legend in Aristotle and in Pliny the Elder; yet Plu-rarch, better informed about the Orienr and irs creatures. hadwtitten thar, on the contrary, lion cubs come into rhe worldwirh rheir eyes wide open; and for that

'eason, certain peoples

of his time consecrated tLe lion co the sun7. (This would alsoexplain the lion's presence alongside Mithra, rhe Sot Inrkas.)Ahhough Cuvier and the modern naturalists con6rm Plutarch'sopinion, the authors and arrisrs of the Middle Ages, relyingon the scanr euthoriry of Origen8 and of the Ph1siotogus, tol-lowed the opposite view. In such a thoroughly idealistic world,which sought to consecrate every truth by means of symbols,the fable of the Iion cubs born dead and brought ro life on

the drird day by rheir farher en-joyed a great vogue; it *as favoredby St. Epiphantus, St. Anselm, Sr.Ivo of Cha.tres, St. Bruno of Astiand many othetse. As Mle putsit, "The apparent death of the lit-rle lion reptesented the sojourn oJesus Christ in the grave, and hisbirth was like an image of theResurrectionro."

l7illiam of Normandy, in hisDnine Bestiary, mighr be t..nslatedas follows:

Qu"r la li-"l" foorclz oot chct a terte ntort:De r;* a aura ia confortIu'qrc li pc\, du tier jiotIz nrfle tt leche par anu:

En tel naniere Le rctpnt

Ne paeit dren aah. nie

Autti fu de lhe*-ChitL'undnit qk por nr' rt,Que pot I'anor de u vtti,

Pain t nauil pot ,ot tenti:

r,,i crce|, i erc. bin.QMnd D"i\ fu nn eL nan@t

'lien iorz i li tant soLenertEt du titt< iot Lc re'pitd

Li ptre, qui le turira

Re'pne 'on

p.tir oon.

l:iE ,1 I tu rt\etian t th.

When the Iioness gives binh-H.. .ub drops to e-th, d".d;He lac[s the force of lifeUntil the father, on the thnd dayBrcathes or hin and licks him

In ths wan he breathes life into

No other remedy could save him.(Fi8. 4)

So w* it with Jesus Chrt:The hmnity which he a$umed,And cl[ed him*l in for Iove

Suffered pain and labor for *Of wti.h his diliity feh othinsBelieve thus and you will do well.Ihen God was put ;nto the

He xayed only thtee daysAnd on rhe rhird day asain

received his breathFrom the Farher who rou*d himJust as the lion bteathrs lifeInto his lnde cub".

t'llri Blsrt^ti,r, otr (illIltst.

. tnd rle custom which previted before Christianiry. inLycia and in Phrygia as in several other reg;ons, of placingthe image of the lion on rhe rombs of kings or illu"t.ior," helroes, might have ics source, in parr, in the fabled power ofresurrection which the Ancients acrributed to the lion. In rheart of anriquity, his image often accompanies the palm treewhich throughout the ancient world was an emblem of resur_rection still more thn of the desert.

The union in Jesus Christ of rwo narures. human nd di_'jne. has. be:n the rheme of manv allegorical images. includingthat ol rhe lion. and it is certainly jn the lion rhat rhe r*o arrhe lcasr visiblv diferenriated. The Ancienrs were in agree_rnenr thar all rhe Iion's acrive qualities were locared in h;storepans: in his fiead. neck. chest. and front claws; fnr them,rhe hind quaners served onlv as the animals phrsical support.Thus rhey made the forequarters of che lion the emblem oChrist! divine narure. and rhe hindquarrers the image of hishumanitv. !as ir nor perhaps U".rr". of rl;. idea rhai the he_raldic.lion. calhd the lion rampanr.'was represenred liring[mse[ on his hind legs. wirh his roreparrs tuin.d ro the sky(rrq. 5).

Fis. 5 t, ton tP lrnib d-ol-cm, o cdinl Pd. ttr.

llrll LloN

It is also quite narural that mysticl writer saw an imageof the potent speech of rhe Christ in the roar of rhe lion Theformidable voice which resounds through the immense ex-panses of the desert served es an imge or that of theGa.h.. of th. ord and its unequlled rnge. Hosea proph-.sied of this matchless voice: "Thev shall walk after rhe Lord:he shall roar lite a lion: when he shall ror, then the childrenshall tremble from the westr2." And Joel, in turn: "The Lordalso shall roar out of Zionr'." Later on, the Latin liturgywould make use of the same terms in speaking of the Savior:De Sion rugiet, et de lerusalem dabit vocem ra'': "The Lordalso shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice ftomJerusalem'a."

Perhaps this is why, in our western regions at leasr, Preach-ing pulpits ofren ere suPported by lions ln Chasseignes, nearLorun (Vi."n"), and in the same citn ar the Church ofMartray, the pulpits-dating from the fifteenth and sixleenthcenturies-ere made in the form of stone fonrs, and resr theirbase on seaced lions.

But the lion sl.ares with numerous animals-which ate alsouthentic emblems of Jesus Christ-the negative role of serv-ing equally as an allegorical image for the Antichrist, forSatan.

Since the dawn of the Church, the lion has had this evilsigncance quit often, on account of St. Peteri; words: "Beser, be

"igilant; because your adversarv the devil, as a roar-

ing lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may de'ourrt " Fre-ou.nrlv. in scenes of ancient Chrisrian arr -here rhe lionpursues timid does o. innocent gazelle". rhe onlooLer seesonly the ordinary pursuit of ptey by a famished beast, while inreality, these images illustrate the text from St. Perer'

Commentators on the sacred books explicitly recognized theimage of the devil in rhe lion

"anquished bv voung DavidL6'The celebrated reliquary of Abb Bgon, part of the treasureof the ancient ninth-century abbey of Conques-en-Rouergue,which was known as "St. Vincentt Lantern," potttayed

ttrl lls.r. l^ltY ot, (:Ilttst

David! combat wirh the lion; and on the damaged inscriptionbeneath this image, one can still read. . . rir notter David Sa_tarum s peayiti "Thus our David overcame Satn.,,_

In his infernal role, rhe lion is often the emblem of one ofthe "three concupiscences,,ro which Christian asceticism at-tributed the downfall o souls: concupiscence of rhe 6esh,,_whefte come lusr. glurtonv. and slothl concupiscence of the."::'-lll:i lusr again. greed. and enuv: .,cncupiscence ofpride o life"

-whence pride and wrarh. In these'three 6lia-tions of the seven deadly sins, the Iion represents pride of life.NTESTitle Fisure: Th. Lior o hea,a_fron th. tanb f S.ti r_l. EzLiet l:lo.l. st. Augu$in, co,uflr,tic, on the ptuln,. cJL4. Latini, Li ba dou risolr. I Kings l0:18-20.6. M\le, L'At rclisieu, lt), p_29.7. Pfuiath, Quettine, CnqrrL,, Bk. IV .h. ,.8_ O.ign, Ho y xvl[, .h. 49.e- Cl- Hvshn\, Lz Czttpd,./e, le2ot T II. D.22{r.lO, Mle. p, ctr.1r. wil|m o Nomand, L Bcidne Diin.,,L naE de L,on." Hippeu edi-iion, pp. 194-19,lr. Joet l:16.14. Breqrv ol PonrE. o.e or lir Sun.tv h qdvhr.lt. Fi6r Episrl of PGr 5:8.16. I Sanud t7:14 el J.9.End Fisute: The A,,.rtizn e i 4od.

