simonhlilly

Art From the Edge of Time: 1

“Man with big cock turns chicken!”

This is an exploration of one aspect of bird symbolism in Iron Age Celtic art. Birds play an important role, with different species attracting specific sets of associations. Modern perceptions can be very misleading, so we must be careful, but still imaginative, in our speculations. Identification of species is not always easy from a small, stylised image. However, the appearance of cockerels in coin art is unequivocal.

The ubiquity of the chicken as a domestic food animal today tends to reduce its status. Like ducks, they are perceived as benign and humorous creatures. Ultimately deriving from jungle fowl in south-east Asia, the chickens of Western Europe genetically descend from birds kept by the Harrappan culture of the Indus delta in North-West India. It seems that at this time cockerels were kept and bred for fighting, not as a food. They were used in 18th Dynasty Egypt in the same way, and only begin to be mentioned as food animals in Greece during the first millenium BC. So to the Celts of Eastern and Western Europe, trading with the Greek States, cockerels would primarily be seen as creatures of battle.

The etymology of the word “cock” clearly reflects this bellicose history. Generally it indicates any male creature, but particularly ones with ‘attitude’ – that is ‘cocky’, ‘cocksure’. Up until the Late Middle Ages, it was a common adjunct as a pet diminutive to names (Willcox, Hancox etc.), and as a general term for any young, self assured lad. In the 1960’s I recall both of my Midland grandfathers using the phrase” aa’ do, cock!” as a friendly greeting As a verb, ‘to cock’ and related words, indicate rising, lifting, preparing and can be seen to be associated with the aggressive displays of fighting birds. ‘Cock’ as slang for ‘penis’ can only be verified from the beginning of the 17th century, though ‘pillicock’ was used in the 14th. It is safe to assume that the association of boastful, aggressive, lustful (the original meaning of ‘coquette’) strutting, puffed up, ostentatious display was current from the beginning. The cock is always equivocal. It is the top, the best, but also easily becomes a term of derision or insult – classic neurosis of a gambling culture where the winners are lauded and the defeated denigrated and insulted.

With interesting possibilities to our current subject, the adoption of the cockerel as the symbol of France, or more accurately, the French people, is thought to derive from the sonic similarity between the native name of the Celtic peoples of Gaul, (the Gauls, Galli, Gaelic), in Latin: the land”Gallia” and the inhabitant: “Gallus”, and the Latin word for cockerel: “gallus”. As much coin art takes its visual and symbolic cues from Classical prototypes, to be reinterpreted and subverted by Celtic artists for their own PR purposes, this double-entendre would have provided much inspiration.

Looking at these images, and particularly the ones that follow Classical relief moulding styles, I had a distinct feeling that I had seen the images elsewhere, perhaps in an alchemical or mqgical context. Then I also remembered that Classical intaglio signet rings sometimes acted as inspiration to some Celtic coin imagery. I wondered whether
the image of the Bellovaci here, and on the British coin design known as ‘The Chichester Cock’ derive from the same sources as the Gnostic images of Abraxas. Gnosticism was a syncretic system of belief arising in later Roman times. It was neither Christian nor pagan but took from all known systems of philosophy. Abraxas, said by some to derive from a combination of all the planetary names in Greek, represents a presiding deity both Good and Evil. Abraxas is depicted with a rooster’s head, a man’s torso and has two snakes for legs. He carries a shield and a whip , (protection and driving power). The rooster’s head is: wakeful vigilance and new dawn. The snakes may echo Isis and Demeter or shakti. Thus Abraxas is both Male and Female, Good and Evil. There are other Celtic coins that bear similar images. Now is this because those symbols, cockerel, snake, shield, goad were already potent in Iron Age iconography? It is likely to be the case: coin art is communicative of political, social and religious belief. There would be no “message” is an image that was impossible for most people to interpret correctly, at least on some levels. As an intellectual and philosophical elite mixing with the educated Mediterranean world, especially in the early established Greek colonies of Massilia ( Marsailles), the druids would have certainly been familiar with gnostic imagery and may have approved of the concepts as well.

Ultimately, the primary concepts and imagery of Gnosticism seem to derive from Zoroastrianism, a radical and polarising branch of the Indo-European cultural grouping. The Persian Empire, within which this philosophy was a strong force, was a major political and cultural force across the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean. Its political power was only broken by Alexander the Great at the end of the 4th c. BC. Every seat of learning from Egypt to the Academies of Classical Greece would have been influenced Persian ideas and imagery. As the Eastern Celts were the mercenaries of choice for many Greek States, and as the druid intelligentsia seem likely to have contacts with the philosopher- poet- magicians of the Mediterranean region – at very least through the early Greek and Carthaginian trading colonies around Marseilles and the Iberian peninsula – it is possible Persian iconography was familiar, even in these times. Persian art is one of the oldest known sources for grylloi (singular: gryllos), creatures that are part animal and part human.

Gnostic thought and its powerful emblematic and symbolic imagery play a surprisingly influential part in many strands of Western beliefs. It became a major rival of Christianity in the late Roman Empire and spawned many heresies in the Church, usually relating to the nature of God and the status of Jesus as a divine being. The Zoroastrian belief in matter created by, or ruled by, the dark forces can be seen to permeate both the anchorite and mainstream traditions of the Church and in the dominance of the concept of matter and the world as a sinful trap, an antithesis of Spirit. Both monotheism and the magical systems of planetary spirits and angels, largely formulated by the Hebrew exiles in Babylon, under Persian influence, can be argued to derive from Zoroastrian and Persian prototypes.

