Chapter III: A Tale of Troy (2)

It is probable that not only the literature of the saints but also many of the national traditions of our own and other lands arose from the misinterpretation of the symbolic signs and figures which preceded writing. The "diabolical idols" of Britain, as Gildas admitted, far exceeded those in Egypt; similarly in Crete, the fantastic hieroglyphics not yet read or understood far out-Egypted Egypt. The Christian Fathers fell foul with Gnostic philosophers for the supposed insult of representing Christ on the Cross with the head of an ass; but it is quite likely that the Gnostic intention--the ass being the symbol of meekness--was to portray Christ's meekness, and that no insult was intended. A notable instance of the way in which ignorant and facetious aliens misconstrued the meaning of national or tribal emblems has been preserved in the dialogue of a globe-trotting Greek who lived in the second century of the present era. The incident, as self-recorded by the chatty but unintelligent Greek, is Englished by Sir John Rhys as follows: "The Celts call Heracles in the language of their country Ogmios, and they make very strange representations of the god. With them he is an extremely old man, with a bald forehead and his few remaining hairs quite grey; his skin is wrinkled and embrowned by the sun to that degree of swarthiness which is characteristic of men who have grown old in a seafaring life: in fact, you would fancy him rather to be a Charon or Japetus, one of the dwellers in Tartarus, or anybody rather than Heracles. But although he is of this description he is, nevertheless, attired like Heracles, for he has on him the lion's skin, and he has a club in his right hand; he is duly equipped with a quiver, and his left hand displays a bow stretched out: in these respects he is quite Heracles. It struck me, then, that the Celts took such liberties with the appearance of Heracles in order to insult the gods of the Greeks and avenge themselves on him in their painting, because he once made a raid on their territory, when in search of the herds of Geryon he harrassed most of the western peoples. I have not, however, mentioned the most whimsical part of the picture, for this old man Heracles draws after him a great number of men bound by their ears, and the bonds are slender cords wrought of gold and amber, like necklaces of the most beautiful make; and although they are dragged on by such weak ties, they never try to run away, though they could easily do it: nor do they at all resist or struggle against them, planting their feet in the ground and throwing their weight back in the direction contrary to that in which they are being led. Quite the reverse: they follow with joyful countenance in a merry mood, and praising him who leads them pressing on one and all, and slackening their chains in their eagerness to proceed: in fact, they look like men who would be grieved should they be set free. But that which seemed to me the most absurd thing of all I will not hesitate also to tell you: the painter, you see, had nowhere to fix the ends of the cords, since the right hand of the god held the club and his left the bow; so he pierced the tip of his tongue, and represented the people as drawn on from it, and the god turns a smiling countenance towards those whom he is leading. Now I stood a long time looking at these things, and wondered, perplexed and indignant. But a certain Celt standing by, who knew something about our ways, as he showed by speaking good Greek--a man who was quite a philosopher, I take it, in local matters--said to me, 'Stranger, I will tell you the secret of the painting, for you seem very much troubled about it. We Celts do not consider the power of speech to be Hermes, as you Greeks do, but we represent it by means of Heracles, because he is much stronger than Hermes. Nor should you wonder at his being represented as an old man, for the power of words is wont to show its perfection in the aged; for your poets are no doubt right when they say that the thoughts of young men turn with every wind, and that age has something wiser to tell us than youth. And so it is that honey pours from the tongue of that Nestor of yours, and the Trojan orators speak with one voice of the delicacy of the lily, a voice well covered, so to say, with bloom; for the bloom of flowers, if my memory does not fail me, has the term lilies applied to it. So if this old man Heracles, by the power of speech, draws men after him, tied to his tongue by their ears, you have no reason to wonder, as you must be aware of the close connection between the ears and the tongue. Nor is there any injury done him by this latter being pierced; for I remember, said he, learning while among you some comic iambics, to the effect that all chattering fellows have the tongue bored at the tip. In a word, we Celts are of opinion that Heracles himself performed everything by the power of words, as he was a wise fellow, and that most of his compulsion was effected by persuasion. His weapons, I take it, are his utterances, which are sharp and well-aimed, swift to pierce the mind; and you too say that words have wings.' Thus far the Celt."[136]

The moral of this incident may be applied to the svastika cross, an ubiquitous symbol or trade-mark which Andrew Lang surmised might after all have merely been "a bit of natural ornament". The sign of the cross will be more fully considered subsequently, but meanwhile one may regard the svastika as the trade-mark of Troy. The Cornish for _cross_ was _treus_, and among the ancients the cross was the symbol of truce.[137] The Sanscrit name _svastika_ is composed of _su_, meaning soft, gentle, pleasing, or propitious, and _asti_ (Greek _esto_), meaning _being_. It was universally the symbol of the Good Being or St. Albion, or St. All Well; it retains its meaning in its name, and was the counterpart to the Dove which symbolisms Innocence, Peace, Simplicity, and Goodwill. There is no doubt that the two emblems were the insignia of the prehistoric Giants, Titans, or followers of the Good Sun or Shine, or Sunshine, men who trekked from one or several centres, to India, Tartary, China, and Japan. Moreover, these trekkers whom we shall trace in America and Polynesia, were seafaring and not overland folk, otherwise we should not find the Cyclopean buildings with their concomitant symbols in Africa, Mexico, Peru, and the islands of the Pacific.

