SIGNS OF SATYRS

THE SATYRICA SIGNA

“As to the superstition of the Eleusinian Mysteries, what they conceal is the
shame of them. Therefore they make the admission tortuous, take time in the
initiation, set a seal on the tongue, and instruct the epoptae for five years, to
raise a high opinion of them by delay and expectation. But all the divinity in the
sacred domes, the whole of what they aspire to, what sealeth the tongue, is this:
simulacrum membri virilis revelatur. But for a cover of their sacrilege, they
pretend these figures are only a mystical representation of venerable nature.”
(Tertullian)

In this vision the stars become the semen of the gods filling the night sky with a
shining heavenly foam. Aphrodite Uranus emerged from the foam surrounding
the severed genitals of Uranus. According to Hesiod this foam formed the
heavenly body of the goddess.

“And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the
land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time; and a
white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a
maiden...Her gods and men call Aphrodite and the foam-born goddess and rich-
crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam…” 1

This primordial semen is the moisture containing the hot aether from the fire of
creation. The celestial foam was envisaged as the shining emission of the gods
in the night sky. In the Derveni Papyrus the clusters of stars become the foaming
secretion of the deified phallus. The celestial phallus was consequently the
originator of the firmament of stars. “He (the deity) ingested the phallus that first
procreated the aether.”2

Therefore in the Eleusinian Mysteries, as in those of Vesta, the celestial phallus

is the central component of the revelation. The foaming clusters of stars are the
source of all creation. “Some, moreover, are of the opinion that nothing but this
perpetual fire is guarded by the sacred virgins; while some say that certain
objects, which none others may behold, are kept in concealment by them…” 3

On the Day of Blood, during the rites of Attis, the Galli castrated themselves in a
frenzy of ecstasy and offered the severed parts to the goddess. These parts were
symbolized by the pomegranate with its blood-red flesh that encased the multiple
seeds.

“These broken instruments of fertility were afterwards wrapt and buried in the
earth or in subterranean chambers sacred to Cybele, where, like the offering of
blood, they may have been deemed instrumental in recalling Attis to life and
hastening the general resurrection of nature, which was then bursting into leaf
and blossom in the vernal sunshine. Some confirmation of this conjecture is
furnished by the savage story that the mother of Attis conceived by putting in her
bosom a pomegranate sprung from the severed genitals of a man-monster
named Agdestis, a sort of double Attis.” 4

The vernal equinox of spring marked the resurrection of Attis from the
underworld. Human fertility and immortality is linked with the process of nature’s
cycle of decay and rebirth. This is the basis for human resurrection in the rites
that were performed in Eleusis.

The pomegranate formed a central part of the Eleusinian Mysteries where the
concept of natural mortality is followed by resurrection in the spring. In these
myths Persephone consumes pomegranate seed and is compelled to inhabit the
underworld for the duration of the gestation of the seed. In the archaic ‘Hymn to
Demeter’ the goddess demands to know if Persephone has tasted the food of the
underworld during her imprisonment there.
“...but if you have tasted food, you must go back again beneath the secret places
of the earth, there to dwell a third part of the seasons every year; yet for the two
parts you shall be with me and the other deathless gods. But when the earth
shall bloom with the fragrant flowers of spring in every kind, then from the realm
of darkness and gloom thou shalt come up once more to be a wonder for gods
and mortal men...Then beautiful Persephone answered her thus...he secretly put
in my mouth sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my
will.”5

Thus in the Eleusinian Mysteries the pomegranate is equated with human fertility
and represents the vial containing human seed. The concepts of violent
castration and resurrection also formed part of the myths of Dionysus. These
relate that, in similar fashion to Osiris, the body of the god was brutally torn apart.
From the blood shed by the act pomegranates spring to life.

“Pomegranates were supposed to have sprung from the blood of Dionysus, as

anemones from the blood of Adonis and violets from the blood of Attis: hence
women refrained from eating seeds of pomegranates at the festival of
Thesmophoria.”6

The pomegranate came to symbolize the rituals of Attis and Dionysus and
pomegranate seeds formed the core of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The
pomegranates are linked in concept to the symbolism of the lily-formed columns
of Egyptian temples. The architectural form of the column capital with the lily
flower in an open or closed state was intrinsic to Egyptian temples. The stalk of
the plant was represented by the shaft of the column.

