Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:55:29.727Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

XIV.—The Scallop Shell, considered as a Symbol of Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

H. C. Coote
Get access

Extract

The scallop shell has been found so curiously in connection with funereal memorials of antiquity as to suggest that something must have been meant by this strange juxta-position.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , 1870 , pp. 322 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1870

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 322 note a Quoted by M. Cochet in the pamphlet mentioned in the text, p. 17.

page 322 note b The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, 2nd edit. pp. 113, 114.

page 323 note a Millingen's Baubo in the Annali dellʼ Institute di Correspondenza Archeologica, vol. xiv. p. 72, et seqq. Roma.

page 323 note b Ibid. p. 78. M. Ouwaroff in his Essai sur les Mystères dƼ Eleusis (p. 6): “En découvrant un point de médiation entre l'homme et la Divinité les Eleusinies avaient seules atteint le but de teutes les grandes associations religieuses.”

page 323 note c Millingen's Baubo, p. 79.

page 323 note d Ibid. p. 80, et seqq.

page 324 note a Millingen's Baubo, p. 87. The symbol is purely Greek, though the doctrines taught at Eleusis were most probably Egyptian. That distinguished antiquary, the Vicomte Emmanuel de Rougé (Conseiller d'Etat, et Conservateur honoraire des Monuments Egyptiens au Musée du Louvre), has observed in a letter to the writer : “Le pudendum m. est très rare dans les symboles Egyptiens. Et autant on trouve d'éhantillons du phallus (qui figure souvent dans l'écriture hiéroglyphique), autant il est difficile de rencontrer la contre partie. Et encore le peu d'échantillons que je connais ne paraissent pas être plus anciens que l'époque Grecque. Par opposition à Ammon ithyphallique et à l' Horus de la même forme les déesses sont toujours absolument voilées en cette partie, et les voiles transparens qui dessinent leurs formes ne laissent rien apparaître au pubis.” See also the Notice Sommaire des Monuments Egyptiens exposés dans les Galeries au Musée du Louvre, by the same high functionary. This work is a treasure of learning, enhanced by the graces of its style and the excellence of its method.

page 324 note b Gruter, 1102, 2. Orelli, No. 2354. The same Agorius who discourses so pleasantly and philosophically in the Saturnalia (i. 17, et seqq.), and whom his friends affirm to be “unum arcanæ deorum natura conscium” (i. 24).

page 325 note a Millingen's Baubo, p. 87.

page 325 note b Vol. ii. p. 29. They are described by Millingen (Baubo, p. 88 et seqq.).

page 325 note c Millingen's Baubo, p. 85.

page 325 note a Millingen's Baubo, p. 86.