asis
for Houssay's theory of the origin of the triskele (_a_, _c_, and _d_)
and swastika (b and e), and Siret's theory to explain the design of
Bes's face (f and g)]

A vast amount of attention has been devoted to this lucky symbol,[316]
which still enjoys a widespread vogue at the present day, after a
history of several thousand years. Although so much has been written in
attempted explanation of the swastika since Houssay made his suggestion,
so far as I am aware no one has paid the slightest attention to his
hypothesis or made even a passing reference to his memoir.[317]
Fantastic and far-fetched though it may seem at first sight (though
surely not more so than the strictly orthodox solar theory advocated by
Mr. Cook or Mrs. Nuttall's astral speculations) Houssay's suggestion
offers an explanation of some of the salient attributes of the swastika
on which the alternative hypotheses shed little or no light.

Among the earliest known examples of the symbol are those engraved upon
the so-called "owl-shaped" (but, as Houssay has conclusively
demonstrated, really octopus-shaped) vases and a metal figurine found by
Schliemann in his excavations of the hill at Hissarlik.[318] The
swastika is represented upon the _mons Veneris_ of these figures, which
represent the Great Mother in her form as a woman or as a pot, which is
an anthropomorphized octopus, one of the avatars of the Great Mother.
The symbol seems to have been intended as a fertility amulet like the
cowry, either suspended from a girdle or depicted upon a pubic shield or
conventionalized fig-leaf.

Wherever it is found the swastika is supposed to be an amulet to confer
"good luck" and long life. Both this reputation and the association with
the female organs of reproduction link up the symbol with the cowry, the
_Pterocera_, and the octopus. It is clear then that the swastika has the
same reputation for magic and the same attributes and associations as
the octopus; and it may be a conventionalized representation of it, as
Houssay has suggested.

It must not be assumed that the identification of the swastika with the
Great Mother and her powers of giving life and resurrection
_necessarily_ invalidates the solar and astral theories recently
championed by Mr. Cook and Mrs. Nuttall respectively. I have already
called attention to the fact that the Sun-god derived his existence and
all his attributes from his mother. The whole symbolism of the Winged
Disk and the W