THE EVOLUTION OF THE DRAGON t
EVOLUTION OF
THE
THE
DRAGON
BY
G . ELLIOT SMITH, M.A., PROFESSOR
OF ANATOMY IN THE
M.D., F.R.S.
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Published for the John KylandsLibrary at THE UNIVERSITYPRESS (H. M. MCKECHNIE, Secretary) 12 LIME GROVE, OXFORD ROAD, MANCHESTER
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iDb?4 0
1919 GENERAL
UNIVERSITY OF
ATHENS,
MAD RAS
LIBRARY
GEORGIA
GEORGIA
111
PREFACE.
S
OME explanation is due to the reader of the form and scope of these elaborations of the lectures which I have given at the
John Rylands Library during the last thre e winters. They deal with a wide range of topics, an d the thread which binds them more or less intimately into one connected story is only imperfectly expressed in the title " The Evolution of th e Dragon ". Th e book ha s been written in rare moments of leisure snatched from a variety of arduous war-time occupations ; an d it reveals only to o plainly the traces of this disjointed process of compo sition. On 2 3 February, 1915, I presented to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society an es say on the spread of certain customs and in ancient
times under the title " On the Significance of the Distribution of the Practice of M ummification," and in m y Rylands Lecture two weeks later I summed up the general con clusions. 1 In view of the lively controversies that followed the publica tion of the former of these addresses, I devoted m y next Rylands Lecture (9 February, 1916) to the discussion of "The Relationsh ip of the Egyptian Practice of Mummification to th e Development of Civilization ". In preparing this address for publication in the Biilletin of some months later so m uc h stress wa s laid upon the problems " Incense an d Libations " that I adopted this more concise title for th e forms the first chapter of this book. elaboration of the lecture which This will explain why so many matters are discussed in that chapter which have little or no connexion either with " Incense an d Libations" o r with "The Evolution of the Dragon". Th e study of the development of the belief in water's life-giving beliefs
Geographical
I
Th e Influence of Ancient Egyptian America,"
Civilisation in
the East an d in
Bulletin ofthe John R'viands Library, J anuary-March,
1916.
at trib utes,
PR EFACE
PREFA CE
VI
an d their
personifi cation
in the gods
Osiri s, Ea, Soma wa y fo r the elucidation of th e histo ry of " Dragons an d Rain Gods " in m y next lecture (Chapter II). What played a larg e part in direct ing m y thoughts dragon- wards wa s the discussio n of certain represe ntations of the India n Elephant up on Precolum bi an monuments in , an d manuscripts fr om , Central Americ a (Nature, 2 5 N ov., 1915; 16 De c., 191 5 ; an d 27 Jan., 19 16). For in the course of investig ating the meaning of these re mark able de sig ns I disc overed that the Elephant-headed rain- go d of America ha d attrib utes identical with those of the In dian Indra (and of Varuna an d Soma) an d the Chinese dragon. The inv estigation of these identities establ ished the fact that the American rain-g od was transmitted across th e Pacific from Ind ia via Ca mbodia. The in tensive study of dra go ns impres sed up o n me the importance of the part played by the Great Mo ther, especially in he r Ba bylon ian avatar & T amat, in the evo lution of the fam ou s wonder -beast. Under the stimulus of Dr. Rendel Harris's Rylands Le cture on " The Cult of Aphrodite," I therefo re devoted my nex t addres s (14 Nove mb er, 1917) to the " Birth of Aphrodite" and a general disc ussio n of the problems of Olym pian obste trics. Each of these addresses was delivered as an informal demonstratio n of large series of lanter n projections ; and, as Mr. Guppy insis ted upo n the publication of the lectures in the Bulletin, i t became necessary, as a rule, many months after the de liv ery of each addre ss , to rear range my ma teri al an d put into th e form of a written narrative the story which ha d previo usly b een told mainly by pictures an d verbal comments upon them. In making these e laborations additiona l facts were added and ne w points of view em erged, so that the prin ted statements bear little re semblance to the lec tures of which they pretend to be re po rts. Such transforma tion s ar e inevitable whe n on e attem pt s to m ak e a writte n re [Haoma] and Varuna, p repare d
