The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c9.147.5

v1.c9.147.5

According to Dulaure the symbolic figure carried in procession during the festival of Osiris and Isis, (*Iśvara* = *Śiva*, and his consort *īśā*) was a representation of the phallus of the bull.⁶¹ In the *Old Testament*, allusion is made to Jewish women manufacturing phalli of gold and of silver.⁶² In an interesting memoir on the worship of Śiva in Europe in former times, Professor Holmboe cites an extract from an ancient history of King St. Olaf, who introduced Christianity in Norway, in which mention is made of a pagan family residing in the province of Nordland, "qui adorait le linga d'un cheval, qu'on avait tué, mais dont on avait conservé le veretrum. Les soirs cette piece passait de main en main non seulement parmi les personnes de la famille, mais encore parmi les hotes qui pussent ctre presents, chaqu ’un récitait un verset en délivrant l’idole a un autre”.⁶³ In one of the apartments of the great palace at Karnak, there are several figures representing “une offrande d’un heros Egyptien a la grande divinité de Thébes au Dieu regénérateur caractérisé par le membre viril en érection,”⁶⁴ and these are repeated in the interior of its great granite Propylon and other places. In obscenity they are scarcely inferior to the works of the Uriyā artists.