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diff --git a/43605-tei/43605-tei.tei b/43605-tei/43605-tei.tei new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1de6991 --- /dev/null +++ b/43605-tei/43605-tei.tei @@ -0,0 +1,20252 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> + +<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.gutenberg.org/tei/marcello/0.4/dtd/pgtei.dtd" [ + +<!ENTITY u5 "http://www.tei-c.org/Lite/"> + +]> + +<TEI.2 lang="en"> +<teiHeader> + <fileDesc> + <titleStmt> + <title>The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 5 of 12)</title> + <title type="sub">Adonis Attis Osiris, Vol. 1 of 2.</title> + <author><name reg="Frazer, James George">James George Frazer</name></author> + </titleStmt> + <editionStmt> + <edition n="3">Edition 3</edition> + </editionStmt> + <publicationStmt> + <publisher>Project Gutenberg</publisher> + <date>August 30, 2013</date> + <idno type="etext-no">43605</idno> + <availability> + <p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and + with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it + away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg + License online at www.gutenberg.org/license</p> + </availability> + </publicationStmt> + <sourceDesc> + <bibl> + Created electronically. + </bibl> + </sourceDesc> + </fileDesc> + <encodingDesc> + </encodingDesc> + <profileDesc> + <langUsage> + <language id="en"></language> + <language id="he"></language> + <language id="la"></language> + <language id="de"></language> + <language id="el"></language> + <language id="fa"></language> + <language id="it"></language> + </langUsage> + </profileDesc> + <revisionDesc> + <change> + <date value="2013-08-30">August 30, 2013</date> + <respStmt> + <name> + Produced by David Edwards, David King, and the Online + Distributed Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. + (This file was produced from images generously + made available by The Internet Archive.) + </name> + </respStmt> + <item>Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</item> + </change> + </revisionDesc> +</teiHeader> + +<pgExtensions> + <pgStyleSheet> + .boxed { x-class: boxed } + .shaded { x-class: shaded } + .rules { x-class: rules; rules: all } + .indent { margin-left: 2 } + .bold { font-weight: bold } + .italic { font-style: italic } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + </pgStyleSheet> + + <pgCharMap formats="txt.iso-8859-1"> + <char id="U0x2014"> + <charName>mdash</charName> + <desc>EM DASH</desc> + <mapping>--</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2003"> + <charName>emsp</charName> + <desc>EM SPACE</desc> + <mapping> </mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2026"> + <charName>hellip</charName> + <desc>HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS</desc> + <mapping>...</mapping> + </char> + </pgCharMap> +</pgExtensions> + +<text lang="en"> + <front> + <div> + <divGen type="pgheader" /> + </div> + <div> + <divGen type="encodingDesc" /> + </div> + + <div rend="page-break-before: always"> + <p rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center">The Golden Bough</p> + <p rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center">Studies in the History of Oriental Religion</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">By</p> + <p rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center">James George Frazer, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Liverpool</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">Vol. V. of XII.</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">Part IV: Adonis Attis Osiris.</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">Vol. 1 of 2.</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">New York and London</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">MacMillan and Co.</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">1914</p> + </div> + <div rend="page-break-before: always"> + <head>Contents</head> + <divGen type="toc" /> + </div> + + </front> + +<body> + +<div> +<p rend='text-align: center'> +<figure url='images/cover.jpg' rend='width: 40%'> +<figDesc>Cover Art</figDesc> +</figure> +</p> +<p> +[Transcriber's Note: The above cover image was produced by the submitter at +Distributed Proofreaders, and is being placed into the public domain.] +</p> +</div> + +<pb n='v'/><anchor id='Pgv'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Preface to the First Edition.</head> + +<p> +These studies are an expansion of the corresponding +sections in my book <hi rend='italic'>The Golden Bough</hi>, and they will +form part of the third edition of that work, on the +preparation of which I have been engaged for some time. +By far the greater portion of them is new, and they make +by themselves a fairly complete and, I hope, intelligible +whole. I shall be glad if criticisms passed on the essays +in their present shape should enable me to correct and +improve them when I come to incorporate them in my +larger work. +</p> + +<p> +In studying afresh these three Oriental worships, akin +to each other in character, I have paid more attention than +formerly to the natural features of the countries in which +they arose, because I am more than ever persuaded that +religion, like all other institutions, has been profoundly +influenced by physical environment, and cannot be understood +without some appreciation of those aspects of +external nature which stamp themselves indelibly on the +thoughts, the habits, the whole life of a people. It is +a matter of great regret to me that I have never visited +the East, and so cannot describe from personal knowledge +the native lands of Adonis, Attis, and Osiris. But +I have sought to remedy the defect by comparing the +descriptions of eye-witnesses, and painting from them what +may be called composite pictures of some of the scenes +on which I have been led to touch in the course of this +<pb n='vi'/><anchor id='Pgvi'/> +volume. I shall not have wholly failed if I have caught +from my authorities and conveyed to my readers some +notion, however dim, of the scenery, the atmosphere, the +gorgeous colouring of the East. +</p> + +<p> +J. G. Frazer. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Trinity College, Cambridge</hi>,<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>22nd July 1906</hi>. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='vii'/><anchor id='Pgvii'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Preface to the Second Edition.</head> + +<p> +In this second edition some minor corrections have been +made and some fresh matter added. Where my views +appear to have been misunderstood, I have endeavoured to +state them more clearly; where they have been disputed, I +have carefully reconsidered the evidence and given my reasons +for adhering to my former opinions. Most of the additions +thus made to the volume are comprised in a new chapter +(<q>Sacred Men and Women</q>), a new section (<q>Influence +of Mother-kin on Religion</q>), and three new appendices +(<q>Moloch the King,</q> <q>The Widowed Flamen,</q> and <q>Some +Customs of the Pelew Islanders</q>). Among the friends and +correspondents who have kindly helped me with information +and criticisms of various sorts I wish to thank particularly +Mr. W. Crooke, Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, Mr. G. F. +Hill of the British Museum, the Reverend J. Roscoe of the +Church Missionary Society, and Mr. W. Wyse. Above all +I owe much to my teacher the Reverend Professor R. H. +Kennett, who, besides initiating me into the charms of the +Hebrew language and giving me a clearer insight into the +course of Hebrew history, has contributed several valuable +suggestions to the book and enhanced the kindness by +reading and criticizing some of the proofs. +</p> + +<p> +J. G. Frazer. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Trinity College, Cambridge</hi>,<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>22nd September 1907</hi>. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='ix'/><anchor id='Pgix'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Preface to the Third Edition.</head> + +<p> +In revising the book for this third edition I have made +use of several important works which have appeared since +the last edition was published. Among these I would name +particularly the learned treatises of Count Baudissin on +Adonis, of Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge on Osiris, and of my +colleague Professor J. Garstang on the civilization of the +Hittites, that still mysterious people, who begin to loom a +little more distinctly from the mists of the past. Following +the example of Dr. Wallis Budge, I have indicated certain +analogies which may be traced between the worship of Osiris +and the worship of the dead, especially of dead kings, +among the modern tribes of Africa. The conclusion to +which these analogies appear to point is that under the +mythical pall of the glorified Osiris, the god who died and +rose again from the dead, there once lay the body of a dead +man. Whether that was so or not, I will not venture to say. +The longer I occupy myself with questions of ancient mythology +the more diffident I become of success in dealing with +them, and I am apt to think that we who spend our years +in searching for solutions of these insoluble problems are +like Sisyphus perpetually rolling his stone up hill only to +see it revolve again into the valley, or like the daughters +of Danaus doomed for ever to pour water into broken jars +that can hold no water. If we are taxed with wasting life +in seeking to know what can never be known, and what, if +it could be discovered, would not be worth knowing, what +<pb n='x'/><anchor id='Pgx'/> +can we plead in our defence? I fear, very little. Such +pursuits can hardly be defended on the ground of pure +reason. We can only say that something, we know not +what, drives us to attack the great enemy Ignorance +wherever we see him, and that if we fail, as we probably +shall, in our attack on his entrenchments, it may be useless +but it is not inglorious to fall in leading a Forlorn Hope. +</p> + +<p> +J. G. Frazer +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Cambridge</hi>,<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>16th January 1914</hi>. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='001'/><anchor id='Pg001'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Book First. Adonis.</head> + +<pb n='003'/><anchor id='Pg003'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter I. The Myth of Adonis.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +changes of +the seasons +explained +by the life +and death +of gods.</note> +The spectacle of the great changes which annually pass +over the face of the earth has powerfully impressed the +minds of men in all ages, and stirred them to meditate +on the causes of transformations so vast and wonderful. +Their curiosity has not been purely disinterested; for even +the savage cannot fail to perceive how intimately his own +life is bound up with the life of nature, and how the same +processes which freeze the stream and strip the earth of +vegetation menace him with extinction. At a certain +stage of development men seem to have imagined that the +means of averting the threatened calamity were in their +own hands, and that they could hasten or retard the flight +of the seasons by magic art. Accordingly they performed +ceremonies and recited spells to make the rain to fall, the +sun to shine, animals to multiply, and the fruits of the +earth to grow. In course of time the slow advance of +knowledge, which has dispelled so many cherished illusions, +convinced at least the more thoughtful portion of mankind +that the alternations of summer and winter, of spring and +autumn, were not merely the result of their own magical +rites, but that some deeper cause, some mightier power, was +at work behind the shifting scenes of nature. They now +pictured to themselves the growth and decay of vegetation, +the birth and death of living creatures, as effects of the +waxing or waning strength of divine beings, of gods and +goddesses, who were born and died, who married and begot +children, on the pattern of human life. +</p> + +<pb n='004'/><anchor id='Pg004'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Magical +ceremonies +to revive +the failing +energies of +the gods.</note> +Thus the old magical theory of the seasons was displaced, +or rather supplemented, by a religious theory. For +although men now attributed the annual cycle of change +primarily to corresponding changes in their deities, they +still thought that by performing certain magical rites +they could aid the god, who was the principle of life, in +his struggle with the opposing principle of death. They +imagined that they could recruit his failing energies and +even raise him from the dead. The ceremonies which they +observed for this purpose were in substance a dramatic +representation of the natural processes which they wished +to facilitate; for it is a familiar tenet of magic that you +can produce any desired effect by merely imitating it. +And as they now explained the fluctuations of growth and +decay, of reproduction and dissolution, by the marriage, the +death, and the rebirth or revival of the gods, their religious +or rather magical dramas turned in great measure on these +themes. They set forth the fruitful union of the powers of +fertility, the sad death of one at least of the divine partners, +and his joyful resurrection. Thus a religious theory was +blended with a magical practice. The combination is +familiar in history. Indeed, few religions have ever +succeeded in wholly extricating themselves from the old +trammels of magic. The inconsistency of acting on two +opposite principles, however it may vex the soul of the +philosopher, rarely troubles the common man; indeed he +is seldom even aware of it. His affair is to act, not to +analyse the motives of his action. If mankind had always +been logical and wise, history would not be a long chronicle +of folly and crime.<note place='foot'>As in the present volume I am concerned +with the beliefs and practices of +Orientals I may quote the following +passage from one who has lived long +in the East and knows it well: <q>The +Oriental mind is free from the trammels +of logic. It is a literal fact that the +Oriental mind can accept and believe +two opposite things at the same time. +We find fully qualified and even learned +Indian doctors practising Greek medicine, +as well as English medicine, and +enforcing sanitary restrictions to which +their own houses and families are entirely +strangers. We find astronomers +who can predict eclipses, and yet who +believe that eclipses are caused by a +dragon swallowing the sun. We find +holy men who are credited with miraculous +powers and with close communion +with the Deity, who live in drunkenness +and immorality, and who are capable +of elaborate frauds on others. To the +Oriental mind, a thing must be incredible +to command a ready belief</q> (<q>Riots +and Unrest in the Punjab, from a correspondent,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>The Times Weekly Edition</hi>, +May 24, 1907, p. 326). Again, speaking +of the people of the Lower Congo, +an experienced missionary describes +their religious ideas as <q>chaotic in the +extreme and impossible to reduce to +any systematic order. The same person +will tell you at different times that +the departed spirit goes to the nether +regions, or to a dark forest, or to the +moon, or to the sun. There is no +coherence in their beliefs, and their +ideas about cosmogony and the future +are very nebulous. Although they +believe in punishment after death their +faith is so hazy that it has lost all its +deterrent force. If in the following +pages a lack of logical unity is observed, +it must be put to the debit of +the native mind, as that lack of logical +unity really represents the mistiness of +their views.</q> See Rev. John H. +Weeks, <q>Notes on some Customs of +the Lower Congo People,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Folk-lore</hi>, +xx. (1909) pp. 54 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Unless we +allow for this innate capacity of the +human mind to entertain contradictory +beliefs at the same time, we shall in +vain attempt to understand the history +of thought in general and of religion in +particular.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='005'/><anchor id='Pg005'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +principles +of animal +and of +vegetable +life confused +in +these ceremonies.</note> +Of the changes which the seasons bring with them, the +most striking within the temperate zone are those which +affect vegetation. The influence of the seasons on animals, +though great, is not nearly so manifest. Hence it is +natural that in the magical dramas designed to dispel +winter and bring back spring the emphasis should be laid +on vegetation, and that trees and plants should in +them more prominently than beasts and birds. Yet the +two sides of life, the vegetable and the animal, were not +dissociated in the minds of those who observed the +ceremonies. Indeed they commonly believed that the tie +between the animal and the vegetable world was even +closer than it really is; hence they often combined the +dramatic representation of reviving plants with a real or a +dramatic union of the sexes for the purpose of furthering +at the same time and by the same act the multiplication +of fruits, of animals, and of men. To them the principle of +life and fertility, whether animal or vegetable, was one and +indivisible. To live and to cause to live, to eat food and to +beget children, these were the primary wants of men in the +past, and they will be the primary wants of men in the +future so long as the world lasts. Other things may be +added to enrich and beautify human life, but unless these +wants are first satisfied, humanity itself must cease to exist. +These two things, therefore, food and children, were what +men chiefly sought to procure by the performance of magical +rites for the regulation of the seasons. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Prevalence +of these +rites in +Western +Asia and +Egypt.</note> +Nowhere, apparently, have these rites been more widely +<pb n='006'/><anchor id='Pg006'/> +and solemnly celebrated than in the lands which border the +Eastern Mediterranean. Under the names of Osiris, Tammuz, +Adonis, and Attis, the peoples of Egypt and Western +Asia represented the yearly decay and revival of life, +especially of vegetable life, which they personified as a god +who annually died and rose again from the dead. In name +and detail the rites varied from place to place: in substance +they were the same. The supposed death and resurrection +of this oriental deity, a god of many names but of +essentially one nature, is the subject of the present inquiry. +We begin with Tammuz or Adonis.<note place='foot'>The equivalence of Tammuz and +Adonis has been doubted or denied by +some scholars, as by Renan (<hi rend='italic'>Mission de +Phénicie</hi>, Paris, 1864, pp. 216, 235) +and by Chwolsohn (<hi rend='italic'>Die Ssabier und +der Ssabismus</hi>, St. Petersburg, 1856, +ii. 510). But the two gods are identified +by Origen (<hi rend='italic'>Selecta in Ezechielem</hi>, +Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, xiii. 797), +Jerome (<hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> lviii. 3 and <hi rend='italic'>Commentar. +in Ezechielem</hi>, viii. 13, 14, Migne's +<hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Latina</hi>, xxii. 581, xxv. 82), +Cyril of Alexandria (<hi rend='italic'>In Isaiam</hi>, lib. ii. +tomus. iii., and <hi rend='italic'>Comment. on Hosea</hi>, +iv. 15, Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, lxx. +441, lxxi. 136), Theodoretus (<hi rend='italic'>In +Ezechielis cap.</hi> viii., Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia +Graeca</hi>, lxxxi. 885), the author of the +Paschal Chronicle (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia +Graeca</hi>, xcii. 329) and Melito (in W. +Cureton's <hi rend='italic'>Spicilegium Syriacum</hi>, London, +1855, p. 44); and accordingly +we may fairly conclude that, whatever +their remote origin may have +been, Tammuz and Adonis were in the +later period of antiquity practically +equivalent to each other. Compare +W. W. Graf Baudissin, <hi rend='italic'>Studien zur +semitischen Religionsgeschichte</hi> (Leipsic, +1876-1878), i. 299; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, in <hi rend='italic'>Realencyclopädie +für protestantische Theologie +und Kirchengeschichte</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Tammuz</q>; +<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Adonis und Esmun</hi> (Leipsic, +1911), pp. 94 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; W. Mannhardt, +<hi rend='italic'>Antike Wald- und Feldkulte</hi> (Berlin, +1877), pp. 273 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Ch. Vellay, <q>Le +dieu Thammuz,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Revue de l'Histoire +des Religions</hi>, xlix. (1904) pp. 154-162. +Baudissin holds that Tammuz and +Adonis were two different gods sprung +from a common root (<hi rend='italic'>Adonis und +Esmun</hi>, p. 368). An Assyrian origin +of the cult of Adonis was long ago +affirmed by Macrobius (<hi rend='italic'>Sat.</hi> i. 21. 1). +On Adonis and his worship in general +see also F. C. Movers, <hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, +i. (Bonn, 1841) pp. 191 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; W. H. +Engel, <hi rend='italic'>Kypros</hi> (Berlin, 1841), ii. 536 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Ch. Vellay, <hi rend='italic'>Le culte et les fêtes +d' Adonis-Thammouz dans l'Orient +antique</hi> (Paris, 1904).</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Tammuz +or Adonis +in Babylonia. His worship +seems +to have +originated +with the +Sumerians.</note> +The worship of Adonis was practised by the Semitic +peoples of Babylonia and Syria, and the Greeks borrowed it +from them as early as the seventh century before Christ.<note place='foot'>The mourning for Adonis is mentioned +by Sappho, who flourished about +600 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> See Th. Bergk's <hi rend='italic'>Poetae Lyrici +Graeci</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> iii. (Leipsic, 1867) p. 897; +Pausanias, ix. 29. 8.</note> +The true name of the deity was Tammuz: the appellation +of Adonis is merely the Semitic <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>Adon</foreign>, <q>lord,</q> a title of +honour by which his worshippers addressed him.<note place='foot'>Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +i. 2 (Berlin, 1909), pp. 394 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +W. W. Graf Baudissin, <hi rend='italic'>Adonis und +Esmun</hi>, pp. 65 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> In the +Hebrew text of the Old Testament the same name Adonai, +<pb n='007'/><anchor id='Pg007'/> +originally perhaps Adoni, <q>my lord,</q> is often applied to +Jehovah.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, ed. T. K. +Cheyne and J. S. Black, iii. 3327. +In the Old Testament the title <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>Adoni</foreign>, +<q>my lord,</q> is frequently given to men. +See, for example, Genesis xxxiii. 8, +13, 14, 15, xlii. 10, xliii. 20, xliv. 5, +7, 9, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24.</note> But the Greeks through a misunderstanding +converted the title of honour into a proper name. While +Tammuz or his equivalent Adonis enjoyed a wide and +lasting popularity among peoples of the Semitic stock, +there are grounds for thinking that his worship originated +with a race of other blood and other speech, the Sumerians, +who in the dawn of history inhabited the flat alluvial plain +at the head of the Persian Gulf and created the civilization +which was afterwards called Babylonian. The origin and +affinities of this people are unknown; in physical type and +language they differed from all their neighbours, and their +isolated position, wedged in between alien races, presents +to the student of mankind problems of the same sort as the +isolation of the Basques and Etruscans among the Aryan +peoples of Europe. An ingenious, but unproved, hypothesis +would represent them as immigrants driven from central Asia +by that gradual desiccation which for ages seems to have +been converting once fruitful lands into a waste and burying +the seats of ancient civilization under a sea of shifting sand. +Whatever their place of origin may have been, it is certain +that in Southern Babylonia the Sumerians attained at a +very early period to a considerable pitch of civilization; for +they tilled the soil, reared cattle, built cities, dug canals, +and even invented a system of writing, which their Semitic +neighbours in time borrowed from them.<note place='foot'>C. P. Tiele, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der Religion +im Altertum</hi> (Gotha, 1896-1903), i. +134 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; G. Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient +Classique, les Origines</hi> (Paris, 1895), +pp. 550 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; L. W. King, <hi rend='italic'>Babylonian +Religion and Mythology</hi> (London, +1899), pp. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>A History of +Sumer and Akkad</hi> (London, 1910), +pp. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 40 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; H. Winckler, in +E. Schrader's <hi rend='italic'>Die Keilinschriften und +das alte Testament</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> (Berlin, 1902), +pp. 10 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 349; Fr. Hommel, <hi rend='italic'>Grundriss +der Geographie und Geschichte des +alten Orients</hi> (Munich, 1904), pp. 18 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +i. 2 (Berlin, 1909), pp. 401 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +As to the hypothesis that the Sumerians +were immigrants from Central Asia, see +L. W. King, <hi rend='italic'>History of Sumer and +Akkad</hi>, pp. 351 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The gradual +desiccation of Central Asia, which +is conjectured to have caused the +Sumerian migration, has been similarly +invoked to explain the downfall +of the Roman empire; for by rendering +great regions uninhabitable it is +supposed to have driven hordes of +fierce barbarians to find new homes in +Europe. See Professor J. W. Gregory's +lecture <q>Is the earth drying up?</q> +delivered before the Royal Geographical +Society and reported in <hi rend='italic'>The Times</hi>, +December 9th, 1913. It is held by +Prof. Hommel (<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 19 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>) that +the Sumerian language belongs to the +Ural-altaic family, but the better opinion +seems to be that its linguistic affinities +are unknown. The view, once ardently +advocated, that Sumerian was not a +language but merely a cabalistic mode +of writing Semitic, is now generally +exploded.</note> In the pantheon +<pb n='008'/><anchor id='Pg008'/> +of this ancient people Tammuz appears to have been one of +the oldest, though certainly not one of the most important +figures.<note place='foot'>H. Zimmern, <q>Der babylonische +Gott Tamüz,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen +Klasse der Königl. +Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften</hi>, +xxvii. No. xx. (Leipsic, +1909) pp. 701, 722.</note> His name consists of a Sumerian phrase meaning +<q>true son</q> or, in a fuller form, <q>true son of the deep +water,</q><note place='foot'><foreign rend='italic'>Dumu-zi</foreign>, or in fuller form <foreign rend='italic'>Dumuzi-abzu</foreign>. +See P. Jensen, <hi rend='italic'>Assyrisch-Babylonische +Mythen und Epen</hi> (Berlin, 1900), +p. 560; H. Zimmern, <hi rend='italic'>op. +cit.</hi> pp. 703 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, in E. Schrader's +<hi rend='italic'>Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +(Berlin, 1902), p. 397; P. +Dhorme, <hi rend='italic'>La Religion Assyro-Babylonienne</hi> +(Paris, 1910), p. 105; W. +W. Graf Baudissin, <hi rend='italic'>Adonis und Esmun</hi> +(Leipsic, 1911), p. 104.</note> and among the inscribed Sumerian texts which +have survived the wreck of empires are a number of hymns +in his honour, which were written down not later than about +two thousand years before our era but were almost certainly +composed at a much earlier time.<note place='foot'>H. Zimmern, <q>Der babylonische +Gott Tamüz,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Abhandl. d. Kön. Sächs. +Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften</hi>, xxvii. +No. xx. (Leipsic, 1909) p, 723. For +the text and translation of the hymns, +see H. Zimmern, <q>Sumerisch-babylonische +Tamüzlieder,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Berichte über +die Verhandlungen der Königlich +Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften +zu Leipzig, Philologisch-historische +Klasse</hi>, lix. (1907) pp. 201-252. +Compare H. Gressmann, <hi rend='italic'>Altorientalische +Texte und Bilder</hi> (Tübingen, +1909), i. 93 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; W. W. Graf Baudissin, +<hi rend='italic'>Adonis und Esmun</hi> (Leipsic, +1911), pp. 99 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; R. W. Rogers, +<hi rend='italic'>Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament</hi> +(Oxford, <hi rend='smallcaps'>n.d.</hi>), pp. 179-185.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Tammuz +the lover +of Ishtar. +Descent of +Ishtar to +the nether +world to +recover +Tammuz.</note> +In the religious literature of Babylonia Tammuz appears +as the youthful spouse or lover of Ishtar, the great mother +goddess, the embodiment of the reproductive energies of +nature. The references to their connexion with each other +in myth and ritual are both fragmentary and obscure, but +we gather from them that every year Tammuz was believed +to die, passing away from the cheerful earth to the gloomy +subterranean world, and that every year his divine mistress +journeyed in quest of him <q>to the land from which there is +no returning, to the house of darkness, where dust lies on +door and bolt.</q> During her absence the passion of love +ceased to operate: men and beasts alike forgot to reproduce +their kinds: all life was threatened with extinction. So +<pb n='009'/><anchor id='Pg009'/> +intimately bound up with the goddess were the sexual +functions of the whole animal kingdom that without her +presence they could not be discharged. A messenger of the +great god Ea was accordingly despatched to rescue the +goddess on whom so much depended. The stern queen of +the infernal regions, Allatu or Eresh-Kigal by name, reluctantly +allowed Ishtar to be sprinkled with the Water +of Life and to depart, in company probably with her lover +Tammuz, that the two might return together to the upper +world, and that with their return all nature might revive. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Laments +for +Tammuz.</note> +Laments for the departed Tammuz are contained in +several Babylonian hymns, which liken him to plants that +quickly fade. He is +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'><hi rend='italic'>A tamarisk that in the garden has drunk no water,</hi></q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><hi rend='italic'>Whose crown in the field has brought forth no blossom.</hi></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>A willow that rejoiced not by the watercourse,</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><hi rend='italic'>A willow whose roots were torn up.</hi></l> +<l><q rend='post'><hi rend='italic'>A herb that in the garden had drunk no water.</hi></q></l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +His death appears to have been annually mourned, to the +shrill music of flutes, by men and women about midsummer +in the month named after him, the month of Tammuz. +The dirges were seemingly chanted over an effigy of the +dead god, which was washed with pure water, anointed with +oil, and clad in a red robe, while the fumes of incense rose +into the air, as if to stir his dormant senses by their pungent +fragrance and wake him from the sleep of death. In one +of these dirges, inscribed <hi rend='italic'>Lament of the Flutes for Tammuz</hi>, +we seem still to hear the voices of the singers chanting the +sad refrain and to catch, like far-away music, the wailing +notes of the flutes:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'><hi rend='italic'>At his vanishing away she lifts up a lament,</hi></q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><q rend='none'><hi rend='italic'><q>Oh my child!</q> at his vanishing away she lifts up a lament;</hi></q></l> +<l><q rend='none'><hi rend='italic'><q>My Damu!</q> at his vanishing away she lifts up a lament.</hi></q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><q rend='none'><hi rend='italic'><q>My enchanter and priest!</q> at his vanishing away she lifts up a lament,</hi></q></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>At the shining cedar, rooted in a spacious place,</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><hi rend='italic'>In Eanna, above and below, she lifts up a lament.</hi></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>Like the lament that a house lifts up for its master, lifts she up a lament,</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><hi rend='italic'>Like the lament that a city lifts up for its lord, lifts she up a lament.</hi></l> +<pb n='010'/><anchor id='Pg010'/> +<l><hi rend='italic'>Her lament is the lament for a herb that grows not in the bed,</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><hi rend='italic'>Her lament is the lament for the corn that grows not in the ear.</hi></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>Her chamber is a possession that brings not forth a possession,</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><hi rend='italic'>A weary woman, a weary child, forspent.</hi></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>Her lament is for a great river, where no willows grow,</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><hi rend='italic'>Her lament is for a field, where corn and herbs grow not.</hi></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>Her lament is for a pool, where fishes grow not.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><hi rend='italic'>Her lament is for a thicket of reeds, where no reeds grow.</hi></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>Her lament is for woods, where tamarisks grow not.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><hi rend='italic'>Her lament is for a wilderness where no cypresses (?) grow.</hi></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>Her lament is for the depth of a garden of trees, where honey and wine grow not.</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><hi rend='italic'>Her lament is for meadows, where no plants grow.</hi></l> +<l><q rend='post'><hi rend='italic'>Her lament is for a palace, where length of life grows not.</hi></q><note place='foot'>A. Jeremias, <hi rend='italic'>Die babylonisch-assyrischen +Vorstellungen vom Leben nach +dem Tode</hi> (Leipsic, 1887), pp. 4 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, in W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der +griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, ii. 808, +iii. 258 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; M. Jastrow, <hi rend='italic'>The Religion +of Babylonia and Assyria</hi> (Boston, 1898), +pp. 565-576, 584, 682 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; W. L. King, +<hi rend='italic'>Babylonian Religion and Mythology</hi>, pp. +178-183; P. Jensen, <hi rend='italic'>Assyrisch-babylonische +Mythen und Epen</hi>, pp. 81 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 95 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 169; R. F. Harper, +<hi rend='italic'>Assyrian and Babylonian Literature</hi> +(New York, 1901), pp. 316 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 338, +408 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's +<hi rend='italic'>Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +pp. 397 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 561 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<q>Sumerisch-babylonische Tamūzlieder,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Berichte über die Verhandlungen +der Königlich Sächsischen Gesellschaft +der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-historische +Klasse</hi>, lix. (1907) pp. +220, 232, 236 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <q>Der babylonische +Gott Tamūz,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Abhandlungen +der philologisch-historischen Klasse der +Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der +Wissenschaften</hi>, xxvii. No. xx. (Leipsic, +1909) pp. 725 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 729-735; H. +Gressmann, <hi rend='italic'>Altorientalische Texte und +Bilder zum Alten Testamente</hi> (Tübingen, +1909), i. 65-69; R. W. Rogers, +<hi rend='italic'>Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament</hi> +(Oxford, <hi rend='smallcaps'>n.d.</hi>), pp. 121-131; +W. W. Graf Baudissin, <hi rend='italic'>Adonis und +Esmun</hi> (Leipsic, 1911), pp. 99 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, +353 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> According to Jerome (on +Ezekiel viii. 14) the month of Tammuz +was June; but according to modern +scholars it corresponded rather to July, +or to part of June and part of July. +See F. C. Movers, <hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, i. +210; F. Lenormant, <q>Il mito di +Adone-Tammuz nei documenti cuneiformi,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Atti del IV. Congresso Internazionale +degli Orientalisti</hi> (Florence, +1880), i. 144 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; W. Mannhardt, +<hi rend='italic'>Antike Wald- und Feldkulte, p. 275; +Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Months,</q> +iii. 3194. My friend W. Robertson +Smith informed me that owing to the +variations of the local Syrian calendars +the month of Tammuz fell in different +places at different times, from midsummer +to autumn, or from June +to September. According to Prof. +M. Jastrow, the festival of Tammuz +was celebrated just before the summer +solstice (<hi rend='italic'>The Religion of Babylonia and +Assyria</hi>, pp. 547, 682). He observes +that <q>the calendar of the Jewish +Church still marks the 17th day of +Tammuz as a fast, and Houtsma has +shown that the association of the day +with the capture of Jerusalem by the +Romans represents merely the attempt +to give an ancient festival a worthier +interpretation.</q></note></l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Adonis +in Greek +mythology +merely a +reflection +of the +Oriental +Tammuz.</note> +The tragical story and the melancholy rites of Adonis +are better known to us from the descriptions of Greek +writers than from the fragments of Babylonian literature or +<pb n='011'/><anchor id='Pg011'/> +the brief reference of the prophet Ezekiel, who saw the +women of Jerusalem weeping for Tammuz at the north gate +of the temple.<note place='foot'>Ezekiel viii. 14.</note> Mirrored in the glass of Greek mythology, +the oriental deity appears as a comely youth beloved by +Aphrodite. In his infancy the goddess hid him in a chest, +which she gave in charge to Persephone, queen of the nether +world. But when Persephone opened the chest and beheld +the beauty of the babe, she refused to give him back to +Aphrodite, though the goddess of love went down herself to +hell to ransom her dear one from the power of the grave. +The dispute between the two goddesses of love and death +was settled by Zeus, who decreed that Adonis should abide +with Persephone in the under world for one part of the year, +and with Aphrodite in the upper world for another part. +At last the fair youth was killed in hunting by a wild boar, +or by the jealous Ares, who turned himself into the likeness +of a boar in order to compass the death of his rival. +Bitterly did Aphrodite lament her loved and lost Adonis.<note place='foot'>Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, iii. 14. +4; Bion, <hi rend='italic'>Idyl</hi>, i., J. Tzetzes. <hi rend='italic'>Schol. +on Lycophron</hi>, 831; Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> x. +503 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Aristides, <hi rend='italic'>Apology</hi>, edited +by J. Rendel Harris (Cambridge, +1891), pp. 44, 106 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> In Babylonian +texts relating to Tammuz no reference +has yet been found to death by a boar. +See H. Zimmern, <q>Sumerisch-babylonische +Tamūzlieder,</q> p. 451; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<q>Der babylonische Gott Tamūz,</q> p. +731. Baudissin inclines to think that +the incident of the boar is a late importation +into the myth of Adonis. See +his <hi rend='italic'>Adonis und Esmun</hi>, pp. 142 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +As to the relation of the boar to the +kindred gods Adonis, Attis, and Osiris +see <hi rend='italic'>Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild</hi>, +ii. 22 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, where I have suggested +that the idea of the boar as the foe of +the god may be based on the terrible +ravages which wild pigs notoriously +commit in fields of corn.</note> +The strife between the divine rivals for the possession of +Adonis appears to be depicted on an Etruscan mirror. The +two goddesses, identified by inscriptions, are stationed on +either side of Jupiter, who occupies the seat of judgment +and lifts an admonitory finger as he looks sternly towards +Persephone. Overcome with grief the goddess of love buries +her face in her mantle, while her pertinacious rival, grasping +a branch in one hand, points with the other at a closed +coffer, which probably contains the youthful Adonis.<note place='foot'>W. W. Graf Baudissin, <hi rend='italic'>Adonis +und Esmun</hi> (Leipsic, 1911), pp. 152 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, with plate iv. As to the representation +of the myth of Adonis on +Etruscan mirrors and late works of +Roman art, especially sarcophaguses +and wall-paintings, see Otto Jahn, +<hi rend='italic'>Archäologische Beiträge</hi> (Berlin, 1847), +pp. 45-51.</note> In +<pb n='012'/><anchor id='Pg012'/> +this form of the myth, the contest between Aphrodite and +Persephone for the possession of Adonis clearly reflects the +struggle between Ishtar and Allatu in the land of the dead, +while the decision of Zeus that Adonis is to spend one part +of the year under ground and another part above ground +is merely a Greek version of the annual disappearance and +reappearance of Tammuz. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='013'/><anchor id='Pg013'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter II. Adonis in Syria.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Worship +of Adonis +and Astarte +at Byblus, +the kingdom +of +Cinyras. The kings +of Byblus.</note> +The myth of Adonis was localized and his rites celebrated +with much solemnity at two places in Western Asia. One +of these was Byblus on the coast of Syria, the other was +Paphos in Cyprus. Both were great seats of the worship +of Aphrodite, or rather of her Semitic counterpart, Astarte;<note place='foot'>The ancients were aware that the +Syrian and Cyprian Aphrodite, the +mistress of Adonis, was no other than +Astarte. See Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De natura deorum</hi>, +iii. 23. 59; Joannes Lydus, <hi rend='italic'>De +mensibus</hi>, iv. 44. On Adonis in +Phoenicia see W. W. Graf Baudissin, +<hi rend='italic'>Adonis und Esmun</hi> (Leipsic, 1911), +pp. 71 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +and of both, if we accept the legends, Cinyras, the father of +Adonis, was king.<note place='foot'>As to Cinyras, see F. C. Movers, +<hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, i. 238 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, ii. 2. 226-231; +W. H. Engel, <hi rend='italic'>Kypros</hi> (Berlin, +1841), i. 168-173, ii. 94-136; Stoll, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Kinyras,</q> in W. H. Roscher's +<hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, +ii. 1189 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> Melito calls the +father of Adonis by the name of Cuthar, +and represents him as king of the +Phoenicians with his capital at Gebal +(Byblus). See Melito, <q>Oration to +Antoninus Caesar,</q> in W. Cureton's +<hi rend='italic'>Spicilegium Syriacum</hi> (London, 1855), +p. 44.</note> Of the two cities Byblus was the more +ancient; indeed it claimed to be the oldest city in Phoenicia, +and to have been founded in the early ages of the world by +the great god El, whom Greeks and Romans identified with +Cronus and Saturn respectively.<note place='foot'>Philo of Byblus, quoted by Eusebius, +<hi rend='italic'>Praeparatio Evangelii</hi>, i. 10; +<hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum</hi>, +ed. C. Müller, iii. 568; Stephanus +Byzantius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Βύβλος. Byblus is a +Greek corruption of the Semitic Gebal (גבל), the name which the place still +retains. See E. Renan, <hi rend='italic'>Mission de +Phénicie</hi> (Paris, 1864), p. 155.</note> However that may have +been, in historical times it ranked as a holy place, the +religious capital of the country, the Mecca or Jerusalem +of the Phoenicians.<note place='foot'>R. Pietschmann, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der +Phoenizier</hi> (Berlin, 1889), p. 139. +On the coins it is designated <q>Holy +Byblus.</q></note> The city stood on a height beside +the sea,<note place='foot'>Strabo, xvi. 1. 18, p. 755.</note> and contained a great sanctuary of Astarte,<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 6.</note> where +<pb n='014'/><anchor id='Pg014'/> +in the midst of a spacious open court, surrounded by +cloisters and approached from below by staircases, rose a +tall cone or obelisk, the holy image of the goddess.<note place='foot'>The sanctuary and image are +figured on coins of Byblus. See T. +L. Donaldson, <hi rend='italic'>Architectura Numismatica</hi> +(London, 1859), pp. 105 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +E. Renan, <hi rend='italic'>Mission de Phénicie</hi>, p. +177; G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iii. +(Paris, 1885) p. 60; R. Pietschmann, +<hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der Phoenizier</hi>, p. 202; G. +Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire Ancienne des Peuples +de l'Orient Classique</hi>, ii. (Paris, 1897) +p. 173. Renan excavated a massive +square pedestal built of colossal stones, +which he thought may have supported +the sacred obelisk (<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 174-178).</note> In +this sanctuary the rites of Adonis were celebrated.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 6.</note> Indeed +the whole city was sacred to him,<note place='foot'>Strabo, xvi. 1. 18, p. 755.</note> and the river Nahr +Ibrahim, which falls into the sea a little to the south of +Byblus, bore in antiquity the name of Adonis.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 8; Pliny, +<hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> v. 78; E. Renan, <hi rend='italic'>Mission +de Phénicie</hi>, pp. 282 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> This was +the kingdom of Cinyras.<note place='foot'>Eustathius, <hi rend='italic'>Commentary on Dionysius +Periegetes</hi>, 912 (<hi rend='italic'>Geographi Graeci +Minores</hi>, ed. C. Müller, ii. 376); +Melito, in W. Cureton's <hi rend='italic'>Spicilegium +Syriacum</hi>, p. 44.</note> From the earliest to the latest +times the city appears to have been ruled by kings, assisted +perhaps by a senate or council of elders.<note place='foot'>Ezekiel xxvii. 9. As to the name +Gebal see above, p. <ref target='Pg013'>13</ref>, note 1.</note> The first of the +kings of whom we have historical evidence was a certain +Zekar-baal. He reigned about a century before Solomon; +yet from that dim past his figure stands out strangely fresh +and lifelike in the journal of an Egyptian merchant or official +named Wen-Ammon, which has fortunately been preserved +in a papyrus. This man spent some time with the king at +Byblus, and received from him, in return for rich presents, a +supply of timber felled in the forests of Lebanon.<note place='foot'>L. B. Paton, <hi rend='italic'>The Early History of +Syria and Palestine</hi> (London, 1902), +pp. 169-171. See below, pp. <ref target='Pg075'>75</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Another +king of Byblus, who bore the name of Sibitti-baal, paid +tribute to Tiglath-pileser III., king of Assyria, about the +year 739 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi><note place='foot'>L. B. Paton, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 235; R. F. +Harper, <hi rend='italic'>Assyrian and Babylonian +Literature</hi>, p. 57 (the Nimrud inscription +of Tiglath-pileser III.).</note> Further, from an inscription of the fifth or +fourth century before our era we learn that a king of Byblus, +by name Yehaw-melech, son of Yehar-baal, and grandson +of Adom-melech or Uri-melech, dedicated a pillared portico +with a carved work of gold and a bronze altar to the goddess, +whom he worshipped under the name of Baalath Gebal, that +is, the female Baal of Byblus.<note place='foot'>The inscription was discovered by +Renan. See Ch. Vellay, <hi rend='italic'>Le culte et +les fêtes d'Adonis-Thammouz dans +l'Orient antique</hi> (Paris, 1904), pp. 38 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic +Inscriptions</hi> (Oxford 1903), +No. 3, pp. 18 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> In the time of +Alexander the Great the king of Byblus +was a certain Enylus (Arrian, <hi rend='italic'>Anabasis</hi>, +ii. 20), whose name appears on a coin +of the city (F. C. Movers, <hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, +ii. 1, p. 103, note 81).</note> +</p> + +<pb n='015'/><anchor id='Pg015'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Divinity of +Semitic +kings.</note> +The names of these kings suggest that they claimed +affinity with their god Baal or Moloch, for Moloch is only +a corruption of <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>melech</foreign>, that is, <q>king.</q> Such a claim at +all events appears to have been put forward by many +other Semitic kings.<note place='foot'>On the divinity of Semitic kings +and the kingship of Semitic gods see +W. R. Smith, <hi rend='italic'>Religion of the Semites</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +(London, 1894), pp. 44 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 66 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> The early monarchs of Babylon were +worshipped as gods in their lifetime.<note place='foot'>H. Radau, <hi rend='italic'>Early Babylonian History</hi> +(New York and London, 1900), +pp. 307-317; P. Dhorme, <hi rend='italic'>La Religion +Assyro-Babylonienne</hi> (Paris, 1910), pp. +168 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Mesha, king of +Moab, perhaps called himself the son of his god Kemosh.<note place='foot'>The evidence for this is the +Moabite stone, but the reading of the +inscription is doubtful. See S. R. +Driver, in <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Mesha,</q> vol. iii. 3041 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Notes on the Hebrew Text and the +Topography of the Books of Samuel</hi>, +Second Edition (Oxford, 1913), pp. +lxxxv., lxxxvi., lxxxviii. <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; G. A. +Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic +Inscriptions</hi>, No. 1, pp. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 6.</note> +Among the Aramean sovereigns of Damascus, mentioned +in the Bible, we find more than one Ben-hadad, that is, <q>son +of the god Hadad,</q> the chief male deity of the Syrians;<note place='foot'>2 Kings viii. 7, 9, xiii. 24 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Jeremiah xlix. 27. As to the god +Hadad see Macrobius, <hi rend='italic'>Saturn</hi>, i. 23. +17-19 (where, as so often in late writers, +the Syrians are called Assyrians); Philo +of Byblus, in <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Historicorum +Graecorum</hi>, ed. C. Müller, iii. 569; +F. Baethgen, <hi rend='italic'>Beiträge zur semitischen +Religionsgeschichte</hi> (Berlin, 1888), pp. +66-68; G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-book of +North-Semitic Inscriptions</hi>, Nos. 61, +62, pp. 161 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 164, 173, 175; M. J. +Lagrange, <hi rend='italic'>Études sur les Religions +Sémitiques</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Paris, 1905), pp. 93, 493, +496 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The prophet Zechariah speaks +(xii. 11) of a great mourning of or for +Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddon. +This has been taken to refer to +a lament for Hadad-Rimmon, the +Syrian god of rain, storm, and thunder, +like the lament for Adonis. See S. R. +Driver's note on the passage (<hi rend='italic'>The +Minor Prophets</hi>, pp. 266 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Century +Bible</hi>); W. W. Graf Baudissin, <hi rend='italic'>Adonis +und Esmun</hi>, p. 92.</note> +and Josephus tells us that down to his own time, in the first +century of our era, Ben-hadad I., whom he calls simply +Adad, and his successor, Hazael, continued to be worshipped +as gods by the people of Damascus, who held processions +daily in their honour.<note place='foot'>Josephus, <hi rend='italic'>Antiquit. Jud.</hi> ix. 4. 6.</note> Some of the kings of Edom seem +to have gone a step farther and identified themselves with +the god in their lifetime; at all events they bore his name +Hadad without any qualification.<note place='foot'>Genesis xxxvi. 35 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; 1 Kings +xi. 14-22; 1 Chronicles i. 50 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Of +the eight kings of Edom mentioned in +Genesis (xxxvi. 31-39) and in 1 Chronicles (i. 43-50) not one was the son +of his predecessor. This seems to +indicate that in Edom, as elsewhere, the +blood royal was traced in the female +line, and that the kings were men of +other families, or even foreigners, who +succeeded to the throne by marrying +the hereditary princesses. See <hi rend='italic'>The +Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</hi>, +ii. 268 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The Israelites were forbidden +to have a foreigner for a king +(Deuteronomy xvii. 15 with S. R. +Driver's note), which seems to imply +that the custom was known among +their neighbours. It is significant that +some of the names of the kings of Edom +seem to be those of divinities, as Prof. +A. H. Sayce observed long ago (<hi rend='italic'>Lectures +on the Religion of the Ancient +Babylonians</hi>, London and Edinburgh, +1887, p. 54).</note> King Bar-rekub, who +<pb n='016'/><anchor id='Pg016'/> +reigned over Samal in North-Western Syria in the time of +Tiglath-pileser (745-727 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi>) appears from his name to +have reckoned himself a son of Rekub-el, the god to whose +favour he deemed himself indebted for the kingdom.<note place='foot'>G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> Nos. 62, 63, +pp. 163, 165, 173 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 181 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +M. J. Lagrange, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 496 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +The god Rekub-el is mentioned along +with the gods Hadad, El, Reshef, and +Shamash in an inscription of King +Bar-rekub's mortal father, King Panammu +(G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> No. 61, +p. 161).</note> The +kings of Tyre traced their descent from Baal,<note place='foot'>Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> i. 729 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, with +Servius's note; Silius Italicus, <hi rend='italic'>Punica</hi>, +i. 86 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> and apparently +professed to be gods in their own person.<note place='foot'>Ezekiel xxviii. 2, 9.</note> Several of them +bore names which are partly composed of the names of +Baal and Astarte; one of them bore the name of Baal pure +and simple.<note place='foot'>Menander of Ephesus, quoted by +Josephus, <hi rend='italic'>Contra Apionem</hi>, i. 18 and 21; +<hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum</hi>, +ed. C. Müller, iv. 446 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> According +to the text of Josephus, as edited by +B. Niese, the names of the kings in +question were Abibal, Balbazer, Abdastart, +Methusastart, son of Leastart, +Ithobal, Balezor, Baal, Balator, Merbal. +The passage of Menander is quoted also +by Eusebius, <hi rend='italic'>Chronic.</hi> i. pp. 118, 120, +ed. A. Schoene.</note> The Baal whom they personated was no +doubt Melcarth, <q>the king of the city,</q> as his name signifies, +the great god whom the Greeks identified with Hercules; +for the equivalence of the Baal of Tyre both to Melcarth +and to Hercules is placed beyond the reach of doubt by a +bilingual inscription, in Phoenician and Greek, which was +found in Malta.<note place='foot'>G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic +Inscriptions</hi>, No. 36, p. 102. +As to Melcarth, the Tyrian Hercules, +see Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Melqart,</q> in +W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon d. griech. u. +röm. Mythologie</hi>, ii. 2650 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> One of +the Tyrian kings seems to have been +called Abi-milk (Abi-melech), that is, +<q>father of a king</q> or <q>father of +Moloch,</q> that is, of Melcarth. A +letter of his to the king of Egypt is +preserved in the Tel-el-Amarna correspondence. +See R. F. Harper, <hi rend='italic'>Assyrian +and Babylonian Literature</hi>, p. 237. As +to a title which implies that the bearer +of it was the father of a god, see below, +pp. 51 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Divinity +of the +Phoenician +kings of +Byblus +and the +Canaanite +kings of +Jerusalem. +The +<q>sacred +men</q> at +Jerusalem.</note> +In like manner the kings of Byblus may have assumed +the style of Adonis; for Adonis was simply the divine Adon +<pb n='017'/><anchor id='Pg017'/> +or <q>lord</q> of the city, a title which hardly differs in sense +from Baal (<q>master</q>) and Melech (<q>king</q>). This conjecture +would be confirmed if one of the kings of Byblus actually +bore, as Renan believed, the name of Adom-melech, that is, +Adonis Melech, the Lord King. But, unfortunately, the reading +of the inscription in which the name occurs is doubtful.<note place='foot'>E. Renan, quoted by Ch. Vellay, +<hi rend='italic'>Le culte et les fêtes d'Adonis-Thammouz</hi>, +p. 39. Mr. Cooke reads ארםלך (Uri-milk) +instead of אדםלך (Adon-milk) +(G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic +Inscriptions</hi>, No. 3, p. 18).</note> +Some of the old Canaanite kings of Jerusalem appear to have +played the part of Adonis in their lifetime, if we may judge +from their names, Adoni-bezek and Adoni-zedek,<note place='foot'>Judges i. 4-7; Joshua x. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> which are +divine rather than human titles. Adoni-zedek means <q>lord +of righteousness,</q> and is therefore equivalent to Melchizedek, +that is, <q>king of righteousness,</q> the title of that mysterious +king of Salem and priest of God Most High, who seems to +have been neither more nor less than one of these same +Canaanitish kings of Jerusalem.<note place='foot'>Genesis xiv. 18-20, with Prof. +S. R. Driver's commentary; <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia +Biblica</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.vv.</hi> <q>Adoni-bezek,</q> +<q>Adoni-zedek,</q> <q>Melchizedek.</q> It +is to be observed that names compounded +with Adoni- were occasionally +borne by private persons. Such names +are Adoni-kam (Ezra ii. 13) and +Adoni-ram (1 Kings iv. 6), not to +mention Adoni-jah (1 Kings i. 5 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>), +who was a prince and aspired to the +throne of his father David. These +names are commonly interpreted as +sentences expressive of the nature of +the god whom the bearer of the name +worshipped. See Prof. Th. Nöldeke, +in <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Names,</q> +iii. 3286. It is quite possible that +names which once implied divinity were +afterwards degraded by application to +common men.</note> Thus if the old priestly +kings of Jerusalem regularly played the part of Adonis, we +need not wonder that in later times the women of Jerusalem +used to weep for Tammuz, that is, for Adonis, at the north +gate of the temple.<note place='foot'>Ezekiel viii. 14.</note> In doing so they may only have been +continuing a custom which had been observed in the same +place by the Canaanites long before the Hebrews invaded +the land. Perhaps the <q>sacred men,</q> as they were called, +who lodged within the walls of the temple at Jerusalem +down almost to the end of the Jewish kingdom,<note place='foot'>They were banished from the +temple by King Josiah, who came to +the throne in 637 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> Jerusalem fell +just fifty-one years later. See 2 Kings +xxiii. 7. As to these <q>sacred men</q> +(<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedēshīm</foreign>), see below, pp. <ref target='Pg072'>72</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> may have +acted the part of the living Adonis to the living Astarte of +the women. At all events we know that in the cells of +<pb n='018'/><anchor id='Pg018'/> +these strange clergy women wove garments for the <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>asherim</foreign>,<note place='foot'>2 Kings xxiii. 7, where, following +the Septuagint, we must apparently +read כתנים for the בתים of the Massoretic +Text. So R. Kittel and J. Skinner.</note> +the sacred poles which stood beside the altar and which +appear to have been by some regarded as embodiments of +Astarte.<note place='foot'>The <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ashērah</foreign> (singular of <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ashērīm</foreign>) +was certainly of wood (Judges vi. 26): +it seems to have been a tree stripped +of its branches and planted in the +ground beside an altar, whether of +Jehovah or of other gods (Deuteronomy +xvi. 21; Jeremiah xvii. 2). That the +<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>asherah</foreign> was regarded as a goddess, the +female partner of Baal, appears from +1 Kings xviii. 19; 2 Kings xxi. 3, xxiii. +4; and that this goddess was identified +with Ashtoreth (Astarte) may be inferred +from a comparison of Judges ii. +13 with Judges iii. 7. Yet on the +other hand the pole or tree seems by +others to have been viewed as a male +power (Jeremiah ii. 27; see below, pp. +<ref target='Pg107'>107</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>), and the identification of the +<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>asherah</foreign> with Astarte has been doubted +or disputed by some eminent modern +scholars. See on this subject W. Robertson +Smith, <hi rend='italic'>Religion of the Semites</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. +187 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; S. R. Driver, on Deuteronomy +xvi. 21; J. Skinner, on 1 Kings xiv. +23; M. J. Lagrange, <hi rend='italic'>Études sur les +religions Sémitiques</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 173 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +G. F. Moore, in <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, +vol. i. 330 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Asherah.</q></note> Certainly these <q>sacred men</q> must have discharged +some function which was deemed religious in the +temple at Jerusalem; and we can hardly doubt that the +prohibition to bring the wages of prostitution into the house +of God, which was published at the very same time that the +men were expelled from the temple,<note place='foot'>Deuteronomy xxiii. 17 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> (in +Hebrew 18 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). The code of Deuteronomy +was published in 621 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> in +the reign of King Josiah, whose reforms, +including the ejection of the +<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign> from the temple, were based +upon it. See W. Robertson Smith, +<hi rend='italic'>The Old Testament in the Jewish +Church</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London and Edinburgh, +1892), pp. 256 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 353 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; S. R. +Driver, <hi rend='italic'>Critical and Exegetical Commentary +on Deuteronomy</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> (Edinburgh, +1902), pp. xliv. <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; K. Budde, +<hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der althebräischen Litteratur</hi> +(Leipsic, 1906), pp. 105 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> was directed against +an existing practice. In Palestine as in other Semitic lands +the hire of sacred prostitutes was probably dedicated to +the deity as one of his regular dues: he took tribute of men +and women as of flocks and herds, of fields and vineyards +and oliveyards. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>David as +heir of the +old sacred +kings of +Jerusalem.</note> +But if Jerusalem had been from of old the seat of a +dynasty of spiritual potentates or Grand Lamas, who held +the keys of heaven and were revered far and wide as kings +and gods in one, we can easily understand why the upstart +David chose it for the capital of the new kingdom which he +had won for himself at the point of the sword. The central +position and the natural strength of the virgin fortress need +not have been the only or the principal inducements which +<pb n='019'/><anchor id='Pg019'/> +decided the politic monarch to transfer his throne from +Hebron to Jerusalem.<note place='foot'>He reigned seven years in Hebron +and thirty-three in Jerusalem (2 Samuel +v. 5; 1 Kings ii. 11; 1 Chronicles +xxix. 27).</note> By serving himself heir to the +ancient kings of the city he might reasonably hope to +inherit their ghostly repute along with their broad acres, +to wear their nimbus as well as their crown.<note place='foot'>Professor A. H. Sayce has argued +that David's original name was Elhanan +(2 Samuel xxi. 19 compared with xxiii. +24), and that the name David, which +he took at a later time, should be +written Dod or Dodo, <q>the Beloved +One,</q> which according to Prof. Sayce +was a name for Tammuz (Adonis) in +Southern Canaan, and was in particular +bestowed by the Jebusites of Jerusalem +on their supreme deity. See A. H. +Sayce, <hi rend='italic'>Lectures on the Religion of the +Ancient Babylonians</hi> (London and +Edinburgh, 1887), pp. 52-57. If he +is right, his conclusions would accord +perfectly with those which I had reached +independently, and it would become +probable that David only assumed the +name of David (Dod, Dodo) after the +conquest of Jerusalem, and for the purpose +of identifying himself with the god +of the city, who had borne the same +title from time immemorial. But on +the whole it seems more likely, as +Professor Kennett points out to me, +that in the original story Elhanah, a +totally different person from David, +was the slayer of Goliath, and that +the part of the giant-killer was thrust +on David at a later time when the +brightness of his fame had eclipsed +that of many lesser heroes.</note> So at a later +time when he had conquered Ammon and captured the +royal city of Rabbah, he took the heavy gold crown of the +Ammonite god Milcom and placed it on his own brows, +thus posing as the deity in person.<note place='foot'>2 Samuel xii. 26-31; 1 Chronicles +xx. 1-3. Critics seem generally to +agree that in these passages the word מלכם +must be pointed <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>Milcom</foreign>, not +<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>malcham</foreign> <q>their king,</q> as the Massoretic +text, followed by the English +version, has it. The reading <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>Milcom</foreign>, +which involves no change of the original +Hebrew text, is supported by the reading +of the Septuagint Μολχὸμ τοῦ +βασιλέως αὐτῶν, where the three last +words are probably a gloss on Μολχὸμ. +See S. R. Driver, <hi rend='italic'>Notes on the Hebrew +Text and the Topography of the Books +of Samuel</hi>, Second Edition (Oxford, +1913), p. 294; Dean Kirkpatrick, in +his note on 2 Samuel xii. 30 (<hi rend='italic'>Cambridge +Bible for Schools and Colleges</hi>); +<hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, iii. 3085; R. +Kittel, <hi rend='italic'>Biblia Hebraica</hi>, i. 433; Brown, +Driver, and Briggs, <hi rend='italic'>Hebrew and +English Lexicon of the Old Testament</hi> +(Oxford, 1906), pp. 575 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> David's +son and successor adopted the worship +of Milcom and made a high place for +him outside Jerusalem. See 1 Kings +xi. 5; 2 Kings xxiii. 13.</note> It can hardly, therefore, +be unreasonable to suppose that he pursued precisely +the same policy at the conquest of Jerusalem. And on +the other side the calm confidence with which the Jebusite +inhabitants of that city awaited his attack, jeering at the +besiegers from the battlements,<note place='foot'>2 Samuel v. 6-10; 1 Chronicles +xi. 4-9.</note> may well have been born of +a firm trust in the local deity rather than in the height and +thickness of their grim old walls. Certainly the obstinacy +<pb n='020'/><anchor id='Pg020'/> +with which in after ages the Jews defended the same place +against the armies of Assyria and Rome sprang in large +measure from a similar faith in the God of Zion. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Traces of +the divinity +of Hebrew +kings.</note> +Be that as it may, the history of the Hebrew kings +presents some features which may perhaps, without straining +them too far, be interpreted as traces or relics of a time +when they or their predecessors played the part of a +divinity, and particularly of Adonis, the divine lord of the +land. In life the Hebrew king was regularly addressed +as <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>Adoni-ham-melech</foreign>, <q>My Lord the King,</q><note place='foot'>See for example 1 Samuel xxiv. +8; 2 Samuel xiv. 9, 12, 15, 17, 18, +19, 22, xv. 15, 21, xvi. 4, 9, xviii. +28, 31, 32; 1 Kings i. 2, 13, 18, 20, +21, 24, 27; 1 Chronicles xxi. 3, 23.</note> and after +death he was lamented with cries of <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>Hoi ahi! Hoi Adon!</foreign> +<q>Alas my brother! alas Lord!</q><note place='foot'>Jeremiah xxii. 18, xxxiv. 5. In +the former passage, according to the +Massoretic text, the full formula of +mourning was, <q>Alas my brother! +alas sister! alas lord! alas his glory!</q> +Who was the lamented sister? Professor +T. K. Cheyne supposes that +she was Astarte, and by a very slight +change (דדה for הדה) he would read +<q>Dodah</q> for <q>his glory,</q> thus restoring +the balance between the clauses; +for <q>Dodah</q> would then answer to +<q>Adon</q> (lord) as <q>sister</q> answers +to <q>brother.</q> I have to thank Professor +Cheyne for kindly communicating +this conjecture to me by letter. He +writes that Dodah <q>is a title of Ishtar, +just as Dôd is a title of Tamûz,</q> and +for evidence he refers me to the Dodah +of the Moabite Stone, where, however, +the reading Dodah is not free from +doubt. See G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-book of +North-Semitic Inscriptions</hi>, No. 1, pp. +1, 3, 11; <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, ii. 3045; +S. R. Driver, <hi rend='italic'>Notes on the Hebrew +Text and the Topography of the Books +of Samuel</hi>, Second Edition (Oxford, +1913), pp. lxxxv., lxxxvi., xc.; F. +Baethgen, <hi rend='italic'>Beiträge zur semitischen +Religionsgeschichte</hi> (Berlin, 1888), p. +234; H. Winckler, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte Israels</hi> +(Leipsic, 1895-1900), ii. 258. As to +Hebrew names formed from the root +<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>dôd</foreign> in the sense of <q>beloved,</q> see +Brown, Driver, and Briggs, <hi rend='italic'>Hebrew +and English Lexicon of the Old Testament</hi>, +pp. 187 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; G. B. Gray, <hi rend='italic'>Studies +in Hebrew Proper Names</hi> (London, +1896), pp. 60 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> These exclamations of +grief uttered for the death of a king of Judah were, we +can hardly doubt, the very same cries which the weeping +women of Jerusalem uttered in the north porch of the +temple for the dead Tammuz.<note place='foot'>This was perceived by Renan +(<hi rend='italic'>Histoire du peuple d'Israel</hi>, iii. 273), +and Prof. T. K. Cheyne writes to me: +<q>The formulae of public mourning +were derived from the ceremonies of +the Adonia; this Lenormant saw long +ago.</q></note> However, little stress can +be laid on such forms of address, since <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>Adon</foreign> in Hebrew, +like <q>lord</q> in English, was a secular as well as a +religious title. But whether identified with Adonis or +not, the Hebrew kings certainly seem to have been +regarded as in a sense divine, as representing and to +<pb n='021'/><anchor id='Pg021'/> +some extent embodying Jehovah on earth. For the +king's throne was called the throne of Jehovah;<note place='foot'>1 Chronicles xxix. 23; 2 Chronicles +ix. 8.</note> and the +application of the holy oil to his head was believed to +impart to him directly a portion of the divine spirit.<note place='foot'>1 Samuel xvi. 13, 14, compare <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +x. 1 and 20. The oil was poured on the +king's head (1 Samuel x. 1; 2 Kings +ix. 3, 6). For the conveyance of the +divine spirit by means of oil, see also +Isaiah lx. 1. The kings of Egypt +appear to have consecrated their vassal +Syrian kings by pouring oil on their +heads. See the Tell-el-Amarna letters, +No. 37 (H. Winckler, <hi rend='italic'>Die Thontafeln +von Tell-el-Amarna</hi>, p. 99). Some +West African priests are consecrated +by a similar ceremony. See below, +p. <ref target='Pg068'>68</ref>. The natives of Buru, an East +Indian island, imagine that they can +keep off demons by smearing their +bodies with coco-nut oil, but the oil +must be prepared by young unmarried +girls. See G. A. Wilken, <q>Bijdrage +tot de kennis der Alfoeren van het +eiland Boeroe,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Verhandelingen van +het Bataviaasch Genootschap van +Kunsten en Wetenschappen</hi>, xxxviii. +(Batavia, 1875) p. 30; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Verspreide +Geschriften</hi> (The Hague, 1912), i. 61. +In some tribes of North-West America +hunters habitually anointed their hair +with decoctions of certain plants and +deer's brains before they set out to +hunt. The practice was probably a +charm to secure success in the hunt. +See C. Hill-Tout, <hi rend='italic'>The Home of the +Salish and Déné</hi> (London, 1907), p. 72.</note> +Hence he bore the title of Messiah, which with its Greek +equivalent Christ means no more than <q>the Anointed One.</q> +Thus when David had cut off the skirt of Saul's robe in the +darkness of a cave where he was in hiding, his heart smote +him for having laid sacrilegious hands upon <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>Adoni Messiah +Jehovah</foreign>, <q>my Lord the Anointed of Jehovah.</q><note place='foot'>1 Samuel xxiv. 6. Messiah in +Hebrew is <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>Mashiah</foreign> (משיה). The English +form Messiah is derived from the +Aramaic through the Greek. See +T. K. Cheyne, in <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia +Biblica</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Messiah,</q> vol. iii. +3057 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> Why hair oil should be +considered a vehicle of inspiration is +by no means clear. It would have +been intelligible if the olive had been +with the Hebrews, as it was with the +Athenians, a sacred tree under the +immediate protection of a deity; for +then a portion of the divine essence +might be thought to reside in the oil. +W. Robertson Smith supposed that the +unction was originally performed with +the fat of a sacrificial victim, for which +vegetable oil was a later substitute +(<hi rend='italic'>Religion of the Semites</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 383 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). +On the whole subject see J. Wellhausen, +<q>Zwei Rechtsriten bei den Hebräern,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Archiv für Religionswissenschaft</hi>, vii. +(1904) pp. 33-39; H. Weinel, <q>משה +und seine Derivate,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Zeitschrift für die +alttestamentliche Wissenschaft</hi>, xviii. +(1898) pp. 1-82.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Hebrew +kings seem +to have +been held +responsible +for drought +and +famine.</note> +Like other divine or semi-divine rulers the Hebrew kings +were apparently held answerable for famine and pestilence. +When a dearth, caused perhaps by a failure of the winter +rains, had visited the land for three years, King David +inquired of the oracle, which discreetly laid the blame not +on him but on his predecessor Saul. The dead king was +indeed beyond the reach of punishment, but his sons were +<pb n='022'/><anchor id='Pg022'/> +not. So David had seven of them sought out, and they +were hanged before the Lord at the beginning of barley +harvest in spring: and all the long summer the mother of +two of the dead men sat under the gallows-tree, keeping off +the jackals by night and the vultures by day, till with the +autumn the blessed rain came at last to wet their dangling +bodies and fertilize the barren earth once more. Then the +bones of the dead were taken down from the gibbet and +buried in the sepulchre of their fathers.<note place='foot'>2 Samuel xxi. 1-14, with Dean +Kirkpatrick's notes on 1 and 10.</note> The season when +these princes were put to death, at the beginning of barley +harvest, and the length of time they hung on the gallows, +seem to show that their execution was not a mere punishment, +but that it partook of the nature of a rain-charm. +For it is a common belief that rain can be procured by +magical ceremonies performed with dead men's bones,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, i. 284 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> and +it would be natural to ascribe a special virtue in this respect +to the bones of princes, who are often expected to give rain +in their life. When the Israelites demanded of Samuel +that he should give them a king, the indignant prophet, +loth to be superseded by the upstart Saul, called on the +Lord to send thunder and rain, and the Lord did so at +once, though the season was early summer and the reapers +were at work in the wheat-fields, a time when in common +years no rain falls from the cloudless Syrian sky.<note place='foot'>1 Samuel xii. 17 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Similarly, +Moses stretched forth his rod toward +heaven and the Lord sent thunder and +rain (Exodus ix. 23). The word for +thunder in both these passages is +<q>voices</q> (קלות). The Hebrews heard +in the clap of thunder the voice of +Jehovah, just as the Greeks heard in it +the voice of Zeus and the Romans the +voice of Jupiter.</note> The +pious historian who records the miracle seems to have +regarded it as a mere token of the wrath of the deity, +whose voice was heard in the roll of thunder; but we may +surmise that in giving this impressive proof of his control +of the weather Samuel meant to hint gently at the naughtiness +of asking for a king to do for the fertility of the land +what could be done quite as well and far more cheaply by +a prophet. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Excessive +rain set +down to +the wrath +of the +deity.</note> +In Israel the excess as well as the deficiency of +rain seems to have been set down to the wrath of the +<pb n='023'/><anchor id='Pg023'/> +deity.<note place='foot'>Ezekiel xiii. 11, 13, xxxviii. 22; +Jeremiah iii. 2 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The Hebrews +looked to Jehovah for rain (Leviticus +xxvi. 3-5; Jeremiah v. 24) just as the +Greeks looked to Zeus and the Romans +to Jupiter.</note> When the Jews returned to Jerusalem from +the great captivity and assembled for the first time in +the square before the ruined temple, it happened that the +weather was very wet, and as the people sat shelterless +and drenched in the piazza they trembled at their sin and +at the rain.<note place='foot'>Ezra x. 9-14. The special sin +which they laid to heart on this occasion +was their marriage with Gentile +women. It is implied, though not +expressly said, that they traced the +inclemency of the weather to these +unfortunate alliances. Similarly, +<q>during the rainy season, when the +sun is hidden behind great masses of +dark clouds, the Indians set up a +wailing for their sins, believing that +the sun is angry and may never shine +on them again.</q> See Francis C. +Nicholas, <q>The Aborigines of Santa +Maria, Colombia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>American Anthropologist</hi>, +N.S., iii. (New York, 1901) +p. 641. The Indians in question are +the Aurohuacas of Colombia, in South +America.</note> In all ages it has been the strength or +the weakness of Israel to read the hand of God in the +changing aspects of nature, and we need not wonder that +at such a time and in so dismal a scene, with a lowering +sky overhead, the blackened ruins of the temple before their +eyes, and the steady drip of the rain over all, the returned +exiles should have been oppressed with a double sense of +their own guilt and of the divine anger. Perhaps, though +they hardly knew it, memories of the bright sun, fat fields, +and broad willow-fringed rivers of Babylon,<note place='foot'>Psalm cxxxvii. The willows beside +the rivers of Babylon are mentioned +in the laments for Tammuz. +See above, pp. <ref target='Pg009'>9</ref>, <ref target='Pg010'>10</ref>.</note> which had been +so long their home, lent a deeper shade of sadness to the +austerity of the Judean landscape, with its gaunt grey hills +stretching away, range beyond range, to the horizon, or +dipping eastward to the far line of sombre blue which marks +the sullen waters of the Dead Sea.<note place='foot'>The line of the Dead Sea, lying +in its deep trough, is visible from the +Mount of Olives; indeed, so clear is +the atmosphere that the blue water +seems quite near the eye, though in +fact it is more than fifteen miles off +and nearly four thousand feet below +the spectator. See K. Baedeker, +<hi rend='italic'>Palestine and Syria</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> (Leipsic, 1906), +p. 77. When the sun shines on it, +the lake is of a brilliant blue (G. A. +Smith, <hi rend='italic'>Historical Geography of the +Holy Land</hi>, London, 1894, pp. 501 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>); but its brilliancy is naturally +dimmed under clouded skies.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Hebrew +kings +apparently +supposed +to heal +disease +and stop +epidemics.</note> +In the days of the Hebrew monarchy the king was +apparently credited with the power of making sick and +making whole. Thus the king of Syria sent a leper to the +king of Israel to be healed by him, just as scrofulous patients +<pb n='024'/><anchor id='Pg024'/> +used to fancy that they could be cured by the touch of a +French or English king. However, the Hebrew monarch, +with more sense than has been shown by his royal brothers +in modern times, professed himself unable to work any such +miracle. <q>Am I God,</q> he asked, <q>to kill and to make alive, +that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his +leprosy?</q><note place='foot'>2 Kings v. 5-7.</note> On another occasion, when pestilence ravaged +the country and the excited fancy of the plague-stricken +people saw in the clouds the figure of the Destroying +Angel with his sword stretched out over Jerusalem, they laid +the blame on King David, who had offended the touchy and +irascible deity by taking a census. The prudent monarch +bowed to the popular storm, acknowledged his guilt, and +appeased the angry god by offering burnt sacrifices on the +threshing-floor of Araunah, one of the old Jebusite inhabitants +of Jerusalem. Then the angel sheathed his flashing +sword, and the shrieks of the dying and the lamentations +for the dead no longer resounded in the streets.<note place='foot'>2 Samuel xxiv.; 1 Chronicles xxi. +In this passage, contrary to his usual +practice, the Chronicler has enlivened +the dull tenor of his history with some +picturesque touches which we miss in +the corresponding passage of Kings. It +is to him that we owe the vision of +the Angel of the Plague first stretching +out his sword over Jerusalem and then +returning it to the scabbard. From +him Defoe seems to have taken a hint +in his account of the prodigies, real or +imaginary, which heralded the outbreak +of the Great Plague in London. <q>One +time before the plague was begun, +otherwise than as I have said in St. +Giles's, I think it was in March, seeing +a crowd of people in the street, I joined +with them to satisfy my curiosity, and +found them all staring up into the air +to see what a woman told them appeared +plain to her, which was an +angel clothed in white with a fiery +sword in his hand, waving it or +brandishing it over his head.... +One saw one thing and one another. +I looked as earnestly as the rest, but, +perhaps, not with so much willingness +to be imposed upon; and I said, indeed, +that I could see nothing but a +white cloud, bright on one side, by +the shining of the sun upon the other +part.</q> See Daniel Defoe, <hi rend='italic'>History of +the Plague in London</hi> (Edinburgh, +1810, pp. 33 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). It is the more +likely that Defoe had here the +Chronicler in mind, because a few +pages earlier he introduces the prophet +Jonah and a man out of Josephus with +very good effect.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The rarity +of references +to the +divinity of +Hebrew +kings in the +historical +books may +be explained by +the circumstances +in +which these +works were +composed +or edited.</note> +To this theory of the sanctity, nay the divinity of the +Hebrew kings it may be objected that few traces of it +survive in the historical books of the Bible. But the force +of the objection is weakened by a consideration of the time +and the circumstances in which these books assumed their +final shape. The great prophets of the eighth and the +<pb n='025'/><anchor id='Pg025'/> +seventh centuries by the spiritual ideals and the ethical +fervour of their teaching had wrought a religious and moral +reform perhaps unparalleled in history. Under their influence +an austere monotheism had replaced the old +sensuous worship of the natural powers: a stern Puritanical +spirit, an unbending rigour of mind, had succeeded to the +old easy supple temper with its weak compliances, its wax-like +impressionability, its proclivities to the sins of the flesh. +And the moral lessons which the prophets inculcated were +driven home by the political events of the time, above all +by the ever-growing pressure of the great Assyrian empire +on the petty states of Palestine. The long agony of the +siege of Samaria<note place='foot'>2 Kings xvii. 5 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, xviii. 9 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> must have been followed with trembling +anxiety by the inhabitants of Judea, for the danger was at +their door. They had only to lift up their eyes and look +north to see the blue hills of Ephraim, at whose foot lay the +beleaguered city. Its final fall and the destruction of the +northern kingdom could not fail to fill every thoughtful +mind in the sister realm with sad forebodings. It was as if +the sky had lowered and thunder muttered over Jerusalem. +Thenceforth to the close of the Jewish monarchy, about a +century and a half later, the cloud never passed away, +though once for a little it seemed to lift, when Sennacherib +raised the siege of Jerusalem<note place='foot'>2 Kings xix. 32-36.</note> and the watchers on the walls +beheld the last of the long line of spears and standards +disappearing, the last squadron of the blue-coated Assyrian +cavalry sweeping, in a cloud of dust, out of sight.<note place='foot'>We owe to Ezekiel (xxiii. 5 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 12) +the picture of the handsome Assyrian +cavalrymen in their blue uniforms and +gorgeous trappings. The prophet +writes as if in his exile by the waters +of Babylon he had seen the blue +regiments filing past, in all the pomp +of war, on their way to the front.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +historical +books were +composed +or edited +under the +influence +of the +prophetic +reformation.</note> +It was in this period of national gloom and despondency +that the two great reformations of Israel's religion were +accomplished, the first by king Hezekiah, the second a +century later by king Josiah.<note place='foot'>Samaria fell in 722 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi>, during +or just before the reign of Hezekiah: +the Book of Deuteronomy, the cornerstone +of king Josiah's reformation, was +produced in 621 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi>; and Jerusalem +fell in 586 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> The date of Hezekiah's +accession is a much-disputed point in +the chronology of Judah. See the +Introduction to Kings and Isaiah i.-xxxix. +by J. Skinner and O. C. +Whitehouse respectively, in <hi rend='italic'>The Century +Bible</hi>.</note> We need not wonder then +<pb n='026'/><anchor id='Pg026'/> +that the reformers who in that and subsequent ages composed +or edited the annals of their nation should have looked +as sourly on the old unreformed paganism of their forefathers +as the fierce zealots of the Commonwealth looked +on the far more innocent pastimes of Merry England; and +that in their zeal for the glory of God they should have +blotted many pages of history lest they should perpetuate +the memory of practices to which they traced the calamities +of their country. All the historical books passed through +the office of the Puritan censor,<note place='foot'>Or the Deuteronomic redactor, as +the critics call him. See W. Robertson +Smith, <hi rend='italic'>The Old Testament in the +Jewish Church</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London and Edinburgh, +1892), pp. 395 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 425; +<hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, ii. 2078 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, +2633 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, iv. 4273 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; K. Budde, +<hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der althebräischen Litteratur</hi> +(Leipsic, 1906), pp. 99, 121 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 127 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 132; Principal J. Skinner, in his +introduction to Kings (in <hi rend='italic'>The Century +Bible</hi>), pp. 10 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> and we can hardly +doubt that they emerged from it stript of many gay +feathers which they had flaunted when they went in. +Among the shed plumage may well have been the passages +which invested human beings, whether kings or commoners, +with the attributes of deity. Certainly no pages could seem +to the censor more rankly blasphemous; on none, therefore, +was he likely to press more firmly the official sponge. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The Baal +and his +female +Baalath +the sources +of all +fertility.