THE COSMIC FliKT.

345

THE COSMIC FEET.

UV LAVVREXCE PARMLY P.ROWX.

mythology the sky sometimes taken for a soUd surface, some-

is
IX
times for an upper sea while the solar, lunar, and other celestial
;

deities are conceived as traveling on their own feet, or on horses,

in chariots, in boats, etc.

Solar, lunar, and stellar boats have prominent places in the

mythology of the Egyptians but in another view their celestial
;

deities cross the heaven on foot. Thus the sun-god Ra is "the great
walker who goes (daily) over the same course" "his form is that
—
of the walker" —
he is "the walking god" ("Litany of Ra," I, 62, 72 ;

II, 17, in Records of the Past, VIII, pp. HI et seq. ). In the

Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead, Ra is a "Runner," to
whom it is said "Thou stridest over the heaven, being glad of
:

heart" (X\'). His "strides are long as he lifteth up his legs";

and he steps over the supports with which Shu upholds the heaven,
passing through "the gate of the lord of the east" (ibid., XCII,
CVII). Even when the Egyptians symbolized the sun by a winged
human eye, the latter was sometimes figured with the legs and
feet of a man (Book of the Dead, Saite Recension, Turin papyrus,
vignette to CLXIII). Among the literary hieroglyphics, a pair of
human legs (with feet) have the primary significance of moving
forward, advancing ; and according to Horapollo, "The feet con-
joined and advancing symbolize the course of the sun in the winter
solstice" {Hieroglyph., II, 13), as probably suggested by the fact
that the sun's annual advance northward begins at that solstice.
In the Mexican pictograph codices we find a pair of fe.t with three
rods (for light) radiating from the ankle of each foot (Church-
ward. Signs and Symbols, p. 220. figure).
In oneHindu view the sun-god crosses the heaven three in
steps
— "X'ishnu traversed world three times he planted
this his
foot"
— "he stepped three ;

— which are explained as belonging

steps""

to the eastern mountain, the meridian sky, and the western moun-
tain (Rigveda, I. 17, 18, 22). In Psalm xix. 5, the rising sun
"rejoiceth as a strong man (or giant) to run a race" (cf. Eccles.
i. 15), just as Ra the Runner strides over the heaven, "glad in
heart." In Job xx. 14. Jehovah in his solar character "walks in
the circuit of heaven" (the zodiac path), and ibid. ix. 8. "he treadeth
 — —

346 THE OPEN COURT.

upon the heights of the sea (Heb.. hanwthe yam: A. V., 'waves of
—
the sea")"- i. e.. upon the waters above, which were divided from
those below at the time of the creation (Gen. i. 6, 7). In Psalm
xxix. 3, "the God of glory thundereth the Lord is upon many
:

waters" and ibid. civ. 3, God "makes the clouds his chariot" and
;

"walks upon the wings of the wind." In Habakkuk iii. 15, it is said
to Jehovah "Thou didst walk through the sea with thy horses"
:

the celestial sea here being intended, while the horses are apparently
wind symbols. But Jehovah is obviously conceived as walking on
dry land in Nahum i. 3, where "the clouds are the dust of his

feet."

THE SOLAR DIONYSUS WALKING ON THE WAVES OF THE

CELESTIAL SEA.
(From Gazette archcologiquc. Vol. L Plate 2).

On found in Syria, the solar Dionysus, the great

a gold plate
traveler of Greek mythology, is figured walking on the waves of the
celestial sea, with an upright torch in his right hand for the morning
(

light), while in his left hand he holds an inverted torch (for the
evening light. Gazette archcolog., I, p. 5 and Plate 2). The Norse
solar god \'idar, who will finally slay the wolf Fenrir (the night
and underworld), walks noiselessly on both air and water {Elder
Edda, "Skaldskap," 3?) the boar that killed Frey runs on sea
;

and air (Younger Edda, I, 43): and a famous Danish sea com-
mander, Odde, could traverse the ocean without a ship, raise
storms, etc. (Saxo Grammaticus. p. 249: Thorpe, Xorth. MythoL,
I. p. 215). The Scandinavian Ullr, probably a solar figure of
 THE CDS.MIC FEET. 347

winter, crosses the sea on a bone Saxo Gram., p. 130), which

(

Finn Alagnusen explains as skates (Lex. MytJwL, p. 765) and the ;

Scandinavian "golden shoes of Paradise" enable the wearer to walk

on water and air (Brewer, Diet. Phrase and Fable, s. v. "Golden
Slipper"). In the Persian Shall Xauieh, both Feridun and Kai-
Khosrau walk across a river without wetting their feet (De Guber-
natis. Zoo. Myth., I, p. 117). Proclus says that "the aquatic in
divine natures indicates a providential inspection and government
inseparable from water ; hence also the oracle calls these gods

water-walkers" ( Tim., IV). Among Masonic symbols we find a pair

of feet walking on water (Oliver. Initiation, p. 156).
Job refers to the moon as "walking in brightness" (xxxi. 26).
The Greek Circe, a lunar figure, walks on the waves "on these, as
—
though on the 'firm shore, she impresses her footsteps, and with
dry feet skims along the surface of the water," as Ovid has it
{Met., XIV, 1). The reflection of the moon on the sea appears
to be represented by Cymopolia (= wave- walker ), a daughter of
Poseidon ( Xeptune, the terrestrial sea) according to Hesiod (Theog.,
819). But the w^alker or runner on water sometimes has the char-
acter of the wind, as in the case of Iphicles, the swift runner of
Homer, who runs on the growing grain without bending it, as well
as on the surface of the sea (//., XXIII, 636, etc.). Both marvels
were attributed to Camilla, queen of the A'olsci, according to Virgil,
who savs that she ran over the water without wetting her feet
(Aen., Mil, 803; XI, 433).
The Greek Poseidon traveled over the terrestrial sea on horses
or sea-monsters (//., XIII, 17, etc.). as did his son Triton (Cicero,
De A'at.. Deor., I, 28). Poseidon gave his giant son Orion the
power of walking over the sea without wetting his feet (Apollod.,
I, 4. 3). and Orion was originally of solar character although
finally constellated in the house of Taurus — anciently w'ith his feet
on the celestial Eridanus. The starry Orion was sacred to Horus
(Plutarch. De I side. 22), who is figured in a boat for the con-
stellation in the oblong zodiac of Dendera and in all probability :

