And this cross, worn by the kings
centuries before our era as the symbol which should above all others be
venerated, or as best signifying their power over the lives of their
subjects and their position as vice-gerents of the Sun-God, is admitted
by all the best authorities to have been the sign and symbol of the
Sun-God.[66]
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS IN AFRICA.
Passing on to Africa and a consideration of the _crux ansata_ or
so-called 'Key of the Nile,' we find that this variety of cross had
much the same significance attached to it by the ancients as had the
more widely accepted varieties.
As a matter of fact no one acquainted with Egyptian antiquities who
enquires into the matter in thorough going fashion, can in the end fail
to be convinced that the Egyptian cross was a phallic symbol having
reference to the sexual powers of generation and to the Sun, and being
therefore a symbol both of Life and of the Giver of Life.
The connection between the crux ansata and the Sun-God in the minds of
the inhabitants of the Land of the Nile in pre-Christian days, is very
clearly set forth by an illustration of Khuenaten in the act of
distributing gifts to his courtiers which faces page 40, volume I., of
Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's "_Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Egyptians_." For this monarch--also known as Amenophis IV.--and his
wife are both represented as receiving the crux ansata from the
Sun-God, and the Sun is marked with the crux ansata as its peculiar
symbol.
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