</note> +But if Semitic kings in general and the kings of +Byblus in particular often assumed the style of Baal or +Adonis, it follows that they may have mated with the +goddess, the Baalath or Astarte of the city. Certainly we +hear of kings of Tyre and Sidon who were priests of Astarte.<note place='foot'>Menander of Ephesus, quoted by +Josephus, <hi rend='italic'>Contra Apionem</hi>, i. 18 (<hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta +Historicorum Graecorum</hi>, ed. +C. Müller, iv. 446); G. A. Cooke, +<hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions</hi>, +No. 4, p. 26. According to Justin, +however, the priest of Hercules, that +is, of Melcarth, at Tyre, was distinct +from the king and second to him in +dignity. See Justin, xviii. 4, 5.</note> +Now to the agricultural Semites the Baal or god of a land +was the author of all its fertility; he it was who produced +the corn, the wine, the figs, the oil, and the flax, by means +of his quickening waters, which in the arid parts of the +Semitic world are oftener springs, streams, and underground +flow than the rains of heaven.<note place='foot'>Hosea ii. 5 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; W. Robertson +Smith, <hi rend='italic'>Religion of the Semites</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London, +1894), pp. 95-107.</note> Further, <q>the life-giving +power of the god was not limited to vegetative nature, but +to him also was ascribed the increase of animal life, the +<pb n='027'/><anchor id='Pg027'/> +multiplication of flocks and herds, and, not least, of the +human inhabitants of the land. For the increase of animate +nature is obviously conditioned, in the last resort, by the +fertility of the soil, and primitive races, which have not +learned to differentiate the various kinds of life with +precision, think of animate as well as vegetable life as +rooted in the earth and sprung from it. The earth is the +great mother of all things in most mythological philosophies, +and the comparison of the life of mankind, or of a stock of +men, with the life of a tree, which is so common in Semitic +as in other primitive poetry, is not in its origin a mere +figure. Thus where the growth of vegetation is ascribed to +a particular divine power, the same power receives the +thanks and homage of his worshippers for the increase of +cattle and of men. Firstlings as well as first-fruits were +offered at the shrines of the Baalim, and one of the +commonest classes of personal names given by parents to +their sons or daughters designates the child as the gift of +the god.</q> In short, <q>the Baal was conceived as the male +principle of reproduction, the husband of the land which he +fertilised.</q><note place='foot'>W. Robertson Smith, <hi rend='italic'>Religion of +the Semites</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 107 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> So far, therefore, as the Semite personified the +reproductive energies of nature as male and female, as a +Baal and a Baalath, he appears to have identified the male +power especially with water and the female especially with +earth. On this view plants and trees, animals and men, are +the offspring or children of the Baal and Baalath. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Personation +of the +Baal by the +king.</note> +If, then, at Byblus and elsewhere, the Semitic king was +allowed, or rather required, to personate the god and marry +the goddess, the intention of the custom can only have been +to ensure the fertility of the land and the increase of +men and cattle by means of homoeopathic magic. There +is reason to think that a similar custom was observed from +a similar motive in other parts of the ancient world, and +particularly at Nemi, where both the male and the female +powers, the Dianus and Diana, were in one aspect of their +nature personifications of the life-giving waters.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 120 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 376 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Cinyras, +king of +Byblus. Aphaca +and the +vale of the +Adonis. Monuments +of +Adonis.</note> +The last king of Byblus bore the ancient name of +Cinyras, and was beheaded by Pompey the Great for his +<pb n='028'/><anchor id='Pg028'/> +tyrannous excesses.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xvi. 1. 18, p. 755.</note> His legendary namesake Cinyras is +said to have founded a sanctuary of Aphrodite, that is, of +Astarte, at a place on Mount Lebanon, distant a day's +journey from the capital.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 9.</note> The spot was probably Aphaca, +at the source of the river Adonis, half-way between Byblus +and Baalbec; for at Aphaca there was a famous grove +and sanctuary of Astarte which Constantine destroyed on +account of the flagitious character of the worship.<note place='foot'>Eusebius, <hi rend='italic'>Vita Constantini</hi>, iii. 55; +Sozomenus, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Ecclesiastica</hi>, ii. 5; +Socrates, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Ecclesiastica</hi>, i. 18; +Zosimus, i. 58.</note> The site +of the temple has been discovered by modern travellers near +the miserable village which still bears the name of Afka at +the head of the wild, romantic, wooded gorge of the Adonis. +The hamlet stands among groves of noble walnut-trees on +the brink of the lyn. A little way off the river rushes +from a cavern at the foot of a mighty amphitheatre of +towering cliffs to plunge in a series of cascades into the +awful depths of the glen. The deeper it descends, the +ranker and denser grows the vegetation, which, sprouting +from the crannies and fissures of the rocks, spreads a +green veil over the roaring or murmuring stream in the +tremendous chasm below. There is something delicious, +almost intoxicating, in the freshness of these tumbling +waters, in the sweetness and purity of the mountain air, in +the vivid green of the vegetation. The temple, of which +some massive hewn blocks and a fine column of Syenite +granite still mark the site, occupied a terrace facing the +source of the river and commanding a magnificent prospect. +Across the foam and the roar of the waterfalls you look +up to the cavern and away to the top of the sublime +precipices above. So lofty is the cliff that the goats +which creep along its ledges to browse on the bushes +appear like ants to the spectator hundreds of feet below. +Seaward the view is especially impressive when the sun +floods the profound gorge with golden light, revealing all +the fantastic buttresses and rounded towers of its mountain +rampart, and falling softly on the varied green of the +woods which clothe its depths.<note place='foot'>On the valley of the Nahr Ibrahim, +its scenery and monuments, see Edward +Robinson, <hi rend='italic'>Biblical Researches in Palestine</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +(London, 1867), iii. 603-609; +W. M. Thomson, <hi rend='italic'>The Land and the +Book, Lebanon, Damascus, and beyond +Jordan</hi> (London, 1886), pp. 239-246; +E. Renan, <hi rend='italic'>Mission de Phénicie</hi>, pp. +282 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; G. Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire Ancienne +des Peuples de l'Orient Classique</hi>, ii. +(Paris, 1897) pp. 175-179; Sir Charles +Wilson, <hi rend='italic'>Picturesque Palestine</hi> (London, +<hi rend='smallcaps'>n.d.</hi>), iii. 16, 17, 27. Among the +trees which line the valley are oak, +sycamore, bay, plane, orange, and +mulberry (W. M. Thomson, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. +245). Travellers are unanimous in +testifying to the extraordinary beauty +of the vale of the Adonis. Thus +Robinson writes: <q>There is no spot +in all my wanderings on which memory +lingers with greater delight than on the +sequestered retreat and exceeding loveliness +of Afka.</q> Renan says that the +landscape is one of the most beautiful +in the world. My friend the late Sir +Francis Galton wrote to me (20th +September 1906): <q>I have no good +map of Palestine, but strongly suspect +that my wanderings there, quite sixty +years ago, took me to the place you +mention, above the gorge of the river +Adonis. Be that as it may, I have +constantly asserted that the view I then +had of a deep ravine and blue sea seen +through the cliffs that bounded it, +was the most beautiful I had ever set +eyes on.</q></note> It was here that, according +<pb n='029'/><anchor id='Pg029'/> +to the legend, Adonis met Aphrodite for the first or the last +time,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Etymologicum Magnum</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +Ἄφακα, p. 175.</note> and here his mangled body was buried.<note place='foot'>Melito, <q>Oration to Antoninus +Caesar,</q> in W. Cureton's <hi rend='italic'>Spicilegium +Syriacum</hi> (London, 1855), p. 44.</note> A fairer +scene could hardly be imagined for a story of tragic love +and death. Yet, sequestered as the valley is and must +always have been, it is not wholly deserted. A convent or +a village may be observed here and there standing out +against the sky on the top of some beetling crag, or clinging +to the face of a nearly perpendicular cliff high above the +foam and the din of the river; and at evening the lights +that twinkle through the gloom betray the presence of +human habitations on slopes which might seem inaccessible +to man. In antiquity the whole of the lovely vale appears +have been dedicated to Adonis, and to this day it is +haunted by his memory; for the heights which shut it in +are crested at various points by ruined monuments of his +worship, some of them overhanging dreadful abysses, down +which it turns the head dizzy to look and see the eagles +wheeling about their nests far below. One such monument +exists at Ghineh. The face of a great rock, above a roughly +hewn recess, is here carved with figures of Adonis and +Aphrodite. He is portrayed with spear in rest, awaiting +the attack of a bear, while she is seated in an attitude of +sorrow.<note place='foot'>E. Renan, <hi rend='italic'>Mission de Phénicie</hi>, +pp. 292-294. The writer seems to +have no doubt that the beast attacking +Adonis is a bear, not a boar. Views +of the monument are given by A. +Jeremias, <hi rend='italic'>Das Alte Testament im Lichte +des Alten Orients</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Leipsic, 1906), p. +90, and by Baudissin, <hi rend='italic'>Adonis und +Esmun</hi>, plates i. and ii., with his discussion, +pp. 78 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Her grief-stricken figure may well be the mourning +<pb n='030'/><anchor id='Pg030'/> +Aphrodite of the Lebanon described by Macrobius,<note place='foot'>Macrobius, <hi rend='italic'>Saturn</hi>, i. 21. 5.</note> and the +recess in the rock is perhaps her lover's tomb. Every year, +in the belief of his worshippers, Adonis was wounded to +death on the mountains, and every year the face of nature +itself was dyed with his sacred blood. So year by year the +Syrian damsels lamented his untimely fate,<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 8.</note> while the red +anemone, his flower, bloomed among the cedars of Lebanon, +and the river ran red to the sea, fringing the winding shores +of the blue Mediterranean, whenever the wind set inshore, +with a sinuous, band of crimson. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='031'/><anchor id='Pg031'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter III. Adonis in Cyprus.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Phoenician +colonies in +Cyprus.</note> +The island of Cyprus lies but one day's sail from the coast +of Syria. Indeed, on fine summer evenings its mountains +may be descried looming low and dark against the red fires +of sunset.<note place='foot'>F. C. Movers, <hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, ii. +2, p. 224; G. Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient Classique</hi>, +ii. 199; G. A. Smith, <hi rend='italic'>Historical +Geography of the Holy Land</hi> (London, +1894), p. 135.</note> With its rich mines of copper and its forests of +firs and stately cedars, the island naturally attracted a commercial +and maritime people like the Phoenicians; while the +abundance of its corn, its wine, and its oil must have rendered +it in their eyes a Land of Promise by comparison with the +niggardly nature of their own rugged coast, hemmed in +between the mountains and the sea.<note place='foot'>On the natural wealth of Cyprus +see Strabo, xiv. 6. 5; W. H. Engel, +<hi rend='italic'>Kypros</hi>, i. 40-71; F. C. Movers, +<hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, ii. 2, pp. 224 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +G. Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire Ancienne des +Peuples de l'Orient Classique</hi>, ii. 200 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; E. Oberhummer, <hi rend='italic'>Die Insel Cypern</hi>, +i. (Munich, 1903) pp. 175 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, +243 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> As to the firs and cedars +of Cyprus see Theophrastus, <hi rend='italic'>Historia +Plantarum</hi>, v. 7. 1, v. 9. 1. The +Cyprians boasted that they could build +and rig a ship complete, from her keel +to her topsails, with the native products +of their island (Ammianus Marcellinus, +xiv. 8. 14).</note> Accordingly they +settled in Cyprus at a very early date and remained there +long after the Greeks had also established themselves on its +shores; for we know from inscriptions and coins that +Phoenician kings reigned at Citium, the Chittim of the +Hebrews, down to the time of Alexander the Great.<note place='foot'>G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-Book of North-Semitic +Inscriptions</hi>, Nos. 12-25, pp. 55-76, +347-349; P. Gardner, <hi rend='italic'>New Chapters +in Greek History</hi> (London, 1892), pp. +179, 185. It has been held that the +name of Citium is etymologically identical +with Hittite. If that was so, it +would seem that the town was built +and inhabited by a non-Semitic people +before the arrival of the Phoenicians. +See <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Kittim.</q> +Other traces of this older race, +akin to the primitive stock of Asia +Minor, have been detected in Cyprus; +amongst them the most obvious is the +Cyprian syllabary, the characters of +which are neither Phoenician nor Greek +in origin. See P. Gardner, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. +154, 173-175, 178 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +<pb n='032'/><anchor id='Pg032'/> +Naturally the Semitic colonists brought their gods with +them from the mother-land. They worshipped Baal of the +Lebanon,<note place='foot'>G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-Book of North-Semitic +Inscriptions</hi>, No. 11, p. 52.</note> who may well have been Adonis, and at Amathus +on the south coast they instituted the rites of Adonis and +Aphrodite, or rather Astarte.<note place='foot'>Stephanus Byzantius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Ἀμαθοῦς; +Pausanias, ix. 41. 2 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> According +to Pausanias, there was a +remarkable necklace of green stones +and gold in the sanctuary of Adonis +and Aphrodite at Amathus. The +Greeks commonly identified it with +the necklace of Harmonia or Eriphyle. +A terra-cotta statuette of Astarte, +found at Amathus (?), represents her +wearing a necklace which she touches +with one hand. See L. P. di Cesnola, +<hi rend='italic'>Cyprus</hi> (London, 1877), p. 275. The +scanty ruins of Amathus occupy an +isolated hill beside the sea. Among +them is an enormous stone jar, half +buried in the earth, of which the four +handles are adorned with figures of +bulls. It is probably of Phoenician +manufacture. See L. Ross, <hi rend='italic'>Reisen nach +Kos, Halikarnassos, Rhodes und der Insel +Cypern</hi> (Halle, 1852), pp. 168 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Here, as at Byblus, these +rites resembled the Egyptian worship of Osiris so closely +that some people even identified the Adonis of Amathus +with Osiris.<note place='foot'>Stephanus Byzantius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Ἀμαθοῦς. +For the relation of Adonis to Osiris at +Byblus see below, vol. ii. pp. 9 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +22 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 127.</note> The Tyrian Melcarth or Moloch was also +worshipped at Amathus,<note place='foot'>Hesychius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Μάλικα.</note> and the tombs discovered in the +neighbourhood prove that the city remained Phoenician to +a late period.<note place='foot'>L. P. di Cesnola, <hi rend='italic'>Cyprus</hi>, pp. +254-283; G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, +<hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, +iii. (Paris, 1885) pp. 216-222.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Kingdom +of Paphos. Sanctuary +of +Aphrodite +at Paphos.</note> +But the great seat of the worship of Aphrodite and +Adonis in Cyprus was Paphos on the south-western side of +the island. Among the petty kingdoms into which Cyprus +was divided from the earliest times until the end of the fourth +century before our era Paphos must have ranked with the best. +It is a land of hills and billowy ridges, diversified by fields +and vineyards and intersected by rivers, which in the course +of ages have carved for themselves beds of such tremendous +depth that travelling in the interior is difficult and tedious. +The lofty range of Mount Olympus (the modern Troodos), +capped with snow the greater part of the year, screens Paphos +from the northerly and easterly winds and cuts it off from the +rest of the island. On the slopes of the range the last pine-woods +of Cyprus linger, sheltering here and there monasteries +<pb n='033'/><anchor id='Pg033'/> +in scenery not unworthy of the Apennines. The old city of +Paphos occupied the summit of a hill about a mile from the +sea; the newer city sprang up at the harbour some ten miles +off.<note place='foot'>D. G. Hogarth, <hi rend='italic'>Devia Cypria</hi> +(London, 1889), pp. 1-3; <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia +Britannica</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>9</hi> vi. 747; Élisée +Reclus, <hi rend='italic'>Nouvelle Géographie Universelle</hi> +(Paris, 1879-1894), ix. 668.</note> The sanctuary of Aphrodite at Old Paphos (the +modern Kuklia) was one of the most celebrated shrines in +the ancient world. From the earliest to the latest times it +would seem to have preserved its essential features unchanged. +For the sanctuary is represented on coins of the +Imperial age,<note place='foot'>T. L. Donaldson, <hi rend='italic'>Architectura +Numismatica</hi> (London, 1859), pp. 107-109, +with fig. 31; <hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic +Studies</hi>, ix. (1888) pp. 210-213; G. +F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of the Greek Coins +of Cyprus</hi> (London, 1904), pp. cxxvii-cxxxiv, +with plates xiv. 2, 3, 6-8, xv. +1-4, 7, xvi. 2, 4, 6-9, xvii. 4-6, 8, 9, +xxvi. 3, 6-16; George Macdonald, +<hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of Greek Coins in the Hunterian +Collection</hi> (Glasgow, 1899-1905), +ii. 566, with pl. lxi. 19. As to the +existing remains of the temple, which +were excavated by an English expedition +in 1887-1888, see <q>Excavations +in Cyprus, 1887-1888,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic +Studies</hi>, ix. (1888) pp. 193 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +Previous accounts of the temple are inaccurate +and untrustworthy.</note> and these representations agree closely with +little golden models of a shrine which were found in two of +the royal graves at Mycenae.<note place='foot'>C. Schuchhardt, <hi rend='italic'>Schliemann's +Ausgrabungen</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Leipsic, 1891), pp. +231-233; G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, +<hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, vi. +(Paris, 1894) pp. 336 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 652-654; +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic Studies</hi>, ix. (1888) +pp. 213 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; P. Gardner, <hi rend='italic'>New Chapters +in Greek History</hi>, p. 181.</note> Both on the coins and in +the models we see a façade surmounted by a pair of doves +and divided into three compartments or chapels, of which +the central one is crowned by a lofty superstructure. In +the golden models each chapel contains a pillar standing in +a pair of horns: the central superstructure is crowned by +two pairs of horns, one within the other; and the two side +chapels are in like manner crowned each with a pair of horns +and a single dove perched on the outer horn of each pair. +On the coins each of the side chapels contains a pillar or +candelabra-like object: the central chapel contains a cone +and is flanked by two high columns, each terminating in a +pair of ball-topped pinnacles, with a star and crescent +appearing between the tops of the columns. The doves are +doubtless the sacred doves of Aphrodite or Astarte,<note place='foot'>J. Selden, <hi rend='italic'>De dis Syris</hi> (Leipsic, +1668), pp. 274 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; S. Bochart, +<hi rend='italic'>Hierozoicon</hi>, Editio Tertia (Leyden, +1692), ii. 4 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> Compare the statue +of a priest with a dove in his hand, +which was found in Cyprus (Perrot et +Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, +iii. Paris, 1885, p. 510), with +fig. 349.</note> and the +<pb n='034'/><anchor id='Pg034'/> +horns and pillars remind us of the similar religious emblems +which have been found in the great prehistoric palace of +Cnossus in Crete, as well as on many monuments of the +Mycenaean or Minoan age of Greece.<note place='foot'>A. J. Evans, <q>Mycenaean Tree +and Pillar Cult,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic +Studies</hi>, xxi. (1901) pp. 99 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> If antiquaries +are right in regarding the golden models as copies of the +Paphian shrine, that shrine must have suffered little outward +change for more than a thousand years; for the +royal graves at Mycenae, in which the models were found, +can hardly be of later date than the twelfth century before +our era. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Aphrodite +of Paphos +a Phoenician +or +aboriginal +deity. +Her +conical +image.</note> +Thus the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Paphos was apparently +of great antiquity.<note place='foot'>Tacitus, <hi rend='italic'>Annals</hi>, iii. 62.</note> According to Herodotus, it was +founded by Phoenician colonists from Ascalon;<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 105; compare Pausanias, +i. 14. 7. Herodotus only +speaks of the sanctuary of Aphrodite +in Cyprus, but he must refer to the +great one at Paphos. At Ascalon a +goddess was worshipped in mermaid-shape +under the name of Derceto, and +fish and doves were sacred to her (Diodorus +Siculus, ii. 4; compare Lucian, +<hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 14). The name Derceto, +like the much more correct Atargatis, +is a Greek corruption of <foreign rend='italic'>'Attâr</foreign>, the +Aramaic form of <foreign rend='italic'>Astarte</foreign>, but the two +goddesses Atargatis and Astarte, in +spite of the affinity of their names, +appear to have been historically distinct. +See Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des +Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> i. 2 (Stuttgart and Berlin, +1909), pp. 605, 650 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; F. Baethgen, +<hi rend='italic'>Beiträge zur Semitischen Religionsgeschichte</hi> +(Berlin, 1888), pp. 68 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +F. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>s.vv.</hi> <q>Atargatis</q> and +<q>Dea Syria,</q> in Pauly-Wissowa's <hi rend='italic'>Real-Encyclopädie +der classischen Altertumswissenschaft</hi>; +René Dussaud, <hi rend='italic'>Notes de +Mythologie Syrienne</hi> (Paris, 1903), pp. +82 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; R. A. Stewart Macalister, +<hi rend='italic'>The Philistines, their History and +Civilization</hi> (London, 1913), pp. 94 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> but it is +possible that a native goddess of fertility was worshipped +on the spot before the arrival of the Phoenicians, and that +the newcomers identified her with their own Baalath or +Astarte, whom she may have closely resembled. If two +deities were thus fused in one, we may suppose that they +were both varieties of that great goddess of motherhood and +fertility whose worship appears to have been spread all over +Western Asia from a very early time. The supposition is +confirmed as well by the archaic shape of her image as by +the licentious character of her rites; for both that shape +and those rites were shared by her with other Asiatic +deities. Her image was simply a white cone or pyramid.<note place='foot'>It is described by ancient writers +and figured on coins. See Tacitus, +<hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> ii. 3; Maximus Tyrius, <hi rend='italic'>Dissert.</hi> +viii. 8; Servius on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> i. 720; +T. L. Donaldson, <hi rend='italic'>Architectura Numismatica</hi>, +p. 107, with fig. 31; <hi rend='italic'>Journal +of Hellenic Studies</hi>, ix. (1888) pp. 210-212. According to Maximus Tyrius, +the material of the pyramid was unknown. +Probably it was a stone. +The English archaeologists found +several fragments of white cones on +the site of the temple at Paphos: one +which still remains in its original position +in the central chamber was of +limestone and of somewhat larger size +(<hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic Studies</hi>, ix. (1888) +p. 180).</note> +<pb n='035'/><anchor id='Pg035'/> +In like manner, a cone was the emblem of Astarte at +Byblus,<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg014'>14</ref>.</note> of the native goddess whom the Greeks called +Artemis at Perga in Pamphylia,<note place='foot'>On coins of Perga the sacred cone +is represented as richly decorated and +standing in a temple between sphinxes. +See B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Numorum</hi> +(Oxford, 1887), p. 585; P. Gardner, +<hi rend='italic'>Types of Greek Coins</hi> (Cambridge, +1883), pl. xv. No. 3; G. F. Hill, +<hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Lycia, +Pamphylia, and Pisidia</hi> (London, +1897), pl. xxiv. 12, 15, 16. However, +Mr. G. F. Hill writes to me: +<q>Is the stone at Perga really a cone? +I have always thought it was a cube +or something of that kind. On the +coins the upper, sloping portion is +apparently an elaborate veil or head-dress. +The head attached to the stone +is seen in the middle of this, surmounted +by a tall <foreign rend='italic'>kalathos</foreign>.</q> The sanctuary +stood on a height, and a festival was +held there annually (Strabo, xiv. 4. 2, +p. 667). The native title of the goddess +was <foreign rend='italic'>Anassa</foreign>, that is, <q>Queen.</q> See +B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>; Wernicke, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Artemis,</q> in Pauly-Wissowa, <hi rend='italic'>Real-Encyclopädie +der classischen Altertumswissenschaft</hi>, +ii. 1, col. 1397. Aphrodite +at Paphos bore the same title. +See below, p. <ref target='Pg042'>42</ref>, note 6. The worship +of Pergaean Artemis at Halicarnassus +was cared for by a priestess, +who held office for life and had to make +intercession for the city at every new +moon. See G. Dittenberger, <hi rend='italic'>Sylloge +Inscriptionum Graecarum</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Leipsic, +1898-1901), vol. ii. p. 373, No. 601.</note> and of the sun-god Heliogabalus +at Emesa in Syria.<note place='foot'>Herodian, v. 3. 5. This cone +was of black stone, with some small +knobs on it, like the stone of Cybele +at Pessinus. It is figured on coins of +Emesa. See B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Historia +Numorum</hi> (Oxford, 1887), p. 659; +P. Gardner, <hi rend='italic'>Types of Greek Coins</hi>, pl. +xv. No. 1. The sacred stone of +Cybele, which the Romans brought +from Pessinus to Rome during the +Second Punic War, was small, black, +and rugged, but we are not told that +it was of conical shape. See Arnobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, vii. 49; Livy, xxix. +11. 7. According to one reading, +Servius (on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> vii. 188) +speaks of the stone of Cybele as a +needle (<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>acus</foreign>), which would point to a +conical shape. But the reading appears +to be without manuscript authority, +and other emendations have been +suggested.</note> Conical stones, which apparently +served as idols, have also been found at Golgi in +Cyprus, and in the Phoenician temples of Malta;<note place='foot'>G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iii. 273, 298 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 304 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The sanctuary of Aphrodite, +or rather Astarte, at Golgi is said +to have been even more ancient than +her sanctuary at Paphos (Pausanias, +viii. 5. 2).</note> and +cones of sandstone came to light at the shrine of the +<q>Mistress of Torquoise</q> among the barren hills and frowning +precipices of Sinai.<note place='foot'>W. M. Flinders Petrie, <hi rend='italic'>Researches +in Sinai</hi> (London, 1906), pp. 135 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +189. Votive cones made of clay have +been found in large numbers in Babylonia, +particularly at Lagash and Nippur. +See M. Jastrow, <hi rend='italic'>The Religion +of Babylonia and Assyria</hi> (Boston, +U.S.A., 1898), pp. 672-674.</note> The precise significance of such +<pb n='036'/><anchor id='Pg036'/> +an emblem remains as obscure as it was in the time of +Tacitus.<note place='foot'>Tacitus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> ii. 3.</note> It appears to have been customary to anoint the +sacred cone with olive oil at a solemn festival, in which +people from Lycia and Caria participated.<note place='foot'>We learn this from an inscription +found at Paphos. See <hi rend='italic'>Journal of +Hellenic Studies</hi>, ix. (1888) pp. 188, +231.</note> The custom of +anointing a holy stone has been observed in many parts of +the world; for example, in the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, x. 24. 6, with my note.</note> +To this day the old custom appears to survive at Paphos, for +<q>in honour of the Maid of Bethlehem the peasants of Kuklia +anointed lately, and probably still anoint each year, the +great corner-stones of the ruined Temple of the Paphian +Goddess. As Aphrodite was supplicated once with cryptic +rites, so is Mary entreated still by Moslems as well as +Christians, with incantations and passings through perforated +stones, to remove the curse of barrenness from Cypriote +women, or increase the manhood of Cypriote men.</q><note place='foot'>D. G. Hogarth, <hi rend='italic'>A Wandering +Scholar in the Levant</hi> (London, 1896), +pp. 179 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Women used to creep +through a holed stone to obtain children +at a place on the Dee in Aberdeenshire. +See <hi rend='italic'>Balder the Beautiful</hi>, ii. +187.</note> Thus +the ancient worship of the goddess of fertility is continued +under a different name. Even the name of the old goddess +is retained in some parts of the island; for in more than +one chapel the Cypriote peasants adore the mother of Christ +under the title Panaghia Aphroditessa.<note place='foot'>G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iii. 628.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sacred +prostitution +in the +worship +of the +Paphian +Aphrodite +and of +other +Asiatic +goddesses.</note> +In Cyprus it appears that before marriage all women +were formerly obliged by custom to prostitute themselves to +strangers at the sanctuary of the goddess, whether she went +by the name of Aphrodite, Astarte, or what not.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 199; Athenaeus, +xii. 11, p. 516 <hi rend='smallcaps'>a</hi>; Justin, xviii. 5. 4; +Lactantius, <hi rend='italic'>Divin. Inst.</hi> i. 17; W. H. +Engel, <hi rend='italic'>Kypros</hi>, ii. 142 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> Asiatic +customs of this sort have been rightly +explained by W. Mannhardt (<hi rend='italic'>Antike +Wald- und Feldkulte</hi>, pp. 283 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>).</note> Similar +customs prevailed in many parts of Western Asia. Whatever +its motive, the practice was clearly regarded, not as an +orgy of lust, but as a solemn religious duty performed in +the service of that great Mother Goddess of Western Asia +whose name varied, while her type remained constant, from +place to place. Thus at Babylon every woman, whether +rich or poor, had once in her life to submit to the embraces +of a stranger at the temple of Mylitta, that is, of Ishtar or +<pb n='037'/><anchor id='Pg037'/> +Astarte, and to dedicate to the goddess the wages earned by +this sanctified harlotry. The sacred precinct was crowded +with women waiting to observe the custom. Some of them +had to wait there for years.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 199; Strabo, xvi. 1. +20, p. 745. As to the identity of +Mylitta with Astarte see H. Zimmern +in E. Schrader's <hi rend='italic'>Die Keilinschriften und +das alte Testament</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> pp. 423, note 7, 428, +note 4. According to him, the name +Mylitta comes from <foreign rend='italic'>Mu'allidtu</foreign>, <q>she +who helps women in travail.</q> In this +character Ishtar would answer to the +Greek Artemis and the Latin Diana. +As to sacred prostitution in the worship +of Ishtar see M. Jastrow, <hi rend='italic'>The Religion +of Babylonia and Assyria</hi>, pp. 475 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +484 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; P. Dhorme, <hi rend='italic'>La Religion +Assyro-Babylonienne</hi> (Paris, 1910), pp. +86, 300 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> At Heliopolis or Baalbec in +Syria, famous for the imposing grandeur of its ruined +temples, the custom of the country required that every +maiden should prostitute herself to a stranger at the temple +of Astarte, and matrons as well as maids testified their +devotion to the goddess in the same manner. The emperor +Constantine abolished the custom, destroyed the temple, and +built a church in its stead.<note place='foot'>Eusebius, <hi rend='italic'>Vita Constantini</hi>, iii. 58; +Socrates, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Ecclesiastica</hi>, i. 18. +7-9; Sozomenus, Historia Ecclesiastica, +v. 10. 7. Socrates says that at Heliopolis +local custom obliged the women +to be held in common, so that paternity +was unknown, <q>for there was no distinction +of parents and children, and +the people prostituted their daughters +to the strangers who visited them</q> +(τοῖς παριοῦσι ξένοις). The prostitution +of matrons as well as of maids is mentioned +by Eusebius. As he was born +and spent his life in Syria, and was a +contemporary of the practices he describes, +the bishop of Caesarea had the +best opportunity of informing himself +as to them, and we ought not, as Prof. +M. P. Nilsson does (<hi rend='italic'>Griechische Feste</hi>, +Leipsic, 1906, p. 366 n.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi>), to allow his +positive testimony on this point to be +outweighed by the silence of the later +historian Sozomenus, who wrote long +after the custom had been abolished. +Eusebius had good reason to know the +heathenish customs which were kept +up in his diocese; for he was sharply +taken to task by Constantine for allowing +sacrifices to be offered on altars +under the sacred oak or terebinth at +Mamre; and in obedience to the imperial +commands he caused the altars +to be destroyed and an oratory to be +built instead under the tree. So in +Ireland the ancient heathen sanctuaries +under the sacred oaks were converted +by Christian missionaries into churches +and monasteries. See Socrates, <hi rend='italic'>Historia +Ecclesiastica</hi>, i. 18; <hi rend='italic'>The Magic +Art and the Evolution of Kings</hi>, ii. +242 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> In Phoenician temples women +prostituted themselves for hire in the service of religion, +believing that by this conduct they propitiated the goddess +and won her favour.<note place='foot'>Athanasius, <hi rend='italic'>Oratio contra Gentes</hi>, +26 (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, xxv. +52), γυναῖκες γοῦν ἐν εἰδωλείοις τῆς +Φοινικῆς πάλαι προεκαθέζοντο, ἀπαρχόμεναι +τοῖς ἐκεῖ θέοις ἑαυτῶν τὴν τοῦ σώματος +αὐτῶν μισθαρνίαν, νομίζουσαι τῇ πορνειᾳ +τὴν θέον ἑαυτῶν ἰλάσκεσθαι καὶ εἰς εὐμενείαν +ἄγειν αὐτὴν διὰ τούτων. The +account of the Phoenician custom which +is given by H. Ploss (<hi rend='italic'>Das Weib</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> i. +302) and repeated after him by Fr. +Schwally (<hi rend='italic'>Semitische Kriegsaltertümer</hi>, +Leipsic, 1901, pp. 76 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>) may rest +only on a misapprehension of this passage +of Athanasius. But if it is correct, +we may conjecture that the slaves who +deflowered the virgins were the sacred +slaves of the temples, the <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign>, and +that they discharged this office as the +living representatives of the god. As to +these <foreign rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign>, or <q>sacred men,</q> see +above, pp. <ref target='Pg017'>17</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, and below, pp. <ref target='Pg072'>72</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> <q>It was a law of the Amorites, that +<pb n='038'/><anchor id='Pg038'/> +she who was about to marry should sit in fornication seven +days by the gate.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Testaments of the Twelve +Patriarchs</hi>, translated and edited by +R. H. Charles (London, 1908), chapter +xii. p. 81.</note> At Byblus the people shaved their +heads in the annual mourning for Adonis. Women who +refused to sacrifice their hair had to give themselves up to +strangers on a certain day of the festival, and the money +which they thus earned was devoted to the goddess.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 6. The +writer is careful to indicate that none +but strangers were allowed to enjoy +the women (ἡ δὲ ἀγορὴ μούνοισι ξείνοισι +παρακέεται).</note> This +custom may have been a mitigation of an older rule which +at Byblus as elsewhere formerly compelled every woman +without exception to sacrifice her virtue in the service of +religion. I have already suggested a reason why the +offering of a woman's hair was accepted as an equivalent +for the surrender of her person.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, i. 30 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> We are told that in Lydia +all girls were obliged to prostitute themselves in order to +earn a dowry;<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 93 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Athenaeus, +xii. 11, pp. 515 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> but we may suspect that the real motive +of the custom was devotion rather than economy. The +suspicion is confirmed by a Greek inscription found at +Tralles in Lydia, which proves that the practice of religious +prostitution survived in that country as late as the second +century of our era. It records of a certain woman, Aurelia +Aemilia by name, not only that she herself served the god +in the capacity of a harlot at his express command, but that +her mother and other female ancestors had done the same +before her; and the publicity of the record, engraved on a +marble column which supported a votive offering, shows that +no stain attached to such a life and such a parentage.<note place='foot'>W. M. Ramsay, <q>Unedited Inscriptions +of Asia Minor,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Bulletin de Correspondance +Hellénique</hi>, vii. (1883) p. 276; +<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia</hi>, +i. (Oxford, 1895) pp. 94 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 115.</note> In +Armenia the noblest families dedicated their daughters to +the service of the goddess Anaitis in her temple at Acilisena, +where the damsels acted as prostitutes for a long time before +they were given in marriage. Nobody scrupled to take one +of these girls to wife when her period of service was over.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xi. 14. 16, p. 532.</note> +<pb n='039'/><anchor id='Pg039'/> +Again, the goddess Ma was served by a multitude of sacred +harlots at Comana in Pontus, and crowds of men and women +flocked to her sanctuary from the neighbouring cities and +country to attend the biennial festivals or to pay their vows +to the goddess.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xii. 3. 32, 34 and 36, pp. +557-559; compare xii. 2. 3, p. 535. +Other sanctuaries in Pontus, Cappadocia, +and Phrygia swarmed with sacred +slaves, and we may conjecture, though +we are not told, that many of these +slaves were prostitutes. See Strabo, +xi. 8. 4, xii. 2. 3 and 6, xii. 3. 31 and +37, xii. 8. 14.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Asiatic +Mother +Goddess a +personification +of all +the reproductive +energies of +nature. Her +worship +perhaps +reflects a +period of +sexual +communism.</note> +If we survey the whole of the evidence on this subject, +some of which has still to be laid before the reader, we may +conclude that a great Mother Goddess, the personification of +all the reproductive energies of nature, was worshipped under +different names but with a substantial similarity of myth and +ritual by many peoples of Western Asia; that associated +with her was a lover, or rather series of lovers, divine yet +mortal, with whom she mated year by year, their commerce +being deemed essential to the propagation of animals and +plants, each in their several kind;<note place='foot'>On this great Asiatic goddess and +her lovers see especially Sir W. M. +Ramsay, <hi rend='italic'>Cities and Bishoprics of +Phrygia</hi>, i. 87 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> and further, that the +fabulous union of the divine pair was simulated and, as it +were, multiplied on earth by the real, though temporary, +union of the human sexes at the sanctuary of the goddess +for the sake of thereby ensuring the fruitfulness of the +ground and the increase of man and beast.<note place='foot'>Compare W. Mannhardt, <hi rend='italic'>Antike +Wald- und Feldkulte</hi>, pp. 284 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +W. Robertson Smith, <hi rend='italic'>The Prophets of +Israel</hi>, New Edition (London, 1902), +pp. 171-174. Similarly in Camul, formerly +a province of the Chinese Empire, +the men used to place their wives at the +disposal of any foreigners who came to +lodge with them, and deemed it an +honour if the guests made use of their +opportunities. The emperor, hearing +of the custom, forbade the people to +observe it. For three years they +obeyed, then, finding that their lands +were no longer fruitful and that many +mishaps befell them, they prayed the +emperor to allow them to retain the +custom, <q>for it was by reason of this +usage that their gods bestowed upon +them all the good things that they +possessed, and without it they saw not +how they could continue to exist.</q> +See <hi rend='italic'>The Book of Ser Marco Polo</hi>, +translated and edited by Colonel Henry +Yule, Second Edition (London, 1875), +i. 212 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Here apparently the fertility +of the soil was deemed to depend on +the intercourse of the women with +strangers, not with their husbands. +Similarly, among the Oulad Abdi, an +Arab tribe of Morocco, <q>the women +often seek a divorce and engage in +prostitution in the intervals between +their marriages; during that time they +continue to dwell in their families, +and their relations regard their conduct +as very natural. The administrative +authority having bestirred itself and +attempted to regulate this prostitution, +the whole population opposed the +attempt, alleging that such a measure +would impair the abundance of the +crops.</q> See Edmond Doutté, <hi rend='italic'>Magie +et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord</hi> +(Algiers, 1908), pp. 560 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> And if the +<pb n='040'/><anchor id='Pg040'/> +conception of such a Mother Goddess dates, as seems +probable, from a time when the institution of marriage was +either unknown or at most barely tolerated as an immoral +infringement of old communal rights, we can understand +both why the goddess herself was regularly supposed to be +at once unmarried and unchaste, and why her worshippers +were obliged to imitate her more or less completely in these +respects. For had she been a divine wife united to a divine +husband, the natural counterpart of their union would have +been the lawful marriage of men and women, and there +would have been no need to resort to a system of prostitution +or promiscuity in order to effect those purposes which, +on the principles of homoeopathic magic, might in that case +have been as well or better attained by the legitimate intercourse +of the sexes in matrimony. Formerly, perhaps, +every woman was obliged to submit at least once in her life +to the exercise of those marital rights which at a still earlier +period had theoretically belonged in permanence to all the +males of the tribe. But in course of time, as the institution +of individual marriage grew in favour, and the old communism +fell more and more into discredit, the revival of the +ancient practice even for a single occasion in a woman's life +became ever more repugnant to the moral sense of the +people, and accordingly they resorted to various expedients +for evading in practice the obligation which they still +acknowledged in theory. One of these evasions was to let +the woman offer her hair instead of her person; another +apparently was to substitute an obscene symbol for the +obscene act.<note place='foot'>Clement of Alexandria, <hi rend='italic'>Protrept.</hi> +ii. 14, p. 13, ed. Potter; Arnobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, v. 19; compare +Firmicus Maternus, <hi rend='italic'>De errore profanarum +religionum</hi>, 10.</note> But while the majority of women thus contrived +to observe the forms of religion without sacrificing +their virtue, it was still thought necessary to the general +welfare that a certain number of them should discharge the +old obligation in the old way. These became prostitutes +either for life or for a term of years at one of the temples: +dedicated to the service of religion, they were invested with +<pb n='041'/><anchor id='Pg041'/> +a sacred character,<note place='foot'>In Hebrew a temple harlot was +regularly called <q>a sacred woman</q> +(<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>kĕdēsha</foreign>). See <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Harlot</q>; S. R. Driver, on +Genesis xxxviii. 21. As to such +<q>sacred women</q> see below, pp. <ref target='Pg070'>70</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> and their vocation, far from being deemed +infamous, was probably long regarded by the laity as an +exercise of more than common virtue, and rewarded with a +tribute of mixed wonder, reverence, and pity, not unlike that +which in some parts of the world is still paid to women who +seek to honour their Creator in a different way by renouncing +the natural functions of their sex and the tenderest relations +of humanity. It is thus that the folly of mankind finds +vent in opposite extremes alike harmful and deplorable. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +daughters +of Cinyras.</note> +At Paphos the custom of religious prostitution is said to +have been instituted by King Cinyras,<note place='foot'>Clement of Alexandria, <hi rend='italic'>Protrept.</hi> +ii. 13, p. 12, ed. Potter; Arnobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, v. 19; Firmicus +Maternus, <hi rend='italic'>De errore profanarum religionum</hi>, +10.</note> and to have been +practised by his daughters, the sisters of Adonis, who, +having incurred the wrath of Aphrodite, mated with +strangers and ended their days in Egypt.<note place='foot'>Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, iii. 14. 3.</note> In this form of +the tradition the wrath of Aphrodite is probably a feature +added by a later authority, who could only regard conduct +which shocked his own moral sense as a punishment inflicted +by the goddess instead of as a sacrifice regularly enjoined +by her on all her devotees. At all events the story indicates +that the princesses of Paphos had to conform to the +custom as well as women of humble birth. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Paphian +dynasty +of the +Cinyrads.</note> +The legendary history of the royal and priestly family +of the Cinyrads is instructive. We are told that a Syrian +man, by name Sandacus, migrated to Cilicia, married +Pharnace, daughter of Megassares, king of Hyria, and +founded the city of Celenderis. His wife bore him a son, +Cinyras, who in time crossed the sea with a company of +people to Cyprus, wedded Metharme, daughter of Pygmalion, +king of the island, and founded Paphos.<note place='foot'>Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, iii. 14. +3. I follow the text of R. Wagner's +edition in reading Μεγασσάρου τοῦ +Ὑριέων βασιλέως. As to Hyria in +Isauria see Stephanus Byzantius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +Ὑρία. The city of Celenderis, on the +south coast of Cilicia, possessed a small +harbour protected by a fortified peninsula. +Many ancient tombs survived +till recent times, but have now mostly +disappeared. It was the port from +which the Turkish couriers from Constantinople +used to embark for Cyprus. +As to the situation and remains see +F. Beaufort, <hi rend='italic'>Karmania</hi> (London, 1817), +p. 201; W. M. Leake, <hi rend='italic'>Journal of a +Tour in Asia Minor</hi> (London, 1824), +pp. 114-118; R. Heberdey und A. +Wilhelm, <q>Reisen in Kilikien,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Denkschriften +der kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften, +Philosoph.-historische Classe</hi>, +xliv. (1896) No. vi. p. 94. The statement +that the sanctuary of Aphrodite +at Paphos was founded by the Arcadian +Agapenor, who planted a colony in +Cyprus after the Trojan war (Pausanias, +viii. 5. 2), may safely be disregarded.</note> These legends +<pb n='042'/><anchor id='Pg042'/> +seem to contain reminiscences of kingdoms in Cilicia and +Cyprus which passed in the female line, and were held by +men, sometimes foreigners, who married the hereditary +princesses. There are some indications that Cinyras was +not in fact the founder of the temple at Paphos. An +older tradition ascribed the foundation to a certain Aerias, +whom some regarded as a king, and others as the goddess +herself.<note place='foot'>Tacitus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> ii. 3; <hi rend='italic'>Annals</hi>, iii. +62.</note> Moreover, Cinyras or his descendants at Paphos +had to reckon with rivals. These were the Tamirads, +a family of diviners who traced their descent from Tamiras, +a Cilician augur. At first it was arranged that both +families should preside at the ceremonies, but afterwards +the Tamirads gave way to the Cinyrads.<note place='foot'>Tacitus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> ii. 3; Hesychius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +Ταμιράδαι.</note> Many tales +were told of Cinyras, the founder of the dynasty. He +was a priest of Aphrodite as well as a king,<note place='foot'>Pindar, <hi rend='italic'>Pyth.</hi> ii. 13-17.</note> and his +riches passed into a proverb.<note place='foot'>Tyrtaeus, xii. 6 (<hi rend='italic'>Poetae Lyrici +Graeci</hi>, ed. Th. Bergk,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> Leipsic, 1866-1867, +ii. 404); Pindar, <hi rend='italic'>Pyth.</hi> viii. 18; +Plato, <hi rend='italic'>Laws</hi>, ii. 6, p. 660 <hi rend='smallcaps'>e</hi>; Clement +of Alexandria, <hi rend='italic'>Paedag.</hi> iii. 6, p. 274, +ed. Potter; Dio Chrysostom, <hi rend='italic'>Orat.</hi> +viii. (vol. i. p. 149, ed. L. Dindorf); +Julian, <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> lix. p. 574, ed. F. C. +Hertlein; Diogenianus, viii. 53; Suidas, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Καταγηράσαις.</note> To his descendants, the +Cinyrads, he appears to have bequeathed his wealth and his +dignities; at all events, they reigned as kings of Paphos and +served the goddess as priests. Their dead bodies, with that +of Cinyras himself, were buried in the sanctuary.<note place='foot'>Schol. on Pindar, <hi rend='italic'>Pyth.</hi> ii. 15 +(27); Hesychius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Κινυράδαι; +Clement of Alexandria, <hi rend='italic'>Protrept.</hi> iii. +45, p. 40, ed. Potter; Arnobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, vi. 6. That the +kings of Paphos were also priests of +the goddess is proved, apart from the +testimony of ancient writers, by inscriptions +found on the spot. See H. +Collitz, <hi rend='italic'>Sammlung der griechischen +Dialektinschriften</hi>, i. (Göttingen, 1884) +p. 22, Nos. 38, 39, 40. The title of +the goddess in these inscriptions is +Queen or Mistress (Ϝανασ(σ)ἀς). It +is perhaps a translation of the Semitic +Baalath.</note> But by +the fourth century before our era the family had declined +and become nearly extinct. When Alexander the Great +expelled a king of Paphos for injustice and wickedness, his +envoys made search for a member of the ancient house to +set on the throne of his fathers. At last they found one of +<pb n='043'/><anchor id='Pg043'/> +them living in obscurity and earning his bread as a market +gardener. He was in the very act of watering his beds +when the king's messengers carried him off, much to his +astonishment, to receive the crown at the hands of their +master.<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>De Alexandri Magni +fortuna aut virtute</hi>, ii. 8. The name +of the gardener-king was Alynomus. +That the Cinyrads existed as a family +down to Macedonian times is further +proved by a Greek inscription found at +Old Paphos, which records that a certain +Democrates, son of Ptolemy, head of +the Cinyrads, and his wife Eunice, +dedicated a statue of their daughter to +the Paphian Aphrodite. See L. Ross, +<q>Inschriften von Cypern,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Rheinisches +Museum</hi>, N.F. vii. (1850) pp. 520 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> It seems to have been a common +practice of parents to dedicate statues +of their sons or daughters to the goddess +at Paphos. The inscribed pedestals of +many such statues were found by the +English archaeologists. See <hi rend='italic'>Journal +of Hellenic Studies</hi>, ix. (1888) pp. 228, +235, 236, 237, 241, 244, 246, 255.</note> Yet if the dynasty decayed, the shrine of the +goddess, enriched by the offerings of kings and private +persons, maintained its reputation for wealth down to Roman +times.<note place='foot'>Tacitus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> ii. 4; Pausanias, +viii. 24. 6.</note> When Ptolemy Auletes, king of Egypt, was expelled +by his people in 57 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi>, Cato offered him the priesthood of +Paphos as a sufficient consolation in money and dignity for +the loss of a throne.<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Cato the Younger</hi>, 35.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Incest of +Cinyras +with his +daughter +Myrrha, +and birth +of Adonis. Legends +of royal +incest—a +suggested +explanation.</note> +Among the stories which were told of Cinyras, the +ancestor of these priestly kings and the father of Adonis, +there are some that deserve our attention. In the first place, +he is said to have begotten his son Adonis in incestuous +intercourse with his daughter Myrrha at a festival of the +corn-goddess, at which women robed in white were wont to +offer corn-wreaths as first-fruits of the harvest and to observe +strict chastity for nine days.<note place='foot'>Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> x. 298 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Hyginus, +<hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 58, 64; Fulgentius, <hi rend='italic'>Mytholog.</hi> +iii. 8; Lactantius Placidius, +<hi rend='italic'>Narrat. Fabul.</hi> x. 9; Servius on +Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Ecl.</hi> x. 18, and <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> v. 72; +Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Parallela</hi>, 22; Schol. on +Theocritus, i. 107. It is Ovid who +describes (<hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> x. 431 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>) the +festival of Ceres, at which the incest +was committed. His source was probably +the <hi rend='italic'>Metamorphoses</hi> of the Greek +writer Theodorus, which Plutarch (<hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>) +refers to as his authority for the story. +The festival in question was perhaps +the Thesmophoria, at which women +were bound to remain chaste (Schol. +on Theocritus, iv. 25; Schol. on +Nicander, <hi rend='italic'>Ther.</hi> 70 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. +Hist.</hi> xxiv. 59; Dioscorides, <hi rend='italic'>De +Materia Medica</hi>, i. 134 (135); compare +Aelian, <hi rend='italic'>De natura animalium</hi>, +ix. 26). Compare E. Fehrle, <hi rend='italic'>Die +kultische Keuschheit im Altertum</hi> +(Giessen, 1910), pp. 103 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 121 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +151 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The corn and bread of Cyprus +were famous in antiquity. See Aeschylus, +<hi rend='italic'>Suppliants</hi>, 549 (555); Hipponax, +cited by Strabo, viii. 3. 8, p. +340; Eubulus, cited by Athenaeus, +iii. 78, p. 112 <hi rend='smallcaps'>f</hi>; E. Oberhummer, +<hi rend='italic'>Die Insel. Cypern</hi>, i. (Munich, 1903) +pp. 274 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> According to another +account, Adonis was the fruit of the incestuous +intercourse of Theias, a Syrian +king, with his daughter Myrrha. +See Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, iii. 14. +4 (who cites Panyasis as his authority); +J. Tzetzes, <hi rend='italic'>Schol. on Lycophron</hi>, +829; Antoninus Liberalis, +<hi rend='italic'>Transform.</hi> 34 (who lays the scene of +the story on Mount Lebanon). With +the corn-wreaths mentioned in the +text we may compare the wreaths which +the Roman Arval Brethren wore at +their sacred functions, and with which +they seem to have crowned the images +of the goddesses. See G. Henzen, <hi rend='italic'>Acta +Fratrum Arvalium</hi> (Berlin, 1874), pp. +24-27, 33 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Compare Pausanias, vii. +20. 1. <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Similar cases of incest with +<pb n='044'/><anchor id='Pg044'/> +a daughter are reported of many ancient kings.<note place='foot'>A list of these cases is given by +Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 253. It includes the +incest of Clymenus, king of Arcadia, +with his daughter Harpalyce (compare +Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 206); that of Oenomaus, +king of Pisa, with his daughter +Hippodamia (compare J. Tzetzes, +<hi rend='italic'>Schol. on Lycophron</hi>, 156; Lucian, +<hi rend='italic'>Charidemus</hi>, 19); that of Erechtheus, +king of Athens, with his daughter +Procris; and that of Epopeus, king +of Lesbos, with his daughter Nyctimene +(compare Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 204).</note> It seems +unlikely that such reports are without foundation, and perhaps +equally improbable that they refer to mere fortuitous +outbursts of unnatural lust. We may suspect that they are +based on a practice actually observed for a definite reason +in certain special circumstances. Now in countries where +the royal blood was traced through women only, and where +consequently the king held office merely in virtue of his +marriage with an hereditary princess, who was the real sovereign, +it appears to have often happened that a prince +married his own sister, the princess royal, in order to obtain +with her hand the crown which otherwise would have gone +to another man, perhaps to a stranger.<note place='foot'>The custom of brother and sister +marriage seems to have been especially +common in royal families. See my +note on Pausanias, i. 7. 1 (vol. ii. pp. +84 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>); as to the case of Egypt see +below, vol. ii. pp. 213 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The true +explanation of the custom was first, +so far as I know, indicated by J. F. +McLennan (<hi rend='italic'>The Patriarchal Theory</hi>, +London, 1885, p. 95).</note> May not the same +rule of descent have furnished a motive for incest with a +daughter? For it seems a natural corollary from such a +rule that the king was bound to vacate the throne on the +death of his wife, the queen, since he occupied it only by +virtue of his marriage with her. When that marriage +terminated, his right to the throne terminated with it and +passed at once to his daughter's husband. Hence if the +king desired to reign after his wife's death, the only way +in which he could legitimately continue to do so was +by marrying his daughter, and thus prolonging through +her the title which had formerly been his through her +mother. +</p> + +<pb n='045'/><anchor id='Pg045'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Flamen +Dialis +and his +Flaminica +at Rome.</note> +In this connexion it is worth while to remember that at +Rome the Flamen Dialis was bound to vacate his priesthood +on the death of his wife, the Flaminica.<note place='foot'>Aulus Gellius, x. 15. 22; J. +Marquardt, <hi rend='italic'>Römische Staatsverwaltung</hi>, +iii.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Leipsic, 1885) p. 328.</note> The rule would +be intelligible if the Flaminica had originally been the more +important functionary of the two, and if the Flamen held +office only by virtue of his marriage with her.<note place='foot'>Priestesses are said to have preceded +priests in some Egyptian cities. +See W. M. Flinders Petrie, <hi rend='italic'>The Religion +of Ancient Egypt</hi> (London, +1906), p. 74.</note> Elsewhere +I have shown reason to suppose that he and his wife represented +an old line of priestly kings and queens, who played +the parts of Jupiter and Juno, or perhaps rather Dianus and +Diana, respectively.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 179, 190 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> If the supposition is correct, the custom +which obliged him to resign his priesthood on the death +of his wife seems to prove that of the two deities whom they +personated, the goddess, whether named Juno or Diana, was +indeed the better half. But at Rome the goddess Juno +always played an insignificant part; whereas at Nemi her +old double, Diana, was all-powerful, casting her mate, Dianus +or Virbius, into deep shadow. Thus a rule which points to +the superiority of the Flaminica over the Flamen, appears to +indicate that the divine originals of the two were Dianus +and Diana rather than Jupiter and Juno; and further, that if +Jupiter and Juno at Rome stood for the principle of father-kin, +or the predominance of the husband over the wife, +Dianus and Diana at Nemi stood for the older principle of +mother-kin, or the predominance of the wife in matters of +inheritance over the husband. If, then, I am right in holding +that the kingship at Rome was originally a plebeian institution +and descended through women,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 268 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> we must conclude that +the people who founded the sanctuary of Diana at Nemi +were of the same plebeian stock as the Roman kings, that +they traced descent in the female line, and that they +worshipped a great Mother Goddess, not a great Father God. +That goddess was Diana; her maternal functions are abundantly +proved by the votive offerings found at her ancient +shrine among the wooded hills.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, i. 12 note 1.</note> On the other hand, the +<pb n='046'/><anchor id='Pg046'/> +patricians, who afterwards invaded the country, brought +with them father-kin in its strictest form, and consistently +enough paid their devotions rather to Father Jove than to +Mother Juno. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Priestesses +among the +Khasis of +Assam.</note> +A parallel to what I conjecture to have been the original +relation of the Flaminica to her husband the Flamen may to +a certain extent be found among the Khasis of Assam, who +preserve to this day the ancient system of mother-kin in +matters of inheritance and religion. For among these people +the propitiation of deceased ancestors is deemed essential to +the welfare of the community, and of all their ancestors they +revere most the primaeval ancestress of the clan. Accordingly +in every sacrifice a priest must be assisted by a priestess; +indeed, we are told that he merely acts as her deputy, and +that she <q>is without doubt a survival of the time when, under +the matriarchate, the priestess was the agent for the performance +of all religious ceremonies.</q> It does not appear that +the priest need be the husband of the priestess; but in the +Khyrim State, where each division has its own goddess to +whom sacrifices are offered, the priestess is the mother, sister, +niece, or other maternal relation of the priest. It is her duty +to prepare all the sacrificial articles, and without her assistance +the sacrifice cannot take place.<note place='foot'>Major P. R. T. Gurdon, <hi rend='italic'>The +Khasis</hi> (London, 1907), pp. 109-112, +120 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Here, then, as among +the ancient Romans on my hypothesis, we have the superiority +of the priestess over the priest based on a corresponding +superiority of the goddess or divine ancestress over the god +or divine ancestor; and here, as at Rome, a priest would +clearly have to vacate office if he had no woman of the +proper relationship to assist him in the performance of his +sacred duties. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sacred +marriage +of a priest +and +priestess as +representatives +of +the Sun-god +and +the Earth-goddess. Marriage of +the Sun-god +and +Earth-goddess +acted by a +priest and +his wife.</note> +Further, I have conjectured that as representatives of +Jupiter and Juno respectively the Flamen and Flaminica at +Rome may have annually celebrated a Sacred Marriage for +the purpose of ensuring the fertility of the powers of nature.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 191 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +This conjecture also may be supported by an analogous +custom which is still observed in India. We have seen how +among the Oraons, a primitive hill-tribe of Bengal, the +<pb n='047'/><anchor id='Pg047'/> +marriage of the Sun and the Earth is annually celebrated +by a priest and priestess who personate respectively the god +of the Sun and the goddess of the Earth.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</hi>, ii. 148.</note> The ceremony +of the Sacred Marriage has been described more fully by a +Jesuit missionary, who was intimately acquainted with the +people and their native religion. The rite is celebrated in +the month of May, when the <foreign rend='italic'>sal</foreign> tree is in bloom, and the +festival takes its native name (<foreign rend='italic'>khaddi</foreign>) from the flower of the +tree. It is the greatest festival of the year. <q>The object +of this feast is to celebrate the mystical marriage of the +Sun-god (<foreign rend='italic'>Bhagawan</foreign>) with the Goddess-earth (<foreign rend='italic'>Dharti-mai</foreign>), +to induce them to be fruitful and give good crops.</q> At the +same time all the minor deities or demons of the village are +propitiated, in order that they may not hinder the beneficent +activity of the Sun God and the Earth Goddess. On the +eve of the appointed day no man may plough his fields, and +the priest, accompanied by some of the villagers, repairs to +the sacred grove, where he beats a drum and invites all the +invisible guests to the great feast that will await them on +the morrow. Next morning very early, before cock-crow, +an acolyte steals out as quietly as possible to the sacred +spring to fetch water in a new earthen pot. This holy water +is full of all kinds of blessings for the crops. The priest has +prepared a place for it in the middle of his house surrounded +by cotton threads of diverse colours. So sacred is the water +that it would be defiled and lose all its virtue, were any profane +eye to fall on it before it entered the priest's house. +During the morning the acolyte and the priest's deputy go +round from house to house collecting victims for the sacrifice. +In the afternoon the people all gather at the sacred grove, +and the priest proceeds to consummate the sacrifice. The +first victims to be immolated are a white cock for the Sun +God and a black hen for the Earth Goddess; and as the +feast is the marriage of these great deities the marriage +service is performed over the two fowls before they are +hurried into eternity. Amongst other things both birds are +marked with vermilion just as a bride and bridegroom are +marked at a human marriage; and the earth is also smeared +with vermilion, as if it were a real bride, on the spot where +<pb n='048'/><anchor id='Pg048'/> +the sacrifice is offered. Sacrifices of fowls or goats to the +minor deities or demons follow. The bodies of the victims +are collected by the village boys, who cook them on the +spot; all the heads go to the sacrificers. The gods take +what they can get and are more or less thankful. Meantime +the acolyte has collected flowers of the <foreign rend='italic'>sal</foreign> tree and set them +round the place of sacrifice, and he has also fetched the holy +water from the priest's house. A procession is now formed +and the priest is carried in triumph to his own abode. There +his wife has been watching for him, and on his arrival the +two go through the marriage ceremony, applying vermilion +to each other in the usual way <q>to symbolise the mystical +marriage of the Sun-god with the Earth-goddess.</q> Meantime +all the women of the village are standing on the thresholds +of their houses each with a winnowing-fan in her hand. +In the fan are two cups, one empty to receive the holy +water, and the other full of rice-beer for the consumption of +the holy man. As he arrives at each house, he distributes +flowers and holy water to the happy women, and enriches +them with a shower of blessings, saying, <q>May your rooms +and granary be filled with rice, that the priest's name may +be great.</q> The holy water which he leaves at each house +is sprinkled on the seeds that have been kept to sow next +year's crop. Having thus imparted his benediction to the +household the priest swigs the beer; and as he repeats his +benediction and his potation at every house he is naturally +dead-drunk by the time he gets to the end of the village. +<q>By that time every one has taken copious libations of rice-beer, +and all the devils of the village seem to be let loose, +and there follows a scene of debauchery baffling description—all +these to induce the Sun and the Earth to be fruitful.</q><note place='foot'>The late Rev. P. Dehon, S.J., +<q>Religion and Customs of the Uraons,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of +Bengal</hi>, vol. i. No. 9 (Calcutta, 1906), +pp. 144-146.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Thus the people of Cyprus and Western Asia in antiquity +were by no means singular in their belief that the profligacy +of the human sexes served to quicken the fruits of the +earth.<note place='foot'>For more evidence see <hi rend='italic'>The Magic +Art and the Evolution of Kings</hi>, ii. +97 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Cinyras +beloved by +Aphrodite. +Pygmalion +and +Aphrodite. +The +Phoenician +kings of +Cyprus or +their sons +appear to +have been +hereditary +lovers +of the +goddess. Sacred +marriage +of the +kings of +Paphos. Sons and +daughters, +fathers and +mothers of +a god.</note> +Cinyras is said to have been famed for his exquisite +<pb n='049'/><anchor id='Pg049'/> +beauty<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorum praeceptor</hi>, 11; +Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 270.</note> and to have been wooed by Aphrodite herself.<note place='foot'>Clement of Alexandria, <hi rend='italic'>Protrept.</hi> +ii. 33, p. 29, ed. Potter.</note> +Thus it would appear, as scholars have already observed,<note place='foot'>W. H. Engel, <hi rend='italic'>Kypros</hi>, ii. 585, +612; A. Maury, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire des Religions +de la Grèce Antique</hi> (Paris, 1857-1859), +iii. 197, note 3.</note> +that Cinyras was in a sense a duplicate of his handsome son +Adonis, to whom the inflammable goddess also lost her +heart. Further, these stories of the love of Aphrodite for +two members of the royal house of Paphos can hardly be +dissociated from the corresponding legend told of Pygmalion, +the Phoenician king of Cyprus, who is said to have fallen in +love with an image of Aphrodite and taken it to his bed.<note place='foot'>Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, vi. +22; Clement of Alexandria, <hi rend='italic'>Protrept.</hi> +iv. 57, p. 51, ed. Potter; Ovid, +<hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> x. 243-297. The authority +for the story is the Greek history of +Cyprus by Philostephanus, cited both +by Arnobius and Clement. In Ovid's +poetical version of the legend Pygmalion +is a sculptor, and the image +with which he falls in love is that of a +lovely woman, which at his prayer +Venus endows with life. That King +Pygmalion was a Phoenician is mentioned +by Porphyry (<hi rend='italic'>De abstinentia</hi>, +iv. 15) on the authority of Asclepiades, +a Cyprian.</note> +When we consider that Pygmalion was the father-in-law +of Cinyras, that the son of Cinyras was Adonis, and that all +three, in successive generations, are said to have been concerned +in a love-intrigue with Aphrodite, we can hardly help +concluding that the early Phoenician kings of Paphos, or +their sons, regularly claimed to be not merely the priests +of the goddess<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg042'>42</ref>.</note> but also her lovers, in other words, that in +their official capacity they personated Adonis. At all events +Adonis is said to have reigned in Cyprus,<note place='foot'>Probus, on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Ecl.</hi> x. 18. +I owe this reference to my friend +Mr. A. B. Cook.</note> and it appears +to be certain that the title of Adonis was regularly borne +by the sons of all the Phoenician kings of the island.<note place='foot'>In his treatise on the political +institutions of Cyprus, Aristotle reported +that the sons and brothers of +the kings were called <q>lords</q> (ἄνακτες), +and their sisters and wives <q>ladies</q> +(ἄνασσαι). See Harpocration and +Suidas, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Ἄνακτες. Compare Isocrates, +ix. 72; Clearchus of Soli, +quoted by Athenaeus, vi. 68, p. 256 <hi rend='smallcaps'>A</hi>. +Now in the bilingual inscription of +Idalium, which furnished the clue to +the Cypriote syllabary, the Greek +version gives the title Ϝάναξ as the +equivalent of the Phoenician <foreign rend='italic'>Adon</foreign> +(אדן). See <hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum +Semiticarum</hi>, i. No. 89; G. A. Cooke, +<hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions</hi>, +p. 74, note 1.</note> It is +true that the title strictly signified no more than <q>lord</q>; +yet the legends which connect these Cyprian princes with +the goddess of love make it probable that they claimed the +<pb n='050'/><anchor id='Pg050'/> +divine nature as well as the human dignity of Adonis. The +story of Pygmalion points to a ceremony of a sacred +marriage in which the king wedded the image of Aphrodite, +or rather of Astarte. If that was so, the tale was in a sense +true, not of a single man only, but of a whole series of men, +and it would be all the more likely to be told of Pygmalion, +if that was a common name of Semitic kings in general, +and of Cyprian kings in particular. Pygmalion, at all +events, is known as the name of the famous king of Tyre +from whom his sister Dido fled;<note place='foot'>Josephus, <hi rend='italic'>Contra Apionem</hi>, i. 18, +ed. B. Niese; Appian, <hi rend='italic'>Punica</hi>, i; +Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> i. 346 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Fasti</hi>, +iii. 574; Justin, xviii. 4; Eustathius +on Dionysius Periegetes, 195 (<hi rend='italic'>Geographi +Graeci Minores</hi>, ed. C. Müller +Paris, 1882, ii. 250 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>).</note> and a king of Citium +and Idalium in Cyprus, who reigned in the time of Alexander +the Great, was also called Pygmalion, or rather Pumiyathon, +the Phoenician name which the Greeks corrupted +into Pygmalion.<note place='foot'>Pumi-yathon, son of Milk-yathon, +is known from Phoenician inscriptions +found at Idalium. See G. A. Cooke, +<hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions</hi>, +Nos. 12 and 13, pp. 55 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +57 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Coins inscribed with the name +of King Pumi-yathon are also in existence. +See G. F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of +the Greek Coins of Cyprus</hi> (London, +1904), pp. xl. <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 21 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, pl. iv. 20-24. +He was deposed by Ptolemy +(Diodorus Siculus, xix. 79. 4). Most +probably he is the Pymaton of Citium +who purchased the kingdom from a +dissolute monarch named Pasicyprus +some time before the conquests of +Alexander (Athenaeus, iv. 63, p. 167). +In this passage of Athenaeus the name +Pymaton, which is found in the MSS. +and agrees closely with the Phoenician +Pumi-yathon, ought not to be changed +into Pygmalion, as the latest editor +(G. Kaibel) has done.</note> Further, it deserves to be noted that +the names Pygmalion and Astarte occur together in a Punic +inscription on a gold medallion which was found in a grave +at Carthage; the characters of the inscription are of the +earliest type.<note place='foot'>G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 55, note 1. +Mr. Cooke remarks that the form +of the name (פגמלין instead of פמייתן) +must be due to Greek influence.</note> As the custom of religious prostitution at +Paphos is said to have been founded by King Cinyras and +observed by his daughters,<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg041'>41</ref>.</note> we may surmise that the kings +of Paphos played the part of the divine bridegroom in a +less innocent rite than the form of marriage with a statue; +in fact, that at certain festivals each of them had to mate +with one or more of the sacred harlots of the temple, who +played Astarte to his Adonis. If that was so, there is more +truth than has commonly been supposed in the reproach +cast by the Christian fathers that the Aphrodite worshipped +<pb n='051'/><anchor id='Pg051'/> +by Cinyras was a common whore.<note place='foot'>Clement of Alexandria, <hi rend='italic'>Protrept.</hi> +ii. 13, p. 12; Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus +Nationes</hi>, v. 9; Firmicus Maternus, +<hi rend='italic'>De errore profanarum religionum</hi>, 10.</note> The fruit of their union +would rank as sons and daughters of the deity, and would +in time become the parents of gods and goddesses, like +their fathers and mothers before them. In this manner +Paphos, and perhaps all sanctuaries of the great Asiatic +goddess where sacred prostitution was practised, might be +well stocked with human deities, the offspring of the divine +king by his wives, concubines, and temple harlots. Any one +of these might probably succeed his father on the throne<note place='foot'>That the king was not necessarily +succeeded by his eldest son is proved +by the case of Solomon, who on his +accession executed his elder brother +Adoni-jah (1 Kings ii. 22-24). Similarly, +when Abimelech became king +of Shechem, he put his seventy brothers +in ruthless oriental fashion to death. +See Judges viii. 29-31, ix. 5 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 18. +So on his accession Jehoram, King +of Judah, put all his brothers to the +sword (2 Chronicles xxi. 4). King +Rehoboam had eighty-eight children +(2 Chronicles xi. 21) and King Abi-jah +had thirty-eight (2 Chronicles xiii. 21). +These examples illustrate the possible +size of the family of a polygamous king.</note> +or be sacrificed in his stead whenever stress of war or other +grave junctures called, as they sometimes did,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, pp. 160 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> for the death +of a royal victim. Such a tax, levied occasionally on the +king's numerous progeny for the good of the country, would +neither extinguish the divine stock nor break the father's +heart, who divided his paternal affection among so many. +At all events, if, as there seems reason to believe, Semitic +kings were often regarded at the same time as hereditary +deities, it is easy to understand the frequency of Semitic +personal names which imply that the bearers of them were +the sons or daughters, the brothers or sisters, the fathers or +mothers of a god, and we need not resort to the shifts +employed by some scholars to evade the plain sense of the +words.<note place='foot'>The names which imply that a +man was the father of a god have +proved particularly puzzling to some +eminent Semitic scholars. See W. +Robertson Smith, <hi rend='italic'>Religion of the +Semites</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> p. 45, note 2; Th. Nöldeke, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Names,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, +iii. 3287 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; W. W. Graf Baudissin, +<hi rend='italic'>Adonis und Esmun</hi>, pp. 39 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 43 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> Such names are Abi-baal (<q>father +of Baal</q>), Abi-el (<q>father of El</q>), +Abi-jah (<q>father of Jehovah</q>), and +Abi-melech (<q>father of a king</q> or +<q>father of Moloch</q>). On the hypothesis +put forward in the text the +father of a god and the son of a god +stood precisely on the same footing, +and the same person would often be +both one and the other. Where the +common practice prevailed of naming +a father after his son (<hi rend='italic'>Taboo and the +Perils of the Soul</hi>, pp. 331 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>), a +divine king in later life might often be +called <q>father of such-and-such a god.</q></note> This interpretation is confirmed by a parallel +<pb n='052'/><anchor id='Pg052'/> +Egyptian usage; for in Egypt, where the kings were worshipped +as divine,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, i. 418 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> the queen was called <q>the wife of the +god</q> or <q>the mother of the god,</q><note place='foot'>A. Erman, <hi rend='italic'>Aegypten und aegyptisches +Leben im Altertum</hi> (Tübingen, +<hi rend='smallcaps'>n.d.</hi>), p. 113.</note> and the title <q>father +of the god</q> was borne not only by the king's real father +but also by his father-in-law.<note place='foot'>L. Borchardt, <q>Der ägyptische +Titel <q>Vater des Gottes</q> als Bezeichnung +für <q>Vater oder Schwiegervater +des Königs,</q></q> <hi rend='italic'>Berichte über die Verhandlungen +der Königlich Sächsischen +Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu +Leipzig, Philolog.-histor. Klasse</hi>, lvii. +(1905) pp. 254-270.</note> Similarly, perhaps, among +the Semites any man who sent his daughter to swell the +royal harem may have been allowed to call himself <q>the +father of the god.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Cinyras, +like King +David, a +harper. +The use of +music as a +means of +prophetic +inspiration +among the +Hebrews.</note> +If we may judge by his name, the Semitic king who +bore the name of Cinyras was, like King David, a harper; +for the name of Cinyras is clearly connected with the Greek +<foreign lang='el' rend='italic'>cinyra</foreign>, <q>a lyre,</q> which in its turn comes from the Semitic +<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>kinnor</foreign>, <q>a lyre,</q> the very word applied to the instrument +on which David played before Saul.<note place='foot'>F. C. Movers, <hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, +i. 243; Stoll, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Kinyras,</q> in +W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. +und röm. Mythologie</hi>, ii. 1191; 1 +Samuel xvi. 23.</note> We shall probably +not err in assuming that at Paphos as at Jerusalem the +music of the lyre or harp was not a mere pastime designed +to while away an idle hour, but formed part of the service +of religion, the moving influence of its melodies being perhaps +set down, like the effect of wine, to the direct inspiration +of a deity. Certainly at Jerusalem the regular clergy +of the temple prophesied to the music of harps, of psalteries, +and of cymbals;<note place='foot'>1 Chronicles xxv. 1-3; compare +2 Samuel vi. 5.</note> and it appears that the irregular clergy +also, as we may call the prophets, depended on some such +stimulus for inducing the ecstatic state which they took for +immediate converse with the divinity.<note place='foot'>W. Robertson Smith, <hi rend='italic'>The Prophets +of Israel</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London, 1902), pp. 391 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; E. Renan, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire du peuple +d'Israel</hi> (Paris, 1893), ii. 280.</note> Thus we read of a +band of prophets coming down from a high place with a +psaltery, a timbrel, a pipe, and a harp before them, and +prophesying as they went.<note place='foot'>1 Samuel x. 5.</note> Again, when the united forces +of Judah and Ephraim were traversing the wilderness of +Moab in pursuit of the enemy, they could find no water for +<pb n='053'/><anchor id='Pg053'/> +three days, and were like to die of thirst, they and the beasts +of burden. In this emergency the prophet Elisha, who was +with the army, called for a minstrel and bade him play. +Under the influence of the music he ordered the soldiers +to dig trenches in the sandy bed of the waterless waddy +through which lay the line of march. They did so, and +next morning the trenches were full of the water that had +drained down into them underground from the desolate, +forbidding mountains on either hand. The prophet's success +in striking water in the wilderness resembles the reported +success of modern dowsers, though his mode of procedure +was different. Incidentally he rendered another service +to his countrymen. For the skulking Moabites from their +lairs among the rocks saw the red sun of the desert reflected +in the water, and taking it for the blood, or perhaps rather +for an omen of the blood, of their enemies, they plucked up +heart to attack the camp and were defeated with great +slaughter.<note place='foot'>2 Kings iii. 4-24. And for the +explanation of the supposed miracle, +see W. Robertson Smith, <hi rend='italic'>The Old +Testament in the Jewish Church</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +(London and Edinburgh, 1892), pp. +146 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> I have to thank Professor +Kennett for the suggestion that the +Moabites took the ruddy light on the +water for an omen of blood rather +than for actual gore.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +influence +of music +on religion.</note> +Again, just as the cloud of melancholy which from time +to time darkened the moody mind of Saul was viewed as +an evil spirit from the Lord vexing him, so on the other +hand the solemn strains of the harp, which soothed and composed +his troubled thoughts,<note place='foot'>1 Samuel xvi. 14-23.</note> may well have seemed to the +hag-ridden king the very voice of God or of his good angel +whispering peace. Even in our own day a great religious +writer, himself deeply sensitive to the witchery of music, has +said that musical notes, with all their power to fire the blood +and melt the heart, cannot be mere empty sounds and nothing +more; no, they have escaped from some higher sphere, they +are outpourings of eternal harmony, the voice of angels, the +Magnificat of saints.<note place='foot'>J. H. Newman, <hi rend='italic'>Sermons preached +before the University of Oxford</hi>, No. +xv. pp. 346 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> (third edition).</note> It is thus that the rude imaginings +of primitive man are transfigured and his feeble lispings +echoed with a rolling reverberation in the musical prose of +Newman. Indeed the influence of music on the development +<pb n='054'/><anchor id='Pg054'/> +of religion is a subject which would repay a sympathetic +study. For we cannot doubt that this, the most intimate and +affecting of all the arts, has done much to create as well as to +express the religious emotions, thus modifying more or less +deeply the fabric of belief to which at first sight it seems +only to minister. The musician has done his part as well +as the prophet and the thinker in the making of religion. +Every faith has its appropriate music, and the difference +between the creeds might almost be expressed in musical +notation. The interval, for example, which divides the wild +revels of Cybele from the stately ritual of the Catholic +Church is measured by the gulf which severs the dissonant +clash of cymbals and tambourines from the grave harmonies +of Palestrina and Handel. A different spirit breathes in the +difference of the music.<note place='foot'>It would be interesting to pursue +a similar line of inquiry in regard to +the other arts. What was the influence +of Phidias on Greek religion? How +much does Catholicism owe to Fra +Angelico?</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +function of +string +music in +Greek and +Semitic +ritual.</note> +The legend which made Apollo the friend of Cinyras<note place='foot'>Pindar, <hi rend='italic'>Pyth.</hi> ii. 15 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> may +be based on a belief in their common devotion to the lyre. +But what function, we may ask, did string music perform in +the Greek and the Semitic ritual? Did it serve to rouse the +human mouthpiece of the god to prophetic ecstasy? or did it +merely ban goblins and demons from the holy places and +the holy service, drawing as it were around the worshippers +a magic circle within which no evil thing might intrude? +In short, did it aim at summoning good or banishing evil +spirits? was its object inspiration or exorcism? The +examples drawn from the lives or legends of Elisha and +David prove that with the Hebrews the music of the lyre +might be used for either purpose; for while Elisha employed +it to tune himself to the prophetic pitch, David resorted to it +for the sake of exorcising the foul fiend from Saul. With +the Greeks, on the other hand, in historical times, it does not +appear that string music served as a means of inducing the +condition of trance or ecstasy in the human mouthpieces of +Apollo and the other oracular gods; on the contrary, its sobering +and composing influence, as contrasted with the exciting +influence of flute music, is the aspect which chiefly impressed +<pb n='055'/><anchor id='Pg055'/> +the Greek mind.<note place='foot'>On the lyre and the flute in Greek +religion and Greek thought, see L. R. +Farnell, <hi rend='italic'>The Cults of the Greek States</hi> +(Oxford, 1896-1909), iv. 243 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> The religious or, at all events, the superstitious +man might naturally ascribe the mental composure +wrought by grave, sweet music to a riddance of evil spirits, +in short to exorcism; and in harmony with this view, Pindar, +speaking of the lyre, says that all things hateful to Zeus in +earth and sea tremble at the sound of music.