this Horus-Orion is he "whose strides are long, who comes forth

from Annu (the heaven)" as the first of the forty-two Assessors
of the Egyptian Judgment Hall {Book of the Dead. CXXA'b,
Th^ban), for these figures doubtless represent the forty-two con-
stellations recognized by some of the ancient astronomers. Another
of these Assessors, placed midway in the group, is called "Leg of
fire, who comest forth from Akhekhu" (Theban). or "Glowing
feet gone out of the night" (Saite), and probably represents the
348 THE OPEN COURT.

Ophiucus of the Babylonio-Greek sphere, directly opposite Orion.

The two Egyptian constellations therefore appear to be ancient
representatives of the solar god as the youth and the aged, be-
longing respectively to spring and autumn, as to east and west.
A cosmic man of normal structure of course requires feet (and
legs), which are naturally conceived as invisible. In one view his
invisible feet appear to be placed on the earth, which includes the
sea across either or both of which he would be conceived to walk
;

from east to west. In the I'ishnu Piirana the whole universe is

from Vishnu, who assumes its form the heaven coming from his :

head, the sun from his eyes, the earth from his feet, etc. while —
the earth-goddess is said to have been produced from the sole of
his foot (I. 12, 13: cf. II, 7: A", 2). In Macrobius. the late
Egyptian Serapis describes himself with the heaven for his head,
the sun for his eyes, the sea for his body, the earth for his feet,
etc. {Sat., I, 23). In an Orphic fragment preserved by Clement
of Alexandria, the pantheistic Zeus is seated on his golden throne
in heaven, with the earth beneath his feet (Stroiii., \', 14) ; and
Jehovah says the heaven is his throne and the earth his footstool
(Is. Ixvi. 1; Matt. v. 33. etc.). Such a cosmic figure is naturally
fable(j to have left impressions of his feet on the earth. Thus a
cavity, some five on the summit of Adam's Peak in
feet long,
Ceylon, is a footprint of Siva according to the Hindus of Buddha, ;

according to the Buddhists of Adam, according to the Moham-

;

medans of St. Thomas, according to the Christians (Monier-

;

Williams, Buddhism, p. 511). The Mohammedans also have a

footprint of Abraham at ]\Iecca Sale's Koran, Pref. Dis., IV,
(

9,84), and the ancient Irish attributed one to their "first chieftain"
on the sacred stone upon which their kings or chiefs were inaugu-
rated (Moore, History of Ireland, I. p. 68). In India, representa-
tions of the two and of Buddha are common objects
feet of \'ishnu
of worship Monier-W'illiams, pp. 5C6-314) those of Buddha some-
( ;

times being figured on a footstool under his throne (ibid., p. 523).

Other pairs of feet are found on ancient stones in Britain, Ireland,
Australia, Central America, etc. (Churchward, Signs and Symbols,
p. 221).
In another view, the feet and legs of the cosmic man are as-
signed to the underworld. Thus where the Osirified deceased is

assimilated to the panthcos in the Litany of Ra, each member of his

body is a subordinate god, his legs being "he who traverses the

hidden places" (IV. 2, 8). When Jehovah was seen in a vision,

"darkness was under his feet" (2 Sam. xxii. 10: Psalm xviii. 9).
 THE COSMIC FEET. 349

In Daniel's symbolic image of Nebuchadnezzar, the head is of gold,

the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the
legs of iron, and the feet "part of iron and part of clay" (Dan. ii.
31-33) which appears to have been suggested primarily by a
;

cosmic man with his legs and feet in the underworld, having the
sun for his head, etc. But Daniel's scheme was doubtless derived
from the Persian mythology, where the four periods of the Zara-
thustrian millennium are respectively of gold, silver, steel, and
"mixed with iron" Dinkard, VIII; Balunan Vast, I, 1-5; cf.
(

Origen, Cont. Cels., Vl, 22).

Again, the cosmic man appears to have his feet on the myth-
ical underworld sea, the Biblical"waters under the earth" (Ex.
XX. 4. etc.). In the Book of the Dead (XLII, both Recensions)
the legs of the deceased are said to be those of Nut (the heaven).
Horapollo says that the Egyptians, "to signify an impossibility,"
represented "a man's feet walking on the water," or "a headless
man" (Hieroglyph.. I, 38). Both are well-known symbols, found
in the Ramessevmi at Thebes and elsewhere ; but in all probability
the headless man originally represented a cosmic god with his head
cut off (at night), while the feet on the water belong to the same
god walking on the underworld sea. In the Book of the Dead the
deceased says, referring to the solar Ra: "I walk through his way;
I know the surface of the basin Maat" from which he passes —
through the gate of Set to reach the horizon (XVII, 18. 20, Saite).
Here "the basin Maat" evidently belongs to the underworld sea,
and it appears that the feet of Ra in his soli-cosmic character were
sometimes identified with the boat which sailed over that basin.
Thus in an ancient text we read: "The soles of the two feet of this
Ra-J\Ieri (the deceased assimilated to Ra) are the double Maati
boat" (Budge, Gods, I, p. 110). "Lord of Maat upon his two feet"
is the name of the upper section of the door of the hall of the
double :\Iaati the Dead, CXXV, Theban).
(Book of Maati is the
plural of Maat, and the Hall of the double Maati is the Judgment
Hall in the underworld while the goddess Maat is represented
;