!rtHE IELrI-n-/\ N READI\G THE OId Testmen( rom beginning to end'LJ"r. i, impressed by the innumerable (hronss of victimsthat the patriarchs and their sons, the Hebrews, secri{iced toGod. Erodus and Leviticus liturgicallv codified these sacriliceswhere sometimes huadreds of victims -ere slaughtered at thesame time. One of the reesons fot these impressive holocaustsis given in the sacred text: "For the life of the flesh is in thebld: a"d I have given it to you uPon the altar to ma[e anronement fot your souls: for it is the blood rhat maketh anaronement fot the soulL."

hether as an offeting under the knife of rhe sacrifrcers ofIsrael, or in the mythic snctuaries o the Gentiles whereoften the victim was a human being, the ritual outPouring ofblood flowed in ceremonies of all kinds: of glorification, of in-itiation and propitiation, of aronement and of gratitude Theseare al"o the f..nctio.r" that Catholic theolog attributes ro themysrerious sacrifrce of the body and blood o Jesus Christ onthe altar. which took the place of the abolished sacrifices ofancient Moseic lw.

1t is this substitution that brought about the acceptance, inthe signs and symbols of Christianitv, of the beasts of the hol-o..ur-t, th. ancient "victims," as aPPropriate symbols of rheSavior sacri6ced for humanitv on Golgotha.

The blood of numerous animals was shed before the altarof Yahweh: the dove, rhe kid, the he-goat, the lamb, the cow,the heifer, and the calf; but the ptincipal victim \r'es the ox ln

the mythological conceptions of ancienr Egypt, the ox or bull*as one o the svmbols rhrough *hich rie

"rpr*_" ;;;Amon vas adored in Thebes: in a fivmn o rhis .rf, *g,";.aon a piece of pottery in the Bridsh Museum. Amon is sum-moned in the name of rhe Celestial Bullr.

In ancienr times, because of its universal chaiecrer as

, and Africar, end rrest co thegeneral chraer of the ancienr connecrion of the bull andother horned nimals ro human fecundity and the cult of rhemoon (Fig. l)-.In Egvpt. the sacred bull. as well as being rhe incarnarionor the god Amon was also that o rhe god prah, or it was

the. personification of the divine life force renewrng itself un_endinglv,in nature. Perhaps rhis is why. in rhe ;ell_Lno*nTodrc ot Denderah. the ox is porrraved on ics knees wirh theKey ot Life.'rhe az, around irs neck.

lrt: t, I Stt\&t

The rarfier complex myrfioloeies ofAssyria. Chaldea, Medir. and .;,,placed rhe symbolic bull in relationwith celescial influences, and even withthe divine narure; and the deified bullwas portrayed with a human facea.Te impressive man-headed oxen. rhechetubim of Assyria (Fie. 2), adornedwi jeweled riaras, like the

""u"..tgn" q!

and pontiffs of their countries. a-ndprovided wirh great wings lik. ergle",

lis. t Apr, haa t] bnb o 'ai

t.

symbol of fertilnn and the svm-bolic similarity b"trl,"",, ih.shape of its horns and the lunarcrescenr, che head of the bull.as ofered and treared seoa-rarely in Egyptian sacrces.

-Jrrs lmage was worn on amulets.These amulets have been foundin many places in Europe, Asia,

FiF. 2 7t..h,6unca-h."d.d b t a Nd.L

I llli at, l. I

are well-known. The wingless human oxen, however,rpresent the infernal monster Eabani (Fig. l). Andwhatever the ncient commenttors on the Biblemay have thought, it is completely possible, if notcertein, rhat in Israel, the gold cherubim which cov-ered the Arlc of the Covenant with their wings', andthose in Solomon's temple6, were oxen more or lesssimilar to rhose of the Assyrians.

tal

In the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon' the god who was spe-cifically empowered to control thunderstorms was namedAdad; he was "the lord of the celestial 6re." His svmbol wasthe bull, whose charge is impetuous lilce that of a storm and-hose voice evokes the rumble of thunder' There is a steletht shows us Aded riding on hissymbolic ox with ore foot on itshindquarters and the other on itsforehead' (Fig. 4).

In his splendid work on the theol-ogy of the Greeks, Victor Magnienspeciies that oxen were sacriced ioPoseidon, black like his garments,because the noise o the se, Lis em-pire, lilre rhe bellowing of the bull, is r's' a Anzd,'hdi ttu tu ;a result of "powerful bteathings."

The mysterious cul* of Mithra and Otpheus ascribed tothe immolarion of the bull such a special power o puriGcationand propitiation that the bull sacrilices tool( on the form andthe sacrmental liturgy of a kind of baptism of blood' Con-sider this impressive rite:

In an excavation hollowed our under a loor made of lat-ticed wood on which the secrificrs slughter the bound ani-mal, there stands neked the candidte to teceiv the benefitsof the initiation and the purification through contact with the.itual blood.

"Through the slats in the wood," sys Prudentius, "theblood falls into the hollow and rhe initiate turns his head to-

'I ltti ,tls.tr^lt\, ()t. (: Itits t.

wardr rhe drops rhar fall; he exposes his encire body to rhem.He hans.backwards so rhr rhey mav sprinlle his face, hiseats. his lips. and his nosrrilsl he immerses his eyes in rhewarm liquid and not even sparing his palate, inuidates histongue in rhe blood and drinks avidlye...Ttren, when the lasragonDed. rremors have emptied rhe veins o the poweril vic_tim and his life is extinguished, the initiared on.

"*..g". f.o_the excavarion dripping with blood, and offers hi-""? t. .venerarion o rhe people who believe him purifed by rhis scar_Ier baprism and broughr close now to diviniry,

Today, near the falls of rhe Zambezi, a cruel custom stillproclaims the belief in the virtues of hot, living, bovine blooJ;"The bull or ox has a ligature around its neck: a well_directejarrow causes abundant bleeding; the black native fills a hornwith the blood and then drinks it wich gusto; for other ani_mals, ir is from a large cur, wirh blood !*f,i"g f""", i,, ,i;,rhe,narives come to drinL as rhev *ould fiom

"".rp, ,f.. t"",,,s then sesn up again and frolics once more in the midsr ofthe herd'o."

