CHAPTER VI

Footnote 574:

Witches easily change themselves into horses, therefore the nail-marks of the horseshoe may be seen upon their hands. The devil rides on witch-horses, priests’ cooks are changed after death into horses, etc. Negelein, _Zeitschrift des Vereines für Volkskunde_, XI, p. 406.

Footnote 575:

Just so does the mythical ancient king Tahmuraht ride upon Ahriman, the devil.

Footnote 576:

The she-asses and their foals might belong to the Christian sun myth, because the Zodiacal sign Cancer (Summer solstice) was designated in antiquity as an ass and its young. (Compare Robertson: “Evangelical Myths,” p. 19.)

Footnote 577:

Also a centaur.

Footnote 578:

Compare the exhaustive presentation of this theme in Jähn’s “Ross und Reiter.”

Footnote 579:

Sleipnir is eight-footed.

Footnote 580:

Negelein: Ibid., p. 412.

Footnote 581:

Negelein: Ibid., p. 419.

Footnote 582:

I have since learned of a second exactly similar case.

Footnote 583:

Come, O Dionysus, in thy temple of Elis, come with the Graces into thy holy temple: come in sacred frenzy with the bull’s foot.

Footnote 584:

Preller: “Griech. Mythologie,” I, I, p. 432.

Footnote 585:

See further examples in Aigremont: “Fuss- und Schuhsymbolik.”

Footnote 586:

Aigremont: Ibid., p. 17.

Footnote 587:

Negelein: Ibid., p. 386.

Footnote 588:

Ample proofs of the Centaurs as wind gods are to be found in E. H. Meyer: “Indogermanische Mythen,” p. 447.

Footnote 589:

This is an especial motive, which must have something typical in it. My patient (“Psychology of Dementia Praecox,” p. 165) also declared that her horses had “half-moons” under their skin, like “little curls.” In the songs of Rudra of the Rigveda, of the boar Rudra it is said that his hair was “wound up in the shape of shells.” Indra’s body is covered with eyes.

Footnote 590:

This change results from a world catastrophe. In mythology the verdure and the upward striving of the tree of life signify also the turning-point in the succession of the ages.

Footnote 591:

Therefore the lion was killed by Samson, who later harvested the honey from the body. The end of summer is the plenteousness of the autumn. It is a close parallel to the sacrificium Mithriacum. For Samson, see Steinthal: “Die Sage von Simson,” _Zeitschrift für Völkerpsych._, Vol. II.

Footnote 592:

The present time is indicated by the head of the lion—because his condition is strong and impetuous.

Footnote 593:

Time is thought by the wickedest people to be a divinity who deprives willing people of essential being; by good men it is considered to be the Cause of the things of the world, but to the wisest and best it does not seem time, but God.

Footnote 594:

Philo: “In Genesim,” I, 100. (Cited by Cumont: “Textes et Monuments,” I, p. 82.)

Footnote 595:

Spiegel: “Erân. Altertumskunde,” Vol. II, p. 193. In the writings ascribed to Zoroaster, Περὶ Φύσεως, the Ananke, the necessity of fate, is represented by the air. Cumont: Ibid., I, p. 87.

Footnote 596:

Spielrein’s patient (_Jahrbuch_, III, p. 394) speaks of horses, who eat men, also exhumed bodies.

Footnote 597:

Negelein: Ibid., p. 416.

Footnote 598:

“Fight,” she said, “and fight bravely, for I will not give away an inch nor turn my back. Face to face, come on if you are a man! Strike home, do your worst and die! The battle this day is without quarter ... till, weary in body and mind, we lie powerless and gasping for breath in each other’s arms.”

Footnote 599:

P. Thomas a Villanova Wegener: “Das wunderbare äussere und innere Leben der Dienerin Gottes Anna Catherina Emmerich.” Dülmen i. W. 1891.

Footnote 600:

The heart of the mother of God is pierced by a sword.

Footnote 601:

Corresponding to the idea in Psalm xi:2, “For lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.”

Footnote 602:

K. E. Neumann: “The Speeches of Gautama Buddha,” translated from the German collection of the fragments of Suttanipāto of the Pāli-Kanon. München 1911.

