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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;benhur767, post: 3100676, member: 36818&quot;]zumbly, you may very well be correct, and your rationale makes perfect sense if we&#039;re thinking of a conventional Roman branch. But Elagabalus was not conventional. Cypress is native to Syria and pinecones were a symbol of fertility in ancient times.</p><p><br /></p><p>For example, bacchantes, who were priestesses of Bacchus, are depicted in Roman art carrying the thyrsus, which was a staff tipped with a pinecone and thought to represent a fertility phallus. Similarly, cypress pinecones could have represented fertility for El-Gabal, Elagabalus&#039;s sun god. The bull&#039;s penis (&quot;horn&quot;) he wears on his head probably represents virility. It all fits the theme.</p><p><br /></p><p>The &quot;branch&quot; then could possibly be a cypress-wood rod adorned with knobbly cypress pinecones as in the image below, fashioned into a sort of artificial &quot;branch.&quot; This would account for it&#039;s knobbly-ness.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]784671[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I just don&#039;t see how the symbol of a club fits in, other than that it kind of looks like a club. What would the club symbolize? Bashing the sacrificial animal over the head? Also, on coins of Elagabalus, Hercules is depicted holding a club, and it&#039;s definitely a club. That&#039;s the conventional Roman depiction of a club. It&#039;s more distinctly tapered from wide at the top for clubbing, to skinny at the bottom for a handle. And it&#039;s not very knobbly.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]784674[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Maybe Elagabalus is holding neither branch nor club, but some completely unknown thing. We&#039;re all just guessing.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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