l'eau, ne voulant se repaître que de la chair et du sang des quadrupèdes herbivores ou frugivores, mais ennemi aussi magnanime que courageux, il cessant de répandre la mort au moment où sa faim est assouvie; le lion, chaste dans ses amours, fidèle à une seule compagne, résume en lui-même les idées de l'antiquité sur la nature du feu, sur le rôle de cet agent dans les phénomènes de la generation et de la reproduction, sur le développement de l'intelligence dans les animaux carnassiers, sur la supériorité des facultés intellectuelles et des qualités morales de l'homme doué d'une constitution sèche ou ignée." Hence, not only is the lion a symbol of royalty, but it is sometimes associated with the words denoting a King. Thus, the Latin leo is derived from the same root as rex and lex; the Persian schir (lion) appears to be connected with the Zend and Sanskrit khshéko, Khschakia (King) which gave its name to the warrior caste of the Hindus; while ar is the Semitic term for "lion," and ra was not only the name of the Sun-god among both the Egyptians and the Babylonians, but it was the title given by the Egyptians to the King.

This association shows the importance of the grade of the lion, and Lajard thinks that admission to it was a necessary qualification for appointment to certain military or civil offices in Persia. The form which the initiant took when admitted to the grade, is seen in the Hercules of Greek and Roman mythology, who is usually represented clothed in the lion's skin. Among the sculptures of Persepolis which delineate the initiation of the Persian kings into various grades of the mysteries, is one which exhibits the combat with the lion. To indicate his power, this animal has a horn projecting from his forehead -the horn of the unicorn-the symbol of strength and usually of victory. The horse, owing to its solar charac1 "Recherches sur le Culte de Venus," p. 223.

ter, appears to have been one of the animals which it was necessary to vanquish in this grade, and in the form of which the initiant became clothed. In this Lajard supposes that the stories of the centaur originated. Like the persons who were initiated into the grade of the lion, these fabulous creatures are said to have been remarkable for their scientific acquirements, for their studies in natural history, especially of the properties of plants, and for the practice of medicine and surgery.1 The form taken by those who fully attained the grade of the lion was that of the sphinx, and Lajard figures 2 a cylinder on which the initiant is represented with the body of a lioness, showing that this grade was open to women as well as to men. Various cylinders represent the combats of women with the lion, thus confirming the statement of Porphyry that in the Mithraic mysteries the male initiants were called lions, and the female, lionesses.3

It has been stated that the region of the earth was supposed to be divided into three zones, those of water, heat, and air. When the initiant had obtained admission into the grade of the lion, he had already conquered the influences of the zone of moisture, and he was prepared to press on to the higher grades, those which had relation to the aërial principle of material nature. According to the notions of ancient philosophy, water was vivified by the wind, and the air thus occupied a position the importance of which is recognised in the fact of Zarathustra proclaiming it, equally with water, to be a proper object of adoration. The air was, however, considered both impure, in its terrestial aspect, and pure, in

1 See Smith's "Roman Antiquities." Art. Chiron.

2 Atlas Pl. 54, C. No. 10.

3 Much uncertainty has existed as to whether the sphinx of antiquity was represented as male or female. These facts show that it

sometimes took the one form and sometimes the other.

its celestial aspect, the winds having the greatest power at the equinoxes, the two epochs the most favourable for the descent and ascent of souls. In seeking, then, for objects to represent the aërial grades, the institutors of the mysteries would naturally look to those animals which are the most intimately connected with the air itself. The ancients, indeed, considered birds to be very superior to other animals in every respect. The power of flying, although in itself rendering the bird less material, according to their ideas, was only one of its peculiarities. It was looked upon as presenting marked differences in its habits and instincts. One of the most important functions which birds fulfil, within the tropics, is that of consumers of putrifying flesh, and the ZendAvesta bears witness to the services in this respect of three birds in particular, the vulture, the ostrich, and the raven. These with the cock, the dove, the eagle, and the hawk, were the sacred birds of the Zarathustran system, and from among them, therefore, must be sought the representatives of the aërial grades of the Mithraic mysteries. The eagle and the hawk were connected with more advanced grades, and there is no ground for supposing that the cock or the dove occupied such a position. Lajard, therefore, has no hesitation in asserting that the vulture, the ostrich, and the raven gave names to the three aërial grades, although of these the raven only is thus actually referred to by ancient writers. Each of these birds is, indeed, consecrated to Mithra in the Zend-Avesta. The reason why the vulture was chosen to represent the fourth grade in the mysteries is not far to seek. This bird was thought by the ancients to be always female, and they believed its eggs to be fecundated by the wind. Hence, the Egyptians made it the symbol of maternity, and gave it the crux ansata, the sign of life. The vulture, moreover, was emblematic