The Nymphaea caerulea water lily (often referred to as the blue lotus) was
sacred to Egyptian myth. The flower tracked the course of the sun by opening in
the morning and closing at night. It visually represented the sun in the sky by
being constructed with a yellow centre contrasting with a surround of blue petals.
By being both immersed in water and blooming above the surface the plant
symbolized an existence both in the temporal and underworld realms.

“For everything pertaining to the lotos (lotus), both the forms in the leaves and
the appearance of the seed, is observed to be circular. This very energy is akin to
the unique circle-like motion of the mind, manifesting it in like manner according
to the same forms, in a single arrangement, and according to one principle.” 7
The psychoactive properties of the Nymphaea caerulea were used in the temple
rites to gain access to a passage to the afterlife. The water lily was evidently food
for the gods since depictions in Egyptian temples show the lily being offered to
the gods and suggest that it was consumed in the afterlife. The Nymphaea
caerulea is believed to be the lotus that is referred to by Homer in the Odyssey.

“...what they did was to give them some lotus to taste, and as soon as each had
eaten the honeyed fruit of the plant, all thoughts of reporting to us or escaping
were banished from his mind. All they wished for was to stay where they were
with the Lotus-eaters, to browse on the lotus, and to forget that they had a home
to return to.”8

At Hierapolis the castration rituals were performed before the monumental phallic
pillars that stood in front of the temple. Their dual presence linked the phallic
forms to the castration rituals of the eunuch priests. The two giant phalli framed
the entrance to the temple.

“In this entrance those phalli stand which Dionysus erected; they stand thirty
fathoms high. Onto one of these a man mounts twice every year, and he abides
on the summit of the phallus for the space of seven days. The reason of this
ascent is given as follows: the people believe that the man who is aloft holds
converse with the gods, and prays for good fortune for the whole of Syria, and
that the gods from their neighbourhood hear his prayers.” 9

These monumental phallic towers represented the prolific power of creative

generation. “In the temple at Hierapolis the active powers imparted to her (the
goddess) by the Creator were represented by immense images of the male
organs of generation placed on each side of the door. The measures of these
must necessarily be corrupt in the present text of Lucian; but that they were of an
enormous size we can conclude from what is related of a man’s going to the top
of one of them every year, and residing there days, in order to have a more
intimate communication with the deity, while praying for the prosperity of Syria.” 10

In this Arcadian garden infused with the spirit of Dionysus, Osiris and Pan existed
the fauns and satyrs. Part human and part animal the satyrs were formed with
the legs and hooves of the goat with an equine tail and an equine phallus. By
being part human and part animal the satyrs allowed the human mind to gain
access to this archaic magical world.

“These mixed beings are derived from Pan, the principle of universal order; of
whose personified image they partake. Pan is addressed in the Orphic Litanies
as the first-begotten love, or creator incorporated in universal matter, and so
forming the world. The heaven, the earth, water, and fire are said to be members
of him; and he is described as the origin and source of all things, as representing
matter animated by the Divine Spirit.” 11

These satyrs are depicted on Greek amphorae and vases as bearded humans
with the tail of a horse, equine ears and a phallus which is a fusion of the human
and equine. The satyr thus exhibits an erect hybrid phallus that is part human
and part equine. This allowed a bestial sexual energy to emerge and depictions
of lustful satyrs often show them in a state of heightened sexual arousal.

“In Crete, not only these rites (the Orgies), but in particular those sacred to Zeus
(the Kouretes) were performed along with orgiastic worship and with the kind of
ministers who were in the service of Dionysus, I mean the Satyroi (Satyrs).” 12

Later in Roman myth the satyr acquired goat-like legs and hooves. In Roman
myth the Faunus, an associate of Pan, was fused with the equine characteristics
of the satyr. Satyrs now acquired the form of the human fused with the goat. This
hybrid of a hybrid multiple had the legs, hooves, horns and phallus of the goat
moulded onto the human form.