(sometimes in duplicate) in a sitting posture, her eyes sealed with

wafers which indicates that she was a figure of the dark and
;

inactive underworld. In Egyptian, maat signifies truth, perhaps

in some such primitive sense as that of the basis upon which knowl-
edge stands like a man on his feet for the "foot" or "sole of the
;

foot" is also maat or mat in Egyptian, and the region of Maat or

Maati is at the foundation of the world. As a double region or
350 THE OPEN COURT.

hall it is connected with "the two horizons" of Egyptian mythol-

ogy, those of the east and the west.
With the northern sky recognized as the top of the celestial
sphere, as it has been from a remote antiquity, the lower world

was naturally transferred by some to the region of perpetual occul-

tation, that portion of the southern sky which is never visible to an
observer in the northern hemisphere. Diodorus Siculus says that
the Babylonians assign the visible constellations to the living, "and
the others, which do not appear (to us), they conceive are con-
stellations for the dead" (II, 31); while Mrgil has it that the
celestial north pole "isalways elevated but the other, under our
:

feet (sic), is seen by gloomy Styx and the ghosts below": and
there "dead night forever reigns in silence, and, outspread, wraps
all things in darkness" (Georg., I, 243. et seq.). The cosmic man
is naturally conceived with his feet in this region, and we appear
to have a mere variant of such a concept in connection with the
arms and legs of the deceased with the four
identification of the
Egyptian funeral gods and the cardinal points the two legs being :

assigned to Amset (the man) in the south and Oebhsennuf (the

hawk-headed in the west, while the two arms are assigned to
)

Hapi (the ape-headed) in the north and Tuametef (the jackal-

headed) in the east (Budge, Gods, I, p. 492).
Buddha instantaneously transported himself
across the Ganges,
while his companions searched for boats {Mahavagga, ^"I, 28; Book
of the Great Decease, I. 23) ; a great congregation of people being
thus transported with him, according to the Life of Buddha trans-
lated into Chinese by Dharmaraksha (Fo-slio-hing-tsan-king,l\ ,22).
A brother of Purna, one of Buddha's disciples, was in extreme
danger in a ship during a black storm, but the spirits that Avere
favorable to Purna apprised the latter of the situation, and he trans-
ported himself through the air to the deck of his brother's ship ;

whereupon "the tempest ceased as if Sumera (the god of storms)

had arrested it" Burnouf Introduction a IJiistoirc du Bouddhisme,
( .

2d ed., p. 229). Again, when Buddha was preaching to unbelievers

on the bank of a broad and rapid river near Sravasi, a man suddenly
appeared "walking on the surface of it." He crossed thus to wor-
ship Buddha, and declared he was enabled to do so because he be-
lieved {Chinese Dhanunapada, lY, 1). These three Buddhist mir-
acles are referable primarily to the walking of the sun-god on the
celestial sea but the rivers in two of them may reasonably be
;

recognized as counterparts of the earth-surrounding ocean-river of

the ancients, opposite sides of which were crossed by the sun at his
 —
THE COSMIC FEET. 351

rising and setting respectively. It was believed that the Buddhist

Rishis could walk on the water, float on the air, etc. (Hardy,
Legends of Bitddhisiit, p. 178, etc.).
The Gospel miracle of cahiiing the storm is performed by Jesus
when crossing the Sea of Galilee on an easterly course, while he
walks on the water during a voyage westward. Both miracles occur
at night, which indicates that the Sea of Galilee (= Circle) was in
one view a mythic counterpart of the underworld sea. But in
another view it appears to- represent the earth-surrounding ocean-
river ; for the outgoing and return voyages of Jesus correspond
respectively to those of the sun at the beginning and end of night
the land to which Jesus goes, after the calming of the storm, an-
swering to the terra fir ma of the underworld. Thus it appears
that the Gospel ship of the outgoingvoyage is mythically the Egyp-
tian Sektet boat in which the sun-god sets, while that of the return
voyage is the Matet boat in which the sun-god rises (see Book of
the Dead, X\\ X\h, etc.).
In Mark iv. 35-41, we doubtless have the oldest extant version
of the calming of the storm by Jesus, and there we read that he
suggested to the Disciples that they cross the sea, "evening being
come. .And having dismissed the crowd, they take him with them,
. .

as he was in the ship but also other small ships w'ere with him
;

(probably for those of the stars), and comes a violent storm of

wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it already was filled.
And he was on the stern, on the cushion sleeping. xA.nd they
arouse him, and say to him, Teacher, is it no concern to thee that
we perish? And having been aroused, he rebuked the wind, and
said to the sea. Silence, be quiet. And the wind fell, and there was
a great calm. And he said to them. Why are ye fearful thus?
Have ye no faith?" etc. Arriving "on the other side," in '"the
country of the Gadarenes" (for the underw'orld terra firiua), Jesus
there found a man "who had his dwelling in the tombs," and dis-
possessed him of an unclean spirit which was also a legion of two
thousand such spirits no incident of the return voyage being related
;

(ibid. v. 1-21). These stories reappear in the same order and

substantially in the same form in Luke viii. 22-39, and again in
Matt. viii. 16-34, where they are much abbreviated, with two pos-
sessed men instead of one. The calming of the storm by the solar
god and others is found in a multitude of myths and legends which
cannot be considered here.
The voyage during which Jesus calms the storm is in no way
connected in the Gospels with the return voyage during which he
 —
352 THE OPEN COURT.