the
port of what was essential ly an ocular demo nstration, unless eve ry on e of the num erou s pictures is reprodu ced. Each of the first two lectures wa s printed before the succeed in g lectu re wa s set up in typ e. For these reas on s there is a go od deal of
,
vu
titi on , and in successive lectures a w ider i nterpretat io n of evid en ce nt ioned in the preceding addresses . Had it been possi ble to revise boo k at on e time, and if the pressu re of othe r duties had
rtnitted me to devo te more tim e to the work, these blemis hes might U ye been elim inated and a coher en t story made o ut of what is little re tha n a collection of data and tags of co mment. No on e is m or e th e writer of the ina dequacy of this m et ho d of presentan ar gument of such inhe rent complexit y as the drago n story : but obligatio n to the Rylands Library ga ve me no option in the matter : I ha d to attempt the difficult task in spite of all the un propitious circum stances . This book mu f be rega rded, then, n ot as a coherent a rg u m e n t, bu t merel y as some of the raw m aterial for th e study of the dragon's history. In my le cture (13 Novemb er, 1918) on "The
onscious than
Meaning of Myths," which will be publ ished in the Bulletin of the him Rylands Library, \ h ave e xpounde d the ge nera l conclu sions that e m e rg e from the stu dies embodied
in these three lec tures ; an d in m y
forthcomi ng bo ok, " The Story of th e Flood," I ha ve submitted
th e
w hole mass of evidenc e to examination tract
from it
the
in deta il, and attempted to ex real stor y of mankin d's age-long se arc h fo r the elixir
o f life.
In th e ear liest records from Egypt and Babylonia it is customary to beneficen ce by representin g h im initiat ing irrig ation works. In cour se of time he came to be re garded, no t merely as the portra y a king's
giver of the water which
made the desert fer tile, bu t as himse lf the giver of the vit al powers of water. The fertility o f th e land and the welfare of the people thus came to be regarde d as dependent upon th e king's vitality. Hence it wa s no t illo gi cal to kill h im when h is virility showed signs of failing and so imperilled the coun try's prosperity. Bu t when the view dev eloped that the dead king acquired a ne w g rant of vitali ty in the other world he became the g o d Os ir is, who wa s able to confer even grea te r boons of life-gi vi ng personi fication and
the
to th e land and pe ople than was the case b efore. He was the Nile, a n d h e fertilize d the la nd. The srcinal dragon wa s a bene ficent
creature, the person ification of water, a nd wa s ident ified wi th kings an d gods.
Bu t \
:
PREFA CE
PREF ACE
vm the
enem y of Osir is became
an evil drago n, and wa s identified
with Se t.
The dragon-my th , howe ve r, did not r eally begin to develop until an ag eing kin g refused to be slain, and called upon the Great M other, as the give r of life, to rejuvenate him. Her only elixir wa s human bloo d ; an d to ob tain it she w as comp elle d to make a hu m an sacr if ice. Her murder ou s act led to he r being compared w ith a nd ult imate ly identifie d with a m an- slaying lione ss or a cob ra. The story of the slaying of the drago n is a m uc h distorted r umour of thi s incident; an d in the process o f elaboratio n the incide nts were su bjected t o ev ery kind of interpretat io n an d "als o confusion with the leg endary acc oun t of the conf lic t be tween Horus and Set. When a su bstitute wa s ob tained to replace the blood the sla ying of
a human victim wa s no long er lo gica lly neces sary : bu t an explana tio n had to be found for the persi stence of thi s inciden t in the story.
