Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

Anaximander himself was in every probability indirectly, for all we know even directly, influenced by Egyptian and Chaldsean notions ; indeed, who can any longer doubt in the light of the Cnossus excavations ? " 1

Anaximander is thus said to have regarded the earth-cylinder as fixed, whereas in our treatise the cylinder is not the earth and is not fixed; it is, on the contrary, a celestial cylinder and in constant motion. Can it, then, possibly be that this cylinder notion was associated with some Babylonian idea, and had its source in that country par excellence of cylinders ? In Babylonia, moreover, the cylinder-shape was frequently used for seals, fashioned like a small roller, so that the characters or symbols engraved on them could be impressed on soft substance, such as wax. Further, the Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations were, as we know, closely associated, and pre-eminently so in the matter of sigils and seals. In the Coptic- Gnostic works, translated from Greek originals, and indubitably mainly of Egyptian origin, the idea of " characters," " seals," and " sigils," as types impressed on matter, is a commonplace.

Can our cylinder, then, have some connection with the circle of animal types, or types of life, of which so much is said in our treatise ? The souls of the supernal man class would then have had the task of keeping this cylinder in motion, so that thereby the various types were continually impressed on the plasms in the sphere of generation, or ever-becoming — the wheel of genesis ?

This may be so, for in P. S. A., 19, we read: "The air, moreover, is the engine, or machine, through which

1 Delitzsch also, in his Babel und Bibel, states that the great debt of early Greece to Assyria will be made clear in a forthcoming work of German scholarship.

all things are made . . . mortal from mortal things and things like these."

So also in K. K., 28, Hermes says: "And I will skillfully devise an instrument, mysterious, possessed of power of sight that cannot err ... an instrument that binds together all that's done."

Here again we have the same idea, all connected with the notion of Fate or Heimarmene ; the instrument of Hermes is the Karmic Wheel, by which cause and effect are linked together, and that too with a moral purpose.1

Finally, in connection with our cylinder, we may compare the Aryan Hindu myth of the "Churning of the Ocean," in the Vishnu Pur ana. The churningstaff or Pillar was the heaven-mountain, round which was coiled the cosmic serpent, to serve as rope for twirling it. The rope was held at either end by the Devas and Asuras, or gods and daemons. There is also a mystic symbol in India which probably connects with a similar range of ideas. It is two superimposed triangles (]>H, with their apices touching, and round the centre a serpent is twined, — a somewhat curious resemblance to our X and cylinder-idea. And so much for this puzzling symbol.

THE EAGLE, LION, DRAGON AND DOLPHIN

We now pass to the four leading types of animals, connected with souls of the highest rank — namely, the eagle, lion, dragon, and dolphin (24, 25) — which it may be of interest to compare with the symbolism of some of the degrees of the Mithriac Mysteries2

1 I have also got a stray reference, " Kt>\tvSpos, Pint., 2, 682 c,
Xylander's pages," but I have not been able to verify this.

2 See Cumont (F.), Textes et Monuments figures relat. aux
Mysttres de Mithra (Bruxelles, 1899), i. 315.

In one of the preliminary degrees of the rite, we are informed, some of the mystse imitated the voices of birds, others the roaring of lions.1 All of this was interpreted by the initiates as having reference to transmigration or metempsychosis. Thus Porphyry2 tells us that in the Mysteries of Mithras they called the mystse by the names of different animals, so symbolizing man's common lower nature with that of the irrational animals. Thus, for instance, they called some of the men "lions," and some of the women " lionesses," some were called "ravens," while the " fathers," the highest grade, were called " hawks " and " eagles." The " ravens " were the lowest grade ; those of the " lion " grade were apparently previously invested with the disguises and masks of a series of animal forms before they received the lion shape.