This hybrid being was a creature like the Chimera formed of disparate parts. The
Chimera had the head and body of a lion or lioness, with another head of a goat
that was mounted onto the middle of the body, and the tail of a snake or serpent
at the rear. The mouth of the head of the goat was a flaming cauldron of fire.

According to Homer the Khimaira (Chimera) was a “thing of immortal make, not
human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the
breath of the terrible flame of bright fire.” 13

The Chimera was therefore a creature formed of different animals to create a

monstrous multiple hybrid. This was the diabolical Chimera that stood at the
gates of hell and is referenced by Virgil.

“Then come strange prodigies of bestial kind;

Centaurs are stabled there, and double shapes
Like Scylla, or the dragon Lerna bred,
With hideous scream; Briareus clutching far
His hundred hands, Chimaera girt with flame,
A crowd of Gorgons, Harpies of foul wing,
And giant Geryon’s triple-monstered shade.”14
The mythical Chimera came to embody the concept of an apparition while losing
its concrete form to ultimately become an abstract concept and metaphor. Satyrs
were similarly hybrid creatures that had an illusory form and could be described
as chimeras.

The goat was fused with the human form to create a hybrid being or chimera that
expressed the divine nature of prolific procreation. In the sacred rituals at
Mendes in Egypt humans copulated with goats in order to achieve union with the
deity. The phallus representing this hybrid creature, being a fusion of the animal
and human, was likewise a chimera.

“At Mendes a living goat was kept as the image of the generative power, to whom
the women presented themselves naked, and had the honour of being publicly
enjoyed by him. Herodotus saw the act openly performed, and calls it a prodigy.
But the Egyptians had no such horror of it; for it was to them a representation of
the incarnation of the Deity, and the communication of his Creative spirit to
man.”15

The Mendesians regarded all goats as sacred and especially the males. Pan was
depicted as having the head and legs of a goat thus uniting the sacred qualities
of humans and goats in one hybrid being or chimera. Herodotus witnessed this
archaic sacred rite still being performed in his own lifetime.

“In Egyptian, Mendes can mean both ‘male goat’ and ‘Pan.’ Within my own
lifetime, an astonishing incident took place in this province: a male goat had sex,
publicly, with a woman.”16

By copulating with the goat in these rites the human participants were able to
fuse with the deity and so with the sacred creative impulse that infuses all matter.
By this fusion with the deity they formed a duality and were part of a sacred
chimera.

“In copulation with the goat, they represent the reciprocal incarnation of man with
the deity, when incorporated with universal matter: for Deity, being both male and
female, was both active and passive in procreation; first animating man by an
emanation from his own essence, and then employing that emanation to
reproduce, in conjunction with the common productive powers of nature, which
are no other than his own prolific spirit transfused through matter.” 17
By being part human and part animal the shape-shifting phallus of the satyr
represents copulation with the deity. The phallus of this hybrid creature became
worthy in itself of veneration and underlies the structures of established religions.

“They have deified the goat, just as the Greeks are said to have honoured
Priapus, because of the generative member; for this animal has a very great
propensity for copulation, and it is fitting that honour be shown to that member of
the body which is the cause for generation, being, as it were, the primal author of
all animal life. And, in general, not only Egyptians but not a few other peoples as
well have in the rites they observe treated the male member as sacred, on the
ground that it is the cause of the generation of all creatures; and the priests in
Egypt who have inherited their priestly offices from their fathers are initiated first
into the mysteries of this god. And both the Pans and the Satyrs, they say, are
worshipped by men for the same reason; and this is why most peoples set up in
their sacred places statues of them showing the phallus erect and resembling a
goat’s in nature, since according to tradition this animal is most efficient in
copulation…”18

Excavated from the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum is the sculpture of ‘Pan
and goat’ which is the embodiment of the Mendesian rites. In this case the
human symbol (Pan) performs the active role while copulating with the deity. Of
this sculpture Payne Knight states that “the goat is passive instead of active; and
that the human symbol is represented as incarnate with the divine, instead of the
divine with the human: but this is in fact no difference; for the Creator, being of
both sexes, is represented indifferently of either.” 19