The svastika in its simpler form is the cross of St. Andrew, Scotch Hender or Hendrie. In British the epithet _hen_ meant _old_ or _ancient_, so that the cross of _Hen drie_ is verbally the cross of old or ancient Drew, Droia, or Troy. This is also historically true, for the svastika has been found under the ruins of the ten or dozen Troys which occupy the immemorial site near Smyrna.

Our legends state that Bru or Brut, after tarrying awhile at Alba in Etruria, travelled by sea into Gaul, where he founded the city of Tours. Thence after sundry bickers with the Gauls he passed onward into Britain which acquired its name from Brute, its first Duke or Leader. We shall connote Britannia, whose first official portraits are here given, with the Cretan Goddess Britomart, which meant in Greek "sweet maiden". One of these Britannia figures has her finger to her lips, or head, in seemingly the same attitude as the consort of the Giant Dog, and the interpretation is probably identical with that placed by Dr. Walsh upon that gnostic jewel. "Among the Egyptians," he says, "it was deemed impossible to worship the deity in a manner worthy by words, adopting the sentiments of Plato--that it was difficult to find the nature of the Maker and Father of the Universe, or to convey an idea of him to the people by a verbal description--and they imagined therefore the deity Harpocrates who presided over silence and was always represented as inculcating it by holding his finger on his lips". We know from Cæsar that secrecy was a predominant feature of the Drui or Druidic system, and for this custom the reasons are thus given in a Bardic triad: "The Three necessary but reluctant duties of the bards of the Isle of Britain: Secrecy, for the sake of peace and the public good; invective lamentation demanded by justice; and the unsheathing of the sword against the lawless and the predatory".

Britain is in Welsh Prydain, and, according to some Welsh scholars, the root of Prydain is discovered in the epithet _pryd_, which signifies _precious_, _dear_, _fair_, or _beautiful_. This, assumed Thomas, "was at a very early date accepted as a surname in the British royal family of the island".[138] I think this Welsh scholar was right and that not only Britomart the "sweet maiden," but also St. Bride, "the Mary of the Gael," were the archetypes of Britannia; St. Bride is alternatively St. Brighit, whence, in all probability, the adjective _bright_. At Brightlingsea in Essex is a Sindry or _Sin derry_ island(?); in the West of England many villages have a so-called 'sentry field,' and undoubtedly these were originally the saintuaries, centres, and sanctuaries of the districts. To take sentry meant originally to seek refuge, and the primary meaning of _terrible_ was _sacred_. Thus we find even in mediæval times, Westminster alluded to by monkish writers as a _locus terribilis_ or sacred place. The moots or courts at Brightlingsea were known as Brodhulls, whence it would appear that the Moothill or Toothill of elsewhere was known occasionally as a Brod or Brutus Hill.

Some of the Britannias on page 120 have the aspect of young men rather than maidens, and there is no doubt that Brut was regarded as androginous or indeterminately as youth or maiden. We shall trace him or her at Broadstairs, a corruption of Bridestow, at Bradwell, at Bradport, at Bridlington, and in very many more directions. From Pryd come probably the words _pride_, _prude_, and _proud_, and in the opinion of our neighbours these qualities are among our national defects. Claiming a proud descent we are admittedly a _dour_ people, and our neighbours deem us _triste_, yet, nevertheless trustworthy, and inclined to truce.

On the shield of one of the first Britannias is a bull's head, whence it may be assumed the bull was anciently as nowadays associated with John Bull. At British festivals our predecessors used to antic in the guise of a bull, and the bull-headed actor was entitled "The Broad". The bull was intimately connected with Crete; Britomart was the Lady of All Creatures, and seemingly the _brutes_ in general were named either after her or Brut. The British word for bull was _tarw_, the Spanish is _toro_; in Etruria we find the City of Turin or Torino using as its cognisance a rampant bull; and I have little doubt that the fabulous Minotaur was a physical brute actually maintained in the terrible recesses of some yet-to-be-discovered labyrinth. The subterranean mausoleums of the Sacred Bulls of Egypt are among the greatest of the great monuments of that country; the bull-fights of Spain were almost without doubt the direct descendants of sacred festivals, wherein the slaying of the Mithraic Bull was dramatically presented, but in Crete itself the bull-fights seem to have been amicable gymnastic games wherein the most marvellous feats of agility were displayed. Illustrations of these graceful and intrepid performances are still extant on Cretan frieze and vase, the colours being as fresh to-day as when laid on 3000 years ago.