Later, after the period we are dealing with, when Christianity was established in the Western Empire, and Britain in particular, the philosophical, Platonic and Neo-Platonic gnosticism of Hellenistic Greece may have influenced the Celtic Church, particularly as the early Gnostic Hebrew and Christian writings were absolute anathema to the politically avaricious Roman Church. Non-conformists down the ages have adopted the bold imagery and dualism of Gnosticism, partially at least, because it promotes a personal, direct approach to divinity via knowledge, bypassing the limiting edicts of the orthodox hierarchy. William Blake was heavily influenced by Swedenborg, who took a Gnostic view of reality, and his poetry and visions are sometimes pure Gnostic orthodoxy.

This image of the Bellovaci tribe – “those good in battle” is simple and elegant in its structure, but complex in its symbolism.
Cockerel and human are inextricably linked. Man is turning into bird or bird into man. The front leg has become the brow, skull and shoulders of the figure. The profile head is the central still point in the composition. All around it there are dynamic, concentric, radiating elements. The eye is the focus for the observer but not the central point. If you take your eye in an opening spiral from that eye anticlockwise along the cheek to the chin , up the nose the first hidden spiral form is completed with the cockerel’s foreleg.
In front of the profile head floats what is usually seen as the motif of the spinning sun. It spins clockwise or anticlockwise depending on how you look at it – I tend to see it as a clockwise movement.
The artist has echoed this movement and reflected it in the eye, beak , wattle and comb, which show an opposite spin. In front of the cockerel’s head is another disc. Wings and tail feathers radiate out in arcs from their respective spirals. A hidden face stares out at the viewer: its two eyes are the human eye and the cockerel’s anus, the elongated nose and mouth suggested by the bird’s legs.

Despite its dynamism, this image has a certain tranquillity. It might be interpreted as a seer in a solar trance, a solar deity, a deity of the dawn, a herald of a new day. It certainly lacks the aggressive air of other cockerel images – although examples are often very worn, with expressive details hard to decipher. The British coin known as the Chichester Cock is almost a replica of this design, except the bird’s legs are not integrated into the human form but jut out behind the neck as if being worn as a hat!
Present here, but more emphatic on some other versions, is the motif of the box-like mouth containing the circular pellet. Here it seems to be the upper lip. Elsewhere it is the tongue surrounded by the box-like lips. Rather than,( or as well as), representing the physical tongue, it also can be the ‘voice’, the utterance of sound make into visible form. When seen like this the shapes and patterns in front of the lips can now be seen to represent the intent or content of the sound. The solar spinning disc is perhaps, at one level of meaning, a hymn or prayer to the sun, or an invocation of the power of the sun deity to support the people. The ring in front of the cockerel’s beak may also be the utterance of the bird. There are visual markers that the bird, rather than the human figure, is of a divine or spiritual nature. It possesses three tail-feathers and three primary wing feathers.
This repetition of three is a sure indicator of spiritual power in Celtic coin art. This suggests that the human, by powerful invocation or prayer, has been overshadowed by a powerful spiritual force, the solar bird. The new forceful indwelling spirit perhaps is suggested by the ‘hidden face’ staring out of the design.

I wear on my brow
A crown of dawn- reddened hills.

I have nested all the colours of day
Safe in my cloak;

The world I keep warm
Under my night wing;

My voice is an utterance of gold
My heart is a revolving eye;
In my belly the fire of life.

Three times I will cry-
Cracking the darkness.

Three times will I shape
The land between sunrise and sunset.

Erect on my mound,
Wielding knifes of iron-
Tongues of iron,
All the little ones sleep safe.

Erect on my mound,
Wielding a voice of thunder,
A scathing burning satire of truth:
All rivals quake and wither away.

Dispenser of eloquent gold,
Keeper of boundaries,
Guardian of the land of light,
Doorkeeper of the divine,
Measurer of moments,
Dressed in the colours of sunrise,
Dressed in the colours of sunset,
First riser, Long Laster,
Keeper of corn,
Voice of the Morning.

Above is a very naturalistic rendering of a cockerel from a coin of the Bellovaci, whose artists also created the most surreal imagery of cockerel and human. His coxcomb is a solar disc and the triskele in front of him is also a solar symbol. In front of the beak may be stylised serpents or opened neck-rings called ‘torcs’, characteristic of the attainment of highest honour and spiritual worth amongst the Celtic peoples. The triangular motif looks like a piece of jewellery or a diadem or crown. Note that the repetition of threes clearly indicates divine or spiritual power: three open discs, three primary wing feathers, three arms of the triskele, three-toed claws.

My chariot is white, red, tawny,
Crimson and glorious:
The maker of all
Has made for me
A cloak of gold.

Midnight bright
Is my dark eye,
Sharp as winter.

My purple tongue
Is a cauldron of satires,
Eloquent weapon.

My mouth,
A steel scimitar,
Quick scissors to sever.

Each hand:
a fist of spears
In the dust.

An avalanche of pride,
I will sweep away
Your boasts of greatness.

The light of the sun
Rises on my brow,
Mountains crest my crown.
My wings spread like dawn
From horizon to horizon.

So who,
Who are you?

———–

All the images presented here are accurate drawings, made by myself, of the original Iron Age coin art. These images are often no bigger than a fingernail. This particular range of cockerel images are often found in poor condition, where much of the original detail is worn away. A few well-preserved examples and some reconstructed designs have been used to show the potency of these rarely seen Celtic art.

This text is an extract from ” Art From the Edge of Time: an exploration into the lost art of the Iron Age Celts”. Artwork based on these images will be found for sale at my shop, TreeSeer, on etsy. http://www.etsy.com