the evidence provided
by Minoan paintings and Mycenaean decorative art demonstrates that the
spiral as a symbol of life-giving was definitely derived from the
octopus. The use of the volute on Egyptian scarabs[325] and also in the
decoration of an early Thracian statuette of a nude goddess[326]
indicate that it was employed like the spiral and octopus as a
life-symbol.

In Spanish graves of the Early and Middle Neolithic types M. Siret found
cowry-shells in association with a series of flint implements, crude
idols, and pottery almost precisely reproducing the forms of similar
objects found with cowries and pecten shells at Hissarlik.[327] But when
the AEneolithic phase of culture dawned in Spain, and the AEgean
octopus-motif made its appearance there, the culture as a whole reveals
unmistakable evidence of a predominantly Egyptian inspiration.

M. Siret claims, however, that, even in the Neolithic phase in Spain,
the crude idols represent forms derived from the octopus in the Eastern
Mediterranean (p. 59 _et seq._). He regards the octopus as "a
conventional symbol of the ocean, or, more precisely, of the fertilizing
watery principle" (p. 19). He elucidates a very interesting feature of
the AEneolithic representation of the octopus in Spain. The spiral-motif
of the AEgean gives place to an angular design, which he claims to be due
to the influence of the conventional Egyptian way of representing water
(p. 40). If this interpretation is correct--and, in spite of the
slenderness of the evidence, I am inclined to accept it--it affords a
remarkable illustration of the effects of culture-contact in the
conventionalization of designs, to which Dr. Rivers has called
attention.[328] Whatever explanation may be provided of this method of
representing the arms of the octopus with its angularly bent
extremities, it seems to have an important bearing on Houssay's
hypothesis of the swastika's origin. For it would reveal the means by
which the spiral or volute shape of the limbs of the swastika became
transformed into the angular form, which is so characteristic of the
conventional symbol.[329]

The significance of the spiral as a form of the Great Mother inevitably
led to its identification with the thunder weapon, like all her other
surrogates. I have already referred (Chapter II, p. 98) to the
association of the spiral with thunder and lightning in Eastern Asia.
But other factors played a significant part in determining this
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