_

Today also in Laos, the buffalo is solemnly sacrificed in ot_der to ask rhe heavens to foretell rhe furure to humaniry. Re_pearedlv_b_ut with lapses of rime berween each stab, so thatdeath will be slow. rhe sacrificer plunges a large spear into rhetlnk ol. rhe animal. and the way in which rhe bualo falls anddres rndrcres to rhe people whether rhe vear wili be good orbad, peaceful or troubledrr..

One might believe that the domesticated bull, like the rnalebuffalo or rhe wild bison, earned humen respect thiough rhefear it insprred. In rhe drawings engraved on the .rlls ;f pr._historic caves as in rhe mosr 6e,riful Greel worls o arr, rebull poses as the powerful chief of the herd. Th.se

",,ci.,,rtesrimonials well.portrav irs strengrh. rhe speed of irs charge.rts iurv. rs sexual passion. and rhe imposing gra,ity of its mo_lronless srance. Nonetheless. n was more s rhe herdi prolj6csire than as its formidable leader thar the bull was ,alued byrhe people of rhe 6rst human societiesrr. Throughout Asia, ir

'I ll li ,r t' l' I

*,s alwavs rhe embodiment of all the psvchic and phvsical en-..'1""

"i.i constitute ihe driving orce in the li"es o[ all be-

i"i.- n gnro, the imaqe of the bull was the hieroglyph of the-^-'; f..ii*' and o, the Greeks he ws the svmbol of thecreative forc;rr.

All the cults of the hcient peoples of lran and Chaldea'who brought us esttonomy, celebrated the ram and the bull'the fathers'of the herds, as the sPring signs of the zodiac Butis it true. as it has been said, that this symbolism came fromthese regions of Asia and later spread to EgyPt nd EuroPe?tFiqs. 5;d 6), I prefer to think. on the contrarh that it *as.r-"

"f i,."f *ll*"*r primitive man became hunter and then

h.tdsman. Before Brahmanism aPPeared in Tibet and India'

before the Sumerians made their rich amulets, even before thecivilizations of Babylonia, Nineveh, or Susa were born' theaborisines of the northern slopes of rhe Pvrenees modeled the

"i* [;*" "f the cave o the 'Two Brothers.' and engraved,h. .rp"rb oxen of the Magdalenian c"erns of France andSpain.

Relvino orincioallv on the visions of Ezekiel and St John'ou, 1,.,-Ch,;",1n iymbolists depicted the ox ald rhe otherthree animals, eagle, lion, and man, as hieroglyphs of JesusChrist (Fig. 7). ther French euthors o the Middle Ages.h" f.li h;' to their wav of thinking are equallv explicit onthis point: "Turus, Christus," writes Rabanus Maurusra; and

Fis. t cou kad 1on th. tonbo cklq,n 1, ,h .6tuD.

Fis 6 Sitnnh dntkB, M,lnd M!un'

r'ltti risIt^|tr, ()t] (. ||RtS,t,

er him, St. Bruno d,Astib and St. yves of Chartresr6 sayrhe same rhing- Thus. rhev saw rh ox as the symbol of the:ed::ming victim which rhtough the complere outpouring of,r.s btood assured che purification o our race and ;ts ren-crairon wrrh Jusri(e ,rom above. Bur anorher less well_known

Fic. 2.Tt-Btt ! Eali/l i\ntr source and hearth of light,, ,(ftun

Rabc"L\ la tths) and the orher as rhor. of-,he. is the illuminating Word, the Word *t l.f,

"fl"a tL" n*"tLght onro rhe chaos o the worldr-. the Word whose doctrinerrlumrnres soulr: he is also the !ord which is rhe creator offe. and e First, Principle_ whose ."iliri"g .,*"g,; ,;;;;;and perperuares phvsical lile in the natural o.de, on eanhrs,and ose grace produces spirirual life in rhe supernarural or_der. I ht,ts,,1rom him. rhe iniriai .ou....

".".g.. che sensibleirte of the bodv_ard the suprasensible life of rh; soul.lhrs mvsrcat conceprion was echoed in rhe liturgy. in sa_.red tirerrure and art, and also in Christian sumbolis, in theform of the o,(, re rem, and the stas.

.Here perhaps we should call to ,iind rhe Spanish bull6ght.rhich. howewer imperecrly. compares rlle rii ro tn. "_deemer marching rowards death. ln tauromachy, tfie,.Veronicapass" uhich consisrs of holding the cape in fronr o rhe bull,st"..."; ,: ,r..4 or the compassionare worhn. in rfie legendwhrch has sprung up around whar was told in the gospel.;hooffered her veil to the exhausted Saviorre.

symbolism related the svm-bolic figure of the ox ro thepersonage of Christ. A closestudy of the iconography ofJesus Christ in the irst thir-teen centuries shows rhar,mong many others, therewee rwo dominaring ideasthat had a considerable influ-ence: one portrays him as the

It was in compositions o an apocalypric nature, above all,

I rl ll lr rr I I

that the bull lent his image to Satan and Personi6ed the worksof hell: a medieval mnuscripr, or example, shows us Satan inthe orm of a being with the head o a lion, the body andhorns of a bull, bat wings and eagle's claws2o; in Veniers, nearLoudun, a church cornice from the end of the Roman petiodshows a veriation of the basilisk: an ox with the head o acock. In a superb fourteenth-century book from Count Ash-burnham's collection'zr, the Babylonian god Bel is represenced-ith a head that is half human. half ox-like, a hairy totso, and the legs of avulture (Fig. 8).

This last creation of the Near Easern imagination coincides, curiouslyenough, with the sacred iconography ofBabylonia in the time of Daniel; thecylindrical seals of other Chaldean doc-uments of rhis period show us in facrthe monster Eabani and other man-ifesrations o evil in the form of hornedmen wirh the hindquartets of oxenUnrelated to this type of iconography,ihe representtions of sea oxenr ordragonli[e oxen with snaLelike or {ish-shaped bodies, ate also images o evilmonsters which are living vehicles othe Evil Spirit (Fig.9). To the Am-monites, the Moabites, the Canaanitesand their neighbors, Molech was an evilgod represenred as having a humarbody with a bulli head. Some of hisstatues, made of bronze, were colossaland hollo*, and his cult ordained thatin certain circumstances they should befilled wirh children, beore setting firero the logs surtounding them and heat-ing the statues to a glowing red. In

fis. 3 The sa'! B.l or thet4thrtury A\hbWh ncturtiPt.

