Fork: A Symbol of the Goddess

(Photograph: Goddess from Sheikhi Abad mound Iran, 2008 - horns of a red deer with a human face carved into the haft: The first phase of archeological excavations at Sheikhi Abad mound in Iran's Kermanshah Province has yielded the statue of a goddess. The statute, which resembles a figurine previously found in Kermanshah's Sarab-Mort, is believed by experts to be a valuable source of information.) A fork - a "Y" symbol. In symbology, the oldest definition of a fork is two-fold: "two horns," i.e., the horns of a cow, a bull, a deer (or gazelle, etc., like-related animals). In archaic times, many goddesses and gods appeared as horned entities - sometimes with one horn, sometimes with two horns. In later times, spiked crowns were substituted for the symbolic power of a horn or horns. The fork "Y" symbol might also be construed as a long-stemmed glass or goblet - a Grail; and it might also be construed as the classic "delta" area leading to between a woman's legs. The following is from Barbara G. Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, under the entry Fork. She does not agree with my analysis: Fork "Furka" or "fork" described the so-called lost letter of the Greek alphabet, digrmma, a double gamma having the sound of F. Its Sanskrit name was forkwas, linguistic root of the two trees on which dying gods were sacrificed: Norse fyr (fir) and Latin quercus (oak).(1) The Egypotian furka was the Y-shaped cross on which the god Set was crucified. It was also a phallic symbol of the god's sacred marriage.(2) The "thieves' cross" in Christian iconography had the same shape. Such crosses flanking Jesus's cross may have represented sacred marriage. The Y-shaped fork was sometimes regarded as a female genital symbol, in conjunction with the male trident or three-pronged fork.(3) The voodoo savior-god Legbh characteristically used as his crutch a derivative of the sacred furka of Set.(4) Notes: 1. Potter & Sargent, 230. 2. Campbell, M. I., 29. 3. de Lys, 233. 4. Martello, 164.