of the air, as, owing to its habits, it came to be considered also of purity. In these facts we have the explanation of the office assigned to that bird by the Avesta, in connection with the disposal of the bodies of the dead. That the flesh of such bodies should be devoured after death by the vulture was declared to be all-important. If this were done, the soul was thought to ascend at once to the regions of light, especially if the body was that of a person who had been looked at by a vulture while dying. The dog seems to have performed the same office as the vulture in this respect,1 1 and the great regard shewn by the worshippers of Ormuzd for the former animal is thus explained. Many of the cylinders relating to the vulture-grade are those of females and belong to the Assyrian mysteries. This fact may be accounted for, as Lajard suggests by "l'attribution du vautour à Venus Mylitta, considerée particulièrement comme une divinité génératrice et obsétrice. Cette attribution nous expliquirait l'importance que les Assyriens et les Phéniciens semblent avoir attachée à l'accomplissement d'un acte de haute dévotion, qui, en leur faisant obtenir le grade de vautour, devait leur rendre propice une déesse dont les faveurs pouvaient, soit les préserver, soit les guéir de la stérilité, infirmité que les mœurs de l'Orient comptaient au nombre des châtiments infligés par la colère divine."

The monuments representing the fifth grade are very rare; but they confirm Lajard's opinion that it was represented by the Ostrich. This bird, called in the Zend-Avesta aoroschasp, (raven-horse), was the emblem of swiftness, its speed surpassing that of the horse.

1 This was probably because on the Zodiacal planisphere the equinoctial points were marked by the figure of a dog. The equinoxes, as we have seen, were considered the most favourable for the descent and ascent of souls.

It had also a moral significance. Thus, with the Egyptians it was symbolical of justice, and it appears to have had this character among the followers of Zarathustra, with whom justice was one of the virtues necessary to be attained to render the soul fitted for its celestial abode. Mithra, like Ormuzd, is entitled the just judge, and his emblem may well, therefore, have been the ostrich. The use of this bird in the mysteries would seem to symbolize the passage of the soul to the home of the just. A gnostic gem represents a soul passing from life to death on the back of an ostrich, an idea which at first sight is opposed to that held in the mysteries. It is not so, however, in reality. Death is but the gateway of life, and the soul must appear before the Judge of the Dead before it can pass to the abode of living. Hence, as Lajard points out, the ostrich, like all the other symbolical animals, had a double significance, and was susceptible of a funereal sense.

The sixth grade in the Mithraic mysteries was that of the Raven, a bird which occupied an important place in ancient mythology. It was usually the emblem of darkness and cold, as the dove was that of warmth and light. Nevertheless, in the Zend-Avesta, the raven is described not only as spreading light, but also as an embodiment of wisdom.1 The chief of the four celestial birds, it was the faithful companion of Mithra, as, indeed, it was of Apollo and of the Scandinavian deity Odin. Mithra was called the friend; and in the Avesta, a raven, which assisted at an assembly of the gods, was called Mitra-Saca, on account of its friendly disposition. Moreover, this bird was a symbol of Mithra himself, and also of Sarosch, one of his assistants, and his manifestation as King of the earth. The name of the latter, indeed, appears to denote "raven." On the Roman

1 For explanation of this, see Lajard, op. cit., p. 356.