Fi. e Th. bulL ol th. tu, an z l,?ra i th. Rondn dh.o b,.spi(e o rhe prohibirion of Leviricus: ,'Thou shalt nor ler anyo rhv seed pass rhrough the fire ro Molech,2,., i, ;;;

";:scrrbrng ro rhis abominable cult that Solomon ard Manasseh,[ings of Israelzr, committed " "tn ,t", f."rgt, ""u;,-i;posrsy of rhe Israelites. unril losih pr, ,r-.ra

- ,1"..

horrorc-Long before our era. Aegean mythology had or irs or.r npart mgrned the Minotur- a being strangely resembling the

ox-headed monsiers of Chaldea. Lile rhem, rtris crerure"rep_resented the ntithesis of the chetubim, rhe divire ,uingid.1"^, *iif

,lr:* faces o Assyria. in *hici we ."" "."

i;r';or rhe d,vrne power uniring material force *iih int;l_Irgence/{. According ro Homer. Minos. king of Crete. wasrhe son of Jupirer and rhe nrmph Europa. bur he did not fulll: :blicarion" ro.re divire powers. For rhis, poseidon pun_rshed_him by inspiring in his we. pasipha, a monstrous Ds_sron ior the mitaculous bull which he hd failed ro sacrce tothe gods, From this unnrurl union there rur" bo"n th"Minotaur, who had the head of an ox and ,f.,. U.ay J"-g;r,man, Iike the Eabani of the Chaldeans and S""f .f if," r."_Phoenicians. The Minoraur became rhe curse of the ishn! ofCrere. and Minos ad him locled up in the Labyrinth oKnossos lhere rhe G.eeks, conquerrd by the ling o Crere,were required periodicailv ro bring him sewn boys-and sewn

rlli ri1t^kY ()tr .llRtSr I l{ ll l} t, l. l.

girls to devour. Finalln the Greek hero Theseus, -ith the helpof the enamored Ariadne, killed the Minotaur, rhus deliveringhis country from rhe hareful rtibute.

Lanoe-Villne sees in the story of the Minotaur a very an-cient solar mythz', and Glotz, in accordance with one of rheprincipal symbolic characterisrics of the bull as sire and fertil-ir.' oi th" h"rd, presents the Minotaur as the Cretan god ofvirile strength. "He demanded victims, like all divinities," hewrote, "but it is not the mythology of the Cretans, it is thelegend of foreign peoples *ho made out of him a god hungrvfor human blood':6."

Nevertheless. the Cretan monster has coniinued to be c-cepted as one of the representations of the Euil Spirit, andTheseus, his conqueror, who deliveted Gteece from his op-pression, was sometimes likened by Christian teachers toChrist, the liberator of souls

NO.rESTitle Fiscft, The Wi"ce tsrll, t' o- the Hortts Saittis, /tui dn','

?. l.npion' ia id rhd@!.. Ple XXVLl. S Schli.mn, pp. 9 aDd 71.a c H. Brcuil. "Le Bison et le Tautcau Cele*e Chalden" in Ra At'hoLoE',

4th s.ris T. XIIa (1909), P. 2r0.,. Exodls 2r:20., I Kinqs 6:21,7. Fron Guirond, Mytholosi Asyro-babrlonicnne" it Molode ktoue' p'

5t.s. Mag.i.., "Notes sur I'antique thologie des Grecs"'p. ll & 14, in l?'ro-

FL, Ja.-June. July-D.., le299. Prtdcltius, PaiSkP. X, l0ll10. Pul Acli.rd, lf, Vdi Vndse de I'Ai#' 191t.lr. Al.x Aym, Urc Fdndite tu Ln, t9rz12- Cl. P Pie.rcr, Pdith. EsPtid.ll. Cf. Pompo.is Mela, D. Si/a d;, l, 9.ra Rt:nus Muius. l, G*Ji . 49. De Uni'a, vll, 8.r>. Brum 'A*i (A*ensn), D. Novo Munda.16. Yvcs d Charcs, .mo de C"a,aiaia.

lltri 8Itrt^RY Ot (rtxtt.

lE. Nue.ou5 'ymbok inr.rprt.d rh. lame ,da: th. swsril, rh. rosr, rl,.pom.grnre, ihe pine .ne and

spcia y tll. rm, rhe sras, .d the .ftk.19. See H. d. Morfiertarq u, B6tne,, .20. Biblioihque National., no. r0l, 6869.21. C los Jsp B*r. franku. lclz: ch. tvt. p. ,oo.22. Levicus l8:2t21. I Kin$ ll:7 nd II Kinss 2l ad 21.24. E Lenna r, Ai.Juitt d. l,A$/i. et e Bdbtane,Il.2\. L o-Villn. I? ltrhi dc. Jrud/... t . pp. l\l .r,.9.26. Glov. cn'lrdnon s@ae. L 7.2, p_ 2e2.Lnd Fieuft: old Gtec* .oin.

N THE T,VELTTH centurv the Archbishop of Tours' Hil-ld"b"* d" La,ardin, wrote the following'

Chtistus HOMO, Christus VITULUS' Chrbtus LEO'Chtisrus est AVIS, in Chrisro cuhcto ooiore potesr'

Chistus est V,IS. ' . Chtist is a bird He is in fact por-orr"i. in Ct'.i",i* svmbolism' in the forms of a dove a peli-.rn.

"'oho.ni*, a swan. an ibis. e crne' e stotk' and in many

",i". f."t *"ff-f.".*' orms. Howe'er, here it is the noblest'

.i. ti"' .f birds that we are speaking of' the roval eagle'*h.se aracteristics have st.uck manlind since the begimin3of time and won its admiration'- t" hi" d"u. zekiel saw it like burning coals o 6re; and onthe solitary island o Patmos. when the eves of John- the Evan-*"i;* .p.""a to the infinite horizons of rhe erernal kingdom'i" i' fi',r'. gazed upon *hat the old prophet had onlv'i-r""a. if,," "et",na,l" three orher animals appeared;;.;;.;ir,," long"er as lighrning flashes along the ruggedi*ks .f a't" Cheb-ar while their wings sounded "lile the noise.inr.", *.,"."'," bur bearing those quivering wings' on -hichn,i.'.f.'*t""a. of

"v.", *hll" the *hole llrmament hailed

the triumohant Lamb.fi.r"',i.ion" of Ezekiel' and St Johna are the ptincipal

Cf,ti".i", S** for the svmbolism of the eagle, as well as for,ruli"t,"a the o,; all ih.." were alreadv endowed with theriches of the past.

lTFlI ]E E,\G]LE

rltti IrISt.t^,iY ()t. (rrritt.