<note place='foot'>Pindar, <hi rend='italic'>Pyth.</hi> i. 13 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Yet the +association of the lyre with the legendary prophet Orpheus +as well as with the oracular god Apollo seems to hint that +in early days its strains may have been employed by the +Greeks, as they certainly were by the Hebrews, to bring on +that state of mental exaltation in which the thick-coming +fancies of the visionary are regarded as divine communications.<note place='foot'>This seems to be the view also of +Dr. Farnell, who rightly connects the +musical with the prophetic side of +Apollo's character (<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> iv. 245).</note> +Which of these two functions of music, the positive +or the negative, the inspiring or the protective, predominated +in the religion of Adonis we cannot say; perhaps the +two were not clearly distinguished in the minds of his +worshippers. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Traditions +as to the +death of +Cinyras.</note> +A constant feature in the myth of Adonis was his +premature and violent death. If, then, the kings of Paphos +regularly personated Adonis, we must ask whether they +imitated their divine prototype in death as in life. Tradition +varied as to the end of Cinyras. Some thought that he +slew himself on discovering his incest with his daughter;<note place='foot'>Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 242. So in the +version of the story which made Adonis +the son of Theias, the father is said to +have killed himself when he learned +what he had done (Antoninus Liberalis, +<hi rend='italic'>Transform.</hi> 34).</note> +others alleged that, like Marsyas, he was defeated by Apollo +in a musical contest and put to death by the victor.<note place='foot'>Scholiast and Eustathius on +Homer, <hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi>, xi. 20. Compare F. C. +Movers, <hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, i. 243 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +W. H. Engel, <hi rend='italic'>Kypros</hi>, ii. 109-116; +Stoll, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Kinyras,</q> in W. H. +Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und röm. +Mythologie</hi>, ii. 1191.</note> Yet he +cannot strictly be said to have perished in the flower of his +youth if he lived, as Anacreon averred, to the ripe age of one +hundred and sixty.<note place='foot'>Anacreon, cited by Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. +Hist.</hi> vii. 154. Nonnus also refers to +the long life of Cinyras (<hi rend='italic'>Dionys.</hi> xxxii. +212 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>).</note> If we must choose between the two +stories, it is perhaps more likely that he died a violent death +than that he survived to an age which surpassed that of +<pb n='056'/><anchor id='Pg056'/> +Thomas Parr by eight years,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Britannica</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>9</hi> xiv. 858.</note> though it fell far short of +the antediluvian standard. The life of eminent men in +remote ages is exceedingly elastic and may be lengthened +or shortened, in the interests of history, at the taste and +fancy of the historian. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='057'/><anchor id='Pg057'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter IV. Sacred Men and Women.</head> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='1. An Alternative Theory.'/> +<head>§ 1. An Alternative Theory.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sacred +prostitution +of +Western +Asia.</note> +In the preceding chapter we saw that a system of sacred +prostitution was regularly carried on all over Western Asia, +and that both in Phoenicia and in Cyprus the practice was +specially associated with the worship of Adonis. As the +explanation which I have adopted of the custom has been +rejected in favour of another by writers whose opinions are +entitled to be treated with respect, I shall devote the present +chapter to a further consideration of the subject, and shall +attempt to gather, from a closer scrutiny and a wider survey +of the field, such evidence as may set the custom and with it +the worship of Adonis in a clearer light. At the outset it +will be well to examine the alternative theory which has +been put forward to explain the facts. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Theory of +its secular +origin.</note> +It has been proposed to derive the religious prostitution +of Western Asia from a purely secular and precautionary +practice of destroying a bride's virginity before handing +her over to her husband in order that <q>the bridegroom's +intercourse should be safe from a peril that is much +dreaded by men in a certain stage of culture.</q><note place='foot'>L. R. Farnell, <q>Sociological +hypotheses concerning the position of +women in ancient religion,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Archiv +für Religionswissenschaft</hi>, vii. (1904) +p. 88; M. P. Nilsson, <hi rend='italic'>Griechische +Feste</hi> (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 366 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Fr. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Les religions orientales +dans le paganisme Romain</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Paris, +1909), pp. 361 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> A different +and, in my judgment, a truer view +of these customs was formerly taken +by Prof. Nilsson. See his <hi rend='italic'>Studia de +Dionysiis Atticis</hi> (Lund, 1900), pp. +119-121. For a large collection of +facts bearing on this subject and +a judicious discussion of them, see +W. Hertz, <q>Die Sage vom Giftmädchen,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Gesammelte Abhandlungen</hi> +(Stuttgart and Berlin, 1905), pp. 195-219. +My attention was drawn to this +last work by Prof. G. L. Hamilton of +the University of Michigan after my +manuscript had been sent to the printer. +With Hertz's treatment of the subject +I am in general agreement, and I have +derived from his learned treatise several +references to authorities which I had +overlooked.</note> Among +<pb n='058'/><anchor id='Pg058'/> +the objections which may be taken to this view are the +following:— +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The theory +does not +account for +the religious +character +of the +custom,</note> +(1) The theory fails to account for the deeply religious +character of the customs as practised in antiquity all over +Western Asia. That religious character appears from the +observance of the custom at the sanctuaries of a great +goddess, the dedication of the wages of prostitution to her, +the belief of the women that they earned her favour by +prostituting themselves,<note place='foot'>Above, p. <ref target='Pg037'>37</ref>.</note> and the command of a male deity +to serve him in this manner.<note place='foot'>Above, p. <ref target='Pg038'>38</ref>. Prof. Nilsson is +mistaken in affirming (<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 367) +that the Lydian practice was purely +secular: the inscription which I have +cited proves the contrary. Both he +and Dr. Farnell fully recognize the +religious aspect of most of these +customs in antiquity, and Prof. Nilsson +attempts, as it seems to me, unsuccessfully, +to indicate how a practice +supposed to be purely secular in origin +should have come to contract a +religious character.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Nor for the +prostitution +of +married +women.</note> +(2) The theory fails to account for the prostitution of +married women at Heliopolis<note place='foot'>Above, p. <ref target='Pg037'>37</ref>.</note> and apparently also at +Babylon and Byblus; for in describing the practice at the +two latter places our authorities, Herodotus and Lucian, +speak only of women, not of virgins.<note place='foot'>Above, pp. <ref target='Pg036'>36</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, <ref target='Pg038'>38</ref>.</note> In Israel also we +know from Hosea that young married women prostituted +themselves at the sanctuaries on the hilltops under the +shadow of the sacred oaks, poplars, and terebinths.<note place='foot'>Hosea iv. 13 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> The +prophet makes no mention of virgins participating in these +orgies. They may have done so, but his language does not +imply it: he speaks only of <q>your daughters</q> and <q>your +daughters-in-law.</q> The prostitution of married women is +wholly inexplicable on the hypothesis here criticized. Yet +it can hardly be separated from the prostitution of virgins, +which in some places at least was carried on side by side +with it. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Nor for the +repeated +prostitution +of the +same +women.</note> +(3) The theory fails to account for the repeated +and professional prostitution of women in Lydia, Pontus, +Armenia, and apparently all over Palestine.<note place='foot'>Above, pp. <ref target='Pg037'>37</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Yet this +habitual prostitution can in its turn hardly be separated +<pb n='059'/><anchor id='Pg059'/> +from the first prostitution in a woman's life. Or are we to +suppose that the first act of unchastity is to be explained in +one way and all the subsequent acts in quite another? that +the first act was purely secular and all the subsequent acts +purely religious? +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Nor for the +<q>sacred +men</q> beside +the +<q>sacred +women</q>.</note> +(4) The theory fails to account for the <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>Ḳedeshim</foreign> +(<q>sacred men</q>) side by side with the <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>Ḳedeshoth</foreign> (<q>sacred +women</q>) at the sanctuaries;<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg017'>17</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> for whatever the religious +functions of these <q>sacred men</q> may have been, it is +highly probable that they were analogous to those of the +<q>sacred women</q> and are to be explained in the same way. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>And is irreconcilable +with the +payment +of the +women.</note> +(5) On the hypothesis which I am considering we +should expect to find the man who deflowers the maid +remunerated for rendering a dangerous service; and so in +fact we commonly find him remunerated in places where the +supposed custom is really practised.<note place='foot'>L. di Varthema, <hi rend='italic'>Travels</hi> (Hakluyt +Society, 1863), pp. 141, 202-204 +(Malabar); J. A. de Mandlesloe, in +J. Harris's <hi rend='italic'>Voyages and Travels</hi>, i. +(London, 1744), p. 767 (Malabar); +Richard, <q>History of Tonquin,</q> in +J. Pinkerton's <hi rend='italic'>Voyages and Travels</hi>, ix. +760 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> (Aracan); A. de Morga, <hi rend='italic'>The +Philippine Islands, Moluccas, Siam, +Cambodia, Japan, and China</hi> (Hakluyt +Society, 1868), pp. 304 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> (the +Philippines); J. Mallat, <hi rend='italic'>Les Philippines</hi> +(Paris, 1846), i. 61 (the Philippines); +L. Moncelon, in <hi rend='italic'>Bulletins de la +Société d'Anthropologie de Paris</hi>, 3me +Série, ix. (1886) p. 368 (New Caledonia); +H. Crawford Angas, in +<hi rend='italic'>Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft +für Anthropologie, Ethnologie +und Urgeschichte</hi>, 1898, p. 481 (Azimba, +Central Africa); Sir H. H. Johnston, +<hi rend='italic'>British Central Africa</hi> (London, 1897), +p. 410 (the Wa-Yao of Central Africa). +See further, W. Hertz, <q>Die Sage +vom Giftmädchen,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Gesammelte Abhandlungen</hi>, +pp. 198-204.</note> But in Western Asia it +was just the contrary. It was the woman who was paid, not +the man; indeed, so well was she paid that in Lydia and +Cyprus the girls earned dowries for themselves in this fashion.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 93; Justin, xviii. 5. +4. Part of the wages thus earned was +probably paid into the local temple. See +above, pp. <ref target='Pg037'>37</ref>, <ref target='Pg038'>38</ref>. However, according +to Strabo (xi. 14. 16, p. 532) the +Armenian girls of rich families often +gave their lovers more than they received +from them.</note> +This clearly shows that it was the woman, and not the man, +who was believed to render the service. Or are we to suppose +that the man had to pay for rendering a dangerous service?<note place='foot'>This fatal objection to the theory +under discussion has been clearly stated +by W. Hertz, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 217. I am +glad to find myself in agreement with +so judicious and learned an inquirer.</note> +</p> + +<p> +These considerations seem to prove conclusively that +whatever the remote origin of these Western Asiatic customs +may have been, they cannot have been observed in historical +<pb n='060'/><anchor id='Pg060'/> +times from any such motive as is assumed by the +hypothesis under discussion. At the period when we have +to do with them the customs were to all appearance purely +religious in character, and a religious motive must accordingly +be found for them. Such a motive is supplied by the +theory I have adopted, which, so far as I can judge, +adequately explains all the known facts. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +practice of +destroying +virginity +has sometimes +had +a religious +character.</note> +At the same time, in justice to the writers whose views +I have criticized, I wish to point out that the practice from +which they propose to derive the sacred prostitution of +Western Asia has not always been purely secular in character. +For, in the first place, the agent employed is sometimes reported +to be a priest;<note place='foot'>L. di Varthema, <hi rend='italic'>Travels</hi> (Hakluyt +Society, 1863), p. 141; J. A. de +Mandlesloe, in J. Harris's <hi rend='italic'>Voyages and +Travels</hi>, i. (London, 1744) p. 767; +A. Hamilton, <q>New Account of the +East Indies,</q> in J. Pinkerton's <hi rend='italic'>Voyages +and Travels</hi>, viii. 374; Ch. Lassen, +<hi rend='italic'>Indische Alterthumskunde</hi>, iv. (Leipsic, +1861), p. 408; A. de Herrera, <hi rend='italic'>The +General History of the Vast Continent +and Islands of America</hi>, translated +by Captain J. Stevens (London, +1725-1726), iii. 310, 340; Fr. +Coreal, <hi rend='italic'>Voyages aux Indes Occidentales</hi> +(Amsterdam, 1722), i. 10 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 139 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; C. F. Ph. v. Martius, <hi rend='italic'>Beiträge +zur Ethnographie und Sprachenkunde +Amerika's</hi>, i. (Leipsic, 1867) pp. 113 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The first three of these authorities +refer to Malabar; the fourth refers +to Cambodia; the last three refer to +the Indians of Central and South +America. See further W. Hertz, +<q>Die Sage vom Giftmädchen,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Gesammelte +Abhandlungen</hi>, pp. 204-207. For +a criticism of the Malabar evidence see +K. Schmidt, <hi rend='italic'>Jus primae noctis</hi> (Freiburg +im Breisgau, 1881), pp. 312-320.</note> and, in the second place, the sacrifice +of virginity has in some places, for example at Rome and in +parts of India, been made directly to the image of a male +deity.<note place='foot'>Lactantius, <hi rend='italic'>Divin. Institut.</hi> i. 20; +Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, iv. 7; +Augustine, <hi rend='italic'>De civitate Dei</hi>, vi. 9, vii. +24; D. Barbosa, <hi rend='italic'>Description of the +Coasts of East Africa and Malabar</hi> +(Hakluyt Society, 1866), p. 96; Sonnerat, +<hi rend='italic'>Voyage aux Indes Orientales et +à la Chine</hi> (Paris, 1782), i. 68; F. +Liebrecht, <hi rend='italic'>Zur Volkskunde</hi> (Heilbronn, +1879), pp. 396 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 511; W. Hertz, +<q>Die Sage vom Giftmädchen,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Gesammelte +Abhandlungen</hi>, pp. 270-272. +According to Arnobius, it was matrons, +not maidens, who resorted to the image. +This suggests that the custom was a +charm to procure offspring.</note> The meaning of these practices is very obscure, and +in the present state of our ignorance on the subject it is unsafe +to build conclusions on them. It is possible that what +seems to be a purely secular precaution may be only a +degenerate form of a religious rite; and on the other hand +it is possible that the religious rite may go back to a purely +physical preparation for marriage, such as is still observed +among the aborigines of Australia.<note place='foot'>R. Schomburgk, in <hi rend='italic'>Verhandlungen +der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte</hi>, +1879, pp. 235 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Miklucho-Maclay, +<hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi> 1880, p. 89; W. E. Roth, +<hi rend='italic'>Studies among the North-West-Central +Queensland Aborigines</hi> (Brisbane and +London, 1897), pp. 174 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 180; B. +Spencer and F. J. Gillen, <hi rend='italic'>Native +Tribes of Central Australia</hi> (London, +1899), pp. 92-95; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Northern Tribes +of Central Australia</hi> (London, 1904), +pp. 133-136. In Australia the observance +of the custom is regularly +followed by the exercise of what seem +to be old communal rights of the men +over the women.</note> But even if such an +<pb n='061'/><anchor id='Pg061'/> +historical origin could be established, it would not explain +the motives from which the customs described in this volume +were practised by the people of Western Asia in historical +times. The true parallel to these customs is the sacred +prostitution which is carried on to this day by dedicated +women in India and Africa. An examination of these +modern practices may throw light on the ancient customs. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='2. Sacred Women in India.'/> +<head>§ 2. Sacred Women in India.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sacred +women in +the Tamil +temples of +Southern +India. +Such +women are +sometimes +married to +the god +and possessed +by +him.</note> +In India the dancing-girls dedicated to the service of +the Tamil temples take the name of <foreign rend='italic'>deva-dasis</foreign>, <q>servants or +slaves of the gods,</q> but in common parlance they are spoken +of simply as harlots. Every Tamil temple of note in +Southern India has its troop of these sacred women. Their +official duties are to dance twice a day, morning and evening, +in the temple, to fan the idol with Tibetan ox-tails, to dance +and sing before it when it is borne in procession, and to +carry the holy light called <foreign rend='italic'>Kúmbarti</foreign>. Inscriptions show +that in <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1004 the great temple of the Chola king +Rajaraja at Tanjore had attached to it four hundred <q>women +of the temple,</q> who lived at free quarters in the streets round +about it and were allowed land free of taxes out of its endowment. +From infancy they are trained to dance and +sing. In order to obtain a safe delivery expectant mothers +will often vow to dedicate their child, if she should prove to +be a girl, to the service of God. Among the weavers of +Tiru-kalli-kundram, a little town in the Madras Presidency, +the eldest daughter of every family is devoted to the temple. +Girls thus made over to the deity are formally married, +sometimes to the idol, sometimes to a sword, before they +enter on their duties; from which it appears that they are +often, if not regularly, regarded as the wives of the god.<note place='foot'>J. A. Dubois, <hi rend='italic'>Mœurs, Institutions +et Cérémonies des Peuples de +l'Inde</hi> (Paris, 1825), ii. 353 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +J. Shortt, <q>The Bayadère or dancing-girls +of Southern India,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Memoirs of +the Anthropological Society of London</hi>, +iii. (1867-69) pp. 182-194; Edward +Balfour, <hi rend='italic'>Cyclopaedia of India</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> (London, +1885), i. 922 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; W. Francis, in +<hi rend='italic'>Census of India, 1901</hi>, vol. xv., +<hi rend='italic'>Madras</hi>, Part I. (Madras, 1902) pp. +151 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; E. Thurston, <hi rend='italic'>Ethnographic +Notes in Southern India</hi> (Madras, +1906), pp. 36 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 40 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The office +of these sacred women has in recent +years been abolished, on the ground of +immorality, by the native Government +of Mysore. See <hi rend='italic'>Homeward Mail</hi>, 6th +June 1909 (extract kindly sent me by +General Begbie).</note> +<pb n='062'/><anchor id='Pg062'/> +Among the Kaikolans, a large caste of Tamil weavers +who are spread all over Southern India, at least one girl +in every family should be dedicated to the temple service. +The ritual, as it is observed at the initiation of one of +these girls in Coimbatore, includes <q>a form of nuptial +ceremony. The relations are invited for an auspicious day, +and the maternal uncle, or his representative, ties a gold +band on the girl's forehead, and, carrying her, places her on +a plank before the assembled guests. A Brahman priest +recites the <foreign rend='italic'>mantrams</foreign>, and prepares the sacred fire (<foreign rend='italic'>hōmam</foreign>). +The uncle is presented with new cloths by the girl's mother. +For the actual nuptials a rich Brahman, if possible, and, if +not, a Brahman of more lowly status is invited. A Brahman +is called in, as he is next in importance to, and the representative +of the idol. It is said that, when the man who is +to receive her first favours, joins the girl, a sword must be +placed, at least for a few minutes, by her side.</q> When one +of these dancing-girls dies, her body is covered with a new +cloth which has been taken for the purpose from the idol, +and flowers are supplied from the temple to which she +belonged. No worship is performed in the temple until the +last rites have been performed over her body, because the +idol, being deemed her husband, is held to be in that state +of ceremonial pollution common to human mourners which +debars him from the offices of religion.<note place='foot'>Edgar Thurston, <hi rend='italic'>Castes and Tribes +of Southern India</hi> (Madras, 1909), iii. +37-39. Compare <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Ethnographic +Notes in Southern India</hi> (Madras, +1906), pp. 29 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> In Southern India +the maternal uncle often takes a +prominent part in the marriage ceremony +to the exclusion of the girl's +father. See, for example, E. Thurston, +<hi rend='italic'>Castes and Tribes of Southern India</hi>, +ii. 497, iv. 147. The custom is derived +from the old system of mother-kin, +under which a man's heirs are not +his own children but his sister's +children. As to this system see below, +Chapter XII., <q>Mother-kin and Mother +Goddesses.</q></note> In Mahratta such +a female devotee is called Murli. Common folk believe that +from time to time the shadow of the god falls on her and +<pb n='063'/><anchor id='Pg063'/> +possesses her person. At such times the possessed woman +rocks herself to and fro, and the people occasionally consult +her as a soothsayer, laying money at her feet and accepting +as an oracle the words of wisdom or folly that drop from +her lips.<note place='foot'>E. Balfour, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> ii. 1012.</note> Nor is the profession of a temple prostitute +adopted only by girls. In Tulava, a district of Southern +India, any woman of the four highest castes who wearies +of her husband or, as a widow and therefore incapable of +marriage, grows tired of celibacy, may go to a temple and +eat of the rice offered to the idol. Thereupon, if she is a +Brahman, she has the right to live either in the temple or +outside of its precincts, as she pleases. If she decides to +live in it, she gets a daily allowance of rice, and must sweep +the temple, fan the idol, and confine her amours to the +Brahmans. The male children of these women form a +special class called Moylar, but are fond of assuming the +title of Stanikas. As many of them as can find employment +hang about the temple, sweeping the areas, sprinkling them +with cow-dung, carrying torches before the gods, and doing +other odd jobs. Some of them, debarred from these holy +offices, are reduced to the painful necessity of earning their +bread by honest work. The daughters are either brought +up to live like their mothers or are given in marriage to the +Stanikas. Brahman women who do not choose to live in +the temples, and all the women of the three lower castes, +cohabit with any man of pure descent, but they have to pay +a fixed sum annually to the temple.<note place='foot'>Francis Buchanan, <q>A Journey +from Madras through the countries of +Mysore, Canara, and Malabar,</q> in J. +Pinkerton's <hi rend='italic'>Voyages and Travels</hi>, viii. +(London, 1811), p. 749.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>In Travancore +the +dancing-girls +are +regularly +married to +the god.</note> +In Travancore a dancing-girl attached to a temple is +known as a <foreign rend='italic'>Dâsî</foreign>, or <foreign rend='italic'>Dêvadâsî</foreign>, or <foreign rend='italic'>Dêvaratiâl</foreign>, <q>a servant of +God.</q> The following account of her dedication and way of +life deserves to be quoted because, while it ignores the baser +side of her vocation, it brings clearly out the idea of her +marriage to the deity. <q>Marriage in the case of a <foreign rend='italic'>Dêvaratiâl</foreign> +in its original import is a renunciation of ordinary family life +and a consecration to the service of God. With a lady-nurse +at a Hospital, or a sister at a Convent, a <foreign rend='italic'>Dêvadâsî</foreign> at a Hindu +shrine, such as she probably was in the early ages of Hindu +<pb n='064'/><anchor id='Pg064'/> +spirituality, would have claimed favourable comparison. In +the ceremonial of the dedication-marriage of the <foreign rend='italic'>Dâsî</foreign>, +elements are not wanting which indicate a past quite the +reverse of disreputable. The girl to be married is generally +from six to eight years in age. The bridegroom is the +presiding deity of the local temple. The ceremony is done +at his house. The expenses of the celebration are supposed +to be partly paid from his funds. To instance the practice +at the Suchîndram temple, a <foreign rend='italic'>Yôga</foreign> or meeting of the chief +functionaries of the temple arranges the preliminaries. The +girl to be wedded bathes and goes to the temple with two +pieces of cloth, a <foreign rend='italic'>tâli</foreign>, betel, areca-nut, etc. These are placed +by the priest at the feet of the image. The girl sits with +the face towards the deity. The priest kindles the sacred +fire and goes through all the rituals of the <foreign rend='italic'>Tirukkalyânam</foreign> +festival. He then initiates the bride into the <foreign rend='italic'>Panchâkshara +mantra</foreign>, if in a Saiva temple, and the <foreign rend='italic'>Ashtâkshara</foreign>, if in a +Vaishnava temple. On behalf of the divine bridegroom, he +presents one of the two cloths she has brought as offering +and ties the <foreign rend='italic'>Tâli</foreign> around her neck. The practice, how old +it is not possible to say, is then to take her to her house +where the usual marriage festivities are celebrated for four +days. As in Brahminical marriages, the <foreign rend='italic'>Nalunku</foreign> ceremony, +<hi rend='italic'>i.e.</hi> the rolling of a cocoanut by the bride to the bridegroom +and <hi rend='italic'>vice versa</hi> a number of times to the accompaniment of +music, is gone through, the temple priest playing the bridegroom's +part. Thenceforth she becomes the wife of the +deity in the sense that she formally and solemnly dedicates +the rest of her life to his service with the same constancy +and devotion that a faithful wife united in holy matrimony +shows to her wedded lord. The life of a <foreign rend='italic'>Dêvadâsî</foreign> bedecked +with all the accomplishments that the muses could give was +one of spotless purity. Even now she is maintained by the +temple. She undertakes fasts in connection with the temple +festivals, such as the seven days' fast for the <foreign rend='italic'>Apamârgam</foreign> +ceremony. During the period of this fast, strict continence +is enjoined; she is required to take only one meal, and that +within the temple—in fact to live and behave at least for a +term, in the manner ordained for her throughout life. Some +of the details of her daily work seem interesting; she attends +<pb n='065'/><anchor id='Pg065'/> +the <foreign rend='italic'>Dîpâradhana</foreign>, the waving of lighted lamps in front of the +deity at sunset every day; sings hymns in his praise, dances +before his presence, goes round with him in his processions +with lights in hand. After the procession, she sings a song +or two from Jayadêva's <foreign rend='italic'>Gîtagôvinda</foreign> and with a few lullaby +hymns, her work for the night is over. When she grows +physically unfit for these duties, she is formally invalided by +a special ceremony, <hi rend='italic'>i.e.</hi> <foreign rend='italic'>Tôtuvaikkuka</foreign>, or the laying down of +the ear-pendants. It is gone through at the Maha Raja's +palace, whereafter she becomes a <foreign rend='italic'>Tâikkizhavi</foreign> (old mother), +entitled only to a subsistence-allowance. When she dies, +the temple contributes to the funeral expenses. On her +death-bed, the priest attends and after a few ceremonies +immediately after death, gets her bathed with saffron-powder.</q><note place='foot'>N. Subramhanya Aiyar, in <hi rend='italic'>Census +of India, 1901</hi>, vol. xxvi., <hi rend='italic'>Travancore</hi>, +Part i. (Trivandrum, 1903), pp. 276 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> I have to thank my friend Mr. +W. Crooke for referring me to this and +other passages on the sacred dancing-girls +of India.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='3. Sacred Men and Women in West Africa.'/> +<head>§ 3. Sacred Men and Women in West Africa.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Among +the Ewe +peoples +of West +Africa the +sacred prostitutes +are +regarded +as the +wives of +the god.</note> +Still more instructive for our present purpose are the +West African customs. Among the Ewe-speaking peoples +of the Slave Coast <q>recruits for the priesthood are obtained +in two ways, viz. by the affiliation of young persons, and by +the direct consecration of adults. Young people of either +sex dedicated or affiliated to a god are termed <foreign rend='italic'>kosio</foreign>, from +<foreign rend='italic'>kono</foreign>, <q>unfruitful,</q> because a child dedicated to a god passes +into his service and is practically lost to his parents, and <foreign rend='italic'>si</foreign>, +<q>to run away.</q> As the females become the <q>wives</q> of the +god to whom they are dedicated, the termination <foreign rend='italic'>si</foreign> in <foreign rend='italic'>võdu-si</foreign> +[another name for these dedicated women], has been translated +<q>wife</q> by some Europeans; but it is never used in +the general acceptation of that term, being entirely restricted +to persons consecrated to the gods. The chief business of +the female <foreign rend='italic'>kosi</foreign> is prostitution, and in every town there is at +least one institution in which the best-looking girls, between +ten and twelve years of age, are received. Here they remain +for three years, learning the chants and dances peculiar to +the worship of the gods, and prostituting themselves to the +<pb n='066'/><anchor id='Pg066'/> +priests and the inmates of the male seminaries; and at the +termination of their novitiate they become public prostitutes. +This condition, however, is not regarded as one for reproach; +they are considered to be married to the god, and their +excesses are supposed to be caused and directed by him. +Properly speaking, their libertinage should be confined to +the male worshippers at the temple of the god, but practically +it is indiscriminate. Children who are born from such +unions belong to the god.</q><note place='foot'>A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>The Ewe-speaking +Peoples of the Slave Coast of West +Africa</hi> (London, 1890), pp. 140 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> These women are not allowed +to marry since they are deemed the wives of a god.<note place='foot'>A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 142.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The human +wives of +the python-god.</note> +Again, in this part of Africa <q>the female <foreign rend='italic'>Kosio</foreign> of +Dañh-gbi, or <foreign rend='italic'>Dañh-sio</foreign>, that is, the wives, priestesses, and +temple prostitutes of Dañh-gbi, the python-god, have their +own organization. Generally they live together in a group +of houses or huts inclosed by a fence, and in these inclosures +the novices undergo their three years of initiation. Most +new members are obtained by the affiliation of young girls; +but any woman whatever, married or single, slave or free, +by publicly simulating possession, and uttering the conventional +cries recognized as indicative of possession by the +god, can at once join the body, and be admitted to the +habitations of the order. The person of a woman who has +joined in this manner is inviolable, and during the period of +her novitiate she is forbidden, if single, to enter the house +of her parents, and, if married, that of her husband. This +inviolability, while it gives women opportunities of gratifying +an illicit passion, at the same time serves occasionally to +save the persecuted slave, or neglected wife, from the ill-treatment +of the lord and master; for she has only to go +through the conventional form of possession and an asylum +is assured.</q><note place='foot'>A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 148 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +Compare Des Marchais, <hi rend='italic'>Voyage en +Guinée et à Cayenne</hi> (Amsterdam, +1731), ii. 144-151; P. Bouche, <hi rend='italic'>La +Côte des Esclaves</hi> (Paris, 1885), p. 128. +The Abbé Bouche calls these women +<foreign rend='italic'>danwés</foreign>.</note> The python-god marries these women secretly +in his temple, and they father their offspring on him; but it +is the priests who consummate the union.<note place='foot'>A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 60; Des +Marchais, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> ii. 149 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Supposed +connexion +between +the fertility +of the soil +and the +marriage +of women +to the +serpent.</note> +For our purpose it is important to note that a close +<pb n='067'/><anchor id='Pg067'/> +connexion is apparently supposed to exist between the +fertility of the soil and the marriage of these women to +the serpent. For the time when new brides are sought for +the reptile-god is the season when the millet is beginning to +sprout. Then the old priestesses, armed with clubs, run +frantically through the streets shrieking like mad women +and carrying off to be brides of the serpent any little girls +between the ages of eight and twelve whom they may find +outside of the houses. Pious people at such times will +sometimes leave their daughters at their doors on purpose +that they may have the honour of being dedicated to the +god.<note place='foot'>Des Marchais, <hi rend='italic'>Voyage en Guinée +et à Cayenne</hi> (Amsterdam, 1731), ii. +146 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> The marriage of wives to the serpent-god is probably +deemed necessary to enable him to discharge the important +function of making the crops to grow and the cattle to +multiply; for we read that these people <q>invoke the snake +in excessively wet, dry, or barren seasons; on all occasions +relating to their government and the preservation of their +cattle; or rather, in one word, in all necessities and difficulties, +in which they do not apply to their new batch of gods.</q><note place='foot'>W. Bosman, <q>Description of the +Coast of Guinea,</q> in J. Pinkerton's +<hi rend='italic'>Voyages and Travels</hi>, xvi. (London, +1814), p. 494.</note> +Once in a bad season the Dutch factor Bosman found the +King of Whydah in a great rage. His Majesty explained +the reason of his discomposure by saying <q>that that year he +had sent much larger offerings to the snake-house than +usual, in order to obtain a good crop; and that one of his +vice-roys (whom he shewed me) had desired him afresh, in +the name of the priests, who threatened a barren year, to +send yet more. To which he answered that he did not intend +to make any further offerings this year; and if the snake +would not bestow a plentiful harvest on them, he might let it +alone; for (said he) I cannot be more damaged thereby, the +greatest part of my corn being already rotten in the field.</q><note place='foot'>W. Bosman, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi> The name of +Whydah is spelt by Bosman as Fida, +and by Des Marchais as Juda.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Human +wives of +a snake-god +among +the +Akikuyu.</note> +The Akikuyu of British East Africa <q>have a custom +which reminds one of the West African python-god and his +wives. At intervals of, I believe, several years the medicine-men +order huts to be built for the purpose of worshipping a +river snake. The snake-god requires wives, and women or +<pb n='068'/><anchor id='Pg068'/> +more especially girls go to the huts. Here the union is +consummated by the medicine-men. If the number of +females who go to the huts voluntarily is not sufficient, +girls are seized and dragged there. I believe the offspring +of such a union is said to be fathered by God (Ngai): at +any rate there are children in Kikuyu who are regarded as +the children of God.</q><note place='foot'>MS. notes, kindly sent to me by +the author, Mr. A. C. Hollis, 21st +May, 1908.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sacred +men as +well as +women in +West +Africa: +they are +thought +to be +possessed +by the +deity.</note> +Among the negroes of the Slave Coast there are, as we +have seen, male <foreign rend='italic'>kosio</foreign> as well as female <foreign rend='italic'>kosio</foreign>; that is, there +are dedicated men as well as dedicated women, priests as +well as priestesses, and the ideas and customs in regard to +them seem to be similar. Like the women, the men undergo +a three years' novitiate, at the end of which each candidate +has to prove that the god accepts him and finds him worthy +of inspiration. Escorted by a party of priests he goes to a +shrine and seats himself on a stool that belongs to the deity. +The priests then anoint his head with a mystic decoction and +invoke the god in a long and wild chorus. During the +singing the youth, if he is acceptable to the deity, trembles +violently, simulates convulsions, foams at the mouth, and +dances in a frenzied style, sometimes for more than an hour. +This is the proof that the god has taken possession of him. +After that he has to remain in a temple without speaking +for seven days and nights. At the end of that time, he is +brought out, a priest opens his mouth to show that he may +now use his tongue, a new name is given him, and he is +fully ordained.<note place='foot'>A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>The Ewe-speaking +Peoples of the Slave Coast</hi>, pp. 142-144; +Le R. P. Baudin, <q>Féticheurs ou +ministres religieux des Nègres de la +Guinée,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Les Missions Catholiques</hi>, +No. 787 (4 juillet 1884), p. 322.</note> Henceforth he is regarded as the priest +and medium of the deity whom he serves, and the words +which he utters in that morbid state of mental excitement +which passes for divine inspiration, are accepted by the +hearers as the very words of the god spoken by the mouth +of the man.<note place='foot'>A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 150 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Any crime which a priest committed in a state +of frenzy used to remain unpunished, no doubt because the +act was thought to be the act of the god. But this benefit +of clergy was so much abused that under King Gezo the law +had to be altered; and although, while he is still possessed +<pb n='069'/><anchor id='Pg069'/> +by the god, the inspired criminal is safe, he is now liable to +punishment as soon as the divine spirit leaves him. Nevertheless +on the whole among these people <q>the person of a +priest or priestess is sacred. Not only must a layman not +lay hands on or insult one; he must be careful not even to +knock one by accident, or jostle against one in the street. +The Abbé Bouche relates<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>La Côte des Esclaves</hi>, pp. 127 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> that once when he was paying +a visit to the chief of Agweh, one of the wives of the chief +was brought into the house by four priestesses, her face +bloody, and her body covered with stripes. She had been +savagely flogged for having accidentally trodden upon the +foot of one of them; and the chief not only dared not give +vent to his anger, but had to give them a bottle of rum as +a peace-offering.</q><note place='foot'>A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 147.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Similarly +among +the Tshi +peoples of +the Gold +Coast there +are sacred +men and +women, +who are +supposed +to be inspired +by +the deity.</note> +Among the Tshi-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast, +who border on the Ewe-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast +to the west, the customs and beliefs in regard to the dedicated +men and dedicated women, the priests and priestesses, +are very similar. These persons are believed to be from +time to time possessed or inspired by the deity whom they +serve; and in that state they are consulted as oracles. They +work themselves up to the necessary pitch of excitement +by dancing to the music of drums; each god has his special +hymn, sung to a special beat of the drum, and accompanied +by a special dance. It is while thus dancing to the drums +that the priest or priestess lets fall the oracular words in a +croaking or guttural voice which the hearers take to be the +voice of the god. Hence dancing has an important place +in the education of priests and priestesses; they are trained +in it for months before they may perform in public. These +mouthpieces of the deity are consulted in almost every concern +of life and are handsomely paid for their services.<note place='foot'>A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>The Tshi-speaking +Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa</hi> +(London, 1887), pp. 120-138.</note> +<q>Priests marry like any other members of the community, +and purchase wives; but priestesses are never married, nor +can any <q>head money</q> be paid for a priestess. The reason +appears to be that a priestess belongs to the god she serves, +and therefore cannot become the property of a man, as would +<pb n='070'/><anchor id='Pg070'/> +be the case if she married one. This prohibition extends to +marriage only, and a priestess is not debarred from sexual +commerce. The children of a priest or priestess are not +ordinarily educated for the priestly profession, one generation +being usually passed over, and the grandchildren selected. +Priestesses are ordinarily most licentious, and custom allows +them to gratify their passions with any man who may chance +to take their fancy.</q><note place='foot'>A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 121.</note> The ranks of the hereditary priesthood +are constantly recruited by persons who devote themselves +or who are devoted by their relations or masters to +the profession. Men, women, and even children can thus +become members of the priesthood. If a mother has lost +several of her children by death, she will not uncommonly +vow to devote the next born to the service of the gods; for +in this way she hopes to save the child's life. So when the +child is born it is set apart for the priesthood, and on arriving +at maturity generally fulfils the vow made by the mother +and becomes a priest or priestess. At the ceremony of +ordination the votary has to prove his or her vocation for +the sacred life in the usual way by falling into or simulating +convulsions, dancing frantically to the beat of drums, and +speaking in a hoarse unnatural voice words which are deemed +to be the utterance of the deity temporarily lodged in the +body of the man or woman.<note place='foot'>A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 120 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +129-138. The slaves, male and female, +dedicated to a god from childhood are +often mentioned by the German missionary +Mr. J. Spieth in his elaborate +work on the Ewe people (<hi rend='italic'>Die Eẇe-Stämme: +Material zur Kunde des Eẇe-Volkes +in Deutsch-Togo</hi>, Berlin, 1906, +pp. 228, 229, 309, 450, 474, 792, +797, etc.). But his information does +not illustrate the principal points to +which I have called attention in the +text.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='4. Sacred Women in Western Asia.'/> +<head>§ 4. Sacred Women in Western Asia.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>In like +manner the +sacred +prostitutes +of Western +Asia may +have been +viewed as +possessed +by the +deity and +married to +the god.</note> +Thus in Africa, and sometimes if not regularly in India, +the sacred prostitutes attached to temples are regarded as +the wives of the god, and their excesses are excused on the +ground that the women are not themselves, but that they act +under the influence of divine inspiration. This is in substance +the explanation which I have given of the custom of sacred +prostitution as it was practised in antiquity by the peoples +<pb n='071'/><anchor id='Pg071'/> +of Western Asia. In their licentious intercourse at the +temples the women, whether maidens or matrons or professional +harlots, imitated the licentious conduct of a great +goddess of fertility for the purpose of ensuring the fruitfulness +of fields and trees, of man and beast; and in discharging +this sacred and important function the women were probably +supposed, like their West African sisters, to be actually +possessed by the goddess. The hypothesis at least explains +all the facts in a simple and natural manner; and in assuming +that women could be married to gods it assumes a +principle which we know to have been recognized in Babylon, +Assyria, and Egypt.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 129-135.</note> At Babylon a woman regularly slept +in the great bed of Bel or Marduk, which stood in his temple +on the summit of a lofty pyramid; and it was believed that +the god chose her from all the women of Babylon and slept +with her in the bed. However, unlike the Indian and West +African wives of gods, this spouse of the Babylonian deity +is reported by Herodotus to have been chaste.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 181 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> It is not +clear whether the same or a different +woman slept every night in the temple.</note> Yet we may +doubt whether she was so; for these wives or perhaps paramours +of Bel are probably to be identified with the wives or +votaries of Marduk mentioned in the code of Hammurabi, +and we know from the code that female votaries of the gods +might be mothers and married to men.<note place='foot'>H. Winckler, <hi rend='italic'>Die Gesetze Hammurabi</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +(Leipsic, 1903), p. 31, § 182; +C. H. W. Johns, <hi rend='italic'>Babylonian and +Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters</hi> +(Edinburgh, 1904), pp. 54, 55, 59, 60, +61 (§§ 137, 144, 145, 146, 178, 182, +187, 192, 193, of the Code of Hammurabi). +As to these female votaries +see especially C. H. W. Johns, <q>Notes +on the Code of Hammurabi,</q> <hi rend='italic'>American +Journal of Semitic Languages and +Literatures</hi>, xix. (January 1903) pp. +98-107. Compare S. A. Cook, <hi rend='italic'>The +Laws of Moses and the Code of Hammurabi</hi> +(London, 1903), pp. 147-150.</note> At Babylon the +sun-god Shamash as well as Marduk had human wives +formerly dedicated to his service, and they like the votaries +of Marduk might have children.<note place='foot'>C. H. W. Johns, <q>Notes on the +Code of Hammurabi,</q> <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>, where we +read (p. 104) of a female votary of +Shamash who had a daughter.</note> It is significant that a +name for these Babylonian votaries was <foreign rend='italic'>ḳadishtu</foreign>, which is +the same word as <foreign rend='italic'>ḳedesha</foreign>, <q>consecrated woman,</q> the regular +Hebrew word for a temple harlot.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Code of Hammurabi</hi>, § 181; +C. H. W. Johns, <q>Notes on the Code +of Hammurabi,</q> <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 100 sq.; +S. A. Cook, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 148. Dr. +Johns translates the name by <q>temple +maid</q> (<hi rend='italic'>Babylonian and Assyrian Laws</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Contracts, and Letters</hi>, p. 61). He is +scrupulously polite to these ladies, but +I gather from him that a far less charitable +view of their religious vocation is +taken by Father Scheil, the first editor +and translator of the code.</note> It is true that the law +<pb n='072'/><anchor id='Pg072'/> +severely punished any disrespect shown to these sacred +women;<note place='foot'>Any man proved to have pointed +the finger of scorn at a votary was liable +to be branded on the forehead (<hi rend='italic'>Code of +Hammurabi</hi>, § 127).</note> but the example of West Africa warns us that +a formal respect shown to such persons, even when it is +enforced by severe penalties, need be no proof at all of their +virtuous character.<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg066'>66</ref>, <ref target='Pg069'>69</ref>.</note> In Egypt a woman used to sleep in the +temple of Ammon at Thebes, and the god was believed to +visit her.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 182.</note> Egyptian texts often mention her as <q>the divine +consort,</q> and in old days she seems to have usually been the +Queen of Egypt herself.<note place='foot'>A. Wiedemann, <hi rend='italic'>Herodots Zweites +Buch</hi> (Leipsic, 1890), pp. 268 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> See +further <hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 130 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> But in the time of Strabo, at the +beginning of our era, these consorts or concubines of Ammon, +as they were called, were beautiful young girls of noble birth, +who held office only till puberty. During their term of office +they prostituted themselves freely to any man who took their +fancy. After puberty they were given in marriage, and a +ceremony of mourning was performed for them as if they +were dead.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xvii. 1. 46, p. 816. The +title <q>concubines of Zeus (Ammon)</q> +is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus (i. +47).</note> When they died in good earnest, their bodies +were laid in special graves.<note place='foot'>Diodorus Siculus, i. 47.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='5. Sacred Men in Western Asia.'/> +<head>§ 5. Sacred Men in Western Asia.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Similarly +the sacred +men (<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign>) +of +Western +Asia may +have been +regarded +as possessed +by +the deity +and as +acting and +speaking in +his name.</note> +As in West Africa the dedicated women have their +counterpart in the dedicated men, so it was in Western +Asia; for there the sacred men (<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign>) clearly corresponded +to the sacred women (<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshoth</foreign>), in other words, the +sacred male slaves<note place='foot'>The ἱερόδουλοι, as the Greeks called +them.</note> of the temples were the complement of +the sacred female slaves. And as the characteristic feature of +the dedicated men in West Africa is their supposed possession +or inspiration by the deity, so we may conjecture was it with +the sacred male slaves (the <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign>) of Western Asia; they, +too, may have been regarded as temporary or permanent +embodiments of the deity, possessed from time to time by +<pb n='073'/><anchor id='Pg073'/> +his divine spirit, acting in his name, and speaking with his +voice.<note place='foot'>I have to thank the Rev. Professor +R. H. Kennett for this important +suggestion as to the true nature of the +<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign>. The passages of the Bible +in which mention is made of these men +are Deuteronomy xxiii. 17 (in Hebrew +18); 1 Kings xiv. 24, xv. 12, xxii. 46 +(in Hebrew 47); 2 Kings xxiii. 7; Job +xxxvi. 14 (where <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign> is translated +<q>the unclean</q> in the English version). +The usual rendering of <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign> in the +English Bible is not justified by any +of these passages; but it may perhaps +derive support from a reference which +Eusebius makes to the profligate rites +observed at Aphaca (<hi rend='italic'>Vita Constantini</hi>, +iii. 55; Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, xx. +1120); Γύνιδες γοῦν τινες ἄνδρες οὐκ +ἄνδρες, τὸ σέμνον τῆς φύσεως ἀπαρνησάμενοι, +θηλείᾳ νόσῳ τὴν δαίμονα ἱλεοῦντο. +But probably Eusebius is here speaking +of the men who castrated themselves in +honour of the goddess, and thereafter +wore female attire. See Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De +dea Syria</hi>, 51; and below, pp. <ref target='Pg269'>269</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> At all events we know that this was so at the +sanctuary of the Moon among the Albanians of the Caucasus. +The sanctuary owned church lands of great extent peopled +by sacred slaves, and it was ruled by a high-priest, who +ranked next after the king. Many of these slaves were +inspired by the deity and prophesied; and when one of them +had been for some time in this state of divine frenzy, wandering +alone in the forest, the high-priest had him caught, bound +with a sacred chain, and maintained in luxury for a year. +Then the poor wretch was led out, anointed with unguents, +and sacrificed with other victims to the Moon. The mode +of sacrifice was this. A man took a sacred spear, and thrust +it through the victim's side to the heart. As he staggered +and fell, the rest observed him closely and drew omens from +the manner of his fall. Then the body was dragged or +carried away to a certain place, where all his fellows stood +upon it by way of purification.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xi. 4. 7, p. 503.</note> In this custom the prophet, +or rather the maniac, was plainly supposed to be moon-struck +in the most literal sense, that is, possessed or inspired by the +deity of the Moon, who was perhaps thought by the Albanians, +as by the Phrygians,<note place='foot'>Drexler, in W. H. Roscher's +<hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Men,</q> ii. 2687 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> to be a male god, since his chosen +minister and mouthpiece was a man, not a woman.<note place='foot'>It is true that Strabo (<hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>) speaks +of the Albanian deity as a goddess, but +this may be only an accommodation to +the usage of the Greek language, in +which the moon is feminine.</note> It +can hardly therefore be deemed improbable that at other +sanctuaries of Western Asia, where sacred men were kept, +these ministers of religion should have discharged a similar +prophetic function, even though they did not share the tragic +<pb n='074'/><anchor id='Pg074'/> +fate of the moon-struck Albanian prophet. Nor was the +influence of these Asiatic prophets confined to Asia. In +Sicily the spark which kindled the devastating Servile War +was struck by a Syrian slave, who simulated the prophetic +ecstasy in order to rouse his fellow-slaves to arms in the +name of the Syrian goddess. To inflame still more his +inflammatory words this ancient Mahdi ingeniously interlarded +them with real fire and smoke, which by a common +conjurer's trick he breathed from his lips.<note place='foot'>Florus, <hi rend='italic'>Epitoma</hi>, ii. 7; Diodorus +Siculus, Frag. xxxiv. 2 (vol. v. pp. 87 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, ed. L. Dindorf, in the Teubner +series).</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Resemblance +of +the Hebrew +prophets +to the +sacred men +of Western +Africa.</note> +In like manner the Hebrew prophets were believed to be +temporarily possessed and inspired by a divine spirit who +spoke through them, just as a divine spirit is supposed by +West African negroes to speak through the mouth of the +dedicated men his priests. Indeed the points of resemblance +between the prophets of Israel and West Africa +are close and curious. Like their black brothers, the +Hebrew prophets employed music in order to bring on +the prophetic trance;<note place='foot'>Above, pp. <ref target='Pg052'>52</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> like them, they received the divine +spirit through the application of a magic oil to their +heads;<note place='foot'>1 Kings xix. 16; Isaiah lx. 1.</note> like them, they were apparently distinguished from +common people by certain marks on the face;<note place='foot'>1 Kings xx. 41. So in Africa +<q>priests and priestesses are readily +distinguishable from the rest of the +community. They wear their hair long +and unkempt, while other people, except +the women in the towns on the seaboard, +have it cut close to the head.... +Frequently both appear with +white circles painted round their eyes, +or with various white devices, marks, +or lines painted on the face, neck, +shoulders, or arms</q> (A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>The +Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast</hi>, +p. 123). <q>Besides the ordinary tribal +tattoo-marks borne by all natives, the +priesthood in Dahomi bear a variety of +such marks, some very elaborate, and +an expert can tell by the marks on a +priest to what god he is vowed, and +what rank he holds in the order. +These hierarchical marks consist of +lines, scrolls, diamonds, and other +patterns, with sometimes a figure, such +as that of the crocodile or chameleon. +The shoulders are frequently seen +covered with an infinite number of +small marks like dots, set close together. +All these marks are considered sacred, +and the laity are forbidden to touch +them</q> (A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>The Ewe-speaking +Peoples of the Slave Coast</hi>, p. 146). +The reason why the prophet's shoulders +are especially marked is perhaps given +by the statement of a Zulu that <q>the +sensitive part with a doctor [medicine-man] +is his shoulders. Everything he +feels is in the situation of his shoulders. +That is the place where black men feel +the Amatongo</q> (ancestral spirits). See +H. Callaway, <hi rend='italic'>The Religious System of +the Amazulu</hi>, part ii. p. 159. These +African analogies suggest that the +<q>wounds between the arms</q> (literally, +<q>between the hands</q>) which the +prophet Zechariah mentions (xiii. 6) as +the badge of a Hebrew prophet were +marks tattooed on his shoulders in +token of his holy office. The suggestion +is confirmed by the prophet's own +statement (<hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>) that he had received +the wounds in the house of his lovers +(בית מאהבי); for the same word lovers +is repeatedly applied by the prophet +Hosea to the Baalim (Hosea, ii. 5, 7, +10, 12, 13, verses 7, 9, 12, 14, 15 in +Hebrew).</note> and like +<pb n='075'/><anchor id='Pg075'/> +them they were consulted not merely in great national +emergencies but in the ordinary affairs of everyday life, in +which they were expected to give information and advice +for a small fee. For example, Samuel was consulted about +lost asses,<note place='foot'>1 Samuel ix. 1-20.</note> just as a Zulu diviner is consulted about lost +cows;<note place='foot'>H. Callaway, <hi rend='italic'>The Religious System +of the Amazulu</hi>, part iii. pp. 300 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> and we have seen Elisha acting as a dowser when +water ran short.<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg052'>52</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Indeed, we learn that the old name for a +prophet was a seer,<note place='foot'>1 Samuel ix. 9. In the Wiimbaio +tribe of South-Eastern Australia a +medicine-man used to be called +<q><foreign rend='italic'>mekigar</foreign>, from <foreign rend='italic'>meki</foreign>, <q>eye</q> or <q>to +see,</q> otherwise <q>one who sees,</q> that is, +sees the causes of maladies in people, +and who could extract them from the +sufferer, usually in the form of quartz +crystals</q> (A. W. Howitt, <hi rend='italic'>The Native +Tribes of South-East Australia</hi>, London, +1904, p. 380).</note> a word which may be understood to +imply that his special function was divination rather than +prophecy in the sense of prediction. Be that as it may, +prophecy of the Hebrew type has not been limited to Israel; +it is indeed a phenomenon of almost world-wide occurrence; +in many lands and in many ages the wild, whirling words of +frenzied men and women have been accepted as the utterances +of an indwelling deity.<note place='foot'>That the prophet's office in Canaan +was developed out of the widespread +respect for insanity is duly recognized +by Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +i. 2. p. 383.</note> What does distinguish Hebrew prophecy +from all others is that the genius of a few members of +the profession wrested this vulgar but powerful instrument +from baser uses, and by wielding it in the interest of a high +morality rendered a service of incalculable value to humanity. +That is indeed the glory of Israel, but it is not the side of +prophecy with which we are here concerned. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Inspired +prophets +at Byblus.</note> +More to our purpose is to note that prophecy of the +ordinary sort appears to have been in vogue at Byblus, +the sacred city of Adonis, centuries before the life-time of +the earliest Hebrew prophet whose writings have come +down to us. When the Egyptian traveller, Wen-Ammon, +was lingering in the port of Byblus, under the King's orders +to quit the place, the spirit of God came on one of the royal +<pb n='076'/><anchor id='Pg076'/> +pages or henchmen, and in a prophetic frenzy he announced +that the King should receive the Egyptian stranger as a +messenger sent from the god Ammon.<note place='foot'>W. Max Müller, in <hi rend='italic'>Mitteilungen +der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft</hi>, +1900, No. 1, p. 17; A. Erman, +<q>Eine Reise nach Phönizien im +11 Jahrhundert v. Chr.</q> <hi rend='italic'>Zeitschrift +für Āgyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde</hi>, +xxxviii. (1900) pp. 6 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +G. Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Les contes populaires de +l'Égypte Ancienne</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> p. 192; A. Wiedemann, +<hi rend='italic'>Altägyptische Sagen und Märchen</hi> +(Leipsic, 1906), pp. 99 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +H. Gressmann, <hi rend='italic'>Altorientalische Texte +und Bilder zum Alten Testamente</hi> +(Tübingen, 1909), p. 226. Scholars +differ as to whether Wen-Ammon's +narrative is to be regarded as history +or romance; but even if it were proved +to be a fiction, we might safely assume +that the incident of the prophetic +frenzy at Byblus was based upon +familiar facts. Prof. Wiedemann thinks +that the god who inspired the page +was the Egyptian Ammon, not the +Phoenician Adonis, but this view +seems to me less probable.</note> The god who thus +took possession of the page and spoke through him was +probably Adonis, the god of the city. With regard to the +office of these royal pages we have no information; but as +ministers of a sacred king and liable to be inspired by the +deity, they would naturally be themselves sacred; in fact +they may have belonged to the class of sacred slaves or +<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign>. If that was so it would confirm the conclusion to +which the foregoing investigation points, namely, that originally +no sharp line of distinction existed between the prophets +and the <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign>; both were <q>men of God,</q> as the prophets +were constantly called;<note place='foot'>1 Samuel ix. 6-8, 10; 1 Kings +xiii. 1, 4-8, 11, etc.</note> in other words, they were inspired +mediums, men in whom the god manifested himself from +time to time by word and deed, in short temporary incarnations +of the deity. But while the prophets roved freely about +the country, the <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign> appear to have been regularly +attached to a sanctuary; and among the duties which they +performed at the shrines there were clearly some which +revolted the conscience of men imbued with a purer +morality. What these duties were, we may surmise partly +from the behaviour of the sons of Eli to the women who +came to the tabernacle,<note place='foot'>1 Samuel ii. 22. Totally different +from their Asiatic namesakes were the +<q>sacred men</q> and <q>sacred women</q> +who were charged with the superintendence +of the mysteries at Andania +in Messenia. They were chosen by +lot and held office for a year. The +sacred women might be either married +or single; the married women had to +swear that they had been true to their +husbands. See G. Dittenberger, <hi rend='italic'>Sylloge +Inscriptionum Graecarum</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Leipsic, +1898-1901), vol. ii. pp. 461 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, +No. 653; Ch. Michel, <hi rend='italic'>Recueil d'Inscriptions +Grecques</hi> (Brussels, 1900), +pp. 596 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, No. 694; <hi rend='italic'>Leges Graecorum +Sacrae</hi>, ed. J. de Prott, L. +Ziehen, Pars Altera, Fasciculus i. +(Leipsic, 1906), No. 58, pp. 166 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> partly from the beliefs and practices +<pb n='077'/><anchor id='Pg077'/> +as to <q>holy men</q> which survive to this day among the +Syrian peasantry. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'><q>Holy +men</q> in +modern +Syria.</note> +Of these <q>holy men</q> we are told that <q>so far as they +are not impostors, they are men whom we would call insane, +known among the Syrians as <foreign rend='italic'>mejnûn</foreign>, possessed by a <foreign rend='italic'>jinn</foreign> +or spirit. They often go in filthy garments, or without +clothing. Since they are regarded as intoxicated by deity, +the most dignified men, and of the highest standing among +the Moslems, submit to utter indecent language at their +bidding without rebuke, and ignorant Moslem women do +not shrink from their approach, because in their superstitious +belief they attribute to them, as men possessed by God, a +divine authority which they dare not resist. Such an +attitude of compliance may be exceptional, but there are +more than rumours of its existence. These <q>holy men</q> +differ from the ordinary derwishes whom travellers so often +see in Cairo, and from the ordinary madmen who are kept +in fetters, so that they may not do injury to themselves and +others. But their appearance, and the expressions regarding +them, afford some illustrations of the popular estimate of +ancient seers, or prophets, in the time of Hosea: <q>The +prophet is a fool, the man that hath the spirit is mad</q>;<note place='foot'>Hosea ix. 7.</note> +and in the time of Jeremiah,<note place='foot'>Jeremiah xxix. 26.</note> the man who made himself a +prophet was considered as good as a madman.</q><note place='foot'>S. I. Curtiss, <hi rend='italic'>Primitive Semitic +Religion To-day</hi> (Chicago, New York, +Toronto, 1902), pp. 150 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> To complete +the parallel these vagabonds <q>are also believed to +be possessed of prophetic power, so that they are able to +foretell the future, and warn the people among whom they +live of impending danger.</q><note place='foot'>S. I. Curtiss, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 152. As +to these <q>holy men,</q> see further +C. R. Conder, <hi rend='italic'>Tent-work in Palestine</hi> +(London, 1878), ii. 231 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>: <q>The +most peculiar class of men in the +country is that of the Derwîshes, or +sacred personages, who wander from +village to village, performing tricks, +living on alms, and enjoying certain +social and domestic privileges, which +very often lead to scandalous scenes. +Some of these men are mad, some are +fanatics, but the majority are, I +imagine, rogues. They are reverenced +not only by the peasantry, but also +sometimes by the governing class. I +have seen the Kady of Nazareth ostentatiously +preparing food for a miserable +and filthy beggar, who sat in the +justice-hall, and was consulted as if +he had been inspired. A Derwîsh of +peculiar eminence is often dressed in +good clothes, with a spotless turban, +and is preceded by a banner-bearer, +and followed by a band, with drum, +cymbal, and tambourine.... It is +natural to reflect whether the social +position of the Prophets among the +Jews may not have resembled that of +the Derwîshes.</q></note> +</p> + +<pb n='078'/><anchor id='Pg078'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The licence +accorded +to such +<q>holy +men</q> may +be explained +by +the desire +of women +for offspring.</note> +We may conjecture that with women a powerful motive +for submitting to the embraces of the <q>holy men</q> is a hope +of obtaining offspring by them. For in Syria it is still +believed that even dead saints can beget children on barren +women, who accordingly resort to their shrines in order to +obtain the wish of their hearts. For example, at the Baths +of Solomon in Northern Palestine, blasts of hot air escape +from the ground; and one of them, named Abu Rabah, is +a famous resort of childless wives who wish to satisfy their +maternal longings. They let the hot air stream up over +their bodies and really believe that children born to them +after such a visit are begotten by the saint of the shrine.<note place='foot'>S. I. Curtiss, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 116 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +But the saint who enjoys the highest reputation in this +respect is St. George. He reveals himself at his shrines +which are scattered all over the country; at each of them +there is a tomb or the likeness of a tomb. The most +celebrated of these sanctuaries is at Kalat el Hosn in +Northern Syria. Barren women of all sects, including +Moslems, resort to it. <q>There are many natives who shrug +their shoulders when this shrine is mentioned in connection +with women. But it is doubtless true that many do not +know what seems to be its true character, and who think +that the most puissant saint, as they believe, in the world +can give them sons.</q> <q>But the true character of the place +is beginning to be recognized, so that many Moslems have +forbidden their wives to visit it.</q><note place='foot'>S. I. Curtiss, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 118, 119. +In India also some Mohammedan +saints are noted as givers of children. +Thus at Fatepur-Sikri, near Agra, is +the grave of Salim Chishti, and childless +women tie rags to the delicate +tracery of the tomb, <q>thus bringing +them into direct communion with the +spirit of the holy man</q> (W. Crooke, +<hi rend='italic'>Natives of Northern India</hi>, London, +1907, p. 203).</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='6. Sons of God.'/> +<head>§ 6. Sons of God.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Belief that +men and +women +may be the +offspring +of a god.</note> +Customs like the foregoing may serve to explain the +belief, which is not confined to Syria, that men and women +may be in fact and not merely in metaphor the sons and +<pb n='079'/><anchor id='Pg079'/> +daughters of a god; for these modern saints, whether +Christian or Moslem, who father the children of Syrian +mothers, are nothing but the old gods under a thin disguise. +If in antiquity as at the present day Semitic women often +repaired to shrines in order to have the reproach of barrenness +removed from them—and the prayer of Hannah is a +familiar example of the practice,<note place='foot'>1 Samuel i.</note> we could easily understand +not only the tradition of the sons of God who begat children +on the daughters of men,<note place='foot'>Genesis vi. 1-3. In this passage +<q>the sons of God (or rather of the +gods)</q> probably means, in accordance +with a common Hebrew idiom, no +more than <q>the gods,</q> just as the +phrase <q>sons of the prophets</q> means +the prophets themselves. For more +examples of this idiom, see Brown, +Driver, and Briggs, <hi rend='italic'>Hebrew and +English Lexicon</hi>, p. 121.</note> but also the exceedingly common +occurrence of the divine titles in Hebrew names of human +beings.<note place='foot'>For example, all Hebrew names +ending in <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>-el</foreign> or <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>-iah</foreign> are compounds of +El or Yahwe, two names of the +divinity. See G. B. Gray, <hi rend='italic'>Studies in +Hebrew Proper Names</hi> (London, 1896), +pp. 149 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Multitudes of men and women, in fact, whose +mothers had resorted to holy places in order to procure +offspring, would be regarded as the actual children of the +god and would be named accordingly. Hence Hannah +called her infant Samuel, which means <q>name of God</q> or +<q>his name is God</q>;<note place='foot'>Brown, Driver, and Briggs, <hi rend='italic'>Hebrew +and English Lexicon</hi>, p. 1028. But +compare <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, iii. +3285, iv. 4452.</note> and probably she sincerely believed +that the child was actually begotten in her womb by the +deity.<note place='foot'>A trace of a similar belief perhaps +survives in the narratives of Genesis +xxxi. and Judges xiii., where barren +women are represented as conceiving +children after the visit of God, or of +an angel of God, in the likeness of a +man.</note> The dedication of such children to the service of +God at the sanctuary was merely giving back the divine son +to the divine father. Similarly in West Africa, when a +woman has got a child at the shrine of Agbasia, the god +who alone bestows offspring on women, she dedicates him +or her as a sacred slave to the deity.<note place='foot'>J. Spieth, <hi rend='italic'>Die Ewe-Stämme</hi> +(Berlin, 1906), pp. 446, 448-450.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The saints +in modern +Syria are +the equivalents +of +the ancient +Baal or +Adonis.</note> +Thus in the Syrian beliefs and customs of to-day we +probably have the clue to the religious prostitution practised +in the very same regions in antiquity. Then as now women +looked to the local god, the Baal or Adonis of old, the Abu +Rabah or St. George of to-day, to satisfy the natural craving +of a woman's heart; and then as now, apparently, the part +<pb n='080'/><anchor id='Pg080'/> +of the local god was played by sacred men, who in personating +him may often have sincerely believed that they were +acting under divine inspiration, and that the functions which +they discharged were necessary for the fertility of the land +as well as for the propagation of the human species. The +purifying influence of Christianity and Mohammedanism has +restricted such customs within narrow limits; even under +Turkish rule they are now only carried on in holes and corners. +Yet if the practice has dwindled, the principle which it +embodies appears to be fundamentally the same; it is a +desire for the continuance of the species, and a belief that +an object so natural and legitimate can be accomplished by +divine power manifesting itself in the bodies of men and +women. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Belief +in the +physical +fatherhood +of God not +confined +to Syria. +Sons of the +serpent-god.</note> +The belief in the physical fatherhood of God has not +been confined to Syria in ancient and modern times. Elsewhere +many men have been counted the sons of God in +the most literal sense of the word, being supposed to have +been begotten by his holy spirit in the wombs of mortal +women. Here I shall merely illustrate the creed by a few +examples drawn from classical antiquity.<note place='foot'>For more instances see H. Usener, +<hi rend='italic'>Das Weihnachtsfest</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Bonn, 1911), i. 71 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Thus in order to +obtain offspring women used to resort to the great sanctuary +of Aesculapius, situated in a beautiful upland valley, to +which a path, winding through a long wooded gorge, leads +from the bay of Epidaurus. Here the women slept in the +holy place and were visited in dreams by a serpent; and +the children to whom they afterwards gave birth were +believed to have been begotten by the reptile.<note place='foot'>G. Dittenberger, <hi rend='italic'>Sylloge Inscriptionum +Graecarum</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> vol. ii. pp. 662, +663, No. 803, lines 117 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 129 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> That the +serpent was supposed to be the god himself seems certain; +for Aesculapius repeatedly appeared in the form of a serpent,<note place='foot'>Pausanias, ii. 10. 3 (with my +note), iii. 23. 7; Livy, xi. Epitome; +Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> xxix. 72; Valerius +Maximus, i. 8. 2; Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> xv. +626-744; Aurelius Victor, <hi rend='italic'>De viris +illustr.</hi> 22; Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Quaest. Rom.</hi> +94.</note> +and live serpents were kept and fed in his sanctuaries for +the healing of the sick, being no doubt regarded as his +incarnations.<note place='foot'>Aristophanes, <hi rend='italic'>Plutus</hi>, 733; Pausanias, +ii. 11. 8; Herodas, <hi rend='italic'>Mimiambi</hi>, +iv. 90 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; G. Dittenberger, <hi rend='italic'>Sylloge +Inscriptionum Graecarum</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> vol. ii. p. +655, No. 802, lines 116 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Ch. +Michel, <hi rend='italic'>Recueil d'Inscriptions Grecques</hi>, +p. 826, No. 1069.</note> Hence the children born to women who had +<pb n='081'/><anchor id='Pg081'/> +thus visited a sanctuary of Aesculapius were probably +fathered on the serpent-god. Many celebrated men in +classical antiquity were thus promoted to the heavenly +hierarchy by similar legends of a miraculous birth. The +famous Aratus of Sicyon was certainly believed by his +countrymen to be a son of Aesculapius; his mother is +said to have got him in intercourse with a serpent.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, ii. 10. 3, iv. 14. 7 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +Probably she slept either in the shrine of Aesculapius at +Sicyon, where a figurine of her was shown seated on a +serpent,<note place='foot'>Pausanias, ii. 10. 4.</note> or perhaps in the more secluded sanctuary of the +god at Titane, not many miles off, where the sacred serpents +crawled among ancient cypresses on the hill-top which overlooks +the narrow green valley of the Asopus with the white +turbid river rushing in its depths.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, ii. 11. 5-8.</note> There, under the shadow +of the cypresses, with the murmur of the Asopus in her ears, +the mother of Aratus may have conceived, or fancied she +conceived, the future deliverer of his country. Again, the +mother of Augustus is said to have got him by intercourse +with a serpent in a temple of Apollo; hence the +emperor was reputed to be the son of that god.<note place='foot'>Suetonius, <hi rend='italic'>Divus Augustus</hi>, 94; +Dio Cassius, xlv. 1. 2. Tame serpents +were kept in a sacred grove of +Apollo in Epirus. A virgin priestess +fed them, and omens of plenty and +health or the opposites were drawn +from the way in which the reptiles +took their food from her. See Aelian, +<hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> xi. 2.</note> Similar +tales were told of the Messenian hero Aristomenes, Alexander +the Great, and the elder Scipio: all of them were reported +to have been begotten by snakes.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, iv. 14. 7; Livy, xxvi. +19; Aulus Gellius, vi. 1; Plutarch, +<hi rend='italic'>Alexander</hi>, 2. All these cases have +been already cited in this connexion +by L. Deubner, <hi rend='italic'>De incubatione</hi> +(Leipsic, 1900), p. 33 note.</note> In the time of Herod +a serpent, according to Aelian, in like manner made love +to a Judean maid.<note place='foot'>Aelian, <hi rend='italic'>De natura animalium</hi>, +vi. 17.</note> Can the story be a distorted rumour +of the parentage of Christ? +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Women +fertilized +by stone +serpents in +India.</note> +In India even stone serpents are credited with a power +of bestowing offspring on women. Thus the Komatis of +Mysore <q>worship <foreign rend='italic'>Nága</foreign> or the serpent god. This worship +is generally confined to women and is carried on on a large +<pb n='082'/><anchor id='Pg082'/> +scale once a year on the fifth day of the bright fortnight of +Srávana (July and August). The representations of serpents +are cut in stone slabs and are set up round an <foreign rend='italic'>Asvattha</foreign> tree +on a platform, on which is also generally planted a margosa +tree. These snakes in stones are set up in performance of +vows and are said to be specially efficacious in curing bad +sores and other skin diseases and in giving children. The +women go to such places for worship with milk, fruits, and +flowers on the prescribed day which is observed as a feast +day.</q> They wash the stones, smear them with turmeric, +and offer them curds and fruits. Sometimes they search out +the dens of serpents and pour milk into the holes for the +live reptiles.<note place='foot'>H. V. Nanjundayya, <hi rend='italic'>The Ethnographical +Survey of Mysore</hi>, vi. <hi rend='italic'>Komati +Caste</hi> (Bangalore, 1906), p. 29.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='7. Reincarnation of the Dead.'/> +<head>§ 7. Reincarnation of the Dead.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Belief that +the dead +come to +life in the +form of +serpents.</note> +The reason why snakes were so often supposed to be +the fathers of human beings is probably to be found in the +common belief that the dead come to life and revisit their +old homes in the shape of serpents. +</p> + +<p> +This notion is widely spread in Africa, especially among +tribes of the Bantu stock. It is held, for example, by the +Zulus, the Thonga, and other Caffre tribes of South Africa;<note place='foot'>T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, +<hi rend='italic'>Voyage d'Exploration au Nord-Est de +la Colonie du Cap de Bonne-Espérance</hi> +(Paris, 1842), p. 277; H. Callaway, +<hi rend='italic'>Religious System of the Amazulu</hi>, part +ii. pp. 140-144, 196-200, 208-212; +J. Shooter, <hi rend='italic'>The Kafirs of Natal</hi> (London, +1857), p. 162; E. Casalis, <hi rend='italic'>The +Basutos</hi> (London, 1861), p. 246; +<q>Words about Spirits,</q> (<hi rend='italic'>South African</hi>) +<hi rend='italic'>Folk-lore Journal</hi>, ii. (1880) pp. 101-103; +A. Kranz, <hi rend='italic'>Natur- und Kulturleben +der Zulus</hi> (Wiesbaden, 1880), p. 112; +F. Speckmann, <hi rend='italic'>Die Hermannsburger +Mission in Afrika</hi> (Hermannsburg, +1876), pp. 165-167; Dudley Kidd, +<hi rend='italic'>The Essential Kafir</hi> (London, 1904), +pp. 85-87; Henri A. Junod, <hi rend='italic'>The Life +of a South African Tribe</hi> (Neuchatel, +1912-1913), ii. 358 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +by the Ngoni of British Central Africa;<note place='foot'>W. A. Elmslie, <hi rend='italic'>Among the Wild +Ngoni</hi> (London, 1899), pp. 71 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> by the Wabondei,<note place='foot'>O. Baumann, <hi rend='italic'>Usambara und seine +Nachbargebiete</hi> (Berlin, 1891), pp. 141 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +the Masai,<note place='foot'>S. L. Hinde and H. Hinde, <hi rend='italic'>The +Last of the Masai</hi> (London, 1901), pp. +101 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; A. C. Hollis, <hi rend='italic'>The Masai</hi> +(Oxford, 1905), pp. 307 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Sir H. +Johnston, <hi rend='italic'>The Uganda Protectorate</hi> +(London, 1904), ii. 832.</note> the Suk,<note place='foot'>M. W. H. Beech, <hi rend='italic'>The Suk</hi> +(Oxford, 1911), p. 20.</note> the Nandi,<note place='foot'>A. C. Hollis, <hi rend='italic'>The Nandi</hi> (Oxford, +1909), p. 90.</note> and the Akikuyu of +German and British East Africa;<note place='foot'>H. R. Tate, <q>The Native Law of +the Southern Gikuyu of British East +Africa,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of the African Society</hi>, +No. xxxv. April 1910, p. 243.</note> and by the Dinkas of +<pb n='083'/><anchor id='Pg083'/> +the Upper Nile.<note place='foot'>E. de Pruyssenaere, <hi rend='italic'>Reisen und +Forschungen im Gebiete des Weissen +und Blauen Nil</hi> (Gotha, 1877), p. 27 +(<hi rend='italic'>Petermann's Mittheilungen, Ergänzungsheft</hi>, +No. 50). Compare G. +Schweinfurth, <hi rend='italic'>The Heart of Africa</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +(London, 1878), i. 55. Among the +Bahima of Ankole dead chiefs turn +into serpents, but dead kings into lions. +See J. Roscoe, <q>The Bahima, a Cow +Tribe of Enkole in the Uganda Protectorate,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Anthropological +Institute</hi>, xxxvii. (1907), pp. +101 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Major J. A. Meldon, <q>Notes +on the Bahima of Ankole,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of +the African Society</hi>, No. xxii. (January +1907), p. 151. Major Leonard holds +that the pythons worshipped in Southern +Nigeria are regarded as reincarnations +of the dead; but this seems very +doubtful. See A. G. Leonard, <hi rend='italic'>The +Lower Niger and its Tribes</hi> (London, +1906), pp. 327 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> Pythons are +worshipped by the Ewe-speaking +peoples of the Slave Coast, but apparently +not from a belief that the +souls of the dead are lodged in them. +See A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>The Ewe-speaking +Peoples of the Slave Coast of West +Africa</hi>, pp. 54 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> It prevails also among the Betsileo and +other tribes of Madagascar.<note place='foot'>G. A. Shaw, <q>The Betsileo,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>The Antananarivo Annual and +Madagascar Magazine, Reprint of the +First Four Numbers</hi> (Antananarivo, +1885), p. 411; H. W. Little, <hi rend='italic'>Madagascar, +its History and People</hi> (London, +1884), pp. 86 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; A. van Gennep, +<hi rend='italic'>Tabou et Totémisme à Madagascar</hi> +(Paris, 1904), pp. 272 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Among the Iban or Sea +Dyaks of Borneo a man's guardian spirit (<foreign rend='italic'>Tua</foreign>) <q>has its +external manifestation in a snake, a leopard or some other +denizen of the forest. It is supposed to be the spirit of +some ancestor renowned for bravery or some other virtue +who at death has taken an animal form. It is a custom +among the Iban when a person of note in the tribe dies, +not to bury the body but to place it on a neighbouring hill +or in some solitary spot above ground. A quantity of food +is taken to the place every day, and if after a few days the +body disappears, the deceased is said to have become a <foreign rend='italic'>Tua</foreign> +or guardian spirit. People who have been suffering from +some chronic complaint often go to such a tomb, taking +with them an offering to the soul of the deceased to obtain +his help. To such it is revealed in a dream what animal +form the honoured dead has taken. The most frequent +form is that of a snake. Thus when a snake is found in a +Dyak house it is seldom killed or driven away; food is +offered to it, for it is a guardian spirit who has come to +inquire after the welfare of its clients and bring them good +luck. Anything that may be found in the mouth of such +a snake is taken and kept as a charm.</q><note place='foot'><q>Religious Rites and Customs of +the Iban or Dyaks of Sarawak,</q> by +Leo Nyuak, translated from the Dyak +by the Very Rev. Edm. Dunn, +<hi rend='italic'>Anthropos</hi>, i. (1906) p. 182. As to +the Sea Dyak reverence for snakes and +their belief that spirits (<foreign rend='italic'>antus</foreign>) are +incarnate in the reptiles, see further +J. Perham, <q>Sea Dyak Religion,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Straits Branch of the +Royal Asiatic Society</hi>, No. 10 (December, +1882), pp. 222-224; H. Ling +Roth, <hi rend='italic'>The Natives of Sarawak and +British North Borneo</hi> (London, 1896), +i. 187 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> But from this latter +account it does not appear that the +spirits (<foreign rend='italic'>antus</foreign>) which possess the snakes +are supposed to be those of human +ancestors.</note> Similarly in +<pb n='084'/><anchor id='Pg084'/> +Kiriwina, an island of the Trobriands Group, to the east of +New Guinea, <q>the natives regarded the snake as one of +their ancestral chiefs, or rather as the abode of his spirit, +and when one was seen in a house it was believed that the +chief was paying a visit to his old home. The natives considered +this as an ill omen and so always tried to persuade +the animal to depart as soon as possible. The honours of +a chief were paid to the snake: the natives passed it in a +crouching posture, and as they did so, saluted it as a chief +of high rank. Native property was presented to it as an +appeasing gift, accompanied by prayers that it would not +do them any harm, but would go away quickly. They +dared not kill the snake, for its death would bring disease +and death upon those who did so.</q><note place='foot'>George Brown, D.D., <hi rend='italic'>Melanesians +and Polynesians</hi> (London, 1910), pp. +238 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Serpents +which are +viewed as +ancestors +come to +life are +treated +with +respect and +often fed +with milk.</note> +Where serpents are thus viewed as ancestors come to +life, the people naturally treat them with great respect and +often feed them with milk, perhaps because milk is the food +of human babes and the reptiles are treated as human +beings in embryo, who can be born again from women. +Thus <q>the Zulu-Caffres imagine that their ancestors generally +visit them under the form of serpents. As soon, therefore, +as one of these reptiles appears near their dwellings, they +hasten to salute it by the name of <emph>father</emph>, place bowls of milk +in its way, and turn it back gently, and with the greatest +respect.</q><note place='foot'>Rev. E. Casalis, <hi rend='italic'>The Basutos</hi> +(London, 1861), p. 246. Compare +A. Kranz, <hi rend='italic'>Natur- und Kulturleben der +Zulus</hi> (Wiesbaden, 1880), p. 112.