Footnote 603:

With the same idea of an endogenous pain Theocritus (27, 28) calls the birth throes “Arrows of the Ilithyia.” In the sense of a wish the same comparison is found in Jesus Sirach 19:12. “When a word penetrates a fool it is the same as if an arrow pierced his loins.” That is to say, it gives him no rest until it is out.

Footnote 604:

One might be tempted to say that these were merely figuratively expressed coitus scenes. But that would be a little too strong and an unjustifiable accentuation of the material at issue. We cannot forget that the saints have, figuratively, taught the painful domestification of the brute. The result of this, which is the progress of civilization, has also to be recognized as a motive for this action.

Footnote 605:

Apuleius (“Metam.,” Book II, 31) made use of the symbolism of bow and arrow in a very drastic manner, “Ubi primam sagittam saevi Cupidinis in ima praecordia mea delapsam excepi, arcum meum en! Ipse vigor attendit et oppido formido, ne nervus rigoris nimietate rumpatur” (When I pulled out the first arrow of fierce Cupid that had entered into my inmost breast, behold my bow! Its very vigor stretches it and makes me fear lest the string be broken by the excessive tautness).

Footnote 606:

Thus the plague-bringing Apollo. In Old High German, arrow is called “strala” (_strahlen_ = rays).

Footnote 607:

Spielrein’s patient (_Jahrbuch_, III, p. 371) has also the idea of the cleavage of the earth in a similar connection. “Iron is used for the purpose of penetrating into the earth ... with iron man can ... create men ... the earth is split, burst open, man is divided ... is severed and reunited. In order to make an end of the burial of the living, Jesus Christ calls his disciples to penetrate into the earth.”

The motive of “cleavage” is of general significance. The Persian hero Tishtriya, who also appeared as a white horse, opens the rain lake, and thus makes the earth fruitful. He is called Tîr = arrow. He was also represented as feminine, with a bow and arrow. Mithra with his arrow shot the water from the rock, so as to end the drought. The knife is sometimes found stuck in the earth. In Mithraic monuments sometimes it is the sacrificial instrument which kills the bull. (Cumont: Ibid., pp. 115, 116, 165.)

Footnote 608:

The result is doubtful: the body borne down by the weight of the forest is carried into empty Tartaros: Ampycides denies this: from out of the midst of the mass, he sees a bird with tawny feathers issue into the liquid air.

Footnote 609:

Spielrein’s patient also states that she has been shot through by God. (3 shots:) “then came a resurrection of the spirit.” This is the symbolism of introversion.

Footnote 610:

This is also represented mythologically in the legend of Theseus and Peirithoos, who wished to capture the subterranean Proserpina. With this aim they enter a chasm in the earth in the grove Kolonos, in order to get down to the underworld; when they were below they wished to rest, but being enchanted they hung on the rocks, that is to say, they remained fixed in the mother and were therefore lost for the upperworld. Later Theseus was freed by Hercules (revenge of Horus for Osiris), at which time Hercules appears in the rôle of the death-conquering hero.

Footnote 611:

This formula applies most directly to dementia praecox.

Footnote 612:

See Roscher: s. v. Philoktetes, Sp. 2318, 15.

Footnote 613:

When the Russian sun-hero Oleg stepped on the skull of the slain horse, a serpent came out of it and bit him on the foot. Then he became sick and died. When Indra in the form of Çyena, the falcon, stole the soma drink, Kriçanu, the herdsman, wounded him in his foot with his arrow (“Rigveda,” I, 155; IV, 322).