It is in Central Asia, as well as arnong the peoples of thenear Esr..ihar we 6nd the mosr ncienr proven documenis onll,.-.]-or,: vaiue oJ rhe eagh. The ancient Hindu religionrready.used rhe eagle as rhe emblem o Vrshnu,, and in rfie:ll ?lch:l&,". rhe eagle h rhe noble bird ,r'',, "..;;p;;.lhe krng rn rhe roval images. that tames rhe lion, an rharhelps rhe Chaldean He.cul; in his bartle wirh rhe monsters.Tie sie.fav::ed place wa" given,o,t"

"rgl" in,h",n_usual rt ol rhe Hirrites of Asia Minor. which is mentioned inrhe Pentateucfi and in the Book ofKings. and whose crude arristic patternsseem to have been drawn from rhe re_gions of rhe Tigris and the Euohrares.k is especially in te relieious arr ofSyria that rhe eagle appeais with rhemeanings which Christianity later couldappropriarely trnspose to aDDly ro rhLord Jesus Christ.

The Syrian eagle and its sacredmeanings have been jlluminarinslv stud_ied by te Belgian p.ofe""o. an sru"..Franz Cumonr. He says that ir is in theregion o Hieropolis, the holv citv o F* I :.,aa ?csl. o, trab bnre great Svrian goddess Atargatis, lon Mnb,4.where rhe eagle

.shows itself most frequentlv on unerai monu_ments. rn the role of rransporter of souls .,roward the celesrialgods- 1Fig. l)." Perhaps rhis vision of rhe ""gt. *"" b",,;;;;Dv the yr,ns- as Cumonr believes_from rhe Babylonians.The able of Etana. one of rheir mosr popular rn"rh". ."..;;

:l rict, ro:ei out rhis opinion. The eagh having devourejlT,.:'o:r,. voung. the serpenr. in revense. is on the point ofk ung. rhe maruding bird which it has manaeed to entrD inl,t."l,r' f* Erana 6ghrs rhe serpent and r."s the.agle, *hornen r,erkes rcset up ro heaven where ir seizes_alrhlugh itis unable to lceep-the insignia of divine royahy.

lllli ll ^(;l'li

This tale, represented in numerous Babylonian works ofart, could hatdly have been unknown in ancient Syria, sincethe two countties were in frequent contect Thus by extensionthe myth o Etana became the image of the soul and the royalbird became a 'psvchopomp l ther is to sy, it was seen asthe carrier, rhe v;hicle, beating blessed souls ro thei celestialsource; for, in accordance with Semitic beliefs, souls came toearth from re Sun and had ro returr to it ater the death ofthe body. The Syrians must have been all rhe more willing toccept this symbolism since for them the eagle was already thebird of the sun.

Like the Egyptians, the ancient peoples o Assvria andCh"ldea d.picie the sun mosr often in the form of a discwith two outstretched wings, two great eagle wings; and asthe Syrians were descendants of the ancient peoples of Assyria

"rd h"ld"r, it seems very likely rhat this is the source of the

idea behind the frequent carvings of the eagle on the burialstones of their dead; the soaring eagle, that is, portrayed themovement of the soul's departure from earth into space'

e also find, in the very ncient art of Sumer, rhe eaglewith a lion's head which thus unites the sovereignties of botherth and sky. The recent excevations made by Tello havepro,ided us with several examples of this lion-headed eagle'

ln Phoenicia, the god Melkarth. of Tvre. immolated himselffor mankind on a funeral pyre, -here, metamotphosed into aneagle, he fle* off into the sky, the conq'reror of death3

Th" G.."k., and chen later the Romans when they came toSvria. borrowed frorn the peoples o rhis region the orientalbelief that the sacred eaqle carried souls ro the kingdom ofthe sods; and this is no doubt the reason whv' in Greece andin Rome, rhe eagle became rhe bird of Zeus and Jupiter' Italso explains its presence on Platoi romb'' and *hv a livebird was placed on the

"r*mit ot rhe funetal Pvre tht was

..".t.d in T"t"us in honor of Sandan-Heracles, the protectorof the city who is pottrayed on its coins From there alsostems the special liiurgy of the Apotheosis, in the Rome of

the Caesls who had been judged worthy o the honor of divi-nization- From rhe summit of an immense f,,,,..rt pyr", br;itin th-e. shape of a pyramid, which was to consume the body orI'j .i*; ,i easte was made. to e,cape. charged u,l .,*,t^erhe,,,ut ot rhe ne-l\ de,fjed being in irs flighr rowardi

2 (ri f,,r ,taah\ h lr.t\ti r ( dr!,orher side of the world whichnenr, the eagle had evolcedthoughrs and feelings that irand Asian ancestorsrr.

heven '0 (FiC.2). This rite

was n.rr resrricted ro royalry,and was also used or nu_rneroLrs other individuals.

The priceless rreasure re_cenriy discovered in Montalbanin Oaxaca, Mexico, along wirhmarvelous objec* o gold andprecrous srones, contains beau_tiful eagles of sold and jadetrom very ancient rimes. Theseprove thar in their dme, on the

was then unknown ro our con.i-in rhe luman spirit che samehad wkened in our European

Tfie .stabli,hment or Christianiry ua,fi'llowed cto.etv br rhe crearion of ii" Iit-urgv and :vmbolsm. and in rhe larter. thee;gle becrme a. cxcellenr hgure ro repre-sent Chrisr. ro whom were applied theuords t Jeremjh: .Behotd, he sh.Icorne up and 1v as the eagle. and.,preadhis.uings over Bozrah: and r thdi da)chall rh" hearr oJ ,he mishry men ofEd"rn hc ., the hear. ot,,".", i, t..pangs',."

The use of the eagte as a symbot of di_vrne power t^as tridespred. Embtem orirnperial Rome', rriurrph and $ortd_$idedomination, it also became. for the Chriy

runs, Iirllowing the convetsion of Constanrine and the liberarrrg t,lict of l14, the embiem of the triumph of the Christianrrlignrn over persecution and of its universal diffusion.

'I'his is probably the significance of rhe representation orl,c cagle on Christian lamps in the fourth century in Car-rl,gerr (Fig. ;) and elsewhere, and also on the beautiful frag-,ucnr of a sarcophagus ar Arles where the eagle appears, itswings in giiding llight, and on its breasr a crown in the cenrer,, which one cn sdll see half of a "Chrismon" *ith the I andrlrc X superimposedla.

'I'he eagle, bird of the sun and conductor of souls toht:rven, was to the ncient peoples also rhe carrier of celestiallirt and light. The Greeks, nd subsequently the Romans, rep-resented holding in irs claws theIightning bolts of Zeus-Jupiter; theligyprians and che Assyrians gave itswings to the solr disc. It was be-lit'ved rhat the eagle and the falconwcre the only creetures that could.rare ixedly into the sun's intenselight, and rhat the eagle tested thelegitimacy of its young by making

--

rhem look srraight inro it from the -'

D,menr of rheiabirth, rhrowins our,t[r:"i:ir:,:'::,-::;'::)of its nest the eaglet whose eyeshlinked under the blinding raysD(Fig. 4). The eagle plays with lightning bolts, said the ancientpoets, when the most rerrible outbreaks of thunder and light-ning make all other living beings tremble; nd ir is no doubtfor this reason tht rhe ncient Greeks nailed eagles abovetheir doors, in order to prorecr rhemselves from euil orces.rnd from being srruck by lighrningr6, which, they believed,never couched this bird17.

