theancientworld:trismegistus7:The Emblematic Hand of the Mysteries. The British Museum Coll
theancientworld: trismegistus7: The Emblematic Hand of the Mysteries. The British Museum Collection, Bronze hand used in the worship of Sabazius, probably attached to poles for processional use.http://goo.gl/NHDjkw Roman 1stC-2ndC Curator’s comments: This hand is a genuine Roman bronze of the first century AD, but was repatinated by the great collector Richard Payne Knight in the early nineteenth century to give it the black appearance he and other early collectors were convinced it had originally possessed. -Jones, 1990 The British Museum Sabazius was a god of eastern origin associated with fertility, crops and plants. The Romans worshipped Sabazius along with other religious figures, notably Bacchus, the god of wine and religious ecstasy among others. The cult of Sabazius was represented with images of hands, the fingers of which form symbolic and ritualistic gestures. -- source link