walks on the water ; in fact, the latter begins at sunset and closes
at sunrise. In Mark vi. 45-52, Jesus remains praying on a moun-
tain (for the Egyptian Manu, the mountain of sunset, Book of the
Dead, XV, XVb, when his Disciples start across the sea for
etc.)
Bethsaida on the western shore and he enters the ship only after
;

it has gone a long distance "And evening being come, the ship was
:

in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. And he saw
them (the Disciples) laboring in rowing, for the wind was contrary
to them; and about the fourth watch (the last quarter) of the night,
he comes to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them.
But they, seeing him walking on the sea, thought him to be an
apparition and cried out for all saw him, and were troubled. And
;

immediately he spoke to them, and said to them. Be of good cour-

age ;I am he fear not. And he went to them into the ship, and
;

the wind fell," etc. Luke omits the story altogether. John has it
with some variations (vi. 16-21) stating that it was already dark
;

when the voyage began specifying twenty-five or thirty furlongs

;

as the distance of the ship from its starting-place when Jesus was
first seen and adding that when he had gone aboard, "immediately
;

the ship was at the land to which they were going." Matthew
( xiv. 22-34) follows Mark in substantially the same words saying ;

that Jesus went to the Disciples, walking on the water, "in the fourth
watch of the night," and adding the following account after the
words of Jesus: "And answering him, Peter said, Lord, if it be
thou, bid me to come to thee upon the waters. And he (Jesus)
said. Come. And having descended from the ship, Peter walked
upon the waters to go to Jesus. But seeing the wind strong, he
was affrighted; and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying. Lord,
save me. And immediately Jesus, having stretched out his hand,
took hold of him, and said to him, O thou of little faith, why didst
thou doubt? And they, having entered into the ship, the wind
ceased." etc.

In the Book of the Dead, the fourth hour or watch of the night
(the last quarter) is that in which "the gods of the pure waters

purify themselves. . . .passing from night to day" (CXXVb, 45, 46,

Saite). It is the hour when the solar eye returns to its place on
the forehead of Ra (i. e., when the sun rises ibid., CXL, 4). The
close of this watch is coincident with the opening of the day, which
in all probability suggested Matthew's introduction of Peter as

walking on the water to Jesus shortly or immediately before the

ship landed; for Peter (Petros) is the first Apostle in the Synoptic
Gospels, and while the Greek name Petros signifies a stone (Ara-
 THE COSMIC FEET. 353

niaic KepJia, Grecized Kephas, as always for Peter in 1 Corinthians

— cf. John i. 42). it was doubtless referred by the earliest Jewish-

Christians to the Hebrew peter = opener, first-born (Ex. xiii. 12,

— from patar = open). In Hebrew we also

etc. to a variant find

form, pathah = open, which radically the same as the Egyp-

to is

tian Ptoli= Opener (as of the day and year) and the Egyptians ;

had a god Petra =^ Seer, Revealer. or Appearer (see Budge, Book

of the Dead. HI, in voc. Gods, I. p. 252). He is an opener in the
;

Book of the Dead, where we read: "The doors of heaven are

opened to me. .and the first temple (in the heaven) hath been un-
. .

fastened to me by the god Petra" (LXVHI, Theban cf. Petros as —

the first Apostle with "the keys of the kingdom of heaven," in
Matt. xvi. 19). Moreover, according to Mark, the ship to which
Jesus (and Peter) walked goes to Bethsaida (= Fishing-town),
which John says was the city of Andrew, Peter, and Philip as the
first three of the twelve Apostles (i. 40-44 the two former being —
fishermen) ; probable that some of the early astron-
whence it is

omizing Christians recognized Bethsaida as a terrestrial counterpart

of the three "watery signs" as anciently taken for the threefold place
of winter as the first season of the year. In connection with this
view, Andrew (^ Manly) would belong to Aquarius, the only man
in theBabylonio-Greek zodiac, while Peter belongs to Pisces (= the
Fishes), the opening sign of the spring equinox in the precessional
period of about 1 to 2000 A. D.^ and Peter in his astronomical —
character could be conceived as walking on the stream from the
Water Jar of Aquarius, which flows below the constellation of
Pisces. Philip therefore appears to belong to Aries in John's group-
ing, but he is dififerently placed in the Synoptic catalogues, where
Peter is always the first.

Lucian satirizes the Gospel story of walking on the water in

his account of the Corkfoots who skimmed over the waves as if on
level ground, and who lived in Phello (^ Corkplace), a city built
on a large cork (TVr. Hist., II. 4). Again, in his Philopseudes
(^Lie-lovers. 13). the same author introduces a man walking on
the water in broad daylight, as well as other more or less close
parallels to Gospel miracles. The Christian saints Raymond and
Hyacinth are both fabled to have walked on the water.
The Hindu Vasudeva is figured walking accros the river Ya-
muna, on the surface of the water, holding on his head a basket
in which he carries the infant Krishna thus escaping from Kansa, ;

who is a counterpart of the Gospel Herod as a figure of the night

seeking to slay the new-born solar child (Moor, Hindu Panth.,
354 TUL: Ol'li.X CUL'KI

Plate 58) : and in a medieval legend the giant St. Christopher

(= Christ-bearer) Jordan on
carries the infant Jesus across the
hisback (Jameson and Eastlake, Our Lord in Art, I. pp. 430-450).
Here we have the rising sun conceived as an infant unable to walk ;

both rivers primarily representing the earth-surrounding ocean-river

across which the solar infant is carried by a figure like the Egyp-
tian Shu up'iiolding the sky or the sun. And in all probability
these rivers were secondarilv identified with the celestial Eridanus

VASUDEVA CARRYING KRISHNA ACROSS THE YAMUNA,

WALKING ON THE WATER.
(From Moor's Hindu Pantheon, Plate 58.)

on which the constellated Orion walks. The Eridanus is on the

horizon in the house of xAries, the spring sign of about 2000-1 B.C.,
thus being an appropriate stream for the sun-god to cross when
born at the spring equinox. The words Eridanus and Jordan are
probably mere variants, having the same, radical consonants.
The Greek (Edipus was so named from his swollen feet, which
had been pierced, with cords passed through them, for the purpose
of suspending him from a tree shortly after his birth (Apollod..
Ill, 5, etc.). The infant Horus is "the feeble-footed"; and is
 —
'