In Britain the national sport seems to have been bull-baiting, and the dogs associated with that pastime presumably were bull-dogs. Doggedness is one of the ingrained qualities of our race; of recent years the bull-dog has been promoted into symbolic evidence of our tenacity and doggedness. Our mariners are sea-_dogs_, and the modern bards vouch us to be in general boys of the bull-dog breed. The mascot bull-dogs in the shops at this moment serve the same end as the mascot emblems and mysterious hieroglyphics of the ancients, and the Egyptian who carried a scarabæus or an Eye of Horus, acted without doubt from the same simple, homely impulse as drives the modern Englishman to hang up the picture of a repulsive animal subscribed, "What we have we'll hold".

The prehistoric dog or jackal symbolised not tenacity or courage, but the maker of tracks, for the well-authenticated reason that dogs were considered the best guides to practicable courses in the wilderness. Bull-headed men and dog-headed men are represented constantly in Cretan Art, and these in all likelihood symbolised the primeval bull-dogs who trekked into so many of the wild and trackless places of the world.

The Welsh have a saying, "Tra Mor, Tra Brython," which means, "as long as there is sea so long will there be Britons". Centuries ago, Diodorus of Sicily mentioned the Kelts as "having an immemorial taste for foreign expeditions and adventurous wars, and he goes on to describe them as 'irritable, prompt to fight, in other respects simple and guileless,' thus, according with Strabo, who sums up the Celtic temperament as being simple and spontaneous, willingly taking in hand the cause of the oppressed".[139]

Diodorus also mentions the Kelts as clothed sometimes "in tissues of variegated colours," which calls to mind the tartans of the Alban McAlpines, Ians, Jocks, Sanders, Hendries, and others of that ilk.

The dictionaries define the name Andrew as meaning _a man_, whence _androgynous_ and _anthropology_; in Cornish _antrou_ meant _lord_ or _master_, and these early McAndrews were doubtless masterly, tyrannical, dour, derring-doers, inconceivably daring in der-doing. To _try_ means make an effort, and we speak proverbially of "working like a Trojan". The corollary is that tired feeling which must have sorely tried the tyros or young recruits. After daring and trying and tiring, these dour men eventually turned _adre_, which is Cornish for _homeward_. Whether their hearts were turned Troy-ward in the _Ægean_ or to some small unsung British _tre_ or Troynovant, who can tell? "I am now in Jerusalem where Christ was born," wrote a modern argonaut to his mother, but, he added, "I wish I were in Wigan where I was born."

FOOTNOTES:

[86] Taylor, Rev. T., _The Celtic Christianity of Cornwall_, p.
27.

[87] Morris-Jones, Sir J., _Y. Cymmrodor_, xxvii., p. 240.

[88] Margoliouth, M., _The Jews in Great Britain_, p. 33.

[89] As bearing upon this statement I reprint in the Appendix to
the present volume a very remarkable extract from _Britain
and the Gael_ (Wm. Beal), 1860.

[90] Wilkes, Anna, _Ireland: Ur of the Chaldees_, p. 6.

[91] Introduction to Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_ (Everyman's
Library).

[92] Plutarch, _De Defectu Oraculorum_, xvii.

[93] Eckenstein, L., _Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes_, p. 70.

[94] Clodd, E., _Tom Tit Tot_, p. 131.

[95] Mackenzie, D. A., _Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe_,
p. 326.

[96] _Cf._ Poste, B., _Britannic Researches_, p. 220.

[97] _Y Cymmrodor_, xxviii.

[98] Triad 4.

[99] "The notion that the Albanian is a mere mixture of Greek and
Turkish has long been superseded by the conviction that
though mixed it is essentially a separate language. The
doctrine also that it is of recent introduction into Europe
has been similarly abandoned. There is every reason for
believing that as Thunmann suggested, it was, at dawn of
history, spoken in the countries where it is spoken at the
present moment."--Latham, R. G., _Varieties of Man_, p. 552.

[100] Rhys, J., _Celtic Britain_.

[101] The same root may be behind _deruish_ or _dervish_.

[102] Gordon, E. O., _Prehistoric London_, p. 127.

[103] Virgil, _Æneid_, 79, 80, 81.