</note> Among the Masai of East Africa, <q>when a +medicine-man or a rich person dies and is buried, his soul +turns into a snake as soon as his body rots; and the snake +goes to his children's kraal to look after them. The Masai +in consequence do not kill their sacred snakes, and if a +woman sees one in her hut, she pours some milk on the +ground for it to lick, after which it will go away.</q><note place='foot'>A. C. Hollis, <hi rend='italic'>The Masai</hi> (Oxford, +1905), p. 307.</note> Among +<pb n='085'/><anchor id='Pg085'/> +the Nandi of British East Africa, <q>if a snake goes on to the +woman's bed, it may not be killed, as it is believed that it +personifies the spirit of a deceased ancestor or relation, and +that it has been sent to intimate to the woman that her +next child will be born safely. Milk is put on the ground +for it to drink, and the man or his wife says: <q>... If thou +wantest the call, come, thou art being called.</q> It is then +allowed to leave the house. If a snake enters the houses of +old people they give it milk, and say: <q>If thou wantest the +call, go to the huts of the children,</q> and they drive it away.</q><note place='foot'>A. C. Hollis, <hi rend='italic'>The Nandi</hi> (Oxford, +1909), p. 90.</note> +This association of the serpent, regarded as an incarnation +of the dead, both with the marriage bed and with the huts +of young people, points to a belief that the deceased person +who is incarnate in the snake may be born again as a +human child into the world. Again, among the Suk of +British East Africa <q>it seems to be generally believed that +a man's spirit passes into a snake at death. If a snake +enters a house, the spirit of the dead man is believed to be +very hungry. Milk is poured on to its tracks, and a little +meat and tobacco placed on the ground for it to eat. It is +believed that if no food is given to the snake one or all of +the members of the household will die. It, however, may +none the less be killed if encountered outside the house, and +if at the time of its death it is inhabited by the spirit of +a dead man, <q>that spirit dies also.</q></q><note place='foot'>Mervyn W. H. Beech, <hi rend='italic'>The Suk, +their Language and Folklore</hi> (Oxford, +1911), p. 20.</note> The Akikuyu of +British East Africa, who similarly believe that snakes are +<foreign rend='italic'>ngoma</foreign> or spirits of the departed, <q>do not kill a snake but +pour out honey and milk for it to drink, which they say it +licks up and then goes its way. If a man causes the death +of a snake he must without delay summon the senior Elders +in the village and slaughter a sheep, which they eat and cut +a <foreign rend='italic'>rukwaru</foreign> from the skin of its right shoulder for the +offender to wear on his right wrist; if this ceremony is +neglected he, his wife and his children will die.</q><note place='foot'>H. R. Tate (District Commissioner, +East Africa Protectorate), <q>The +Native Law of the Southern Gikuyu of +British East Africa,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of the +African Society</hi>, No. xxxv., April 1910, +p. 243. See further C. W. Hobley, +<q>Further Researches into Kikuyu and +Kamba Religious Beliefs and Customs,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Royal Anthropological +Institute</hi>, xli. (1911) p. 408. According +to Mr. Hobley it is only one particular +sort of snake, called <foreign rend='italic'>nyamuyathi</foreign>, +which is thought to be the abode of a +spirit and is treated with ceremonious +respect by the Akikuyu. Compare P. +Cayzac, <q>La Religion des Kikuyu,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Anthropos</hi>, v. (1910) p. 312; and for +more evidence of milk offered to serpents +as embodiments of the dead see +E. de Pruyssenaere and H. W. Little, +cited above, p. <ref target='Pg083'>83</ref>, notes 1 and 2.</note> Among +<pb n='086'/><anchor id='Pg086'/> +the Baganda the python god Selwanga had his temple on +the shore of the lake Victoria Nyanza, where he dwelt in +the form of a live python. The temple was a hut of the +ordinary conical shape with a round hole in the wall, +through which the sinuous deity crawled out and in at his +pleasure. A woman lived in the temple, and it was her +duty to feed the python daily with fresh milk from a wooden +bowl, which she held out to the divine reptile while he +drained it. The serpent was thought to be the giver of +children; hence young couples living in the neighbourhood +always came to the shrine to ensure the blessing of the god +on their union, and childless women repaired from long +distances to be relieved by him from the curse of barrenness.<note place='foot'>Rev. J. Roscoe, <hi rend='italic'>The Baganda</hi> +(London, 1911), pp. 320 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> My +friend Mr. Roscoe tells me that serpents +are revered and fed with milk by +the Banyoro to the north of Uganda; +but he cannot say whether the creatures +are supposed to be incarnations of the +dead. Some of the Gallas also regard +serpents as sacred and offer milk +to them, but it is not said that they +believe the reptiles to embody the +souls of the departed. See Rev. J. +L. Krapf, <hi rend='italic'>Travels, Researches and +Missionary Labours in Eastern Africa</hi> +(London, 1860), pp. 77 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The +negroes of Whydah in Guinea likewise +feed with milk the serpents which they +worship. See Thomas Astley's <hi rend='italic'>New +General Collection of Voyages and +Travels</hi>, iii. (London, 1746) p. 29.</note> +It is not said that this python god embodied the +soul of a dead ancestor, but it may have been so; his power +of bestowing offspring on women suggests it. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Greeks and +Romans +seem to +have +shared the +belief that +the souls of +the dead +can be reincarnated +in serpents.</note> +The Romans and Greeks appear to have also believed +that the souls of the dead were incarnate in the bodies of +serpents. Among the Romans the regular symbol of the +<hi rend='italic'>genius</hi> or guardian spirit of every man was a serpent,<note place='foot'>L. Preller, <hi rend='italic'>Römische Mythologie</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +(Berlin, 1881-1883), ii. 196 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; G. +Wissowa, <hi rend='italic'>Religion und Kultus der +Römer</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Munich, 1912), pp. 176 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +The worship of the <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>genius</foreign> was very +popular in the Roman Empire. See +J. Toutain, <hi rend='italic'>Les Cultes Païens dans +l'Empire Romain</hi>, Première Partie, i. +(Paris, 1907) pp. 439 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> and +in Roman houses serpents were lodged and fed in such +numbers that if their swarms had not been sometimes +reduced by conflagrations there would have been no living +for them.<note place='foot'>Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> xxix. 72. +Compare Seneca, <hi rend='italic'>De Ira</hi>, iv. 31. 6.</note> In Greek legend Cadmus and his wife Harmonia +<pb n='087'/><anchor id='Pg087'/> +were turned at death into snakes.<note place='foot'>Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, iii. 5. 4; +Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 6; Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> iv. +563-603.</note> When the Spartan king +Cleomenes was slain and crucified in Egypt, a great serpent +coiled round his head on the cross and kept off the vultures +from his face. The people regarded the prodigy as a proof +that Cleomenes was a son of the gods.<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Cleomenes</hi>, 39.</note> Again, when +Plotinus lay dying, a snake crawled from under his bed +and disappeared into a hole in the wall, and at the same +moment the philosopher expired.<note place='foot'>Porphyry, <hi rend='italic'>De vita Plotini</hi>, p. 103, +Didot edition (appended to the lives of +Diogenes Laertius).</note> Apparently superstition +saw in these serpents the souls of the dead men. In Greek +religion the serpent was indeed the regular symbol or +attribute of the worshipful dead,<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Cleomenes</hi>, 39; Scholiast +on Aristophanes, <hi rend='italic'>Plutus</hi>, 733.</note> and we can hardly doubt +that the early Greeks, like the Zulus and other African +tribes at the present day, really believed the soul of the +departed to be lodged in the reptile. The sacred serpent +which lived in the Erechtheum at Athens, and was fed with +honey-cakes once a month, may have been supposed to +house the soul of the dead king Erechtheus, who had reigned +in his lifetime on the same spot.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, viii. 41; Plutarch, +<hi rend='italic'>Themistocles</hi>, 10; Aristophanes, <hi rend='italic'>Lysistra</hi>, +758 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, with the Scholium; +Philostratus, <hi rend='italic'>Imag.</hi> ii. 17. 6. See +further my note on Pausanias, i, 18, 2 +(vol. ii. pp. 168 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>).</note> Perhaps the libations +of milk which the Greeks poured upon graves<note place='foot'>Sophocles, <hi rend='italic'>Electra</hi>, 893 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +Euripides, <hi rend='italic'>Orestes</hi>, 112 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> were intended +to be drunk by serpents as the embodiments of the +deceased; on two tombstones found at Tegea a man and a +woman are respectively represented holding out to a serpent +a cup which may be supposed to contain milk.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Mittheilungen des Deutsch. Archäo +log. Institutes in Athen</hi>, iv. (1879) +pl. viii. Compare <hi rend='italic'>ib.</hi> pp. 135 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +162 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> We have +seen that various African tribes feed serpents with milk +because they imagine the reptiles to be incarnations of their +dead kinsfolk;<note place='foot'>Above, pp. <ref target='Pg084'>84</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> and the Dinkas, who practise the custom, +also pour milk on the graves of their friends for some time +after the burial.<note place='foot'>E. de Pruyssenaere, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi> (above, +p. <ref target='Pg083'>83</ref>, note 1).</note> It is possible that a common type in +Greek art, which exhibits a woman feeding a serpent out of +<pb n='088'/><anchor id='Pg088'/> +a saucer, may have been borrowed from a practice of thus +ministering to the souls of the departed.<note place='foot'>See C. O. Müller, <hi rend='italic'>Denkmäler +der alten Kunst</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Göttingen, 1854), +pl. lxi. with the corresponding text in +vol. i. (where the eccentric system of +paging adopted renders references to it +practically useless). In these groups +the female figure is commonly, and +perhaps correctly, interpreted as the +Goddess of Health (Hygieia). It is +to be remembered that Hygieia was +deemed a daughter of the serpent-god +Aesculapius (Pausanias i. 23. 4), and +was constantly associated with him in +ritual and art. See, for example, +Pausanias, i. 40. 6, ii. 4. 5, ii. 11. 6, +ii. 23. 4, ii. 27. 6, iii. 22. 13, v. 20. 3, +v. 26. 2, vii. 23. 7, viii. 28. 1, viii. +31. 1, viii. 32. 4, viii. 47. 1. The +snake-entwined goddess whose image +was found in a prehistoric shrine at +Gournia in Crete may have been a +predecessor of the serpent-feeding +Hygieia. See R. M. Burrows, <hi rend='italic'>The +Discoveries in Crete</hi> (London, 1907), +pp. 137 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The snakes, which were +the regular symbol of the Furies, may +have been originally nothing but the +emblems or rather embodiments of the +dead; and the Furies themselves may, +like Aesculapius, have been developed +out of the reptiles, sloughing off their +serpent skins through the anthropomorphic +tendency of Greek thought.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +serpents +fed at the +Thesmophoria +may +have been +deemed incarnations +of the +dead. +Reluctance +to disturb +the Earth +Goddess or +the spirits +of the earth +by the +operations +of digging +and +ploughing. Hence +agricultural +operations +are sometimes +forbidden.</note> +Further, at the sowing festival of the Thesmophoria, held +by Greek women in October, it was customary to throw +cakes and pigs to serpents, which lived in caverns or vaults +sacred to the corn-goddess Demeter.<note place='foot'>Scholia on Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>Dial. Meretr.</hi> +ii. (<hi rend='italic'>Scholia in Lucianum</hi>, ed. H. Rabe, +Leipsic, 1906, pp. 275 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). As to +the Thesmophoria, see my article, +<q>Thesmophoria,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Britannica</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>9</hi> +xxiii. 295 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>Spirits of +the Corn and of the Wild</hi>, ii. 17 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> We may guess that +the serpents thus propitiated were deemed to be incarnations +of dead men and women, who might easily be incommoded +in their earthy beds by the operations of husbandry. +What indeed could be more disturbing than to have the +roof of the narrow house shaken and rent over their heads +by clumsy oxen dragging a plough up and down on the top +of it? No wonder that at such times it was thought desirable +to appease them with offerings. Sometimes, however, +it is not the dead but the Earth Goddess herself who is disturbed +by the husbandman. An Indian prophet at Priest +Rapids, on the Middle Columbia River, dissuaded his many +followers from tilling the ground because <q>it is a sin to +wound or cut, tear up or scratch our common mother by +agricultural pursuits.</q><note place='foot'>A. S. Gatschet, <hi rend='italic'>The Klamath +Indians of South-Western Oregon</hi> +(Washington, 1890), p. xcii.</note> <q>You ask me,</q> said this Indian +sage, <q>to plough the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear +my mother's bosom? You ask me to dig for stone. Shall +I dig under her skin for her bones? You ask me to cut +grass and hay and sell it and be rich like white men. But +<pb n='089'/><anchor id='Pg089'/> +how dare I cut off my mother's hair?</q><note place='foot'>Washington Matthews, <q>Myths of +Gestation and Parturition,</q> <hi rend='italic'>American +Anthropologist</hi>, New Series, iv. (New +York, 1902) p. 738.</note> The Baigas, a +primitive Dravidian tribe of the Central Provinces in India, +used to practise a fitful and migratory agriculture, burning +down patches of jungle and sowing seed in the soil fertilized +by the ashes after the breaking of the rains. <q>One explanation +of their refusal to till the ground is that they consider +it a sin to lacerate the breast of their mother earth with a +ploughshare.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Central Provinces, Ethnographic +Survey</hi>, iii. <hi rend='italic'>Draft Articles on Forest +Tribes</hi> (Allahabad, 1907), p. 23.</note> In China the disturbance caused to the +earth-spirits by the operations of digging and ploughing +was so very serious that Chinese philosophy appears to have +contemplated a plan for allowing the perturbed spirits a +close time by forbidding the farmer to put his spade or his +plough into the ground except on certain days, when the +earth-spirits were either not at home or kindly consented to +put up with some temporary inconvenience for the good of +man. This we may infer from a passage in a Chinese +author who wrote in the first century of our era. <q>If it is +true,</q> he says, <q>that the spirits who inhabit the soil object +to it being disturbed and dug up, then it is proper for us to +select special good days for digging ditches and ploughing +our fields. (But this is never done); it therefore follows +that the spirits of the soil, even though really annoyed when +it is disturbed, pass over such an offence if man commits it +without evil intent. As he commits it merely to ensure his +rest and comfort, the act cannot possibly excite any anger +against him in the perfect heart of those spirits; and this +being the case, they will not visit him with misfortune even +if he do not choose auspicious days for it. But if we believe +that the earth-spirits cannot excuse man on account of the +object he pursues, and detest him for annoying them by disturbing +the ground, what advantage then can he derive from +selecting proper days for doing so?</q><note place='foot'>J. J. M. de Groot, <hi rend='italic'>The Religious +System of China</hi>, v. (Leyden, 1907) +pp. 536 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> What advantage +indeed? In that case the only logical conclusion is, with +the Indian prophet, to forbid agriculture altogether, as an +impious encroachment on the spiritual world. Few peoples, +however, who have once contracted the habit of agriculture +<pb n='090'/><anchor id='Pg090'/> +are willing to renounce it out of a regard for the +higher powers; the utmost concession which they are willing +to make to religion in the matter is to prohibit agricultural +operations at certain times and seasons, when the +exercise of them would be more than usually painful to the +earth-spirits. Thus in Bengal the chief festival in honour +of Mother Earth is held at the end of the hot season, when +she is supposed to suffer from the impurity common to +women, and during that time all ploughing, sowing, and +other work cease.<note place='foot'>W. Crooke, <hi rend='italic'>Natives of Northern +India</hi> (London, 1907), p. 232.</note> On a certain day of the year, when +offerings are made to the Earth, the Ewe farmer of West +Africa will not hoe the ground, and the Ewe weaver will not +drive a sharp stake into it, <q>because the hoe and the stake +would wound the Earth and cause her pain.</q><note place='foot'>J. Spieth, <hi rend='italic'>Die Ewe-Stämme</hi> +(Berlin, 1906), p. 796.</note> When +Ratumaimbulu, the god who made fruit-trees to blossom +and bear fruit, came once a year to Fiji, the people had to +live very quietly for a month lest they should disturb him +at his important work. During this time they might not +plant nor build nor sail about nor go to war; indeed most +kinds of work were forbidden. The priests announced the +time of the god's arrival and departure.<note place='foot'>J. E. Erskine, <hi rend='italic'>Journal of a Cruise +among the Islands of the Western +Pacific</hi> (London, 1853), pp. 245 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> These periods of +rest and quiet would seem to be the Indian and Fijian Lent. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Graves as +places of +conception +for women.</note> +Thus behind the Greek notion that women may conceive +by a serpent-god<note place='foot'>Persons initiated into the mysteries +of Sabazius had a serpent drawn through +the bosom of their robes, and the reptile +was identified with the god (ὁ διὰ κόλπου +θέος, Clement of Alexandria, <hi rend='italic'>Protrept.</hi> +ii. 16, p. 14, ed. Potter). This +may be a trace of the belief that women +can be impregnated by serpents, though +it does not appear that the ceremony +was performed only on women.</note> seems to lie the belief that they can conceive +by the dead in the form of serpents. If such a belief +was ever held, it would be natural that barren women should +resort to graves in order to have their wombs quickened, and +this may explain why they visited the shrine of the serpent-god +Aesculapius for that purpose; the shrine was perhaps +at first a grave. It is significant that in Syria the shrines +of St. George, to which childless women go to get offspring, +always include a tomb or the likeness of one;<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg078'>78</ref>. Among the +South Slavs women go to graves to +get children. See below, p. <ref target='Pg096'>96</ref>.</note> and further, +<pb n='091'/><anchor id='Pg091'/> +that in the opinion of Syrian peasants at the present day +women may, without intercourse with a living man, bear +children to a dead husband, a dead saint, or a jinnee.<note place='foot'>S. I. Curtiss, <hi rend='italic'>Primitive Semitic +Religion To-day</hi>, pp. 115 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> In +the East Indies also it is still commonly believed that spirits +can consort with women and beget children on them. The +Olo Ngadjoe of Borneo imagine that albinoes are the offspring +of the spirit of the moon by mortal women, the pallid +hue of the human children naturally reflecting the pallor of +their heavenly father.<note place='foot'>A. C. Kruijt, <hi rend='italic'>Het Animisme in den +Indischen Archipel</hi> (The Hague, 1906), +P. 398.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Reincarnation +of +the dead in +America +and Africa.</note> +Such beliefs are closely akin to the idea, entertained by +many peoples, that the souls of the dead may pass directly into +the wombs of women and be born again as infants. Thus +the Hurons used to bury little children beside the paths in +the hope that their souls might enter the passing squaws +and be born again;<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Relations des Jésuites</hi>, 1636, p. +130 (Canadian reprint, Quebec, 1858). +A similar custom was practised for a +similar reason by the Musquakie +Indians. See Miss Mary Alicia Owen, +<hi rend='italic'>Folk-lore of the Musquakie Indians of +North America</hi> (London, 1904), pp. +22 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 86. Some of the instances +here given have been already cited by +Mr. J. E. King, who suggests, with +much probability, that the special +modes of burial adopted for infants in +various parts of the world may often +have been intended to ensure their rebirth. +See J. E. King, <q>Infant +Burial,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Classical Review</hi>, xvii. (1903) +pp. 83 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> For a large collection of +evidence as to the belief in the reincarnation +of the dead, see E. S. Hartland, +<hi rend='italic'>Primitive Paternity</hi> (London, +1909-1910), i. 156 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> and similarly some negroes of West +Africa throw the bodies of infants into the bush in order +that their souls may choose a new mother from the women +who pass by.<note place='foot'>Mary H. Kingsley, <hi rend='italic'>Travels in +West Africa</hi> (London, 1897), p. 478.</note> Among the tribes of the Lower Congo <q>a +baby is always buried near the house of its mother, never +in the bush. They think that, if the child is not buried +near its mother's house, she will be unlucky and never have +any more children.</q> The notion probably is that the dead +child, buried near its mother's house, will enter into her +womb and be born again, for these people believe in the +reincarnation of the dead. They think that <q>the only new +thing about a child is its body. The spirit is old and +formerly belonged to some deceased person, or it may have +the spirit of some living person.</q> For example, if a child +is like its mother, father, or uncle, they imagine that it must +<pb n='092'/><anchor id='Pg092'/> +have the spirit of the relative whom it resembles, and that +therefore the person whose soul has thus been abstracted by +the infant will soon die.<note place='foot'>Rev. John H. Weeks, <q>Notes on +some Customs of the Lower Congo +People,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Folk-lore</hi>, xix. (1908) p. +422.</note> Among the Bangalas, a tribe of +cannibals in Equatorial Africa, to the north of the Congo, a +woman was one day seen digging a hole in the public road. +Her husband entreated a Belgian officer to let her alone, +promising to mend the road afterwards, and explaining that +his wife wished to become a mother. The good-natured +officer complied with his request and watched the woman. +She continued to dig till she had uncovered a little skeleton, +the remains of her first-born, which she tenderly embraced, +humbly entreating the dead child to enter into her and give +her again a mother's joy. The officer rightly did not smile.<note place='foot'>Th. Masui, <hi rend='italic'>Guide de la Section de +l'État Indépendant du Congo à l'Exposition +de Bruxelles-Tervueren en +1897</hi> (Brussels, 1897), pp. 113 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +The Bagishu, a Bantu tribe of Mount Elgon, in the Uganda +Protectorate, practise the custom of throwing out their dead +<q>except in the case of the youngest child or the old grandfather +or grandmother, for whom, like the child, a prolonged +life on earth is desired.... When it is desired to perpetuate +on the earth the life of some old man or woman, or +that of some young baby, the corpse is buried inside the +house or just under the eaves, until another child is born to +the nearest relation of the corpse. This child, male or +female, takes the name of the corpse, and the Bagishu +firmly believe that the spirit of the dead has passed into +this new child and lives again on earth. The remains are +then dug up and thrown out into the open.</q><note place='foot'>J. B. Purvis, <hi rend='italic'>Through Uganda to +Mount Elgon</hi> (London, 1909), pp. +302 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> As to the Bagishu or Bageshu +and their practice of throwing out the +dead, see Rev. J. Roscoe, <q>Notes on +the Bageshu,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Royal +Anthropological Institute</hi>, xxxix. (1909) +pp. 181 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Measures +taken to +prevent the +rebirth of +undesirable +spirits. Belief of +the +Baganda +that a +woman can +be impregnated +by +the flower +of the +banana.</note> +Again, just as measures are adopted to facilitate the rebirth +of good ghosts, so on the other hand precautions are taken +to prevent the rebirth of bad ones. Thus, with regard to the +Baganda of Central Africa we read that, <q>while the present +generation know the cause of pregnancy, the people in the +earlier times were uncertain as to its real cause, and thought +that it was possible to conceive without any intercourse with +the male sex. Hence their precautions in passing places where +<pb n='093'/><anchor id='Pg093'/> +either a suicide had been burnt, or a child born feet first had +been buried. Women were careful to throw grass or sticks +on such a spot, for by so doing they thought that they could +prevent the ghost of the dead from entering into them, and +being reborn.</q><note place='foot'>Rev. J. Roscoe, <hi rend='italic'>The Baganda</hi> +(London, 1911), pp. 46 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Women +adopted a like precaution at the grave +of twins to prevent the ghosts of the +twins from entering into them and +being born again (<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, pp. 124 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). +The Baganda always strangled children +that were born feet first and buried +their bodies at cross-roads. The heaps +of sticks or grass thrown on these +graves by passing women and girls +rose in time into mounds large enough +to deflect the path and to attract the +notice of travellers. See J. Roscoe, +<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 126 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 289.</note> The fear of being got with child by such +ghosts was not confined to married women, it was shared +by all women alike, whether young or old, whether married +or single; and all of them sought to avert the danger in the +same way.<note place='foot'>Rev. J. Roscoe, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 126 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> In the Senegal and Niger region +of Western Africa it is said to be commonly +believed by women that they can +conceive without any carnal knowledge +of a man. See Maurice Delafosse, +<hi rend='italic'>Haut-Sénégal-Niger, Le Pays, les +Peuples, les Langues, l'Histoire, les +Civilisations</hi> (Paris, 1912), iii. 171.</note> And Baganda women imagined that without +the help of the other sex they could be impregnated not +only by these unpleasant ghosts but also by the flower of +the banana. If while a woman was busy in her garden +under the shadow of the banana trees, a great purple bloom +chanced to fall from one of the trees on her back or shoulders, +it was quite enough, in the opinion of the Baganda, to get +her with child; and were a wife accused of adultery because +she gave birth to a child who could not possibly have been +begotten by her husband, she had only to father the infant +on a banana flower to be honourably acquitted of the charge. +The reason why this remarkable property was ascribed to +the bloom of the banana would seem to be that ghosts of +ancestors were thought to haunt banana groves, and that the +afterbirths of children, which the Baganda regarded as twins +of the children, were commonly buried at the root of the +trees.<note place='foot'>Rev. J. Roscoe, <hi rend='italic'>The Baganda</hi>, +pp. 47 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>Totemism and Exogamy</hi>, +ii. 506 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> As to the custom of depositing +the afterbirths of children at +the foot of banana (plantain) trees, see +J. Roscoe, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 52, 54 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> What more natural than that a ghost should lurk +in each flower, and dropping adroitly in the likeness of a +blossom on a woman's back effect a lodgment in her womb? +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Reincarnation +of +the dead +in India. +Means +taken to +facilitate +the rebirth +of dead +children.</note> +Again, when a child dies in Northern India it is usually +buried under the threshold of the house, <q>in the belief that as +<pb n='094'/><anchor id='Pg094'/> +the parents tread daily over its grave, its soul will be reborn +in the family. Here, as Mr. Rose suggests, we reach an +explanation of the rule that children of Hindus are buried, +not cremated. Their souls do not pass into the ether with the +smoke of the pyre, but remain on earth to be reincarnated +in the household.</q><note place='foot'>W. Crooke, <hi rend='italic'>Natives of Northern +India</hi> (London, 1907), p. 202. As to +the Hindoo custom of burying infants +but burning older persons, see <hi rend='italic'>The +Belief in Immortality and the Worship +of the Dead</hi>, i. 162 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> In the Punjaub this belief in the reincarnation +of dead infants gives rise to some quaint or +pathetic customs. Thus, <q>in the Hissar District, Bishnois +bury dead infants at the threshold, in the belief that it would +facilitate the return of the soul to the mother. The practice +is also in vogue in the Kangra District, where the body is +buried in front of the back door. In some places it is +believed that, if the child dies in infancy and the mother +drops her milk for two or three days on the ground, the soul +of the child comes back to be born again. For this purpose +milk diluted with water is placed in a small earthen pot +and offered to the dead child's spirit for three consecutive +evenings. There is also a belief in the Ambala and Gujrat +Districts that if jackals and dogs dig out the dead body of +the child and bring it towards the town or village, it means +that the child will return to its mother, but if they take it +to some other side, the soul will reincarnate in some other +family. For this purpose, the second day after the infant's +death, the mother goes out early in the morning to see +whether the dogs have brought the body towards the village. +When the child is being taken away for burial the mother +cuts off and preserves a piece of its garment with a view to +persuade the soul to return to her. Barren women or those +who have lost children in infancy tear a piece off the clothing +of a dead child and stitch it to their wearing apparel, +believing that the soul of the child will return to them +instead of its own mother. On this account, people take +great care not to lose the clothes of dead children, and +some bury them in the house.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Census of India, 1911</hi>, vol. xiv. +<hi rend='italic'>Punjab</hi>, Part i., Report, by Pandit +Harikishan Kaul (Lahore, 1912), p. +299.</note> In Bilaspore <q>a still-born +child, or one who has passed away before the <foreign rend='italic'>Chhatti</foreign> (the +sixth day, the day of purification) is not taken out of the +<pb n='095'/><anchor id='Pg095'/> +house for burial, but is placed in an earthen vessel and +is buried in the doorway or in the yard of the house. +Some say that this is done in order that the mother +may bear another child.</q><note place='foot'>E. M. Gordon, <hi rend='italic'>Indian Folk Tales</hi> +(London, 1908), p. 49. Other explanations +of the custom are reported +by the writer, but the original motive +was probably a desire to secure the +reincarnation of the dead child in the +mother.</note> Here in Bilaspore the people +have devised a very simple way of identifying a dead +person when he or she is born again as an infant. When +anybody dies, they mark the body with soot or oil, and the +next baby born in the family with a similar mark is hailed +as the departed come to life again.<note place='foot'>E. M. Gordon, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 50 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Among the Kois +of the Godavari district, in Southern India, the dead are +usually burnt, but the bodies of children and of young men +and women are buried. If a child dies within a month of +its birth, it is generally buried close to the house <q>so that +the rain, dripping from the eaves, may fall upon the grave, +and thereby cause the parents to be blessed with another +child.</q><note place='foot'>E. Thurston, <hi rend='italic'>Ethnographic Notes +in Southern India</hi> (Madras, 1906), p. +155; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Castes and Tribes of Southern +India</hi> (Madras, 1909), iv. 52.</note> Apparently it is supposed that the soul of the +dead child, refreshed and revived by the rain, will pass again +into the mother's womb. Indian criminal records contain +many cases in which <q>the ceremonial killing of a male child +has been performed as a cure for barrenness, the theory being +that the soul of the murdered boy becomes reincarnated in +the woman, who performs the rite with a desire to secure +offspring. Usually she effects union with the spirit of the +child by bathing over its body or in the water in which the +corpse has been washed. Cases have recently occurred +in which the woman actually bathed in the blood of the +child.</q><note place='foot'>W. Crooke, <hi rend='italic'>Natives of Northern +India</hi>, p. 202; <hi rend='italic'>Census of India, 1901</hi>, +vol. xvii. <hi rend='italic'>Punjab</hi>, Part i., Report, by H. +A. Rose (Simla, 1902), pp. 213 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Bringing +back the +soul of the +dead in a +fish or +insect. Stories of +the Virgin +Birth. +Reincarnation +of +the dead +among +the South +Slavs.</note> +On the fifth day after a death the Gonds perform the +ceremony of bringing back the soul. They go to the bank +of a river, call aloud the name of the deceased, and entering +the water catch a fish or an insect. This creature they then +take home and place among the sainted dead of the family, +supposing that in this manner the spirit of the departed has +been brought back to the house. Sometimes the fish or +<pb n='096'/><anchor id='Pg096'/> +insect is eaten in the belief that it will be thus reborn as a +child.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Census of India, 1901</hi>, vol. xiii. +<hi rend='italic'>Central Provinces</hi>, Part i., Report, by +R. V. Russell (Nagpur, 1902), p. 93.</note> This last custom explains the widely diffused story +of virgins who have conceived by eating of a plant or an +animal or merely by taking it to their bosom.<note place='foot'>For stories of such virgin births +see Comte H. de Charency, <hi rend='italic'>Le folklore +dans les deux Mondes</hi> (Paris, 1894), +pp. 121-256; E. S. Hartland, <hi rend='italic'>The +Legend of Perseus</hi>, vol. i. (London, +1894) pp. 71 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; and my note on +Pausanias vii. 17. 11 (vol. iv. pp. 138-140). +To the instances there cited by +me add: A. Thevet, <hi rend='italic'>Cosmographie +Universelle</hi> (Paris, 1575), ii. 918 +[wrongly numbered 952]; K. von den +Steinen, <hi rend='italic'>Unter den Naturvölkern +Zentral-Brasiliens</hi> (Berlin, 1884), pp. +370, 373; H. A. Coudreau, <hi rend='italic'>La France +Equinoxiale</hi>, ii. (Paris, 1887) pp. 184 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>Relations des Jésuites</hi>, 1637, pp. +123 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> (Canadian reprint, Quebec, +1858); Franz Boas, <hi rend='italic'>Indianische Sagen +von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas</hi> +(Berlin, 1895), pp. 311 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; A. +G. Morice, <hi rend='italic'>Au pays de l'Ours Noir</hi> +(Paris and Lyons, 1897), p. 153; A. +Raffray, <q>Voyage à la côte nord de +la Nouvelle Guinée,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Bulletin de la +Société de Géographie</hi> (Paris), VI<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>e</hi> Série, +xv. (1878) pp. 392 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; J. L. van der +Toorn, <q>Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer +der Padangsche Bovenlanden,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde +van Nederlandsch-Indië</hi>, xxxix. +(1890) p. 78; E. Aymonier, <q>Les +Tchames et leurs religions,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Revue de +l'Histoire des Religions</hi>, xxiv. (1901) +pp. 215 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Major P. R. T. Gurdon, +<hi rend='italic'>The Khasis</hi> (London, 1907), p. 195. +In some stories the conception is +brought about not by eating food but +by drinking water. But the principle +is the same.</note> In all such +cases we may surmise that the plant or animal was thought +to contain the soul of a dead person, which thus passed into +the virgin's womb and was born again as an infant. Among +the South Slavs childless women often resort to a grave in +which a pregnant woman is buried. There they bite some +grass from the grave, invoke the deceased by name, and beg +her to give them the fruit of her womb. After that they +take a little of the mould from the grave and carry it about +with them thenceforth under their girdle.<note place='foot'>F. S. Krauss, <hi rend='italic'>Sitte und Brauch +der Süd-Slaven</hi> (Vienna, 1885), p. +531.</note> Apparently they +imagine that the soul of the unborn infant is in the grass or +the mould and will pass from it into their body. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Belief of +the Kai +that women +may be +impregnated +without +sexual +intercourse. Belief in +the island +of Mota +that a +woman can +conceive +through +the +entrance +into her of +a spirit +animal or +fruit.</note> +Among the Kai of German New Guinea, <q>impossible +as it may be thought, it is yet a fact that women here and +there deny in all seriousness the connexion between sexual +intercourse and pregnancy. Of course most people are clear +as to the process. The ignorance of some individuals is +perhaps based on the consideration that not uncommonly +married women remain childless for years or for life. Finally, +the animistic faith contributes its share to support the +<pb n='097'/><anchor id='Pg097'/> +ignorance.</q><note place='foot'>Ch. Keysser, <q>Aus dem Leben +der Kaileute,</q> in R. Neuhauss's <hi rend='italic'>Deutsch +Neu-Guinea</hi>, iii. (Berlin, 1911) p. +26.</note> In some islands of Southern Melanesia the +natives appear similarly to believe that sexual intercourse is +not necessary to impregnation, and that a woman can conceive +through the simple passage into her womb of a spirit-animal +or a spirit-fruit without the help of a man. In the +island of Mota, one of the Banks' group, <q rend='pre'>the course of events +is usually as follows: a woman sitting down in her garden +or in the bush or on the shore finds an animal or fruit in her +loincloth. She takes it up and carries it to the village, +where she asks the meaning of the appearance. The people +say that she will give birth to a child who will have the +characters of this animal or even, it appeared, would be +himself or herself the animal. The woman then takes the +creature back to the place where she had found it and places +it in its proper home; if it is a land animal on the land; if +a water animal in the pool or stream from which it had +probably come. She builds up a wall round it and goes to +feed and visit it every day. After a time the animal will +disappear, and it is believed that that is because the animal +has at the time of its disappearance entered into the woman. +It seemed quite clear that there was no belief in physical +impregnation on the part of the animal, nor of the entry of +a material object in the form of the animal into her womb, +but so far as I could gather, an animal found in this way +was regarded as more or less supernatural, a spirit animal +and not one material, from the beginning. It has happened +in the memory of an old man now living in Mota that a +woman who has found an animal in her loincloth has carried +it carefully in her closed hands to the village, but that when +she opened her hands to show it to the people, the animal +has gone, and in this case it was believed that the entry had +taken place while the woman was on her way from the bush +to the village.... When the child is born it is regarded as +being in some sense the animal or fruit which had been found +and tended by the mother. The child may not eat the +animal during the whole of its life, and if it does so, will +suffer serious illness, if not death. If it is a fruit which has +been found, the child may not eat this fruit or touch the tree +<pb n='098'/><anchor id='Pg098'/> +on which it grows, the latter restriction remaining in those +cases in which the fruit is inedible.... I inquired into the +idea at the bottom of the prohibition of the animal as food, +and it appeared to be that the person would be eating +himself. It seemed that the act would be regarded as a kind +of cannibalism. It was evident that there is a belief in the +most intimate relation between the person and all individuals +of the species with which he is identified.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'>A further aspect of the belief in the animal nature of +a child is that it partakes of the physical and mental characters +of the animal with which it is identified. Thus, if the +animal found has been a sea-snake, and this is a frequent +occurrence, the child would be weak, indolent and slow; if +an eel, there will be a similar disposition; if a hermit crab, +the child will be hot-tempered; if a flying fox, it will also +be hot-tempered and the body will be dark; if a brush +turkey, the disposition will be good; if a lizard, the child +will be soft and gentle; if a rat, thoughtless, hasty and +intemperate. If the object found has been a fruit, here also +the child will partake of its nature. In the case of a wild +Malay apple (<foreign rend='italic'>malmalagaviga</foreign>) the child will have a big +belly, and a person with this condition will be asked, <q>Do +you come from the <foreign rend='italic'>malmalagaviga</foreign>?</q> Again, if the fruit is +one called <foreign rend='italic'>womarakaraqat</foreign>, the child will have a good +disposition.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Similar +belief in +the island +of Motlav.</note> +<q>In the island of Motlav not far from Mota they have +the same belief that if a mother has found an animal in her +dress, the child will be identified with that animal and will +not be allowed to eat it. Here again the child is believed +to have the characters of the animal, and two instances given +were that a child identified with a yellow crab will have a +good disposition and be of a light colour, while if a hermit +crab has been found, the child will be angry and disagreeable. +In this island a woman who desires her child to have certain +characters will frequent a place where she will be likely to +encounter the animal which causes the appearance of these +characters. Thus, if she wants to have a light coloured child, +she will go to a place where there are light coloured crabs.</q><note place='foot'>W. H. R. Rivers, <q>Totemism in +Polynesia and Melanesia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of +the Royal Anthropological Institute</hi>, +xxxix. (1909) pp. 173-175. Compare +<hi rend='italic'>Totemism and Exogamy</hi>, ii. 89 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +As to this Melanesian belief that +animals can enter into women and be +born from them as human children +with animal characteristics, Dr. Rivers +observes (p. 174): <q>It was clear that +this belief was not accompanied by any +ignorance of the physical <foreign rend='italic'>rôle</foreign> of the +human father, and that the father +played the same part in conception as +in cases of birth unaccompanied by an +animal appearance. We found it impossible +to get definitely the belief as +to the nature of the influence exerted +by the animal on the woman, but it +must be remembered that any belief of +this kind can hardly have escaped the +many years of European influence and +Christian teaching which the people of +this group have received. It is doubtful +whether even a prolonged investigation +of this point could now elicit the original +belief of the people about the +nature of the influence.</q> To me it +seems that the belief described by Dr. +Rivers in the text is incompatible with +the recognition of human fatherhood as +a necessary condition for the birth of +children, and that though the people +may now recognize that necessity, +perhaps as a result of intercourse with +Europeans, they certainly cannot have +recognized it at the time when the +belief in question originated.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='099'/><anchor id='Pg099'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Australian +beliefs as +to the +birth of +children. +Reincarnation +of +the dead +in Central +Australia.</note> +Throughout a large part of Australia, particularly in the +Centre, the North, and the West, the aborigines hold that +the commerce of the human sexes is not necessary to the +production of children; indeed many of them go further +and deny that sexual intercourse is the real cause of the +propagation of the species. Among the Arunta, Kaitish, +Luritcha, Ilpirra and other tribes, who roam the barren +steppes of Central Australia, it appears to be a universal +article of belief that every person is the reincarnation of a +deceased ancestor, and that the souls of the dead pass directly +into the wombs of women, who give them birth without the +need of commerce with the other sex. They think that the +spirits of the departed gather and dwell at particular spots, +marked by a natural feature such as a rock or a tree, and +that from these lurking-places they dart out and enter the +bodies of passing women or girls. When a woman feels +her womb quickened, she knows that a spirit has made its +way into her from the nearest abode of the dead. This +is their regular explanation of conception and childbirth. +<q>The natives, one and all in these tribes, believe that the +child is the direct result of the entrance into the mother of +an ancestral spirit individual. They have no idea of procreation +as being associated with sexual intercourse, and +firmly believe that children can be born without this taking +place.</q><note place='foot'>Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, +<hi rend='italic'>Northern Tribes of Central Australia</hi> +(London, 1904), p. 330, compare <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi> +<hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi> pp. xi, 145, 147-151, 155 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +161 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 169 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 173 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 174-176, +606; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Native Tribes of Central +Australia</hi> (London, 1899), pp. 52, +123-125, 126, 132 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 265, 335-338.</note> The spots where the souls thus congregate waiting +<pb n='100'/><anchor id='Pg100'/> +to be born again are usually the places where the +remote ancestors of the dream-time are said to have passed +into the ground; that is, they are the places where the forefathers +of the tribe are supposed to have died or to have +been buried. For example, in the Warramunga tribe the +ancestor of the Black-snake clan is said to have left many +spirits of Black-snake children in the rocks and trees which +border a certain creek. Hence no woman at the present day +dares to strike one of these trees with an axe, being quite +convinced that the blow would release one of the spirit-children, +who would at once enter her body. They imagine +that the spirit is no larger than a grain of sand, and that it +enters the woman through her navel and grows into a child +in her womb.<note place='foot'>B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, +<hi rend='italic'>Northern Tribes of Central Australia</hi>, +pp. 162, 330 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Again, at several places in the wide territory +of the Arunta tribe there are certain stones which are in +like manner thought to be the abode of souls awaiting rebirth. +Hence the stones are called <q>child-stones.</q> In one +of them there is a hole through which the spirit-children look +out for passing women, and it is firmly believed that a visit +to the stone would result in conception. If a young woman +is obliged to pass near the stone and does not wish to have +a child, she will carefully disguise her youth, pulling a wry +face and hobbling along on a stick. She will bend herself +double like a very old woman, and imitating the cracked +voice of age she will say, <q>Don't come to me, I am an old +woman.</q> Nay, it is thought that women may conceive by +the stone without visiting it. If a man and his wife both +wish for a child, the husband will tie his hair-girdle round +the stone, rub it, and mutter a direction to the spirits to +give heed to his wife. And it is believed that by performing +a similar ceremony a malicious man can cause women and +even children at a distance to be pregnant.<note place='foot'>B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, +<hi rend='italic'>Native Tribes of Central Australia</hi>, pp. +337 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Reincarnation +of the +dead in +Northern +Australia.</note> +Such beliefs are not confined to the tribes of Central +Australia but prevail among all the tribes from Lake Eyre +northwards to the sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria.<note place='foot'>W. Baldwin Spencer, <hi rend='italic'>An Introduction +to the Study of Certain Native +Tribes of the Northern Territory</hi> (Melbourne, +1912), p. 6: <q>The two +fundamental beliefs of reincarnation and +of children not being of necessity the +result of sexual intercourse, are firmly +held by the tribes in their normal wild +state. There is no doubt whatever of +this, and we now know that these two +beliefs extend through all the tribes +northwards to Katherine Creek and +eastwards to the Gulf of Carpentaria.</q> +In a letter (dated Melbourne, +July 27th, 1913) Professor Baldwin +Spencer writes to me that the natives +on the Alligator River in the Northern +Territory <q>have detailed traditions—as +also have all the tribes—of how +great ancestors wandered over the +country leaving numbers of spirit children +behind them who have been reincarnated +time after time. They know +who everyone is a reincarnation of, as +the names are perpetuated.</q></note> Thus +<pb n='101'/><anchor id='Pg101'/> +the Mungarai say that in the far past time their old ancestors +walked about the country, making all the natural features of +the landscape and leaving spirit-children behind them where +they stopped. These children emanated from the bodies of +the ancestors, and they still wait at various spots looking +out for women into whom they may go and be born. For +example, near McMinn's bar on the Roper River there is a +large gum tree full of spirit-children, who all belong to one +particular totem and are always agog to enter into women +of that totem. Again, at Crescent Lagoon an ancestor, who +belonged to the thunder totem, deposited numbers of spirit-children; +and if a woman of the Gnaritjbellan subclass so +much as dips her foot in the water, one of the spirit-children +passes up her leg and into her body and in due time is born +as a child, who has thunder for its totem. Or if the woman +stoops and drinks water, one of the sprites will enter her +through the mouth. Again, there are lagoons along the +Roper River where red lilies grow; and the water is full of +spirit-children which were deposited there by a kangaroo man. +So when women of the Gnaritjbellan subclass wade into the +water to gather lilies, little sprites swarm up their legs and +are born as kangaroo children. Again, in the territory of +the Nullakun tribe there is a certain spring where a man +once deposited spirit-children of the rainbow totem; and to +this day when a woman of the right totem comes to drink at +the spring, the spirit of a rainbow child will dart into her +and be born. Once more, in the territory of the Yungman +tribe the trees and stones near Elsey Creek are full of spirit-children +who belong to the sugar-bag (honeycomb) totem; +and these sugar-bag children are constantly entering into the +right women and being born into the world.<note place='foot'>W. Baldwin Spencer, <hi rend='italic'>An Introduction +to the Study of Certain Native +Tribes of the Northern Territory</hi> (Melbourne, +1912), pp. 41-45.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='102'/><anchor id='Pg102'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Theories +as to the +birth of +children +among the +tribes of +Queensland.</note> +The natives of the Tully River in Queensland do not +recognize sexual intercourse as a cause of conception in +women, though curiously enough they do recognize it as the +cause of conception in all animals, and pride themselves on +their superiority to the brutes in that they are not indebted +for the continuance of their species to such low and vulgar +means. The true causes of conception in a woman, according +to them, are four in number. First, she may have received +a particular species of black bream from a man whom the +European in his ignorance would call the father; this she +may have roasted and sat over the fire inhaling the savoury +smell of the roast fish. That is quite sufficient to get her +with child. Or, secondly, she may have gone out on +purpose to catch a certain kind of bull-frog, and if she +succeeds in capturing it, that again is a full and satisfactory +explanation of her pregnancy. Thirdly, some man may +have told her to conceive a child, and the mere command +produces the desired effect. Or, fourth and lastly, she may +have simply dreamed that the child was put into her, and +the dream necessarily works its own fulfilment. Whatever +white men may think about the matter, these are the real +causes why babies are born among the blacks on the Tully +River.<note place='foot'>Walter E. Roth, <hi rend='italic'>North Queensland +Ethnography</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Bulletin</hi> No. 5, <hi rend='italic'>Superstition, +Magic, and Medicine</hi> (Brisbane, +1903), pp. 22, § 81.</note> About Cape Bedford in Queensland the natives +believe that babies are sent by certain long-haired spirits, +with two sets of eyes in the front and back of their heads, +who live in the dense scrub and underwood. The children +are made in the far west where the sun goes down, and they +are made not in the form of infants but full grown; but on +their passage from the sunset land to the wombs they are +changed into the shape of spur-winged plovers, if they are +girls, or of pretty snakes, if they are boys. So when the cry +of a plover is heard by night, the blacks prick up their ears +and say, <q>Hallo! there is a baby somewhere about.</q> And +if a woman is out in the bush searching for food and sees +one of the pretty snakes, which are really baby boys on the +look out for mothers, she will call out to her mates, and +<pb n='103'/><anchor id='Pg103'/> +they will come running and turn over stones, and leaves, +and logs in the search for the snake; and if they cannot +find it they know that it has gone into the woman and that +she will soon give birth to a baby boy.<note place='foot'>Walter E. Roth, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 23, +§ 82.</note> On the Pennefather +River in Queensland the being who puts babies into +women is called Anje-a. He takes a lump of mud out of +one of the mangrove swamps, moulds it into the shape of an +infant, and insinuates it into a woman's womb. You can +never see him, for he lives in the depths of the woods, +among the rocks, and along the mangrove swamps; but +sometimes you can hear him laughing there to himself, and +when you hear him you may know that he has got a baby +ready for somebody.<note place='foot'>Walter E. Roth, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 23, +§ 83. Mr. Roth adds, very justly: +<q>When it is remembered that as a rule +in all these Northern tribes, a little +girl may be given to and will live with +her spouse as wife long before she +reaches the stage of puberty—the relationship +of which to fecundity is not recognised—the +idea of conception not +being necessarily due to sexual connection +becomes partly intelligible.</q></note> Among the tribes of the Cairns +district in North Queensland <q>the acceptance of food from +a man by a woman was not merely regarded as a marriage +ceremony, but as the actual cause of conception.</q><note place='foot'>The Bishop of North Queensland +(Dr. Frodsham) in a letter to me, +dated Bishop's Lodge, Townsville, +Queensland, July 9th, 1909. The +Bishop's authority for the statement is +the Rev. C. W. Morrison, M.A., +acting head of the Yarrubah Mission. +In the same letter Dr. Frodsham, +speaking from personal observation, +refers to <q>the belief, practically universal +among the northern tribes, that +copulation is not the cause of conception.</q> +See J. G. Frazer, <q>Beliefs and +Customs of the Australian Aborigines,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Folk-lore</hi>, xx. (1909) pp. 350-352; +<hi rend='italic'>Man</hi>, ix. (1909) pp. 145-147; <hi rend='italic'>Totemism +and Exogamy</hi>, i. 577 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Theories +as to the +birth of +children in +Northern +and +Western +Australia. +Belief that +conception +in women +is caused +by the food +they eat.</note> +Similarly among the Australian tribes of the Northern +Territory, about Port Darwin and the Daly River, especially +among the Larrekiya and Wogait, <q>conception is not +regarded as a direct result of cohabitation.</q> The old men +of the Wogait say that there is an evil spirit who takes +babies from a big fire and puts them in the wombs of +women, who must give birth to them. In the ordinary +course of events, when a man is out hunting and kills +game or collects other food, he gives it to his wife and +she eats it, believing that the game or other food will +cause her to conceive and bring forth a child. When the +child is born, it may on no account partake of the food +<pb n='104'/><anchor id='Pg104'/> +which caused conception in the mother until it has got its +first teeth.<note place='foot'>Herbert Basedow, <hi rend='italic'>Anthropological +Notes on the Western Coastal Tribes of +the Northern Territory of South Australia</hi>, +pp. 4 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> (separate reprint from +the <hi rend='italic'>Transactions of the Royal Society of +South Australia</hi>, vol. xxxi. 1907).</note> A similar belief that conception is caused by +the food which a woman eats is held by some tribes of +Western Australia. On this subject Mr. A. R. Brown reports +as follows: <q rend='pre'>In the Ingarda tribe at the mouth of the +Gascoyne River, I found a belief that a child is the product +of some food of which the mother has partaken just before +her first sickness in pregnancy. My principal informant on +this subject told me that his father had speared a small +animal called <foreign rend='italic'>bandaru</foreign>, probably a bandicoot, but now extinct +in this neighbourhood. His mother ate the animal, with the +result that she gave birth to my informant. He showed me +the mark in his side where, as he said, he had been speared +by his father before being eaten by his mother. A little +girl was pointed out to me as being the result of her mother +eating a domestic cat, and her brother was said to have been +produced from a bustard.... The bustard was one of the +totems of the father of these two children and, therefore, of +the children themselves. This, however, seems to have been +purely accidental. In most cases the animal to which conception +is due is not one of the father's totems. The species +that is thus connected with an individual by birth is not +in any way sacred to him. He may kill or eat it; he +may marry a woman whose conceptional animal is of the +same species, and he is not by the accident of his birth +entitled to take part in the totemic ceremonies connected +with it.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'>I found traces of this same belief in a number of tribes +north of the Ingarda, but everywhere the belief seemed to be +sporadic; that is to say, some persons believed in it and +others did not. Some individuals could tell the animal or +plant from which they or others were descended, while others +did not know or in some cases denied that conception was +so caused. There were to be met with, however, some +beliefs of the same character. A woman of the Buduna +tribe said that native women nowadays bear half-caste +children because they eat bread made of white flour. Many +<pb n='105'/><anchor id='Pg105'/> +of the men believed that conception is due to sexual intercourse, +but as these natives have been for many years in +contact with the whites this cannot be regarded as satisfactory +evidence of the nature of their original beliefs.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Conception +supposed +to be caused +by a man +who is not +the father.</note> +<q>In some tribes further to the north I found a more +interesting and better organised system of beliefs. In the +Kariera, Ñamal, and Injibandi tribes the conception of a +child is believed to be due to the agency of a particular man, +who is not the father. This man is the <foreign rend='italic'>wororu</foreign> of the child +when it is born. There were three different accounts of how +the <foreign rend='italic'>wororu</foreign> produces conception, each of them given to me +on several different occasions. According to the first, the +man gives some food, either animal or vegetable, to the +woman, and she eats this and becomes pregnant. According +to the second, the man when he is out hunting kills an +animal, preferably a kangaroo or an emu, and as it is dying +he tells its spirit or ghost to go to a particular woman. The +spirit of the dead animal goes into the woman and is born +as a child. The third account is very similar to the last. +A hunter, when he has killed a kangaroo or an emu, takes a +portion of the fat of the dead animal which he places on +one side. This fat turns into what we may speak of as a +spirit-baby, and follows the man to his camp. When the +man is asleep at night the spirit-baby comes to him and +he directs it to enter a certain woman who thus becomes +pregnant. When the child is born the man acknowledges +that he sent it, and becomes its <foreign rend='italic'>wororu</foreign>. In practically +every case that I examined, some forty in all, the <foreign rend='italic'>wororu</foreign> of +a man or woman was a person standing to him or her in the +relation of father's brother own or tribal. In one case a man +had a <foreign rend='italic'>wororu</foreign> who was his father's sister. The duties of a +man to his <foreign rend='italic'>wororu</foreign> are very vaguely defined. I was told +that a man <q>looks after</q> his <foreign rend='italic'>wororu</foreign>, that is, performs small +services for him, and, perhaps, gives him food. The conceptional +animal or plant is not the totem of either the child or the +<foreign rend='italic'>wororu</foreign>. The child has no particular magical connection with +the animal from which he is derived. In a very large number +of cases that animal is either the kangaroo or the emu.</q><note place='foot'>A. R. Brown, <q>Beliefs concerning +Childbirth in some Australian Tribes,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Man</hi>, xii. (1912) pp. 180 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Compare +<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <q>Three Tribes of Western +Australia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Royal Anthropological +Institute</hi>, xliii. (1913) +p. 168.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='106'/><anchor id='Pg106'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Some rude +races still +ignorant as +to the +cause of +procreation.</note> +Thus it appears that a childlike ignorance as to the +physical process of procreation still prevails to some extent +among certain rude races of mankind, who are accordingly +driven to account for it in various fanciful ways such as +might content the curiosity of children. We may safely +assume that formerly a like ignorance was far more widely +spread than it is now; indeed in the long ages which elapsed +before any portion of mankind emerged from savagery, it is +probable that the true cause of childbirth was universally +unknown, and that people made shift to explain the mystery +by some such theories as are still current among the savage +or barbarous races of Central Africa, Melanesia, and +Australia. A little reflection on the conditions of savage +life may satisfy us that the ignorance is by no means so +surprising as it may seem at first sight to a civilized observer, +or, to put it otherwise, that the true cause of the birth of +children is not nearly so obvious as we are apt to think. +Among low savages, such as all men were originally, it is +customary for boys and girls to cohabit freely with each +other under the age of puberty, so that they are familiar +with a commerce of the sexes which is not and cannot be +attended with the birth of children. It is, therefore, not very +wonderful that they should confidently deny the connexion +of sexual intercourse with the production of offspring. +Again, the long interval of time which divides the act of +conception from the first manifest symptoms of pregnancy +might easily disguise from the heedless savage the vital +relation between the two. These considerations may remove +or lessen the hesitation which civilized man naturally feels at +admitting that a considerable part or even the whole of his +species should ever have doubted or denied what seems to +him one of the most obvious and elementary truths of +nature.<note place='foot'>Those who desire to pursue this +subject further may consult with advantage +Mr. E. S. Hartland's learned +treatise <hi rend='italic'>Primitive Paternity</hi> (London, +1909-1910), which contains an ample +collection of facts and a careful discussion +of them. Elsewhere I have argued +that the primitive ignorance of paternity +furnishes the key to the origin of totemism. +See <hi rend='italic'>Totemism and Exogamy</hi>, i. +155 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, iv. 40 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Legends of +virgin +mothers.</note> +In the light of the foregoing evidence, stories of the +<pb n='107'/><anchor id='Pg107'/> +miraculous birth of gods and heroes from virgin mothers +lose much of the glamour that encircled them in days of old, +and we view them simply as relics of superstition surviving +like fossils to tell us of a bygone age of childlike ignorance +and credulity. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='8. Sacred Stocks and Stones among the Semites.'/> +<head>§ 8. Sacred Stocks and Stones among the Semites.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Procreative +virtue +apparently +ascribed to +the sacred +stocks and +stones at +Semitic +sanctuaries.</note> +Traces of beliefs and customs like the foregoing may +perhaps be detected among the ancient Semites. When the +prophet Jeremiah speaks of the Israelites who said to a +stock or to a tree (for in Hebrew the words are the same), +<q>Thou art my father,</q> and to a stone, <q>Thou hast brought +me forth,</q><note place='foot'>Jeremiah ii. 27. The ancient +Greeks seem also to have had a notion +that men were sprung from trees or +rocks. See Homer, <hi rend='italic'>Od.</hi> xix. 163; +F. G. Welcker, <hi rend='italic'>Griechische Götterlehre</hi> +(Göttingen, 1857-1862), i. 777 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +A. B. Cook, <q>Oak and Rock,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Classical Review</hi>, xv. (1901) pp. 322 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> it is probable that he was not using vague +rhetorical language, but denouncing real beliefs current +among his contemporaries. Now we know that at all the +old Canaanite sanctuaries, including the sanctuaries of +Jehovah down to the reformations of Hezekiah and Josiah, +the two regular objects of worship were a sacred stock and +a sacred stone,<note place='foot'>The <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ashera</foreign> and the <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>masseba</foreign>. See +1 Kings xiv. 23; 2 Kings xviii. 4, +xxiii. 14; Micah v. 13 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> (in Hebrew, +12 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>); Deuteronomy xvi. 21 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +W. Robertson Smith, <hi rend='italic'>Religion of the +Semites</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 187 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 203 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; G. F. +Moore, in <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>svv.</hi>, +<q>Asherah</q> and <q>Massebah.</q> In the +early religion of Crete also the two +principal objects of worship seem to +have been a sacred tree and a sacred +pillar. See A. J. Evans, <q>Mycenaean +Tree and Pillar Cult,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of +Hellenic Studies</hi>, xxi. (1901) pp. 99 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> and that these sanctuaries were the seats of +profligate rites performed by sacred men (<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshim</foreign>) and +sacred women (<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ḳedeshoth</foreign>). Is it not natural to suppose +that the stock and stone which the superstitious Israelites +regarded as their father and mother were the sacred stock +(<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>asherah</foreign>) and the sacred stone (<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>massebah</foreign>) of the sanctuary, +and that the children born of the loose intercourse of the +sexes at these places were believed to be the offspring or +emanations of these uncouth but worshipful idols in which, +as in the sacred trees and stones of Central Australia, the +souls of the dead may have been supposed to await rebirth? +On this view the sacred men and women who actually begot +<pb n='108'/><anchor id='Pg108'/> +or bore the children were deemed the human embodiments of +the two divinities, the men perhaps personating the sacred +stock, which appears to have been a tree stripped of its +branches, and the women personating the sacred stone, +which seems to have been in the shape of a cone, an obelisk, +or a pillar.<note place='foot'>As to conical images of Semitic +goddesses, see above, pp. <ref target='Pg034'>34</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The +sacred pole (<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>asherah</foreign>) appears also to +have been by some people regarded as +the embodiment of a goddess (Astarte), +not of a god. See above, p. <ref target='Pg018'>18</ref>, note 2. +Among the Khasis of Assam the sacred +upright stones, which resemble the +Semitic <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>masseboth</foreign>, are regarded as +males, and the flat table-stones as +female. See P. R. T. Gurdon, <hi rend='italic'>The +Khasis</hi> (London, 1907), pp. 112 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +150 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> So in Nikunau, one of the +Gilbert Islands in the South Pacific, +the natives had sandstone slabs or +pillars which represented gods and +goddesses. <q>If the stone slab represented +a goddess it was not placed +erect, but laid down on the ground. +Being a lady they thought it would be +cruel to make her stand so long.</q> See +G. Turner, LL.D., <hi rend='italic'>Samoa</hi> (London, +1884), p. 296.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>These conclusions +confirmed +by the +excavation +of a +sanctuary +at the +Canaanitish +city +of Gezer. +The infants +buried +in the +sanctuary +may have +been +expected +to be born +again.</note> +These conclusions are confirmed by the result of recent researches +at Gezer, an ancient Canaanitish city, which occupied +a high, isolated point on the southern border of Ephraim, +between Jerusalem and the sea. Here the English excavations +have laid bare the remains of a sanctuary with the +sacred stone pillars or obelisks (<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>masseboth</foreign>) still standing in +a row, while between two of them is set a large socketed +stone, beautifully squared, which perhaps contained the +sacred stock or pole (<foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>asherah</foreign>). In the soil which had accumulated +over the floor of the temple were found vast numbers +of male emblems rudely carved out of soft limestone; and +tablets of terra-cotta, representing in low relief the mother-goddess, +were discovered throughout the strata. These +objects were no doubt votive-offerings presented by the +worshippers to the male and female deities who were represented +by the sacred stock and the sacred stones; and their +occurrence in large quantities raises a strong presumption +that the divinities of the sanctuary were a god and goddess +regarded as above all sources of fertility. The supposition +is further strengthened by a very remarkable discovery. +Under the floor of the temple were found the bones of +many new-born children, none more than a week old, buried +in large jars. None of these little bodies showed any trace +of mutilation or violence; and in the light of the customs +practised in many other lands<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg091'>91</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> we seem to be justified in +<pb n='109'/><anchor id='Pg109'/> +conjecturing that the infants were still-born or died soon +after birth, and that they were buried by their parents in the +sanctuary in the hope that, quickened by the divine power, +they might enter again into the mother's womb and again be +born into the world.<note place='foot'>As to the excavations at Gezer, see +R. A. Stewart Macalister, <hi rend='italic'>Reports on the +Excavation of Gezer</hi> (London, <hi rend='smallcaps'>n.d.</hi>), pp. +76-89 (reprinted from the <hi rend='italic'>Quarterly +Statement of the Palestine Exploration +Fund</hi>); <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Bible Side-lights from the +Mound of Gezer</hi> (London, 1906), pp. 57-67, +73-75. Professor Macalister now +inclines to regard the socketed stone as +a laver rather than as the base of the +sacred pole. He supposes that the +buried infants were first-born children +sacrificed in accordance with the +ancient law of the dedication of the +first-born. The explanation which I +have adopted in the text agrees better +with the uninjured state of the bodies, +and it is further confirmed by the +result of the Austrian excavations at +Tell Ta'annek (Taanach) in Palestine, +which seem to prove that there children +up to the age of two years were not +buried in the family graves but interred +separately in jars. Some of these +sepulchral jars were deposited under +or beside the houses, but many were +grouped round a rock-hewn altar in a +different part of the hill. There is +nothing to indicate that any of the +children were sacrificed: the size of +some of the skeletons precludes the +idea that they were slain at birth. +Probably they all died natural deaths, +and the custom of burying them in or +near the house or beside an altar was +intended to ensure their rebirth in the +family. See Dr. E. Sellin, <q>Tell +Ta'annek,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Denkschriften der Kaiser. +Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische +Klasse</hi>, l. (Vienna, +1904), No. iv. pp. 32-37, 96 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +Compare W. W. Graf Baudissin, +<hi rend='italic'>Adonis und Esmun</hi>, p. 59 n.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi>. I have +to thank Professor R. A. Stewart +Macalister for kindly directing my +attention to the excavations at Tell +Ta'annek (Taanach). It deserves to +be mentioned that in an enclosure +close to the standing stones at Gezer, +there was found a bronze model of a +cobra (R. A. Stewart Macalister, <hi rend='italic'>Bible +Side-lights</hi>, p. 76). Perhaps the reptile +was the deity of the shrine, or an embodiment +of an ancestral spirit.</note> If the souls of these buried babes were +supposed to pass into the sacred stocks and stones and to dart +from them into the bodies of would-be mothers who resorted +to the sanctuary, the analogy with Central Australia would +be complete. That the analogy is real and not fanciful is +strongly suggested by the modern practice of Syrian women +who still repair to the shrines of saints to procure offspring, +and who still look on <q>holy men</q> as human embodiments +of divinity. In this, as in many other dark places of +superstition, the present is the best guide to the interpretation +of the past; for while the higher forms of religious faith +pass away like clouds, the lower stand firm and indestructible +like rocks. The <q>sacred men</q> of one age are the dervishes +of the next, the Adonis of yesterday is the St. George of +to-day. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='110'/><anchor id='Pg110'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter V. The Burning of Melcarth.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Semitic +custom of +sacrificing +a member +of the royal +family. +The +burning of +Melcarth +at Tyre. Festival +of <q>the +awakening +of Hercules</q> +at +Tyre.</note> +If a custom of putting a king or his son to death in the +character of a god has left small traces of itself in Cyprus, +an island where the fierce zeal of Semitic religion was early +tempered by Greek humanity, the vestiges of that gloomy +rite are clearer in Phoenicia itself and in the Phoenician +colonies, which lay more remote from the highways of +Grecian commerce. We know that the Semites were in +the habit of sacrificing some of their children, generally +the first-born, either as a tribute regularly due to the deity +or to appease his anger in seasons of public danger and +calamity.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, pp. 166 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +See Note I., <q>Moloch the King,</q> at +the end of this volume.</note> If commoners did so, is it likely that kings, +with all their heavy responsibilities, could exempt themselves +from this dreadful sacrifice for the fatherland? +In point of fact, history informs us that kings steeled +themselves to do as others did.<note place='foot'>Philo of Byblus, quoted by +Eusebius, <hi rend='italic'>Praepar. Evang.</hi> i. 10. 29 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; 2 Kings iii. 27.</note> It deserves to be +noticed that if Mesha, king of Moab, who sacrificed his +eldest son by fire, claimed to be a son of his god,<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg015'>15</ref>.</note> he +would no doubt transmit his divinity to his offspring; and +further, that the same sacrifice is said to have been performed +in the same way by the divine founder of Byblus, the great +seat of the worship of Adonis.<note place='foot'>Philo of Byblus, in <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta +Historicorum Graecorum</hi>, ed. C. Müller, +iii. pp. 569, 570, 571. See above, +p. <ref target='Pg013'>13</ref>.</note> This suggests that the +human representatives of Adonis formerly perished in the +flames. At all events, a custom of periodically burning +the chief god of the city in effigy appears to have prevailed +<pb n='111'/><anchor id='Pg111'/> +at Tyre and in the Tyrian colonies down to a late time, +and the effigy may well have been a later substitute for a +man. For Melcarth, the great god of Tyre, was identified +by the Greeks with Hercules,<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg016'>16</ref>.</note> who is said to have burned +himself to death on a great pyre, ascending up to heaven in +a cloud and a peal of thunder.<note place='foot'>Sophocles, <hi rend='italic'>Trachiniae</hi>, 1191 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, ii. 7. 7; Diodorus +Siculus, iv. 38; Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> +36.</note> The common Greek legend, +immortalized by Sophocles, laid the scene of the fiery +tragedy on the top of Mount Oeta, but another version +transferred it significantly to Tyre itself.<note place='foot'>[S. Clementis Romani,] <hi rend='italic'>Recognitiones</hi>, +x. 24, p. 233, ed. E. G. +Gersdorf (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, +i. 1434).</note> Combined with +the other evidence which I shall adduce, this latter tradition +raises a strong presumption that an effigy of Hercules, or +rather of Melcarth, was regularly burned at a great festival +in Tyre. That festival may have been the one known as +<q>the awakening of Hercules,</q> which was held in the month +of Peritius, answering nearly to January.<note place='foot'>Josephus, <hi rend='italic'>Antiquit. Jud.</hi> viii. 5. 3, +<hi rend='italic'>Contra Apionem</hi>, i. 18. Whether the +quadriennial festival of Hercules at +Tyre (2 Maccabees iv. 18-20) was a +different celebration, or only <q>the +awakening of Melcarth,</q> celebrated +with unusual pomp once in four years, +we do not know.</note> The name of the +festival suggests that the dramatic representation of the +death of the god on the pyre was followed by a semblance +of his resurrection. The mode in which the resurrection was +supposed to be effected is perhaps indicated by the statement +of a Greek writer that the Phoenicians used to sacrifice +quails to Hercules, because Hercules on his journey to +Libya had been slain by Typhon and brought to life again +by Iolaus, who held a quail under his nose: the dead god +snuffed at the bird and revived.<note place='foot'>Eudoxus of Cnidus, quoted by +Athenaeus, ix. 47, p. 392 <hi rend='smallcaps'>d</hi>, <hi rend='smallcaps'>e</hi>. That +the death and resurrection of Melcarth +were celebrated in an annual festival at +Tyre has been recognised by scholars. +See Raoul-Rochette, <q>Sur l'Hercule +Assyrien et Phénicien,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Mémoires de +l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres</hi>, +xvii. Deuxième Partie (Paris, +1848), pp. 25 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; H. Hubert et M. +Mauss, <q>Essai sur le sacrifice,</q> <hi rend='italic'>L'Année +Sociologique</hi>, ii. (1899) pp. 122, 124; +M. J. Lagrange, <hi rend='italic'>Études sur les Religions +Sémitiques</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 308-311. Iolaus +is identified by some modern scholars +with Eshmun, a Phoenician and Carthaginian +deity about whom little is known. +See F. C. Movers, <hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, i. +(Bonn, 1841) pp. 536 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; F. Baethgen, +<hi rend='italic'>Beiträge zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte</hi> +(Berlin, 1888), pp. 44 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +C. P. Tiele, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der Religion im +Altertum</hi> (Gotha, 1896-1903), i. 268; +W. W. Graf Baudissin, <hi rend='italic'>Adonis und +Esmun</hi>, pp. 282 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> According to another +account Iolaus burnt a quail alive, and the dead hero, who +<pb n='112'/><anchor id='Pg112'/> +loved quails, came to life again through the savoury smell of +the roasted bird.<note place='foot'>Zenobius, <hi rend='italic'>Centur.</hi> v. 56 (<hi rend='italic'>Paroemiographi +Graeci</hi>, ed. E. L. Leutsch et +F. G. Schneidewin, Göttingen, 1839-1851, +vol. i. p. 143).</note> This latter tradition seems to point to a +custom of burning the quails alive in the Phoenician sacrifices +to Melcarth.<note place='foot'>Quails were perhaps burnt in honour +of the Cilician Hercules or Sandan at +Tarsus. See below, p. <ref target='Pg126'>126</ref>, note 2.</note> A festival of the god's resurrection might +appropriately be held in spring, when the quails migrate +northwards across the Mediterranean in great bands, and +immense numbers of them are netted for the market.<note place='foot'>Alfred Newton, <hi rend='italic'>Dictionary of +Birds</hi> (London, 1893-96), p. 755.</note> In +the month of March the birds return to Palestine by myriads +in a single night, and remain to breed in all the open plains, +marshes, and cornfields.<note place='foot'>H. B. Tristram, <hi rend='italic'>The Fauna and +Flora of Palestine</hi> (London, 1884), p. +124. For more evidence as to the +migration of quails see Aug. Dillmann's +commentary on Exodus xvi. 13, pp. +169 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> (Leipsic, 1880).</note> Certainly a close connexion seems +to have subsisted between quails and Melcarth; for legend +ran that Asteria, the mother of the Tyrian Hercules, that is, +of Melcarth, was transformed into a quail.<note place='foot'>The Tyrian Hercules was said to +be a son of Zeus and Asteria (Eudoxus +of Cnidus, quoted by Athenaeus, ix. 47, +p. 392 <hi rend='smallcaps'>d</hi>; Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De natura deorum</hi>, +iii. 16. 42). As to the transformation +of Asteria into a quail see Apollodorus, +<hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, i. 4. 1; J. Tzetzes, <hi rend='italic'>Schol. +on Lycophron</hi>, 401; Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 53; +Servius on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> iii. 73. The +name Asteria may be a Greek form of +Astarte. See W. W. Graf Baudissin, +<hi rend='italic'>Adonis und Esmun</hi>, p. 307.</note> It was probably +to this annual festival of the death and resurrection of +Melcarth that the Carthaginians were wont to send ambassadors +every year to Tyre, their mother-city.<note place='foot'>Quintus Curtius, iv. 2. 10; Arrian, +<hi rend='italic'>Anabasis</hi>, ii. 24. 5.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Worship of +Melcarth +at Gades, +and trace +of a custom +of burning +him there +in effigy.</note> +In Gades, the modern Cadiz, an early colony of Tyre on +the Atlantic coast of Spain,<note place='foot'>Strabo, iii. 5. 5, pp. 169 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Mela, iii. 46; Scymnus Chius, <hi rend='italic'>Orbis +Descriptio</hi>, 159-161 (<hi rend='italic'>Geographi Graeci +Minores</hi>, ed. C. Müller, i. 200 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>).</note> there was an ancient, famous, +and wealthy sanctuary of Hercules, the Tyrian Melcarth. +Indeed the god was said to be buried on the spot. No +image stood in his temple, but a perpetual fire burned on +the altar, and incense was offered by white-robed priests, +with bare feet and shorn heads, who were bound to chastity. +Neither women nor pigs might pollute the holy place by +their presence. In later times many distinguished Romans +went on pilgrimage to this remote shrine on the Atlantic +shore when they were about to embark on some perilous +<pb n='113'/><anchor id='Pg113'/> +enterprise, and they returned to it to pay their vows when +their petitions had been granted.<note place='foot'>Silius Italicus, iii. 14-32; Mela, +iii. 46; Strabo, iii. 5. 3, 5, 7, pp. +169, 170, 172; Diodorus Siculus, v. +20. 2; Philostratus, <hi rend='italic'>Vita Apollonii</hi>, +v. 4 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Appian, <hi rend='italic'>Hispanica</hi>, 65. +Compare Arrian, <hi rend='italic'>Anabasis</hi>, ii. 16. 4. +That the bones of Hercules were buried +at Gades is mentioned by Mela (<hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>). +Compare Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, +i. 36. In Italy women were not +allowed to participate in sacrifices +offered to Hercules (Aulus Gellius, xi. +6. 2; Macrobius, <hi rend='italic'>Saturn.</hi> i. 12. 28; +Sextus Aurelius Victor, <hi rend='italic'>De origine +gentis Romanae</hi>, vi. 6; Plutarch, +<hi rend='italic'>Quaestiones Romanae</hi>, 60). Whether +the priests of Melcarth at Gades were +celibate, or had only to observe continence +at certain seasons, does not +appear. At Tyre the priest of Melcarth +might be married (Justin, xviii. +4. 5). The worship of Melcarth under +the name of Hercules continued to +flourish in the south of Spain down to +the time of the Roman Empire. See +J. Toutain, <hi rend='italic'>Les Cultes païens dans +l'Empire Romain</hi>, Première Partie, i. +(Paris, 1907) pp. 400 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> One of the last things +Hannibal himself did before he marched on Italy was to +repair to Gades and offer up to Melcarth prayers which were +never to be answered. Soon after he dreamed an ominous +dream.<note place='foot'>Livy, xxi. 21. 9, 22. 5-9; Cicero, +<hi rend='italic'>De Divinatione</hi>, i. 24. 49; Silius +Italicus, iii. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 158 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Now it would appear that at Gades, as at Tyre, +though no image of Melcarth stood in the temple, an effigy +of him was made up and burned at a yearly festival. For +a certain Cleon of Magnesia related how, visiting Gades, he +was obliged to sail away from the island with the rest of +the multitude in obedience to the command of Hercules, +that is, of Melcarth, and how on their return they found a +monstrous man of the sea stranded on the beach and +burning; for the god, they were told, had struck him with +a thunderbolt.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, x. 4. 5.</note> We may conjecture that at the annual +festival of Melcarth strangers were obliged to quit the city, +and that in their absence the mystery of burning the god +was consummated. What Cleon and the rest saw on their +return to Gades would, on this hypothesis, be the smouldering +remains of a gigantic effigy of Melcarth in the likeness of +a man riding on a sea-horse, just as he is represented on coins +of Tyre.<note place='foot'>B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Numorum</hi> +(Oxford, 1887), p. 674; G. A. Cooke, +<hi rend='italic'>Text-Book of North-Semitic Inscriptions</hi>, +p. 351.</note> In like manner the Greeks portrayed the sea-god +Melicertes, whose name is only a slightly altered form of +Melcarth, riding on a dolphin or stretched on the beast's back.<note place='foot'>F. Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner, +<hi rend='italic'>Numismatic Commentary on Pausanias</hi>, +pp. 10-12, with pl. A; Stoll, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Melikertes,</q> in W. H. Roscher's +<hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, +ii. 2634.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Evidence +of a custom +of burning +a god or +goddess at +Carthage. +The fire-walk +at +Tyre. The fire-walk at +Castabala. +The Carthaginian +king +Hamilcar +sacrifices +himself in +the fire.