s, and typified the
two principles of the earth fecundation,--the germ standing for the
lingam; the filaments and petals for the yoni."

R. P. Knight states, "We find it (the lotus) employed in every part of
the Northern Hemisphere where symbolical worship does or ever did
prevail. The sacred images of the Tartars, Japanese or Indians, are all
placed upon it and it is still sacred in Tibet and China. The upper part
of the base of the lingam also consists of the flower of it blended with
the most distinctive characteristics of the female sex; in which that of
the male is placed, in order to complete this mystic symbol of the
ancient religion of the Brahmans; who, in their sacred writings, speak
of Brahma sitting upon his lotus throne."

Alexander Wilder,[14] states that the term "Nymphe" and its derivations
were used to designate young women, brides, the marriage chamber, the
lotus flower, oracular temples and the labiae minores of the human
female.

The lotus then, which is found throughout antiquity, in art as well as
in religion, was a sexual symbol, representing to the ancients the
combination of male and female sexual organs. It is another expression
of the sex worship of that period.

Our present conventional symbols of art are very easily traced to
ancient symbols of religion. We may expect these to be phallic in their
meaning, to just the extent that phallicism was fundamental in the
religions where these symbols originated. From the designs of some of
the ornamental friezes of Nineveh, we find these principles illustrated.
On those bas-reliefs is found the earliest form of art, really the dawn
of art upon early civilization. Here is the beginning of certain designs
which were destined to be carried to the later civilizations of Greece,
Rome and probably of Egypt. These friezes show the pine cone alternating
with a modified form of the lotus; the significance of which symbols we
have explained. There are also shown animal representations before the
sacred tree or grove, a phallic symbol. From these forms and others were
designed a number of conventional symbols which were used throughout a
much later civilization. (See _Nineveh and Its Remains_. A. Layard.)

* * * * *

One sees in the religions of antiquity, especially those of India,
Assyria, Greece and Egypt, a great number of _sacred animal
representations_. The Bull was sacred to Osiris in Egypt, and one
special animal wa