It was these entities that witnessed the slaying and dismemberment of Osiris and
communicated the event to the world. They are thus inextricably bound to his cult
and gave to us the concept of human panic. “According to legend it was Isis
which was responsible for the phallic worship of Osiris. After killing Osiris his
brother Typhon dismembered the body and scattered the various parts around
Egypt...The first to learn of the deed and to bring to men’s knowledge an account
of what had been done were the Pans and Satyrs who lived in the region around
Chemmis, and so, even to this day, the sudden confusion and consternation of a
crowd is called a panic…”20

The image of the phallus relates back to Osiris and the myth of his death and
resurrection. In Egyptian myth Typhon divided the body of Osiris into multiple
parts and scattered them. Plutarch explains why the phallus of Osiris became the
object of veneration. “Of the parts of Osiris’s body the only one which Isis did not
find was the male member...But Isis made a replica of the member to take its
place, and consecrated the phallus, in honour of which the Egyptians even at the
present day celebrate a festival.”21

Plutarch states that everywhere the Egyptians worshipped the phallus of Osiris
and that this veneration was associated with the power of the sun. “Everywhere
they point out statues of Osiris in human form of the ithyphallic type, on account
of his creative and fostering power; and they clothe his statues in a flame-
coloured garment, since they regard the body of the Sun as a visible
manifestation of the perceptible substance of the power for good.” 22

This idea is contained in the oil lamps that have been excavated from Pompeii
which display a phallic form with the flame arising from the head of the phallus.
The oil lamps show an association between the flame of the burning oil and the
phallic form.

In the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii the images are interpreted as illustrating a
Dionysian ceremony and potentially referring to the Eleusinian Mysteries. The
revelation of the mysteries revolves around the unveiling of the phallus. Also
revealed is the mystica vannus, the winnowing fan or basket, that formed part of
the Eleusinian Mysteries. This separated the corn from the chaff and functioned
as a metaphor for the capture of human seed.

“It was from producing this separation, that the universal Bacchus, or double
Apollo, the creator and destroyer, whose essence was fire, was also called the
purifier, by a metaphor taken from the winnow, which purified the corn from the
dust and chaff, as fire purified the soul from its terrestrial pollutions. Hence this
instrument is called by Virgil the mystic winnow of Bacchus.” 23

The unveiling of the phallus is the central depiction at the end of the series of
images in the Villa of Mysteries. The generating and purifying power of the sun is
contained in the body of the phallus. Its erect form is the pure expression of the
element of fire.

Fire is emblematic of the sun and infuses the form of the phallus. The path of the
sun starts with its resurrection at the beginning of every day and its decline into a
state of repose at the end. The shape-shifting chimerical nature of the phallus
held a magical fascination for humans and was venerated in archaic religious
rites. This was related to the procreative power of the sun.

“In the sacred hymns of Osiris they call upon him who is hidden in the arms of
the Sun...On the waning of the month Phaophi they conduct the birthday of the
Staff of the Sun following upon the autumnal equinox, and by this they declare,
as it were, that he is in need of support and strength, since he becomes lacking
in warmth and light, and undergoes decline, and is carried away from us to one
side.”24

Fire from the sun was therefore contained in the body of the phallus which fused
it to the deity. The phallus formed of blood and fire forms the central pillar of the
Eleusinian Mysteries. The fire of the sun was the generative energy of the
universe. This energy infused the earth in the spring as described in the ‘Hymn to
Demeter’ and the entombment of Persephone.

Therefore “we remark that the planting of ‘phallic images’ is a special

representing of the procreative power by conventional symbols, and that we
regard this practise as an invocation to the generative energy of the universe. On
this account many of these images are consecrated in the spring, when all the
world is receiving from the gods the prolific force of the whole creation.” 25

Isis had commanded that the recreated image of the phallus of Osiris be set up in
the temples and venerated as a god. This was the concept that informed the
Eleusinian Mysteries and was eventually incorporated into the Christian religion.
The genital parts of Osiris had been hacked off and thrown into the waters of the
Nile that inundated the fields. The other parts of the body of Osiris were
recovered but the phallus remained lost in the foaming waters.