M an
ki nd (n o lo nger a m ere individu al hu m an sac rifice) had become sinfu l that the king or god was grow in g old ) an d had to be de stro ye d as a punishme nt for this treaso n. The Great Mother co ntinued t o ac t as the av enger of the king or go d. Bu t the enemies of the go d we re also punished by Horus in the legen d of Horus an d Se t. The tw o stories hence be cam e confus ed the on e with the other. The king Horus took the place of the Great Mother as th e aveng er of the gods. As she wa s ide ntifie d w ith the m oon, he be came the Su n-god, an d assum ed m any of the Great Mother's attrib ut es , an d also became he r so n. In the fu rther develo pm en t of the myth, w he n the Su n-g od had completely us urped his m other's place, the infam y of her deeds of destructi on seems to ha ve led to her bein g confu se d with the reb elliou s m en who w er e now ca lled the fo llow ers of Set, Horus's enemy . Thus an evil dragon emerged fro m this blend of the attr ib utes of the Great Mo ther and S et. This is the Baby lonian Tiamat. From th e amazing ly co m and rebe llious (the act of rebel lion being complaints
plex jum ble of this tissue of confusio n all the in cidents of th e drago nm yth were de rived. When att ributes of the Water-god or his en emy becam e as simil ated with those of the Great Mother an d the Warrior Sun-god, th e
IX
animals with which th ese deities w er e identifie d came to be re garded jj v idu ally and col lec tively as concrete ex pres sions of the Water-god's powers.
Thus
the
cow an d the gaz elle,
the
fa lcon and
the
eagle , the
lion an d the se rpe nt, the fish and the croc odile becam e symbols o f the
life-d estroy ing powers of w ater, an d composi te by combin ing parts of these v ariou s creatu re s to expre ss the diffe rent m anife station s of the vita l po wer s of water. The process of elaboration of the attrib utes of thes e m on sters le d to the developme nt of an am azingly co m plex myth : bu t the sto ry beca me still furt her invo lved wh en the drag on's life -contr olling powers became co nfu sed with man's vital spirit an d id entifie d wi th the good or e v il genius wh ic h was re garded as th e guest, we lcome or un welcom e, o f every individual' s body, an d the arbite r of his des tiny. In m y lj f e .giving
and
the
monste rs or dragons w er e invented
re marks on the ka a nd ^D K fravashi I have mere ly hi nte d at the va st comp lexity of these ele ments of conf usion. Had I be en fami liar
wi th [Archbis ho p] Soder blom's impo rtan t
monogra p h, 1 when I was writin g Chapters I an d III, I m ig ht have at temp ted to indica te how vita l a part th e confusion of the ind ividual genius with the mythic al w onder-b east has pla ye d in the history of th e myth s relating
to the latte r. For the identif ication of the drag on with the vita l sp irit of the individual explains why the stories of the former appealed to the se lfish inte rest of every h um an being. At the time the lecture on " In cense and Libations" wa s wr itten, I had no id e a that the problems of the ka a nd tne fravashi had an y connex ion with thos e relatin g to the drago n. But in the third chapter a quo ta tion fr om Profes so r Langdon's account of "A Ritual of Atonement fo r a Ba byl onian King " indica tes that the B abylonian equivalent of th e k a a nd the f avashi, " m y go d who walks at m y side," pr esents many points of affinity to a dr agon. When in the lecture on " Incense an d Libations" 1 venture d to make the da rin g suggesti on that the ideas unde rly in g the Egyptian con ception of the ka wer e substa nti ally iden tica l wi th those en tertained by 1 Nathan Sode rblom, " Le s Fravash is Etude su r les Traces dans le Mazdeism e d'une Anci en ne Conce ption sur la Su rviva nc e des Mo rls " Pa ris, 1899 .
