ith
Aphrodite.

I shall have occasion (_infra_, p. 177) to refer to M. Siret's account
of the discovery of the AEgean octopus-motif upon AEneolithic objects in
Spain, and of the widespread use in Western Europe of certain
conventional designs derived from the octopus. M. Siret also (see the
table, Fig. 6, on p. 34 of his book) makes the remarkable claim that the
conventional form of the Egyptian Bes, which, according to Quibell,[309]
is the god whose function it is to preside over sexual intercourse in
its purely physical aspect, is derived from the octopus. If this is
true--and I am bound to admit that it is far from being proved--it
suggests that the Red Sea littoral may have been the place of origin of
the cultural use of the octopus and an association with Hathor, for Bes
and Hathor are said to have been introduced into Egypt from there.[310]

That the octopus was actually identified with the Great Mother and also
with the dragon is revealed by the fact of the latter assuming an
octopus-form in Eastern Asia and Oceania, and by the occurrence of
octopus-motifs in the representation of the goddess in America. One of
the most remarkable series of pictures depicting the Great Mother is
found sculptured in low relief upon a number of stone slabs from Manabi
in Central America,[311] one of which I reproduce here (Fig. 21_b_).
The head of the goddess is a conventionalized octopus; to that was added
a body consisting of a _Loligo_; and, to give greater definiteness to
this remarkable process of building up the form of the goddess,
conventional representations of her arms and legs (and in some of the
sculptures also the _pudendum muliebre_) were added. Thus there can
be no doubt of the identification of this American Aphrodite and
the octopus.

In the Polynesian Rata-myth there is a very instructive series of
manifestations of the dragon.[312] The first form assumed by the monster
in this story was a gaping shell-fish of enormous size; then it appeared
as a mighty octopus; and lastly, as a whale, into whose jaws the hero
Nganaoa sprang, as his representatives are said to have done elsewhere
throughout the world (Frobenius, _op. cit._, pp. 59-219).

Houssay (_op. cit. infra_) calls attention to the fact that at times
Astarte was shown carrying an octopus as her emblem,[313] and has
suggested that it was mistaken for a hand, just as in America the
thunderbolt of Chac was given a hand-like form in the Dresden Codex
(_vide