File:The grotesque in church art (1899) (14801277163).jpg

Identifier: grotesqueinchurc00wild (find matches)
Title: The grotesque in church art
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Wildridge, Thomas Tindall
Subjects: Grotesque Christian art and symbolism Church decoration and ornament
Publisher: London, W. Andrews & co.
Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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on ofthe child, rising as it does from a shell. This leads us furtherinto the various contingent mythologies dealing with theTyphon story. Horus (also called Averis, or Orus), was inEgyptian lore also styled Caimis, and is equivalent to Cama,the Cupid of the Hindoos. Typhon (also known as Smu,and as Sambar) is stated to have killed him, and left him inthe waters, where Isis restored him to life. That is theaccount of Herodotus, but /Elian says that Osiris threwCupid into the ocean, and gave him a shell for his abode.After which he at length killed Typhon. Hence the shell in the myth-carvings to be found to-dayin mediaeval Christian churches. The Greeks represented Cupid, and also Nerites, asliving in shells, and, strangely enough, located them on theRed Sea coast, adjacent to the home of the Typhon myth. Itis probable that the word satu/ia, a sea-shell, used in thisconnection, is from suca, a cave, a tent ; and we may con-jecture that there is an allusion to certain dwellers in tents,
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MYTHIC ORIGIN OF CHURCH CARVINGS. 53 who, coming westward, worked, after a struggle, a politicaland dynastic revolution, carrying with it great changes inagriculture. This is a conjecture we may, however, readilywithdraw in favour of another, that the shell itself is merely asymbol of the ocean, and that Cupid emerging is a figure ofthe sun rising from the sea at some particular zodiacal period. Another story kindred to that of Typhon and Horus isthat of Sani and Aurva, met in Hindoo literature. Theywere the sons of Surya, regent of the Sun (Vishnu) ; Saniwas appointed ruler, but becoming a tyrant was deposed, andAurva reigned in his place. This recalls that one of thenames given to Typhon in India was Swarbhanu, light ofheaven, from which it is evident that he is Lucifer, the fallenangel ; so that accepting the figurative meaning of all thenarratives, we can see even a propriety in the Gothic trans-mission of these symbolic representations. It may be added to this that the early conc

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