</note> +At Carthage, the greatest of the Tyrian colonies, a +<pb n='114'/><anchor id='Pg114'/> +reminiscence of the custom of burning a deity in effigy +seems to linger in the story that Dido or Elissa, the foundress +and queen of the city, stabbed herself to death upon a pyre, +or leaped from her palace into the blazing pile, to escape +the fond importunities of one lover or in despair at +the cruel desertion of another.<note place='foot'>Justin, xviii. 6. 1-7; Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> +iv. 473 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, v. i. <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Fasti</hi>, +iii. 545 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Timaeus, in <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta +Historicorum Graecorum</hi>, ed. C. Müller, +i. 197. Compare W. Robertson Smith, +<hi rend='italic'>Religion of the Semites</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 373 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +The name of Dido has been plausibly +derived by Gesenius, Movers, E. Meyer, +and A. H. Sayce from the Semitic +<foreign rend='italic'>dôd</foreign>, <q>beloved.</q> See F. C. Movers, +<hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, i. 616; Meltzer, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Dido,</q> in W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon +der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, i. +1017 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; A. H. Sayce, <hi rend='italic'>Lectures +on the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians</hi> +(London and Edinburgh, 1887), +pp. 56 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> If they are right, the +divine character of Dido becomes +more probable than ever, since <q>the +Beloved</q> (<foreign rend='italic'>Dodah</foreign>) seems to have been +a title of a Semitic goddess, perhaps +Astarte. See above, p. <ref target='Pg020'>20</ref>, note 2. +According to Varro it was not Dido but +her sister Anna who slew herself on a +pyre for love of Aeneas (Servius on +Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> iv. 682).</note> We are told that Dido +was worshipped as a goddess at Carthage so long as the +country maintained its independence.<note place='foot'>Justin, xviii. 6. 8.</note> Her temple stood +in the centre of the city shaded by a grove of solemn yews +and firs.<note place='foot'>Silius Italicus, i. 81 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> The two apparently contradictory views of her +character as a queen and a goddess may be reconciled if +we suppose that she was both the one and the other; that +in fact the queen of Carthage in early days, like the queen of +Egypt down to historical times, was regarded as divine, and +had, like human deities elsewhere, to die a violent death +either at the end of a fixed period or whenever her bodily +and mental powers began to fail. In later ages the stern +old custom might be softened down into a pretence by +substituting an effigy for the queen or by allowing her to +pass through the fire unscathed. A similar modification of +the ancient rule appears to have been allowed at Tyre itself, +the mother-city of Carthage. We have seen reason to think +that the kings of Tyre, from whom Dido was descended, +claimed to personate the god Melcarth, and that the deity +was burned either in effigy or in the person of a man at an +annual festival.<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg016'>16</ref>, <ref target='Pg110'>110</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Now in the same chapter in which Ezekiel +charges the king of Tyre with claiming to be a god, the +prophet describes him as walking <q>up and down amidst the +stones of fire.</q><note place='foot'>Ezekiel xxviii. 14, compare 16.</note> The description becomes at once intelligible +<pb n='115'/><anchor id='Pg115'/> +if we suppose that in later times the king of Tyre compounded +for being burnt in the fire by walking up and down +on hot stones, thereby saving his life at the expense perhaps +of a few blisters on his feet. It is possible that when all +went well with the commonwealth, children whom strict law +doomed to the furnace of Moloch may also have been +mercifully allowed to escape on condition of running the +fiery gauntlet. At all events, a religious rite of this sort has +been and is still practised in many parts of the world: the +performers solemnly pace through a furnace of heated stones +or glowing wood-ashes in the presence of a multitude of +spectators. Examples of the custom have been adduced +in another part of this work.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Balder the Beautiful</hi>, ii. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +But, as I have there pointed out, there +are grounds for thinking that the custom +of walking over fire is not a substitute +for human sacrifice, but merely a stringent +form of purification. On fire as a +purificatory agent see below, pp. <ref target='Pg179'>179</ref> +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, <ref target='Pg188'>188</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Here I will cite only +one. At Castabala, in Southern Cappadocia, there was +worshipped an Asiatic goddess whom the Greeks called +the Perasian Artemis. Her priestesses used to walk barefoot +over a fire of charcoal without sustaining any injury. +That this rite was a substitute for burning human beings +alive or dead is suggested by the tradition which placed the +adventure of Orestes and the Tauric Artemis at Castabala;<note place='foot'>Strabo, xii. 2. 7, p. 537. In +Greece itself accused persons used to +prove their innocence by walking +through fire (Sophocles, <hi rend='italic'>Antigone</hi>, 264 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, with Jebb's note). Possibly the +fire-walk of the priestesses at Castabala +was designed to test their chastity. +For this purpose the priests and +priestesses of the Tshi-speaking people +of the Gold Coast submit to an ordeal, +standing one by one in a narrow circle +of fire. This <q>is supposed to show +whether they have remained pure, and +refrained from sexual intercourse, during +the period of retirement, and so are +worthy of inspiration by the gods. If +they are pure they will receive no injury +and suffer no pain from the fire</q> (A. B. +Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the +Gold Coast</hi>, London, 1887, p. 138). +These cases favour the purificatory +explanation of the fire-walk.</note> +for the men or women sacrificed to the Tauric Artemis +were first put to the sword and then burned in a pit of +sacred fire.<note place='foot'>Euripides, <hi rend='italic'>Iphigenia in Tauris</hi>, +621-626. Compare Diodorus Siculus, +xx. 14. 6.</note> Among the Carthaginians another trace of +such a practice may perhaps be detected in the story that +at the desperate battle of Himera, fought from dawn of day +till late in the evening, the Carthaginian king Hamilcar +remained in the camp and kept sacrificing holocausts of +victims on a huge pyre; but when he saw his army giving +<pb n='116'/><anchor id='Pg116'/> +way before the Greeks, he flung himself into the flames and was +burned to death. Afterwards his countrymen sacrificed to him +and erected a great monument in his honour at Carthage, +while lesser monuments were reared to his memory in all the +Punic colonies.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, vii. 167. This was +the Carthaginian version of the story. +According to another account, Hamilcar +was killed by the Greek cavalry +(Diodorus Siculus, xi. 22. 1). His +worship at Carthage is mentioned by +Athenagoras (<hi rend='italic'>Supplicatio pro Christianis</hi>, +p. 64, ed. J. C. T. Otto, Jena, +1857.) I have called Hamilcar a king +in accordance with the usage of Greek +writers (Herodotus, vii. 165 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Aristotle, +<hi rend='italic'>Politics</hi>, ii. 11; Polybius, vi. 51; +Diodorus Siculus, xiv. 54. 5). But +the <foreign rend='italic'>suffetes</foreign>, or supreme magistrates, +of Carthage were two in number; +whether they were elected for a year +or for life seems to be doubtful. +Cornelius Nepos, who calls them +kings, says that they were elected +annually (<hi rend='italic'>Hannibal</hi>, vii. 4), and Livy +(xxx. 7. 5) compares them to the +consuls; but Cicero (<hi rend='italic'>De re publica</hi>, ii. +23. 42 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>) seems to imply that they +held office for life. See G. A. Cooke, +<hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions</hi>, +pp. 115 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> In public emergencies which called for extraordinary +measures a king of Carthage may well have felt +bound in honour to sacrifice himself in the old way for the good +of his country. That the Carthaginians regarded the death +of Hamilcar as an act of heroism and not as a mere suicide of +despair, is proved by the posthumous honours they paid him. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The death +of Hercules +a Greek +version of +the burning +of +Melcarth.</note> +The foregoing evidence, taken altogether, raises a strong +presumption, though it cannot be said to amount to a +proof, that a practice of burning a deity, and especially +Melcarth, in effigy or in the person of a human representative, +was observed at an annual festival in Tyre and +its colonies. We can thus understand how Hercules, in +so far as he represented the Tyrian god, was believed +to have perished by a voluntary death on a pyre. For +on many a beach and headland of the Aegean, where the +Phoenicians had their trading factories, the Greeks may +have watched the bale-fires of Melcarth blazing in the +darkness of night, and have learned with wonder that the +strange foreign folk were burning their god. In this way +the legend of the voyages of Hercules and his death in the +flames may be supposed to have originated. Yet with +the legend the Greeks borrowed the custom of burning the +god; for at the festivals of Hercules a pyre used to be +kindled in memory of the hero's fiery death on Mount +Oeta.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>Amores</hi>, 1 and 54.</note> We may surmise, though we are not expressly told, +that an effigy of Hercules was regularly burned on the pyre. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='117'/><anchor id='Pg117'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VI. The Burning of Sandan.</head> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='1. The Baal of Tarsus.'/> +<head>§ 1. The Baal of Tarsus.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The Tyrian +Melcarth +in Cyprus. +The lion-slaying +god.</note> +In Cyprus the Tyrian Melcarth was worshipped side by +side with Adonis at Amathus,<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg032'>32</ref>.</note> and Phoenician inscriptions +prove that he was revered also at Idalium and Larnax +Lapethus. At the last of these places he seems to have +been regarded by the Greeks as a marine deity and +identified with Poseidon.<note place='foot'>G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic +Inscriptions</hi>, Nos. 23 and 29, +PP. 73, 83 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, with the notes on pp. +81, 84.</note> A remarkable statue found +at Amathus may represent Melcarth in the character of +the lion-slayer, a character which the Greeks bestowed +on Hercules. The statue in question is of colossal size, +and exhibits a thick-set, muscular, hirsute deity of almost +bestial aspect, with goggle eyes, huge ears, and a pair +of stumpy horns on the top of his head. His beard is +square and curly: his hair falls in three pigtails on his +shoulders: his brawny arms appear to be tattooed. A +lion's skin, clasped by a buckle, is knotted round his loins; +and he holds the skin of a lioness in front of him, grasping +a hind paw with each hand, while the head of the beast, +which is missing, hung down between his legs. A fountain +must have issued from the jaws of the lioness, for a +rectangular hole, where the beast's head should be, communicates +by a channel with another hole in the back +of the statue. Greek artists working on this or a similar +barbarous model produced the refined type of the Grecian +Hercules with the lion's scalp thrown like a cowl over +<pb n='118'/><anchor id='Pg118'/> +his head. Statues of him have been found in Cyprus, +which represent intermediate stages in this artistic evolution.<note place='foot'>G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iii. 566-578. +The colossal statue found at Amathus +may be related, directly or indirectly, +to the Egyptian god Bes, who is +represented as a sturdy misshapen +dwarf, wearing round his body the +skin of a beast of the panther tribe, +with its tail hanging down. See E. +A. Wallis Budge, <hi rend='italic'>The Gods of the +Egyptians</hi> (London, 1904), ii. 284 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; A. Wiedemann, <hi rend='italic'>Religion of the +Ancient Egyptians</hi> (London, 1897), +pp. 159 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; A. Furtwängler, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Herakles,</q> in W. H. Roscher's +<hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, +i. 2143 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +But there is no proof that in Cyprus the Tyrian +Melcarth was burned either in effigy or in the person of a +human representative.<note place='foot'>However, human victims were +burned at Salamis in Cyprus. See +below, p. <ref target='Pg145'>145</ref>.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The Baal +of Tarsus, +an Oriental +god of corn +and grapes.</note> +On the other hand, there is clear evidence of the +observance of such a custom in Cilicia, the country which +lies across the sea from Cyprus, and from which the +worship of Adonis, according to tradition, was derived.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg041'>41</ref>.</note> +Whether the Phoenicians ever colonized Cilicia or not is +doubtful,<note place='foot'>For traces of Phoenician influence +in Cilicia see F. C. Movers, <hi rend='italic'>Die +Phoenizier</hi>, ii. 2, pp. 167-174, 207 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +Herodotus says (vii. 91) that the +Cilicians were named after Cilix, a +son of the Phoenician Agenor.</note> but at all events the natives of the country, down +to late times, worshipped a male deity who, in spite of +a superficial assimilation to a fashionable Greek god, +appears to have been an Oriental by birth and character. +He had his principal seat at Tarsus, in a plain of +luxuriant fertility and almost tropical climate, tempered +by breezes from the snowy range of Tarsus on the north +and from the sea on the south.<note place='foot'>As to the fertility and the climate +of the plain of Tarsus, which is now +very malarious, see E. J. Davis, <hi rend='italic'>Life in +Asiatic Turkey</hi> (London, 1879), chaps. +i.-vii. The gardens for miles round +the city are very lovely, but wild +and neglected, full of magnificent +trees, especially fine oak, ash, orange, +and lemon-trees. The vines run to +the top of the highest branches, and +almost every garden resounds with +the song of the nightingale (E. J. +Davis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 35).</note> Though Tarsus boasted +of a school of Greek philosophy which at the beginning +of our era surpassed those of Athens and Alexandria,<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiv. 5. 13, pp. 673 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +the city apparently remained in manners and spirit +essentially Oriental. The women went about the streets +muffled up to the eyes in Eastern fashion, and Dio +Chrysostom reproaches the natives with resembling the +most dissolute of the Phoenicians rather than the Greeks +<pb n='119'/><anchor id='Pg119'/> +whose civilization they aped.<note place='foot'>Dio Chrysostom, <hi rend='italic'>Or.</hi> xxxiii. vol. +ii. pp. 14 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 17, ed. L. Dindorf +(Leipsic, 1857).</note> On the coins of the city +they assimilated their native deity to Zeus by representing +him seated on a throne, the upper part of his body bare, +the lower limbs draped in a flowing robe, while in one +hand he holds a sceptre, which is topped sometimes with +an eagle but often with a lotus flower. Yet his foreign +nature is indicated both by his name and his attributes; +for in Aramaic inscriptions on the coins he bears the name +of the Baal of Tarsus, and in one hand he grasps an ear of +corn and a bunch of grapes.<note place='foot'>F. C. Movers, <hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, ii. +2, pp. 171 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; P. Gardner, <hi rend='italic'>Types of +Greek Coins</hi> (Cambridge, 1883), pl. x. +Nos. 29, 30; B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Historia +Numorum</hi> (Oxford, 1887), p. 614; +G. F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of Greek Coins +of Lycaonia, Isauria, and Cilicia</hi> +(London, 1900), pp. 167-176, pl. +xxix.-xxxii.; G. Macdonald, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue +of Greek Coins in the Hunterian +Collection</hi> (Glasgow, 1899-1905), ii. +547; G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iv. 727. In +later times, from about 175 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> onward, +the Baal of Tarsus was completely +assimilated to Zeus on the +coins. See B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. +617; G. F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 177, +181.</note> These attributes clearly +mark him out as a god of fertility in general, who conferred +on his worshippers the two things which they prized +above all other gifts of nature, the corn and the wine. +He was probably therefore a Semitic, or at all events an +Oriental, rather than a Greek deity. For while the Semite +cast all his gods more or less in the same mould, and +expected them all to render him nearly the same services, +the Greek, with his keener intelligence and more pictorial +imagination, invested his deities with individual characteristics, +allotting to each of them his or her separate function +in the divine economy of the world. Thus he assigned the +production of the corn to Demeter, and that of the grapes +to Dionysus; he was not so unreasonable as to demand +both from the same hard-worked deity. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='2. The God of Ibreez.'/> +<head>§ 2. The God of Ibreez.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The Baal +of Tarsus +has his +counterpart +at +Ibreez in +Cappadocia. The pass +of the +Cilician +Gates.</note> +Now the suspicion that the Baal of Tarsus, for all his +posing in the attitude of Zeus, was really an Oriental is +confirmed by a remarkable rock-hewn monument which is +to be seen at Ibreez in Southern Cappadocia. Though the +<pb n='120'/><anchor id='Pg120'/> +place is distant little more than fifty miles from Tarsus as +the crow flies, yet the journey on horseback occupies five +days; for the great barrier of the Taurus mountains rises +like a wall between. The road runs through the famous +pass of the Cilician Gates, and the scenery throughout is of +the grandest Alpine character. On all sides the mountains +tower skyward, their peaks sheeted in a dazzling pall of +snow, their lower slopes veiled in the almost inky blackness +of dense pine-forests, torn here and there by impassable +ravines, or broken into prodigious precipices of red and +grey rock which border the narrow valley for miles. The +magnificence of the landscape is enhanced by the exhilarating +influence of the brisk mountain air, all the more by +contrast with the sultry heat of the plain of Tarsus which +the traveller has left behind. When he emerges from the +defile on the wide open tableland of Anatolia he feels that +in a sense he has passed out of Asia, and that the highroad +to Europe lies straight before him. The great mountains +on which he now looks back formed for centuries the +boundary between the Christian West and the Mohammedan +East; on the southern side lay the domain of the Caliphs, +on the northern side the Byzantine Empire. The Taurus +was the dam that long repelled the tide of Arab invasion; +and though year by year the waves broke through the pass +of the Cilician Gates and carried havoc and devastation +through the tableland, the refluent waters always retired to +the lower level of the Cilician plains. A line of beacon +lights stretching from the Taurus to Constantinople flashed +to the Byzantine capital tidings of the approach of the +Moslem invaders.<note place='foot'>Sir W. M. Ramsay, <hi rend='italic'>Luke the +Physician, and other Studies in the +History of Religion</hi> (London, 1908), +pp. 112 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The rock-sculptures +at Ibreez +represent a +god of corn +and grapes +adored +by his worshipper, +a priest or +king.</note> +The village of Ibreez is charmingly situated at the +northern foot of the Taurus, some six or seven miles south +of the town of Eregli, the ancient Cybistra, From the +town to the village the path goes through a richly cultivated +district of wheat and vines along green lanes more lovely +than those of Devonshire, lined by thick hedges and rows +of willow, poplar, hazel, hawthorn, and huge old walnut-trees, +where in early summer the nightingales warble on +<pb n='121'/><anchor id='Pg121'/> +every side. Ibreez itself is embowered in the verdure of +orchards, walnuts, and vines. It stands at the mouth of +a deep ravine enclosed by great precipices of red rock. +From the western of these precipices a river clear as crystal, +but of a deep blue tint, bursts in a powerful jet, and being +reinforced by a multitude of springs becomes at once a +raging impassable torrent foaming and leaping with a roar +of waters over the rocks in its bed. A little way from the +source a branch of the main stream flows in a deep narrow +channel along the foot of a reddish weather-stained rock +which rises sheer from the water. On its face, which has +been smoothed to receive them, are the sculptures. They +consist of two colossal figures, representing a god adored by +his worshipper. The deity, some fourteen feet high, is a +bearded male figure, wearing on his head a high pointed +cap adorned with several pairs of horns, and plainly clad in +a short tunic, which does not reach his knees and is drawn +in at the waist by a belt. His legs and arms are bare; the +wrists are encircled by bangles or bracelets. His feet are +shod in high boots with turned-up toes. In his right hand +he holds a vine-branch laden with clusters of grapes, and in +his raised left hand he grasps a bunch of bearded wheat, +such as is still grown in Cappadocia; the ears of corn project +above his fingers, while the long stalks hang down to his +feet. In front of him stands the lesser figure, some eight +feet high. He is clearly a priest or king, more probably +perhaps both in one. His rich vestments contrast with the +simple costume of the god. On his head he wears a round +but not pointed cap, encircled by flat bands and ornamented +in front with a rosette or bunch of jewels, such as is still +worn by Eastern princes. He is draped from the neck to +the ankles in a long robe heavily fringed at the bottom, over +which is thrown a shawl or mantle secured at the breast by +a clasp of precious stones. Both robe and shawl are elaborately +carved with patterns in imitation of embroidery. A +heavy necklace of rings or beads encircles the neck; a +bracelet or bangle clasps the one wrist that is visible; the +feet are shod in boots like those of the god. One or perhaps +both hands are raised in the act of adoration. The large +aquiline nose, like the beak of a hawk, is a conspicuous +<pb n='122'/><anchor id='Pg122'/> +feature in the face both of the god and of his worshipper; +the hair and beard of both are thick and curly.<note place='foot'>E. J. Davis, <q>On a New Hamathite +Inscription at Ibreez,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Transactions +of the Society of Biblical +Archaeology</hi>, iv. (1876) pp. 336-346; +<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Life in Asiatic Turkey</hi> (London, +1879), pp. 245-260; G. Perrot et +Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art dans +l'Antiquité</hi>, iv. 723-729; Ramsay and +Hogarth, <q>Prehellenic Monuments of +Cappadocia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Recueil de Travaux relatifs +à la Philologie et à l'Archéologie +Égyptiennes et Assyriennes</hi>, xiv. (1903) +pp. 77-81, 85 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, with plates iii. and iv.; +L. Messerschmidt, <hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum +Hettiticarum</hi> (Berlin, 1900), +Tafel xxxiv.; Sir W. M. Ramsay, +<hi rend='italic'>Luke the Physician</hi> (London, 1908), +pp. 171 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; John Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The +Land of the Hittites</hi> (London, 1910), +pp. 191-195, 378 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Of this sculptured +group Messrs. W. M. Ramsay +and D. G. Hogarth say that <q>it yields +to no rock-relief in the world in impressive +character</q> (<hi rend='italic'>American Journal +of Archaeology</hi>, vi. (1890) p. 347). +Professor Garstang would date the +sculptures in the tenth or ninth century +<hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> Another inscribed Hittite monument +found at Bor, near the site of the +ancient Tyana, exhibits a very similar +figure of a priest or king in an attitude +of adoration. The resemblance extends +even to the patterns embroidered +on the robe and shawl, which include +the well-known <emph>swastika</emph> carved on the +lower border of the long robe. The +figure is sculptured in high relief on a +slab of stone and would seem to have +been surrounded by inscriptions, though +a portion of them has perished. See +J. Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 185-188, with +plate lvi. For the route from Tarsus +to Ibreez (Ivriz) see E. J. Davis, <hi rend='italic'>Life +in Asiatic Turkey</hi>, pp. 198-244; J. +Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 44 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +fertility of +Ibreez +contrasted +with the +desolation +of the surrounding +country.</note> +The situation of this remarkable monument resembles +that of Aphaca on the Lebanon;<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg028'>28</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> for in both places we see +a noble river issuing abruptly from the rock to spread fertility +through the rich vale below. Nowhere, perhaps, could man +more appropriately revere those great powers of nature to +whose favour he ascribes the fruitfulness of the earth, and +through it the life of animate creation. With its cool +bracing air, its mass of verdure, its magnificent stream of +pure ice-cold water—so grateful in the burning heat of +summer—and its wide stretch of fertile land, the valley may +well have been the residence of an ancient prince or high-priest, +who desired to testify by this monument his devotion +and gratitude to the god. The seat of this royal or priestly +potentate may have been at Cybistra,<note place='foot'>Strabo, xii. 2. 7, p. 537. When +Cicero was proconsul of Cilicia (51-50 +<hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi>) he encamped with his army for +some days at Cybistra, from which two +of his letters to Atticus are dated. +But hearing that the Parthians, who +had invaded Syria, were threatening +Cilicia, he hurried by forced marches +through the pass of the Cilician Gates +to Tarsus. See Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Ad Atticum</hi>, +v. 18, 19, 20; <hi rend='italic'>Ad Familiares</hi>, xv. +2, 4.</note> the modern Eregli, +now a decayed and miserable place straggling amid orchards +and gardens full of luxuriant groves of walnut, poplar, willow, +mulberry, and oak. The place is a paradise of birds. Here +<pb n='123'/><anchor id='Pg123'/> +the thrush and the nightingale sing full-throated, the hoopoe +waves his crested top-knot, the bright-hued woodpeckers flit +from bough to bough, and the swifts dart screaming by +hundreds through the air. Yet a little way off, beyond the +beneficent influence of the springs and streams, all is desolation—in +summer an arid waste broken by great marshes and +wide patches of salt, in winter a broad sheet of stagnant +water, which as it dries up with the growing heat of the sun +exhales a poisonous malaria. To the west, as far as the eye +can see, stretches the endless expanse of the dreary Lycaonian +plain, barren, treeless, and solitary, till it fades into the blue +distance, or is bounded afar off by abrupt ranges of jagged +volcanic mountains, on which in sunshiny weather the shadows +of the clouds rest, purple and soft as velvet.<note place='foot'>E. J. Davis, in <hi rend='italic'>Transactions of the +Society of Biblical Archaeology</hi>, iv. +(1876) pp. 336 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 346; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Life in +Asiatic Turkey</hi>, pp. 232 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 236 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +264 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 270-272. Compare W. J. +Hamilton, <hi rend='italic'>Researches in Asia Minor, +Pontus, and Armenia</hi> (London, 1842), +ii. 304-307.</note> No wonder that +the smiling luxuriance of the one landscape, sharply contrasting +with the bleak sterility of the other, should have rendered +it in the eyes of primitive man a veritable garden of God. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +horned +god.</note> +Among the attributes which mark out the deity of +Ibreez as a power of fertility the horns on his high cap +should not be overlooked. They are probably the horns of +a bull; for to primitive cattle-breeders the bull is the most +natural emblem of generative force. At Carchemish, the +great Hittite capital on the Euphrates, a relief has been +discovered which represents a god or a priest clad in a rich +robe, and wearing on his head a tall horned cap surmounted +by a disc.<note place='foot'>L. Messerschmidt, <hi rend='italic'>The Hittites</hi> +(London, 1903), pp. 49 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> On an +Assyrian cylinder, now in the British +Museum, we see a warlike deity with +bow and arrows standing on a lion, +and wearing a similar bonnet decorated +with horns and surmounted by a star +or sun. See De Vogüé, <hi rend='italic'>Mélanges +d'Archéologie Orientale</hi> (Paris, 1868), +p. 46, who interprets the deity as the +great Asiatic goddess. As to the +horned god of Ibreez <q>it is a plausible +theory that the horns may, in this case, +be analogous to the Assyrian emblem +of divinity. The sculpture is late and +its style rather suggests Semitic influence</q> +(Professor J. Garstang, in some +MS. notes with which he has kindly +furnished me).</note> Sculptures found at the palace of Euyuk in North-Western +Cappadocia prove that the Hittites worshipped the +bull and sacrificed rams to it.<note place='foot'>See below, p. <ref target='Pg132'>132</ref>.</note> Similarly the Greeks conceived +the vine-god Dionysus in the form of a bull.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Spirits of the Corn and of the +Wild</hi>, i. 16 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, ii. 3 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='124'/><anchor id='Pg124'/> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='3. Sandan of Tarsus.'/> +<head>§ 3. Sandan of Tarsus.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The god +of Ibreez +a Hittite +deity.</note> +That the god of Ibreez, with the grapes and corn in his +hands, is identical with the Baal of Tarsus, who bears the +same emblems, may be taken as certain.<note place='foot'>The identification is accepted by +E. Meyer (<hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +i. 2. p. 641), G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez +(<hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, +iv. 727), and P. Jensen (<hi rend='italic'>Hittiter und +Armenier</hi>, Strasburg, 1898, p. 145).</note> But what was +his name? and who were his worshippers? The Greeks +apparently called him Hercules; at least in Byzantine times +the neighbouring town of Cybistra adopted the name of +Heraclea, which seems to show that Hercules was deemed +the principal deity of the place.<note place='foot'>Ramsay and Hogarth, <q>Pre-Hellenic +Monuments of Cappadocia,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Recueil de Travaux relatifs à la Philologie +et à l'Archéologie Égyptiennes et +Assyriennes</hi>, xiv. (1893) p. 79.</note> Yet the style and costume +of the figures at Ibreez prove unquestionably that the god +was an Oriental. If any confirmation of this view were +needed, it is furnished by the inscriptions carved on the +rock beside the sculptures, for these inscriptions are composed +in the peculiar system of hieroglyphics now known as +Hittite. It follows, therefore, that the deity worshipped at +Tarsus and Ibreez was a god of the Hittites, that ancient +and little-known people who occupied the centre of Asia +Minor, invented a system of writing, and extended their +influence, if not their dominion, at one time from the +Euphrates to the Aegean. From the lofty and arid tablelands +of the interior, a prolongation of the great plateau of +Central Asia, with a climate ranging from the most burning +heat in summer to the most piercing cold in winter,<note place='foot'>G. Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire Ancienne des +Peuples de l'Orient Classique</hi>, ii. 360-362; +G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iv. 572 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, +586 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> these +hardy highlanders seem to have swept down through the +mountain-passes and established themselves at a very early +date in the rich southern lowlands of Syria and Cilicia.<note place='foot'>That the cradle of the Hittites was +in the interior of Asia Minor, particularly +in Cappadocia, and that they +spread from there south, east, and west, +is the view of A. H. Sayce, W. M. +Ramsay, D. G. Hogarth, W. Max +Müller, F. Hommel, L. B. Paton, and +L. Messerschmidt. See <hi rend='italic'>Palestine Exploration +Fund Quarterly Statement +for 1884</hi>, p. 49; A. H. Sayce, <hi rend='italic'>The +Hittites</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> (London, 1903), pp. 80 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +W. Max Müller, <hi rend='italic'>Asien und Europa</hi> +(Leipsic, 1893), pp. 319 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Ramsay +and Hogarth, <q>Pre-Hellenic Monuments +of Cappadocia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Recueil de +Travaux relatifs à la Philologie et à +l'Archéologie Égyptiennes et Assyriennes</hi>, +xv. (1893) p. 94; F. Hommel, <hi rend='italic'>Grundriss +der Geographie und Geschichte des +alten Orients</hi> (Munich, 1904), pp. 42, 48, +54; L. B. Paton, <hi rend='italic'>The Early History of +Syria and Palestine</hi> (London, 1902), pp. +105 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; L. Messerschmidt, <hi rend='italic'>The Hittites</hi> +(London, 1903), pp. 12, 13, 19, 20; D. +G. Hogarth, <q>Recent Hittite Research,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Royal Anthropological +Institute</hi>, xxxix. (1909) pp. 408 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +Compare Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des +Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> i. 2. (Stuttgart and Berlin, +1909) pp. 617 sqq.; J. Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The +Land of the Hittites</hi>, pp. 315 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The +native Hittite writing is a system of +hieroglyphics which has not yet been +read, but in their intercourse with +foreign nations the Hittites used the +Babylonian cuneiform script. Clay +tablets bearing inscriptions both in the +Babylonian and in the Hittite language +have been found by Dr. H. Winckler +at Boghaz-Keui, the great Hittite +capital in Cappadocia; so that the +sounds of the Hittite words, though +not their meanings, are now known. +According to Professor Ed. Meyer, it +seems certain that the Hittite language +was neither Semitic nor Indo-European. +As to the inscribed tablets of Boghaz-Keui, +see H. Winckler, <q>Vorläufige +Nachrichten über die Ausgrabungen +in Boghaz-köi im Sommer 1907, 1. +Die Tontafelfunde,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Mitteilungen der +Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin</hi>, +No. 35, December 1907, pp. 1-59; +<q>Hittite Archives from Boghaz-Keui,</q> +translated from the German transcripts +of Dr. Winckler by Meta E. Williams, +<hi rend='italic'>Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology</hi>, +iv. (Liverpool, 1912), pp. 90-98.</note> +<pb n='125'/><anchor id='Pg125'/> +Their language and race are still under discussion, but a +great preponderance of opinion appears to declare that +neither the one nor the other was Semitic.<note place='foot'>G. Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire Ancienne +des Peuples de l'Orient Classique</hi>, ii. +351, note 3, with his references; L. B. +Paton, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 109; L. Messerschmidt, +<hi rend='italic'>The Hittites</hi>, p. 10; F. +Hommel, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 42; W. Max +Müller, <hi rend='italic'>Asien und Europa</hi>, p. 332. +See the preceding note.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +burning of +Sandan or +Hercules +at Tarsus.</note> +In the inscription attached to the colossal figure of the +god at Ibreez two scholars have professed to read the +name of Sandan or Sanda.<note place='foot'>A. H. Sayce, <q>The Hittite Inscriptions,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Recueil de Travaux relatifs +à la Philologie et à l'Archéologie +Égyptiennes et Assyriennes</hi>, xiv. (1893) +pp. 48 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; P. Jensen, <hi rend='italic'>Hittiter und +Armenier</hi> (Strasburg, 1898), pp. +42 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Be that as it may, there are +independent grounds for thinking that Sandan, Sandon, +or Sandes may have been the name of the Cappadocian +and Cilician god of fertility. For the god of Ibreez in +Cappadocia appears, as we saw, to have been identified by the +Greeks with Hercules, and we are told that a Cappadocian +and Cilician name of Hercules was Sandan or Sandes.<note place='foot'>Georgius Syncellus, <hi rend='italic'>Chronographia</hi>, +vol. i. p. 290, ed. G. Dindorf (Bonn, +1829): Ἡρακλέα τινές φασιν ἐν Φοινίκῃ +γνωρίζεσθαι Σάνδαν ἐπιλεγόμενον, ὡς καὶ +μεχρὶ νῦν ὑπὸ Καππαδόκων καὶ Κιλίκων. +In this passage Σάνδαν is a correction +of F. C. Movers's (<hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, i. +460) for the MS. reading Δισανδάν, the +ΔΙ having apparently arisen by dittography +from the preceding ΑΙ; and +Κιλίκων is a correction of E. Meyer's +(<q>Über einige semitische Götter,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen +Gesellschaft</hi>, xxxi. 737) for the +MS. reading Ἱλίων. Compare Jerome +(quoted by Movers and Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>ll.cc.</hi>): +<q><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Hercules cognomento Desanaus in Syria +Phoenice clarus habetur. Inde ad nostram +usque memoriam a Cappadocibus +et Eliensibus (al. Deliis) Desanaus +adhuc dicitur.</foreign></q> If the text of Jerome +is here sound, he would seem to have +had before him a Greek original which +was corrupt like the text of Syncellus +or of Syncellus's authority. The Cilician +Hercules is called Sandes by Nonnus +(<hi rend='italic'>Dionys.</hi>, xxxiv. 183 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). Compare +Raoul-Rochette in <hi rend='italic'>Mémoires de l'Académie +des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres</hi>, +xvii. Deuxième Partie (Paris, 1848), +pp. 159 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +<pb n='126'/><anchor id='Pg126'/> +Now this Sandan or Hercules is said to have founded +Tarsus, and the people of the city commemorated him at +an annual or, at all events, periodical festival by erecting +a fine pyre in his honour.<note place='foot'>Ammianus Marcellinus, xiv. 8. 3; +Dio Chrysostom, <hi rend='italic'>Or.</hi> xxxiii. vol. ii. p. 16, +ed. L. Dindorf (Leipsic, 1857). The pyre +is mentioned only by Dio Chrysostom, +whose words clearly imply that its +erection was a custom observed periodically. +On Sandan or Sandon see K. +O. Müller, <q>Sandon und Sardanapal,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Kunstarchaeologische Werke</hi>, iii. +6 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; F. C. Movers, <hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, +i. 458 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Raoul-Rochette, <q>Sur +l'Hercule Assyrien et Phénicien,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions +et Belles-Lettres</hi>, xvii. Deuxième Partie +(Paris, 1848), pp. 178 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; E. Meyer, +<q>Über einige Semitische Götter,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen +Gesellschaft</hi>, xxxi. (1877) +pp. 736-740: <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +i. 2. pp. 641 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> § 484.</note> Apparently at this festival, as +at the festival of Melcarth, the god was burned in effigy +on his own pyre. For coins of Tarsus often exhibit the +pyre as a conical structure resting on a garlanded altar or +basis, with the figure of Sandan himself in the midst of it, +while an eagle with spread wings perches on the top of the +pyre, as if about to bear the soul of the burning god in the +pillar of smoke and fire to heaven.<note place='foot'>P. Gardner, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of Greek +Coins, the Seleucid Kings of Syria</hi> +(London, 1878), pp. 72, 78, 89, 112, +pl. xxi. 6, xxiv. 3, xxviii. 8; G. F. +Hill, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of the Greek Coins of +Lycaonia, Isauria, and Cilicia</hi> (London, +1900), pp. 180, 181, 183, 190, +221, 224, 225, pl. xxxiii. 2, 3, xxxiv. +10, xxxvii. 9; F. Imhoof-Blumer, +<q>Coin-types of some Kilikian Cities,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic Studies</hi>, xviii. +(1898) p. 169, pl. xiii. 1, 2. The +structure represented on the coins is +sometimes called not the pyre but the +monument of Sandan or Sardanapalus. +Certainly the cone resting on the square +base reminds us of the similar structure +on the coins of Byblus as well as of the +conical image of Aphrodite at Paphos +(see above, pp. 14, 34); but the words +of Dio Chrysostom make it probable +that the design on the coins of Tarsus +represents the pyre. At the same +time, the burning of the god may well +have been sculptured on a permanent +monument of stone. The legend +ΟΡΤΥΓΟΘΗΡΑ, literally <q>quail-hunt,</q> +which appears on some coins of Tarsus +(G. F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. lxxxvi. <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>), +may refer to a custom of catching +quails and burning them on the pyre. +We have seen (above, pp. <ref target='Pg111'>111</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>) +that quails were apparently burnt in +sacrifice at Byblus. This explanation +of the legend on the coins of Tarsus +was suggested by Raoul-Rochette +(<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 201-205). However, +Mr. G. F. Hill writes to me that +<q>the interpretation of Ὀρτυγοθήρα +as anything but a personal name is +rendered very unlikely by the analogy +of all the other inscriptions on coins of +the same class.</q> Doves were burnt on +a pyre in honour of Adonis (below, p. +<ref target='Pg147'>147</ref>). Similarly birds were burnt on a +pyre in honour of Laphrian Artemis at +Patrae (Pausanias, vii. 18. 12).</note> In like manner when a +Roman emperor died leaving a son to succeed him on the +<pb n='127'/><anchor id='Pg127'/> +throne, a waxen effigy was made in the likeness of the +deceased and burned on a huge pyramidal pyre, which was +reared upon a square basis of wood; and from the summit +of the blazing pile an eagle was released for the purpose of +carrying to heaven the soul of the dead and deified emperor.<note place='foot'>Herodian, iv. 2.</note> +The Romans may have borrowed from the East a grandiose +custom which savours of Oriental adulation rather than of +Roman simplicity.<note place='foot'>See Franz Cumont, <q>L'Aigle +funéraire des Syriens et l'Apothéose +des Empereurs,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Revue de l'Histoire +des Religions</hi>, lxii, (1910) pp. 119-163.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sandan of +Tarsus an +Asiatic god +with the +symbols +of the lion +and the +double +axe.</note> +The type of Sandan or Hercules, as he is portrayed on +the coins of Tarsus, is that of an Asiatic deity standing on +a lion. It is thus that he is represented on the pyre, and +it is thus that he appears as a separate figure without the +pyre. From these representations we can form a fairly +accurate conception of the form and attributes of the god. +They exhibit him as a bearded man standing on a horned +and often winged lion. Upon his head he wears a high +pointed cap or mitre, and he is clad sometimes in a long +robe, sometimes in a short tunic. On at least one coin his +feet are shod in high boots with flaps. At his side or over +his shoulder are slung a sword, a bow-case, and a quiver, +sometimes only one or two of them. His right hand is +raised and sometimes holds a flower. His left hand grasps +a double-headed axe, and sometimes a wreath either in +addition to the axe or instead of it; but the double-headed +axe is one of Sandan's most constant attributes.<note place='foot'>F. Imhoof-Blumer, <hi rend='italic'>Monnaies +Grecques</hi> (Amsterdam, 1883), pp. 366 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 433, 435, with plates F. 24, 25, +H. 14 (<hi rend='italic'>Verhandelingen der Konink. +Akademie von Wetenschappen</hi>, Afdeeling +Letterkunde, xiv.); F. Imhoof-Blumer +und O. Keller, <hi rend='italic'>Tier- und +Pflanzenbilder auf Münzen und Gemmen +des klassischen Altertums</hi> (Leipsic, +1889), pp. 70 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, with pl. xii. 7, 8, 9; +F. Imhoof-Blumer, <q>Coin-types of +some Kilikian Cities,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic +Studies</hi>, xviii. (1898) pp. 169-171; +P. Gardner, <hi rend='italic'>Types of Greek +Coins</hi>, pl. xiii. 20; G. F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue +of the Greek Coins of Lycaonia, +Isauria, and Cilicia</hi>, pp. 178, 179, +184, 186, 206, 213, with plates xxxii. +13, 14, 15, 16, xxxiv. 2, xxxvi. 9; +G. Macdonald, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of Greek +Coins in the Hunterian Collection</hi>, ii. +548, with pl. lx. 11. The booted +Sandan is figured by G. F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>op. +cit.</hi> pl. xxxvi. 9.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='128'/><anchor id='Pg128'/> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='4. The Gods of Boghaz-Keui.'/> +<head>§ 4. The Gods of Boghaz-Keui.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Boghaz-Keui the +ancient +capital of +a Hittite +kingdom +in Cappadocia.</note> +Now a deity of almost precisely the same type figures +prominently in the celebrated group of Hittite sculptures +which is carved on the rocks at Boghaz-Keui in North-Western +Cappadocia. The village of Boghaz-Keui, that is, <q>the village +of the defile,</q> stands at the mouth of a deep, narrow, and +picturesque gorge in a wild upland valley, shut in by rugged +mountains of grey limestone. The houses are built on the +lower slopes of the hills, and a stream issuing from the gorge +flows past them to join the Halys, which is distant about ten +hours' journey to the west. Immediately above the modern +village a great ancient city, enclosed by massive fortification +walls, rose on the rough broken ground of the mountainside, +culminating in two citadels perched on the tops of +precipitous crags. The walls are still standing in many +places to a height of twelve feet or more. They are about +fourteen feet thick and consist of an outer and inner facing +built of large blocks with a core of rubble between them. +On the outer side they are strengthened at intervals of +about a hundred feet by projecting towers or buttresses, +which seem designed rather as architectural supports than +as military defences. The masonry, composed of large +stones laid in roughly parallel courses, resembles in style +that of the walls of Mycenae, with which it may be +contemporary; and the celebrated Lion-gate at Mycenae +has its counterpart in the southern gate of Boghaz-Keui, +which is flanked by a pair of colossal stone lions executed +in the best style of Hittite art. The eastern gate is adorned +on its inner side with the figure of a Hittite warrior or +Amazon carved in high relief. A dense undergrowth of +stunted oak coppice now covers much of the site. The +ruins of a large palace or temple, built of enormous blocks +of stone, occupy a terrace in a commanding situation +within the circuit of the walls. This vast city, some four or +five miles in circumference, appears to have been the ancient +Pteria, which Croesus, king of Lydia, captured in his war +with Cyrus. It was probably the capital of a powerful +Hittite empire before the Phrygians made their way from +<pb n='129'/><anchor id='Pg129'/> +Europe into the interior of Asia Minor and established a +rival state to the west of the Halys.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 76; Stephanus +Byzantius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Πτέριον. As to the +situation of Boghaz-Keui and the ruins +of Pteria see W. J. Hamilton, <hi rend='italic'>Researches +in Asia Minor, Pontus, and +Armenia</hi> (London, 1842), i. 391 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +H. Barth, <q>Reise von Trapezunt +durch die nördliche Hälfte Klein-Asiens,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Ergänzungsheft zu Petermann's +Geographischen Mittheilungen</hi>, +No. 2 (1860), pp. 44-52; H. F. +Tozer, <hi rend='italic'>Turkish Armenia and Eastern +Asia Minor</hi> (London, 1881), pp. 64, +71 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; W. M. Ramsay, <q>Historical +Relations of Phrygia and Cappadocia,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society</hi>, +N.S., xv. (1883) p. 103; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Historical +Geography of Asia Minor</hi> +(London, 1890), pp. 28 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 33 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art +dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iv. 596 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; K. +Humann und O. Puchstein, <hi rend='italic'>Reisen in +Kleinasien und Nordsyrien</hi> (Berlin, +1890), pp. 71-80, with Atlas, plates +xi.-xiv.; E. Chantre, <hi rend='italic'>Mission en Cappadoce</hi> +(Paris, 1898), pp. 13 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; O. +Puchstein, <q>Die Bauten von Boghaz-Köi,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Mitteilungen der Deutschen +Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin</hi>, No. +35, December 1907, pp. 62 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +J. Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of the +Hittites</hi> (London, 1910), pp. 196 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +sanctuary +in the +rocks. +The rock-sculptures +in the outer +sanctuary +at Boghaz-Keui +represent +two processions +meeting. The +central +figures.</note> +From the village of Boghaz-Keui a steep and rugged +path leads up hill to a sanctuary, distant about a mile and +a half to the east. Here among the grey limestone cliffs +there is a spacious natural chamber or hall of roughly +oblong shape, roofed only by the sky, and enclosed on three +sides by high rocks. One of the short sides is open, and +through it you look out on the broken slopes beyond and +the more distant mountains, which make a graceful picture +set in a massy frame. The length of the chamber is about +a hundred feet; its breadth varies from twenty-five to fifty +feet. A nearly level sward forms the floor. On the right-hand +side, as you face inward, a narrow opening in the +rock leads into another but much smaller chamber, or rather +corridor, which would seem to have been the inner sanctuary +or Holy of Holies. It is a romantic spot, where the deep +shadows of the rocks are relieved by the bright foliage of +walnut-trees and by the sight of the sky and clouds overhead. +On the rock-walls of both chamber are carved the +famous bas-reliefs. In the outer sanctuary these reliefs +represent two great processions which defile along the two +long sides of the chamber and meet face to face on the +short wall at the inner end. The figures on the left-hand +wall are for the most part men clad in the characteristic +Hittite costume, which consists of a high pointed cap, shoes +with turned-up toes, and a tunic drawn in at the waist and +<pb n='130'/><anchor id='Pg130'/> +falling short of the knees.<note place='foot'>This procession of men is broken +(<hi rend='italic'>a</hi>) by two women clad in long plaited +robes like the women on the opposite +wall; (<hi rend='italic'>b</hi>) by two winged monsters; +and (<hi rend='italic'>c</hi>) by the figure of a priest or king +as to which see below, pp. <ref target='Pg131'>131</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> The figures on the right-hand +wall are women wearing tall, square, flat-topped bonnets +with ribbed sides; their long dresses fall in perpendicular +folds to their feet, which are shod in shoes like those of the +men. On the short wall, where the processions meet, the +greater size of the central figures, as well as their postures +and attributes, mark them out as divine. At the head of +the male procession marches or is carried a bearded deity +clad in the ordinary Hittite costume of tall pointed cap, +short tunic, and turned-up shoes; but his feet rest on the +bowed heads of two men, in his right hand he holds on his +shoulder a mace or truncheon topped with a knob, while his +extended left hand grasps a symbol, which apparently +consists of a trident surmounted by an oval with a cross-bar. +Behind him follows a similar, though somewhat smaller, +figure of a man, or perhaps rather of a god, carrying a mace +or truncheon over his shoulder in his right hand, while with +his left he holds aloft a long sword with a flat hilt; his feet +rest not on two men but on two flat-topped pinnacles, which +perhaps represent mountains. At the head of the female +procession and facing the great god who is borne on the +two men, stands a goddess on a lioness or panther. Her +costume does not differ from that of the women: her +hair hangs down in a long plait behind: in her extended +right hand she holds out an emblem to touch that of the +god. The shape and meaning of her emblem are obscure. +It consists of a stem with two pairs of protuberances, +perhaps leaves or branches, one above the other, the whole +being surmounted, like the emblem of the god, by an oval +with a cross-bar. Under the outstretched arms of the two +deities appear the front parts of two animals, which have +been usually interpreted as bulls but are rather goats; +each of them wears on its head the high conical Hittite +cap, and its body is concealed by that of the deity. +Immediately behind the goddess marches a smaller and +apparently youthful male figure, standing like her upon a +lioness or panther. He is beardless and wears the Hittite +<pb n='131'/><anchor id='Pg131'/> +dress of high pointed cap, short tunic, and shoes with +turned-up toes. A crescent-hilted sword is girt at his side; +in his left hand he holds a double-headed axe, and in his +right a staff topped by an armless doll with the symbol of +the cross-barred oval instead of a head. Behind him follow +two women, or rather perhaps goddesses, resembling the +goddess at the head of the procession, but with different +emblems and standing not on a lioness but on a single two-headed +eagle with outspread wings. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The rock-sculptures +in the +inner +sanctuary +at Boghaz-Keui. +The lion-god. +The god +protecting +his priest. Other +representations +of the +priest at +Boghaz-Keui +and +Euyuk.</note> +The entrance to the smaller chamber is guarded on +either side by the figure of a winged monster carved on the +rock; the bodies of both figures are human, but one of them +has the head of a dog, the other the head of a lion. In the +inner sanctuary, to which this monster-guarded passage +leads, the walls are also carved in relief. On one side we +see a procession of twelve men in Hittite costume marching +with curved swords in their right hands. On the opposite +wall is a colossal erect figure of a deity with a human head +and a body curiously composed of four lions, two above and +two below, the latter standing on their heads. The god +wears the high conical Hittite hat: his face is youthful and +beardless like that of the male figure standing on the lioness +in the large chamber; and the ear turned to the spectator +is pierced with a ring. From the knees downwards the +legs, curiously enough, are replaced by a device which has +been interpreted as the tapering point of a great dagger or +dirk with a midrib. To the right of this deity a square +panel cut in the face of the rock exhibits a group of two +figures in relief. The larger of the two figures closely +resembles the youth on the lioness in the outer sanctuary. +His chin is beardless; he wears the same high pointed cap, +the same short tunic, the same turned-up shoes, the same +crescent-hilted sword, and he carries a similar armless doll +in his right hand. But his left arm encircles the neck of +the smaller figure, whom he seems to clasp to his side in an +attitude of protection. The smaller figure thus embraced +by the god is clearly a priest or priestly king. His face is +beardless; he wears a skull-cap and a long mantle reaching +to his feet with a sort of chasuble thrown over it. The +crescent-shaped hilt of a sword projects from under his +<pb n='132'/><anchor id='Pg132'/> +mantle. The wrist of his right arm is clasped by the god's +left hand; in his left hand the priest holds a crook or +pastoral staff which ends below in a curl. Both the priest +and his protector are facing towards the lion-god. In an +upper corner of the panel behind them is a divine emblem +composed of a winged disc resting on what look like two Ionic +columns, while between them appear three symbols of doubtful +significance. The figure of the priest or king in this costume, +though not in this attitude, is a familiar one; for it occurs +twice in the outer sanctuary and is repeated twice at the +great Hittite palace of Euyuk, distant about four and a half +hours' ride to the north-east of Boghaz-Keui. In the outer +sanctuary at Boghaz-Keui we see the priest marching in the +procession of the men, and holding in one hand his curled +staff, or <foreign rend='italic'>lituus</foreign>, and in the other a symbol like that of the +goddess on the lioness: above his head appears the winged +disc without the other attributes. Moreover he occupies a +conspicuous place by himself on the right-hand wall of the +outer sanctuary, quite apart from the two processions, and +carved on a larger scale than any of the other figures in them. +Here he stands on two heaps, perhaps intended to represent +mountains, and he carries in his right hand the emblem of +the winged disc supported on two Ionic columns with the +other symbols between them, except that the central symbol +is replaced by a masculine figure wearing a pointed cap and +a long robe decorated with a dog-tooth pattern. On one +of the reliefs at the palace of Euyuk we see the priest with +his characteristic dress and staff followed by a priestess, +each of them with a hand raised as if in adoration: they are +approaching the image of a bull which stands on a high +pedestal with an altar before it. Behind them a priest +leads a flock of rams to the sacrifice. On another relief at +Euyuk the priest, similarly attired and followed by a +priestess, is approaching a seated goddess and apparently +pouring a libation at her feet. Both these scenes doubtless +represent acts of worship paid in the one case to a goddess, +in the other to a bull.<note place='foot'><p>W. J. Hamilton, <hi rend='italic'>Researches in +Asia Minor, Pontus, and Armenia</hi> +(London, 1842), i. 393-395; H. F. +Tozer, <hi rend='italic'>Turkish Armenia and Eastern +Asia Minor</hi>, pp. 59 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 66-78; W. M. +Ramsay, <q>Historical Relations of +Phrygia and Asia Minor,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of +the Royal Asiatic Society</hi>, N.S. xv. +(1883) pp. 113-120; G. Perrot et Ch. +Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art dans +l'Antiquité</hi>, iv. 623-656, 666-672; +K. Humann und O. Puchstein, <hi rend='italic'>Reisen +in Kleinasien und Nordsyrien</hi>, pp. 55-70, +with Atlas, plates vii.-x.; E. +Chantre, <hi rend='italic'>Mission en Cappadoce</hi>, pp. +3-5, 16-26; L. Messerschmidt, <hi rend='italic'>The +Hittites</hi>, pp. 42-50; Th. Macridy-Bey, +<hi rend='italic'>La Porte des Sphinx à Eyuk</hi>, +pp. 13 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> (<hi rend='italic'>Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen +Gesellschaft</hi>, 1908, No. 3, +Berlin); Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des +Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> i. 2. pp. 631 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; J. Garstang, +<hi rend='italic'>The Land of the Hittites</hi> +(London, 1910), pp. 196 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> (Boghaz-Keui) +256 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> (Eyuk). Compare P. +Jensen, <hi rend='italic'>Hittiter und Armenier</hi>, pp. +165 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> In some notes with which +my colleague Professor J. Garstang has +kindly furnished me he tells me that +the two animals wearing Hittite hats, +which appear between the great god +and goddess in the outer sanctuary, +are not bulls but certainly goats; and +he inclines to think that the two heaps +on which the priest stands in the outer +sanctuary are fir-cones. Professor Ed. +Meyer holds that the costume which the +priestly king wears is that of the Sun-goddess, +and that the corresponding +figure in the procession of males on the +left-hand side of the outer sanctuary +does not represent the priestly king but +the Sun-goddess in person. <q>The +attributes of the King,</q> he says (<hi rend='italic'>op. +cit.</hi> p. 632), <q>are to be explained by +the circumstance that he, as the Hittite +inscriptions prove, passed for an incarnation +of the Sun, who with the +Hittites was a female divinity; the +temple of the Sun is therefore his +emblem.</q> As to the title of <q>the +Sun</q> bestowed on Hittite kings in +inscriptions, see H. Winckler, <q>Vorläufige +Nachrichten über die Ausgrabungen +in Boghaz-köi im Sommer 1907,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft +zu Berlin</hi>, No. 35, +December 1907, pp. 32, 33, 36, 44, +45, 53. The correct form of the +national name appears to be Chatti or +Hatti rather than Hittites, which is the +Hebrew form (חתי) of the name. Compare +M. Jastrow, in <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia +Biblica</hi>, ii. coll. 2094 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Hittites.</q> +</p> +<p> +An interesting Hittite symbol which +occurs both in the sanctuary at Boghaz-Keui +and at the palace of Euyuk is the +double-headed eagle. In both places +it serves as the support of divine +or priestly personages. After being +adopted as a badge by the Seljuk +Sultans in the Middle Ages, it passed +into Europe with the Crusaders and +became in time the escutcheon of the +Austrian and Russian empires. See +W. J. Hamilton, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> i. 383; G. +Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> iv. +681-683, pl. viii. E; L. Messerschmidt, +<hi rend='italic'>The Hittites</hi>, p. 50.</p></note> +</p> + +<pb n='133'/><anchor id='Pg133'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The two +deities at +the head +of the +processions +at Boghaz-Keui +appear +to be the +great +Asiatic +goddess +and her +consort. The +Hittite god +of the +thundering +sky. Jupiter +Dolichenus.</note> +We have still to inquire into the meaning of the rock-carvings +at Boghaz-Keui. What are these processions which +are meeting? Who are the personages represented? and +what are they doing? Some have thought that the scene +is historical and commemorates a great event, such as a +treaty of peace between two peoples or the marriage of a +king's son to a king's daughter.<note place='foot'>W. J. Hamilton, <hi rend='italic'>Researches in +Asia Minor, Pontus, and Armenia</hi>, i. +394 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; H. Barth, in <hi rend='italic'>Monatsberichte +der königl. Preuss. Akademie der +Wissenschaften</hi>, 1859, pp. 128 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <q>Reise von Trapezunt,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Ergänzungsheft +zu Petermann's Geograph. +Mittheilungen</hi>, No. 2 (Gotha, 1860), +pp. 45 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; H. F. Tozer, <hi rend='italic'>Turkish +Armenia and Eastern Asia Minor</hi>, +p. 69; E. Chantre, <hi rend='italic'>Mission en Cappadoce</hi>, +pp. 20 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> According to +Barth, the scene represented is the +marriage of Aryenis, daughter of +Alyattes, king of Lydia, to Astyages, +son of Cyaxares, king of the Medes +(Herodotus, i. 74). For a discussion +of various interpretations which have +been proposed see G. Perrot et Ch. +Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, +iv. 630 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> But to this view it has +<pb n='134'/><anchor id='Pg134'/> +been rightly objected that the attributes of the principal +figures prove them to be divine or priestly, and that the +scene is therefore religious or mythical rather than historical. +With regard to the two personages who head the processions +and hold out their symbols to each other, the most probable +opinion appears to be that they stand for the great Asiatic +goddess of fertility and her consort, by whatever names +these deities were known; for under diverse names a similar +divine couple appears to have been worshipped with similar +rites all over Western Asia.<note place='foot'>This is in substance the view of +Raoul-Rochette, Lajard, W. M. +Ramsay, G. Perrot, C. P. Tiele, Ed. +Meyer, and J. Garstang. See Raoul-Rochette, +<q>Sur l'Hercule Assyrien et +Phénicien,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Mémoires de l'Académie +des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres</hi>, xvii. +Deuxième Partie (Paris, 1848), p. 180 +note 1; W. M. Ramsay, <q>On the Early +Historical Relations between Phrygia +and Cappadocia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of the +Royal Asiatic Society</hi>, N.S. xv. (1883) +pp. 113-120; G. Perrot et Ch. +Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, +iv. 630 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; C. P. Tiele, +<hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der Religion im Altertum</hi>, +i. 255-257; Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte +des Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> i. 2. pp. 633 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; J. +Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of the Hittites</hi>, +pp. 235-237; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>The Syrian Goddess</hi> +(London, 1913), pp. 5 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> The bearded god who, grasping +a trident in his extended left hand, heads the procession +of male figures is probably the Father deity, the great +Hittite god of the thundering sky, whose emblems were the +thunderbolt and the bull; for the trident which he carries +may reasonably be interpreted as a thunderbolt. The deity +is represented in similar form on two stone monuments of +Hittite art which were found at Zenjirli in Northern Syria +and at Babylon respectively. On both we see a bearded +male god wearing the usual Hittite costume of tall cap, short +tunic, and shoes turned up at the toes: a crescent-hilted +sword is girt at his side: his hands are raised: in the right +he holds a single-headed axe or hammer, in the left a trident +of wavy lines, which is thought to stand for forked lightning +or a bundle of thunderbolts. On the Babylonian slab, which +bears a long Hittite inscription, the god's cap is ornamented +with a pair of horns.<note place='foot'>K. Humann und O. Puchstein, +<hi rend='italic'>Reisen in Kleinasien und Nordsyrien</hi> +(Berlin, 1902), Atlas, pl. xlv. 3; +<hi rend='italic'>Ausgrabungen zu Sendschirli</hi>, iii. +(Berlin, 1902) pl. xli.; J. Garstang, +<hi rend='italic'>The Land of the Hittites</hi>, p. 291, with +plate lxxvii.; R. Koldewey, <hi rend='italic'>Die +Hettitische Inschrift gefunden in der +Königsburg von Babylon</hi> (Leipsic, +1900), plates 1 and 2 (<hi rend='italic'>Wissenschaftliche +Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen +Orient-Gesellschaft</hi>, Heft 1); L. +Messerschmidt, <hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum +Hettiticarum</hi>, pl. i. 5 and 6; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>The Hittites</hi> (London, 1903), pp. 40-42, +with fig. 6 on p. 41; M. J. +Lagrange, <hi rend='italic'>Études sur les Religions +Sémitiques</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Paris, 1905), p. 93. +The name of the god is thought to +have been Teshub or Teshup; for a +god of that name is known from the +Tel-el-Amarna letters to have been +the chief deity of the Mitani, a people +of Northern Mesopotamia akin in +speech and religion to the Hittites, +but ruled by an Aryan dynasty. See +Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +i. 2. pp. 578, 591 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 636 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; R. F. +Harper, <hi rend='italic'>Assyrian and Babylonian +Literature</hi>, pp. 222, 223 (where the +god's name is spelt Tishub). The +god is also mentioned repeatedly in +the Hittite archives which Dr. H. +Winckler found inscribed on clay +tablets at Boghaz-Keui. See H. +Winckler, <q>Vorläufige Nachrichten +über die Ausgrabungen in Boghaz-köi +im Sommer 1907,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Mitteilungen +der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu +Berlin</hi>, No. 35, December 1907, pp. +13 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 32, 34, 36, 38, 39, 43, 44, 51 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 53; <q>Hittite Archives from +Boghaz-Keui,</q> translated from the +German transcripts of Dr. Winckler, +<hi rend='italic'>Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology</hi>, +iv. (Liverpool and London, +1912) pp. 90 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> As to the Mitani, +their language and their gods, see +H. Winckler, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 30 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, +46 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> In thus interpreting the +Hittite god who heads the procession +at Boghaz-Keui I follow my colleague +Prof. J. Garstang (<hi rend='italic'>The Land of the +Hittites</hi>, p. 237; <hi rend='italic'>The Syrian Goddess</hi>, +pp. 5 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>), who has kindly +furnished me with some notes on the +subject. I formerly interpreted the +deity as the Hittite equivalent of +Tammuz, Adonis, and Attis. But +against that view it may be urged that +(1) the god is bearded and therefore of +mature age, whereas Tammuz and his +fellows were regularly conceived as +youthful; (2) the thunderbolt which he +seems to carry would be quite inappropriate +to Tammuz, who was not a god +of thunder but of vegetation; and (3) +the Hittite Tammuz is appropriately +represented in the procession of +women immediately behind the Mother +Goddess (see below, pp. <ref target='Pg137'>137</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>), and it +is extremely improbable that he should +be represented twice over with different +attributes in the same scene. +These considerations seem to me conclusive +against the interpretation of the +bearded god as a Tammuz and decisive +in favour of Professor Garstang's view +of him.</note> The horns on the cap are probably +<pb n='135'/><anchor id='Pg135'/> +those of a bull; for on another Hittite monument, found at +Malatia on the Euphrates, there is carved a deity in the +usual Hittite costume standing on a bull and grasping a +trident or thunderbolt in his left hand, while facing him +stands a priest clad in a long robe, holding a crook or curled +staff in one hand and pouring a libation with the other.<note place='foot'>J. Garstang, <q>Notes of a Journey +through Asia Minor,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Annals of Archaeology +and Anthropology</hi>, i. (Liverpool +and London, 1908) pp. 3 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, with +plate iv.; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of the Hittites</hi>, +pp. 138, 359, with plate xliv. In this +sculpture the god on the bull holds in +his right hand what is described as a +triangular bow instead of a mace, an +axe, or a hammer.</note> +The Hittite thunder-god is also known to us from a treaty +of alliance which about the year 1290 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> was contracted +between Hattusil, King of the Hittites, and Rameses II., +King of Egypt. By a singular piece of good fortune we +possess copies of this treaty both in the Hittite and in the +<pb n='136'/><anchor id='Pg136'/> +Egyptian language. The Hittite copy was found some +years ago inscribed in cuneiform characters on a clay tablet +at Boghaz-Keui; two copies of the treaty in the Egyptian +language are engraved on the walls of temples at Thebes. +From the Egyptian copies, which have been read and translated, +we gather that the thunder-god was the principal deity +of the Hittites, and that the two Hittite seals which were +appended to the treaty exhibited the King embraced by the +thunder-god and the Queen embraced by the sun-goddess of +Arenna.<note place='foot'>A. Wiedemann, <hi rend='italic'>Ägyptische Geschichte</hi> +(Gotha, 1884), ii. 438-440; +G. Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire Ancienne des +Peuples de l'Orient Classique</hi>, ii. (Paris, +1897) pp. 401 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; W. Max Müller, +<hi rend='italic'>Der Bündnisvortrag Ramses' II. und +des Chetitirkönigs</hi>, pp. 17-19, 21 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +38-44 (<hi rend='italic'>Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen +Gesellschaft</hi>, 1902, No. 5, +Berlin); L. Messerschmidt, <hi rend='italic'>The +Hittites</hi>, pp. 14-19; J. H. Breasted, +<hi rend='italic'>Ancient Records of Egypt</hi> (Chicago, +1906-1907), iii. 163-174; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>A History +of the Ancient Egyptians</hi> (London, +1908), p. 311; Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte +des Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> i. 2. pp. 631, 635 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +J. Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of the Hittites</hi>, +pp. 347-349. The Hittite copy of the +treaty was discovered by Dr. H. +Winckler at Boghaz-Keui in 1906. +The identification of Arenna or Arinna +is uncertain. In a forthcoming article, +<q>The Sun God[dess] of Arenna,</q> to +be published in the Liverpool <hi rend='italic'>Annals +of Archaeology and Anthropology</hi>, Professor +J. Garstang argues that Arenna +is to be identified with the Cappadocian +Comana.</note> This Hittite divinity of the thundering sky appears +to have long survived at Doliche in Commagene, for in later +Roman art he reappears under the title of Jupiter Dolichenus, +wearing a Phrygian cap, standing on a bull, and wielding a +double axe in one hand and a thunderbolt in the other. In +this form his worship was transported from his native Syrian +home by soldiers and slaves, till it had spread over a large +part of the Roman empire, especially on the frontiers, where +it flourished in the camps of the legions.<note place='foot'>Ed. Meyer, <q>Dolichenus,</q> in +W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. +und röm. Mythologie</hi>, i. 1191-1194; +A. von Domaszewski, <hi rend='italic'>Die Religion +des römischen Heeres</hi> (Treves, 1895), +pp. 59 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, with plate iiii. fig. 1 +and 2; Franz Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Dolichenus,</q> +in Pauly-Wissowa's <hi rend='italic'>Real-Encyclopädie +der classischen Altertumswissenschaft</hi>, +v. i. coll. 1276 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; J. +Toutain, <hi rend='italic'>Les Cultes païens dans l'Empire +Romain</hi>, ii. (Paris, 1911) pp. +35-43. For examples of the inscriptions +which relate to his worship see +H. Dessau, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae</hi>, +vol. ii. Pars i. (Berlin, 1902) pp. +167-172, Nos. 4296-4324.</note> The combination +of the bull with the thunderbolt as emblems of the deity +suggests that the animal may have been chosen to represent +the sky-god for the sake not merely of its virility but of its +voice; for in the peal of thunder primitive man may well +have heard the bellowing of a celestial bull. +</p> + +<pb n='137'/><anchor id='Pg137'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Mother +Goddess.</note> +The goddess who at the head of the procession of women +confronts the great sky-god in the sanctuary at Boghaz-Keui +is generally recognized as the divine Mother, the great +Asiatic goddess of life and fertility. The tall flat-topped +hat with perpendicular grooves which she wears, and the +lioness or panther on which she stands, remind us of the +turreted crown and lion-drawn car of Cybele, who was +worshipped in the neighbouring land of Phrygia across the +Halys.<note place='foot'>As to the lions and mural crown +of Cybele see Lucretius, ii. 600 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +Catullus, lxiii. 76 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Macrobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Saturn.</hi> i. 23. 20; Rapp, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Kybele,</q> in W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon +der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, ii. +1644 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> So Atargatis, the great Syrian goddess of Hierapolis-Bambyce, +was portrayed sitting on lions and wearing +a tower on her head.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 31; Macrobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Saturn.</hi> i. 23. 19. Lucian's description +of her image is confirmed +by coins of Hierapolis, on which the +goddess is represented wearing a high +head-dress and seated on a lion. See +B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Numorum</hi> +(Oxford, 1887), p. 654; G. Macdonald, +<hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of Greek Coins in +the Hunterian Collection</hi> (Glasgow, +1899-1905), iii. 139 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; J. Garstang, +<hi rend='italic'>The Syrian Goddess</hi>, pp. 21 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 70, with fig. 7. That the name +of the Syrian goddess of Hierapolis-Bambyce +was Atargatis is mentioned +by Strabo (xvi. 1. 27, p. 748). On +Egyptian monuments the Semitic goddess +Kadesh is represented standing on +a lion. See W. Max Müller, <hi rend='italic'>Asien +und Europa</hi>, pp. 314 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> It is to be +remembered that Hierapolis-Bambyce +was the direct successor of Carchemish, +the great Hittite capital on the Euphrates, +and may have inherited many +features of Hittite religion. See +A. H. Sayce, <hi rend='italic'>The Hittites</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> pp. 94 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 105 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; and as to the Hittite +monuments at Carchemish, see J. +Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of the Hittites</hi>, +pp. 122 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> At Babylon an image of a goddess +whom the Greeks called Rhea had the figures of two lions +standing on her knees.<note place='foot'>Diodorus Siculus, ii. 9. 5.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The youth +on the +lioness, +bearing +the double +axe, at +Boghaz-Keui +may +be the +divine son +and lover +of the +goddess.</note> +But in the rock-hewn sculptures of Boghaz-Keui, who is +the youth with the tall pointed cap and double axe who +stands on a lioness or panther immediately behind the great +goddess? His figure is all the more remarkable because he +is the only male who interrupts the long procession of women. +Probably he is at once the divine son and the divine lover of +the goddess; for we shall find later on that in Phrygian +mythology Attis united in himself both these characters.<note place='foot'><p>In thus interpreting the youth +with the double axe I agree with Sir +W. M. Ramsay (<q>On the Early Historical +Relations between Phrygia and +Cappadocia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Royal +Asiatic Society</hi>, N.S. xv. (1883) pp. +118, 120), C. P. Tiele (<hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der +Religion im Alterturm</hi>, i. 246, 255), +and Prof. J. Garstang (<hi rend='italic'>The Land of +the Hittites</hi>, p. 235; <hi rend='italic'>The Syrian +Goddess</hi>, p. 8). That the youthful +figure on the lioness or panther represents +the lover of the great goddess is +the view also of Professors Jensen and +Hommel. See P. Jensen, <hi rend='italic'>Hittiter +und Armenier</hi>, pp. 173-175, 180; F. +Hommel, <hi rend='italic'>Grundriss der Geographie +und Geschichte des alten Orients</hi>, p. 51. +Prof. Perrot holds that the youth in +question is a double of the bearded +god who stands at the head of the +male procession, their costume being +the same, though their attributes differ +(G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire de +l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iv. 651). But, +as I have already remarked, it is unlikely +that the same god should be +represented twice over with different +attributes in the same scene. The +resemblance between the two figures is +better explained on the supposition +that they are Father and Son. The +same two deities, Father and Son, +appear to be carved on a rock at +Giaour-Kalesi, a place on the road +which in antiquity may have led from +Ancyra by Gordium to Pessinus. +Here on the face of the rock are cut in +relief two gigantic figures in the usual +Hittite costume of pointed cap, short +tunic, and shoes turned up at the toes. +Each wears a crescent-hilted sword at +his side, each is marching to the +spectator's left with raised right hand; +and the resemblance between them is +nearly complete except that the figure +in front is beardless and the figure behind +is bearded. See G. Perrot et +Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art dans +l'Antiquité</hi>, iv. 714 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, with fig. +352; J. Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of the +Hittites</hi>, pp. 162-164. A similar, but +solitary, figure is carved in a niche of +the rock at Kara-Bel, but there the +deity, or the man, carries a triangular +bow over his right shoulder. See +below, p. <ref target='Pg185'>185</ref>. +</p> +<p> +With regard to the lionesses or +panthers, a bas-relief found at Carchemish, +the capital of a Hittite +kingdom on the Euphrates, shows two +male figures in Hittite costume, with +pointed caps and turned-up shoes, +standing on a crouching lion. The +foremost of the two figures is winged +and carries a short curved truncheon +in his right hand. According to Prof. +Perrot, the two figures represent a god +followed by a priest or a king. See G. +Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art +dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iv. 549 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; J. Garstang, +<hi rend='italic'>The Land of the Hittites</hi>, pp. +123 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> Again, on a sculptured slab +found at Amrit in Phoenicia we see a +god standing on a lion and holding a +lion's whelp in his left hand, while in +his right hand he brandishes a club or +sword. See Perrot et Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> +iii. 412-414. The type of a god or +goddess standing or sitting on a lion +occurs also in Assyrian art, from which +the Phoenicians and Hittites may have +borrowed it. See Perrot et Chipiez, +<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> ii. 642-644. Much evidence as +to the representation of Asiatic deities +with lions has been collected by Raoul-Rochette, +in his learned dissertation +<q>Sur l'Hercule Assyrien et Phénicien,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions +et Belles-Lettres</hi>, xvii. Deuxième Partie +(Paris, 1848), pp. 106 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> Compare +De Vogüé, <hi rend='italic'>Mélanges d'Archéologie +Orientale</hi>, pp. 44 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></p></note> +<pb n='138'/><anchor id='Pg138'/> +The lioness or panther on which he stands marks his affinity +with the goddess, who is supported by a similar animal. It +is natural that the lion-goddess should have a lion-son and a +lion-lover. For we may take it as probable that the Oriental +deities who are represented standing or sitting in human form +on the backs of lions and other animals were originally +indistinguishable from the beasts, and that the complete +separation of the bestial from the human or divine shape was +a consequence of that growth of knowledge and of power +which led man in time to respect himself more and the +brutes less. The hybrid gods of Egypt with their human +<pb n='139'/><anchor id='Pg139'/> +bodies and animal heads form an intermediate stage in this +evolution of anthropomorphic deities out of beasts. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +mystery +of the +lion-god.</note> +We may now perhaps hazard a conjecture as to the +meaning of that strange colossal figure in the inner shrine at +Boghaz-Keui with its human head and its body composed of +lions. For it is to be observed that the head of the figure is +youthful and beardless, and that it wears a tall pointed cap, +thus resembling in both respects the youth with the double-headed +axe who stands on a lion in the outer sanctuary. +We may suppose that the leonine figure in the inner shrine +sets forth the true mystic, that is, the old savage nature +of the god who in the outer shrine presented himself to his +worshippers in the decent semblance of a man. To the +chosen few who were allowed to pass the monster-guarded +portal into the Holy of Holies, the awful secret may have +been revealed that their god was a lion, or rather a lion-man, +a being in whom the bestial and human natures mysteriously +co-existed.<note place='foot'>Similarly in Yam, one of the +Torres Straits Islands, two brothers +named Sigai and Maiau were worshipped +in a shrine under the form of +a hammer-headed shark and a crocodile +respectively, and were represented by +effigies made of turtle-shell in the +likeness of these animals. But <q>the +shrines were so sacred that no uninitiated +persons might visit them, nor +did they know what they contained; +they were aware of Sigai and Maiau, +but they did not know that the former +was a hammer-headed shark and the +latter a crocodile; this mystery was +too sacred to be imparted to uninitiates. +When the heroes were addressed it was +always by their human names, and not +by their animal or totem names.</q> See +A. C. Haddon, <q>The Religion of the +Torres Straits Islanders,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Anthropological +Essays presented to E. B. Tylor</hi> +(Oxford, 1907), p. 185.</note> The reader may remember that on the rock +beside this leonine divinity is carved a group which represents +a god with his arm twined round the neck of his priest in an +attitude of protection, holding one of the priest's hands in +his own. Both figures are looking and stepping towards the +lion-monster, and the god is holding out his right hand as if +pointing to it. The scene may represent the deity revealing +the mystery to the priest, or preparing him to act his part in +some solemn rite for which all his strength and courage will +be needed. He seems to be leading his minister onward, +comforting him with an assurance that no harm can come +near him while the divine arm is around him and the divine +hand clasps his. Whither is he leading him? Perhaps to +death. The deep shadows of the rocks which fall on the +<pb n='140'/><anchor id='Pg140'/> +two figures in the gloomy chasm may be an emblem of +darker shadows soon to fall on the priest. Yet still he grasps +his pastoral staff and goes forward, as though he said, <q>Yea, +though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I +will fear no evil; for thou art with me: thy rod and thy +staff they comfort me.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +processions +at Boghaz-Keui +appear to +represent +the Sacred +Marriage +of the +god and +goddess. Traces of +mother-kin +among the +Hittites.</note> +If there is any truth in these guesses—for they are little +more—the three principal figures in the processional scene at +Boghaz-Keui represent the divine Father, the divine Mother, +and the divine Son. But we have still to ask, What are +they doing? That they are engaged in the performance of +some religious rite seems certain. But what is it? We may +conjecture that it is the rite of the Sacred Marriage, and that +the scene is copied from a ceremony which was periodically +performed in this very place by human representatives of +the deities.<note place='foot'><q>There can be no doubt that +there is here represented a Sacred +Marriage, the meeting of two deities +worshipped in different places, like the +Horus of Edfu and the Hathor of +Denderah</q> (C. P. Tiele, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der +Religion im Altertum</hi>, i. 255). This +view seems to differ from, though it +approaches, the one suggested in the +text. That the scene represents a +Sacred Marriage between a great god +and goddess is the opinion also of +Prof. Ed. Meyer (<hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des +Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> i. 2. pp. 633 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>), and +Prof. J. Garstang (<hi rend='italic'>The Land of the +Hittites</hi>, pp. 238 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>The Syrian +Goddess</hi>, p. 7).</note> Indeed, the solemn meeting of the male and +female figures at the head of their respective processions +obviously suggests a marriage, and has been so interpreted +by scholars, who, however, regarded it as the +historical wedding of a prince and princess instead of the +mystic union of a god and goddess, overlooking or explaining +away the symbols of divinity which accompany the +principal personages.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg133'>133</ref>.</note> We may suppose that at Boghaz-Keui, +as at many other places in the interior of Asia Minor, +the government was in the hands of a family who combined +royal with priestly functions and personated the gods whose +names they bore. Thus at Pessinus in Phrygia, as we shall +see later on, the priests of Cybele bore the name of her +consort Attis, and doubtless represented him in the ritual.<note place='foot'>See below, p. <ref target='Pg285'>285</ref>. Compare the +remarks of Sir W. M. Ramsay (<q>Pre-Hellenic +Monuments of Cappadocia,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Recueil de Travaux relatifs à la Philologie +et à l'Archéologie Égyptiennes +et Assyriennes</hi>, xiii. (1890) p. 78): +<q>Similar priest-dynasts are a widespread +feature of the primitive social +system of Asia Minor; their existence +is known with certainty or inferred +with probability at the two towns +Komana; at Venasa not far north +of Tyana, at Olba, at Pessinous, at +Aizanoi, and many other places. Now +there are two characteristics which +can be regarded as probable in regard +to most of these priests, and as proved +in regard to some of them: (1) they +wore the dress and represented the +person of the god, whose priests they +were; (2) they were ἱερώνυμοι, losing +their individual name at their succession +to the office, and assuming a sacred +name, often that of the god himself or +some figure connected with the cultus +of the god. The priest of Cybele at +Pessinous was called Attis, the priests +of Sabazios were Saboi, the worshippers +of Bacchos Bacchoi.