Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-10-29
NUMBER s..
COW IDOLS.

Inc manly COW luols uNg up Dy Dr.
Schliemann in the ancient palace at
Tiryns are apt to revive the interest in
controversy from which he has GER
tainly come out as the victor.
Animal worship is one of the Oldest
cults. It's remnants are traceablc in
India and Egypt, rs well as in Troy
and Greece--nay, among our Teutonic
forefathers. The COW and the steer.
more especially. are to be met with in
the mythology OF many nations. as
symbols of a cosmogonic force. in \
nourishing or creative sense. In the
oldest representations relating to the
creation of the world. the COW. coming
forth out of the nrimeyal waters, APP
pears as the mother of the young Sun
god. Hesiod's Gaia is both the COW
and the earth, the nourishing mother
of all forms of existence. So is the
Teutonic COW Audhumla, from whose
doings, in tile rise and origin of all
things and beings, the very gods were
tabled TO have sprung.
Sacred, gold-horned cows remind
ing us of the Mycenean idols appear
in the LAYS of the Icclandie Eisia even
as among the ancient Hflluo. In
German and Scandinavian myth, cows
and steers play so large 4 part that we
are impressed thereby in quite My
cencan or Trojan manner When the
Teutons and the Cimbrians went on
their war raid. two thousand years
ago, they carried brazen bull rs a
sacred idol with them. Captive Ro-
mans, before being set free BY them.
had TO take m oath on that bulls inn
age. A sea-stcer was said TO be the
progenitor of the Frankish royal race
of the Merowings The kings of that
line, symbolicaliy preserving the old
mythic tradition, drove about in car
drawn by team of oxen. A golden
bulls head was found in King Chill
peric's tomb. Sacred cows were taken
by Morse kings into battle as divine
guides and protectresses. So it is re-
corded OF the Swedish king. Eistein
Bell, and his sacred COW, Sibilja. There
is n similar record about King Deg
waldr. Cows were often used by the
Mortimer as prophetic leaders on inn
portant occasions
Shall we then wonder that the found
er Of Ilion Clos, or ii, whose name
possibly has contact with the Saxon
chicftain's name, Elfa) was guided by
specklcd COW to the place to be
chosen for the settlement on the famed
hill in the Troad?
From his former work on Mycenc
ami Tiryns, which contains narrative
of his first excavations there, it will be
seen that DR.. Schlicmann had already
then unearthed a great many COW idols
in gold. silver and terra-cotta from
that once hallowed ground. 1t was
done, so to say, in consequence of
challenge offered to him. Having ex-
pressed an opinion that the "glaucopis
Athene' OF the Trojans was originally
an owl-faced deity or idol. DIR. Schlie-
mann was at first met with a storm of
| dissent on the part of some scholars
rash enough to mix up their notions of
the age of Phidias with their judgment
about prehistoric Troy. Among those,
however, who would not ut once re-
ject the idea of DIR. Schlicmann was
Max Muller, in himself host of learn
ing. But before giving decided opin-
ion of his own, the eminent Oxford
professor asked for proof of "Hera
Boopisn having been cow-hcaded
monster.
Upon that, the cver-ready excavator
set TO work at Tiryns and Mycene with
the most perfect confidence; for did
not both these cities lie close TO the
ancient Hcraion, or temple of Hera?
In truth, the result of his diggings far
exceeded his own expectations. He
found thousands of COWS of terra-cotta;
oil az. - n.
silver, with gold horns; some cow
heads engraven on gems; many hun
dreds of female idols, with crescent
shaped projections like cow-horns pro-
eecding from the breast; also females
with cowheads.
The very name of Mycenc is derived
by DR.. Schliemann, with great likeli-
hood, from the mooing or lowing of
the COW. Myccne and Tlryns are in
close ncighborhood. Both stand on
Argiye soil, where "Cow-faced Hera"
was evidently 4 lingering remnant of
fuller ancient animal worship. In
course of time the grosser cult more
and more reccded. But the head or
the horns of Il beast often continued to
adorn or TO disfgure deity's image,
even among such hlghly-cutured races
as the Egyptians and the Greeks. Mr..
Gladstone, well vcrsed rs he is in Ho-
merle lore, has cndcavored, in the pre-
face TO DR.. Schl.cmann's work on My
Gene and Tiryns. To refer this Argive
expression about "Cow-faced Hcra" to
the influence of an Egyptian immigra-
ton. He added; "But il was mode
against which the whole spirit of Hell
lenism, according to the authentic
type of that spirit supplied in the
poems, utterly revoltcd. - Cassetfs
| Mn0dzine.