Footnote 614:

Similar to the Lord of the Grail who guards the chalice, the mother symbol. The myth of Philoctetes is taken from a more involved connection, the Hercules myth. Hercules has two mothers, the benevolent Alcmene and the pursuing Hera (Lamia), from whose breast he has absorbed immortality. Hercules conquered Hera’s serpent while yet in the cradle; that is to say, conquered the “terrible mother,” the Lamia. But from time to time Hera sent to him attacks of madness, in one of which he killed his children (Lamia motive). According to an interesting tradition, this deed occurred at the moment when Hercules refused to perform a great act in the service of Eurystheus. As a result of the refusal, the libido, in readiness for the work, regressed in a typical manner to the unconscious mother-imago, which resulted in madness (as to-day), during which Hercules identifies himself with Lamia (Hera) and murders his own children. The delphic oracle communicates to him the fact that he is named Hercules because he owes his immortal fame to Hera, who through her persecution compelled him to great deeds. It can be seen that “the great deed” really means the conquering of the mother and through her to win immortality. His characteristic weapon, the club, he cuts from the maternal olive tree. Like the sun, he possessed the arrows of Apollo. He conquered the Nemean lion in his cave, which has the signification of “the grave in the mother’s womb” (see the end of this chapter). Then follows the combat with the Hydra, the typical battle with the dragon; the complete conquering of the mother. (See below.) Following this, the capture of the Cerynean doe, whom he wounded with an arrow in the foot. This is what generally happens to the hero, but here it is reversed. Hercules showed the captured Erymanthian boar to Eurystheus, whereupon the latter in fear crept into a cask. That is, he died. The Stymphalides, the Cretan bull, and the man-devouring horse of Diomedes are symbols of the devastating powers of death, among which the latter’s relation to the mother may be recognized especially. The battle for the precious girdle of the Amazon queen Hippolyte permits us to see once more very clearly the shadow of the mother. Hippolyte is ready to give up the girdle, but Hera, changing herself into the form of Hippolyte, calls the Amazons against Hercules in battle. (Compare Horus, fighting for the head ornament of Isis, about which there is more later. Chap. 7.) The liberation of Hesione results from Hercules journeying downwards with his ship into the belly of the monster, and killing the monster from within after three days labor. (Jonah motive; Christ in the tomb or in hell; the victory over death by creeping into the womb of the mother, and its destruction in the form of the mother. The libido in the form of the beautiful maiden again conquered.) The expedition to Erythia is a parallel to Gilgamesh, also to Moses, in the Koran, whose goal was the confluence of the two seas: it is the journey of the sun to the Western sea, where Hercules discovered the straits of Gibraltar (“to that passage”: Faust), and with the ship of Helios set out towards Erythia. There he overcame the gigantic guardian Eurytion (Chumbaba in the Gilgamesh epic, the symbol of the father), then the triune Geryon (a monster of phallic libido symbolism), and at the same time wounded Hera, hastening to the help of Geryon by an arrow shot. Then the robbery of the herd followed. “The treasure attained with difficulty” is here presented in surroundings which make it truly unmistakable. Hercules, like the sun, goes to death, down into the mother (Western sea), but conquers the libido attached to the mother and returns with the wonderful kine; he has won back his libido, his life, the mighty possession. We discover the same thought in the robbery of the golden apples of Hesperides, which are defended by the hundred-headed dragon. The victory over Cerberus is also easily understood as the victory over death by entrance into the mother (underworld). In order to come to his wife Deianira, he has to undergo a terrible battle with a water god, Achelous (with the mother). The ferryman Nessus (a centaur) violates Deianira. With his sun arrows Hercules killed this adversary, but Nessus advised Deianira to preserve his poisoned blood as a love charm. When after the insane murder of Iphitus Delphi denied him the speech of the oracle, he took possession of the sacred tripod. The delphic oracle then compelled him to become a slave of Omphale, who made him like a child. After this Hercules returned home to Deianira, who presented him with the garment poisoned with Nessus’ blood (the Isis snake), which immediately clung so closely to his skin that he in vain attempted to tear it off. (The casting of the skin of the aging sun-god; Serpent, as symbol of rejuvenation.) Hercules then ascended the funeral pyre in order to destroy himself by fire like the phœnix, that is to say, to give birth to himself again from his own egg. No one but young Philoctetes dared to sacrifice the god. Therefore Philoctetes received the arrows of the sun and the libido myth was renewed with this Horus.

Footnote 615:

Apes, also, have an instinctive fear of snakes.