</q> As to the +priestly rulers of Olba, see below, +pp. <ref target='Pg144'>144</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +<pb n='141'/><anchor id='Pg141'/> +If this was so at Boghaz-Keui, we may surmise that the chief +pontiff and his family annually celebrated the marriage of +the divine powers of fertility, the Father God and the Mother +Goddess, for the purpose of ensuring the fruitfulness of the +earth and the multiplication of men and beasts. The +principal parts in the ceremony would naturally be played +by the pontiff himself and his wife, unless indeed they +preferred for good reasons to delegate the onerous duty +to others. That such a delegation took place is perhaps +suggested by the appearance of the pontiff himself in a +subordinate place in the procession, as well as by his separate +representation in another place, as if he were in the act of +surveying the ceremony from a distance.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg132'>132</ref>. However, +Prof. Ed. Meyer may be right in +thinking that the priest-like figure in +the procession is not really that of the +priest but that of the god or goddess +whom he personated. See above, p. +<ref target='Pg133'>133</ref> note.</note> The part of the +divine Son at the rite would fitly devolve upon one of the +high-priest's own offspring, who may well have been numerous. +For it is probable that here, as elsewhere in Asia +Minor, the Mother Goddess was personated by a crowd of +sacred harlots,<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg036'>36</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> with whom the spiritual ruler may have been +required to consort in his character of incarnate deity. But +if the personation of the Son of God at the rites laid a +heavy burden of suffering on the shoulders of the actor, it is +possible that the representative of the deity may have been +drawn, perhaps by lot, from among the numerous progeny +of the consecrated courtesans; for these women, as incarnations +of the Mother Goddess, were probably supposed to +transmit to their offspring some portion of their own divinity. +Be that as it may, if the three principal personages in the +processional scene at Boghaz-Keui are indeed the Father, +the Mother, and the Son, the remarkable position assigned +<pb n='142'/><anchor id='Pg142'/> +to the third of them in the procession, where he walks +behind his Mother alone in the procession of women, appears +to indicate that he was supposed to be more closely akin to +her than to his Father. From this again we may conjecturally +infer that mother-kin rather than father-kin was +the rule which regulated descent among the Hittites. The +conjecture derives some support from Hittite archives, for +the names of the Great Queen and the Queen Mother are +mentioned along with that of the King in state documents.<note place='foot'>H. Winckler, <q>Vorläufige Nachrichten +über die Ausgrabungen in +Boghaz-köi im Sommer 1907,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Mitteilungen +der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft</hi>, +No. 35, December, 1907, pp. +27 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 29; J. Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of +the Hittites</hi>, pp. 352 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <q>Hittite +Archives from Boghaz-Keui,</q> translated +from the German transcripts of +Dr. Winckler by Meta E. Williams, +<hi rend='italic'>Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology</hi>, +iv. (Liverpool and London, +1912) p. 98. We have seen (above, +p. <ref target='Pg136'>136</ref>) that in the seals of the +Hittite treaty with Egypt the Queen +appears along with the King. If Dr. +H. Winckler is right in thinking (<hi rend='italic'>op. +cit.</hi> p. 29) that one of the Hittite +queens was at the same time sister to +her husband the King, we should have +in this relationship a further proof that +mother-kin regulated the descent of +the kingship among the Hittites as +well as among the ancient Egyptians. +See above, p. <ref target='Pg044'>44</ref>, and below, vol. ii. +pp. 213 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +The other personages who figure in the procession may +represent human beings masquerading in the costumes and +with the attributes of deities. Such, for example, are the +two female figures who stand on a double-headed eagle; +the two male figures stepping on what seem to be two +mountains; and the two winged beings in the procession of +men, one of whom may be the Moon-god, for he wears a +crescent on his head.<note place='foot'>Compare Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte +des Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> i. 2. pp. 629-633.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='5. Sandan and Baal at Tarsus.'/> +<head>§ 5. Sandan and Baal at Tarsus.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sandan at +Tarsus +appears to +be a son of +Baal, as +Hercules +was a son +of Zeus.</note> +Whatever may be thought of these speculations, one thing +seems fairly clear and certain. The figure which I have called +the divine Son at Boghaz-Keui is identical with the god Sandan, +who appears on the pyre at Tarsus. In both personages +the costume, the attributes, the attitude are the same. Both +represent a man clad in a short tunic with a tall pointed cap +on his head, a sword at his side, a double-headed axe in his +hand, and a lion or panther under his feet.<note place='foot'>The figure exhibits a few minor +variations on the coins of Tarsus. See +the works cited above, p. <ref target='Pg127'>127</ref>.</note> Accordingly, if +we are right in identifying him as the divine Son at Boghaz-Keui, +<pb n='143'/><anchor id='Pg143'/> +we may conjecture that under the name of Sandan he +bore the same character at Tarsus. The conjecture squares +perfectly with the title of Hercules, which the Greeks +bestowed on Sandan; for Hercules was the son of Zeus, the +great father-god. Moreover, we have seen that the Baal of +Tarsus, with the grapes and the corn in his hand, was +assimilated to Zeus.<note place='foot'>Above, p. <ref target='Pg119'>119</ref>.</note> Thus it would appear that at Tarsus +as at Boghaz-Keui there was a pair of deities, a divine Father +and a divine Son, whom the Greeks identified with Zeus +and Hercules respectively. If the Baal of Tarsus was a god +of fertility, as his attributes clearly imply, his identification +with Zeus would be natural, since it was Zeus who, in the +belief of the Greeks, sent the fertilizing rain from heaven.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 358 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +And the identification of Sandan with Hercules would be +equally natural, since the lion and the death on the pyre +were features common to both. Our conclusion then is that +it was the divine Son, the lion-god, who was burned in effigy +or in the person of a human representative at Tarsus, and +perhaps at Boghaz-Keui. Semitic parallels suggest that the +victim who played the part of the Son of God in the fiery +furnace ought in strictness to be the king's son.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, pp. 166 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> But no +doubt in later times an effigy would be substituted for the +man. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='6. Priestly Kings of Olba.'/> +<head>§ 6. Priestly Kings of Olba.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Priests of +Sandan-Hercules +at Tarsus. Kings of +Cilicia +related to +Sandan.</note> +Unfortunately we know next to nothing of the kings and +priests of Tarsus. In Greek times we hear of an Epicurean +philosopher of the city, Lysias by name, who was elected by +his fellow-citizens to the office of Crown-wearer, that is, to +the priesthood of Hercules. Once raised to that dignity, he +would not lay it down again, but played the part of tyrant, +wearing a white robe edged with purple, a costly cloak, white +shoes, and a golden wreath of laurel. He truckled to the +mob by distributing among them the property of the wealthy, +while he put to death such as refused to open their money-bags +to him.<note place='foot'>Athenaeus, v. 54, p. 215 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b</hi>, <hi rend='smallcaps'>c</hi>. The +high-priest of the Syrian goddess at +Hierapolis held office for a year, and +wore a purple robe and a golden tiara +(Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 42). We may +conjecture that the priesthood of +Hercules at Tarsus was in later times +at least an annual office.</note> Though we cannot distinguish in this account +<pb n='144'/><anchor id='Pg144'/> +between the legal and the illegal exercise of authority, yet +we may safely infer that the priesthood of Hercules, that is +of Sandan, at Tarsus continued down to late times to be +an office of great dignity and power, not unworthy to be +held in earlier times by the kings themselves. Scanty as is +our information as to the kings of Cilicia, we hear of two +whose names appear to indicate that they stood in some +special relation to the divine Sandan. One of them was +Sandu'arri, lord of Kundi and Sizu, which have been identified +with Anchiale and Sis in Cilicia.<note place='foot'>E. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Alterthums</hi>, +i. (Stuttgart, 1884) § 389, p. +475; H. Winckler, in E. Schrader's +<hi rend='italic'>Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +p. 88. Kuinda was the name +of a Cilician fortress a little way inland +from Anchiale (Strabo, xiv. 5. 10, p. +672).</note> The other was +Sanda-sarme, who gave his daughter in marriage to Ashurbanipal, +king of Assyria.<note place='foot'>E. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> i. § 393, p. +480; C. P. Tiele, <hi rend='italic'>Babylonisch-assyrische +Geschichte</hi>, p. 360. Sandon +and Sandas occur repeatedly as +names of Cilician men. They are +probably identical with, or modified +forms of, the divine name. See +Strabo, xiv. 5. 14, p. 674; Plutarch, +<hi rend='italic'>Poplicola</hi>, 17; <hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum +Graecarum</hi>, ed. August Boeckh, etc. +(Berlin, 1828-1877) vol. iii. p. 200, +No. 4401; Ch. Michel, <hi rend='italic'>Recueil d'Inscriptions +Grecques</hi> (Brussels, 1900), +p. 718, No. 878; R. Heberdey und +A. Wilhelm, <q>Reisen in Kilikien,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Denkschriften der Kaiser. Akademie +der Wissenschaften, Philosoph.-histor. +Classe</hi>, xliv. (Vienna, 1896) No. vi. +pp. 46, 131 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 140 (Inscriptions 115, +218, 232).</note> It would be in accordance with +analogy if the kings of Tarsus formerly held the priesthood +of Sandan and claimed to represent him in their own person. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Priestly +kings of +Olba who +bore the +names of +Teucer and +Ajax. The +Teucrids +of Salamis +in Cyprus. +Burnt +sacrifices +of human +victims at +Salamis +and traces +of a similar +custom +elsewhere. Burnt +sacrifice +of doves +to Adonis.</note> +We know that the whole of Western or Mountainous +Cilicia was ruled by kings who combined the regal office +with the priesthood of Zeus, or rather of a native deity +whom, like the Baal of Tarsus, the Greeks assimilated to +their own Zeus. These priestly potentates had their seat +at Olba, and most of them bore the name either of Teucer +or of Ajax,<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiv. 5. 10, p. 672. The +name of the high-priest Ajax, son of +Teucer, occurs on coins of Olba, dating +from about the beginning of our +era (B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Numorum</hi>, +Oxford, 1887, p. 609); and the name +of Teucer is also known from inscriptions. +See below, pp. <ref target='Pg145'>145</ref>, <ref target='Pg151'>151</ref>, <ref target='Pg159'>159</ref>.</note> but we may suspect that these appellations are +merely Greek distortions of native Cilician names. Teucer +(<foreign lang='el' rend='italic'>Teukros</foreign>) may be a corruption of Tark, Trok, Tarku, or +Troko, all of which occur in the names of Cilician priests +and kings. At all events, it is worthy of notice that one, +<pb n='145'/><anchor id='Pg145'/> +if not two, of these priestly Teucers had a father called +Tarkuaris,<note place='foot'>E. L. Hicks, <q>Inscriptions from +Western Cilicia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic +Studies</hi>, xii. (1891) pp. 226, 263; R. +Heberdey und A. Wilhelm, <q>Reisen +in Kilikien,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Denkschriften der Kaiser. +Akademie der Wissenschaften</hi>, xliv. +(1896) No. vi. pp. 53, 88.</note> and that in a long list of priests who served +Zeus at the Corycian cave, not many miles from Olba, the +names Tarkuaris, Tarkumbios, Tarkimos, Trokoarbasis, and +Trokombigremis, besides many other obviously native names, +occur side by side with Teucer and other purely Greek +appellations.<note place='foot'>Ch. Michel, <hi rend='italic'>Recueil d'Inscriptions +Grecques</hi>, pp. 718 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, No. 878. Tarkondimotos +was the name of two kings of +Eastern Cilicia in the first century <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> +One of them corresponded with Cicero +and fell at the battle of Actium. See +Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Familiares</hi>, xv. 1. 2; +Strabo, xiv. 5. 18, p. 676; Dio +Cassius, xli. 63. 1, xlvii. 26. 2, l. +14. 2, li. 2. 2, li. 7. 4, liv. 9. 2; +Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Antoninus</hi>, 61; B. V. Head, +<hi rend='italic'>Historia Numorum</hi> (Oxford, 1887), +p. 618; W. Dittenberger, <hi rend='italic'>Orientis +Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae</hi> (Leipsic, +1903-1905), ii. pp. 494 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, Nos. +752, 753. Moreover, Tarkudimme or +Tarkuwassimi occurs as the name of a +king of Erme (?) or Urmi (?) in a +bilingual Hittite and cuneiform inscription +engraved on a silver seal. See +W. Wright, <hi rend='italic'>The Empire of the +Hittites</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London, 1886), pp. 163 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; L. Messerschmidt, <hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum +Hettiticarum</hi>, pp. 42 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +pl. xlii. 9; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>The Hittites</hi>, pp. 29 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; P. Jensen, <hi rend='italic'>Hittiter und Armenier</hi> +(Strasburg, 1898), pp. 22, 50 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +In this inscription Prof. Jensen suggests +Tarbibi- as an alternative reading for +Tarku-. Compare P. Kretschmer, +<hi rend='italic'>Einleitung in die Geschichte der +griechischen Sprache</hi> (Göttingen, 1896), +pp. 362-364.</note> In like manner the Teucrids, who traced +their descent from Zeus and reigned at Salamis in Cyprus,<note place='foot'>Isocrates, <hi rend='italic'>Or.</hi> ix. 14 and 18 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Pausanias, ii. 29. 2 and 4; W. E. +Engel, <hi rend='italic'>Kypros</hi>, i. 212 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> As to the +names Teucer and Teucrian see P. +Kretschmer, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 189-191. +Prof. Kretschmer believes that the +native population of Cyprus belonged +to the non-Aryan stock of Asia Minor.</note> +may well have been a native dynasty, who concocted a +Greek pedigree for themselves in the days when Greek +civilization was fashionable. The legend which attributed +the foundation of the Cyprian Salamis to Teucer, son of +Telamon, appears to be late and unknown to Homer.<note place='foot'>W. E. Engel, <hi rend='italic'>Kypros</hi>, i. 216.</note> +Moreover, a cruel form of human sacrifice which was +practised in the city down to historical times savours +rather of Oriental barbarity than of Greek humanity. Led +or driven by the youths, a man ran thrice round the altar; +then the priest stabbed him in the throat with a spear and +burned his body whole on a heaped-up pyre. The sacrifice +was offered in the month of Aphrodite to Diomede, who +along with Agraulus, daughter of Cecrops, had a temple at +Salamis. A temple of Athena stood within the same +<pb n='146'/><anchor id='Pg146'/> +sacred enclosure. It is said that in olden times the sacrifice +was offered to Agraulus, and not to Diomede. According +to another account it was instituted by Teucer in honour of +Zeus. However that may have been, the barbarous custom +lasted down to the reign of Hadrian, when Diphilus, king of +Cyprus, abolished or rather mitigated it by substituting the +sacrifice of an ox for that of a man.<note place='foot'>Porphyry, <hi rend='italic'>De abstinentia</hi>, ii. 54 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Lactantius, <hi rend='italic'>Divin. Inst.</hi> i. 21. +As to the date when the custom was +abolished, Lactantius says that it was +done <q>recently in the reign of +Hadrian.</q> Porphyry says that the +practice was put down by Diphilus, +king of Cyprus, <q>in the time of +Seleucus the Theologian.</q> As nothing +seems to be known as to the date of +King Diphilus and Seleucus the Theologian, +I have ventured to assume, on +the strength of Lactantius's statement, +that they were contemporaries of +Hadrian. But it is curious to find +kings of Cyprus reigning so late. +Beside the power of the Roman +governors, their authority can have +been little more than nominal, like +that of native rajahs in British India. +Seleucus the Theologian may be, as +J. A. Fabricius supposed (<hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca +Graeca</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> Hamburg, 1780-1809, vol. i. +p. 86, compare p. 522), the Alexandrian +grammarian who composed a voluminous +work on the gods (Suidas, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +Σέλευκος). Suetonius tells an anecdote +(<hi rend='italic'>Tiberius</hi>, 56) about a grammarian +named Seleucus who flourished, and +faded prematurely, at the court of +Tiberius.</note> On the hypothesis here +suggested we must suppose that these Greek names of divine +or heroic figures at the Cyprian Salamis covered more or less +similar figures of the Asiatic pantheon. And in the Salaminian +burnt-sacrifice of a man we may perhaps detect the original +form of the ceremony which in historical times appears to +have been performed upon an image of Sandan or Hercules +at Tarsus. When an ox was sacrificed instead of a man, +the old sacrificial rites would naturally continue to be observed +in all other respects exactly as before: the animal +would be led thrice round the altar, stabbed with a spear, +and burned on a pyre. Now at the Syrian Hierapolis the +greatest festival of the year bore the name of the Pyre or +the Torch. It was held at the beginning of spring. Great +trees were then cut down and planted in the court of the +temple: sheep, goats, birds, and other creatures were hung +upon them: sacrificial victims were led round: then fire +was set to the whole, and everything was consumed in the +flames.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 49.</note> Perhaps here also the burning of animals was a +substitute for the burning of men. When the practice of +human sacrifice becomes too revolting to humanity to be +tolerated, its abolition is commonly effected by substituting +<pb n='147'/><anchor id='Pg147'/> +either animals or images for living men or women. At +Salamis certainly, and perhaps at Hierapolis, the substitutes +were animals: at Tarsus, if I am right, they were images. +In this connexion the statement of a Greek writer as to the +worship of Adonis in Cyprus deserves attention. He says +that as Adonis had been honoured by Aphrodite, the +Cyprians after his death cast live doves on a pyre to him, +and that the birds, flying away from the flames, fell into +another pyre and were consumed.<note place='foot'>Diogenianus, <hi rend='italic'>Praefatio</hi>, in <hi rend='italic'>Paroemiographi +Graeci</hi>, ed. E. L. Leutsch +et F. G. Schneidewin (Göttingen, +1839-1851), i. 180. Raoul-Rochette +regarded the custom as part of the +ritual of the divine death and resurrection. +He compared it with the burning +of Melcarth at Tyre. See his memoir, +<q>Sur l'Hercule Assyrien et Phénicien,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions +et Belles-Lettres</hi>, xvii. Deuxième Partie +(1848), p. 32.</note> The statement seems to +be a description of an actual custom of burning doves in +sacrifice to Adonis. Such a mode of honouring him would +be very remarkable, since doves were commonly sacred to +his divine mistress Aphrodite or Astarte. For example, at +the Syrian Hierapolis, one of the chief seats of her worship, +these birds were so holy that they might not even be +touched. If a man inadvertently touched a dove, he was +unclean or tabooed for the rest of the day. Hence the +birds, never being molested, were so tame that they lived +with the people in their houses, and commonly picked up +their food fearlessly on the ground.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 54.</note> Can the burning of +the sacred bird of Aphrodite in the Cyprian worship of +Adonis have been a substitute for the burning of a sacred +man who personated the lover of the goddess? +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +priestly +Teucers +of Olba +perhaps +personated +a native +god Tark.</note> +If, as many scholars think, Tark or Tarku was the name, +or part of the name, of a great Hittite deity, sometimes +identified as the god of the sky and the lightning,<note place='foot'>A. H. Sayce, in W. Wright's +<hi rend='italic'>Empire of the Hittites</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> p. 186; W. +M. Ramsay, <q>Pre-Hellenic Monuments +of Cappadocia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Recueil de +Travaux relatifs à la Philologie et +à l'Archéologie Égyptiennes et Assyriennes</hi>, +xiv. (1903) pp. 81 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; C. P. +Tiele, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der Religion im Altertum</hi>, +i. 251; W. Max Müller, +<hi rend='italic'>Asien und Europa</hi>, p. 333; P. Jensen, +<hi rend='italic'>Hittiter und Armenier</hi>, pp. 70, +150 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 155 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; F. Hommel, +<hi rend='italic'>Grundriss der Geographie und Geschichte +des alten Orients</hi>, pp. 44, 51 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; L. Messerschmidt, <hi rend='italic'>The Hittites</hi>, +p. 40. Sir W. M. Ramsay thinks +(<hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>) that Tark was the native name +of the god who had his sanctuary at +Dastarkon in Cappadocia and who was +called by the Greeks the Cataonian +Apollo: his sanctuary was revered all +over Cappadocia (Strabo, xiv. 2. 5, +p. 537). Prof. Hommel holds that +Tarku or Tarchu was the chief Hittite +deity, worshipped all over the south of +Asia Minor. Prof. W. Max Müller is +of opinion that Targh or Tarkh did not +designate any particular deity, but was +the general Hittite name for <q>god.</q> +There are grounds for holding that the +proper name of the Hittite thunder-god +was Teshub or Teshup. See +above, p. <ref target='Pg135'>135</ref> note.</note> we may +<pb n='148'/><anchor id='Pg148'/> +conjecture that Tark or Tarku was the native name of the +god of Olba, whom the Greeks called Zeus, and that the +priestly kings who bore the name of Teucer represented +the god Tark or Tarku in their own persons. This conjecture +is confirmed by the observation that Olba, the +ancient name of the city, is itself merely a Grecized form +of Oura, the name which the place retains to this day.<note place='foot'>J. T. Bent, <q>Explorations in +Cilicia Tracheia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Proceedings of the +Royal Geographical Society</hi>, N.S. xii. +(1890) p. 458; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <q>A Journey in +Cilicia Tracheia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic +Studies</hi>, xii. (1891) p. 222; W. M. +Ramsay, <hi rend='italic'>Historical Geography of Asia +Minor</hi> (London, 1890), pp. 22, 364. +Sir W. M. Ramsay had shown grounds +for thinking that Olba was a Grecized +form of a native name Ourba (pronounced +Ourwa) before Mr. J. T. +Bent discovered the site and the +name.</note> +The situation of the town, moreover, speaks strongly in +favour of the view that it was from the beginning an +aboriginal settlement, though in after days, like so many +other Asiatic cities, it took on a varnish of Greek culture. +For it stood remote from the sea on a lofty and barren +tableland, with a rigorous winter climate, in the highlands +of Cilicia. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Western +or Rugged +Cilicia.</note> +Great indeed is the contrast between the bleak windy +uplands of Western or Rugged Cilicia, as the ancients called +it, and the soft luxuriant lowlands of Eastern Cilicia, where +winter is almost unknown and summer annually drives the +population to seek in the cool air of the mountains a refuge +from the intolerable heat and deadly fevers of the plains. +In Western Cilicia, on the other hand, a lofty tableland, +ending in a high sharp edge on the coast, rises steadily +inland till it passes gradually into the chain of heights +which divide it from the interior. Looked at from the sea +it resembles a great blue wave swelling in one uniform +sweep till its crest breaks into foam in the distant snows +of the Taurus. The surface of the tableland is almost +everywhere rocky and overgrown, in the intervals of the +rocks, with dense, thorny, almost impenetrable scrub. Only +here and there in a hollow or glen the niggardly soil allows +of a patch of cultivation; and here and there fine oaks and +<pb n='149'/><anchor id='Pg149'/> +planes, towering over the brushwood, clothe with a richer +foliage the depth of the valleys. None but wandering +herdsmen with their flocks now maintain a precarious +existence in this rocky wilderness. Yet the ruined towns +which stud the country prove that a dense population lived +and throve here in antiquity, while numerous remains of +wine-presses and wine-vats bear witness to the successful +cultivation of the grape. The chief cause of the present +desolation is lack of water; for wells are few and brackish, +perennial streams hardly exist, and the ancient aqueducts, +which once brought life and fertility to the land, have long +been suffered to fall into disrepair. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Cilician +pirates.</note> +But for ages together the ancient inhabitants of these +uplands earned their bread by less reputable means than +the toil of the husbandman and the vinedresser. They +were buccaneers and slavers, scouring the high seas with +their galleys and retiring with their booty to the inaccessible +fastnesses of their mountains. In the decline of Greek +power all over the East the pirate communities of Cilicia +grew into a formidable state, recruited by gangs of desperadoes +and broken men who flocked to it from all sides. +The holds of these robbers may still be seen perched on +the brink of the profound ravines which cleave the tableland +at frequent intervals. With their walls of massive +masonry, their towers and battlements, overhanging dizzy +depths, they are admirably adapted to bid defiance to the +pursuit of justice. In antiquity the dark forests of cedar, +which clothed much of the country and supplied the pirates +with timber for their ships, must have rendered access to +these fastnesses still more difficult. The great gorge of the +Lamas River, which eats its way like a sheet of forked +lightning into the heart of the mountains, is dotted every +few miles with fortified towns, some of them still magnificent +in their ruins, dominating sheer cliffs high above the +stream. They are now the haunt only of the ibex and the +bear. Each of these communities had its own crest or +badge, which may still be seen carved on the corners of the +mouldering towers. No doubt, too, it blazoned the same +crest on the hull, the sails, or the streamers of the galley +which, manned with a crew of ruffians, it sent out to prey +<pb n='150'/><anchor id='Pg150'/> +upon the rich merchantmen in the Golden Sea, as the corsairs +called the highway of commerce between Crete and Africa. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The deep +gorges of +Rugged +Cilicia.</note> +A staircase cut in the rock connects one of these ruined +castles with the river in the glen, a thousand feet below. +But the steps are worn and dangerous, indeed impassable. +You may go for miles along the edge of these stupendous +cliffs before you find a way down. The paths keep on the +heights, for in many of its reaches the gully affords no +foothold even to the agile nomads who alone roam these +solitudes. At evening the winding course of the river may +be traced for a long distance by a mist which, as the heat +of the day declines, rises like steam from the deep gorge +and hangs suspended in a wavy line of fleecy cloud above +it. But even more imposing than the ravine of the Lamas +is the terrific gorge known as the <foreign rend='italic'>Sheitan dere</foreign> or Devil's +Glen near the Corycian cave. Prodigious walls of rock, +glowing in the intense sunlight, black in the shadow, and +spanned by a summer sky of the deepest blue, hem in +the dry bed of a winter torrent, choked with rocks and +tangled with thickets of evergreens, among which the +oleanders with their slim stalks, delicate taper leaves, and +bunches of crimson blossom stand out conspicuous.<note place='foot'>J. Theodore Bent, <q>Explorations +in Cilicia Tracheia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Proceedings of the +Royal Geographical Society</hi>, N.S. xii. +(1890) pp. 445, 450-453; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <q>A +Journal in Cilicia Tracheia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal +of Hellenic Studies</hi>, xii. (1891) pp. +208, 210-212, 217-219; R. Heberdey +und A. Wilhelm, <q>Reisen in Kilikien,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Denkschriften der kaiser. Akademie der +Wissenschaften, Philosoph.-historische +Classe</hi>, xliv. (Vienna, 1896) No. vi. +pp. 49, 70; D. G. Hogarth and J. +A. R. Munro, <q>Modern and Ancient +Roads in Eastern Asia Minor,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Royal +Geographical Society, Supplementary +Papers</hi>, vol. iii. part 5 (London, 1893), +pp. 653 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> As to the Cilician pirates +see Strabo, xiv. 5. 2, pp. 668 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Pompeius</hi>, 24; Appian, +<hi rend='italic'>Bellum Mithridat.</hi> 92 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Dio Cassius, +xxxvi. 20-24 [3-6], ed. L. Dindorf; +Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De imperio Cn. Pompeii</hi>, +11 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Th. Mommsen, <hi rend='italic'>Roman History</hi> +(London, 1868), iii. 68-70, iv. +40-45, 118-120. As to the crests +carved on their towns see J. T. Bent, +<q>Cilician Symbols,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Classical Review</hi>, +iv. (1890) pp. 321 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Among these +crests are a club (the badge of Olba), +a bunch of grapes, the caps of the +Dioscuri, the three-legged symbol, and +so on. As to the cedars and ship-building +timber of Cilicia in antiquity +see Theophrastus, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Plantarum</hi>, +iii. 2. 6, iv. 5. 5. The cedars and firs +have now retreated to the higher +slopes of the Taurus. Great destruction +is wrought in the forests by the +roving Yuruks with their flocks; for +they light their fires under the trees, +tap the firs for turpentine, bark the +cedars for their huts and bee-hives, +and lay bare whole tracts of country +that the grass may grow for their +sheep and goats. See J. T. Bent, +in <hi rend='italic'>Proceedings of the Royal Geographical +Society</hi>, N.S. xii. (1890) pp. 453-458.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='151'/><anchor id='Pg151'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The site +and ruins +of Olba. +The +temple of +Olbian +Zeus.</note> +The ruins of Olba, among the most extensive and +remarkable in Asia Minor, were discovered in 1890 by +Mr. J. Theodore Bent. But three years before another +English traveller had caught a distant view of its battlements +and towers outlined against the sky like a city of +enchantment or dreams.<note place='foot'>D. G. Hogarth, <hi rend='italic'>A Wandering Scholar in the Levant</hi> (London, 1896), +pp. 57 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Standing at a height of nearly +six thousand feet above the sea, the upper town commands +a free, though somewhat uniform, prospect for immense +distances in all directions. The sea is just visible far away +to the south. On these heights the winter is long and +severe. Snow lies on the ground for months. No Greek +would have chosen such a site for a city, so bleak and chill, +so far from blue water; but it served well for a fastness +of brigands. Deep gorges, one of them filled for miles with +tombs, surround it on all sides, rendering fortification walls +superfluous. But a great square tower, four stories high, +rises conspicuous on the hill, forming a landmark and +earning for this upper town the native name of <foreign rend='italic'>Jebel Hissar</foreign>, +or the Mountain of the Castle. A Greek inscription cut +on the tower proves that it was built by Teucer, son of +Tarkuaris, one of the priestly potentates of Olba. Among +other remains of public buildings the most notable are forty +tall Corinthian columns of the great temple of Olbian Zeus. +Though coarse in style and corroded by long exposure to +frost and snow, these massive pillars, towering above the +ruins, produce an imposing effect. That the temple of +which they formed part belonged indeed to Olbian Zeus +is shown by a Greek inscription found within the sacred +area, which records that the pent-houses on the inner side +of the boundary wall were built by King Seleucus Nicator +and repaired for Olbian Zeus by <q>the great high-priest +Teucer, son of Zenophanes.</q> About two hundred yards +from this great temple are standing five elegant granite +columns of a small temple dedicated to the goddess Fortune. +Further, the remains of two theatres and many other public +buildings attest the former splendour of this mountain city. +An arched colonnade, of which some Corinthian columns +are standing with their architraves, ran through the town; +<pb n='152'/><anchor id='Pg152'/> +and an ancient paved road, lined with tombs and ruins, +leads down hill to a lower and smaller city two or three +miles distant. It is this lower town which retains the +ancient name of Oura. Here the principal ruins occupy +an isolated fir-clad height bounded by two narrow ravines +full of rock-cut tombs. Below the town the ravines unite +and form a fine gorge, down which the old road passed +seaward.<note place='foot'>J. Theodore Bent, <q>Explorations +in Cilicia Tracheia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Proceedings of the +Royal Geographical Society</hi>, N.S. xii. +(1890) pp. 445 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 458-460; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<q>A Journey in Cilicia Tracheia,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic Studies</hi>, xii. +(1890) pp. 220-222; E. L. Hicks, +<q>Inscriptions from Western Cilicia,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>ib.</hi> pp. 262-270; R. Heberdey und +A. Wilhelm, <q>Reisen in Kilikien,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Denkschriften der kaiser. Akademie der +Wissenschaften, Philos.-histor. Classe</hi>, +xliv. (Vienna, 1896) No. vi. pp. +83-91; W. M. Ramsay and D. G. +Hogarth, in <hi rend='italic'>American Journal of +Archaeology</hi>, vi. (1890) p. 345; Ch. +Michel, <hi rend='italic'>Recueil d'Inscriptions Grecques</hi>, +p. 858, No. 1231. In one place +(<hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic Studies</hi>, xii. 222) +Bent gives the height of Olba as +3800 feet; but this is a misprint, +for elsewhere (<hi rend='italic'>Proceedings of the Royal +Geographical Society</hi>, N.S. xii. 446, +458) he gives the height as exactly +5850 or roughly 6000 feet. The misprint +has unfortunately been repeated +by Messrs. Heberdey and Wilhelm +(<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 84 note 1). The tall tower +of Olba is figured on the coins of the +city. See G. F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of the +Greek Coins of Lycaonia, Isauria, and +Cilicia</hi> (London, 1900), pl. xxii. 8.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='7. The God of the Corycian Cave.'/> +<head>§ 7. The God of the Corycian Cave.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Limestone +caverns of +Western +Cilicia.</note> +Nothing yet found at Olba throws light on the nature +of the god who was worshipped there under the Greek name +of Zeus. But at two places near the coast, distant only +some fourteen or fifteen miles from Olba, a deity also called +Zeus by the Greeks was revered in natural surroundings +of a remarkable kind, which must have stood in close +relation with the worship, and are therefore fitted to +illustrate it. In both places the features of the landscape +are of the same general cast, and at one of them the god +was definitely identified with the Zeus of Olba. The +country here consists of a tableland of calcareous rock rent +at intervals by those great chasms which are characteristic +of a limestone formation. Similar fissures, with the +accompaniment of streams or rivers which pour into them +and vanish under ground, are frequent in Greece, and may be +observed in our own country near Ingleborough in Yorkshire. +Fossil bones of extinct animals are often found embedded in +<pb n='153'/><anchor id='Pg153'/> +the stalagmite or breccia of limestone caves. For example, +the famous Kent's Hole near Torquay contained bones of +the mammoth, rhinoceros, lion, hyaena, and bear; and red +osseous breccias, charged with the bones of quadrupeds +which have long disappeared from Europe, are common in +almost all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean.<note place='foot'>Sir Charles Lyell, <hi rend='italic'>Principles of +Geology</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>12</hi> (London, 1875), ii. 518 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +<hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Britannica</hi>, Ninth Edition, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Caves,</q> v. 265 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +Compare my notes on Pausanias, i. 35. +7, viii. 29. 1.</note> +Western Cilicia is richer in Miocene deposits than any other +part of Anatolia, and the limestone gorges of the coast near +Olba are crowded with fossil oysters, corals, and other shells.<note place='foot'>J. T. Bent, in <hi rend='italic'>Proceedings of the +Royal Geographical Society</hi>, N.S. xii. +(1890) p. 447.</note> +Here, too, within the space of five miles the limestone +plateau is rent by three great chasms, which Greek religion +associated with Zeus and Typhon. One of these fissures is +the celebrated Corycian cave. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The city +of Corycus. +The +Corycian +cave.</note> +To visit this spot, invested with the double charm of +natural beauty and legendary renown, you start from the +dead Cilician city of Corycus on the sea, with its ruined +walls, towers, and churches, its rock-hewn houses and +cisterns, its shattered mole, its island-fortress, still imposing +in decay. Viewed from the sea, this part of the Cilician +coast, with its long succession of white ruins, relieved by the +dark wooded hills behind, presents an appearance of +populousness and splendour. But a nearer approach reveals +the nakedness and desolation of the once prosperous land.<note place='foot'>Fr. Beaufort, <hi rend='italic'>Karmania</hi> (London, +1817), pp. 240 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +Following the shore westward from Corycus for about an +hour you come to a pretty cove enclosed by wooded heights, +where a spring of pure cold water bubbles up close to the +sea, giving to the spot its name of <foreign rend='italic'>Tatlu-su</foreign>, or the Sweet +Water. From this bay a steep ascent of about a mile along +an ancient paved road leads inland to a plateau. Here, +threading your way through a labyrinth or petrified sea of +jagged calcareous rocks, you suddenly find yourself on the +brink of a vast chasm which yawns at your feet. This is +the Corycian cave. In reality it is not a cave but an +immense hollow or trough in the plateau, of oval shape +and perhaps half a mile in circumference. The cliffs which +<pb n='154'/><anchor id='Pg154'/> +enclose it vary from one hundred to over two hundred feet +in depth. Its uneven bottom slopes throughout its whole +length from north to south, and is covered by a thick jungle +of trees and shrubs—myrtles, pomegranates, carobs, and +many more, kept always fresh and green by rivulets, underground +water, and the shadow of the great cliffs. A single +narrow path leads down into its depths. The way is long +and rough, but the deeper you descend the denser grows the +vegetation, and it is under the dappled shade of whispering +leaves and with the purling of brooks in your ears that you +at last reach the bottom. The saffron which of old grew here +among the bushes is no longer to be found, though it still +flourishes in the surrounding district. This luxuriant bottom, +with its rich verdure, its refreshing moisture, its grateful +shade, is called Paradise by the wandering herdsmen. They +tether their camels and pasture their goats in it and come +hither in the late summer to gather the ripe pomegranates. +At the southern and deepest end of this great cliff-encircled +hollow you come to the cavern proper. The ruins of a +Byzantine church, which replaced a heathen temple, partly +block the entrance. Inwards the cave descends with a +gentle slope into the bowels of the earth. The old path +paved with polygonal masonry still runs through it, but +soon disappears under sand. At about two hundred feet +from its mouth the cave comes to an end, and a tremendous +roar of subterranean water is heard. By crawling on all +fours you may reach a small pool arched by a dripping +stalactite-hung roof, but the stream which makes the +deafening din is invisible. It was otherwise in antiquity. +A river of clear water burst from the rock, but only to +vanish again into a chasm. Such changes in the course +of streams are common in countries subject to earthquakes +and to the disruption caused by volcanic agency. +The ancients believed that this mysterious cavern was +haunted ground. In the rumble and roar of the waters +they seemed to hear the clash of cymbals touched by hands +divine.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiv. 5. 5, pp. 670 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Mela, i. 72-75, ed. G. Parthey; J. +T. Bent, <q>Explorations in Cilicia +Tracheia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Proceedings of the Royal +Geographical Society</hi>, N.S. xii. (1890) +pp. 446-448; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <q>A Journey in +Cilicia Tracheia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic +Studies</hi>, xii. (1891) pp. 212-214; R. +Heberdey und A. Wilhelm, <q>Reisen +in Kilikien,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Denkschriften der kaiser. +Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philos.-histor. +Classe</hi>, xliv. (1896) No. vi. pp. +70-79. Mr. D. G. Hogarth was so +good as to furnish me with some notes +embodying his recollections of the +Corycian cave. All these modern +writers confirm the general accuracy of +the descriptions of the cave given by +Strabo and Mela. Mr. Hogarth indeed +speaks of exaggeration in Mela's +account, but this is not admitted by +Mr. A. Wilhelm. As to the ruins of +the city of Corycus on the coast, distant +about three miles from the cave, see +Fr. Beaufort, <hi rend='italic'>Karmania</hi> (London, +1817), pp. 232-238; R. Heberdey +und A. Wilhelm, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 67-70.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='155'/><anchor id='Pg155'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Priests of +Corycian +Zeus.</note> +If now, quitting the cavern, we return by the same path +to the summit of the cliffs, we shall find on the plateau the +ruins of a town and of a temple at the western edge of the +great Corycian chasm. The wall of the holy precinct was +built within a few feet of the precipices, and the sanctuary +must have stood right over the actual cave and its +subterranean waters. In later times the temple was +converted into a Christian church. By pulling down a +portion of the sacred edifice Mr. Bent had the good fortune +to discover a Greek inscription containing a long list of +names, probably those of the priests who superintended the +worship. One name which meets us frequently in the list +is Zas, and it is tempting to regard this as merely a +dialectical form of Zeus. If that were so, the priests who +bore the name might be supposed to personate the god.<note place='foot'>The suggestion is Mr. A. B. +Cook's. See his article, <q>The +European Sky-god,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Classical Review</hi>, +xvii. (1903) p. 418, note 2.</note> +But many strange and barbarous-looking names, evidently +foreign, occur in the list, and Zas may be one of them. +However, it is certain that Zeus was worshipped at the +Corycian cave; for about half a mile from it, on the summit +of a hill, are the ruins of a larger temple, which an +inscription proves to have been dedicated to Corycian +Zeus.<note place='foot'>J. T. Bent, in <hi rend='italic'>Proceedings of the +Royal Geographical Society</hi>, N.S. xii. +(1890) p. 448; <hi rend='italic'>id</hi>., in <hi rend='italic'>Journal of +Hellenic Studies</hi>, xii. (1891) pp. 214-216. +For the inscription containing +the names of the priests see R. +Heberdey und A. Wilhelm, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. +71-79; Ch. Michel, <hi rend='italic'>Recueil d'Inscriptions +Grecques</hi>, pp. 718 <hi rend='italic'>sqq</hi>., No. 878; +above, p. 145.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The cave +of the +giant +Typhon.</note> +But Zeus, or whatever native deity masqueraded under +his name, did not reign alone in the deep dell. A more +dreadful being haunted a still more awful abyss which opens +in the ground only a hundred yards to the east of the great +Corycian chasm. It is a circular cauldron, about a quarter +<pb n='156'/><anchor id='Pg156'/> +of a mile in circumference, resembling the Corycian chasm +in its general character, but smaller, deeper, and far more +terrific in appearance. Its sides overhang and stalactites +droop from them. There is no way down into it. The +only mode of reaching the bottom, which is covered with +vegetation, would be to be lowered at the end of a long +rope. The nomads call this chasm Purgatory, to distinguish +it from the other which they name Paradise. They say +that there is a subterranean passage between the two, and +that the smoke of a fire kindled in the Corycian cave may +be seen curling out of the other. The one ancient writer +who expressly mentions this second and more grisly cavern +is Mela, who says that it was the lair of the giant Typhon, +and that no animal let down into it could live.<note place='foot'>Mela, i. 76, ed. G. Parthey (Berlin, +1867). The cave of Typhon is +described by J. T. Bent, <hi rend='italic'>ll.cc.</hi></note> Aeschylus +puts into the mouth of Prometheus an account of <q>the +earth-born Typhon, dweller in Cilician caves, dread monster, +hundred-headed,</q> who in his pride rose up against the gods, +hissing destruction from his dreadful jaws, while from his +Gorgon eyes the lightning flashed. But him a flaming levin +bolt, crashing from heaven, smote to the very heart, and +now he lies, shrivelled and scorched, under the weight of +Etna by the narrow sea. Yet one day he will belch a fiery +hail, a boiling angry flood, rivers of flame, to devastate the +fat Sicilian fields.<note place='foot'>Aeschylus, <hi rend='italic'>Prometheus Vinctus</hi>, +351-372.</note> This poetical description of the monster, +confirmed by a similar passage of Pindar,<note place='foot'>Pindar, <hi rend='italic'>Pyth.</hi> i. 30 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, who +speaks of the giant as <q>bred in the +many-named Cilician cave.</q></note> clearly proves +that Typhon was conceived as a personification of those +active volcanoes which spout fire and smoke to heaven as +if they would assail the celestial gods. The Corycian caverns +are not volcanic, but the ancients apparently regarded them +as such, else they would hardly have made them the den of +Typhon. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Battle of +Zeus and +Typhon.</note> +According to one legend Typhon was a monster, half +man and half brute, begotten in Cilicia by Tartarus upon +the goddess Earth. The upper part of him was human, but +from the loins downward he was an enormous snake. In +the battle of the gods and giants, which was fought out in +Egypt, Typhon hugged Zeus in his snaky coils, wrested +<pb n='157'/><anchor id='Pg157'/> +from him his crooked sword, and with the blade cut the +sinews of the god's hands and feet. Then taking him on +his back he conveyed the mutilated deity across the sea to +Cilicia, and deposited him in the Corycian cave. Here, too, +he hid the severed sinews, wrapt in a bear's skin. But +Hermes and Aegipan contrived to steal the missing thews +and restore them to their divine owner. Thus made whole +and strong again, Zeus pelted his beaten adversary with +thunderbolts, drove him from place to place, and at last +overwhelmed him under Mount Etna. And the spots where +the hissing bolts fell are still marked by jets of flame.<note place='foot'>Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, i. 6. 3.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Fossil +bones of +extinct +animals +give rise +to stories +of giants.</note> +It is possible that the discovery of fossil bones of large +extinct animals may have helped to localize the story of the +giant at the Corycian cave. Such bones, as we have seen, +are often found in limestone caverns, and the limestone +gorges of Cilicia are in fact rich in fossils. The Arcadians +laid the scene of the battle of the gods and the giants in the +plain of Megalopolis, where many bones of mammoths have +come to light, and where, moreover, flames have been seen +to burst from the earth and even to burn for years.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, viii. 29. 1, with my +notes. Pausanias mentions (viii. 32. 5) +bones of superhuman size which were +preserved at Megalopolis, and which +popular superstition identified as the +bones of the giant Hopladamus.</note> These +natural conditions would easily suggest a fable of giants +who had fought the gods and had been slain by thunderbolts; +the smouldering earth or jets of flame would be +regarded as the spots where the divine lightnings had struck +the ground. Hence the Arcadians sacrificed to thunder and +lightning.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, viii. 29. 1.</note> In Sicily, too, great quantities of bones of +mammoths, elephants, hippopotamuses, and other animals +long extinct in the island have been found, and have been +appealed to with confidence by patriotic Sicilians as conclusive +evidence of the gigantic stature of their ancestors or +predecessors.<note place='foot'>A. Holm, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte Siciliens im +Alterthum</hi> (Leipsic, 1870-1874), i. 57, +356.</note> These remains of huge unwieldy creatures +which once trampled through the jungle or splashed in the +rivers of Sicily may have contributed with the fires of Etna +to build up the story of giants imprisoned under the volcano +and vomiting smoke and flame from its crater. <q>Tales of +<pb n='158'/><anchor id='Pg158'/> +giants and monsters, which stand in direct connexion with +the finding of great fossil bones, are scattered broadcast over +the mythology of the world. Huge bones, found at Punto +Santa Elena, in the north of Guayaquil, have served as a +foundation for the story of a colony of giants who dwelt +there. The whole area of the Pampas is a great sepulchre +of enormous extinct animals; no wonder that one great +plain should be called the <q>Field of the giants,</q> and that +such names as <q>the hill of the giant,</q> <q>the stream of the +animal,</q> should be guides to the geologist in his search for +fossil bones.</q><note place='foot'>(Sir) Edward B. Tylor, <hi rend='italic'>Researches +into the Early History of Mankind</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +(London, 1878), p. 322, who adduces +much more evidence of the same sort.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Chasm of +Olbian +Zeus at +Kanytelideis.</note> +About five miles to the north-east of the Corycian +caverns, but divided from them by many deep gorges and +impassable rocks, is another and very similar chasm. It +may be reached in about an hour and a quarter from the +sea by an ancient paved road, which ascends at first very +steeply and then gently through bush-clad and wooded hills. +Thus you come to a stretch of level ground covered with +the well-preserved ruins of an ancient town. Remains of +fortresses constructed of polygonal masonry, stately churches, +and many houses, together with numerous tombs and reliefs, +finely chiselled in the calcareous limestone of the neighbourhood, +bear witness to the extent and importance of the place. +Yet it is mentioned by no ancient writer. Inscriptions prove +that its name was Kanyteldeis or Kanytelideis, which still +survives in the modern form of Kanidiwan. The great +chasm opens in the very heart of the city. So crowded are +the ruins that you do not perceive the abyss till you are +within a few yards of it. It is almost a complete circle, +about a quarter of a mile wide, three-quarters of a mile in +circumference, and uniformly two hundred feet or more in +depth. The cliffs go sheer down and remind the traveller +of the great quarries at Syracuse. But like the Corycian +caves, the larger of which it closely resembles, the huge +fissure is natural; and its bottom, like theirs, is overgrown +with trees and vegetation. Two ways led down into it in +antiquity, both cut through the rock. One of them was a +tunnel, which is now obstructed; the other is still open. +<pb n='159'/><anchor id='Pg159'/> +Remains of columns and hewn stones in the bottom of the +chasm seem to show that a temple once stood there. But +there is no cave at the foot of the cliffs, and no stream flows +in the deep hollow or can be heard to rumble underground. +A ruined tower of polygonal masonry, which stands on the +southern edge of the chasm, bears a Greek inscription stating +that it was dedicated to Olbian Zeus by the priest Teucer, +son of Tarkuaris. The letters are beautifully cut in the style +of the third century before Christ. We may infer that at +the time of the dedication the town belonged to the priestly +kings of Olba, and that the great chasm was sacred to +Olbian Zeus.<note place='foot'>J. T. Bent, <q>Explorations in +Cilicia Tracheia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Proceedings of the +Royal Geographical Society</hi>, N.S. xii. +(1890) pp. 448 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <q>A Journey +in Cilicia Tracheia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic +Studies</hi>, xii. (1891) pp. 208-210; R. +Heberdey und A. Wilhelm, <q>Reisen +in Kilikien,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Denkschriften der kaiserlichen +Akademie der Wissenschaften, +Philosophisch-historische Classe</hi>, xliv. +(Vienna, 1896) No. vi. pp. 51-61.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The deity +of these +great +chasms +was called +Zeus by +the Greeks, +but he was +probably +a god of +fertility +embodied +in vegetation +and +water.</note> +What, then, was the character of the god who was +worshipped under the name of Zeus at these two great +natural chasms? The depth of the fissures, opening +suddenly and as it were without warning in the midst of +a plateau, was well fitted to impress and awe the spectator; +and the sight of the rank evergreen vegetation at their +bottom, fed by rivulets or underground water, must have +presented a striking contrast to the grey, barren, rocky +wilderness of the surrounding tableland. Such a spot +must have seemed to simple folk a paradise, a garden of +God, the abode of higher powers who caused the wilderness +to blossom, if not with roses, at least with myrtles +and pomegranates for man, and with grass and underwood +for his flocks. So to the Semite, as we saw, the Baal of +the land is he who fertilizes it by subterranean water +rather than by rain from the sky, and who therefore dwells +in the depths of earth rather than in the height of heaven.<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg026'>26</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +In rainless countries the sky-god is deprived of one of the +principal functions which he discharges in cool cloudy +climates like that of Europe. He has, in fact, little or +nothing to do with the water-supply, and has therefore +small excuse for levying a water-rate on his worshippers. +Not, indeed, that Cilicia is rainless; but in countries bordering +<pb n='160'/><anchor id='Pg160'/> +on the Mediterranean the drought is almost unbroken +through the long months of summer. Vegetation then +withers: the face of nature is scorched and brown: most +of the rivers dry up; and only their white stony beds, +hot to the foot and dazzling to the eye, remain to tell +where they flowed. It is at such seasons that a green +hollow, a shady rock, a murmuring stream, are welcomed +by the wanderer in the South with a joy and wonder +which the untravelled Northerner can hardly imagine. +Never do the broad slow rivers of England, with their +winding reaches, their grassy banks, their grey willows +mirrored with the soft English sky in the placid stream, +appear so beautiful as when the traveller views them for +the first time after leaving behind him the aridity, the +heat, the blinding glare of the white southern landscape, +set in seas and skies of caerulean blue. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Analogy +of the +Corycian +and Olbian +caverns to +Ibreez and +the vale +of the +Adonis.</note> +We may take it, then, as probable that the god of the +Corycian and Olbian caverns was worshipped as a source +of fertility. In antiquity, when the river, which now roars +underground, still burst from the rock in the Corycian +cave, the scene must have resembled Ibreez, where the god +of the corn and the vine was adored at the source of the +stream; and we may compare the vale of Adonis in the +Lebanon, where the divinity who gave his name to the river +was revered at its foaming cascades. The three landscapes +had in common the elements of luxuriant vegetation and +copious streams leaping full-born from the rock. We shall +hardly err in supposing that these features shaped the conception +of the deities who were supposed to haunt the +favoured spots. At the Corycian cave the existence of a +second chasm, of a frowning and awful aspect, might well +suggest the presence of an evil being who lurked in it and +sought to undo the beneficent work of the good god. Thus +we should have a fable of a conflict between the two, a +battle of Zeus and Typhon. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Two gods +at Olba, +perhaps a +father and +a son, corresponding +to the +Baal and +Sandan of +Tarsus.</note> +On the whole we conclude that the Olbian Zeus, +worshipped at one of these great limestone chasms, and +clearly identical in nature with the Corycian Zeus, was +also identical with the Baal of Tarsus, the god of the corn +and the vine, who in his turn can hardly be separated from +<pb n='161'/><anchor id='Pg161'/> +the god of Ibreez. If my conjecture is right the native +name of the Olbian Zeus was Tark or Trok, and the priestly +Teucers of Olba represented him in their own persons. On +that hypothesis the Olbian priests who bore the name of +Ajax embodied another native deity of unknown name, +perhaps the father or the son of Tark. A comparison of +the coin-types of Tarsus with the Hittite monuments of +Ibreez and Boghaz-Keui led us to the conclusion that the +people of Tarsus worshipped at least two distinct gods, a +father and a son, the father-god being known to the Semites +as Baal and to the Greeks as Zeus, while the son was called +Sandan by the natives, but Hercules by the Greeks. We +may surmise that at Olba the names of Teucer and Ajax +designated two gods who corresponded in type to the two +gods of Tarsus; and if the lesser figure at Ibreez, who +appears in an attitude of adoration before the deity of +the corn and the vine, could be interpreted as the divine +Son in presence of the divine Father, we should have in all +three places the same pair of deities, represented probably +in the flesh by successive generations of priestly kings. But +the evidence is far too slender to justify us in advancing this +hypothesis as anything more than a bare conjecture. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='8. Cilician Goddesses.'/> +<head>§ 8. Cilician Goddesses.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Goddesses +less +prominent +than gods +in Cilician +religion.</note> +So far, the Cilician deities discussed have been males; +we have as yet found no trace of the great Mother Goddess +who plays so important a part in the religion of Cappadocia +and Phrygia, beyond the great dividing range of the Taurus. +Yet we may suspect that she was not unknown in Cilicia, +though her worship certainly seems to have been far less +prominent there than in the centre of Asia Minor. The +difference may perhaps be interpreted as evidence that +mother-kin and hence the predominance of Mother Goddesses +survived, in the bleak highlands of the interior, long after a +genial climate and teeming soil had fostered the growth of a +higher civilization, and with it the advance from female to +male kinship, in the rich lowlands of Cilicia. Be that as it +may, Cilician goddesses with or without a male partner are +known to have been revered in various parts of the country. +</p> + +<pb n='162'/><anchor id='Pg162'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +goddess +'Atheh, +partner of +Baal at +Tarsus, +seems to +have been +a form of +Atargatis. +The lion-goddess +and the +bull-god. In later +times the +old +goddess +became the +Fortune of +the City.</note> +Thus at Tarsus itself the goddess 'Atheh was worshipped +along with Baal; their effigies are engraved on the same coins +of the city. She is represented wearing a veil and seated upon +a lion, with her name in Aramaic letters engraved beside her.<note place='foot'>B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Numorum</hi> +(Oxford, 1887), p. 616. [However, +Mr. G. F. Hill writes to me: <q>The +attribution to Tarsus of the 'Atheh +coins is unfounded. Head himself +only gives it as doubtful. I should +think they belong further East.</q> In +the uncertainty which prevails on this +point I have left the text unchanged. +<hi rend='italic'>Note to Second Edition.</hi>]</note> +Hence it would seem that at Tarsus, as at Boghaz-Keui, the +Father God mated with a lion-goddess like the Phrygian +Cybele or the Syrian Atargatis. Now the name Atargatis +is a Greek rendering of the Aramaic 'Athar-'atheh, a compound +word which includes the name of the goddess of +Tarsus.<note place='foot'><p>The name 'Athar-'atheh occurs in +a Palmyrene inscription. See G. A. +Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic +Inscriptions</hi>, No. 112, pp. 267-270. +In analysing Atargatis into 'Athar-'atheh +('Atar-'ata) I follow E. Meyer +(<hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> i. 2. pp. +605, 650 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>), F. Baethgen (<hi rend='italic'>Beiträge +zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte</hi>, pp. +68-75), Fr. Cumont (<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Atargatis,</q> +Pauly-Wissowa, <hi rend='italic'>Real-Encyclopädie der +classischen Altertumswissenschaft</hi>, ii. +1896), G. A. Cooke (<hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>), C. P. Tiele +(<hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der Religion im Altertum</hi>, i. +245), F. Hommel (<hi rend='italic'>Grundriss der Geographie +und Geschichte des alten Orients</hi>, +pp. 43 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>), Father Lagrange (<hi rend='italic'>Études +sur les Religions Sémitiques</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> p. 130), +and L. B. Paton (<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Atargatis,</q> J. +Hastings's <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia of Religion +and Ethics</hi>, ii. 164 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). In the great +temple at Hierapolis-Bambyce a +mysterious golden image stood between +the images of Atargatis and her male +partner. It resembled neither of them, +yet combined the attributes of other +gods. Some interpreted it as Dionysus, +others as Deucalion, and others as +Semiramis; for a golden dove, traditionally +associated with Semiramis, was +perched on the head of the figure. +The Syrians called the image by a +name which Lucian translates <q>sign</q> +(σημήιον). See Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, +33. It has been plausibly conjectured +by F. Baethgen that the name which +Lucian translates <q>sign</q> was really +'Atheh (עתה), which could easily be +confused with the Syriac word for <q>sign</q> +(אהא). See F. Baethgen, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. +73. A coin of Hierapolis, dating from +the third century <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi>, exhibits the +images of the god and goddess seated +on bulls and lions respectively, with +the mysterious object between them +enclosed in a shrine, which is surmounted +by a bird, probably a dove. +See J. Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The Syrian Goddess</hi> +(London, 1913), pp. 22 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 70 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +with fig. 7. +</p> +<p> +The modern writers cited at the +beginning of this note have interpreted +the Syrian 'Atheh as a male +god, the lover of Atargatis, and +identical in name and character with +the Phrygian Attis. They may be +right; but none of them seems to have +noticed that the same name 'Atheh +(עתה) is applied to a goddess at Tarsus.</p></note> Thus in name as well as in attributes the female +partner of the Baal of Tarsus appears to correspond to +Atargatis, the Syrian Mother Goddess whose image, seated +on a lion or lions, was worshipped with great pomp and +splendour at Hierapolis-Bambyce near the Euphrates.<note place='foot'>As to the image, see above, p. +<ref target='Pg137'>137</ref>.</note> +<pb n='163'/><anchor id='Pg163'/> +May we go a step farther and find a correspondence +between the Baal of Tarsus and the husband-god of +Atargatis at Hierapolis-Bambyce? That husband-god, like +the Baal of Tarsus, was identified by the Greeks with Zeus, +and Lucian tells us that the resemblance of his image to the +images of Zeus was in all respects unmistakable. But his +image, unlike those of Zeus, was seated upon bulls.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 31.</note> In +point of fact he was probably Hadad, the chief male god +of the Syrians, who appears to have been a god of thunder +and fertility; for at Baalbec in the Lebanon, where the +ruined temple of the Sun is the most imposing monument +bequeathed to the modern world by Greek art in its decline, +his image grasped in his left hand a thunderbolt and ears of +corn,<note place='foot'>Macrobius, <hi rend='italic'>Saturn</hi>, i. 23. 12 and +17-19. The Greek name of Baalbec +was Heliopolis, <q>the City of the +Sun.</q></note> and a colossal statue of the deity, found near Zenjirli +in Northern Syria, represents him with a bearded human +head and horns, the emblem of strength and fertility.<note place='foot'>G. A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic +Inscriptions</hi>, pp. 163, 164. +The statue bears a long inscription, +which in the style of its writing belongs +to the archaic type represented by the +Moabite Stone. The contents of the +inscription show that it is earlier than +the time of Tiglath-Pileser III. (745-727 +<hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi>). On Hadad, the Syrian +thunder-god, see F. Baethgen, <hi rend='italic'>Beiträge +zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte</hi>, pp. +66-68; C. P. Tiele, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der +Religion im Altertum</hi>, i. 248 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; M. +J. Lagrange, <hi rend='italic'>Études sur les Religions +Sémitiques</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 92 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> That Hadad +was the consort of Atargatis at Hierapolis-Bambyce +is the opinion of P. +Jensen (<hi rend='italic'>Hittiter und Armenier</hi>, p. 171), +who also indicates his character as a +god both of thunder and of fertility (<hi rend='italic'>ib.</hi>, +p. 167). The view of Prof. J. Garstang +is similar (<hi rend='italic'>The Syrian Goddess</hi>, +pp. 25 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>). That the name of the +chief male god of Hierapolis-Bambyce +was Hadad is rendered almost certain +by coins of the city which were struck +in the time of Alexander the Great by +a priestly king Abd-Hadad, whose +name means <q>Servant of Hadad.</q> +See B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Numorum</hi> +(Oxford, 1887), p. 654; J. Garstang, +<hi rend='italic'>The Syrian Goddess</hi>, p. 27, with +fig. 5.</note> A +similar god of thunder and lightning was worshipped from +early times by the Babylonians and Assyrians; he bore the +similar name of Adad and his emblems appear to have been +a thunderbolt and a bull. On an Assyrian relief his image +is represented as that of a bearded man clad in a short +tunic, wearing a cap with two pairs of horns, and grasping +an axe in his right hand and a thunderbolt in his left. His +resemblance to the Hittite god of the thundering sky was +therefore very close. An alternative name for this Babylonian +and Assyrian deity was Ramman, an appropriate +<pb n='164'/><anchor id='Pg164'/> +term, derived from a verb <foreign rend='italic'>ramâmu</foreign> to <q>scream</q> or <q>roar.</q><note place='foot'>H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's <hi rend='italic'>Die +Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +pp. 442-449; M. Jastrow, <hi rend='italic'>Die +Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens</hi> +(Giessen, 1905-1912), i. 146-150, +with <hi rend='italic'>Bildermappe</hi>, plate 32, fig. 97. +The Assyrian relief is also figured in W. +H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und +röm. Mythologie</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Marduk,</q> ii. +2350. The Babylonian <foreign rend='italic'>ramâmu</foreign> <q>to +scream, roar</q> has its equivalent in +the Hebrew <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>ra'am</foreign> (רעם) <q>to thunder.</q> +The two names Adad (Hadad) and +Ramman occur together in the form +Hadadrimmon in Zechariah, xii. 11 +(with S. R. Driver's note, <hi rend='italic'>Century +Bible</hi>).</note> +Now we have seen that the god of Ibreez, whose attributes +tally with those of the Baal of Tarsus, wears a cap adorned +with bull's horns;<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg121'>121</ref>, <ref target='Pg123'>123</ref>.</note> that the Father God at Boghaz-Keui, +meeting the Mother Goddess on her lioness, is attended by +an animal which according to the usual interpretation is a +bull;<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg130'>130</ref>. However, +the animal seems to be rather a goat. +See above, p. <ref target='Pg133'>133</ref> note.</note> and that the bull itself was worshipped, apparently as +an emblem of fertility, at Euyuk near Boghaz-Keui.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg132'>132</ref>.</note> Thus +at Tarsus and Boghaz-Keui, as at Hierapolis-Bambyce, the +Father God and the Mother Goddess would seem to have +had as their sacred animals or emblems the bull and the lion +respectively. In later times, under Greek influence, the +goddess was apparently exchanged for, or converted into, +the Fortune of the City, who appears on coins of Tarsus as +a seated woman with veiled and turreted head, grasping ears +of corn and a poppy in her hand. Her lion is gone, but a +trace of him perhaps remains on a coin which exhibits the +throne of the goddess adorned with a lion's leg.<note place='foot'>G. F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of the +Greek Coins of Lycaonia, Isauria, +and Cilicia</hi>, pp. 181, 182, 185, 188, +190, 228.</note> In general +it would seem that the goddess Fortune, who figures commonly +as the guardian of cities in the Greek East, especially +in Syria, was nothing but a disguised form of Gad, the +Semitic god of fortune or luck, who, though the exigencies of +grammar required him to be masculine, is supposed to have +been often merely a special aspect of the great goddess +Astarte or Atargatis conceived as the patroness and protector +of towns.<note place='foot'>E. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Alterthums</hi>, +i. (Stuttgart, 1884) pp. 246 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +F. Baethgen, <hi rend='italic'>Beiträge zur semitischen +Religionsgeschichte</hi>, pp. 76 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The +idolatrous Hebrews spread tables for +Gad, that is, for Fortune (Isaiah lxv. +11, Revised Version).</note> In Oriental religion such permutations or combinations +need not surprise us. To the gods all things are +<pb n='165'/><anchor id='Pg165'/> +possible. In Cyprus the goddess of love wore a beard,<note place='foot'>Macrobius, <hi rend='italic'>Saturn</hi>. iii. 8. 2; +Servius on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> ii. 632.</note> and +Alexander the Great sometimes disported himself in the +costume of Artemis, while at other times he ransacked the +divine wardrobe to figure in the garb of Hercules, of Hermes, +and of Ammon.<note place='foot'>Ephippus, cited by Athenaeus, xii. +53, p. 537.</note> The change of the goddess 'Atheh of +Tarsus into Gad or Fortune would be easy if we suppose +that she was known as Gad-'Atheh, <q>Luck of 'Atheh,</q> which +occurs as a Semitic personal name.<note place='foot'>F. Baethgen, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 77; G. +A. Cooke, <hi rend='italic'>Text-book of North-Semitic +Inscriptions</hi>, p. 269.</note> In like manner the +goddess of Fortune at Olba, who had her small temple +beside the great temple of Zeus,<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg151'>151</ref>.</note> may have been originally +the consort of the native god Tark or Tarku. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Phoenician +god El and +his wife at +Mallus in +Cilicia. Assimilation +of +native +Oriental +deities to +Greek +divinities.</note> +Another town in Cilicia where an Oriental god and +goddess appear to have been worshipped together was Mallus. +The city was built on a height in the great Cilician plain +near the mouth of the river Pyramus.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiv. 5. 16, p. 675.</note> Its coins exhibit +two winged deities, a male and a female, in a kneeling or +running attitude. On some of the coins the male deity is +represented, like Janus, with two heads facing opposite ways, +and with two pairs of wings, while beneath him is the forepart +of a bull with a human head. The obverse of the +coins which bear the female deity displays a conical stone, +sometimes flanked by two bunches of grapes.<note place='foot'>B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Numorum</hi> +(Oxford, 1887), pp. 605 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; G. F. Hill, +<hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Lycaonia, +Isauria, and Cilicia</hi>, pp. cxvii. <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 95-98, +plates xv. xvi. xl. 9; G. Macdonald, +<hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of Greek Coins in the +Hunterian Collection</hi>, ii. 536 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, pl. +lix. 11-14. The male and female +figures appear on separate coins. The +attribution to Mallus of the coins with +the female figure and conical stone has +been questioned by Messrs. J. P. Six +and G. F. Hill. I follow the view +of Messrs. F. Imhoof-Blumer and +B. V. Head. [However, Mr. G. F. Hill +writes to me that the attribution of these +coins to Mallus is no longer maintained +by any one. Imhoof-Blumer himself +now conjecturally assigns them to +Aphrodisias in Cilicia, and Mr. Hill +regards this conjecture as very plausible. +See F. Imhoof-Blumer, <hi rend='italic'>Kleinasiatische +Münzen</hi> (Vienna, 1901-1902), ii. 435 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> In the uncertainty which still prevails +on the subject I have left the text +unchanged. For my purpose it matters +little whether this Cilician goddess was +worshipped at Mallus or at Aphrodisias. +<hi rend='italic'>Note to Second Edition.</hi>]</note> This +conical stone, like those of other Asiatic cities,<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg034'>34</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> was probably +the emblem of a Mother Goddess, and the bunches of grapes +indicate her fertilizing powers. The god with the two heads +<pb n='166'/><anchor id='Pg166'/> +and four wings can hardly be any other than the Phoenician +El, whom the Greeks called Cronus; for El was characterized +by four eyes, two in front and two behind, and by three +pairs of wings.<note place='foot'>Philo of Byblus, in <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta +Historicorum Graecorum</hi>, ed. C. Müller, +iii. 569. El is figured with three pairs +of wings on coins of Byblus. See G. +Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire Ancienne des Peuples +de l'Orient Classique</hi>, ii. 174; M. J. +Lagrange, <hi rend='italic'>Études sur les Religions +Sémitiques</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> p. 72.</note> A discrepancy in the number of wings can +scarcely be deemed fatal to the identification. The god may +easily have moulted some superfluous feathers on the road from +Phoenicia to Mallus. On later coins of Mallus these quaint +Oriental deities disappear, and are replaced by corresponding +Greek deities, particularly by a head of Cronus on one side +and a figure of Demeter, grasping ears of corn, on the other.<note place='foot'>Imhoof-Blumer, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Kronos,</q> +in W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der +griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, ii. 1572; +G. F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of Greek Coins +of Lycaonia, Isauria, and Cilicia</hi>, pp. +cxxii. 99, pl. xvii. 2.</note> +The change doubtless sprang from a wish to assimilate the +ancient native divinities to the new and fashionable divinities +of the Greek pantheon. If Cronus and Demeter, the harvest +god and goddess, were chosen to supplant El and his female +consort, the ground of the choice must certainly have been +a supposed resemblance between the two pairs of deities. +We may assume, therefore, that the discarded couple, El and +his wife, had also been worshipped by the husbandman as +sources of fertility, the givers of corn and wine. One of these +later coins of Mallus exhibits Dionysus sitting on a vine +laden with ripe clusters, while on the obverse is seen a male +figure guiding a yoke of oxen as if in the act of ploughing.<note place='foot'>G. F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. cxxi. <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 98, +pl. xvii. 1.</note> +These types of the vine-god and the ploughman probably +represent another attempt to adapt the native religion to +changed conditions, to pour the old Asiatic wine into new +Greek bottles. The barbarous monster with the multiplicity +of heads and wings has been reduced to a perfectly human +Dionysus. The sacred but deplorable old conical stone no +longer flaunts proudly on the coins; it has retired to a +decent obscurity in favour of a natural and graceful vine. It +is thus that a truly progressive theology keeps pace with the +march of intellect. But if these things were done by the +apostles of culture at Mallus, we cannot suppose that the +clergy of Tarsus, the capital, lagged behind their provincial +<pb n='167'/><anchor id='Pg167'/> +brethren in their efforts to place the ancient faith +upon a sound modern basis. The fruit of their labours +seems to have been the more or less nominal substitution +of Zeus, Fortune, and Hercules for Baal, 'Atheh, and +Sandan.<note place='foot'>Another native Cilician deity who +masqueraded in Greek dress was probably +the Olybrian Zeus of Anazarba or +Anazarbus, but of his true nature and +worship we know nothing. See W. +Dittenberger, <hi rend='italic'>Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones +Selectae</hi> (Leipsic, 1903-1905), ii. +p. 267, No. 577; Stephanus Byzantius, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Ἄδανα (where the MS. reading +Ολυμβρος was wrongly changed by +Salmasius into Ὄλυμπος).</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sarpedonian +Artemis. +The +goddess +Perasia at +Hieropolis-Castabala. The fire-walk +in the +worship of +Perasia. Insensibility +to +pain regarded +as +a mark of +inspiration.</note> +We may suspect that in like manner the Sarpedonian +Artemis, who had a sanctuary in South-Eastern Cilicia, near +the Syrian border, was really a native goddess parading in +borrowed plumes. She gave oracular responses by the +mouth of inspired men, or more probably of women, who in +their moments of divine ecstasy may have been deemed +incarnations of her divinity.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiv. 5. 19, p. 676. The +expression of Strabo leaves it doubtful +whether the ministers of the goddess +were men or women. There was a +headland called Sarpedon near the +mouth of the Calycadnus River in +Western Cilicia (Strabo, xiii. 4. 6, p. +627, xiv. 5. 4, p. 670), where Sarpedon +or Sarpedonian Apollo had a temple +and an oracle. The temple was hewn +in the rock, and contained an image +of the god. See R. Heberdey und +A. Wilhelm, <q>Reisen in Kilikien,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Denkschriften der kaiser. Akademie +der Wissenschaften, Philosoph.-histor. +Classe</hi>, xliv. (Vienna, 1896) No. vi. +pp. 100, 107. Probably this Sarpedonian +Apollo was a native deity akin +to Sarpedonian Artemis.</note> Another even more transparently +Asiatic goddess was Perasia, or Artemis Perasia, +who was worshipped at Hieropolis-Castabala in Eastern +Cilicia. The extensive ruins of the ancient city, now known +as Bodroum, cover the slope of a hill about three-quarters +of a mile to the north of the river Pyramus. Above them +towers the acropolis, built on the summit of dark grey +precipices, and divided from the neighbouring mountain by +a deep cutting in the rock. A mediaeval castle, built of +hewn blocks of reddish-yellow limestone, has replaced the +ancient citadel. The city possessed a large theatre, and +was traversed by two handsome colonnades, of which some +columns are still standing among the ruins. A thick growth +of brushwood and grass now covers most of the site, and the +place is wild and solitary. Only the wandering herdsmen +encamp near the deserted city in winter and spring. The +neighbourhood is treeless; yet in May magnificent fields of +wheat and barley gladden the eye, and in the valleys the +<pb n='168'/><anchor id='Pg168'/> +clover grows as high as the horses' knees.<note place='foot'>E. J. Davis, <hi rend='italic'>Life in Asiatic Turkey</hi>, +pp. 128-134; J. T. Bent, <q>Recent Discoveries +in Eastern Cilicia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of +Hellenic Studies</hi>, xi. (1890) pp. 234 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; E. L. Hicks, <q>Inscriptions from +Eastern Cilicia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi> pp. 243 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +R. Heberdey und A. Wilhelm, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> +pp. 25 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The site of Hieropolis-Castabala +was first identified by J. T. +Bent by means of inscriptions. As to +the coins of the city, see Fr. Imhoof-Blumer, +<q>Zur Münzkunde Kilikiens,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Zeitschrift für Numismatik</hi>, x. (1883) +pp. 267-290; G. F. Hill, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of +the Greek Coins of Lycaonia, Isauria, +and Cilicia</hi>, pp. c.-cii. 82-84, pl. xiv. +1-6; G. Macdonald, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of Greek +Coins in the Hunterian Collection</hi>, ii. +534 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> The ambiguous +nature of the goddess who presided over this City of the +Sanctuary (<foreign lang='el' rend='italic'>Hieropolis</foreign>)<note place='foot'>On the difference between Hieropolis +and Hierapolis see (Sir) W. M. +Ramsay, <hi rend='italic'>Historical Geography of Asia +Minor</hi>, pp. 84 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> According to him, +the cities designated by such names +grew up gradually round a sanctuary; +where Greek influence prevailed the +city in time eclipsed the sanctuary and +became known as Hierapolis, or the +Sacred City, but where the native +element retained its predominance the +city continued to be known as Hieropolis, +or the City of the Sanctuary.</note> was confessed by a puzzled worshipper, +a physician named Lucius Minius Claudianus, who confided +his doubts to the deity herself in some very indifferent Greek +verses. He wisely left it to the goddess to say whether she +was Artemis, or the Moon, or Hecate, or Aphrodite, or +Demeter.<note place='foot'>E. L. Hicks, <q>Inscriptions from +Eastern Cilicia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic +Studies</hi>, xi. (1890) pp. 251-253; R. +Heberdey und A. Wilhelm, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. +26. These writers differ somewhat in +their reading and restoration of the +verses, which are engraved on a limestone +basis among the ruins. I follow +the version of Messrs. Heberdey and +Wilhelm.</note> All that we know about her is that her true name +was Perasia, and that she was in the enjoyment of certain +revenues.<note place='foot'>J. T. Bent and E. L. Hicks, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> +pp. 235, 246 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; R. Heberdey und +A. Wilhelm, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 27.</note> Further, we may reasonably conjecture that at +the Cilician Castabala she was worshipped with rites like +those which were held in honour of her namesake Artemis +Perasia at another city of the same name, Castabala in +Cappadocia. There, as we saw, the priestesses of the goddess +walked over fire with bare feet unscathed.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xii. 2. 7, p. 537. See +above, p. <ref target='Pg115'>115</ref>. The Cilician Castabala, +the situation of which is identified by +inscriptions, is not mentioned by Strabo. +It is very unlikely that, with his intimate +knowledge of Asia Minor, he +should have erred so far as to place the +city in Cappadocia, to the north of the +Taurus mountains, instead of in Cilicia, +to the south of them. It is more probable +that there were two cities of the +same name, and that Strabo has omitted +to mention one of them. Similarly, there +were two cities called Comana, one in +Cappadocia and one in Pontus; at both +places the same goddess was worshipped +with similar rites. See Strabo, xii. 2. +3, p. 535, xii. 3. 32, p. 557. The +situation of the various Castabalas +mentioned by ancient writers is discussed +by F. Imhoof-Blumer, <q>Zur +Münzkunde Kilikiens,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Zeitschrift für +Numismatik</hi>, x. (1883) pp. 285-288.</note> Probably the +<pb n='169'/><anchor id='Pg169'/> +same impressive ceremony was performed before a crowd of +worshippers in the Cilician Castabala also. Whatever the +exact meaning of the rite may have been, the goddess was +in all probability one of those Asiatic Mother Goddesses to +whom the Greeks often applied the name of Artemis.<note place='foot'>See <hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, i. 37 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> The +immunity enjoyed by the priestess in the furnace was +attributed to her inspiration by the deity. In discussing the +nature of inspiration or possession by a deity, the Syrian +philosopher Jamblichus notes as one of its symptoms a total +insensibility to pain. Many inspired persons, he tells us, <q>are +not burned by fire, the fire not taking hold of them by reason +of the divine inspiration; and many, though they are +burned, perceive it not, because at the time they do not live +an animal life. They pierce themselves with skewers and +feel nothing. They gash their backs with hatchets, they +slash their arms with daggers, and know not what they do, +because their acts are not those of mere men. For impassable +places become passable to those who are filled with the +spirit. They rush into fire, they pass through fire, they cross +rivers, like the priestess at Castabala. These things prove +that under the influence of inspiration men are beside themselves, +that their senses, their will, their life are those neither +of man nor of beast, but that they lead another and a diviner +life instead, whereby they are inspired and wholly possessed.</q><note place='foot'>Jamblichus, <hi rend='italic'>De mysteriis</hi>, iii. 4.</note> +Thus in traversing the fiery furnace the priestesses of Perasia +were believed to be beside themselves, to be filled with the +goddess, to be in a real sense incarnations of her divinity.<note place='foot'>Another Cilician goddess was +Athena of Magarsus, to whom Alexander +the Great sacrificed before the +battle of Issus. See Arrian, <hi rend='italic'>Anabasis</hi>, +ii. 5. 9; Stephanus Byzantius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +Μάγαρσος; J. Tzetzes, <hi rend='italic'>Schol. on Lycophron</hi>, +444. The name of the city seems +to be Oriental, perhaps derived from the +Semitic word for <q>cave</q> (מגרה). As +to the importance of caves in Semitic +religion, see W. Robertson Smith, +<hi rend='italic'>Religion of the Semites</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 197 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +The site of Magarsus appears to be at +Karatash, a hill rising from the sea at +the southern extremity of the Cilician +plain, about forty-five miles due south +of Adana. The walls of the city, built +of great limestone blocks, are standing +to a height of several courses, and an +inscription which mentions the priests +of Magarsian Athena has been found +on the spot. See R. Heberdey und A. +Wilhelm, <q>Reisen in Kilikien,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Denkschriften +der kaiser. Akademie der Wissenschaften, +Philosoph.-histor. Classe</hi>, +xliv. (1896) No. vi. pp. 6-10.</note> +</p> + +<p> +A similar touchstone of inspiration is still applied by +some villagers in the Himalayan districts of North-Western +<pb n='170'/><anchor id='Pg170'/> +India. Once a year they worship Airi, a local deity, who is +represented by a trident and has his temples on lonely hills +and desolate tracts. At his festival the people seat themselves +in a circle about a bonfire. A kettle-drum is beaten, +and one by one his worshippers become possessed by the +god and leap with shouts round the flames. Some brand +themselves with heated iron spoons and sit down in the fire. +Such as escape unhurt are believed to be truly inspired, +while those who burn themselves are despised as mere pretenders +to the divine frenzy. Persons thus possessed by the +spirit are called Airi's horses or his slaves. During the +revels, which commonly last about ten days, they wear +red scarves round their heads and receive alms from the +faithful. These men deem themselves so holy that they +will let nobody touch them, and they alone may touch +the sacred trident, the emblem of their god.