1
X
PREFACE
PREFACE
avashi, I was not aware of the fact the Iranians in reference to the f In [Archbishop] that such a comp arison had already been m ade. a wealth of inform ation in Soderblom 's m onog raph, which contains corroboration of the views set forth in Chapter I, the following sta te ment occu rs : " L'analys e, faitepar M. Brede- Kristensen ( /£gyptei-nes forestillinger om livet efter do den, \ 4 ss . Kristiania, 1896) du ka egyptien, jette un e vive lumiere su r notre ques tion, par la frappante analogic qui semble exister entre le sens srcinai re de ces deux termes ka e t f avashi" (p. 58, note 4). " La similitude entre le ka e t la fravashi a etc signalee deja par Nestor Lhote, Lettres Sorites dEgypte, n ote, selon M aspero, Etudes de mythologie et d'arckdologie dgyptiennes,I , 47, note 3." In suppo rt of the view, which I have su bm itted in Chapter I, that it fravashi, l ike that of the ka, was sug gested by the srcin al idea of f I m ight refer to the specific the plac enta and the fo etal membranes, stateme nt (Farvardin-Yasht. XXIII, I) that "les fravashis tiennent en de sorte qu'il ne ordre 1'enfant dans le sein de sa mere et 1'enveloppent avashi m eurt pas" (pp. cit., Soderblom, p. 41, note I). The f " nourishes and protects" (p. 57) : it is "the nurse" (p . 58) : it is always feminine (p . 58). It is in fact the place nta, and is also as soci ated with the functions of the Great Mother. " Nous voyons dans fravashi une personifica tion de la force vitale, conservee et exercee aussi apres la m ort. La fravashi est le principe de vie, la faculte qu'a 1'hom me de se souten ir par la nourriture , de m anger, d'ab sorber et ainsi d'exister et de se de velopper. Cette etymologic et le role attribute a la fravashi dans le developpem en t de 1'embryon, des animaux, des plan tes rappellent en quelqu e sorte, com me le remarque M. Fouche r, 1'idee directrice de Claude Bernard . Se ulement la fravashi n'a jamais La fravas hi est une puissance vivante , un etc une abstraction. hoimtnculus inhomine, u n etre pers onnifie comme du reste tou tes le s sources de vie et de mouvement qu e I'homme non civilise aperc.oit dans
son orgamsm e. la fravashi comme un double II ne faut p as no n plus considerer de 1'homme, elle en est plut ot une partie, un hote intime qu i con tinue s on existence apres la mort au x me m es con ditions qu'avant, et
u i oblige P-
x
le s vivants a lui fourni r les aliments necess aires"
(pp . cit.,
5 9> -
associations w ith Thus the f avashi h as the sa me remarkable and placental fu nctions as the ka. As a further suggestion o f its connexion with the Great Mother as the in augurator of the year, an d in virtu e of her physiological (uterine ) functions the moon-controlled measurer of the m onth, it is im portant to note that " Le I9e jour de Le chaque mois est egalement consecr e au x fravashis en general. premier mois porte aussi le no m de Farvard in . Quant au x fo rmes de s conformes a celles qu e nous allons fetes mensuelles, elle s semblent ra ppeler [les fetes celebrees en 1'honneur de s mortes]" (pp. cit. , p 10). with the Great Mother, Bu t the f avashi was not only associated b u t also with the Water-god or Good Dragon, fo r it controlled the nourishment
waters of irrig ation an d gave fertility to the soil (pp. cit., p 36). The fravashi was also identifi ed with the third member of the primitive th e Warrior Sun-god, no t merely in the general sense as the adversary of the powers of evil, but also in the more definite form of th e Winged Disk (pp. cit., pp. 67 and 68). avashi i s brought into close association In all thes e res pects the f with the dragon, so that in addi tion to being " the divine and immo rtal
Trinity,
element" (pp. cit., p 51), it becam e the genius or spirit that possesses It wa s in a m an an d shapes his condu ct and regulates his behaviour. fact the ex pression of a crude attempt on the part of the early psycho logists of Iran to explain the working of the instinct of self-pr eservat ion. In the tex t of Chapters I and III I have ref erred to the Gree k, of essentially the same Babylonian, Chinese, and Melanesian variants the conc eption. Soderblom refers to an interesting parallel among avashi (p. 54, Karens, whose kelah c orresponds to the Iran ian f Note 2 : compare also A. E. Cr awley, " The Idea of the Soul," 1909). In
the
development
of
the
dr agon-myth astronomical
factors play ed
a very ob trusive part: bu t I have delibe ratel y refrained from entering into a detaile d discussi on of them, because they were not pr imari ly the real causal agents in
the
srcin
of the m yth.
