e of the factors
that played a part in the assimilation of her attributes with those of
the Water God, who in early Sumerian pictures was usually represented
pouring the life-giving waters from his pot (Fig. 24, _h_ and _l_).

[Illustration:

Fig. 24.

(a) and (b) Two Mycenaean pots (after Schliemann).

(a) The so-called "owl-shaped" vase is really a representation of the
Mother-Pot in the form of a conventionalized Octopus (Houssay).

(b) The other vase represents the Octopus Mother-Pot, with a jar upon
her head and another in her hands--a three-fold representation of the
Great Mother as a pot.

(c) A Cretan vase from Gournia in which the Octopus-motive is
represented as a decoration upon the pot instead of in its form.

(d), (e), (f), (g), and (h) A series of coins from Central Greece (after
Head) showing a series of conventionalizations of the Octopus, with its
pot-like body and palm-tree-like arms (f).

(i) _Sepia officinalis_ (after Tryon).

(k) and (l) The so-called "spouting vases" in the hands of the
Babylonian god Ea, from a cylinder seal of the time of Gudea, Patesi of
Tello, after Ward ("Seal Cylinders, etc.," p. 215).

The "spouting vases" have been placed in conjunction with the Sepia to
suggest the possibility of confusion with a conventionalized drawing of
the latter in the blending of the symbolism of the water-jar and
cephalopods in Western Asia and the Mediterranean.]

This idea of the Mother Pot is found not only in Babylonia, Egypt,
India,[336] and the Eastern Mediterranean, but wherever the influence of
these ancient civilizations made itself felt. It is widespread among the
Celtic-speaking peoples. In Wales the pot's life-giving powers are
enhanced by making its rim of pearls. But as the idea spread, its
meaning also became extended. At first it was merely a jug of water or a
basket of figs, but elsewhere it became also a witch's cauldron, the
magic cup, the Holy Grail, the font in which a child is reborn into the
faith, the vessel of water here being interpreted in the earliest sense
as the uterus or the organ of birth. The Celtic pot, so Mr. Donald
Mackenzie tells me, is closely associated with cows, serpents, frogs,
dragons, birds, pearls, and "nine maidens that blow the fire under the
cauldron"; and, if the nature of these relationships be examined, each
of them will be found to be a link between the pot and the Great Mother.

The witch's cauldron and the maidens who assist in the