preparation of
the witch's medicine seem to be the descendants respectively of Hathor's
pots (in the story of the Destruction of Mankind) and the Sekti who
churn up the _didi_ and the barley with which to make the elixir of
immortality and the sedative draught for the destructive goddess
herself.

Mr. Donald Mackenzie has given me a number of additional references from
Celtic and Indian literature in corroboration of these widespread
associations of the pot with the Great Mother; and he reminds me that in
Oceania the coco-nut has the same reputation as the pot in the Indian
_Mahabharata_. It is the source of food and anything else that is
wanted, and its supply can never be exhausted. [On some future occasion
I hope to make use of the wonderful legends of the pot's life-giving
powers, to which Mr. Mackenzie has directed my attention. At present,
however, I must content myself with the statement that the pot's
identity with the Great Mother is deeply rooted in ancient belief
throughout the greater part of the world.[337]]

The diverse conceptions of the Great Mother as a pot and as an octopus
seem to have been blended in Mycenaean lands, where the so-called
"owl-shaped" pots were clearly intended to represent the goddess in both
these aspects united in one symbol. When the diffusion of these ideas
into more remote parts of the world took place syntheses with other
motives produced a great variety of most complex forms. In Honduras
pottery vessels have been found[338] which give tangible expression to
the blending of the ideas of the Mother Pot, the crocodile-like
_Makara_, star-spangled like Hathor's cow, Aphrodite's pig, and Soma's
deer, and provided with the deer's antlers of the Eastern Asiatic dragon
(see Chapter II, p. 103).

The New Testament sets forth the ancient conception of birth and
rebirth. When Nicodemus asks: "How can a man be born again when he is
old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" he
is told: "Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh:
and that which is born of the spirit is spirit" (John iii. 4, 5, and 6).

The phrase "born of water" refers to the birth "of the flesh"; and the
mother's womb is the vessel containing "the water" from which the new
life emerges. Plutarch states, with reference to the birth of Isis:
"[Greek: tetarte de ten Isin en panygrois genesthai]". The great