When
the
conception of
a sky-world or a he aven becam e drawn into the dragon story it ca m e
xu
PR EFACE
to play so prominent a part as to conv ince most writers that the my th wa s primarily an d ess entially astro nomical . Bu t it is clear that srcinally the myth wa s concerned sole ly with the regulat io n of irrigation syst ems and the sear ch upo n earth for an elixi r of life. When I put forward the sugges tio n that the annual inundation of the Nile p ro vided the informa tion fo r the first me asurement of the ye ar, I was not aw ar e of the fact that Si r N orman Lockyer (" The Dawn of Astro nomy," 1894, p. 209), had already m ade the same claim and substa ntiated it by much fuller evi de nc e than I have br ought together here. In pr eparing these lectures I have r ec eived help from so large a number of corre spondents that it is difficult to enumera te all of them. But I am under a special deb t of gratitude to Dr . Alan Ga rdiner for calling my attent ion to the fac t that the commo n ren deri ng of th e Egyp tian word didi a s " mandrake" wa s unjus tifiable, and to Mr . F. LI . Griff ith for expl aining its true m ean ing and fo r lendin g me the lite rature relati ng to this matter. Miss Winifred M. Crompto n, th e Assis tant Keeper of the Egyptian Department in the Manc hester Mu seum, gav e me very material assis tance by brin ging to my attention some very import ant literature which otherwise wo uld hav e been over lo oked ; and bot h she and Miss Dorothy Da vison helped me wi th th e drawi ng s that illus trate this volume. Mr. Wilfrid Ja cks on gave me much of the information concern ing sh ells and cepha lopods which forms such an esse ntial part of the argument, an d he also collect ed a go od deal of the literat ur e whic h I have m ad e use of. D r. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., of C ambr idge, lent me a number of books and journals which I wa s unab le to obtain in Mancheste r ; an d M r. Donald A. Mac ke n zie, of Edinbur gh , ha s poured in upon me a stream of information, espe cially upo n the folklore of S cotland and India . Nor must I forget to ack nowledge the in valuab le help and forbe arance of Mr. Henry Guppy, of th e John Rylands Li brary, and Mr. Ch arles W. E. Leig h, of th e University Library . To all of these and to the still larger number of corr espondents who ha ve helped me I of fer my m os t grate ful thank s. During the three years in which t hes e lectures were compiled 1
PR EFACE
Xlll
have been associa ted with Dr . W. H. R. Rivers, F.R.S., an d Mr. f H. Pea"" m ' r psych ologica l work in the milita ry hospitals, an d ^
th e in fluence of Of
th is intere sting experience
is m anifest upon ever y page
this volume.
Bu t pe rhaps the most poten t factor of all in sh aping my views and the stimula ting influence of Mr. ^. J. Perr y's re searches, which are converting ethnolo gy into a real science an d sh edding a bril lian t light upon the ea rly history of civiliza
dire cting my train of tho ught ha s be en
tion.
G . ELLIO T SMITH. 9 Decembe r,
1
918.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE
INCE NS E A ND LIBA T IONS
1
CHAPTER II. DR AGONS
AN D RAIN
G O DS
76
. . . . . . . . . .
CHAPTER III . TH E BIRTH OF APHRODITE
40
FACING P ACK
hoc
Q
t
'
L
akara f
akara a
b
x
XIX
FACING PAGE
d), (e ), (
h) A
g), a
13 6
i) Sepia
officin ali s Rome: UlricliHan,
1
h) a
(
137
b) P
(d) A c) P
H)
porran, w
b) T
t
g) D
1 50
h) A
i) Oliva o
"P
wins) a
i) E (a) A
b) O
b) T d) T
c) T
p. cit., p
d) T
p. cit., p
e) P
b) T
g) T
h) A e).
(i) D
olig o, a oli go milgaris,
epia officinalis, a
PAGE
, a
), a
) a )
.