THE COSMIC FEET. 355

even conceived as without feet (Bonwick. Eg. Bel., p. 158). Plu-

tarch says that Harpocrates (Har-pa-krat = Horus the child) was
born lame in his lower limbs, having- been delivered of Isis pre-
maturely at about the time of the winter solstice {De Iside, 18 and
43 —the spring equinox probably being considered the proper time
for his birth). The Egyptian Bes, with short and deformed legs,
is sometimes identified with Ptah =
the Opener (of the day and
year — Budge, Gods, II. p. 286, Plate [see frontispiece] Book of
;

the Dead, vignette to CLXIV) and ; the Osirified in the underworld

says, "My feet are the feet of Ptah" {Book of the Dead, XLII,
Theban). The Greek Ilephrestos also had the dwarf form in his
most ancient images (Herod.. Ill, Z7) and according to Homer ;

he was born weak and lame in both feet, on account of which defect
his mother Hera dropped him from Olympos (//., X\'III, 390).
Later in life, his angry father Zeus seized him by the leg and hurled
him from heaven, an entire day from dawn till sunset being occu-
pied in the fall (//., I, 590. etc.) and some classic authors ascribe
;

his lameness to this second or daily fall, which is properly from

noon till sunset. Satan, as identified with Lucifer (Is. xiv. 12,
\ulg. and A. \ .) is often represented lame in one foot as a result
of his fall from heaven. Loki, the Evil One of Scandinavian
mythology, was cast down and lamed while ; the goldsmith A'olund
(German, Wieland), the Norse counterpart of Heph?estos (= \\x\-
can the smith), was bound and hamstrung by King Nidud (the
underworld figure) but finally "Laughing Yolund rose in air. and
:

Nidud sad remained sitting" {Elder Edda, "Volundarkvida," II,

11, 16, 35). The Greek solar hero Bellerophon attempted to fly
to heaven on Pegasus, but was thrown to earth and lamed (or
blinded, according to some) when his horse was stung by a gadfly
sent by angry Zeus (Pind., Isth., \TI. 44; Schol. ad Find. 01.,
XIII, 130).
In the inscription of Darius at El Khargeh, Ra is "the youth
and the old one" (Records of the Past, Mil, pp. 141. 143). In
the "Litany of Ra/' when he arrives in the Amenti, "his form is
that of the old man" {ibid., p. 110). In the Book of Hades, Horus
(of the western horizon) is represented leaning upon a staff (Rec-
ords of the Past, X, pp. 101, 107, 117), and so is Tum (the setting
sun ibid., pp. 92, 96). Horus is the cripple-deity who "was be-
gotten in the dark," the primordial Elder Horus of the later Egyp-
tian theology (Plut., De Iside, 54) and in the Book of the Dead,
;

CXXXV, "Horus is made strong each day" (Theban) or "Integrity

is restored to Horus every day" (Saite). According to Plutarch,
350 THE OPEN CUUKT

the Egyptians celebrated the festival of "the sun's walking-stick"

on the eighth day from the end of the month Phaophi, "after the
autumn equinox" adding that this walking-stick signified that the
;

sun "requires as it were a support and strengthening as he grows

weak both in heat and light, and moves away from us, bending
down and crooked" (De Iside, S2; cf. 69). In Greek mythology
this walking-stick becomes the golden staff of Teiresias, which
Athena gave him after she had blinded him, and with which he
walked in safety not only in this world but also in the underworld
after his death ( Apollod. Ill, 6, 7; Cal-
lim.. Lav. Pall., 75 ; Paus., IX, 33, 1, etc.)

Osiris is figured standing erect, with

his body, legs, and feet bound and con-
cealed like those of a mummy, while his
head and arms are free. He was iden-
tified by the Greeks and Roman with
Zeus or Jupiter ; and Plutarch quotes
Eudoxus to the effect that the Egyptians
fabled that the two legs of Zeus (= Osi-
ris)grew into one, so he could not walk,
and that through shame he remained in
solitude (during the night) till Isis cut
his legs apart, thus restoring his powers
of locomotion (De Iside, 62). In the
Book of the Dead the deceased says: "I
have caused the god (Osiris) to have
the mastery over his two feet" in the
Amenti (CXXW Saite). Khem, Min,
or Amsu (like Osiris) has his body, legs,
and feet concealed, one of his arms also
being bound in the mummy envelope,
while the other is raised above his head
( for the solar flabellum The Open — see
Court, Jan., 1919, p. 15)and in the Book ;

of the Dead the earth-god Seb causes the

deceased to stretch his legs, "which are
THE MITRAIC KRONOS bound together" (in the mummy en-
With His Legs Bound by the
Serpent*
velope) before his restoration (XXVI,
Theban). The Mithraic Kronos is gen-
erally figured with his legs bound together, by a serpent (Lajard,
Culte de Mithra, Plates 70-73; Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra, 2d
* From Lajard, Rechcrchcs sur Mithra, Plate LXX.
 THE COSMIC FEET. 357

ed., 1910, pp. 105-108) ; and as he often has the zodiac signs on
his body, it is quite probable that he originally represented the
cosmic god in view being
winter, the old age of the year — in this
the antithesis Mithra as the soli-cosmic god of
of the youthful
spring and summer. As the solar or soli-cosmic god of winter (and
night), Krishna is figured with his body, legs, and arms in the
coils. of a serpent that bites his left heel: while in a companion
piece, he dances or tramples on the serpent's head, holding its tail

