History Mystery: Sex And The Religions Part.V

Before 1896 cyclone, the old steeple of St. Vincent’s church in St. Louis was quite similar to phallic and after the cyclone it was modified. Very practically speaking no part of the pre historic world is without any phallic pillars or towers. The ancient man plainly created god in his own vision and idea as the penis which was named as “ Asher”, “The powerful” and ”The Opener”. The ancient people named the right testicle as Ann or On and the left testicle as Hoa. The right testicle was supposed to be superior since they believed the male offspring produced there and the left testicle was inferior since it produces the female offspring. There are various reasons ascertained by the researchers why right testicle was considered as male. Usually the right testicle is larger than the left and the left testicle hung lower than the right and hence it was considered inferior. According to the Hindu myths entire right part of the Lord Shiva is male and the left female. The same view is available in the  Theories of the Kabbalah, the Greek theories of conception(Note: In Pythagorean numbers right considered  as male and left considered as female  is worth mention here)

In Hebrew the syllable Ben means Son, hence Benaiah mean the son of the God. The name Ben-Oni means the Son of On (son of the right testicle), Benjamin means, The son of the right side. Not only the lingam represented the sacred male genital, the pyramid or upright triangle (or otherwise called sacred male triangle) with its apex upward derived from the shape of the pubic hair of man which is very much naturally different from the pubic hair of woman (the male pubic hair resembles the upright triangle with apex upward, where as the female pubic hair resembles the triangle with apex upward). The Hindus or the Aryans, Early Egyptians symbolized the Trinity with the symbol triangle.

In India the lingam was also symbolized and worshiped in the shape of lotus flower or the lotus bud. The lily is often the symbol of The Father in the Christian church art. It was come from the Pagan origin which transplanted into Christian art. The Madonna and the child with lily symbolical of the holy family and the Assyrian god Ashur having a pine cone in the hand is worth mention. The lingam is also shown as a divine rod or a two forked stick the two forked stick represents the penis with two testicles and the Clover leaf or shamrock also represents the same. The Russian and the Greek orthodox cross is with three  cross bars, that was later the cross of the pope of the Roman church and that was also a religious symbol of Ancient Egypt and on the lids of  Sarcophagi. The Shamrock is the emblem of Trinity in Irish.
In ancient times in India there are many shrines with realistic figures of lingam where the sterile women go on pilgrimage and touch those holy images with their vulvas with the hope to conceive. Some sects in Hinduism believes that a woman who dies as virgin cannot go to the heaven (remember child marriage is predominant in those days and the widow children could not re marriage).  Such girls goes to those temples with scared stone phallus and ruptures their hymen with the belief the angles guarding the gates of heaven  will examine them and they will find that she had done her duty(coition) in earth and allow them to proceed.
                                                                                                                              (to be continued...)

Know Your English Literature Part. XIV

Far from the Madding Crowd: Novel by Thomas Hardy published in 1874. It tells the story of farmer Batheheba Everdene and her three suitos- the good hearted Gabriel Oak, the dashing Sergeant Troy and the wealthy farmer Boldwood.

 The title came from the lines in Gray’s Elegy which says of those buried in the country churchyard: ‘Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife/ their sober wishes never learned to stray.’

Gray’s Elegy: Popular name for the poem Elegy written in a country church yard by Thomas Gray. The poem begins by considering the lives of those who lie buried in the village churchyard and then turns into a meditation on death. It contains many well known lines, such as ‘full many a flower is born to blush unseen, / and waste its sweetness in the desert air’.

Hamlet: Tragedy by William Shakespeare, written around 1599-1601. Before the play opens, the king of Denmark has been murdered by his brother, Claudius who has taken the throne and married the queen, Gertrude. The ghost of the dead king visits his son, Prince Hamlet, and urges him to avenge the murder. Hamlet tormented by this revelation, appears to be mad and cruelly rejects Ophelia whom he loved. Using a troupe of visiting players to act out his father’s death the prince prompts Claudius to expose his guilt. Hamlet then kills Ophelia’s father Polonius in mistake for Claudius, and Claudius tries but fails to have Hamlet killed. Ophelia drowns herself in grief, and her brother Laertes fights a duel with Hamlet. The play ends with the death by poison of the main characters and the arrival of Fortibras, prince of Norway, who assumes control.

Hamlet’s dilemma is often seen as typical of those whose thoughtful nature prevents quick and decisive action.. Hamlet contains several fine examples of Soliloquy, such as”To be or not to be” and the Hamlet’s earlier speech lamenting his mother’s hasty remarriage and Claudius’ reign which opens ’O! that this too too solid flesh would melt’. Much quoted lines include’ neither a borrower nor a lender be’, Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’, ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’, ‘To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the nub’; ‘the lady doth protest too much, methinks’, and ‘Alas, poor Yorick’.