,
a) T
b) T
b) T c) A
Pterocera , bryonia, t
XX
Fig. 6. (a) Picture of a bowl of water the hieroglyphic sign equivalent to h m (the word h mt means "woman" Griffith, " Beni Hasan," Pa rt III, Plate VI, Fig. 88 and p. 29). ( b) " A basket of sycamore figs" Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," Vol. I, p. 323. (c ) a nd ( d) are said by Wilkinson to be hieroglyphic signs meaning "wife" an d are apparently taken from ( b). B ut (c) is identicalwith (i), which, according to Gr iffi th (p. 14), represents abivalve shell (g, from Plate III, Fig. 3), more usually pl ace d obliquely ( h). T he vary ing conventionalizations of ( a) o r ( b) are shown in ( d), (e), and (/) (Gri ffi th, " Hieroglyphics," p. 34). ( k) The sign for a lotus leaf, which is a phonetic equivalentof the sign ( h), and , according to Gr iffith (" Hieroglyphics," p. 26) , " is probably derived from the same root, on account of its shell-like outline ". (I ) The hieroglyphic sign for a pot of w ater in such words as Nu and Nut. (m) A " pomegrana te " (replacing a bust of Tanit) up on a sacred column at Carthage(Arthur J. Evans, " M ycenzean Tree and Pillar Cult," p. 46). (») The form of the body of an octopus as conventionalized on the coins of Central Greece (compare Fig. 24 ( d))
Th e dra gon was primarily a personification of the life-giving and lifedestroying powers of -w at er . This chapter is conc er ned with the genesis of this biolo gical theory of water and its relationship to the oth er germs of civilisation.
. . . . . . b) P
d) A
b) ( c) T
d) T ub
. . . . . .
I
f
2
THE E V O L U T I O N O F THE DRAGON
ncyc lo pa edi a of Religioti and Ethics. *
S
4
THE EVOLUTION OF
THE DRAGON r
^
I
IttlL fflmr
t seq. n the Proceedings
of the British Academv, 1 917,
6
p
THE E V O L U T I O N O F THE DRAGON
ot
8
THE E V O LUTION
O F THE DRAGON
i
7. oiirnal of Egyptian Archeology,
he Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, J ssays and Studies Presented to William Ridgeway, C ournal of the Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Socie ty , 1
I
j
flHMUMN
V
rima-facie e
M
lit
ro c. Brit. Academy, p. tit. supra ; a
cience,
N
1
1
I h f. cit. su pra.
I astabas
tupas a
op.cit.f.
agabas o
1
t seq. ; a
epo rt
of he Britis h As soc iation for
1
UA n th ropolo gie, T
14
15
I
a
$) t
emoirs and Proc . Manch. Lit. and Phil. Soc. p. tit. supra.
16
THE EVOL U T I O N O F THE DRAGON
c
Is _
O
0
a
eport British Association,
1
u
ro ^
Royal Philosophical So 1 ofGlasgow, fournal of Egyptian ciety Archaeology, V XXXI. ournal of Egyptian Archaeology,
V
C
K
O
0,
17
s
er
dab} w erdab fazpr-tw to
ou rn al
of Egyptian Ar chaeolo gy, erda b i
V
19
!
o p . at. p
n situ: s
lift
erdab) w
serdab
he Journal
see d
ofEgyptian Archeology,V
p. tit. p
/> .
tit. supra, R
an,
1
IP
pp. tit.
' t citsckriftfiii- Agvptische Sprache und Altertuniskunde, B '
Encyc lop&dia ofReligion and Ethics. " S Report of the British Association for 1
M
I
op . cit. infra).
t
ankh, " ins) a
s, '
ournal of Egyptian Archeology, V
ead k
rima facie e
he Journal of Egyptian Archeology,V
I
"
W
nter alia,
Imnfi).
skangal) w sadjala), t fiun (
j, " ournal of he Royal Anthropo-
logical Institute,
1
\
C
t
tail'
p*
p. cit., p
ill!
an w
eva
o
&va,
a
etis
o
vide infra, p
j
wan shuh
hi,
o
ang
s
f- cit. p p. cit .
p
o
^I
itualof Amon] a op . at.
Ritual of Amon (
pp. cit. p
pp. at. p
.e . t
Ill
i
I
samara (
p. cit. p
hcn t
hen o
p
at. p
mrita, t
roceedings of the British Academy,
f. ci t. C
nter alia).
1
ou rage
i
reath of life, t
\LTTO\JJV^LO).
I
a? t
enius, a
*
Op . at. p
p. at. p
Ibid. p
ro
ceedings of he British Academy, V a, h
op . cit.).
w
c
pp . tit. C
p. cit. p
tt
fi).
p. t
II II
154
it., p
).
t., p
1 "
E
THE EVOLUTION OF THE DRAGON
nter a ' B
f>p. c
a*
n cxtenso.
et
et.
F
et.
et.
et.
et.
et.
et.
(Shortly.)
A