over his own head, free and victorious in spring and summer (as
in the daytime. — Sonnerat. Voyage aii.v hides Orientales, Plates 46.
47; — see Tlie Open Court, loc. cit., p.17). These two Hindu figures
serve to explain Gen. iii. 15. where the serpent is to bruise the heel
of the woman's seed or son, while the latter is to bruise the serpent's
head.
It appears that the left foot of the soli-cosmic personification was
sometimes assigned to the west and the evening, while the right
foot was assigned to the east and the morning
two feet thus ; the
corresponding to two of the three steps of A'ishnu. saw above We
that the two feet of the soli-cosmic Ra were identified by some
with the double ]\Iaati boat (of "the two horizons") and the ;

morning boat of the sun was IMatet (= Becoming-strong), while

Sektet (== Becoming- weak) was the evening boat (Budge, Gods,
I, p. 323). In the Book of the Dead, CXX\', the deceased in the
Hall of the double ]^Iaati name of his
right foot as Trav-
gives the
eler (or Guide) of the God Khas (Theban) or Khem (Saite), and
that of his left foot as StaiT of the Goddess Hathor (Theban) or
Nephthys (Saite). In the Biblical story of Esau (^ Hairy) and his
twin brother Jacob (^ Follower), the former is born first, "red
all over like a hairy garment" (for the rising sun) and when the :

latter followed, "his hand took hold of Esau's heel" ( for the night
following close on the heels of the setting sun. as we would say).
One of Buddha's feet (probably the left) was injured when
grazed by a fragment of a great rock pushed over by Devadatta
(the wicked disciple) in the hope that it would fall on Buddha's
head (Questions of King Milinda, l\\ 28). According to Dharma-
raksha's Life of Buddha (IV. 21), when this rock rolled down it
divided into two on either side of Buddha which appears to iden- —
tify it as a symbol of the night rent asunder by the rising sun. In
the Biblical story of Balaam, he and his ass with a human voice are
duplicate solar figureshe "came out of the mountains of the east"
:

(Num. and while riding on his ass along a narrow wav

xxiii. 7),

lietwecn two walls (for the zodiac path), the animal became fright-
 — —

35S THE OPEN COURT.

ened and crushed one of the rider's feet (probably the left) against
one of the walls (ibid. xxii. 24 et seq.). Set is primarily a figure
of the sun in the west and at night and in the Book of the Opening;

of the Moutli the priest in the character of Horus says: "I have
delivered mine eye from his (Set's) mouth, I have cut off his

leg" (Trans, of Budge, II, p. 44). The keel of the solar boat is

named "Leg of Isis, which Ra cut off with the knife to bring Wood
into the Sektet boat" (that of the evening, in connection with
which Isis Book of the Dead, XCIX,
appears to be a lunar figure
Theban. The Saite has "Leg of Hathor wounded by Ra when he
led the way to the Sektet boat"). The Hindu Vispala also appears
to b^ of lunar character, for she has a leg cut off during a conflict
by night; but the Aswins (as the celestial physicians) replace it
with one of iron (the black metal as a symbol of darkness), so she
walks as before {Rigvcda, I, 116, 15). The Thracian Lycurgus,
who was blinded by Zeus (//., \T, 130), has the character of the
sun at night and in winter and he is fabled to have cut off one
;

or both of his own legs (the accounts dift'er) when stricken with
madness (as of the storm — Hyginus, Fah.,
132, 242; Serv. ad Aen.,
Ill, 14). The dwarf-king Laurin cuts off the left foot of every
one who enters his rose garden (that of the western twilight
Thorpe, Xorth. MythoL, I, p. 217). The Hindu Paravrig, who is
Prandha as the blind and S'rona as the lame, is cured by the AsAvins
{Rigveda, I. 112, 8) or by Indra (ibid., II, 13, 12) ; while to the
Aswins it is said: "You have made whole the lame" (ibid., I, 118,
19). In a Russian tale from
(V, 35), the beautiful
Afanassieff"
Anna (for the heaven) deprives Katoma (for the sun-god) of his
feet, and sends him into a forest (for the winter), where he meets

a man whom Anna has blinded (for the night). Both are finally

healed by rubbing the afflicted parts with the water of a fountain

that turns dry twigs green — which evidently refers to the spring
rains, as probably connected with the celestial Eridanus (De Guber-
notis. Zoo. Myth., I, pp. 218, 219).
The death of the solar personification is sometimes conceived
as caused by a wound in the foot (properly the left foot, primarily
as wounded at sunset). Krishna received his death wound when
accidentally shot in the sole of his left foot by an arrow from the
bow of the hunter Jara (=
Old Age), according to the Vishnu
Puvana ( \\ Z7 — the Bliagavata Purana explaining that the god sat
with his left leg across his right thigh, so the sole of the left foot
was exposed). Cheiron died from a wounded foot; in one account
ha\ing been shot by Herakles with a poisoned arrow; while in an-
 THE COSMIC FEET. 359

other Cheiron himself (lroi)])ed the arrow on his foot — the latter

heing in accordance with the concept of the self -slain sun-god

(Ovid, Fasti. W 397; Hygin., Poet. Jst., II, 38). Achilles, in the
post-Homeric stories, was invulnerahle except in one of his heels,
which was tinallv pierced by an arrow of Paris or Apollo (Schol.
ad Lycoph., 269; Ilygin., Fab., 110. etc.).

