Above: 7th century AD sarcophagus, Ravena. Note the Chrismon is 'guarded' by the flock represented by the lambs on either side of the cross.

(image source: illus. C, p. 61 The Book of Art. Volume 1. Origin of Western Art, published by Grolier.)

The Chrismon on the sarcophagus of Archbishop Theodore of Ravena, c. AD 600, with the symbols for the "alpha and the omega": Α - Ω. The 'polar-aspect' of the Chrismon is in this instance topped with a crook intended to represent the shepherd's staff. Its similarity to the Greek letter "RO", r, has caused some commentators to confuse it with that letter and to proffer, wrongly, that its appearance on the Chrismon represents the first two letters of Christ as written in the Greek.

(Image source: image 248, p. 22 Handbook of Art, Graham Hopwood. ISBN 0959927107)

From the "House of Sphinxes", Mycenae, this heraldic sphinx dates to c.1300-1200 BC.

The word SPHINX in Greek means "constrictor", "tightner", and is familiar to Anglophones in the word "sphincter". Though the earliest sphinxes appear in Egypt, they are without wings. The sphinx that arose in the bronze-age Aegean was winged. The Sphinx guards the void, the source of wisdom at the apex of the world-axis. That the above heraldic sphinx represents the world pillar can be seen by the pillar upon which the front paws of the sphinx rest. The void around which circled 3 circumpolar stars is represented by the absence of the pillar between the 2 sphinxes facing off. By classical times, when the void momentarily came to be occupied by a pole star, the pillar was extended between the sphinxes.

(Image sources: plate 97, p. 114 The Mycenaeans, William Taylour. plate 162, p.133, Minoan and Mycenaean Art, Reynold Higgins.)

 

Above, two griffins protect the world tree, on the south wall of St Mark's Cathedral, Venice. This dates to the 12th century AD.

The griffin is first depicted on the frescoes of pre-eruption Thera which date to the 18th - 17th centuries BC.

By Classical times the griffin had become the guardian beast of the world-tree/polar-axis and was associated with Apollon.... and thus by extension, Odin.

It is these same griffins which guard the pillar on which Jesus stands on the sarcophagus depicted higher on the page.

(Image source: plate 22, JJ Norwich A History of Venice, ISBN. 0140066233)

The (brief) Moses interlude

In Exodus 15.14 - as it appears in the Septuagint - YHWH promises the Jews the land of the Philistines which is rendered Φυλιστιείμ, "Phylistieim" ... In the Bowdlerised Jewish OT the reference to Philistines is rendered "people of Canaan" instead.

Recent comparisons of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the Jewish OT and Septuagint, show that the Septuagint is in greater concordance with the Dead Sea Scrolls than is the Jewish OT... The provenance of the Greek Septuagint extends to c. 270 BC; the Jewish OT to c. AD 900. The Jewish version used in the west has come to include over one thousand years of after-thought, hindsight and revision.

Aditionally, the purported Exodus of the Jews from Egypt led by Moses has increasingly come to be correlated to, and thus dated to, the eruption of the volcano at Thera, now known to have occurred at 1623 BC. The pillar by day, flame by night, that it is claimed to have been followed by the fleeing Israelites in Exodus, has been seen to be the erupting volcano there. The date of the eruption however predates the the Mycenaean civilization of Greece; no Mycenaeans = no Sea-People = no Philistines.

The Moses story is less credible still: "Moses" is no more (or less) than the Egyptian "meses"; "born of/from", eg: Rameses means "born of" Ra, (Sun). The epithet "born of/from" can be found in other Egyptian names: Ahmose, Tothmoses (Thutmose), etc. The Biblical "Moses" then is no more than an amalgam of various Egyptian kings whose names end with the epithet "meses". The etymology profferred in Exodus 2.10, in which it is claimed that it means "he who was drawn (from water)" is entirely without foundation... And, as if the Moses story had not already been exposed as a complete fraud, the story of Moses' beginings, in the form of the tale of his being found floating down the river in a basket is instead the tale of Sargon; another leader in another part of the world. Moses is a amalgam of Egyptian as well as Babylonian rulers. The story of Moses leading his people out of captivity is utter invention. There is no history in the tale. [ for an alternate view on Moses: EJ deMeester ]

Dated to c. AD 750, this is a page from an illuminated copy of Augustine's Questiones in Heptateuchon. Paris National Library.

The cross here is clearly the Norse Ygdrassil, on which perched on top is the symbol of Thor, the eagle. The stylised 'dogs' appear to be an attempt at emulating the guardian-lions depicted in Byzantine works, as is evidence by their mane of three forward-flowing locks.

The concept of the lion made a massive impression on the people to the north of Europe.

(Image source: fig. 9 Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, Erwin Panofsky, ISBN0064300269)

Dated to c. 750 AD, an illustrated page from the Galasian Sacrimentary, Vatican Apostolic Library.

That this is a representation of the cross as world tree is undeniable. Note the birds perched on it. This is no mere attempt at visual decor.

(Image source: illus C, p. 92 The Book of Art. Volume 1. Origin of Western Art, published by Grolier. ISBN 0671670077)

In the Norse tale of Sigurd the dragon slayer, the hero Sigurd tastes the blood of the dragon Fafnir's heart after he kills him and finds that he has acquired the power to understand the speech of birds. The prophetic nature of birds was central to German and Greek beliefs.

There is no such bird lore in Jewish tradition. To proffer what Josephus wrote on the matter as he ridicules the Greeks:

"... on the march towards the Red Sea ... was one [Jew] named Mosollamus...the whole force was being held up by a seer who was taking the auspices, [Mosollamus] inquired why they were halting. The seer pointed out to him the bird he was observing, and told him that if it stayed in that spot it was expedient for them all to halt; if it stirred and flew forward, to advance; if backward, then to retire. The Jew without saying a word drew his bow, shot and struck the bird and killed it. The seer and some others were indignant... [Mosollamus responded] 'Pray, how could any sound information about our march be given by this creature, which could not provide for its own safety? Had it been gifted with divination, it would not have come to this spot for fear of being killed by an arrow of Mosollamus the Jew."

Josephus Contra Apion. 1.201-204, Loeb translation H St J Thackeray.

Above: Detail of rock carving at Ramsund, Sodermanland, Sweden. This Viking petroglyph shows the hero Sigurd stabbing the dragon Fafnir. In the centre is depicted Ygdrassil, the world-tree, upon which are perched birds. Birds were symbols of prophetic wisdom and it was their speech which Sigurd now came to understand.

Note the similarity of the stylisation of the birds with those found at the Sutton Hoo ship-burial mound (right) and the illuminated Vatican manuscript (above). This idea of the Indo-European world-tree was syncretised by the Vikings (as it had been syncretised earlier by the Germans and earlier still by the Greeks), with the cross.

(Image source:p.p. 154-155 The Viking World, James Graham-Campbell. ISBN 0906459044)

Above: Detail of one of the birds on the purse lid from the Sutton Hoo burial-ship mound, Suffolk England, c. AD 650.