Missing Illustration - 9. The Archaic Cosmology of Cities: Building the Kosmos on Earth

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With regard to this symbolic shape, it may be significant that Hermes is associated with the tortoise, out of whose shell he is said to have made the first lyre. The tortoise shell resembles the herm in having a square bottom and round top. It played an important role in Chinese divination. The text of the I Ching described heaven as being round and the earth square, and “a later edition of the Li-Chi described the Ming T’ang (palace) as being round above and square below… to signify the roundness of Heaven and the Squareness of Earth” (Raglan 1964: p. 155. For other examples see Sickman and Soper 1956: p. 214). Lethaby (1974: p. 51) added that in China “even the coinage, circular with a square hole, is well-understood as symbolizing heaven and earth.” (See Illustration 9.9.)

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“Some Athenian herms (also a picture of a tortoise shell, and Chinese ‘cash-coinage’).”

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For context, see also this query about the image in the Illustration list.