<note place='foot'>E. T. Atkinson, <hi rend='italic'>The Himalayan +Districts of the North-Western Provinces +of India</hi>, ii. (Allahabad, 1884) +pp. 826 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> In Western +Asia itself modern fanatics still practise the same austerities +which were practised by their brethren in the days of +Jamblichus. <q>Asia Minor abounds in dervishes of different +orders, who lap red-hot iron, calling it their <q>rose,</q> chew +coals of living fire, strike their heads against solid walls, +stab themselves in the cheek, the scalp, the temple, with +sharp spikes set in heavy weights, shouting <q>Allah, Allah,</q> +and always consistently avowing that during such frenzy +they are entirely insensible to pain.</q><note place='foot'>The Rev. G. E. White (Missionary +at Marsovan, in the ancient Pontus), in +a letter to me dated 19 Southmoor +Road, Oxford, February 11, 1907.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='9. The Burning of Cilician Gods.'/> +<head>§ 9. The Burning of Cilician Gods.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The divine +triad, Baal, +'Atheh, +and +Sandan, at +Tarsus may +have been +personated +by priests +and +priestesses.</note> +On the whole, then, we seem to be justified in concluding +that under a thin veneer of Greek humanity the barbarous +native gods of Cilicia continued long to survive, and that +among them the great Asiatic goddess retained a place, +though not the prominent place which she held in the +highlands of the interior down at least to the beginning of +our era. The principle that the inspired priest or priestess +represents the deity in person appears, if I am right, to +<pb n='171'/><anchor id='Pg171'/> +have been recognized at Castabala and at Olba, as well +as at the sanctuary of Sarpedonian Artemis. There +can be no intrinsic improbability, therefore, in the view +that at Tarsus also the divine triad of Baal, 'Atheh, +and Sandan may also have been personated by priests and +priestesses, who, on the analogy of Olba and of the great +sanctuaries in the interior of Asia Minor, would originally +be at the same time kings and queens, princes and princesses. +Further, the burning of Sandan in effigy at Tarsus would, +on this hypothesis, answer to the walk of the priestess of +Perasia through the furnace at Castabala. Both were +perhaps mitigations of a custom of putting the priestly +king or queen, or another member of the royal family, to +death by fire. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='172'/><anchor id='Pg172'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VII. Sardanapalus and Hercules.</head> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='1. The Burning of Sardanapalus.'/> +<head>§ 1. The Burning of Sardanapalus.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Tarsus said +to have +been +founded +by the +Assyrian +king Sardanapalus, +who +burned +himself on +a pyre. Deaths of +Babylonian +and +Assyrian +kings on +the pyre.</note> +The theory that kings or princes were formerly burned to +death at Tarsus in the character of gods is singularly confirmed +by another and wholly independent line of argument. +For, according to one account, the city of Tarsus was founded +not by Sandan but by Sardanapalus, the famous Assyrian +monarch whose death on a great pyre was one of the most +famous incidents in Oriental legend. Near the sea, within +a day's march of Tarsus, might be seen in antiquity the +ruins of a great ancient city named Anchiale, and outside +its walls stood a monument called the monument of +Sardanapalus, on which was carved in stone the figure of +the monarch. He was represented snapping the fingers +of his right hand, and the gesture was explained by an +accompanying inscription, engraved in Assyrian characters, +to the following effect:—<q>Sardanapalus, son of Anacyndaraxes, +built Anchiale and Tarsus in one day. Eat, drink, +and play, for everything else is not worth that,</q> by which +was implied that all other human affairs were not worth a +snap of the fingers.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiv. 5. 9, pp. 671 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Arrian, <hi rend='italic'>Anabasis</hi>, ii. 5; Athenaeus, +xii. 39, p. 530 <hi rend='smallcaps'>a</hi>, <hi rend='smallcaps'>b</hi>. Compare Stephanus +Byzantius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Ἀγχιάλη; Georgius +Syncellus, <hi rend='italic'>Chronographia</hi>, vol. i. p. +312, ed. G. Dindorf (Bonn, 1829). +The site of Anchiale has not yet been +discovered. At Tarsus itself the ruins +of a vast quadrangular structure have +sometimes been identified with the +monument of Sardanapalus. See E. +J. Davis, <hi rend='italic'>Life in Asiatic Turkey</hi>, pp. 37-39; +G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iv. 536 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +But Mr. D. G. Hogarth tells me that +the ruins in question seem to be the +concrete foundations of a Roman +temple. The mistake had already +been pointed out by Mr. R. Koldewey. +See his article, <q>Das sogenannte Grab +des Sardanapal zu Tarsus,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Aus der +Anomia</hi> (Berlin, 1890), pp. 178-185.</note> The gesture may have been misinterpreted +<pb n='173'/><anchor id='Pg173'/> +and the inscription mistranslated,<note place='foot'>See G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iv. 542 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> They think that the figure probably +represented the king in a common +attitude of adoration, his right arm +raised and his thumb resting on his +forefinger.</note> but there is no +reason to doubt the existence of such a monument, though +we may conjecture that it was of Hittite rather than +Assyrian origin; for, not to speak of the traces of Hittite +art and religion which we have found at Tarsus, a group of +Hittite monuments has been discovered at Marash, in the +upper valley of the Pyramus.<note place='foot'>L. Messerschmidt, <hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum +Hettiticarum</hi>, pp. 17-19, plates +xxi.-xxv.; G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, +<hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, iv. +492, 494 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 528-530, 547; J. Garstang, +<hi rend='italic'>The Land of the Hittites</hi>, pp. +107-122.</note> The Assyrians may have +ruled over Cilicia for a time, but Hittite influence was +probably much deeper and more lasting.<note place='foot'>Prof. W. Max Müller is of opinion +that the Hittite civilization and the +Hittite system of writing were developed +in Cilicia rather than in Cappadocia +(<hi rend='italic'>Asien und Europa</hi>, p. 350).</note> The story that +Tarsus was founded by Sardanapalus may well be +apocryphal,<note place='foot'>According to Berosus and Abydenus +it was not Sardanapalus (Ashurbanipal) +but Sennacherib who built or +rebuilt Tarsus after the fashion of +Babylon, causing the river Cydnus to +flow through the midst of the city. +See <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum</hi>, +ed. C. Müller, ii. 504, iv. 282; +C. P. Tiele, <hi rend='italic'>Babylonisch-assyrische +Geschichte</hi>, pp. 297 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> but there must have been some reason for +his association with the city. On the present hypothesis +that reason is to be found in the traditional manner of his +death. To avoid falling into the hands of the rebels, who +laid siege to Nineveh, he built a huge pyre in his palace, +heaped it up with gold and silver and purple raiment, and +then burnt himself, his wife, his concubines, and his eunuchs +in the fire.<note place='foot'>Diodorus Siculus, ii. 27; Athenaeus, +xii. 38, p. 529; Justin, i. 3.</note> The story is false of the historical Sardanapalus, +that is, of the great Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, but it is +true of his brother Shamashshumukin. Being appointed +king of Babylon by Ashurbanipal, he revolted against his +suzerain and benefactor, and was besieged by him in his +capital. The siege was long and the resistance desperate, +for the Babylonians knew that they had no mercy to expect +from the ruthless Assyrians. But they were decimated by +famine and pestilence, and when the city could hold out no +more, King Shamashshumukin, determined not to fall alive +into the hands of his offended brother, shut himself up in his +<pb n='174'/><anchor id='Pg174'/> +palace, and there burned himself to death, along with his +wives, his children, his slaves, and his treasures, at the very +moment when the conquerors were breaking in the gates.<note place='foot'>G. Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire Ancienne +des Peuples de l'Orient Classique</hi>, iii. +422 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> For the inscriptions referring +to him and a full discussion of them, +see C. F. Lehmann (-Haupt), <hi rend='italic'>Šamaš-šumukîn, +König von Babylonien, 668-648 +v. Chr.</hi> (Leipsic, 1892).</note> +Not many years afterwards the same tragedy was repeated +at Nineveh itself by Saracus or Sinsharishkun, the last king +of Assyria. Besieged by the rebel Nabopolassar, king of +Babylon, and by Cyaxares, king of the Medes, he burned +himself in his palace. That was the end of Nineveh and +of the Assyrian empire.<note place='foot'>Abydenus, in <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Historicorum +Graecorum</hi>, ed. C. Müller, iv. 282; +Georgius Syncellus, <hi rend='italic'>Chronographia</hi>, i. +p. 396, ed. G. Dindorf; E. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte +des Alterthums</hi>, i. (Stuttgart, +1884) pp. 576 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; G. Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient +Classique</hi>, iii. 482-485. C. P. Tiele +thought that the story of the death of +Saracus might be a popular but mistaken +duplicate of the death of Shamash-shumukin +(<hi rend='italic'>Babylonisch-assyrische Geschichte</hi>, +pp. 410 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). Zimri, king of +Israel, also burned himself in his palace +to escape falling into the hands of his +enemies (1 Kings xvi. 18).</note> Thus Greek history preserved the +memory of the catastrophe, but transferred it from the real +victims to the far more famous Ashurbanipal, whose figure +in after ages loomed vast and dim against the setting sun +of Assyrian glory. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='2. The Burning of Croesus.'/> +<head>§ 2. The Burning of Croesus.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Story that +Cyrus +intended +to burn +Croesus +alive. +It is +unlikely +that the +Persians +would thus +have +polluted +the sacred +element +of fire.</note> +Another Oriental monarch who prepared at least to die +in the flames was Croesus, king of Lydia. Herodotus tells +how the Persians under Cyrus captured Sardes, the Lydian +capital, and took Croesus alive, and how Cyrus caused a +great pyre to be erected, on which he placed the captive +monarch in fetters, and with him twice seven Lydian youths. +Fire was then applied to the pile, but at the last moment +Cyrus relented, a sudden shower extinguished the flames, +and Croesus was spared.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 86 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> But it is most improbable that +the Persians, with their profound reverence for the sanctity +of fire, should have thought of defiling the sacred element +with the worst of all pollutions, the contact of dead bodies.<note place='foot'>Raoul-Rochette, <q>Sur l'Hercule +Assyrien et Phénicien,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Mémoires de +l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres</hi>, +xvii. Deuxième Partie (Paris, +1848), p. 274.</note> +Such an act would have seemed to them sacrilege of the +deepest dye. For to them fire was the earthly form of the +<pb n='175'/><anchor id='Pg175'/> +heavenly light, the eternal, the infinite, the divine; death, on +the other hand, was in their opinion the main source of +corruption and uncleanness. Hence they took the most +stringent precautions to guard the purity of fire from the +defilement of death.<note place='foot'>J. Darmesteter, <hi rend='italic'>The Zend-Avesta</hi>, +vol. i. (Oxford, 1880) pp. lxxxvi., +lxxxviii-xc. (<hi rend='italic'>Sacred Books of the East</hi>, +vol. iv.).</note> If a man or a dog died in a house +where the holy fire burned, the fire had to be removed from +the house and kept away for nine nights in winter or a +month in summer before it might be brought back; and if +any man broke the rule by bringing back the fire within the +appointed time, he might be punished with two hundred +stripes.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Zend-Avesta</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Vendîdâd</hi>, Fargard, +v. 7. 39-44 (<hi rend='italic'>Sacred Books of the East</hi>, +iv. 60 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>).</note> As for burning a corpse in the fire, it was the +most heinous of all sins, an invention of Ahriman, the devil; +there was no atonement for it, and it was punished with +death.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Zend-Avesta</hi>, translated by J. +Darmesteter, i. pp. xc. 9, 110 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +(<hi rend='italic'>Sacred Books of the East</hi>, iv.).</note> Nor did the law remain a dead letter. Down to +the beginning of our era the death penalty was inflicted on +all who threw a corpse or cow-dung on the fire, nay, even on +such as blew on the fire with their breath.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xv. 3. 14, p. 732. Even +gold, on account of its resemblance to +fire, might not be brought near a +corpse (<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi> xv. 3. 18, p. 734).</note> It is hard, +therefore, to believe that a Persian king should have commanded +his subjects to perpetrate a deed which he and +they viewed with horror as the most flagitious sacrilege +conceivable. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The older +and truer +tradition +was that +in the +extremity +of his +fortunes +Croesus +attempted +to burn +himself.</note> +Another and in some respects truer version of the story +of Croesus and Cyrus has been preserved by two older +witnesses—namely, by the Greek poet Bacchylides, who was +born some forty years after the event,<note place='foot'>Sardes fell in the autumn of 546 +<hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> (E. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Alterthums</hi>, +i. (Stuttgart, 1884), p. 604). +Bacchylides was probably born between +512 and 505 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> See R. C. Jebb, +<hi rend='italic'>Bacchylides, the Poems and Fragments</hi> +(Cambridge, 1905), pp. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> and by a Greek artist +who painted the scene on a red-figured vase about, or soon +after, the time of the poet's birth. Bacchylides tells us that +when the Persians captured Sardes, Croesus, unable to brook +the thought of slavery, caused a pyre to be erected in front +of his courtyard, mounted it with his wife and daughters, +and bade a page apply a light to the wood. A bright blaze +shot up, but Zeus extinguished it with rain from heaven, and +<pb n='176'/><anchor id='Pg176'/> +Apollo of the Golden Sword wafted the pious king and his +daughters to the happy land beyond the North Wind.<note place='foot'>Bacchylides, iii. 24-62.</note> In +like manner the vase-painter clearly represents the burning +of Croesus as a voluntary act, not as a punishment inflicted +on him by the conqueror. He lets us see the king +enthroned upon the pyre with a wreath of laurel on his head +and a sceptre in one hand, while with the other he is +pouring a libation. An attendant is in the act of applying +to the pile two objects which have been variously interpreted +as torches to kindle the wood or whisks to sprinkle holy +water. The demeanour of the king is solemn and composed: +he seems to be performing a religious rite, not +suffering an ignominious death.<note place='foot'>F. G. Welcker, <hi rend='italic'>Alte Denkmäler</hi> +(Göttingen, 1849-1864), iii. pl. xxxiii.; +A. Baumeister, <hi rend='italic'>Denkmäler des klassischen +Altertums</hi> (Munich and Leipsic, +1885-1888), ii. 796, fig. 860; A. H. +Smith, <q>Illustrations to Bacchylides,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic Studies</hi>, xviii. +(1898) pp. 267-269; G. Maspero, +<hi rend='italic'>Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de +l'Orient Classique</hi>, iii. 618 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> It is +true that Cambyses caused the dead +body of the Egyptian king Amasis to +be dragged from the tomb, mangled, +and burned; but the deed is expressly +branded by the ancient historian as an +outrage on Persian religion (Herodotus, +iii. 16).</note> +</p> + +<p> +Thus we may fairly conclude with some eminent modern +scholars<note place='foot'>Raoul-Rochette, <q>Sur l'Hercule +Assyrien et Phénicien,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Mémoires de +l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres</hi>, +xvii. Deuxième Partie (Paris, +1848), pp. 277 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; M. Duncker, +<hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Alterthums</hi>, iv.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>5</hi> 330-332; +E. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Alterthums</hi>, +i. (Stuttgart, 1884) p. 604; +G. Maspero, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire Ancienne des +Peuples de l'Orient Classique</hi>, iii. 618.</note> that in the extremity of his fortunes Croesus prepared +to meet death like a king or a god in the flames. It +was thus that Hercules, from whom the old kings of Lydia +claimed to be sprung,<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 7.</note> ascended from earth to heaven: it +was thus that Zimri, king of Israel, passed beyond the +reach of his enemies: it was thus that Shamashshumukin, +king of Babylon, escaped a brother's vengeance: it was +thus that the last king of Assyria expired in the ruins of +his capital; and it was thus that, sixty-six years after the +capture of Sardes, the Carthaginian king Hamilcar sought to +retrieve a lost battle by a hero's death.<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg115'>115</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, <ref target='Pg173'>173</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Legend +that +Semiramis +burnt +herself +on a pyre.</note> +Semiramis herself, the legendary queen of Assyria, is said +to have burnt herself on a pyre out of grief at the death of a +favourite horse.<note place='foot'>Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 243; Pliny, viii. +155.</note> Since there are strong grounds for regarding +<pb n='177'/><anchor id='Pg177'/> +the queen in her mythical aspect as a form of Ishtar or +Astarte,<note place='foot'>See W. Robertson Smith, <q>Ctesias +and the Semiramis Legend,</q> <hi rend='italic'>English +Historical Review</hi>, ii. (1887) pp. 303-317. +But the legend of Semiramis +appears to have gathered round the +person of a real Assyrian queen, by +name Shammuramat, who lived towards +the end of the ninth century <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> and +is known to us from historical inscriptions. +See C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, +<hi rend='italic'>Die historische Semiramis und ihre +Zeit</hi> (Tübingen, 1910), pp. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Semiramis,</q> in W. H. Roscher's +<hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, +iv. 678 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>The Scapegoat</hi>, pp. 369 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> the legend that Semiramis died for love in the +flames furnishes a remarkable parallel to the traditionary +death of the love-lorn Dido, who herself appears to be +simply an Avatar of the same great Asiatic goddess.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg114'>114</ref>.</note> When +we compare these stories of the burning of Semiramis and +Dido with each other and with the historical cases of the +burning of Oriental monarchs, we may perhaps conclude that +there was a time when queens as well as kings were expected +under certain circumstances, perhaps on the death of +their consort, to perish in the fire. The conclusion can +hardly be deemed extravagant when we remember that the +practice of burning widows to death survived in India under +English rule down to a time within living memory.<note place='foot'>In ancient Greece we seem to have +a reminiscence of widow-burning in the +legend that when the corpse of Capaneus +was being consumed on the pyre, his +wife Evadne threw herself into the +flames and perished. See Euripides, +<hi rend='italic'>Supplices</hi>, 980 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Apollodorus, +<hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, iii. 7. 1; Zenobius, <hi rend='italic'>Cent.</hi> +i. 30; Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Tristia</hi>, v. 14. 38.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +<q>great +burnings</q> +for Jewish +kings.</note> +At Jerusalem itself a reminiscence of the practice of +burning kings, alive or dead, appears to have lingered as +late as the time of Isaiah, who says: <q>For Tophet is prepared +of old; yea, for the king it is made ready; he hath +made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much +wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, +doth kindle it.</q><note place='foot'>Isaiah xxx. 33. The Revised +Version has <q>a Topheth</q> instead of +<q>Tophet.</q> But Hebrew does not +possess an indefinite article (the few +passages of the Bible in which the +Aramaic חת is so used are no exception +to the rule), and there is no +evidence that Tophet (Topheth) was +ever employed in a general sense. +The passage of Isaiah has been rightly +interpreted by W. Robertson Smith +in the sense indicated in the text, +though he denies that it contains any +reference to the sacrifice of the children. +See his <hi rend='italic'>Lectures on the Religion of the +Semites</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 372 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> He observes +(p. 372, note 3): <q>Saul's body was +burned (1 Sam. xxxi. 12), possibly to +save it from the risk of exhumation +by the Philistines, but perhaps rather +with a religious intention, and almost +as an act of worship, since his bones +were buried under the sacred tamarisk +at Jabesh.</q> In 1 Chronicles x. 12 +the tree under which the bones of +Saul were buried is not a tamarisk +but a terebinth or an oak.</note> We know that <q>great burnings</q> were +<pb n='178'/><anchor id='Pg178'/> +regularly made for dead kings of Judah,<note place='foot'>2 Chronicles xvi. 14, xxi. 19; +Jeremiah xxxiv. 5. There is no +ground for assuming, as the Authorized +version does in Jeremiah xxxiv. +5, that only spices were burned on +these occasions; indeed the burning +of spices is not mentioned at all in +any of the three passages. The +<q>sweet odours and divers kinds of +spices prepared by the apothecaries' +art,</q> which were laid in the dead +king's bed (2 Chronicles xvi. 14), +were probably used to embalm him, +not to be burned at his funeral. For +though <q>great burnings</q> were regularly +made for the dead kings of Judah, +there is no evidence (apart from the +doubtful case of Saul) that their +bodies were cremated. They are +regularly said to have been buried, +not burnt. The passage of Isaiah +seems to show that what was burned +at a royal funeral was a great, but +empty, pyre. That the burnings for +the kings formed part of a heathen +custom was rightly perceived by Renan +(<hi rend='italic'>Histoire du peuple d'Israel</hi>, iii. 121, +note).</note> and it can hardly +be accidental that the place assigned by Isaiah to the king's +pyre is the very spot in the Valley of Hinnom where the +first-born children were actually burned by their parents in +honour of Moloch <q>the King.</q> The exact site of the Valley +of Hinnom is disputed, but all are agreed in identifying it +with one of the ravines which encircle or intersect Jerusalem; +and according to some eminent authorities it was the one +called by Josephus the Tyropoeon.<note place='foot'>Josephus, <hi rend='italic'>Bell. Jud.</hi> v. 4. 1. +See <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Biblica</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Jerusalem,</q> +vol. ii. 2423 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> If this last identification +is correct, the valley where the children were burned +on a pyre lay immediately beneath the royal palace and +the temple. Perhaps the young victims died for God and +the king.<note place='foot'>As to the Moloch worship, see +Note I. at the end of the volume. +I have to thank the Rev. Professor +R. H. Kennett for indicating to me the +inference which may be drawn from the +identification of the Valley of Hinnom +with the Tyropoeon.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The great +burnings +for Jewish +Rabbis at +Meiron in +Galilee.</note> +With the <q>great burnings</q> for dead Jewish kings it seems +worth while to compare the great burnings still annually +made for dead Jewish Rabbis at the lofty village of Meiron in +Galilee, the most famous and venerated place of pilgrimage +for Jews in modern Palestine. Here the tombs of the Rabbis +are hewn out of the rock, and here on the thirtieth of April, +the eve of May Day, multitudes of pilgrims, both men and +women, assemble and burn their offerings, which consist of +shawls, scarfs, handkerchiefs, books, and the like. These +are placed in two stone basins on the top of two low pillars, +and being drenched with oil and ignited they are consumed +to ashes amid the loud applause, shouts, and cries of the +spectators. A man has been known to pay as much as +<pb n='179'/><anchor id='Pg179'/> +two thousand piastres for the privilege of being allowed to +open the ceremony by burning a costly shawl. On such +occasions the solemn unmoved serenity of the Turkish +officials, who keep order, presents a striking contrast to the +intense excitement of the Jews.<note place='foot'>W. M. Thomson, <hi rend='italic'>The Land and +the Book, Central Palestine and Phoenicia</hi> +(London, 1883), pp. 575-579; +Ed. Robinson, <hi rend='italic'>Biblical Researches in +Palestine</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> (London, 1867), ii. 430. <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +K. Baedeker, <hi rend='italic'>Palestine and Syria</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> +(Leipsic, 1906), p. 255.</note> This curious ceremony +may be explained by the widespread practice of burning +property for the use and benefit of the dead. So, to take +a single instance, the tyrant Periander collected the finest +raiment of all the women in Corinth and burned it in a pit +for his dead wife, who had sent him word by necromancy +that she was cold and naked in the other world, because the +clothes he buried with her had not been burnt.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, v. 92. 7.</note> In like +manner, perhaps, garments and other valuables may have +been consumed on the pyre for the use of the dead kings of +Judah. In Siam, the corpse of a king or queen is burned +in a huge structure resembling a permanent palace, which +with its many-gabled and high-pitched roofs and multitudinous +tinselled spires, soaring to a height of over two +hundred feet, sometimes occupies an area of about an acre.<note place='foot'>C. Bock, <hi rend='italic'>Temples and Elephants</hi> +(London, 1884), pp. 73-76.</note> +The blaze of such an enormous catafalque may resemble, +even if it far surpasses, the <q>great burnings</q> for the Jewish +kings. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='3. Purification by Fire.'/> +<head>§ 3. Purification by Fire.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Death +by fire +regarded +by the +ancients as +a kind of +apotheosis. Fire was +supposed +to purge +away the +mortal +parts +of men, +leaving the +immortal.</note> +These events and these traditions seem to prove that +under certain circumstances Oriental monarchs deliberately +chose to burn themselves to death. What were these +circumstances? and what were the consequences of the act? +If the intention had merely been to escape from the hands +of a conqueror, an easier mode of death would naturally +have been chosen. There must have been a special reason +for electing to die by fire. The legendary death of Hercules, +the historical death of Hamilcar, and the picture of Croesus +enthroned in state on the pyre and pouring a libation, all +combine to indicate that to be burnt alive was regarded as +a solemn sacrifice, nay, more than that, as an apotheosis which +<pb n='180'/><anchor id='Pg180'/> +raised the victim to the rank of a god.<note place='foot'>This view was maintained long +ago by Raoul-Rochette in regard to +the deaths both of Sardanapalus and +of Croesus. He supposed that <q>the +Assyrian monarch, reduced to the last +extremity, wished, by the mode of +death which he chose, to give to his +sacrifice the form of an apotheosis and +to identify himself with the national +god of his country by allowing himself +to be consumed, like him, on a pyre.... +Thus mythology and history +would be combined in a legend in +which the god and the monarch would +finally be confused. There is nothing +in this which is not conformable to the +ideas and habits of Asiatic civilization.</q> +See his memoir, <q>Sur l'Hercule +Assyrien et Phénicien,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Mémoires de +l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres</hi>, +xvii. Deuxième Partie (Paris, +1848), pp. 247 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 271 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The +notion of regeneration by fire was fully +recognized by Raoul-Rochette (<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> +pp. 30 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). It deserves to be noted +that Croesus burned on a huge pyre +the great and costly offerings which he +dedicated to Apollo at Delphi. He +thought, says Herodotus (i. 50), that +in this way the god would get possession +of the offerings.</note> For it is to be +remembered that Hamilcar as well as Hercules was worshipped +after death. Fire, moreover, was regarded by the +ancients as a purgative so powerful that properly applied it +could burn away all that was mortal of a man, leaving only +the divine and immortal spirit behind. Hence we read of +goddesses who essayed to confer immortality on the infant +sons of kings by burning them in the fire by night; but their +beneficent purpose was always frustrated by the ignorant +interposition of the mother or father, who peeping into the +room saw the child in the flames and raised a cry of horror, +thus disconcerting the goddess at her magic rites. This +story is told of Isis in the house of the king of Byblus, of +Demeter in the house of the king of Eleusis, and of Thetis +in the house of her mortal husband Peleus.<note place='foot'><p>As to Isis see Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Isis et +Osiris</hi>, 16. As to Demeter see +Homer, <hi rend='italic'>Hymn to Demeter</hi>, 231-262; +Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, i. 5. 1; Ovid, +<hi rend='italic'>Fasti</hi>, iv. 547-560. As to Thetis see +Apollonius Rhodius, <hi rend='italic'>Argon</hi>, iv. 865-879; +Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibl.</hi> iii. 13. 6. +Most of these writers express clearly +the thought that the fire consumed the +mortal element, leaving the immortal. +Thus Plutarch says, περικαίειν τὰ θνητὰ +τοῦ σώματος. Apollodorus says (i. 5. 1), +εἰς πῦρ κατετίθει τὸ βρέφος καὶ περιῄρει +τὰς θνητὰς σάρκας αὐτοῦ, and again (iii. +13. 6), εἰς τὸ πῦρ ἐγκρυβοῦσα τῆς νυκτὸς +ἔφθειρεν ὂ ἦν αὐτῷ θνητὸν πατρῷον. +Apollonius Rhodius says, +</p> +<p> +ἡ μὲν γὰρ βροτέας αἰεὶ περὶ σάρκας ἔδαιεν +νύκτα διὰ μέσσην φλογμῷ πυρός. +</p> +<p> +And Ovid has, +</p> +<p> +<q><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Inque foco pueri corpus vivente favilla +Obruit, humanum purget ut ignis +onus.</foreign></q> +</p> +<p> +On the custom of passing children +over a fire as a purification, see my +note, <q>The Youth of Achilles,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Classical Review</hi>, vii. (1893) pp. 293 +sq. On the purificatory virtue which the +Greeks ascribed to fire see also Erwin +Rohde, <hi rend='italic'>Psyche</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> (Tübingen and Leipsic, +1903), ii. 101, note 2. The Warramunga +of Central Australia have a +tradition of a great man who <q>used +to burn children in the fire so as to +make them grow strong</q> (B. Spencer +and F. J. Gillen, <hi rend='italic'>The Northern Tribes +of Central Australia</hi>, London, 1904, +p. 429).</p></note> In a slightly +<pb n='181'/><anchor id='Pg181'/> +different way the witch Medea professed to give back to the +old their lost youth by boiling them with a hell-broth in +her magic cauldron;<note place='foot'>She is said to have thus restored +the youth of her husband Jason, her +father-in-law Aeson, the nurses of +Dionysus, and all their husbands +(Euripides, <hi rend='italic'>Medea</hi>, Argum.; Scholiast +on Aristophanes, <hi rend='italic'>Knights</hi>, 1321; compare +Plautus, <hi rend='italic'>Pseudolus</hi>, 879 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>); +and she applied the same process with +success to an old ram (Apollodorus, +<hi rend='italic'>Bibl.</hi> i. 9. 27; Pausanias, viii. 11. 2; +Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 24).</note> and when Pelops had been butchered +and served up at a banquet of the gods by his cruel father +Tantalus, the divine beings, touched with pity, plunged his +mangled remains in a kettle, from which after decoction +he emerged alive and young.<note place='foot'>Pindar, <hi rend='italic'>Olymp.</hi> i. 40 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, with +the Scholiast; J. Tzetzes, <hi rend='italic'>Schol. on +Lycophron</hi>, 152.</note> <q>Fire,</q> says Jamblichus, +<q>destroys the material part of sacrifices, it purifies all things +that are brought near it, releasing them from the bonds of +matter and, in virtue of the purity of its nature, making them +meet for communion with the gods. So, too, it releases us +from the bondage of corruption, it likens us to the gods, +it makes us meet for their friendship, and it converts our +material nature into an immaterial.</q><note place='foot'>Jamblichus, <hi rend='italic'>De mysteriis</hi>, v. 12.</note> Thus we can understand +why kings and commoners who claimed or aspired to +divinity should choose death by fire. It opened to them +the gates of heaven. The quack Peregrinus, who ended his +disreputable career in the flames at Olympia, gave out that +after death he would be turned into a spirit who would +guard men from the perils of the night; and, as Lucian +remarked, no doubt there were plenty of fools to believe +him.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De morte Peregrini</hi>, 27 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> According to one account, the Sicilian philosopher +Empedocles, who set up for being a god in his lifetime, +leaped into the crater of Etna in order to establish his +claim to godhead.<note place='foot'>Diogenes Laertius, viii. 2. 69 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> There is nothing incredible in the +tradition. The crack-brained philosopher, with his itch for +notoriety, may well have done what Indian fakirs<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De morte Peregrini</hi>, 25; +Strabo, xv. 1. 64 and 68, pp. 715, +717; Arrian, <hi rend='italic'>Anabasis</hi>, vii. 3.</note> and the +brazen-faced mountebank Peregrinus did in antiquity, and +what Russian peasants and Chinese Buddhists have done in +modern times.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, pp. 42 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> There is no extremity to which fanaticism +or vanity, or a mixture of the two, will not impel its +victims. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='182'/><anchor id='Pg182'/> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='4. The Divinity of Lydian Kings.'/> +<head>§ 4. The Divinity of Lydian Kings.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Lydian +kings +seem to +have +claimed +divinity +on the +ground +of their +descent +from +Hercules, +the god of +the double-axe +and of +the lion; +and this +Lydian +Hercules +or Sandon +appears to +have been +the same +with the +Cilician +Sandan. Lydian +kings held +responsible +for the +weather +and the +crops.</note> +But apart from any general notions of the purificatory +virtues of fire, the kings of Lydia seem to have had a +special reason for regarding death in the flames as their +appropriate end. For the ancient dynasty of the Heraclids +which preceded the house of Croesus on the throne traced +their descent from a god or hero whom the Greeks called +Hercules;<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 7.</note> and this Lydian Hercules appears to have been +identical in name and in substance with the Cilician +Hercules, whose effigy was regularly burned on a great +pyre at Tarsus. The Lydian Hercules bore the name of +Sandon;<note place='foot'>Joannes Lydus, <hi rend='italic'>De magistratibus</hi>, +iii. 64.</note> the Cilician Hercules bore the name of Sandan, +or perhaps rather of Sandon, since Sandon is known from +inscriptions and other evidence to have been a Cilician +name.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg144'>144</ref>, note 2.</note> The characteristic emblems of the Cilician Hercules +were the lion and the double-headed axe; and both these +emblems meet us at Sardes in connexion with the dynasty +of the Heraclids. For the double-headed axe was carried +as part of the sacred regalia by Lydian kings from the time +of the legendary queen Omphale down to the reign of +Candaules, the last of the Heraclid kings. It is said to +have been given to Omphale by Hercules himself, and it +was apparently regarded as a palladium of the Heraclid +sovereignty; for after the dotard Candaules ceased to carry +the axe himself, and had handed it over to the keeping of +a courtier, a rebellion broke out, and the ancient dynasty of +the Heraclids came to an end. The new king Gyges did +not attempt to carry the old emblem of sovereignty; he +dedicated it with other spoils to Zeus in Caria. Hence the +image of the Carian Zeus bore an axe in his hand and +received the epithet of Labrandeus, from <foreign rend='italic'>labrys</foreign>, the Lydian +word for <q>axe.</q><note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Quaestiones Graecae</hi>, 45. +Zeus Labrandeus was worshipped at +the village of Labraunda, situated in a +pass over the mountains, near Mylasa +in Caria. The temple was ancient. +A road called the Sacred Way led +downhill for ten miles to Mylasa, a +city of white marble temples and colonnades +which stood in a fertile plain at +the foot of a precipitous mountain, +where the marble was quarried. Processions +bearing the holy emblems +went to and fro along the Sacred Way +from Mylasa to Labraunda. See +Strabo, xiv. 2. 23, pp. 658 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The +double-headed axe figures on the ruins +and coins of Mylasa (Ch. Fellows, +<hi rend='italic'>An Account of Discoveries in Lycia</hi>, +London, 1841, p. 75; B. V. Head, +<hi rend='italic'>Historia Numorum</hi>, Oxford, 1887, +pp. 528 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). A horseman carrying +a double-headed axe is a type which +occurs on the coins of many towns in +Lydia and Phrygia. At Thyatira this +axe-bearing hero was called Tyrimnus, +and games were held in his honour. +He was identified with Apollo and the +sun. See B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of +the Greek Coins of Lydia</hi> (London, +1901), p. cxxviii. On a coin of +Mostene in Lydia the double-headed +axe is represented between a bunch of +grapes and ears of corn, as if it were +an emblem of fertility (B. V. Head, +<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 162, pl. xvii. 11).</note> Such is Plutarch's account; but we may +<pb n='183'/><anchor id='Pg183'/> +suspect that Zeus, or rather the native god whom the +Greeks identified with Zeus, carried the axe long before the +time of Candaules. If, as is commonly supposed, the axe +was the symbol of the Asiatic thunder-god,<note place='foot'>L. Preller, <hi rend='italic'>Griechische Mythologie</hi>, +i.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> (Berlin, 1894) pp. 141 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> As to +the Hittite thunder-god and his axe +see above, pp. <ref target='Pg134'>134</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> it would be an +appropriate emblem in the hand of kings, who are so often +expected to make rain, thunder, and lightning for the good +of their people. Whether the kings of Lydia were bound +to make thunder and rain we do not know; but at all +events, like many early monarchs, they seem to have been +held responsible for the weather and the crops. In the +reign of Meles the country suffered severely from dearth, so +the people consulted an oracle, and the deity laid the blame +on the kings, one of whom had in former years incurred the +guilt of murder. The soothsayers accordingly declared that +King Meles, though his own hands were clean, must be +banished for three years in order that the taint of bloodshed +should be purged away. The king obeyed and retired to +Babylon, where he lived three years. In his absence the +kingdom was administered by a deputy, a certain Sadyattes, +son of Cadys, who traced his descent from Tylon.<note place='foot'>Nicolaus Damascenus, in <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta +Historicorum Graecorum</hi>, ed. +C. Müller, iii. 382 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> As to +this Tylon we shall hear more presently. Again, we read +that the Lydians rejoiced greatly at the assassination of +Spermus, another of their kings, <q>for he was very wicked, +and the land suffered from drought in his reign.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> iii. 381.</note> +Apparently, like the ancient Irish and many modern +Africans, they laid the drought at the king's door, and +thought that he only got what he deserved under the knife +of the assassin. +</p> + +<pb n='184'/><anchor id='Pg184'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +lion-god +of Lydia.</note> +With regard to the lion, the other emblem of the +Cilician Hercules, we are told that the same king Meles, +who was banished because of a dearth, sought to make the +acropolis of Sardes impregnable by carrying round it a lion +which a concubine had borne to him. Unfortunately at a +single point, where the precipices were such that it seemed +as if no human foot could scale them, he omitted to carry +the beast, and sure enough at that very point the Persians +afterwards clambered up into the citadel.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 84.</note> Now Meles was +one of the old Heraclid dynasty<note place='foot'>Eusebius, <hi rend='italic'>Chronic.</hi> i. 69, ed. A. +Schoene (Berlin, 1866-1875).</note> who boasted their descent +from the lion-hero Hercules; hence the carrying of a lion +round the acropolis was probably a form of consecration intended +to place the stronghold under the guardianship of the +lion-god, the hereditary deity of the royal family. And the +story that the king's concubine gave birth to a lion's whelp +suggests that the Lydian kings not only claimed kinship +with the beast, but posed as lions in their own persons and +passed off their sons as lion-cubs. Croesus dedicated at +Delphi a lion of pure gold, perhaps as a badge of Lydia,<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 50. At Thebes +there was a stone lion which was said +to have been dedicated by Hercules +(Pausanias, ix. 17. 2).</note> +and Hercules with his lion's skin is a common type on coins +of Sardes.<note place='foot'>B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Numorum</hi> +(Oxford, 1887), p. 553; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue +of the Greek Coins of Lydia</hi> (London, +1901), pp. xcviii, 239, 240, 241, 244, +247, 253, 254, 264, with plates xxiv. +9-11, 13, XXV. 2, 12, xxvii. 8.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Identity +of the +Lydian and +Cilician +Hercules.</note> +Thus the death, or the attempted death, of Croesus on +the pyre completes the analogy between the Cilician and +the Lydian Hercules. At Tarsus and at Sardes we find +the worship of a god whose symbols were the lion and the +double-headed axe, and who was burned on a great pyre, +either in effigy or in the person of a human representative. +The Greeks called him Hercules, but his native name was +Sandan or Sandon. At Sardes he seems to have been +personated by the kings, who carried the double-axe and +perhaps wore, like their ancestor Hercules, the lion's skin. +We may conjecture that at Tarsus also the royal family +aped the lion-god. At all events we know that Sandan, +the name of the god, entered into the names of Cilician +<pb n='185'/><anchor id='Pg185'/> +kings, and that in later times the priests of Sandan at +Tarsus wore the royal purple.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg143'>143</ref>.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='5. Hittite Gods at Tarsus and Sardes.'/> +<head>§ 5. Hittite Gods at Tarsus and Sardes.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Cilician +and Lydian +Hercules +(Sandan +or Sandon) +seems to +have been +a Hittite +deity.</note> +Now we have traced the religion of Tarsus back by +a double thread to the Hittite religion of Cappadocia. +One thread joins the Baal of Tarsus, with his grapes and +his corn, to the god of Ibreez. The other thread unites +the Sandan of Tarsus, with his lion and his double axe, +to the similar figure at Boghaz-Keui. Without being +unduly fanciful, therefore, we may surmise that the Sandon-Hercules +of Lydia was also a Hittite god, and that the +Heraclid dynasty of Lydia were of Hittite blood. Certainly +the influence, if not the rule, of the Hittites extended to +Lydia; for at least two rock-carvings accompanied by +Hittite inscriptions are still to be seen in the country. +Both of them attracted the attention of the ancient Greeks. +One of them represents a god or warrior in Hittite costume +armed with a spear and bow. It is carved on the face of a +grey rock, which stands out conspicuous on a bushy hillside, +where an old road runs through a glen from the valley of +the Hermus to the valley of the Cayster. The place is now +called Kara-Bel. Herodotus thought that the figure represented +the Egyptian king and conqueror Sesostris.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, ii. 106; G. Perrot et Ch. +Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, +iv. 742-752; L. Messerschmidt, +<hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum Hettiticarum</hi>, +pp. 33-37, with plates xxxvii., xxxviii.; +J. Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of the Hittites</hi>, +pp. 170-173, with plate liv.</note> +The other monument is a colossal seated figure of the +Mother of the Gods, locally known in antiquity as Mother +Plastene. It is hewn out of the solid rock and occupies a +large niche in the face of a cliff at the steep northern foot of +Mount Sipylus.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, iii. 24. 2, v. 13. 7 with +my note; G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>op. +cit.</hi> iv. 752-759; L. Messerschmidt, +<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 37 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, pl. xxxix. 1; J. +Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of the Hittites</hi>, +pp. 167-170, with plate liii. Unlike +most Hittite sculptures the figure of +Mother Plastene is carved almost in +the round. The inscriptions which +accompany both these Lydian monuments +are much defaced.</note> Thus it would seem that at some time or +other the Hittites carried their arms to the shores of the +Aegean. There is no improbability, therefore, in the view +that a Hittite dynasty may have reigned at Sardes.<note place='foot'>The suggestion that the Heraclid +kings of Lydia were Hittites, or under +Hittite influence, is not novel. See +W. Wright, <hi rend='italic'>Empire of the Hittites</hi>, +p. 59; E. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des +Alterthums</hi>, i. (Stuttgart, 1884) p. +307, § 257; Fr. Hommel, <hi rend='italic'>Grundriss +der Geographie und Geschichte des alten +Orients</hi>, p. 54, note 2; L. Messerschmidt, +<hi rend='italic'>The Hittites</hi>, p. 22.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='186'/><anchor id='Pg186'/> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='6. The Resurrection of Tylon.'/> +<head>§ 6. The Resurrection of Tylon.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Death and +resurrection +of the +Lydian +hero Tylon. Feast of +the Golden +Flower at +Sardes.</note> +The burning of Sandan, like that of Melcarth,<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg110'>110</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> was +probably followed by a ceremony of his resurrection or +awakening, to indicate that the divine life was not extinct, +but had only assumed a fresher and purer form. Of that +resurrection we have, so far as I am aware, no direct +evidence. In default of it, however, there is a tale of a +local Lydian hero called Tylon or Tylus, who was killed +and brought to life again. The story runs thus. Tylon +or Tylus was a son of Earth.<note place='foot'>Dionysius Halicarnasensis, <hi rend='italic'>Antiquit. +Roman.</hi> i. 27. 1.</note> One day as he was walking +on the banks of the Hermus a serpent stung and killed +him. His distressed sister Moire had recourse to a giant +named Damasen, who attacked and slew the serpent. But +the serpent's mate culled a herb, <q>the flower of Zeus</q> in +the woods, and bringing it in her mouth put it to the lips +of the dead serpent, which immediately revived. In her +turn Moire took the hint and restored her brother Tylon +to life by touching him with the same plant.<note place='foot'>Nonnus, <hi rend='italic'>Dionys.</hi> xxv. 451-551; +Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> xxv. 14. The story, +as we learn from Pliny, was told by +Xanthus, an early historian of Lydia.</note> A similar +incident occurs in many folk-tales. Serpents are often +credited with a knowledge of life-giving plants.<note place='foot'>Thus Glaucus, son of Minos, was +restored to life by the seer Polyidus, +who learned the trick from a serpent. +See Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, iii. 3. 1. +For references to other tales of the +same sort see my note on Pausanias, ii. +10. 3 (vol. iii. pp. 65 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). The +serpent's acquaintance with the tree of +life in the garden of Eden perhaps +belongs to the same cycle of stories.</note> But +Tylon seems to have been more than a mere hero of fairy-tales. +He was closely associated with Sardes, for he figures +on the coins of the city along with his champion Damasen or +Masnes, the dead serpent, and the life-giving branch.<note place='foot'>B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of the +Greek Coins of Lydia</hi>, pp. cxi-cxiii, +with pl. xxvii. 12. On the coins the +champion's name appears as Masnes or +Masanes, but the reading is doubtful. +The name Masnes occurred in Xanthus's +history of Lydia (<hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta +Historicorum Graecorum</hi>, ed. C. +Müller, iv. 629). It is probably the +same with Manes, the name of a son +of Zeus and Earth, who is said to have +been the first king of Lydia (Dionysius +Halicarnasensis, <hi rend='italic'>Ant. Rom.</hi> i. 27. 1). +Manes was the father of King Atys +(Herodotus, i. 94). Thus Tylon was +connected with the royal family of +Lydia through his champion as well as +in the ways mentioned in the text.</note> And +<pb n='187'/><anchor id='Pg187'/> +he was related in various ways to the royal family of Lydia; +for his daughter married Cotys, one of the earliest kings of +the country,<note place='foot'>Dionysius Halicarnasensis, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi></note> and a descendant of his acted as regent during +the banishment of King Meles.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg183'>183</ref>.</note> It has been suggested +that the story of his death and resurrection was acted as +a pageant to symbolize the revival of plant life in spring.<note place='foot'>B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of the Greek +Coins of Lydia</hi>, p. cxiii.</note> +At all events, a festival called the Feast of the Golden +Flower was celebrated in honour of Persephone at Sardes,<note place='foot'>B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of the Greek +Coins of Lydia</hi>, pp. cx, cxiii. The +festival seems to be mentioned only on +coins.</note> +probably in one of the vernal months, and the revival of +the hero and of the goddess may well have been represented +together. The Golden Flower of the Festival would then +be the <q>flower of Zeus</q> of the legend, perhaps the yellow +crocus of nature or rather her more gorgeous sister, the +Oriental saffron. For saffron grew in great abundance at +the Corycian cave of Zeus;<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg154'>154</ref>.</note> and it is an elegant conjecture, +if it is nothing more, that the very name of the place +meant <q>the Crocus Cave.</q><note place='foot'>V. Hehn, <hi rend='italic'>Kulturpflanzen und +Haustiere</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>7</hi> (Berlin, 1902), p. 261. +He would derive the name from the +Semitic, or at all events the Cilician +language. The Hebrew word for +saffron is <foreign lang='he' rend='italic'>karkôm</foreign>. As to the spring +flowers of North-Western Asia Minor, +W. M. Leake remarks (April 1, 1800) +that <q>primroses, violets, and crocuses, +are the only flowers to be seen</q> +(<hi rend='italic'>Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor</hi>, +London, 1824, p. 143). Near Mylasa +in Caria, Fellows saw (March 20, +1840) the broom covered with yellow +blossoms and a great variety of +anemones, like <q>a rich Turkey carpet, +in which the green grass did not form +a prominent colour amidst the crimson, +lilac, blue, scarlet, white, and yellow +flowers</q> (Ch. Fellows, <hi rend='italic'>An Account of +Discoveries in Lycia</hi>, London, 1841, +pp. 65, 66). In February the yellow +stars of <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Gagea arvensis</foreign> cover the rocky +and grassy grounds of Lycia, and the +field-marigold often meets the eye. At +the same season in Lycia the shrub +<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Colutea arborescens</foreign> opens its yellow +flowers. See T. A. B. Spratt and E. +Forbes, <hi rend='italic'>Travels in Lycia</hi> (London, +1847), ii. 133. I must leave it to +others to identify the Golden Flower +of Sardes.</note> However, on the coins of +Sardes the magical plant seems to be a branch rather than +a blossom, a Golden Bough rather than a Golden Flower. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='188'/><anchor id='Pg188'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VIII. Volcanic Religion.</head> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='1. The Burning of a God.'/> +<head>§ 1. The Burning of a God.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +custom of +burning a +god may +have been +intended to +recruit his +divine +energies.</note> +Thus it appears that a custom of burning a god in effigy +or in the person of a human representative was practised by +at least two peoples of Western Asia, the Phoenicians and +the Hittites. Whether they both developed the custom +independently, or whether one of them adopted it from the +other, we cannot say. And their reasons for celebrating a +rite which to us seems strange and monstrous are also +obscure. In the preceding inquiry some grounds have +been adduced for thinking that the practice was based +on a conception of the purifying virtue of fire, which, by +destroying the corruptible and perishable elements of man, +was supposed to fit him for union with the imperishable +and the divine. Now to people who created their gods +in their own likeness, and imagined them subject to the +same law of decadence and death, the idea would naturally +occur that fire might do for the gods what it was believed +to do for men, that it could purge them of the taint +of corruption and decay, could sift the mortal from the +immortal in their composition, and so endow them with +eternal youth. Hence a custom might arise of subjecting +the deities themselves, or the more important of +them, to an ordeal of fire for the purpose of refreshing and +renovating those creative energies on the maintenance of +which so much depended. To the coarse apprehension of +the uninstructed and unsympathetic observer the solemn +rite might easily wear a very different aspect. According +as he was of a pious or of a sceptical turn of mind, he might +<pb n='189'/><anchor id='Pg189'/> +denounce it as a sacrilege or deride it as an absurdity. +<q>To burn the god whom you worship,</q> he might say, <q>is +the height of impiety and of folly. If you succeed in the +attempt, you kill him and deprive yourselves of his valuable +services. If you fail, you have mortally offended him, and +sooner or later he will visit you with his severe displeasure.</q> +To this the worshipper, if he was patient and polite, might +listen with a smile of indulgent pity for the ignorance and +obtuseness of the critic. <q>You are much mistaken,</q> he +might observe, <q>in imagining that we expect or attempt to +kill the god whom we adore. The idea of such a thing is +as repugnant to us as to you. Our intention is precisely +the opposite of that which you attribute to us. Far from +wishing to destroy the deity, we desire to make him live +for ever, to place him beyond the reach of that process of +degeneration and final dissolution to which all things here +below appear by their nature to be subject. He does not +die in the fire. Oh no! Only the corruptible and mortal +part of him perishes in the flames: all that is incorruptible +and immortal of him will survive the purer and stronger +for being freed from the contagion of baser elements. That +little heap of ashes which you see there is not our god. It +is only the skin which he has sloughed, the husk which he +has cast. He himself is far away, in the clouds of heaven, +in the depths of earth, in the running waters, in the tree and +the flower, in the corn and the vine. We do not see him +face to face, but every year he manifests his divine life +afresh in the blossoms of spring and the fruits of autumn. +We eat of his broken body in bread. We drink of his shed +blood in the juice of the grape.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='2. The Volcanic Region of Cappadocia.'/> +<head>§ 2. The Volcanic Region of Cappadocia.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +custom of +burning a +god may +have stood +in some +relation to +volcanic +phenomena.</note> +Some such train of reasoning may suffice to explain, +though naturally not to justify, the custom which we bluntly +call the burning of a god. Yet it is worth while to ask +whether in the development of the practice these general +considerations may not have been reinforced or modified by +special circumstances; for example, by the natural features +of the country where the custom grew up. For the history +<pb n='190'/><anchor id='Pg190'/> +of religion, like that of all other human institutions, has +been profoundly affected by local conditions, and cannot be +fully understood apart from them. Now Asia Minor, the +region where the practice in question appears to have been +widely diffused, has from time immemorial been subjected +to the action of volcanic forces on a great scale. It is true +that, so far as the memory of man goes back, the craters of +its volcanoes have been extinct, but the vestiges of their +dead or slumbering fires are to be seen in many places, +and the country has been shaken and rent at intervals by +tremendous earthquakes. These phenomena cannot fail to +have impressed the imagination of the inhabitants, and +thereby to have left some mark on their religion. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The great +extinct +volcano +Mount +Argaeus in +Cappadocia.</note> +Among the extinct volcanoes of Anatolia the greatest +is Mount Argaeus, in the centre of Cappadocia, the heart +of the old Hittite country. It is indeed the highest point +of Asia Minor, and one of the loftiest mountains known to +the ancients; for in height it falls not very far short of +Mount Blanc. Towering abruptly in a huge pyramid from +the plain, it is a conspicuous object for miles on miles. Its +top is white with eternal snow, and in antiquity its lower +slopes were clothed with dense forests, from which the +inhabitants of the treeless Cappadocian plains drew their +supply of timber. In these woods, and in the low grounds +at the foot of the mountain, the languishing fires of the +volcano manifested themselves as late as the beginning of +our era. The ground was treacherous. Under a grassy +surface there lurked pits of fire, into which stray cattle and +unwary travellers often fell. Experienced woodmen used +great caution when they went to fell trees in the forest. +Elsewhere the soil was marshy, and flames were seen to +play over it at night.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xii. 2. 7, p. 538. Mount +Argaeus still retains its ancient name +in slightly altered forms (<foreign rend='italic'>Ardjeh</foreign>, +<foreign rend='italic'>Erdjich</foreign>, <foreign rend='italic'>Erjäus</foreign>). Its height is about +13,000 feet. In the nineteenth century +it was ascended by at least two +English travellers, W. J. Hamilton and +H. F. Tozer. See W. J. Hamilton, +<hi rend='italic'>Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus, and +Armenia</hi>, ii. 269-281; H. F. Tozer, +<hi rend='italic'>Turkish Armenia and Eastern Asia +Minor</hi>, pp. 94, 113-131; Élisée +Reclus, <hi rend='italic'>Nouvelle Géographie Universelle</hi> +(Paris, 1879-1894), ix. 476-478. +A Hittite inscription is carved at a +place called Tope Nefezi, near Asarjik, +on the slope of Mount Argaeus. See +J. Garstang, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of the Hittites</hi>, +pp. 152 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Superstitious fancies no doubt +<pb n='191'/><anchor id='Pg191'/> +gathered thick around these perilous spots, but what shape +they took we cannot say. Nor do we know whether +sacrifices were offered on the top of the mountain, though +a curious discovery may perhaps be thought to indicate +that they were. Sharp and lofty pinnacles of red porphyry, +inaccessible to the climber, rise in imposing grandeur from +the eternal snow of the summit, and here Mr. Tozer found +that the rock had been perforated in various places with +human habitations. One such rock-hewn dwelling winds +inward for a considerable distance; rude niches are hollowed +in its sides, and on its roof and walls may be seen the +marks of tools.<note place='foot'>H. F. Tozer, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 125-127.</note> The ancients certainly did not climb +mountains for pleasure or health, and it is difficult to +imagine that any motive but superstition should have led +them to provide dwellings in such a place. These rock-cut +chambers may have been shelters for priests charged +with the performance of religious or magical rites on the +summit. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='3. Fire-Worship in Cappadocia.'/> +<head>§ 3. Fire-Worship in Cappadocia.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Persian +fire-worship +in Cappadocia. +Worship of +natural +fires which +burn perpetually. The +perpetual +fires of +Baku.</note> +Under the Persian rule Cappadocia became, and long +continued to be, a great seat of the Zoroastrian fire-worship. +In the time of Strabo, about the beginning of our era, the +votaries of that faith and their temples were still numerous +in the country. The perpetual fire burned on an altar, +surrounded by a heap of ashes, in the middle of the temple; +and the priests daily chanted their liturgy before it, holding +in their hands a bundle of myrtle rods and wearing on their +heads tall felt caps with cheek-pieces which covered their +lips, lest they should defile the sacred flame with their +breath.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xv. 3. 14 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, pp. 732 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +A bundle of twigs, called the Barsom +(<foreign lang='fa' rend='italic'>Beresma</foreign> in the Avesta), is still used +by the Parsee priests in chanting their +liturgy. See M. Haug, <hi rend='italic'>Essays on +the Sacred Language, Writings and +Religion of the Parsis</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> (London, 1884), +pp. 4, note 1, 283. When a potter in +Southern India is making a pot which +is to be worshipped as a household +deity, he <q>should close his mouth with +a bandage, so that his breath may not +defile the pot.</q> See E. Thurston, <hi rend='italic'>Castes +and Tribes of Southern India</hi> (Madras, +1909), iv. 151.</note> It is reasonable to suppose that the natural fires +which burned perpetually on the outskirts of Mount Argaeus +attracted the devotion of the disciples of Zoroaster, for +elsewhere similar fires have been the object of religious +<pb n='192'/><anchor id='Pg192'/> +reverence down to modern times. Thus at Jualamukhi, on +the lower slopes of the Himalayas, jets of combustible gas +issue from the earth; and a great Hindoo temple, the +resort of many pilgrims, is built over them. The perpetual +flame, which is of a reddish hue and emits an aromatic +perfume, rises from a pit in the fore-court of the sanctuary. +The worshippers deliver their gifts, consisting usually of +flowers, to the attendant fakirs, who first hold them over +the flame and then cast them into the body of the temple.<note place='foot'>Baron Charles Hügel, <hi rend='italic'>Travels in +Kashmir and the Panjab</hi> (London, +1845), pp. 42-46; W. Crooke, <hi rend='italic'>Things +Indian</hi> (London, 1906), p. 219.</note> +Again, Hindoo pilgrims make their way with great difficulty +to Baku on the Caspian, in order to worship the everlasting +fires which there issue from the beds of petroleum. The +sacred spot is about ten miles to the north-east of the +city. An English traveller, who visited Baku in the middle +of the eighteenth century, has thus described the place and +the worship. <q>There are several ancient temples built with +stone, supposed to have been all dedicated to fire; most of +them are arched vaults, not above ten to fifteen feet high. +Amongst others there is a little temple, in which the +Indians now worship; near the altar, about three feet high, +is a large hollow cane, from the end of which issues a blue +flame, in colour and gentleness not unlike a lamp that +burns with spirits, but seemingly more pure. These Indians +affirm that this flame has continued ever since the flood, +and they believe it will last to the end of the world; that +if it was resisted or suppressed in that place, it would rise +in some other. Here are generally forty or fifty of these +poor devotees, who come on a pilgrimage from their own +country, and subsist upon wild sallary, and a kind of +Jerusalem artichoke, which are very good food, with other +herbs and roots, found a little to the northward. Their +business is to make expiation, not for their own sins only, +but for those of others; and they continue the longer time, +in proportion to the number of persons for whom they have +engaged to pray. They mark their foreheads with saffron, +and have a great veneration for a red cow.</q><note place='foot'>Jonas Hanway, <hi rend='italic'>An Historical +Account of the British Trade over the +Caspian Sea: with the Author's Journal +of Travels</hi>, Second Edition (London, +1754), i. 263. For later descriptions +of the fires and fire-worshippers of +Baku, see J. Reinegg, <hi rend='italic'>Beschreibung des +Kaukasus</hi> (Gotha, Hildesheim, and St. +Petersburg, 1796-1797), i. 151-159; +A. von Haxthausen, <hi rend='italic'>Transkaukasia</hi> +(Leipsic, 1856), ii. 80-85. Compare +W. Crooke, <hi rend='italic'>Things Indian</hi>, p. 219.</note> Thus it +<pb n='193'/><anchor id='Pg193'/> +would seem that a purifying virtue is attributed to the sacred +flame, since pilgrims come to it from far to expiate sin. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='4. The Burnt Land of Lydia.'/> +<head>§ 4. The Burnt Land of Lydia.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The Burnt +Land of +Lydia.</note> +Another volcanic region of Asia Minor is the district of +Lydia, to which, on account of its remarkable appearance, +the Greeks gave the name of the Burnt Land. It lies to +the east of Sardes in the upper valley of the Hermus, and +covers an area of about fifty miles by forty. As described +by Strabo, the country was wholly treeless except for the +vines, which produced a wine inferior to none of the most +famous vintages of antiquity. The surface of the plains +was like ashes; the hills were composed of black stone, as +if they had been scorched by fire. Some people laid the +scene of Typhon's battle with the gods in this Black +Country, and supposed that it had been burnt by the +thunderbolts hurled from heaven at the impious monster. +The philosophic Strabo, however, held that the fires which +had wrought this havoc were subterranean, not celestial, and +he pointed to three craters, at intervals of about four miles, +each in a hill of scoriae which he supposed to have been +once molten matter ejected by the volcanoes.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xii. 8. 18 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, p. 579; +xiii. 4. 11, p. 628. The wine of the +district is mentioned by Vitruvius (viii. +3. 12) and Pliny (<hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> xiv. 75).</note> His observation +and his theory have both been confirmed by modern +science. The three extinct volcanoes to which he referred +are still conspicuous features of the landscape. Each is a +black cone of loose cinders, scoriae, and ashes, with steep +sides and a deep crater. From each a flood of rugged +black lava has flowed forth, bursting out at the foot of the +cone, and then rushing down the dale to the bed of the +Hermus. The dark streams follow all the sinuosities of +the valleys, their sombre hue contrasting with the rich +verdure of the surrounding landscape. Their surface, +broken into a thousand fantastic forms, resembles a sea +lashed into fury by a gale, and then suddenly hardened into +<pb n='194'/><anchor id='Pg194'/> +stone. Regarded from the geological point of view, these +black cones of cinders and these black rivers of lava are of +comparatively recent formation. Exposure to the weather +for thousands of years has not yet softened their asperities +and decomposed them into vegetable mould; they are as +hard and ungenial as if the volcanic stream had ceased to +flow but yesterday. But in the same district there are +upwards of thirty other volcanic cones, whose greater age +is proved by their softened forms, their smoother sides, and +their mantle of vegetation. Some of them are planted with +vineyards to their summits.<note place='foot'>W. J. Hamilton, <hi rend='italic'>Researches in +Asia Minor, Pontus, and Armenia</hi>, +i. 136-140, ii. 131-138. One of the +three recent cones described by Strabo +is now called the <foreign rend='italic'>Kara Devlit</foreign>, or +Black Inkstand. Its top is about +2500 feet above the sea, but only 500 +feet above the surrounding plain. The +adjoining town of Koula, built of the +black lava on which it stands, has a +sombre and dismal look. Another of +the cones, almost equally high, has a +crater of about half a mile in circumference +and three or four hundred feet +deep.</note> Thus the volcanic soil is still +as favourable to the cultivation of the vine as it was in +antiquity. The relation between the two was noted by +the ancients. Strabo compares the vines of the Burnt Land +with the vineyards of Catania fertilized by the ashes of +Mount Etna; and he tells us that some ingenious persons +explained the fire-born Dionysus as a myth of the grapes +fostered by volcanic agency.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiii. 4. 11, p. 628. Compare +his account of the Catanian +vineyards (vi. 2. 3, p. 269).</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='5. The Earthquake God.'/> +<head>§ 5. The Earthquake God.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Earthquakes +in Asia +Minor. Worship of +Poseidon, +the earthquake +god.</note> +But the inhabitants of these regions were reminded of +the slumbering fires by other and less agreeable tokens than +the generous juice of their grapes. For not the Burnt Land +only but the country to the south, including the whole valley +of the Maeander, was subject to frequent and violent shocks +of earthquake. The soil was loose, friable, and full of salts, +the ground hollow, undermined by fire and water. In +particular the city of Philadelphia was a great centre of +disturbance. The shocks there, we are told, were continuous. +The houses rocked, the walls cracked and gaped; the few +inhabitants were kept busy repairing the breaches or buttressing +and propping the edifices which threatened to tumble +<pb n='195'/><anchor id='Pg195'/> +about their ears. Most of the citizens, indeed, had the +prudence to dwell dispersed on their farms. It was a marvel, +says Strabo, that such a city should have any inhabitants at +all, and a still greater marvel that it should ever have been +built.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xii. 8. 16-18, pp. 578 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +xiii. 4. 10 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, p. 628.</note> However, by a wise dispensation of Providence, the +earthquakes which shook the foundations of their houses only +strengthened those of their faith. The people of Apameia, +whose town was repeatedly devastated, paid their devotions +with great fervour to Poseidon, the earthquake god.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xii. 8. 18, p. 579. Compare +Tacitus, <hi rend='italic'>Annals</hi>, xii. 58.</note> Again, +the island of Santorin, in the Greek Archipelago, has +been for thousands of years a great theatre of volcanic +activity. On one occasion the waters of the bay boiled and +flamed for four days, and an island composed of red-hot +matter rose gradually, as if hoisted by machinery, above +the waves. It happened that the sovereignty of the seas +was then with the Rhodians, those merchant-princes whose +prudent policy, strict but benevolent oligarchy, and beautiful +island-city, rich with accumulated treasures of native art, +rendered them in a sense the Venetians of the ancient world. +So when the ebullition and heat of the eruption had subsided, +their sea-captains landed in the new island, and founded a +sanctuary of Poseidon the Establisher or Securer,<note place='foot'>Strabo, i. 3. 16, p. 57. Compare +Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>De Pythiae oraculis</hi>, 11; +Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> ii. 202; Justin, +xxx. 4. The event seems to have +happened in 197 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> Several other +islands are known to have appeared in +the same bay both in ancient and +modern times. So far as antiquity is +concerned, the dates of their appearance +are given by Pliny, but some confusion +on the subject has crept into his mind, +or rather, perhaps, into his text. See +the discussion of the subject in W. +Smith's <hi rend='italic'>Dictionary of Greek and Roman +Geography</hi> (London, 1873), ii. 1158-1160. +As to the eruptions in the +bay of Santorin, the last of which +occurred in 1866 and produced a +new island, see Sir Charles Lyell, +<hi rend='italic'>Principles of Geology</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>12</hi> (London, +1875), i. 51, ii. 65 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; C. Neumann +und J. Partsch, <hi rend='italic'>Physikalische Geographie +von Griechenland</hi> (Breslau, 1885), +pp. 272 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> There is a monograph +on Santorin and its eruptions (F. +Fouqué, <hi rend='italic'>Santorin et ses éruptions</hi>, +Paris, 1879). Strabo has given a brief +but striking account of Rhodes, its +architecture, its art-treasures, and its +constitution (xiv. 2. 5, pp. 652 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). +As to the Rhodian schools of art see +H. Brunn, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der griechischen +Künstler</hi> (Stuttgart, 1857-1859), i. +459 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, ii. 233 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 286 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> a complimentary +epithet often bestowed on him as a hint not to shake +the earth more than he could conveniently help.<note place='foot'>Aristophanes, <hi rend='italic'>Acharn.</hi> 682; Pausanias, +iii. 11. 9, vii. 21. 7; Plutarch, +<hi rend='italic'>Theseus</hi>, 36; Aristides, <hi rend='italic'>Isthmic.</hi> vol. i. +p. 29, ed. G. Dindorf (Leipsic, 1829); +Appian, <hi rend='italic'>Bell. Civ.</hi> v. 98; Macrobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Saturn.</hi> i. 17. 22; G. Dittenberger, +<hi rend='italic'>Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +(Leipsic, 1898-1901), ii. p. 230, No. +543.</note> In many +<pb n='196'/><anchor id='Pg196'/> +places people sacrificed to Poseidon the Establisher, in the +hope that he would be as good as his name and not bring +down their houses on their heads.<note place='foot'>Cornutus, <hi rend='italic'>Theologiae Graecae Compendium</hi>, +22.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Spartan +propitiation +of +Poseidon +during an +earthquake.</note> +Another instance of a Greek attempt to quiet the perturbed +spirit underground is instructive, because similar +efforts are still made by savages in similar circumstances. +Once when a Spartan army under King Agesipolis had taken +the field, it chanced that the ground under their feet was +shaken by an earthquake. It was evening, and the king +was at mess with the officers of his staff. No sooner did +they feel the shock than, with great presence of mind, they +rose from their dinner and struck up a popular hymn in +honour of Poseidon. The soldiers outside the tent took up +the strain, and soon the whole army joined in the sacred +melody.<note place='foot'>Xenophon, <hi rend='italic'>Hellenica</hi>, iv. 7. 4. +As to the Spartan headquarters staff +(οἱ περὶ δαμοσίαν), see <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi> iv. 5. 8, vi. +4. 14; Xenophon, <hi rend='italic'>Respublica Lacedaem</hi>. +xiii. 1, xv. 4. Usually the +Spartans desisted from any enterprise +they had in hand when an earthquake +happened (Thucydides, iii. 59. 1, v. +50. 5, vi. 95. 1).</note> It is not said whether the flute-band, which always +played the Spartan redcoats into action,<note place='foot'>Thucydides, v. 70. 1. The use of +the music, Thucydides tells us, was not +to inspire the men, but to enable them +to keep step, and so to march in close +order. Without music a long line of +battle was apt to straggle in advancing +to the charge. As missiles were little +used in Greek warfare, there was no +need to hurry the advance over the +intervening ground; so it was made deliberately +and with the bands playing. +The air to which the Spartans charged +was called Castor's tune. It was the +king in person who gave the word for +the flutes to strike up. See Plutarch, +<hi rend='italic'>Lycurgus</hi>, 22.</note> accompanied the +deep voices of the men with its shrill music. At all events, +the intention of this service of praise, addressed to the earth-shaking +god, can only have been to prevail on him to stop. +I have spoken of the Spartan redcoats because the uniform +of Spartan soldiers was red.<note place='foot'>Xenophon, <hi rend='italic'>Respublica Lacedaem</hi>. +xi. 3; Aristophanes, <hi rend='italic'>Lysistrata</hi>, 1140; +Aristotle, cited by a scholiast on +Aristophanes, <hi rend='italic'>Acharn.</hi> 320; Plutarch, +<hi rend='italic'>Instituta Laconica</hi>, 24. When a great +earthquake had destroyed the city of +Sparta and the Messenians were in +revolt, the Spartans sent a messenger to +Athens asking for help. Aristophanes +(<hi rend='italic'>Lysistrata</hi>, 1138 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>) describes the +man as if he had seen him, sitting as a +suppliant on the altar with his pale face +and his red coat.</note> As they fought in an extended, +not a deep, formation, a Spartan line of battle must +always have been, what the British used to be, a thin red +line. It was in this order, and no doubt with the music +<pb n='197'/><anchor id='Pg197'/> +playing and the sun flashing on their arms, that they advanced +to meet the Persians at Thermopylae. Like Cromwell's +Ironsides, these men could fight as well as sing psalms.<note place='foot'>I have assumed that the sun shone +on the Spartans at Thermopylae. For +the battle was fought in the height of +summer, when the Greek sky is generally +cloudless, and on that particular +morning the weather was very still. +The evening before, the Persians had +sent round a body of troops by a difficult +pass to take the Spartans in the +rear; day was breaking when they +neared the summit, and the first intimation +of their approach which reached +the ears of the Phocian guards posted +on the mountain was the loud crackling +of leaves under their feet in the oak +forest. Moreover, the famous Spartan +saying about fighting in the shade of +the Persian arrows, which obscured the +sun, points to bright, hot weather. It +was at high noon, and therefore probably +in the full blaze of the mid-day +sun, that the last march-out took place. +See Herodotus, vii. 215-226; and as to +the date of the battle (about the time +of the Olympic games) see Herodotus, +vii. 206, viii. 12 and 26; G. Busolt, +<hi rend='italic'>Griechische Geschichte</hi>, ii.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Gotha, +1895) p. 673, note 9.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Modes of +stopping +an earthquake +by +informing +the god or +giant that +there are +still men on +the earth.</note> +If the Spartans imagined that they could stop an earthquake +by a soldiers' chorus, their theory and practice resembled +those of many other barbarians. Thus the people +of Timor, in the East Indies, think that the earth rests on +the shoulder of a mighty giant, and that when he is weary +of bearing it on one shoulder he shifts it to the other, and +so causes the ground to quake. At such times, accordingly, +they all shout at the top of their voices to let him know +that there are still people on the earth; for otherwise they +fear lest, impatient of his burden, he might tip it into the +sea.<note place='foot'>S. Müller, <hi rend='italic'>Reizen en Onderzoekingen +in den Indischen Archipel</hi> +(Amsterdam, 1857), ii. 264 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Compare +A. Bastian, <hi rend='italic'>Indonesien</hi> (Berlin, +1884-1889), ii. 3. The beliefs and +customs of the East Indian peoples in +regard to earthquakes have been described +by G. A. Wilken, <hi rend='italic'>Het animisme +bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel</hi>, +Tweede Stuk (Leyden, 1885), pp. +247-254; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Verspreide Geschriften</hi> +(The Hague, 1912), iii. 274-281. +Compare <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Handleiding voor de +vergelijkende Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië</hi> +(Leyden, 1893), pp. 604 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; and on primitive conceptions of +earthquakes in general, E. B. Tylor, +<hi rend='italic'>Primitive Culture</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London, 1873), +i. 364-366; R. Lasch, <q>Die Ursache +und Bedeutung der Erdbeben im Volksglauben +und Volksbrauch,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Archiv für +Religionswissenschaft</hi>, v. (1902) pp. +236-257, 369-383.</note> The Manichaeans held a precisely similar theory of +earthquakes, except that according to them the weary giant +transferred his burden from one shoulder to the other at the +end of every thirty years,<note place='foot'>Epiphanius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Haereses</hi>, ii. +2. 23 (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, xlii. +68).</note> a view which, at all events, points +to the observation of a cycle in the recurrence of earthquake +shocks. But we are not told that these heretics reduced an +absurd theory to an absurd practice by raising a shout in +<pb n='198'/><anchor id='Pg198'/> +order to remind the earth-shaker of the inconvenience he +was putting them to. However, both the theory and the +practice are to be found in full force in various parts of the +East Indies. When the Balinese and the Sundanese feel +an earthquake they cry out, <q>Still alive,</q> or <q>We still live,</q> +to acquaint the earth-shaking god or giant with their existence.<note place='foot'>H. N. van der Tuuk, <q>Notes on +the Kawi Language and Literature,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society</hi>, +N.S. xiii. (1881) p. 50.</note> +The natives of Leti, Moa, and Lakor, islands of the +Indian Archipelago, imagine that earthquakes are caused +by Grandmother Earth in order to ascertain whether her +descendants are still to the fore. So they make loud noises +for the purpose of satisfying her grandmotherly solicitude.<note place='foot'>J. G. F. Riedel, <hi rend='italic'>De sluik- en +kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en +Papua</hi> (The Hague, 1886), p. 398; +compare <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi> pp. 330, 428.</note> +The Tami of German New Guinea ascribe earthquakes to a +certain old Panku who sits under a great rock; when he +stirs, the earth quakes. If the shock lasts a long time they +beat on the ground with palm-branches, saying, <q>You down +there! easy a little! We men are still here.</q><note place='foot'>G. Bamler, <q>Tami,</q> in R. Neuhauss's +<hi rend='italic'>Deutsch Neu-Guinea</hi>, iii. +(Berlin, 1911) p. 492.</note> The Shans +of Burma are taught by Buddhist monks that under the +world there sleeps a great fish with his tail in his mouth, +but sometimes he wakes, bites his tail, and quivering with +pain causes the ground to quiver and shake likewise. That +is the cause of great earthquakes. But the cause of little +earthquakes is different. These are produced by little men +who live underground and sometimes feeling lonely knock +on the roof of the world over their heads; these knockings +we perceive as slight shocks of earthquakes. When Shans +feel such a shock, they run out of their houses, kneel down, +and answer the little men saying, <q>We are here! We are +here!</q><note place='foot'>Mrs. Leslie Milne, <hi rend='italic'>Shans at Home</hi> +(London, 1910), p. 54.</note> Earthquakes are common in the Pampa del Sacramento +of Eastern Peru. The Conibos, a tribe of Indians on +the left bank of the great Ucayali River, attribute these +disturbances to the creator, who usually resides in heaven, +but comes down from time to time to see whether the work +of his hands still exists. The result of his descent is an +earthquake. So when one happens, these Indians rush out +<pb n='199'/><anchor id='Pg199'/> +of their huts with extravagant gestures shouting, as if in +answer to a question, <q>A moment, a moment, here I am, +father, here I am!</q> Their intention is, no doubt, to assure +their heavenly father that they are still alive, and that he +may return to his mansion on high with an easy mind. +They never remember the creator nor pay him any heed +except at an earthquake.<note place='foot'>De St. Cricq, <q>Voyage du Pérou +au Brésil par les fleuves Ucayali et +Amazone, Indiens Conibos,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Bulletin +de la Société de Géographie</hi> (Paris), iv<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>e</hi> +Série, vi. (1853) p. 292.</note> In Africa the Atonga tribe of +Lake Nyassa used to believe that an earthquake was the +voice of God calling to inquire whether his people were all +there. So when the rumble was heard underground they +all shouted in answer, <q><hi rend='italic'>Ye, ye</hi>,</q> and some of them went to +the mortars used for pounding corn and beat on them with +pestles. They thought that if any one of them did not thus +answer to the divine call he would die.<note place='foot'>Miss Alice Werner, <hi rend='italic'>The Natives +of British Central Africa</hi> (London, +1906), p. 56.</note> In Ourwira the +people think that an earthquake is caused by a dead sultan +marching past underground; so they stand up to do him +honour, and some raise their hands to the salute. Were they +to omit these marks of respect to the deceased, they would +run the risk of being swallowed up alive.<note place='foot'>Mgr. Lechaptois, <hi rend='italic'>Aux Rives du +Tanganika</hi> (Algiers, 1913), p. 217.</note> The Baganda of +Central Africa used to attribute earthquakes to a certain god +named Musisi, who lived underground and set the earth in +a tremor when he moved about. At such times persons who +had fetishes to hand patted them and begged the god to +be still; women who were with child patted their bellies +to keep the god from taking either their own life or that +of their unborn babes; others raised a shrill cry to induce +him to remain quiet.<note place='foot'>Rev. J. Roscoe, <hi rend='italic'>The Baganda</hi> +(London, 1911), pp. 313 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Conduct of +the Bataks +during an +earthquake.</note> +When the Bataks of Sumatra feel an earthquake they +shout <q>The handle! The handle!</q> The meaning of the +cry is variously explained. Some say that it contains a +delicate allusion to the sword which is thrust up to the hilt +into the body of the demon or serpent who shakes the earth. +Thus explained the words are a jeer or taunt levelled at that +mischievous being.<note place='foot'>W. Ködding, <q>Die batakschen +Götter und ihr Verhältniss zum Brahmanismus,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift</hi>, +xii. (1885) p. 405.</note> Others say that when Batara-guru, the +<pb n='200'/><anchor id='Pg200'/> +creator, was about to fashion the earth he began by building +a raft, which he commanded a certain Naga-padoha to support. +While he was hard at work his chisel broke, and at +the same moment Naga-padoha budged under his burden. +Therefore Batara-guru said, <q>Hold hard a moment! The +handle of the chisel is broken off.</q> And that is why the +Bataks call out <q>The handle of the chisel</q> during an earthquake. +They believe that the deluded Naga-padoha will +take the words for the voice of the creator, and that he will +hold hard accordingly.<note place='foot'>G. A. Wilken, <q>Het Animisme +bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Verspreide Geschriften</hi>, ii. 279; +H. N. van der Tuuk, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 49 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Various +modes of +prevailing +upon the +earthquake +god to +stop.</note> +When the earth quakes in some parts of Celebes, it is +said that all the inhabitants of a village will rush out of their +houses and grub up grass by handfuls in order to attract +the attention of the earth-spirit, who, feeling his hair thus +torn out by the roots, will be painfully conscious that there +are still people above ground.<note place='foot'>J. G. F. Riedel, <q>De Topantunuasu +of oorspronkelijke Volkstammen +van Central Selebes,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Bijdragen +tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde +van Nederlandsch-Indië</hi>, xxxv. (1886) +p. 95.