The Palm Cross And The Ankh

[poliphilo]

Ailz points out that the palm cross looks very like an ankh- especially if viewed a little from the side.

But what if it's the other way round, and the ankh is in fact the graphic representation of a palm cross?

I checked to see if anyone had had this thought before- but apparently not. There are all sorts of theories about the symbolism of the ankh. You can check them out here. I don't find any of them particularly convincing.

But why should the Egyptians have been making palm crosses? Well why not? They certainly had plenty of palm fronds to make them with.

You are idling beside the river Nile. You pick up a palm frond and start twisting it. You tie it into a shape suggestive of the human form. The loop is the head, the cross-piece the arms, the tapering tail a robe. You give it to your daughter as a dolly.

Or-  better still- you set up a stall and sell your palm frond dollies at the temple gate as representations of the Goddess.

And eventually- centuries later- when hieroglyphics are being invented- the palm frond dolly- an easy-to-draw image of the divine- becomes the symbol meaning "eternal life" .

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Makes perfect sense to me. I guess our corn "dollies" were also little goddesses, as is the porky Venus of Willendorf. I don't know whether the Egyptians grow much wheat, but palm fronds were probably easier to weave.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder- simply to be perverse- whether the Venus of Willendorf wasn't just a child's doll.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

If it was, I taught it all wrong for a lot of years! :^(

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The point is, we just don't know. Everything we think we know about prehistory is a guess.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

Whatever 'meaning' that is applied to this symbol really does not matter to me- I simply love it, and have loved it all my life. I've even contemplated getting an Ankh tattoo.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ailz is wearing an ankh at the moment. Since we started going to church we've both felt the need to wear "pagan" jewellery as a counterweight.

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

It's not a bad hypothesis at all and I can certainly see that or a similar origin for the symbol.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's pure whimsy- which isn't to say it may not be true.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Hummmm... how interesting!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Worse- that is to say, more ridiculous- hypotheses- have formed the bases for best-selling books.