“Yet Isis thought them as worthy of divine honours as the other parts, for,
fashioning a likeness of them, she set it up in the temples, commanded that it be
honoured, and made it the object of the highest regards and reverence in the
rites and sacrifices according to the god. Consequently the Greeks too, inasmuch
as they received from Egypt the celebrations of the orgies and the festivals
connected with Dionysus, honour this member in both the mysteries and the
initiatory rites and sacrifices of this god, giving it the name ‘phallus.’” 26

The satyrs performed the function of initiates and ministers to this god and
celebrated the rites of the religion that were associated with Osiris and Dionysus.
They impart to humans the mysteries of the religion.

“Such are the fawns and satyrs, who represent the emanations of the Creator,
incarnate with man, acting as his angels and ministers in the work of universal
generation. In copulation with the goat, they represent the reciprocal incarnation
of man and the deity…”27
Like angels “they point out statues of Osiris in human form of the ithyphallic type,
on account of his creative and fostering power...In the sacred hymns they call
upon him who is hidden in the arms of the Sun.” 28

The ‘arms of the sun’ are visually expressed by obelisks such as the two that
originally framed the entrance to the Luxor Temple. According to Pliny these
structural emanations of the sun were “elongated blocks of this stone, known as
‘obelisks,’ and consecrated to the divinity of the Sun. The blocks had this form
given to them in resemblance to the rays of that luminary, which are so called in
the Egyptian language.”29

“In the sacred hymns of Osiris they call upon him who is hidden in the arms of
the Sun...On the waning of the month Phaophi they conduct the birthday of the
Staff of the Sun.”30

The fire of the sun was the generative energy of the universe. The phallic pillars
of the Eleusinian revelation are replicated in Egytian temple columns. These are
based on the form of the lotus or water lily and support bulbous capitals that
symbolically encase the seed. The phallic columns therefore contain the seeds of
creative generation.

"...from under the body of the serpent springs the lotus or water lily...The figures
of Isis, upon the Isiac Table, hold the stem of this plant, surmounted by the seed-
vessel in one hand, and the cross, representing the male organs of generation, in
the other; thus signifying the universal power, both active and passive, attributed
to that goddess."31

These are the signs of the satyrs.

Such are the satyrica signa.

“How do they make a god?

It is melted, it is struck, it is sculpted,
it is not yet a god,
it is soldered, it is manufactured, it is raised erect;
it is consecrated, it is prayed to, it is now a god,
when man has willed it,
and has dedicated it.”
(Minutius Felix)
 1 - Hesiod - Theogony 176 -180
2 - Derveni Papyrus 13
3 - Plutarch -Life of Numa
4 - James Frazer - The Golden Bough
5 - Hymn to Demeter
6 - James Frazer - The Golden Bough
7 - Iamblichus - Theurgia 7.15
8 - Homer - Odyssey
9 - Lucian of Samosata - De Dea Syria
10 - Richard Payne Knight - Discourse on the Worship of Priapus
11 - Ibid.
12 - Strabo- Geography 10.3.11
13 - Homer - Iliad 6.179
14 - Virgil - Aeneid 6
15 - Richard Payne Knight - Worship of Priapus
16 - Herodotus - Histories 2.46
17 - Richard Payne Knight - Worship of Priapus
18 - Diodorus Siculus - Library of History 1.88
19 - Richard Payne Knight - Worship of Priapus
20 - Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 14
21 - Ibid. 18
22 - Ibid. 51
23 - Richard Payne Knight - Worship of Priapus
24 - Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 52
25 - Iamblichus - Theurgia 1.4
26 - Diodorus Siculus - Library of History 1.22
27 - Richard Payne Knight - Worship of Priapus
28 - Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 51
29 - Pliny - Natural History 36.14
30 - Plutarch - Isis and Osiris 52
31 - Richard Payne Knight - Worship of Priapus