Footnote 616:

How much alive are still such primitive associations is shown by Segantini’s picture of the two mothers: cow and calf, mother and child in the same stable. From this symbolism the surroundings of the birthplace of the Savior are explained.

Footnote 617:

The myth of Hippolytos shows very beautifully all the typical parts of the problem: His stepmother Phaedra wantonly falls in love with him. He repulses her, she complains to her husband of violation; the latter implores the water god Poseidon to punish Hippolytos. Then a monster comes out of the sea. Hippolytos’ horses shy and drag Hippolytos to death. But he is resuscitated by Aesculapius and is placed by the gods with the wise nymph, Egeria, the counsellor of Numa Pompilius. Thus the wish is fulfilled; from incest, wisdom has come.

Footnote 618:

Compare Hercules and Omphale.

Footnote 619:

Compare the reproach of Gilgamesh against Ishtar.

Footnote 620:

Spielrein’s patient is also sick from “a snake bite.” _Jahrbuch_, III, p. 385.

Footnote 621:

The entirely introverted patient of Spielrein uses similar images: she speaks of “a rigidity of the soul on the cross,” of “stone figures” which must be “ransomed.”

I call attention here to the fact that the symbolisms mentioned above are striking examples of Silberer’s “functional category.” They depict the condition of introversion.

Footnote 622:

W. Gurlitt says: “The carrying of the bull is one of the difficult ἆθλα” (services) which Mithra performed in the service of freeing humanity; “somewhat corresponding, if it is permitted to compare the small with the great, with the carrying of the cross by Christ” (Cumont: “Textes et Monuments,” I, 72). Surely it is permissible to compare the two acts.

Man should be past that period when, in true barbaric manner, he haughtily scorned the strange gods, the “dii minorum gentium.” But man has not progressed that far, even yet.

Footnote 623:

Robertson (“Evangelical Myths,” p. 130) gives an interesting contribution to the question of the symbol of the carrying of the cross. Samson carried the “pillars of the gates from Gaza and died between the columns of the temple of the Philistines.” Hercules, weighted down by his burden, carried his columns to the place (Gades), where he also died according to the Syrian version of the legend. The columns of Hercules mark the western point where the sun sinks into the sea. In old art he was actually represented carrying the two columns under his arms in such a way that they exactly formed a cross. Here we perhaps have the origin of the myth of Jesus, who carries his own cross to the place of execution. It is worth noting that the three synoptics substitute a man of the name of Simon from Cyrene as bearer of the cross. Cyrene is in Libya, the legendary scene upon which Hercules performed the labor of carrying the columns, as we have seen, and Simon (Simson) is the nearest Greek name-form for Samson, which in Greek might have been read Simson, as in Hebrew. But in Palestine it was Simon, Semo or Sem, actually a name of a god, who represented the old sun-god Semesch, who was identified with Baal, from whose myth the Samson myth has doubtless arisen. The god Simon enjoyed especial honor in Samaria. “The cross of Hercules might well be the sun’s wheel, for which the Greeks had the symbol of the cross. The sun’s wheel upon the bas-relief in the small metropolis at Athens contains a cross, which is very similar to the Maltese cross.” (See Thiele: “Antike Himmelsbilder,” 1898, p. 59.)

Footnote 624:

The Greek myth of Ixion, who was bound to the “four-spoked wheel,” says this almost without disguise. Ixion first murdered his stepfather, but later was absolved from guilt by Zeus and blessed with his favor. But the ingrate attempted to seduce Hera, the mother. Zeus deceived him, however, allowing the goddess of the clouds, Nephele, to assume Hera’s form. (From this connection the centaurs have arisen.) Ixion boasted of his deed, but Zeus as a punishment plunged him into the underworld, where he was bound to a wheel continually whirled around by the wind. (Compare the punishment of Francesca da Rimini in Dante and the “penitents” by Segantini.)

Footnote 625:

Cited from _Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse_, Jahrgang II, p. 365.

Footnote 626:

The symbolism of death appearing in abundance in dreams has been emphasized by Stekel (“Sprache des Traumes,” p. 317).

Footnote 627:

Compare the Cassius scene above.