The symbolism of Christ a" {ire and lighr penet.ated themosr ancient Chrisrian litutgp

The tales of the Orient, *hich show us the eagle rising to-

tlllt lrtst.t^I\, ()

wrds rhe sun, into the abode of che gods, said that rhe birdcame so close to the divine srer rhc in irs old age its fearhersbecame charred, and irs flesh dried up almost cJ-plet"ly; brrtonce ir rerurned to the errh. ir plunged itsel rhree tjmes inrhe spnng $rer o a ounrain and emerSed regenerated, withall the youthfulness of its early yeat". Thi" ab-le was aiready"ery old when the Church was born, since Devid was inspneby it: "Bless rhe Lord," he wrote, ,(who satisfieth thy

-outhwith good rhings; so that thy yourh i" ,er,"*ed iiLe theeagle'sr3."

Because of rhe regenertion rhar che eagle found in the life-giving fountain, the ancieni Orienrals made ir the emblem norof the resurrection of rhe body, bur of che immortalitv of thesoul, and rhis was one of rhe roles in which ir was adpted bythe Syrians, es rhe prorective spirit of their rombsre..

The Egyptian eagle someiimes appears carrying in irs beakthe "Cross of Life," and in the \Iy'esr al"o th"

"gl. .rd theidea of Iife were related. Thus it is rhat a stone called ,,the

=cle.i srone," an iron-oxide geode which encloses: semi_

tuqurd cenrer, was a much soughr afrer raliqman. In his HorrurSaziratis, Joannes de Cuba, an author of rhe later pat of thefifteentfi cenrurv, wore rh( die eagle takes rhis stone inro itsnesr becuse it counreracrs the grear heat rhar rhe bird gener_ates to rhe point of endangering its own eggs; the ston-e canconquer rhe hear even of fire2o. Other ancient aurhors at-tribured a solar origin ro rhese stones. Those who believedrhat they possessed them used to place rhem in contact wirhwomen in labor ro aid their deliverp

'Je hare seen in the previous srudy ot rhe lion that ir wasan emblem o rovahv and t6e Resurrecrion o'Chrisr, but alsoan emblem of Saran the Antichrist, because, a..ording to Sr.Peter. it is the beast o prev who roars and ,."k" toi.uour.The eagle also. image o Chrisr in many ways, was taken torepresenr Selan, because ir is nor onlv the noble and ftagni-cent bird bur also the rapacrous de"rrouer: unde, this aipecrDeureronomv had already caregorized ir a*ong the,-iur.

It"asrs, whosc llesh the lsraelnes were not to eat'rl.!e know that one of the rst emblems chosen co represent(lhrist was the 6sh which, by analogy, was taLen as the image

ol d:e t-aithful as well. It was in this role that it was associated*irh the eagle, giving rhe latter its satanic meaning: the eaglews shown trampling with its talons a fish which it often'rnrck with its beak. It is a fact, it seemsr rhar the eagle divesir times from the heigha o the rky on fish drat sleep trust-ingly, near the surface of the wter, nd carries rhem o to(rr its ll. In the 6fteenth century Joannes de Cuba describesrlre eagl thusi "He has so shrp a vision rhar from rhe air,where he is so high he can bareiy be seen, he spies the littlelish swimming in the sea and lers himself lall in like a stone,xDd tkes the 6sh and carries ir to the shore ro er it...

'z2rlig. s) 'So the devil does uith the soul.

d. I O6t Ponn\Elsewhere in rhe Christian *orks of art, the eagle captutes

a hare, or catches in its claws a young lamb.A few of the Chutch fathers have cried to explain away che

carnivorous actions of the eagle: when it lalls from rhe cloudslike ligtrcning on rhe tsh of the tranquil warers, sy rhe Sints

F$ 5 Balta .ht \11 lt. Malntsidt.?..h n th. lV$;. ,l! Arnqbnl

rl|tr llstt^fl1 () lr c|Ikrst.

Brun_o.d'Asti, Isidore, and Anseim, ir is rhe image o the Sav_ior, 6sherman of souls, who akes them from rhe earth ro ele-vete ro heaven. Bur rhis kindly interpretation has ound lirtleresponse. ald the devouring eagle has remained the image ofour relenrless enemy.

Tnb licut4 Sbli:3d .a|h oa . Hr6 SanrdE.l2.3.

).8.

10.ll.t2.t),

Dc Lav,rdin, Operd, p. Ills.

G!non, L 'n,n. Ddnl., P. 25.Mh, a7, i.lisfi,x (t). p. rtOa.'1or, '1

^'Bh r..h;rijr. d.. Sv,j.ns er J;p",hp,. dc..npeFU,,.. jn &

," H.tu.iqb d, F.tro.,. t. L\U. I\o. l. \rJ, to.c. pp lr,, tr.se vdtl, L tur.,J 6_Irauo1:, P l8.Dioeene\ Lern s. IV. +,1.Cl lobli.hus, t)d /.,in. v, 12.sce f,ior, Mar.tr 2r. 1912.C. R. P Dela(.e, "Lahpes.h.rienns de CahEc.,, in Rk d,An ati;x"r.. rdun, p ,8. rrCj-1,,I N. .S. ed \,,ol., f,, / at,nq _. tt, t zt.La,_(r9r0). Pp.62,6r.It. Cl. Ld{cq d M rcn, Di.,ioarr.. T_ V vot. I, cot. 2,4rr_ No.4,704.lr. Sec Pliny, Nddr,/ gnio4, Boot X, l.

lo. .i: Rr. A.Jdemre de. ln."rpn... \..t,.h r, I \r.l-. Ct. PlLn dp d/., Boot JJ. 16.l9- Cuhont. or..ir,, p_ 14r_20. Joeies d Cuba, dr,j .td,ndrn. rI, paii IIt. ..Ds pircs,,. x.21. Deurronomv 1,1-1722. Jonnes e ub. o|' .n., par rr, "Da Oysux.-End Fi|ure: I2tr.nhq

.d\itdt dt St. Md jr de No).

T' Irt r0 irt A i\,"f!HF suul or Chrirt was joined on earrhI bodv

-h;ch s,rffered a.d died on Calvary,likeness artisrs from every Christian era havepicturing the events of his terrestrial life. ButrymbolicallT he is represenred only in the con-ventionl form attribured to che angel, of awinged man (Fig. l).

