erpent
myth in Genesis. This drawing, in which it is observed that the Jewish
idea of woman as tempter is reversed, was copied from the inner walls
of a cave in Southern India. The picture is said to be a faithful
representation of the version of the story as accepted in the East.

Of the myrtle, Payne Knight says that it "was a symbol both of Venus and
Neptune, the male and female personifications of the productive powers
of the waters, which appear to have been occasionally employed in the
same sense as the fig and fig leaf."

The same writer refers to the fact that instead of beads, wreaths of
foliage, generally of laurel, olive, myrtle, ivy, or oak, appear upon
coins; sometimes encircling the symbolical figures, and sometimes as
chaplets on their heads. According to Strabo, each of these is sacred to
some particular personification of the Deity, and "significant of some
particular attribute, and in general, all evergreens were Dionysiac
plants, that is, symbols of the generative power, signifying perpetuity
of youth and vigor." The crowns of laurel, olive, etc., with which
the victors in the Roman triumphs and Grecian games were honored, were
emblems of immortality, and not merely transitory marks of occasional
distinction.(18)

18) Payne Knight, Symbolism of Ancient Art. We are informed that this
book was never sold, but only given away. Although a copy of it was
formerly in the British Museum, care was taken by the trustees to keep
it out of the catalogues.

The tree and serpent, according to Ferguson, are symbolized in all
religious systems which the world has ever known. The two together
are typical of the processes of reproduction or generation. They also
symbolize good and evil and the cause which underlies the decline of
virtue.

Among the numberless fruits which from time to time have been regarded
as divine emblems, the principal are perhaps the fig, the pomegranate,
the mandrake, the almond, and the olive. The peculiarly sacred character
which we find attached to the fig ceases to be a mystery so soon as we
remember that the organs of generation, male and female, had, in process
of time, come to be objects of worship and that the fig was the emblem
of the latter.

A basket of this fruit is said to have been the most acceptable offering
to the god Bacchus, and therefore, by his devotees, was regarded as the
most sacred symbol. The favorite material for phallic devices was the
wood of the sa