Among the Pompeian relics in the Royal Museum at Naples is a representation of a woman making an offering to Priapus in order to be cured of sterility. She brings a pine cone, while her husband is near her.[684]
Evidences of the fact that boundary posts, landmarks, and milestones were intended to represent the phallus at the threshold in the Roman empire, as in the far East, abound among the same relics in the Neapolitan Museum.[685]
Le Page Renouf’s Book of the Dead in _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology_, for November, 1895. Plate xxxi.
See Barker’s _Lares and Penates; Or, Cilicia and its Governors_, p. 217 f.; also see p. 231 f., _supra_.
Ainé’s _Herculaneum et Pompéi_, Tome VIII, Planche 56, facing p. 221.
_Ibid._, Pl. 24, 25, 27, 30, 39, 41, 44, 48, 54, 55, 56, 59.
A striking confirmation of the view taken in this work of the symbolism of the serpent, as the nexus between the two sexes, the female being represented by the fig-tree, and the male by the upright stone, or pole,[686] is found in an ancient religious custom in Mysore, India. Captain J.S.F. Mackenzie contributed an interesting paper on this subject to the “Indian Antiquary.”[687] “Round about Bangalore, more especially towards the Lal Bagh and _Petta_,–as the native town is called,–three or more stones are to be found together, having representations of serpents carved upon them. These stones are erected always under the sacred fig-tree by some pious person, whose means and piety determine the care and finish with which they are executed. Judging from the number of the stones, the worship of the serpent appears to be more prevalent in the Bangalore district than in other parts of the province. No priest is ever in charge of them. There is no objection to men doing so, but from custom, or for some reason,–perhaps because the serpent is supposed to confer fertility on barren women,–the worshiping of the stones, which takes place during the Gauri feast, is confined to women of all Hindu classes and creeds. The stones, when properly erected, ought to be on a built-up stone platform facing the rising sun, and under the shade of two _peepul_ (_Ficus religiosa_) trees,–a male and female growing together, and wedded by ceremonies, in every respect the same as in the case of human beings,–close by, and growing in the same platform a nimb (_margosa_) and _bipatra_ (a kind of wood-apple), which are supposed to be living witnesses of the marriage. The expense of performing the marriage ceremony is too heavy for ordinary persons, and so we generally find only one _peepul_ and a _nimb_ on the platform. By the common people these two are supposed to represent man and wife.”