Baal Durotrigensis. A dissertation on the antient colossal figure at Cerne, Dorsetshire; and an attempt to illustrate the distinction between the primal Celtae and the Celto-Belgae of Britain / with observations on the worship of the serpent and that of the sun.

  • Sydenham, John, 1807-1846.
Date:
[1842?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Baal Durotrigensis. A dissertation on the antient colossal figure at Cerne, Dorsetshire; and an attempt to illustrate the distinction between the primal Celtae and the Celto-Belgae of Britain / with observations on the worship of the serpent and that of the sun. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    35 first successful missionary of the sun, arid he sup¬ pressed, in a great measure, the ophiolatreia of the people of Peru. In the Mexican mythology, the renovation of the world was ascribed to Vitz- liputzli, whose name was deemed ineffable, and referred to the principal luminary—the sun. He is represented seated on a globe, the symbol of his universal power, with his right hand grasping a snake, indicative of the subjection of the dra- contine worship; which event is also involved in another Mexican myth representing the serpent of Cihuacohuatl, the great mother of mankind, crushed by the mighty spirit Teotl, the invisible and supreme being9. To return nearer home, Mr. Harcourt10 says that the aboriginal inhabitants of Ireland were arkites; but that the Phoenicians introduced the worship of Baal; and that the votaries of each worship regarded those of the other with mutual hatred: and the existing tradition to which refer¬ ence has already been made, has popularly preserved in Ireland, not only the association of the serpent and the deluge, but the utter over¬ throw of that combined worship by an invading priesthood, who, since the days of monkish adap¬ tation, have been personified as St. Patrick11. 9 Clavigero, Mexico.—Humboldt, Res: i, 195. 10 Harcouit, i, 486. 11 The popular legend of “ The Last of the Serpents ” is thus characteristically and amusingly given by Mr. Croker in his “Legends of Killarney:”—“Sure everybody has heard of the blessed St. Patrick, and how he druve the sarpints and all manner of venomous things out of Ireland—how he bothered all the varmint entirely; but for all that, there was one ould sarpint left, who was too cunning to be talked out of the country, and made to drown himself. Saint Patrick didn’t well know how to manage this fellow, who was doing great havoc; till at long