Feet
FEET are multivalent symbols. In some mythologies the rays of the sun—as depicted, for example, in the figure of the swastika—are likened to feet. C. G. Jung finds the foot frequently phallic in significance; others believe it is sometimes a symbol of the soul, an idea rarely directly substantiated but indirectly confirmed when lameness is taken to symbolize some defect of the spirit, as in the cases of Hephaistos, Wieland the blacksmith, Mani, and Oedipus.
The heel of the foot is both suitable for and vulnerable to attack; it may dispatch a serpent or it may be the locus of a fatal wound (Achilles, Sigurd, and Kṛṣṇa). In the Hebrew scriptures, Jacob grasps Esau's heel in order to defeat him. In Celtic legend, Gwydion masters Arianrhod by grasping her foot.
Feet are also vulnerable because of their contact with the earth. Vital and sacred forces can be drained away through them. For this reason, the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II was carried on the shoulders of noblemen, and members of the royal family in Uganda were carried on the shoulders of men of the Buffalo clan. An emperor of Japan, it is said, would have been deprived of his office had his feet ever touched the earth. The Irish hero Oisín, who had lived in the Land of Youth for three hundred years, could remain young upon revisiting the land of his birth only if he did not touch his feet to the ground.
The foot is also a symbol of humility because it touches and is besmirched by the dust of the earth. Victory and subjection are represented by the conqueror placing his foot on the neck of the vanquished or using him as a footstool. Worshipers all over the ancient world removed their shoes before entering sanctuaries and temples, as Muslims, Hindus, and Jains do today before entering places of worship. Foot washing has commonly served as part of rites of purification.
Foot washing as an act of hospitality was also widespread throughout the ancient world. The Christian ritual of foot washing was derived from this practice, and especially from Jesus' washing his disciples' feet (Jn. 13:5). As such, the ritual does not focus on cleansing but on humility, and on the Christian ideals of willing service and penitence.
Footprints of divine or holy figures may symbolize the way to the truth, or the salvation offered by them. Footprints of both Viṣṇu and the Buddha appear all over India. Such physical evidence of the earthly presence of divinity is a way of picturing what is wholly transcendent. This is probably the intended symbolism in depictions of Christ's ascension, found especially in eleventh-century English art, where only the feet and part of the legs show at the top of the picture. On a carved medieval bench-end from Launcells in Cornwall, the feet of Christ are seen vanishing into clouds while footprints are left on a rock. Similarily, pilgrims to Palestine can see footprints in the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives.
Bibliography
There is no really adequate discussion of feet as a religious symbol. James G. Frazer in The Golden Bough, 3d ed., rev. & enl. (London, 1911–1915), discusses the taboo against touching the feet to the ground, but he focuses on the loss of power and on the earth as the agency of loss rather than on feet. For a more convenient and up-to-date source, see The New Golden Bough, the one-volume abridgment by Theodor H. Gaster (New York, 1959). On foot washing, see G. A. Frank Knight's article "Feet-Washing," in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1912), which discusses both secular and religious customs in great detail. Concerning Hephaistos and the "magical or shamanic lameness," consult Hephaïstos, ou La légende du magicien by Marie Delcourt (Paris, 1957).
This is the complete article, containing 632 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