Krishna restored the crippled legs and arms of an old woman

by placing his foot ujjon hers and taking her hand in his, at the
same time rejuvenating her irishnu Piirana. \', 20). According
to Suetonius the Emoeror \'espasian cured a man's foot by treading
on it with his own and that emperor was recognized by
( J'csp.. 7) ;

sonr^ as the Messiah expected in his time by the Jews (ibid., 4, etc.).
In the Egyptian belief, the legs, feet, and other parts of the body
were restored to the deceased in the underworld before his ascent
into the celestial regions {Book of the Dead, XX\'I, etc.). Isis

cured the lame among the living, as well as those otherwise afflicted,
as Diodorus tells us (I, 2). The Hindus hold that human beings
are thus afflicted because of sins in a former life on earth lameness ;

being specified in the Lazvs of Mann as the punishment for a horse-

stealer (XI, ?\). while the Ayeen-Akbery has it for the killing of
a Brahman (I, p. 445). At the incarnation of Buddha, the lams
walked, the dumb spoke, the deaf heard, the blind received sight,
etc. (Rhvs-Davids, Birtli Stories, p. 64). Among the "cures per-
formed by Apollo and ."Esculapius." as recorded on a stele found
at Epidaurus. we have the two that follow : "Elermodicus, of Lamp-
sacus, paralyzed inThe god .-Eculapius) cured this
the body. (

man while he and commanded him, when he went out. to

slept,
carry as large a stone as he could to the sanctuary and he brought
the one in the Abaton (the dormitory of the temple)." "Xicanor,
;

—
who was lame. As he was sitting still in the daytime (in the
temple a seeming youth snatched away his staff' and fled.
) . Leap-
ing up. h? gave chase, and from that day was cured." Trans, of (

Merriam. in American Antiquarian. \l, p. 304). Justin Martyr

argues that when W2 say that Jesus "made whole the lame, the
paralytic, and those born blind, we seem to say what is very similar
to the deeds said to have been done by ^'Esculapius" (I Apol., 22).

Jesus cured many lame persons (as well as many blind, deaf,
—
dumb, and leprous Matt. xi. 5: xv. 30; Luke vii. 30), in accor-
dance with the Alessianic prophecy of Is. xxxv, where the Septua-
gint has "Be strong, ye relaxed hands and paralyzed knees" and
:
;

there can be little doubt that only the lower limbs were conceived
as affected in the original Gospel story of an indi\idual cure of
 —
360 THE OPEN COURT.

a paralytic. In fact, the affliction may have been conceived as con-

fined to one lower limb (properly the left), in accordance with
the original significance of the Greek paralysis = a loosening or
disabling of a limb or the limbs on one side of the body ; the cure
of a paralyzed left leg thus being a sort of companion piece to the
cure of a withered right arm.
The oldest extant version of the cure of a paralytic by Jesus
is doubtless found in Mark ii. 3-12. reappearing in substantially the
same words in Luke v. 18-26, and in Matt. ix. 2-8 in an abbreviated
form. In Mark, four men (perhaps as figures of the cardinal
points) carry the paralytic on a bed to Jesus, who is in a house
surrounded by such a multitude that the afflicted one had to be
lowered through the roof, which was broken up for the purpose
(apparently as suggested by the concept of the cure of the soli-
cosmic feet and legs in the underworld for the improbability of the ;

scene from the historical standpoint has often been noticed). Jesus
first forgives the man's sins, and shortly afterward tells him to

take up his bed and walk, which he does (the implication apparently
being that his infirmity was the result of his sins, probably those
of a former life on earth). In Matthew's abbreviated account the
lowering of the paralytic through the roof is omitted, as is the
number of his bearers — this number being also omitted in Luke.
A variant cure of the paralytic is found in Matt. viii. 5-12, and
Luke vii. 1-10; but not in Mark. In this variant cure, a centurion
beseeches Jesus to heal his bondman or servant, who lies paralytic
in his master's house, grievously tormented ; the cure being effected
by Jesus from a distance in reward to the centurion's faith. And it

is quite probable that this cure is again varied in that of the Caper-
naum nobleman's son in John iv. 47-54, where nothing is said of
his affliction except that his fever left him when Jesus pronounced
him cured from a distance. The three paralytics above considered
all belonged to Capernaum (Kaper-Xahum Village of Xahum). =
XaJiiint signifies Consoler or Comforter (like John's Parakletos,
for Jesus) and Capernaum became the residence of Jesus after he
;

was driven from Xazareth (Luke iv. 16-31; Matt. iv. 13-16; cf.
^lark ii. 1, where Jesus when in Capernaum is said to have been
"at home" ev oIkw), while the people of the city and vicinity had

been "sitting in darkness. .in the country and shadow of death."

. .

before Jesus came among them (}\Iatt. iv. 16). Thus Capernaum
was naturally suggested for the cure of the paralytic whose cosmic
counterpart has his feet and legs in the underworld.
The first Synoptic cure of the paralytic is widely varied in
 THE COSMIC FEET. 361

John's cure of the infirm man (v. 1-15), which occurred at Jeru-
salem shortly after Jesus had gone there, evidently for the purpose
of keeping the Passover (John's "feast of the Jews") at the time
of the full moon of Nisan. the first month of spring and of the
sacred year. This man, who had been "thirty-eight years in (his)
infirmity," lay by the pool of Bethesda, being one of a great crowd
of sick, blind, lame, and withered but only the first to enter the water
;

after its periodical agitation by an angel was cured, and John's in-
firm man had no one to put him in first. But Jesus cured him with-
out recourse to the water, saying. "Arise, take up thy bed and walk"
— in the words of Mark's first story. There was a similar pool
connected with the great temple of .-Esculapius at Epidaurus, but
it appears that only those who had just been cured washed in that

pool, by way of religious purification see Frazer's Pausanias, III,

(

pp. 249, 250). Both pools correspond to "the water in which Ra

purifies himself to be in possession of his strength in the eastern
part of the heaven," where also "the gods of the pure waters purify
themselves passing from night to day" (Book of the Dead,
CLXV, 3; CXXVb, 45, 46, Salte). But the pool of Bethesda
(= House-of-flowing or House-of -mercy) was situated at a "(place)
of sheep" (-Tr/jo/JanKos)-, the name of a market or gate of Jerusalem.
The pool, which was close to the gate, is doubtless to be identified
with the "twin fish-pools, having five porches, and called Beth-
saida" (as if House-of -fishing) in the Bordeaux Pilgrim's Itine-
rary (see Barclay, City of the Great King, p. 299). It is therefore
entirely probable that John's pool was recognized as a counterpart
of Pisces (the twin Fishes), adjoining Aries (the Ram or male
sheep) and the former was the sign of the spring equinox and
;