The beneficent spirits had already beengiven this form in Chaldean arr and in the artof ancient Greece long before our era. Primi-rive Christran art adopted ir as a convenrionto represent the angels who, in the Bible,sometimes mnifest rhemselves as handsomeyoung menl and also, sometimes, representthe Chrisr taken as Aggelos, as "Angel": thatis to say, as "rhe one sent," a messenger fromthe Father, and the bringer of salvarion

(le shall "ee

this 6uman body and it' -ings

with a humanand in whose

shown him, in

in the Tetramorph which, like Ezekielt ani- FiE.l t2tE.dtut:tmels, unites the four faces in one image The rdlare al s'tT"t.".o.ph, evoking for the Chrisr]an the st' Bdisu in jah'our Evangelisrs, represents the "good news," the docrtine un-kno*n till then that Christ brought rc the world, and refers tohis angelic character as the Fathert messenger.

Commentators on the sacred books began very early todesignate the angels as manifestations of the divine Word,

l ti ntisrt^tr, ()r r: Illtst.

which-Christ wr to represen! in the course o the comingages. In.rhe Bibie,,ir is the angels who transmit rhe word of..:od.ro humans_or example. those who appeared to Abra_hm'. ro Ja.obr. and to Moses in rhe burning busha; it wasthe angel o rhe Lord also who comforted the ;",r, ;;;

k)Yl **'.li*****)rt-;ll Zech",iah s ar^ sranriing/ZffiNNl--- among rhe m,rtre,,..,", ";;

@re*til4'ffi..

ll1 ,.,,,lii,ffi.,li

" .,: ;

",";,,:,* ' cord'ng ro rhe uords of Sr.

. lohn'..

Somerimes arrist. became the interp.eterso or rhese theo-log'crI opinions and ave Christ rhe convenrional pperance

ol. rhe.ngel adopted br their era. Ar,,t".,;-..,t"y ".U-stiruted Jesus direcdy for the biblical

".,g"1, this rlas tte .as.with Nicolas Fromenr, who in his beau;fui nf."."*-.**.ipainring of rhe burning bush, in the Cathedral of Ai*_en'-Provence, placed rhe Savior in the midst of rhe flames. Some-trmes he eren wears rings like the angels. as re see him onrhe cenrrat ,nedallion o an alta. cros" o medieval workman_ship (Fig. 2).

This is not rhe place for a detailed study of the diverse hu_man forms which Christian art chose ro represent aagels, and:::,::1,!t" J".,, Chr,;sr as rhe suprerne Anser: lel us sayontv rhr in the rrsr Chrisrian cenrLrrie. rhe

"r,l"a"* C",to_

I tt r M ^

N

lics as well as the Gnostics showed angels with humn bodiesJrcsseil in girdled robes and equipped with a pair of bird's',,'gs. The -rddle oI rhe i.sr millenarr was somerimes morerlcalistic, and in the sixth cenrury, angels appear on a minia-rrrLe of ,(orras Indiopteustes, formed by a human face carriedI'y several pairs of elegantly arrangedw;ngs (Fig. 3). During the Roman-rsque era, wesrern medieval art de-picted them in many ways, all ofthem hieratic and often with multiplewings. In the latter part of the Mid-rilc Ages the angel .as further hu-rnanized, and the marvelous spiritspainted by Fra Angelico are radiantapparitions of the most delightfullyi

ll.i ::'l'1"':,:l'l'" '' s u;r. kqrren ,r ( npr,,veJ r-) re:::,:, ll. r,treenrh....,r cv.rmple on ,r,. r,.,,,,,,;r ,,,"ii.:',:i":h,:h,r,.round. rhe chorr in the a,*n. i. ",...;rn Parisr but rhi" eler.rrcd rvpc ws suon I"*.,"d b",r* ;;;;earrhv Lrse mode

" ir bv rh" R"_naissance. u hich applre

I r ^

k r r)

lh'.*{** }.ni''" rt-ie. -). and this same area wourd raterbe amiliar with the ralirman so widespread ,odr1 ;n ,li oinorthern Africa, known as ..Fatimai; t",,, 1fig. 8).Thus in tlre whole ancient world, the outstrerched hand ex_pressed the presence o- di_vinity, somewhac in the wav inwhrch in Brahmanisr rhouehr''Vishnu's foot ' symboli,es iisreal presence. On the secularlevel also in those times rheopen hand was rhe sien of lov_altv, welcome, eood frtrh-,nafriendship. Another non_t,, . Lto.a religiou, usage is shown in thet tu. tdthaqtqtra ht. i h L,tLn", ,,ltB;,_'*.

-;:i:-_;,, ;,.,.:,,.:,:.. :i:

:h.]l j;j.d,:f"":"il:T:f ,11i;.nr ci.rs,n a se.penr! body,and-teli. us. ar lea,r jn.e language of rhe

"-r".;., ,lr, "".must acr rautiousiv .rt all rimesr- rFig. u)....^rhus.

( hrrsnsn svmboL,m found rhar the sign of the hand:l'1"".1"" evel:wher: br differenr nations for reasons tharrhe dorr.ne corJd easih adopr: so the lr"rd ,rpidly;;.r;;one or rhe svmhots used specificallv for God rhe t,,h".

";;tor Chrisr. As a g.ne.al rule. when it represenrs rhe Son andnot rhe Fa,her. rh. 1363;" placed on a....". b",*".r rl;;;nd omegr (frg. t0r. or crries a crucitorm nim6u, F;. lllor appears in some orher conrexr thar leaves no ;r.";" ;ittr meaning. There were [rw ercepnons ro rhis rule._-

accororng.ro. Sr. _Augusrine and rhe Farhers of the Church

,, was rne rett hand lhr rhe earlv,vmbolists consecrated assranorns preemrnen(lv or rhe jusrice of the Ch,;"r-Krng,

,.,ll,.d upon "hen. afrer his tq tu , t-., L, .1.

,,'nvcrsion. he ordered rhe +i t^.- ",y"-.

"]'"rc.rs thc right was the image ol his rnercy, his goodness,rrr,l his gcnerosity. Cerrain ancienr representarions show him".rrlr rhc right hand, the "Hand of Mercy," Iarger than thel,lr, to show that in the Saviort hearr mercy is more than jus-r, r. In church in rhel l,urrcs-Pyrnes, St. Peter is;,,'rrrayed in the sme man-,,",. uo doubt as represenringtlrc (latholic Church.