[104] _Cornish Feasts and Folklore_, p. 119.

[105] Malory, viii.

[106] I question the current supposition that this is a corruption
of _chy an woon_ or "house on the hill".

[107] Beal, W., _Britain and the Gael_, p. 22.

[108] Herodotus, 11, 52.

[109] Johnston, J. B., _Place-names of England and Wales_, p. 413.

[110] Burrows, R. M., _The Discoveries in Crete_, p. 11.

[111] _Hastings_ (Ward Lock & Co.), p. 63.

[112] xxvii. 12.

[113] _Sepulchres of Ancient Etruria_, p. 9.

[114] From _mercari_, to trade (Skeat).

[115] _Jonnock_ is probably cognate with _yankee_, which was in old
times used in the New England States as an adjective meaning
"excellent," "first-class". Thus, a "yankee" horse would be a
first-class horse, just as we talk of English beef and other
things English, meaning that they are the best. Another
explanation of _yankee_ is that when the Pilgrim Fathers
landed at Plymouth Rock, near Massachusetts Bay, in 1620,
they were met on the shore by native Indians who called them
"Yangees"--meaning "white man"--and the term was finally
completed into "Yankees".

[116] Taylor, Rev. R., _Diegesis_, p. 158.

[117] The remarkable serpentine, shell-mosaiked shrine, known as
Margate Grotto, is discussed in chap. xiii.

[118] i., 367.

[119] _Odyssey_, Book IV.

[120] _Cf._ Smith, G., _Religion of Ancient Britain_, p. 65.

[121] _Myths of Crete and Prehistoric Europe_, p. 239.

[122] Rydberg, V., _Teutonic Mythology_, pp. 22-36.

[123] _Odyssey_, Book I.

[124] _Ibid._, Book III.

[125] _The Myth of Br. Islands_, p. 324.

[126] The current idea that London was _Llyn din_, the _Lake town_,
has been knocked on the head since it has been "proved that
the lake which was described so picturesquely by J. R. Green
did not exist". _Cf._ Rice Holmes, _Ancient Britain_, p. 704.

[127] Lon_dres_, the Gaulish form of London, implies that the
radical was _Lon_--and perhaps further, that London was a
_holy enclosure dun or derry_ where _luna_, the moon, was
worshipped. There is a persistent tradition that St. Paul's,
standing on the summit of Ludgate Hill or dun, occupies the
site of a more ancient shrine dedicated to Diana, _i.e._,
Luna.

[128] This name will subsequently be traced to Cres, the son of
Jupiter, to whom the Cretans assigned their origin.

[129] Wright, T., _Essays on Archæological Subjects_, vol. i., p.
273.

[130] Wright, T., _Essays on Archæological Subjects_, vol. i., p.
283.

[131] In Albany the memory of "the gudeman" lingered until late,
and according to Scott: "In many parishes of Scotland there
was suffered to exist a certain portion of land, called _the
gudeman's croft_, which was never ploughed or cultivated, but
suffered to remain waste, like the _Temenos_ of a pagan
temple. Though it was not expressly avowed, no one doubted
that 'the goodman's croft' was set apart for some evil being;
in fact, that it was the portion of the arch-fiend himself,
whom our ancestors distinguished by a name which, while it
was generally understood, could not, it was supposed, be
offensive to the stern inhabitant of the regions of despair.
This was so general a custom that the Church published an
ordinance against it as an impious and blasphemous usage.

"This singular custom sunk before the efforts of the clergy
in the seventeenth century; but there must still be many alive
who, in childhood, have been taught to look with wonder on
knolls and patches of ground left uncultivated, because,
whenever a ploughshare entered the soil, the elementary spirits
were supposed to testify their displeasure by storm and
thunder," _Demonology and Witchcraft._

[132] These Sources of Life or vessels of Almighty Power were
described as Crown, Wisdom, Prudence, Magnificence, Severity,
Beauty, Victory, Glory, Foundation, Empire. _Cf._ King, C.
W., _The Gnostics and their Remains_, p. 34.

[133] Johnston, Rev. J. B., _Place-names of England and Wales_.

[134] "The origin of the name is quite unknown to history....
Possibly because so many dogs were drowned in the Thames
here."--Johnston, Rev. J. B., _Place-names of England_, p.
321.

[135] Walsh, R., _An Essay on Ancient Coins, Medals, and Gems_, p.
58.

[136] Rhys, Sir J., _Celtic Heathendom_, pp. 14-16.

[137] British children still cross their forefingers as a sign of
_treus_, _pax_, or _fainits_.

[138] _Britannia Antiquissima_, p. 4.

[139] _Cf._ Thomas, J. J., _Britannia Antiquissima_, pp. 84, 85.