the Passover at the time the Gospel of John was written, while the
restoration or cure of the paralyzed sun-god was placed by some
at that equinox as marking the close of winter. And this suggests
that the thirty-eight years of John's story had originally been
thirty-six for the number of Egyptian weeks of five days each in
the (winter) half-year of one hundred and eighty days. Krafift
and Hengstenberg are followed by Strauss {Xciv Life of Jesus.
72) in looking upon the Johannine period as a type of the thirty-
eight years which the people of Israel passed in the wilderness
before they reached the Promised Land (Deut. ii. 14), which may
in fact account for the extant number in John. Strauss suggests
further that the five porches typify the five books of Moses but ;

his whole interpretation here is highly fanciful. The five porches

(porticos or entrance-halls) probably represent the five latitudinal
 ;

362 THE OPEN COURT.

apartments of the house of Pisces as the opening Or entrance sign

for each of the twelve zodiac houses is subdivided into five sections
by the two polar and two tropical circles (or seven sections when
those in the narrow zodiac band are included).
In Acts iii. 1-13, the soli-cosmic figure paralyzed in the feet
and legs is represented by the lame man cured by Peter (= Opener)
at Jerusalem. Here the afflicted one is a beggar (as belonging to
winter, the season of nature's poverty), who was born lame (like
Hephaestos and Horus), so he had to be carried every day to the
Temple (as a type of the celestial temple of the day), where he
was laid at the gate "called Beautiful" (probably the Corinthian
gate on the east —Josephus, BcU. Jnd., V. 5, 3). In the ninth hour
of the day (corresponding to the ninth month, that of the spring
equinox, in the Egyptian year beginning at the summer solstice),
Peter cured the lame man in the name of Jesus Christ, lifting him
by the right hand (for the morning tlabellum of the sun) and
saying, "Arise and walk." Then "his feet and ankle bones were
strengthened immediately; and leaping up, he stood, and walked,
and entered with them Peter and John into the temple, walking
( )

and leaping" (like Krishna on the head of the serpent, but also in
—
accordance with Is. xxxv. 6 "then shall the lame man leap as
an hart"). Mythically the scene belongs to the dawn at the spring
equinox in Pisces, with Peter as the Apostle of that sign lifting the
soli-cosmic figure into the hea\en b}' the latter's right hand.
A similar cure is attributed to Paul in Acts xiv. 8-18, where
also the afflicted man was born lams and "never had walked," being
"impotent in his feet." Finding that he had faith enough to be
healed, Paul said to him. "Stand upon thy feet upright," and the
man "sprang up and walked," etc. The scene is laid at Lystra
(apparently from Ai'oj =^
weaken, as of the feet, limbs,
to loosen,
etc.) and the people of that place called Paul "Hermes" imme-
;

diately after the miracle

—
"because he was the leader in speaking,"
according to the text but probably also with reference to the
;

winged sandals and flying feet of that god. In Acts ix. 33, 34,
Peter cures a certain ^-Eneas. who had lain paralyzed on a couch
for eight 3'ears —
this cure perhaps originally having been assigned
to the ninth year, corresponding to the ninth Egyptian month, that
of the spring equinox. "And Peter said to him, .Eneas, Jesus the
Christ heals thee, and spread (thy couch) for thyself
rise up,
(i. e., make thy bed). And immediately he rose up." The name
.Eneas was possibly suggested for this paralytic by Homer's account
of the wounding of the Trojan .Eneas in the hip, so he fell and
 —
THE COSMIC FEET. 363

remained upon his knees until carried away by Apollo (the sun-
god to be healed by Leto (darkness) and Artemis (the moon;
)

//.. \'. 304, 444). Philip cured many that were paralyzed and lame,
according to Acts viii. 7.

In the Apocry])hal Infancy of the Saz'ioitr (3) an old woman

whom Joseph brings to the \'irgin Mary, "after sunset," to act as
midwife, finds that Jesus has already been born and is cured of
her paralysis by placing her liands upon the infant. She probably
represents the moon conceived as waxing through contact with the
sun. In the Protcvaugcliiiin (18^ there is a general paralysis of
nature at the birth of Jesus ; not only living things but also the
pole of the heavens standing still for a time. This is attributed to
astonishment, but was probably suggested by the inactivity of the
vegetable kingdom in winter, taken in connection with the standing
still of the sun which gave name In the Greek
to the solstice.

versions of the Gospel of young man who was

Thomas (10) a
splitting wood cut off part of his foot wuth his ax, and died from
loss of blood but the the child Jesus took hold of the foot and
;

healed it, and the young man was immediately restored to life. An
ax is the Egyptian hieroglyph for a god, while the statement that
the young man died and was restored to life (wanting in the Latin
versions, 8) was probably suggested by the concept of the death
and resurrection of the self-slain solar or soli-cosmic god the fatal ;

blow being assigned to the (left) foot as in the myths of Krishna,

Cheiron, and Achilles. Again, in several of the Xew Testament
Apocrypha there is a story of a boy who with his feet (or with a
branch, in some versions broke down the dams made by the child
)

Jesus to hold little fish ponds (probably belonging to Pisces, like

the pool or pools of Bethesda). Jesus punished the boy by causing
him to wither away, dry up, and die but finally restored him to
:

life and health (Infancy. 46; Fsendo-Matt., 28, 29; Thomas, Gr.,

2. In a Parisian codex of one of the (jreek forms of

3; Lat., 5).
Thomas, added that Jesus left the boy with one member use-
it is

less (see Donehoo. Apocryphal Life. p. 143, note 1), which was

probably suggested by the idea that the virile power of the sun-god
was not recovered immediately upon his restoration to life.