Ir was rhis divinely rescu-rrrg hand that Consrantine

'.,,rl.ins of new coins. A" on atu..,a--,tr.'rl,,''e he had issued pre- t.t"ltL'".a'\'r'r'1' F'-'r'r'\'-a"!r('usly, he was porrrayed riding in a charior drawn by fourlrorses inco the heavens; only on rhe larer coins he (aises alr,rnd towards nother Hand which reaches down to him lromrlrt sky, and which can only be the hand of Christ whose di-

vinity he had jusr recognizedl3.The laying on of hands is one of the oldesr

gestues rhat we [now. In Genesis, we seeIsaac Iaying his hands

"n his sons Esu andJacob, nd Egyptian monuments show us fig-ures in analogous postures. This imposition ofrhe hand or of both hands was also parr oI agrear number o iniriarions inro the mysrerresof pre-Christian culrs in Asia. Europe. and Af-rica. In the gospels Jesus is constancly placinghis hands on someone to bless nd heal (Fie-12). Following the example of rheit master af--ter he had lei rhem, the aposdes continued thelaying on of handsl', and rhis custom entered

into the ffrst litLrrgy of the sacraments and into rhe blessingceremonies2o. The origin of this rite seems ro be based on aninvisible physical realiry which has been more or less well-

rlrr r,stt^tr, ()t (,1 lltsr

known since rhe early days of humal civilizations, which isthar

-a considerabh quanriry of magneric lluid escapes through

the lingers of the ourstretched hand. The Ancien* even thnhd rhe irm aith that.:rrer having raised rheir hands tohea,en ro ca rnd receivc the divine influr, ir qas rhen con-centrated and in rurn cornurunicated to orhers by placing theiroursrretched ffngers on t6eir heads. This dtu;n" inflr*,r.""hown bv Chrr,rian iconographr as tighr rav. coming from rhehnd (Fis. ).

The hand of Christ is sometimes shown as blessing and arorhers as rhe symbol of his omnipotence and of the unlver_sality of his empire. Ir holds then in its palm the seven apoc_alyptic starsr', as nnages of ttre immensities of the firmamenr(Fig. l4), or rhe globe of the world surmounted by rhe cross.in this role, the Lordis hand is rarely separated rom thewhole image or'hi" person. 'I tre i.onog.aph,c image picruredin figrrre I4 shows rhe .even.rr., rog"th",

"" ;." no."r,

wirhin the circumference of the circle of the firmament. It isbortowed from an illLrmination in a twelfth_cenrury manu_script2?.

,. The frequent saying in Chrisrian literarve: Digitus Dei estrr: "che 6nger o God is here,,, refers as often to"Ch.i"r ,s it

does ro the Father. Ordinarily rhe finger thus described does

Fts tr Thc hctuj ol abtnto, llth 4,4nt! nt ,Jt ;n Nh.

Dr . d. Chr.

t tE. ]a Th htrl ol Cht

,,or imply the idea of benediction but rather that of action andlrrwcr. In iconography, the hand which rePresents this Digintl)ti ctt hit ol rhe sacred writings musr be a right hand wirh,'rrlv rhe index 6nger extended, rhe orher fingers being folded(;rs in the pointing hand), because the exretsion of the indexlinger alone is rhe natural gesture oirnperative command allowed only torhe one in authority.

Among all the ancienr peoples whosecivilizations are known to us, especiallyrhose of Asia, Europe, and North A-rica, and up to modern times, the im-,rge of the heart is used much more asrhe ideogram or knowing, for reason-i"g, and for undersranding, than or af-Iecrive or physical loue'7r. The sages ofligypt alfirmed that the heart is the'"urce

of all that man knows, and allthat he can do; and from it, they said,human activity receives its inspirationsand its force in the .ealm of thought aswell as in that of physical acrion.

The *hole point of view of ancientrimes, both in the Orient and Occident, was summed up byPliny in the words: "Inside irself, the heart in irs winding pas-sages provides the irst home of the soul and rhel,lood . . . there the Intelligence resides'?a " Srartine with suchconceprs, the religious rhought of rhe ancient Egyptians quitenaturally also made the heart of rhe supreme God the seatand source of divine perfecrions. And consequently we see oldtexts expressly evoking the diuine Heart. Ramses II, after be-ing ill-supporred by his officers in a ba*le, ended his re-proaches io rhem bv saving: 'l will no longer carrv vou in mvhearr,'r' (Fies. It and 16).

In one of the hymns composed by the Pharaoh AmenhotepIV (Akhenaten) and hls lovely wife Neferriti to Aten, the im-

ttf;r. 1, The h.d."t tuth

.dst,.? n rb. ll 4 fus |0Fry t., 'l )-?. hi,rslyPt

age o rhe Divinirt svmbolized bv rhe sotar di,c, ur real inthe course o a long rerr: "Thou hast creat.d the earrh rnchine lreart, when thou wast alone . . . thou hast made the sea_sons to give birch and growrh ro all thou hast created... rhouhast made the distanr sky rhar rhou mightest rise up inro irnd see from there all rhat thou hast creared. rtou rt.-r"..Thou appearesr in the form of rhe ivrng Aten: rhou risesrshining, thou goesr away rnd..trr.,"ir, thou arr in my

-The same _concepr is expressed in the funerary inscriptionof a priest o Memphis, the rexr and meaning of which havebeen established by Maspro, Breasred, and Eiman. F.om rhisic appears that the theologians of the Memphis school made adistinction, in the work of the Aurhor of

"ll thir,g", b.t*e"nrhe roh of creative thought, which they calle the-act;on of theheart, an rhat of creationt instrumenr, which thev called th.a,tron oJ tl,e tonque. thp sordi . Anorher rheological schoolthat we learn about from the monuments of rhe time of th.Ramses pharaohs (nineteenth dynasr6 about 1200 B.c.) ex_presses a theory according to which God, the supreme Godwhose narure tlireraiv. namer is mvstery. is presenred as beingformed o rhree disrinct enritjes .hich maLe up , ,.r. TIIunity: Ptah, Horus, and Thorh. ptah is the Supreme nerson,the perfecr inrelligence; Horus, according .o b.l;"f.hi.hwas already ancienr ar that time, is the comprehensive and af-fecrive Hearr of rhe di"inirr. rhe spirir rhr animares all ot:lile: Thorh is rhe tJord. rhe insrrumenr o rhe divine works.,

Ptah is delinrared as rhe Sr_preme Being. because in a waythe whole rnd comes rom him. Accordrng ro rhe evidencemenrioned above, he is "He who becomes Heart. he who 6_cmes Tongue."

Horu'. rhe dirine Hearr. was represenred in sacred arr inrhe form of a fcon. From rhe rime oj the fourrh dvnasty.abol:. 2575 to 246, 8.c.. he appeared under this symbol; frinstance, on the beautiful starue of Chephren in rhe Cairomuseum, rhe sacred bird leans his heart, his whole body,

I'III] MAN

,rgainst thc nape of the pharaoh whom he prorects and in-'pires, and wirose head he enfolds