</note> So in Samoa, during +shocks of earthquake, the natives sometimes ran and threw +themselves on the ground, gnawed the earth, and shouted +frantically to the earthquake god Mafuie to desist lest he +should shake the earth to pieces.<note place='foot'>John Williams, <hi rend='italic'>Narrative of Missionary +Enterprises in the South Sea +Islands</hi> (London, 1838), p. 379.</note> They consoled themselves +with the thought that Mafuie has only one arm, +saying, <q>If he had two, what a shake he would give!</q><note place='foot'>G. Turner, <hi rend='italic'>Samoa</hi> (London, 1884), +p. 211; Ch. Wilkes, <hi rend='italic'>Narrative of the +United States Exploring Expedition</hi>, +New Edition (New York, 1851), ii. +131.</note> +The Bagobos of the Philippine Islands believe that the +earth rests on a great post, which a large serpent is trying +to remove. When the serpent shakes the post, the earth +quakes. At such times the Bagobos beat their dogs to +make them howl, for the howling of the animals frightens +the serpent, and he stops shaking the post. Hence so long +as an earthquake lasts the howls of dogs may be heard to +proceed from every house in a Bagobo village.<note place='foot'>A. Schadenburg, <q>Die Bewohner +von Süd-Mindanao und der Insel +Samal,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Zeitschrift für Ethnologie</hi>, +xvii. (1885) p. 32.</note> The +Tongans think that the earth is supported on the prostrate +<pb n='201'/><anchor id='Pg201'/> +form of the god Móooi. When he is tired of lying in one +posture, he tries to turn himself about, and that causes an +earthquake. Then the people shout and beat the ground +with sticks to make him lie still.<note place='foot'>W. Mariner, <hi rend='italic'>Account of the +Natives of the Tonga Islands</hi>, Second +Edition (London, 1818), ii. 112 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> During an earthquake +the Burmese make a great uproar, beating the walls of their +houses and shouting, to frighten away the evil genius who +is shaking the earth.<note place='foot'>Sangermano, <hi rend='italic'>Description of the +Burmese Empire</hi> (Rangoon, 1885), p. +130.</note> On a like occasion and for a like +purpose some natives of the Gazelle Peninsula in New +Britain beat drums and blow on shells.<note place='foot'>P. A. Kleintitschen, <hi rend='italic'>Die Küstenbewohner +der Gazellehalbinsel</hi> (Hiltrup +bei Münster, <hi rend='smallcaps'>n.d.</hi>), p. 336.</note> The Dorasques, +an Indian tribe of Panama, believed that the volcano of +Chiriqui was inhabited by a powerful spirit, who, in his +anger, caused an earthquake. At such times the Indians +shot volleys of arrows in the direction of the volcano to +terrify him and make him desist.<note place='foot'>A. Pinart, <q>Les Indiens de l'État +de Panama,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Revue d'Ethnographie</hi>, +vi. (1887) p. 119.</note> Some of the Peruvian +Indians regarded an earthquake as a sign that the gods +were thirsty, so they poured water on the ground.<note place='foot'>E. J. Payne, <hi rend='italic'>History of the New +World called America</hi>, i. (Oxford, +1892) p. 469.</note> In +Ashantee several persons used to be put to death after an +earthquake; they were slain as a sacrifice to Sasabonsun, +the earthquake god, in the hope of satiating his cruelty +for a time. Houses which had been thrown down or +damaged by an earthquake were sprinkled with human +blood before they were rebuilt. When part of the wall of +the king's house at Coomassie was knocked down by an +earthquake, fifty young girls were slaughtered, and the mud +to be used in the repairs was kneaded with their blood.<note place='foot'>A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>The Tshi-speaking +Peoples of the Gold Coast</hi> (London, +1887), pp. 35 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Religious +and moral +effects of +earthquakes.</note> +An English resident in Fiji attributed a sudden access +of piety in Kantavu, one of the islands, to a tremendous earthquake +which destroyed many of the natives. The Fijians +think that their islands rest on a god, who causes earthquakes +by turning over in his sleep. So they sacrifice to him +things of great value in order that he may turn as gently as +possible.<note place='foot'>J. Jackson, in J. E. Erskine's +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of a Cruise among the Islands +of the Western Pacific</hi> (London, 1853), +p. 473. My friend, the late Mr. +Lorimer Fison, wrote to me (December +15, 1906) that the name of the +Fijian earthquake god is Maui, not +A Dage, as Jackson says. Mr. Fison +adds, <q>I have seen Fijians stamping +and smiting the ground and yelling at +the top of their voices in order to +rouse him.</q></note> In Nias a violent earthquake has a salutary +<pb n='202'/><anchor id='Pg202'/> +effect on the morals of the natives. They suppose that it is +brought about by a certain Batoo Bedano, who intends to +destroy the earth because of the iniquity of mankind. So +they assemble and fashion a great image out of the trunk of +a tree. They make offerings, they confess their sins, they +correct the fraudulent weights and measures, they vow to +do better in the future, they implore mercy, and if the +earth has gaped, they throw a little gold into the fissure. +But when the danger is over, all their fine vows and +promises are soon forgotten.<note place='foot'>J. T. Nieuwenhuisen en H. C. B. +von Rosenberg, <q>Verslag omtrent het +eiland Nias,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Verhandelingen van het +Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten +en Wetenschappen</hi>, xxx. (Batavia, 1863) +p. 118; Th. C. Rappard, <q>Het eiland +Nias en zijne bewoners,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Bijdragen tot +de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van +Nederlandsch-Indië</hi>, lxii. (1909) p. 582. +In Soerakarta, a district of Java, when +an earthquake takes place the people +lie flat on their stomachs on the ground, +and lick it with their tongues so long +as the earthquake lasts. This they do +in order that they may not lose their +teeth prematurely. See J. W. Winter, +<q>Beknopte Beschrijving van het hof +Soerokarta in 1824,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Bijdragen tot +de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van +Nederlandsch-Indië</hi>, liv. (1902) p. 85. +The connexion of ideas in this custom +is not clear.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The god of +the sea and +of the +earthquake +naturally +conceived +as one.</note> +We may surmise that in those Greek lands which have +suffered severely from earthquakes, such as Achaia and the +western coasts of Asia Minor, Poseidon was worshipped not +less as an earthquake god than as a sea-god.<note place='foot'>On this question see C. Neumann +und J. Partsch, <hi rend='italic'>Physikalische Geographie +von Griechenland</hi> (Breslau, +1885), pp. 332-336. As to the +frequency of earthquakes in Achaia +and Asia Minor see Seneca, <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> +xiv. 3. 9; and as to Achaia in +particular see C. Neumann und J. +Partsch, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 324-326. On +the coast of Achaia there was a chain +of sanctuaries of Poseidon (L. Preller, +<hi rend='italic'>Griechische Mythologie</hi>, i.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> 575).</note> It is to be +remembered that an earthquake is often accompanied by a +tremendous wave which comes rolling in like a mountain +from the sea, swamping the country far and wide; indeed +on the coasts of Chili and Peru, which have often been +devastated by both, the wave is said to be even more +dreaded than the earthquake.<note place='foot'>See Sir Ch. Lyell, <hi rend='italic'>Principles of +Geology</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>12</hi> ii. 147 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; J. Milne, +<hi rend='italic'>Earthquakes</hi> (London, 1886), pp. 165 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> The Greeks often experienced +this combination of catastrophes, this conspiracy, +as it were, of earth and sea against the life and works of man.<note place='foot'>See, for example, Thucydides, +iii. 89.</note> +<pb n='203'/><anchor id='Pg203'/> +It was thus that Helice, on the coast of Achaia, perished +with all its inhabitants on a winter night, overwhelmed +by the billows; and its destruction was set down to +the wrath of Poseidon.<note place='foot'>Strabo, viii. 7. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, pp. 384 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Diodorus Siculus, xv. 49; Aelian, +<hi rend='italic'>Nat. Anim.</hi> xi. 19; Pausanias, vii. +24. 5 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> and 12, vii. 25. 1 and 4.</note> Nothing could be more natural +than that to people familiar with the twofold calamity the +dreadful god of the earthquake and of the sea should appear +to be one and the same. The historian Diodorus Siculus +observes that Peloponnese was deemed to have been in +ancient days the abode of Poseidon, that the whole country +was in a manner sacred to him, and that every city in it +worshipped him above all the gods. The devotion to +Poseidon he explains partly by the earthquakes and floods +by which the land has been visited, partly by the remarkable +chasms and subterranean rivers which are a conspicuous +feature of its limestone mountains.<note place='foot'>Diodorus Siculus, xv. 49. 4 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +Among the most famous seats of the +worship of Poseidon in Peloponnese +were Taenarum in Laconia, Helice in +Achaia, Mantinea in Arcadia, and the +island of Calauria, off the coast of +Troezen. See Pausanias, ii. 33. 2, +iii. 25. 4-8, vii. 24. 5 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, viii. 10. 2-4. +Laconia as well as Achaia has suffered +much from earthquakes, and it contained +many sanctuaries of Poseidon. +We may suppose that the deity was +worshipped here chiefly as the earthquake +god, since the rugged coasts of +Laconia are ill adapted to maritime +enterprise, and the Lacedaemonians +were never a seafaring folk. See C. +Neumann und J. Partsch, <hi rend='italic'>Physikalische +Geographie von Griechenland</hi>, pp. 330 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 335 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> For Laconian sanctuaries +of Poseidon see Pausanias, iii. 11. 9, +iii. 12. 5, iii. 14. 2 and 7, iii. 15. 10, +iii. 20. 2, iii. 21. 5, iii. 25. 4.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='6. The Worship of Mephitic Vapours.'/> +<head>§ 6. The Worship of Mephitic Vapours.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Poisonous +mephitic +vapours.</note> +But eruptions and earthquakes, though the most +tremendous, are not the only phenomena of volcanic regions +which have affected the religion of the inhabitants. +Poisonous mephitic vapours and hot springs, which abound +especially in volcanic regions,<note place='foot'>Sir Ch. Lyell, <hi rend='italic'>Principles of +Geology</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>12</hi> i. 391 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 590.</note> have also had their devotees, +and both are, or were formerly, to be found in those western +districts of Asia Minor with which we are here concerned. +To begin with vapours, we may take as an illustration +of their deadly effect the Guevo Upas, or Valley of Poison, +near Batur in Java. It is the crater of an extinct volcano, +about half a mile in circumference, and from thirty to thirty-five +<pb n='204'/><anchor id='Pg204'/> +feet deep. Neither man nor beast can descend to the +bottom and live. The ground is covered with the carcases +of tigers, deer, birds, and even the bones of men, all killed +by the abundant emanations of carbonic acid gas which +exhale from the soil. Animals let down into it die in a +few minutes. The whole range of hills is volcanic. Two +neighbouring craters constantly emit smoke.<note place='foot'><q>Extract from a Letter of Mr. +Alexander Loudon,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of the +Royal Geographical Society</hi>, ii. (1832) +pp. 60-62; Sir Ch. Lyell, <hi rend='italic'>Principles +of Geology</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>12</hi> i. 590.</note> In another +crater of Java, near the volcano Talaga Bodas, the sulphureous +exhalations have proved fatal to tigers, birds, and +countless insects; and the soft parts of these creatures, such +as fibres, muscles, hair, and skin, are well preserved, while +the bones are corroded or destroyed.<note place='foot'>Sir Ch. Lyell, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Places of +Pluto or +Charon. +The +valley of +Amsanctus.</note> +The ancients were acquainted with such noxious vapours +in their own country, and they regarded the vents from +which they were discharged as entrances to the infernal +regions.<note place='foot'>Lucretius, vi. 738 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> The Greeks called them places of Pluto (<foreign lang='el' rend='italic'>Plutonia</foreign>) +or places of Charon (<foreign lang='el' rend='italic'>Charonia</foreign>).<note place='foot'>Strabo, v. 4. 5, p. 244, xii. 8. 17, +p. 579, xiii. 4. 14, p. 629, xiv. 1. 11 +and 44, pp. 636, 649; Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De +divinatione</hi>, i. 36. 79; Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. +Hist.</hi> ii. 208. Compare [Aristotle,] +<hi rend='italic'>De mundo</hi>, 4, p. 395 B, ed. Bekker.</note> In Italy the vapours were +personified as a goddess, who bore the name of Mefitis and +was worshipped in various parts of the peninsula.<note place='foot'>Servius on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> vii. 84, +who says that some people looked on +Mefitis as a god, the male partner of +Leucothoë, to whom he stood as +Adonis to Venus or as Virbius to +Diana. As to Mefitis see L. Preller, +<hi rend='italic'>Römische Mythologie</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> (Berlin, 1881-1883), +ii. 144 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; R. Peter, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Mefitis</q> in W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon +der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, ii. +2519 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> She had +a temple in the famous valley of Amsanctus in the land of +the Hirpini, where the exhalations, supposed to be the breath +of Pluto himself, were of so deadly a character that all who +set foot on the spot died.<note place='foot'>Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> vii. 563-571, with +the commentary of Servius; Cicero, +<hi rend='italic'>De divinatione</hi>, i. 36. 79; Pliny, +<hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> ii. 208.</note> The place is a glen, partly wooded +with chestnut trees, among limestone hills, distant about four +miles from the town of Frigento. Here, under a steep +shelving bank of decomposed limestone, there is a pool of +dark ash-coloured water, which continually bubbles up with +an explosion like distant thunder. A rapid stream of the +same blackish water rushes into the pool from under the +<pb n='205'/><anchor id='Pg205'/> +barren rocky hill, but the fall is not more than a few feet. +A little higher up are apertures in the ground, through +which warm blasts of sulphuretted hydrogen are constantly +issuing with more or less noise, according to the size of the +holes. These blasts are no doubt what the ancients deemed +the breath of Pluto. The pool is now called <foreign rend='italic'>Mefite</foreign> and the +holes <foreign rend='italic'>Mefitinelle</foreign>. On the other side of the pool is a smaller +pond called the <foreign rend='italic'>Coccaio</foreign>, or Cauldron, because it appears to +be perpetually boiling. Thick masses of mephitic vapour, +visible a hundred yards off, float in rapid undulations on its +surface. The exhalations given off by these waters are +sometimes fatal, especially when they are borne on a high +wind. But as the carbonic acid gas does not naturally rise +more than two or three feet from the ground, it is possible +in calm weather to walk round the pools, though to stoop is +difficult and to fall would be dangerous. The ancient temple +of Mefitis has been replaced by a shrine of the martyred +Santa Felicita.<note place='foot'>Letter of Mr. Hamilton (British +Envoy at the Court of Naples), in +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Royal Geographical +Society</hi>, ii. (1832) pp. 62-65; W. +Smith's <hi rend='italic'>Dictionary of Greek and Roman +Geography</hi>, i. 127; H. Nissen, <hi rend='italic'>Italische +Landeskunde</hi> (Berlin, 1883-1902), i. +242, 271, ii. 819 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Another place +in Italy infested by poisonous exhalations +is the grotto called <foreign lang='it' rend='italic'>dei cani</foreign> at +Naples. It is described by Addison +in his <q>Remarks on Several Parts of +Italy</q> (<hi rend='italic'>Works</hi>, London, 1811, vol. ii. +pp. 89-91).</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sanctuaries +of Charon +or Pluto +in Caria.</note> +Similar discharges of poisonous vapours took place at +various points in the volcanic district of Caria, and were the +object of superstitious veneration in antiquity. Thus at the +village of Thymbria there was a sacred cave which gave out +deadly emanations, and the place was deemed a sanctuary +of Charon.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiv. 1. 11, p. 636.</note> A similar cave might be seen at the village of +Acharaca near Nysa, in the valley of the Maeander. Here, +below the cave, there was a fine grove with a temple dedicated +to Pluto and Persephone. The place was sacred to +Pluto, yet sick people resorted to it for the restoration of +their health. They lived in the neighbouring village, and +the priests prescribed for them according to the revelations +which they received from the two deities in dreams. Often +the priests would take the patients to the cave and leave +them there for days without food. Sometimes the sufferers +themselves were favoured with revelations in dreams, but +<pb n='206'/><anchor id='Pg206'/> +they always acted under the spiritual direction of the priests. +To all but the sick the place was unapproachable and fatal. +Once a year a festival was held in the village, and then +afflicted folk came in crowds to be rid of their ailments. +About the hour of noon on that day a number of athletic +young men, their naked bodies greased with oil, used to +carry a bull up to the cave and there let it go. But the +beast had not taken a few steps into the cavern before it +fell to the ground and expired: so deadly was the vapour.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiv. 1. 44, pp. 649 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +A coin of Nysa shows the bull carried +to the sacrifice by six naked youths and +preceded by a naked flute-player. See +B. V. Head, <hi rend='italic'>Catalogue of the Greek +Coins of Lydia</hi>, pp. lxxxiii. 181, pl. +xx. 10. Strabo was familiar with this +neighbourhood, for he tells us (xiv. 1. +48, p. 650) that in his youth he +studied at Nysa under the philosopher +Aristodemus.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sanctuary +of Pluto +at the +Lydian or +Phrygian +Hierapolis.</note> +Another Plutonian sanctuary of the same sort existed at +Hierapolis, in the upper valley of the Maeander, on the +borders of Lydia and Phrygia.<note place='foot'>Some of the ancients assigned +Hierapolis to Lydia, and others to +Phrygia (W. M. Ramsay, <hi rend='italic'>Cities and +Bishoprics of Phrygia</hi>, i. (Oxford, +1895) pp. 84 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Here under a brow of the +hill there was a deep cave with a narrow mouth just large +enough to admit the body of a man. A square space in +front of the cave was railed off, and within the railing there +hung so thick a cloudy vapour that it was hardly possible +to see the ground. In calm weather people could step up +to the railing with safety, but to pass within it was instant +death. Bulls driven into the enclosure fell to the earth and +were dragged out lifeless; and sparrows, which spectators by +way of experiment allowed to fly into the mist, dropped dead +at once. Yet the eunuch priests of the Great Mother Goddess +could enter the railed-off area with impunity; nay more, they +used to go up to the very mouth of the cave, stoop, and +creep into it for a certain distance, holding their breath; but +there was a look on their faces as if they were being choked. +Some people ascribed the immunity of the priests to the +divine protection, others to the use of antidotes.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiii. 4. 14, pp. 629 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Dio Cassius, lxviii. 27. 3; Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. +Hist.</hi> ii. 208; Ammianus Marcellinus, +xxiii. 6. 18.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='7. The Worship of Hot Springs.'/> +<head>§ 7. The Worship of Hot Springs.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The hot +springs and +petrified +cascades of +Hierapolis.</note> +The mysterious chasm of Hierapolis, with its deadly +mist, has not been discovered in modern times; indeed it +<pb n='207'/><anchor id='Pg207'/> +would seem to have vanished even in antiquity.<note place='foot'>Ammianus Marcellinus (<hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>) speaks as if the cave no longer existed in his +time.</note> It may +have been destroyed by an earthquake. But another marvel +of the Sacred City remains to this day. The hot springs +with their calcareous deposit, which, like a wizard's wand, +turns all that it touches to stone, excited the wonder of the +ancients, and the course of ages has only enhanced the +fantastic splendour of the great transformation scene. The +stately ruins of Hierapolis occupy a broad shelf or terrace +on the mountain-side commanding distant views of extraordinary +beauty and grandeur, from the dark precipices and +dazzling snows of Mount Cadmus away to the burnt summits +of Phrygia, fading in rosy tints into the blue of the sky. +Hills, broken by wooded ravines, rise behind the city. +In front the terrace falls away in cliffs three hundred feet +high into the desolate treeless valley of the Lycus. Over +the face of these cliffs the hot streams have poured or +trickled for thousands of years, encrusting them with a +pearly white substance like salt or driven snow. The +appearance of the whole is as if a mighty river, some two +miles broad, had been suddenly arrested in the act of falling +over a great cliff and transformed into white marble. It +is a petrified Niagara. The illusion is strongest in winter +or in cool summer mornings when the mist from the +hot springs hangs in the air, like a veil of spray resting +on the foam of the waterfall. A closer inspection of the +white cliff, which attracts the traveller's attention at a +distance of twenty miles, only adds to its beauty and +changes one illusion for another. For now it seems to be +a glacier, its long pendent stalactites looking like icicles, +and the snowy whiteness of its smooth expanse being tinged +here and there with delicate hues of blue, rose and green, +all the colours of the rainbow. These petrified cascades of +Hierapolis are among the wonders of the world. Indeed +they have probably been without a rival in their kind ever +since the famous white and pink terraces or staircases of +Rotomahana in New Zealand were destroyed by a volcanic +eruption. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The hot +pool of +Hierapolis +with its +deadly +exhalations.</note> +The hot springs which have wrought these miracles at +<pb n='208'/><anchor id='Pg208'/> +Hierapolis rise in a large deep pool among the vast and +imposing ruins of the ancient city. The water is of a +greenish-blue tint, but clear and transparent. At the bottom +may be seen the white marble columns of a beautiful +Corinthian colonnade, which must formerly have encircled +the sacred pool. Shimmering through the green-blue water +they look like the ruins of a Naiad's palace. Clumps of +oleanders and pomegranate-trees overhang the little lake +and add to its charm. Yet the enchanted spot has its +dangers. Bubbles of carbonic acid gas rise incessantly from +the bottom and mount like flickering particles of silver to +the surface. Birds and beasts which come to drink of the +water are sometimes found dead on the bank, stifled by +the noxious vapour; and the villagers tell of bathers who +have been overpowered by it and drowned, or dragged +down, as they say, to death by the water-spirit. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Deposits +left by the +waters of +Hierapolis.</note> +The streams of hot water, no longer regulated by the +care of a religious population, have for centuries been +allowed to overflow their channels and to spread unchecked +over the tableland. By the deposit which they leave behind +they have raised the surface of the ground many feet, their +white ridges concealing the ruins and impeding the footstep, +except where the old channels, filled up solidly to the brim, +now form hard level footpaths, from which the traveller may +survey the strange scene without quitting the saddle. In +antiquity the husbandmen used purposely to lead the water in +rills round their lands, and thus in a few years their fields and +vineyards were enclosed with walls of solid stone. The water +was also peculiarly adapted for the dyeing of woollen stuffs. +Tinged with dyes extracted from certain roots, it imparted to +cloths dipped in it the finest shades of purple and scarlet.<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiii. 4. 14, pp. 629, 630; +Vitruvius, viii. 3. 10. For modern +descriptions of Hierapolis see R. +Chandler, <hi rend='italic'>Travels in Asia Minor</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +(London, 1776), pp. 228-235; Ch. +Fellows, <hi rend='italic'>Journal written during an +Excursion in Asia Minor</hi> (London, +1839), pp. 283-285; W. J. Hamilton, +<hi rend='italic'>Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus, +and Armenia</hi>, i. 517-521; E. Renan, +<hi rend='italic'>Saint Paul</hi>, pp. 357 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; E. J. Davis, +<hi rend='italic'>Anatolica</hi> (London, 1874), pp. 97-112; +É. Reclus, <hi rend='italic'>Nouvelle Géographie Universelle</hi>, +ix. 510-512; W. Cochran, +<hi rend='italic'>Pen and Pencil Sketches in Asia Minor</hi> +(London, 1887), pp. 387-390; W. +M. Ramsay, <hi rend='italic'>Cities and Bishoprics of +Phrygia</hi>, i. 84 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The temperature +of the hot pool varies from 85 to +90 degrees Fahrenheit. The volcanic +district of Tuscany which skirts the +Apennines abounds in hot calcareous +springs which have produced phenomena +like those of Hierapolis. Indeed the +whole ground is in some places coated +over with tufa and travertine, which +have been deposited by the water, and, +like the ground at Hierapolis, it sounds +hollow under the foot. See Sir Ch. +Lyell, <hi rend='italic'>Principles of Geology</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>12</hi> i. 397 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> As to the terraces of Rotomahana +in New Zealand, which were +destroyed by an eruption of Mount +Taravera in 1886, see R. Taylor, <hi rend='italic'>Te +Ika A Maui, or New Zealand and its +Inhabitants</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London, 1870), pp. +464-469.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='209'/><anchor id='Pg209'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Hercules +the patron +of hot +springs.</note> +We cannot doubt that Hierapolis owed its reputation as +a holy city in great part to its hot springs and mephitic +vapours. The curative virtue of mineral and thermal springs +was well known to the ancients, and it would be interesting, +if it were possible, to trace the causes which have gradually +eliminated the superstitious element from the use of such +waters, and so converted many old seats of volcanic religion +into the medicinal baths of modern times. It was an article +of Greek faith that all hot springs were sacred to Hercules.<note place='foot'>Athenaeus, xii. 6. p. 512.</note> +<q>Who ever heard of cold baths that were sacred to Hercules?</q> +asks Injustice in Aristophanes; and Justice admits that the +brawny hero's patronage of hot baths was the excuse alleged +by young men for sprawling all day in the steaming water +when they ought to have been sweating in the gymnasium.<note place='foot'>Aristophanes, <hi rend='italic'>Clouds</hi>, 1044-1054.</note> +Hot springs were said to have been first produced for the +refreshment of Hercules after his labours; some ascribed +the kindly thought and deed to Athena, others to Hephaestus, +and others to the nymphs.<note place='foot'>Scholiast on Aristophanes, <hi rend='italic'>Clouds</hi>, +1050; Scholiast on Pindar, <hi rend='italic'>Olymp.</hi> +xii. 25; Suidas and Hesychius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +Ἡράκλεια λουτρά; Apostolius, viii. 66; +Zenobius, vi. 49; Diogenianus, v. 7; +Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Proverbia Alexandrinorum</hi>, +21; Diodorus Siculus, iv. 23. 1, v. 3. +4. Another story was that Hercules, +like Moses, produced the water by +smiting the rock with his club (Antoninus +Liberalis, <hi rend='italic'>Transform.</hi> 4).</note> The warm water of these +sources appears to have been used especially to heal diseases +of the skin; for a Greek proverb, <q>the itch of Hercules,</q> +was applied to persons in need of hot baths for the scab.<note place='foot'>Apostolius, viii. 68; Zenobius, +vi. 49; Diogenianus, v. 7; Plutarch, +<hi rend='italic'>Proverbia Alexandrinorum</hi>, 21.</note> +On the strength of his connexion with medicinal springs +Hercules set up as a patron of the healing art. In heaven, +if we can trust Lucian, he even refused to give place to +Aesculapius himself, and the difference between the two +deities led to a very unseemly brawl. <q>Do you mean to +say,</q> demanded Hercules of his father Zeus, in a burst of +indignation, <q>that this apothecary is to sit down to table +<pb n='210'/><anchor id='Pg210'/> +before me?</q> To this the apothecary replied with much +acrimony, recalling certain painful episodes in the private +life of the burly hero. Finally the dispute was settled by +Zeus, who decided in favour of Aesculapius on the ground +that he died before Hercules, and was therefore entitled to +rank as senior god.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>Dialogi Deorum</hi>, 13.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Hot +springs of +Hercules +at Thermopylae.</note> +Among the hot springs sacred to Hercules the most +famous were those which rose in the pass of Thermopylae, +and gave to the defile its name of the Hot Gates.<note place='foot'>Strabo, ix. 4. 13, p. 428.</note> The +warm baths, called by the natives <q>the Pots,</q> were enlarged +and improved for the use of invalids by the wealthy sophist +Herodes Atticus in the second century of our era. An altar +of Hercules stood beside them.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, vii. 176; Pausanias, +iv. 35. 9; Philostratus, <hi rend='italic'>Vit. Sophist.</hi> +ii. 1. 9.</note> According to one story, +the hot springs were here produced for his refreshment by +the goddess Athena.<note place='foot'>Scholiast on Aristophanes, <hi rend='italic'>Clouds</hi>, +1050.</note> They exist to this day apparently +unchanged, although the recession of the sea has converted +what used to be a narrow pass into a wide, swampy flat, +through which the broad but shallow, turbid stream of the +Sperchius creeps sluggishly seaward. On the other side +the rugged mountains descend in crags and precipices to +the pass, their grey rocky sides tufted with low wood or +bushes wherever vegetation can find a foothold, and their +summits fringed along the sky-line with pines. They remind +a Scotchman of the <q>crags, knolls, and mounds confusedly +hurled</q> in which Ben Venue comes down to the Silver +Strand of Loch Katrine. The principal spring bursts from +the rocks just at the foot of the steepest and loftiest part +of the range. After forming a small pool it flows in a rapid +stream eastward, skirting the foot of the mountains. The +water is so hot that it is almost painful to hold the hands +in it, at least near the source, and steam rises thickly from +its surface along the course of the brook. Indeed the clouds +of white steam and the strong sulphurous smell acquaint +the traveller with his approach to the famous spot before +he comes in sight of the springs. The water is clear, but +has the appearance of being of a deep sea-blue or sea-green +<pb n='211'/><anchor id='Pg211'/> +colour. This appearance it takes from the thick, slimy +deposits of blue-green sulphur which line the bed of the +stream. From its source the blue, steaming, sulphur-reeking +brook rushes eastward for a few hundred yards at the foot +of the mountain, and is then joined by the water of another +spring, which rises much more tranquilly in a sort of natural +bath among the rocks. The sides of this bath are not so +thickly coated with sulphur as the banks of the stream; +hence its water, about two feet deep, is not so blue. Just +beyond it there is a second and larger bath, which, from its +square shape and smooth sides, would seem to be in part +artificial. These two baths are probably the Pots mentioned +by ancient writers. They are still used by bathers, and a +few wooden dressing-rooms are provided for the accommodation +of visitors. Some of the water is conducted in an +artificial channel to turn a mill about half a mile off at the +eastern end of the pass. The rest crosses the flat to find its +way to the sea. In its passage it has coated the swampy +ground with a white crust, which sounds hollow under the +tread.<note place='foot'>I have described Thermopylae as +I saw it in November 1895. Compare +W. M. Leake, <hi rend='italic'>Travels in Northern +Greece</hi> (London, 1835), ii. 33 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +E. Dodwell, <hi rend='italic'>Classical and Topographical +Tour through Greece</hi> (London, +1819), ii. 66 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; K. G. Fiedler, +<hi rend='italic'>Reise durch alle Theile des Königreichs +Griechenland</hi> (Leipsic, 1840-1841), +i. 207 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; L. Ross, <hi rend='italic'>Wanderungen +in Griechenland</hi> (Halle, 1851), i. 90 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; C. Bursian, <hi rend='italic'>Geographie von +Griechenland</hi> (Leipsic, 1862-1872), +i. 92 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Hot +springs of +Hercules at +Aedepsus.</note> +We may conjecture that these remarkable springs +furnished the principal reason for associating Hercules with +this district, and for laying the scene of his fiery death +on the top of the neighbouring Mount Oeta. The district +is volcanic, and has often been shaken by earthquakes.<note place='foot'>Thucydides, iii. 87 and 89; Strabo, +i. 3. 20, pp. 60 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; C. Neumann und +J. Partsch, <hi rend='italic'>Physikalische Geographie +von Griechenland</hi>, pp. 321-323.</note> +Across the strait the island of Euboea has suffered from the +same cause and at the same time; and on its southern +shore sulphureous springs, like those of Thermopylae, but +much hotter and more powerful, were in like manner dedicated +to Hercules.<note place='foot'>Aristotle, <hi rend='italic'>Meteora</hi>, ii. 8, p. 366 <hi rend='smallcaps'>a</hi>, +ed. Bekker; Strabo, ix. 4. 2, p. 425. +Aristotle expressly recognized the connexion +of the springs with earthquakes, +which he tells us were very common in +this district. As to the earthquakes of +Euboea see also Thucydides, iii. 87, +89; Strabo, i. 3. 16 and 20, pp. 58, +60 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> The strong medicinal qualities of the +<pb n='212'/><anchor id='Pg212'/> +waters, which are especially adapted for the cure of skin +diseases and gout, have attracted patients in ancient and +modern times. Sulla took the waters here for his gout;<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Sulla</hi>, 26.</note> +and in the days of Plutarch the neighbouring town of +Aedepsus, situated in a green valley about two miles from +the springs, was one of the most fashionable resorts of +Greece. Elegant and commodious buildings, an agreeable +country, and abundance of fish and game united with the +health-giving properties of the baths to draw crowds of +idlers to the place, especially in the prime of the glorious +Greek spring, the height of the season at Aedepsus. While +some watched the dancers dancing or listened to the strains +of the harp, others passed the time in discourse, lounging in +the shade of cloisters or pacing the shore of the beautiful +strait with its prospect of mountains beyond mountains +immortalized in story across the water.<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Quaest. Conviviales</hi>, iv. +4. 1; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>De fraterno Amore</hi>, 17.</note> Of all this Greek +elegance and luxury hardly a vestige remains. Yet the +healing springs flow now as freely as of old. In the course +of time the white and yellow calcareous deposit which the +water leaves behind it, has formed a hillock at the foot +of the mountains, and the stream now falls in a steaming +cascade from the face of the rock into the sea.<note place='foot'>As to the hot springs of Aedepsus +(the modern <hi rend='italic'>Lipso</hi>) see K. G. Fiedler, +<hi rend='italic'>Reise durch alle Theile des Königreichs +Griechenland</hi>, i. 487-492; H. N. +Ulrichs, <hi rend='italic'>Reisen und Forschungen in +Griechenland</hi> (Bremen, 1840—Berlin, +1863), ii. 233-235; C. Bursian, <hi rend='italic'>Geographie +von Griechenland</hi>, ii. 409; +C. Neumann und J. Partsch, <hi rend='italic'>Physikalische +Geographie von Griechenland</hi>, +pp. 342-344.</note> Once, +after an earthquake, the springs ceased to flow for three +days, and at the same time the hot springs of Thermopylae +dried up.<note place='foot'>Strabo, i. 3. 20, p. 60.</note> The incident proves the relation of these Baths +of Hercules on both sides of the strait to each other and to +volcanic agency. On another occasion a cold spring suddenly +burst out beside the hot springs of Aedepsus, and as its +water was supposed to be peculiarly beneficial to health, +patients hastened from far and near to drink of it. But the +generals of King Antigonus, anxious to raise a revenue, +imposed a tax on the use of the water; and the spring, +as if in disgust at being turned to so base a use, disappeared +as suddenly as it had come.<note place='foot'>Athenaeus, iii. 4, p. 73 <hi rend='smallcaps'>e</hi>, <hi rend='smallcaps'>d</hi>.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='213'/><anchor id='Pg213'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Reasons +for the +association +of Hercules +with hot +springs.</note> +The association of Hercules with hot springs was not +confined to Greece itself. Greek influence extended it to +Sicily,<note place='foot'>The hot springs of Himera (the +modern <foreign rend='italic'>Termini</foreign>) were said to have +been produced for the refreshment of +the weary Hercules. See Diodorus +Siculus, iv. 23. 1, v. 3. 4; Scholiast +on Pindar, <hi rend='italic'>Olymp.</hi> xii. 25. The hero +is said to have taught the Syracusans +to sacrifice a bull annually to Persephone +at the Blue Spring (<foreign rend='italic'>Cyane</foreign>) near +Syracuse; the beasts were drowned in +the water of the pool. See Diodorus +Siculus, iv. 23. 4, v. 4. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> As to +the spring, which is now thickly surrounded +by tall papyrus-plants introduced +by the Arabs, see K. Baedeker, +<hi rend='italic'>Southern Italy</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>7</hi> (Leipsic, 1880), pp. +356, 357.</note> Italy,<note place='foot'>The splendid baths of Allifae in +Samnium, of which there are considerable +remains, were sacred to Hercules. +See G. Wilmanns, <hi rend='italic'>Exempla +Inscriptionum Latinarum</hi> (Berlin, +1873), vol. i. p. 227, No. 735 <hi rend='smallcaps'>c</hi>; +H. Nissen, <hi rend='italic'>Italische Landeskunde</hi>, +ii. 798. It is characteristic of the +volcanic nature of the springs that the +same inscription which mentions these +baths of Hercules records their destruction +by an earthquake.</note> and even to Dacia.<note place='foot'>H. Dessau, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones Latinae +Selectae</hi>, vol. ii. Pars i. (Berlin, 1902) +p. 113, No. 3891.</note> Why the hero should +have been chosen as the patron of thermal waters, it is hard +to say. Yet it is worth while, perhaps, to remember that +such springs combine in a manner the twofold and seemingly +discordant principles of water and fire,<note place='foot'>Speaking of thermal springs Lyell +observes that the description of them +<q>might almost with equal propriety +have been given under the head of +<q>igneous causes,</q> as they are agents of +a mixed nature, being at once igneous +and aqueous</q> (<hi rend='italic'>Principles of Geology</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>12</hi> +i. 392).</note> of fertility and +destruction, and that the death of Hercules in the flames +seems to connect him with the fiery element. Further, the +apparent conflict of the two principles is by no means as +absolute as at first sight we might be tempted to suppose; +for heat is as necessary as moisture to the support of animal +and vegetable life. Even volcanic fires have their beneficent +aspect, since their products lend a more generous flavour +to the juice of the grape. The ancients themselves, as we +have seen, perceived the connexion between good wine and +volcanic soil, and proposed more or less seriously to interpret +the vine-god Dionysus as a child of the fire.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg194'>194</ref>.</note> As a +patron of hot springs Hercules combined the genial elements +of heat and moisture, and may therefore have stood, in one +of his many aspects, for the principle of fertility. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The hot +springs of +Callirrhoe +in Moab.</note> +In Syria childless women still resort to hot springs in order +to procure offspring from the saint or the jinnee of the waters.<note place='foot'>S. I. Curtiss, <hi rend='italic'>Primitive Semitic +Religion To-day</hi> (Chicago, New York, +and Toronto, 1902), pp. 116 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Mrs. H. H. Spoer, <q>The Powers of +Evil in Jerusalem,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Folk-lore</hi>, xviii. +(1907) p. 55. See above, p. <ref target='Pg078'>78</ref>.</note> +<pb n='214'/><anchor id='Pg214'/> +This, for example, they do at the famous hot springs in the +land of Moab which flow through a wild gorge into the +Dead Sea. In antiquity the springs went by the Greek +name of Callirrhoe, the Fair-flowing. It was to them that +the dying Herod, weighed down by a complication of disorders +which the pious Jews traced to God's vengeance, +repaired in the vain hope of arresting or mitigating the fatal +progress of disease. The healing waters brought no alleviation +of his sufferings, and he retired to Jericho to die.<note place='foot'>Josephus, <hi rend='italic'>Antiquit. Jud.</hi> xvii. 6. +5. The medical properties of the +spring are mentioned by Pliny (<hi rend='italic'>Nat. +Hist.</hi> v. 72).</note> The +hot springs burst in various places from the sides of a deep +romantic ravine to form a large and rapid stream of lukewarm +water, which rushes down the depths of the lynn, +dashing and foaming over boulders, under the dense shade +of tamarisk-trees and cane-brakes, the rocks on either bank +draped with an emerald fringe of maidenhair fern. One +of the springs falls from a high rocky shelf over the face +of a cliff which is tinted bright yellow by the sulphurous +water. The lofty crags which shut in the narrow chasm +are bold and imposing in outline and varied in colour, +for they range from red sandstone through white and yellow +limestone to black basalt. The waters issue from the line +where the sandstone and limestone meet. Their temperature +is high, and from great clefts in the mountain-sides +you may see clouds of steam rising and hear the rumbling +of the running waters. The bottom of the glen is clothed +and half choked with rank vegetation; for, situated far +below the level of the sea, the hot ravine is almost African +in climate and flora. Here grow dense thickets of canes +with their feathery tufts that shake and nod in every +passing breath of wind: here the oleander flourishes with +its dark-green glossy foliage and its beautiful pink blossoms: +here tall date-palms rear their stately heads wherever the +hot springs flow. Gorgeous flowers, too, carpet the ground. +Splendid orobanches, some pinkish purple, some bright +yellow, grow in large tufts, each flower-stalk more than +three feet high, and covered with blossoms from the ground +upwards. An exquisite rose-coloured geranium abounds +among the stones; and where the soil is a little richer than +<pb n='215'/><anchor id='Pg215'/> +usual it is a mass of the night-scented stock, while the +crannies of the rocks are gay with scarlet ranunculus and +masses of sorrel and cyclamen. Over all this luxuriant +vegetation flit great butterflies of brilliant hues. Looking +down the far-stretching gorge to its mouth you see in the +distance the purple hills of Judah framed between walls +of black basaltic columns on the one side and of bright red +sandstone on the other.<note place='foot'>C. L. Irby and J. Mangles, +<hi rend='italic'>Travels in Egypt and Nubia, Syria +and the Holy Land</hi> (London, 1844), +pp. 144 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; W. Smith, <hi rend='italic'>Dictionary of +Greek and Roman Geography</hi> (London, +1873), i. 482, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Callirrhoë</q>; +K. Baedeker, <hi rend='italic'>Syria and Palestine</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> +(Leipsic, 1906), p. 148; H. B. +Tristram, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of Moab</hi> (London, +1873), pp. 233-250, 285 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Jacob +E. Spafford, <q>Around the Dead Sea +by Motor Boat,</q> <hi rend='italic'>The Geographical +Journal</hi>, xxxix. (1912) pp. 39 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +The river formed by the springs is +now called the Zerka.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Prayers +and sacrifices +offered +to the hot +springs of +Callirrhoe.</note> +Every year in the months of April and May the Arabs +resort in crowds to the glen to benefit by the waters. They +take up their quarters in huts made of the reeds which they +cut in the thickets. They bathe in the steaming water, +or allow it to splash on their bodies as it gushes in a powerful +jet from a crevice in the rocks. But before they indulge +in these ablutions, the visitors, both Moslem and Christian, +propitiate the spirit or genius of the place by sacrificing +a sheep or goat at the spring and allowing its red blood +to tinge the water. Then they bathe in what they call the +Baths of Solomon. Legend runs that Solomon the Wise +made his bathing-place here, and in order to keep the water +always warm he commanded the jinn never to let the fire +die down. The jinn obey his orders to this day, but sometimes +they slacken their efforts, and then the water runs +low and cool. When the bathers perceive that, they say, +<q>O Solomon, bring green wood, dry wood,</q> and no sooner +have they said so than the water begins to gurgle and steam +as before. Sick people tell the saint or sheikh, who lives +invisible in the springs, all about their ailments; they point +out to him the precise spot that is the seat of the malady, +it may be the back, or the head, or the legs; and if the heat +of the water diminishes, they call out, <q>Thy bath is cold, +O sheikh, thy bath is cold!</q> whereupon the obliging sheikh +stokes up the fire, and out comes the water boiling. But if +in spite of their remonstrances the temperature of the spring +<pb n='216'/><anchor id='Pg216'/> +continues low, they say that the sheikh has gone on pilgrimage, +and they shout to him to hasten his return. Barren +Moslem women also visit these hot springs to obtain children, +and they do the same at the similar baths near Kerak. +At the latter place a childless woman has been known +to address the spirit of the waters saying, <q>O sheikh Solomon, +I am not yet an old woman; give me children.</q><note place='foot'>Antonin Jaussen, <hi rend='italic'>Coutumes des +Arabes au pays de Moab</hi> (Paris, 1908), +pp. 359 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The Arabs think that the +evil spirits let the hot water out of +hell, lest its healing properties should +assuage the pains of the damned. See +H. B. Tristram, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of Moab</hi> +(London, 1873), p. 247.</note> The +respect thus paid by Arab men and women to the sheikh +Solomon at his hot springs may help us to understand +the worship which at similar spots Greek men and women +used to render to the hero Hercules. As the ideal of manly +strength he may have been deemed the father of many +of his worshippers, and Greek wives may have gone on +pilgrimage to his steaming waters in order to obtain the +wish of their hearts. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf' level1='8. The Worship of Volcanoes in other Lands.'/> +<head>§ 8. The Worship of Volcanoes in other Lands.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Worship +of volcanic +phenomena in +other +lands.</note> +How far these considerations may serve to explain the +custom of burning Hercules, or gods identified with him, +in effigy or in the person of a human being, is a question +which deserves to be considered. It might be more easily +answered if we were better acquainted with analogous +customs in other parts of the world, but our information +with regard to the worship of volcanic phenomena in general +appears to be very scanty. However, a few facts may be +noted. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The great +volcano of +Kirauea +in Hawaii.</note> +The largest active crater in the world is Kirauea in +Hawaii. It is a huge cauldron, several miles in circumference +and hundreds of feet deep, the bottom of which is +filled with boiling lava in a state of terrific ebullition; from +the red surge rise many black cones or insulated craters +belching columns of grey smoke or pyramids of brilliant +flame from their roaring mouths, while torrents of blazing +lava roll down their sides to flow into the molten, tossing sea +of fire below. The scene is especially impressive by night, +<pb n='217'/><anchor id='Pg217'/> +when flames of sulphurous blue or metallic red sweep across +the heaving billows of the infernal lake, casting a broad glare +on the jagged sides of the insulated craters, which shoot up +eddying streams of fire with a continuous roar, varied at +frequent intervals by loud detonations, as spherical masses of +fusing lava or bright ignited stones are hurled into the air.<note place='foot'>W. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>Polynesian Researches</hi>, +Second Edition (London, 1832-1836), +iv. 235 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> Mr. Ellis was the first +European to visit and describe the +tremendous volcano. His visit was +paid in the year 1823. Compare <hi rend='italic'>The +Encyclopaedia Britannica</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>9</hi> xi. 531.</note> +It is no wonder that so appalling a spectacle should have +impressed the imagination of the natives and filled it with +ideas of the dreadful beings who inhabit the fiery abyss. +They considered the great crater, we are told, as the primaeval +abode of their volcanic deities: the black cones that rise like +islands from the burning lake appeared to them the houses +where the gods often amused themselves by playing at +draughts: the roaring of the furnaces and the crackling of +the flames were the music of their dance; and the red +flaming surge was the surf wherein they played, sportively +swimming on the rolling wave.<note place='foot'>W. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> iv. 246 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The divinities +of the +volcano. +Offerings +to the +volcano. Priestess +impersonating +the +goddess +of the +volcano.</note> +For these fearful divinities they had appropriate names; +one was the King of Steam or Vapour, another the +Rain of Night, another the Husband of Thunder, another +the Child of War with a Spear of Fire, another the Fiery-eyed +Canoe-breaker, another the Red-hot Mountain holding +or lifting Clouds, and so on. But above them all was the +great goddess Pélé. All were dreaded: they never journeyed +on errands of mercy but only to receive offerings or to +execute vengeance; and their arrival in any place was +announced by the convulsive trembling of the earth, by the +lurid light of volcanic eruption, by the flash of lightning, and +the clap of thunder. The whole island was bound to pay +them tribute or support their temples and devotees; and +whenever the chiefs or people failed to send the proper +offerings, or incurred their displeasure by insulting them +or their priests or breaking the taboos which should +be observed round about the craters, they filled the huge +cauldron on the top of Kirauea with molten lava, and spouted +the fiery liquid on the surrounding country; or they would +<pb n='218'/><anchor id='Pg218'/> +march to some of their other houses, which mortals call +craters, in the neighbourhood of the sinners, and rushing +forth in a river or column of fire overwhelm the guilty. If +fishermen did not bring them enough fish from the sea, they +would go down, kill all the fish, fill the shoals with lava, and +so destroy the fishing-grounds. Hence, when the volcano +was in active eruption or threatened to break out, the people +used to cast vast numbers of hogs, alive or dead, into the +craters or into the rolling torrent of lava in order to appease +the gods and arrest the progress of the fiery stream.<note place='foot'>W. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> iv. 248-250.</note> To +pluck certain sacred berries, which grow on the mountain, to +dig sand on its slopes, or to throw stones into the crater were +acts particularly offensive to the deities, who would instantly +rise in volumes of smoke, crush the offender under a shower +of stones, or so involve him in thick darkness and rain that +he could never find his way home. However, it was lawful +to pluck and eat of the sacred berries, if only a portion of +them were first offered to the goddess Pélé. The offerer +would take a branch laden with clusters of the beautiful red +and yellow berries, and standing on the edge of the abyss +and looking towards the place where the smoke rose in +densest volumes, he would say, <q>Pélé, here are your berries: +I offer some to you, some I also eat.</q> With that he would +throw some of the berries into the crater and eat the rest.<note place='foot'>W. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> iv. 207, 234-236. +The berries resemble currants in +shape and size and grow on low bushes. +<q>The branches small and clear, leaves +alternate, obtuse with a point, and +serrated; the flower was monopetalous, +and, on being examined, determined +the plant to belong to the class +<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>decandria</foreign> and order <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>monogynia</foreign>. The +native name of the plant is <foreign rend='italic'>ohelo</foreign></q> +(W. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> iv. 234).</note> +A kind of brittle volcanic glass, of a dark-olive colour and +semi-transparent, is found on the mountain in the shape of +filaments as fine as human hair; the natives call it the hair +of the goddess Pélé.<note place='foot'>W. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> iv. 263.</note> Worshippers used to cast locks of +their own hair into the crater of Kirauea as an offering to +the dreadful goddess who dwelt in it. She had also a temple +at the bottom of a valley, where stood a number of rude +stone idols wrapt in white and yellow cloth. Once a year +the priests and devotees of Pélé assembled there to perform +certain rites and to feast on hogs, dogs, and fruit, which the +<pb n='219'/><anchor id='Pg219'/> +pious inhabitants of Hamakua brought to the holy place in +great abundance. This annual festival was intended to +propitiate the volcanic goddess and thereby to secure the +country from earthquakes and floods of molten lava.<note place='foot'>W. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> iv. 350.</note> The +goddess of the volcano was supposed to inspire people, +though to the carnal eye the inspiration resembled intoxication. +One of these inspired priestesses solemnly affirmed to +an English missionary that she was the goddess Pélé herself +and as such immortal. Assuming a haughty air, she said, +<q>I am Pélé; I shall never die; and those who follow me, +when they die, if part of their bones be taken to Kirauea +(the name of the volcano), will live with me in the bright +fires there.</q><note place='foot'>W. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> iv. 309-311.</note> For <q>the worshippers of Pélé threw a part of +bones of their dead into the volcano, under the impression +that the spirits of the deceased would then be admitted to +the society of the volcanic deities, and that their influence +would preserve the survivors from the ravages of volcanic +fire.</q><note place='foot'>W. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> iv. 361.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sacrifices +to +volcanoes. +Human +victims +thrown +into +volcanoes. Annual +sacrifices to +the volcano +Bromo in +Java.</note> +This last belief may help to explain a custom, which +some peoples have observed, of throwing human victims into +volcanoes. The intention of such a practice need not be +simply to appease the dreadful volcanic spirits by ministering +to their fiendish lust of cruelty; it may be a notion that the +souls of the men or women who have been burnt to death in +the crater will join the host of demons in the fiery furnace, +mitigate their fury, and induce them to spare the works and +the life of man. But, however we may explain the custom, +it has been usual in various parts of the world to throw +human beings as well as less precious offerings into the craters +of active volcanoes. Thus the Indians of Nicaragua used to +sacrifice men, women, and children to the active volcano +Massaya, flinging them into the craters: we are told that the +victims went willingly to their fate.<note place='foot'>Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés, +<hi rend='italic'>Historia General y Natural de las +Indias</hi> (Madrid, 1851-1855), iv. 74.</note> In the island of Siao, +to the north of Celebes, a child was formerly sacrificed every +year in order to keep the volcano Goowoong Awoo quiet. +The poor wretch was tortured to death at a festival which +lasted nine days. In later times the place of the child has +<pb n='220'/><anchor id='Pg220'/> +been taken by a wooden puppet, which is hacked to pieces +in the same way. The Galelareese of Halmahera say that +the Sultan of Ternate used annually to require some human +victims, who were cast into the crater of the volcano to save +the island from its ravages.<note place='foot'>A. C. Kruijt, <hi rend='italic'>Het Animisme in +den Indischen Archipel</hi> (The Hague, +1906), pp. 497 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> In Java the volcano Bromo or +Bromok is annually worshipped by people who throw offerings +of coco-nuts, plantains, mangoes, rice, chickens, cakes, cloth, +money, and so forth into the crater.<note place='foot'>W. B. d'Almeida, <hi rend='italic'>Life in Java</hi> +(London, 1864), i. 166-173.</note> To the Tenggereese, +an aboriginal heathen tribe inhabiting the mountains of which +Bromo is the central crater, the festival of making offerings to +the volcano is the greatest of the year. It is held at full moon +in the twelfth month, the day being fixed by the high priest. +Each household prepares its offerings the night before. Very +early in the morning the people set out by moonlight for +Mount Bromo, men, women, and children all arrayed in their +best. Before they reach the mountain they must cross a +wide sandy plain, where the spirits of the dead are supposed +to dwell until by means of the Festival of the Dead they +obtain admittance to the volcano. It is a remarkable sight +to see thousands of people streaming across the level sands +from three different directions. They have to descend into +it from the neighbouring heights, and the horses break into +a gallop when, after the steep descent, they reach the level. +The gay and varied colours of the dresses, the fantastic +costumes of the priests, the offerings borne along, the whole lit +up by the warm beams of the rising sun, lend to the spectacle +a peculiar charm. All assemble at the foot of the crater, +where a market is held for offerings and refreshments. The +scene is a lively one, for hundreds of people must now pay +the vows which they made during the year. The priests sit +in a long row on mats, and when the high priest appears the +people pray, saying, <q>Bromo, we thank thee for all thy gifts +and benefits with which thou ever blessest us, and for which +we offer thee our thank-offerings to-day. Bless us, our +children, and our children's children.</q> The prayers over, the +high priest gives a signal, and the whole multitude arises +and climbs the mountain. On reaching the edge of the +<pb n='221'/><anchor id='Pg221'/> +crater, the pontiff again blesses the offerings of food, clothes, +and money, which are then thrown into the crater. Yet few +of them reach the spirits for whom they are intended; for a +swarm of urchins now scrambles down into the crater, and at +more or less risk to life and limb succeeds in appropriating +the greater part of the offerings. The spirits, defrauded of +their dues, must take the will for the deed.<note place='foot'>J. H. F. Kohlbrugge, <q>Die Tĕnggĕresen, +ein alter Javanischer Volksstamm,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Bijdragentot de Taal- Land- en +Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië</hi>, +liii. (1901) pp. 84, 144-147.</note> Tradition says +that once in a time of dearth a chief vowed to sacrifice one of +his children to the volcano, if the mountain would bless the +people with plenty of food. His prayer was answered, and +he paid his vow by casting his youngest son as a thank-offering +into the crater.<note place='foot'>J. H. F. Kohlbrugge, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. +100 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Other +sacrifices to +volcanoes.</note> +On the slope of Mount Smeroe, another active volcano +in Java, there are two small idols, which the natives worship +and pray to when they ascend the mountain. They lay food +before the images to obtain the favour of the god of the +volcano.<note place='foot'>I. A. Stigand, <q>The Volcano of +Smeroe, Java,</q> <hi rend='italic'>The Geographical +Journal</hi>, xxviii. (1906) pp. 621, 624.</note> In antiquity people cast into the craters of Etna +vessels of gold and silver and all kinds of victims. If the +fire swallowed up the offerings, the omen was good; but if it +rejected them, some evil was sure to befall the offerer.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, iii. 23. 9. Some have +thought that Pausanias confused the +crater of Etna with the <foreign rend='italic'>Lago di Naftia</foreign>, +a pool near Palagonia in the interior of +Sicily, of which the water, impregnated +with naphtha and sulphur, is thrown into +violent ebullition by jets of volcanic +gas. See [Aristotle,] <hi rend='italic'>Mirab. Auscult.</hi> +57; Macrobius, <hi rend='italic'>Saturn.</hi> v. 19. 26 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +Diodorus Siculus, xi. 89; Stephanus +Byzantius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Παλική; E. H. Bunbury, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Palicorum Iacus,</q> in W. +Smith's <hi rend='italic'>Dictionary of Greek and +Roman Geography</hi>, ii. 533 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The +author of the ancient Latin poem +<hi rend='italic'>Aetna</hi> says (vv. 340 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>) that people +offered incense to the celestial deities +on the top of Etna.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>No evidence +that +the Asiatic +custom of +burning +kings or +gods was +connected +with +volcanic +phenomena.</note> +These examples suggest that a custom of burning men +or images may possibly be derived from a practice of throwing +them into the craters of active volcanoes in order to +appease the dreaded spirits or gods who dwell there. But +unless we reckon the fires of Mount Argaeus in Cappadocia<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg190'>190</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +and of Mount Chimaera in Lycia,<note place='foot'>On Mount Chimaera in Lycia a +flame burned perpetually which neither +earth nor water could extinguish. See +Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> ii. 236, v. 100; +Servius on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> vi. 288; +Seneca, <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> x. 3. 3; Diodorus, +quoted by Photius, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, p. 212 +<hi rend='smallcaps'>b</hi>, 10 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, ed. Im. Bekker (Berlin, +1824). This perpetual flame was rediscovered +by Captain Beaufort near +Porto Genovese on the coast of Lycia. +It issues from the side of a hill of +crumbly serpentine rock, giving out an +intense heat, but no smoke. <q>Trees, +brushwood, and weeds grow close +round this little crater, a small stream +trickles down the hill hard bye, and +the ground does not appear to feel the +effect of its heat at more than a few +feet distance.</q> The fire is not accompanied +by earthquakes or noises; it +ejects no stones and emits no noxious +vapours. There is nothing but a +brilliant and perpetual flame, at which +the shepherds often cook their food. +See Fr. Beaufort, <hi rend='italic'>Karmania</hi> (London, +1817), p. 46; compare T. A. B. +Spratt and E. Forbes, <hi rend='italic'>Travels in +Lycia</hi> (London, 1847), ii. 181 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> there is apparently no +record of any mountain in Western Asia which has been in +<pb n='222'/><anchor id='Pg222'/> +eruption within historical times. On the whole, then, we +conclude that the Asiatic custom of burning kings or gods +was probably in no way connected with volcanic phenomena. +Yet it was perhaps worth while to raise the question of the +connexion, even though it has received only a negative +answer. The whole subject of the influence which physical +environment has exercised on the history of religion deserves +to be studied with more attention than it has yet received.<note place='foot'>In the foregoing discussion I have +confined myself, so far as concerns +Asia, to the volcanic regions of +Cappadocia, Lydia, and Caria. But +Syria and Palestine, the home of +Adonis and Melcarth, <q>abound in +volcanic appearances, and very extensive +areas have been shaken, at +different periods, with great destruction +of cities and loss of lives. Continual +mention is made in history of the +ravages committed by earthquakes in +Sidon, Tyre, Berytus, Laodicea, and +Antioch, and in the island of Cyprus. +The country around the Dead Sea +exhibits in some spots layers of sulphur +and bitumen, forming a superficial +deposit, supposed by Mr. Tristram to +be of volcanic origin</q> (Sir Ch. Lyell, +<hi rend='italic'>Principles of Geology</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>12</hi> i. 592 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). +As to the earthquakes of Syria and +Phoenicia see Strabo, i. 3. 16, p. 58; +Lucretius, vi. 585; Josephus, <hi rend='italic'>Antiquit. +Jud.</hi> xv. 5. 2; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Bell. Jud.</hi> i. 19. 3; +W. M. Thomson, <hi rend='italic'>The Land and the +Book, Central Palestine and Phoenicia</hi>, +pp. 568-574; Ed. Robinson, <hi rend='italic'>Biblical +Researches in Palestine</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> ii. 422-424; +S. R. Driver, on Amos iv. 11 (Cambridge +<hi rend='italic'>Bible for Schools and Colleges</hi>). +It is said that in the reign of the +Emperor Justin the city of Antioch +was totally destroyed by a dreadful +earthquake, in which three hundred +thousand people perished (Procopius, +<hi rend='italic'>De Bello Persico</hi>, ii. 14). The destruction +of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis +xix. 24-28) has been plausibly explained +as the effect of an earthquake +liberating large quantities of petroleum +and inflammable gases. See H. B. +Tristram, <hi rend='italic'>The Land of Israel</hi>, Fourth +Edition (London, 1882), pp. 350-354; +S. R. Driver, <hi rend='italic'>The Book of Genesis</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> +(London, 1905), pp. 202 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='223'/><anchor id='Pg223'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter IX. The Ritual of Adonis.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Results +of the +preceding +inquiry.</note> +Thus far we have dealt with the myth of Adonis and the +legends which associated him with Byblus and Paphos. A +discussion of these legends led us to the conclusion that +among Semitic peoples in early times, Adonis, the divine +lord of the city, was often personated by priestly kings +or other members of the royal family, and that these his +human representatives were of old put to death, whether +periodically or occasionally, in their divine character. +Further, we found that certain traditions and monuments of +Asia Minor seem to preserve traces of a similar practice. As +time went on, the cruel custom was apparently mitigated in +various ways; for example, by substituting an effigy or an +animal for the man, or by allowing the destined victim to +escape with a merely make-believe sacrifice. The evidence +of all this is drawn from a variety of scattered and often +ambiguous indications: it is fragmentary, it is uncertain, +and the conclusions built upon it inevitably partake of the +weakness of the foundation. Where the records are so imperfect, +as they happen to be in this branch of our subject, +the element of hypothesis must enter largely into any +attempt to piece together and interpret the disjointed facts. +How far the interpretations here proposed are sound, I leave +to future inquiries to determine. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Our +knowledge +of the rites +of Adonis +derived +chiefly +from Greek +writers.</note> +From dim regions of the past, where we have had to +grope our way with small help from the lamp of history, +it is a relief to pass to those later periods of classical +antiquity on which contemporary Greek writers have shed +the light of their clear intelligence. To them we owe +<pb n='224'/><anchor id='Pg224'/> +almost all that we know for certain about the rites of +Adonis. The Semites who practised the worship have said +little about it; at all events little that they said has come +down to us. Accordingly, the following account of the +ritual is derived mainly from Greek authors who saw what +they describe; and it applies to ages in which the growth +of humane feeling had softened some of the harsher features +of the worship. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Festivals +of the +death and +resurrection +of +Adonis. +The +festival at +Alexandria. The +festival at +Byblus.</note> +At the festivals of Adonis, which were held in Western +Asia and in Greek lands, the death of the god was annually +mourned, with a bitter wailing, chiefly by women; images +of him, dressed to resemble corpses, were carried out as to +burial and then thrown into the sea or into springs;<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Alcibiades</hi>, 18; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Nicias</hi>, 13; Zenobius, <hi rend='italic'>Centur.</hi> i. 49; +Theocritus, xv. 132 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Eustathius +on Homer, <hi rend='italic'>Od.</hi> xi. 590.</note> and +in some places his revival was celebrated on the following +day.<note place='foot'>Besides Lucian (cited below) see +Origen, <hi rend='italic'>Selecta in Ezechielem</hi> (Migne's +<hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, xiii. 800), δοκοῦσι +γὰρ κατ᾽ ἐνιαυτὸν τελετάς τινας ποιεῖν +πρῶτον μὲν ὅτι θρηνοῦσιν αὐτὸν [scil. +Ἄδωνιν] ὡς τεθνηκότα, δεύτερον δὲ +ὅτι χαίρουσιν ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ ὡς ἀπὸ νεκρῶν +ἀναστάντι. Jerome, <hi rend='italic'>Commentar. in +Ezechielem</hi>, viii. 13, 14 (Migne's +<hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Latina</hi>, xxv. 82, 83): +<q><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Quem nos</foreign> Adonidem <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>interpretati +sumus, et Hebraeus et Syrus sermo</foreign> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Thamuz</hi> (תמוז) <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>vocat: unde quia +juxta gentilem fabulam, in mense +Junis amasius Veneris et pulcherrimus +juvenis occisus, et deinceps +revixisse narratur, eundem Junium +mensem eodem appellant nomine, et +anniversariam ei celebrant solemnitatem, +in qua plangitur a mulieribus +quasi mortuus, et postea reviviscens +canitur atque laudatur ... interfectionem +et resurrectionem Adonidis +planctu et gaudio prosequens.</foreign></q> Cyril +of Alexandria, <hi rend='italic'>In Isaiam</hi>, lib. ii. +tomus iii. (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, +lxx. 441), ἐπλάττοντο τοίνυν Ἔλληνες +ἑορτὴν ἐπὶ τούτῳ τοιαύτην. Προσεποιοῦντο +μὲν γὰρ λυπουμένῃ τῇ Ἀφροδίτῃ, +διὰ τὸ τεθνάναι τὸν Ἄδωνιν, συνολοφύρεσθαι +καὶ θρηνεῖν; ἀνελθούσης δὲ ἐξ ᾅδου, +καὶ μὴν καὶ ηὐρῆσθαι λεγούσης τὸν +ζητούμενον, συνήδεσθαι καὶ ἀνασκιρτᾶν; +καὶ μεχρὶ τῶν καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς καιρῶν ἐν τοῖς +κατ᾽ Ἀλεξάνδρειαν ἱεροῖς ἐτελεῖτο τὸ +παίγνιον τοῦτο. From this testimony +of Cyril we learn that the festival of +the death and resurrection of Adonis +was celebrated at Alexandria down +to his time, that is, down to the +fourth or even the fifth century, long +after the official establishment of Christianity.</note> But at different places the ceremonies varied somewhat +in the manner and apparently also in the season of +their celebration. At Alexandria images of Aphrodite and +Adonis were displayed on two couches; beside them were +set ripe fruits of all kinds, cakes, plants growing in flower-pots, +and green bowers twined with anise. The marriage of +the lovers was celebrated one day, and on the morrow +women attired as mourners, with streaming hair and bared +<pb n='225'/><anchor id='Pg225'/> +breasts, bore the image of the dead Adonis to the sea-shore +and committed it to the waves. Yet they sorrowed +not without hope, for they sang that the lost one would +come back again.<note place='foot'>Theocritus, xv.</note> The date at which this Alexandrian +ceremony was observed is not expressly stated; but from +the mention of the ripe fruits it has been inferred that +it took place in late summer.<note place='foot'>W. Mannhardt, <hi rend='italic'>Antike Wald- und +Feldkulte</hi> (Berlin, 1877), p. 277.</note> In the great Phoenician +sanctuary of Astarte at Byblus the death of Adonis was +annually mourned, to the shrill wailing notes of the flute, +with weeping, lamentation, and beating of the breast; but +next day he was believed to come to life again and ascend +up to heaven in the presence of his worshippers. The +disconsolate believers, left behind on earth, shaved their +heads as the Egyptians did on the death of the divine bull +Apis; women who could not bring themselves to sacrifice +their beautiful tresses had to give themselves up to strangers +on a certain day of the festival, and to dedicate to Astarte +the wages of their shame.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 6. See +above, p. 38. The flutes used by +the Phoenicians in the lament for +Adonis are mentioned by Athenaeus +(iv. 76, p. 174 <hi rend='smallcaps'>f</hi>), and by Pollux (iv. +76), who say that the same name +<foreign rend='italic'>gingras</foreign> was applied by the Phoenicians +both to the flute and to Adonis himself. +Compare F. C. Movers, <hi rend='italic'>Die Phoenizier</hi>, +i. 243 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> We have seen that +flutes were also played in the Babylonian +rites of Tammuz (above, p. <ref target='Pg009'>9</ref>). +Lucian's words, ἐς τὸν ἠέρα πέμπουσι, +imply that the ascension of the god +was supposed to take place in the +presence, if not before the eyes, of the +worshipping crowds. The devotion of +Byblus to Adonis is noticed also by +Strabo (xvi. 2. 18, p. 755).</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Date of the +festival at +Byblus. The +anemone +and the +red rose +the flowers +of Adonis. +Festivals of +Adonis at +Athens and +Antioch.</note> +This Phoenician festival appears to have been a vernal +one, for its date was determined by the discoloration of +the river Adonis, and this has been observed by modern +travellers to occur in spring. At that season the red +earth washed down from the mountains by the rain +tinges the water of the river, and even the sea, for a +great way with a blood-red hue, and the crimson stain +was believed to be the blood of Adonis, annually wounded +to death by the boar on Mount Lebanon.<note place='foot'><p>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 8. The +discoloration of the river and the +sea was observed by H. Maundrell on +17/27 March 1696/1697. See his <hi rend='italic'>Journey +from Aleppo to Jerusalem, at Easter, +<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> 1697</hi>, Fourth Edition (Perth, +1800), pp. 59 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, in Bohn's +<hi rend='italic'>Early Travels in Palestine</hi>, edited +by Thomas Wright (London, 1848), +pp. 411 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Renan remarked the +discoloration at the beginning of February +(<hi rend='italic'>Mission de Phénicie</hi>, p. 283). +In his well-known lines on the subject +Milton has laid the mourning in +summer:— +</p> +<p> +<q><hi rend='italic'>Thammuz came next behind,<lb/> +Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur'd<lb/> +The Syrian damsels to lament his fate<lb/> +In amorous ditties all a summer's day.</hi></q> +</p></note> Again, the +<pb n='226'/><anchor id='Pg226'/> +scarlet anemone is said to have sprung from the blood of +Adonis, or to have been stained by it;<note place='foot'>Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> x. 735; Servius on +Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> v. 72; J. Tzetzes, <hi rend='italic'>Schol. +on Lycophron</hi>, 831. Bion, on the other +hand, represents the anemone as sprung +from the tears of Aphrodite (<hi rend='italic'>Idyl.</hi> i. 66).</note> and as the anemone +blooms in Syria about Easter, this may be thought to show +that the festival of Adonis, or at least one of his festivals, +was held in spring. The name of the flower is probably +derived from Naaman (<q>darling</q>), which seems to have been +an epithet of Adonis. The Arabs still call the anemone +<q>wounds of the Naaman.</q><note place='foot'>W. Robertson Smith, <q>Ctesias +and the Semiramis Legend,</q> <hi rend='italic'>English +Historical Review</hi>, ii. (1887) p. 307, +following Lagarde. Compare W. W. +Graf Baudissin, <hi rend='italic'>Adonis und Esmun</hi>, +pp. 88 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> The red rose also was said to +owe its hue to the same sad occasion; for Aphrodite, +hastening to her wounded lover, trod on a bush of white +roses; the cruel thorns tore her tender flesh, and her sacred +blood dyed the white roses for ever red.<note place='foot'>J. Tzetzes, <hi rend='italic'>Schol. on Lycophron</hi>, +831; <hi rend='italic'>Geoponica</hi>, xi. 17; <hi rend='italic'>Mythographi +Graeci</hi>, ed. A. Westermann, p. 359. +Compare Bion, <hi rend='italic'>Idyl.</hi> i. 66; Pausanias, +vi. 24. 7; Philostratus, <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> i. and +iii.</note> It would be idle, +perhaps, to lay much weight on evidence drawn from the +calendar of flowers, and in particular to press an argument +so fragile as the bloom of the rose. Yet so far as it +counts at all, the tale which links the damask rose with +the death of Adonis points to a summer rather than to +a spring celebration of his passion. In Attica, certainly, +the festival fell at the height of summer. For the fleet +which Athens fitted out against Syracuse, and by the destruction +of which her power was permanently crippled, +sailed at midsummer, and by an ominous coincidence the +sombre rites of Adonis were being celebrated at the very +time. As the troops marched down to the harbour to +embark, the streets through which they passed were lined +with coffins and corpse-like effigies, and the air was rent +with the noise of women wailing for the dead Adonis. The +circumstance cast a gloom over the sailing of the most +splendid armament that Athens ever sent to sea.<note place='foot'>Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>Alcibiades</hi>, 18; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Nicias</hi>, 13. The date of the sailing +of the fleet is given by Thucydides +(vi. 30, θέρους μεσοῦντος ἤδη), who, with +his habitual contempt for the superstition of his countrymen, disdains to +notice the coincidence. Adonis was +also bewailed by the Argive women +(Pausanias, ii. 20. 6), but we do not +know at what season of the year the +lamentation took place. Inscriptions +prove that processions in honour of +Adonis were held in the Piraeus, and +that a society of his worshippers +existed at Loryma in Caria. See G. +Dittenberger, <hi rend='italic'>Sylloge Inscriptionum +Graecarum</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> Nos. 726, 741 (vol. ii. +pp. 564, 604).</note> Many +<pb n='227'/><anchor id='Pg227'/> +ages afterwards, when the Emperor Julian made his first +entry into Antioch, he found in like manner the gay, the +luxurious capital of the East plunged in mimic grief for the +annual death of Adonis: and if he had any presentiment of +coming evil, the voices of lamentation which struck upon +his ear must have seemed to sound his knell.<note place='foot'>Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii. 9. +15.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Resemblance +of +these +rites to +Indian and +European +ceremonies. +The death +and resurrection +of +Adonis a +mythical +expression +for the +annual +decay and +revival of +plant life. Adonis +sometimes +taken for +the sun.</note> +The resemblance of these ceremonies to the Indian and +European ceremonies which I have described elsewhere is +obvious. In particular, apart from the somewhat doubtful +date of its celebration, the Alexandrian ceremony is +almost identical with the Indian.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, pp. 261-266.</note> In both of them the +marriage of two divine beings, whose affinity with vegetation +seems indicated by the fresh plants with which they are +surrounded, is celebrated in effigy, and the effigies are +afterwards mourned over and thrown into the water.<note place='foot'>In the Alexandrian ceremony, +however, it appears to have been the +image of Adonis only which was +thrown into the sea.</note> +From the similarity of these customs to each other and +to the spring and midsummer customs of modern Europe +we should naturally expect that they all admit of a common +explanation. Hence, if the explanation which I have +adopted of the latter is correct, the ceremony of the death +and resurrection of Adonis must also have been a dramatic +representation of the decay and revival of plant life. The +inference thus based on the resemblance of the customs is +confirmed by the following features in the legend and ritual +of Adonis. His affinity with vegetation comes out at once +in the common story of his birth. He was said to have +been born from a myrrh-tree, the bark of which bursting, +after a ten month' gestation, allowed the lovely infant to +come forth. According to some, a boar rent the bark with +his tusk and so opened a passage for the babe. A faint +rationalistic colour was given to the legend by saying that +his mother was a woman named Myrrh, who had been +<pb n='228'/><anchor id='Pg228'/> +turned into a myrrh-tree soon after she had conceived the +child.<note place='foot'>Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, iii. 14. 4; +Scholiast on Theocritus, i. 109; Antoninus +Liberalis, <hi rend='italic'>Transform.</hi> 34; J. +Tzetzes, <hi rend='italic'>Scholia on Lycophron</hi>, 829; +Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Metamorph.</hi> x. 489 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Servius +on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> v. 72, and on <hi rend='italic'>Bucol.</hi> +x. 18; Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 58, 164; Fulgentius, +iii. 8. The word Myrrha or +Smyrna is borrowed from the Phoenician +(Liddell and Scott, <hi rend='italic'>Greek Lexicon</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +σμύρνα). Hence the mother's name, +as well as the son's, was taken directly +from the Semites.</note> The use of myrrh as incense at the festival of +Adonis may have given rise to the fable.<note place='foot'>W. Mannhardt, <hi rend='italic'>Antike Wald- und +Feldkulte</hi>, p. 383, note 2.</note> We have seen +that incense was burnt at the corresponding Babylonian +rites,<note place='foot'>Above, p. <ref target='Pg009'>9</ref>.</note> just as it was burnt by the idolatrous Hebrews in +honour of the Queen of Heaven,<note place='foot'>Jeremiah xliv. 17-19.</note> who was no other than +Astarte. Again, the story that Adonis spent half, or +according to others a third, of the year in the lower world +and the rest of it in the upper world,<note place='foot'>Scholiast on Theocritus, iii. 48; +Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Astronom.</hi> ii. 7; Lucian, +<hi rend='italic'>Dialog. deor.</hi> xi. 1; Cornutus, <hi rend='italic'>Theologiae +Graecae Compendium</hi>, 28, p. 54, +ed. C. Lang (Leipsic, 1881); Apollodorus, +<hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, iii. 14. 4.</note> is explained most +simply and naturally by supposing that he represented +vegetation, especially the corn, which lies buried in +earth half the year and reappears above ground the other +half. Certainly of the annual phenomena of nature there +is none which suggests so obviously the idea of death +and resurrection as the disappearance and reappearance of +vegetation in autumn and spring. Adonis has been taken +for the sun; but there is nothing in the sun's annual +course within the temperate and tropical zones to suggest +that he is dead for half or a third of the year and alive +for the other half or two-thirds. He might, indeed, be +conceived as weakened in winter, but dead he could not +be thought to be; his daily reappearance contradicts the +supposition.<note place='foot'>The arguments which tell against +the solar interpretation of Adonis are +stated more fully by the learned and +candid scholar Graf Baudissin (<hi rend='italic'>Adonis +und Esmun</hi>, pp. 169 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>), who himself +formerly accepted the solar theory but +afterwards rightly rejected it in favour +of the view <q><foreign lang='de' rend='italic'>dass Adonis die Frühlingsvegetation +darstellt, die im Sommer +abstirbt</foreign></q> (<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 169).</note> Within the Arctic Circle, where the sun +annually disappears for a continuous period which varies +from twenty-four hours to six months according to the +latitude, his yearly death and resurrection would certainly +be an obvious idea; but no one except the unfortunate +<pb n='229'/><anchor id='Pg229'/> +astronomer Bailly<note place='foot'>Bailly, <hi rend='italic'>Lettres sur l'Origine des +Sciences</hi> (London and Paris, 1777), +pp. 255 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Lettres sur l'Atlantide +de Platon</hi> (London and Paris, 1779), +pp. 114-125. Carlyle has described +how through the sleety drizzle of a +dreary November day poor innocent +Bailly was dragged to the scaffold +amid the howls and curses of the +Parisian mob (<hi rend='italic'>French Revolution</hi>, bk. +v. ch. 2). My friend the late Professor +C. Bendall showed me a book by a +Hindoo gentleman in which it is seriously +maintained that the primitive +home of the Aryans was within the +Arctic regions. See Bâl Gangâdhar +Tilak, <hi rend='italic'>The Arctic Home in the Vedas</hi> +(Poona and Bombay, 1903).</note> has maintained that the Adonis worship +came from the Arctic regions. On the other hand, the +annual death and revival of vegetation is a conception +which readily presents itself to men in every stage of +savagery and civilization; and the vastness of the scale on +which this ever-recurring decay and regeneration takes +place, together with man's intimate dependence on it for +subsistence, combine to render it the most impressive +annual occurrence in nature, at least within the temperate +zones. It is no wonder that a phenomenon so important, +so striking, and so universal should, by suggesting similar +ideas, have given rise to similar rites in many lands. We +may, therefore, accept as probable an explanation of the +Adonis worship which accords so well with the facts of nature +and with the analogy of similar rites in other lands. Moreover, +the explanation is countenanced by a considerable body +of opinion amongst the ancients themselves, who again +and again interpreted the dying and reviving god as the +reaped and sprouting grain.<note place='foot'>Cornutus, <hi rend='italic'>Theologiae Graecae Compendium</hi>, +28, pp. 54 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, ed. C. Lang +(Leipsic, 1881), τοιοῦτον γάρ τι +καὶ παρ᾽ Αἰγυπτίοις ὁ ζητούμενος καὶ +ἀνευρισκόμενος ὑπὸ τῆς Ἴσιδος Ὄσιρις +ἐμφαίνει καὶ παρὰ Φοίνιξιν ὁ ἀνὰ μέρος +παρ᾽ ἔξ μῆνας ὑπὲρ γῆν τε καὶ ὑπὸ γῆν +γινόμενος Ἄδωνις, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀδεῖν τοῖς +ἀνθρώποις οὔτως ὠνομασμένου τοῦ Δημητριακοῦ +καρποῦ. τοῦτον δὲ πλήξας +κάπρος ἀνελεῖν λέγεται διὰ τὸ τὰς +ὗς δοκεῖν ληιβότειρας εἶναι ἢ τὸν τῆς +ὕνεως ὀδόντα αἰνιττομένων αὐτῶν, ὑφ᾽ +οὖ κατὰ γῆς κρύπτεται τὸ σπέρμα. +Scholiast on Theocritus, iii. 48, +ὁ Ἄδωνις, ἤγουν ὁ σῖτος ὁ σπειρόμενος, +ἔξ μῆνας ἐν τῇ γῇ ποιεῖ ἀπο τῆς σπορᾶς +καὶ ἔξ μῆνας ἔχει αὐτὸν ἡ Ἀφροδίτη, +τουτέστιν ἡ εὐκρασία τοῦ ἀέρος. καὶ +ἐκτότε λαμβάνουσιν αὐτὸν οἱ ἄνθρωποι. +Origen, <hi rend='italic'>Selecta in Ezechielem</hi> (Migne's +<hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, xiii. 800), οἱ δὲ περὶ +τὴν ἀναγωγὴν τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν μύθων +δεινοὶ καὶ μυθικῆς νομιζομένης θεολογίας, +φασί τὸν Ἄδωνιν σύμβολον εἶναι τῶν τῆς +γῆς καρπῶν, θρηνουμένων μὲν ὅτε σπείρονται, +ἀνισταμένων δέ, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο +χαίρειν ποιούντων τοὺς γεωργοὺς ὅτε +φύονται. Jerome, <hi rend='italic'>Commentar. in +Ezechielem</hi>, viii. 13, 14 (Migne's +<hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Latina</hi>, xxv. 83), <q><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Eadem +gentilitas hujuscemodi fabulas poetarum, +quae habent turpitudinem, interpretatur +subtiliter, interfectionem et resurrectionem +Adonidis planctu et gaudio prosequens: +quorum alterum in seminibus, +quae moriuntur in terra, alterum in +segetibus, quibus mortua semina renascuntur, +ostendi putat.</foreign></q> Ammianus +Marcellinus, xix. 1. 11, <q><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>in sollemnibus +Adonidis sacris, quod simulacrum aliquod +esse frugum adultarum religiones +mysticae docent</foreign>.</q> <hi rend='italic'>Id.</hi> xxii. 9. 15, +<q><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>amato Veneris, ut fabulae fingunt, +apri dente ferali deleto, quod in +adulto flore sectarum est indicium +frugum</foreign>.</q> Clement of Alexandria, +<hi rend='italic'>Hom.</hi> 6. 11 (quoted by W. Mannhardt, +<hi rend='italic'>Antique Wald- und Feldkulte</hi>, p. 281), +λαμβάνουσι δὲ καὶ Ἄδωνιν εἰς ὡραίους +καρπούς. <hi rend='italic'>Etymologieum Magnum</hi> <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +Ἄδωνις κύριον; δύναται καὶ ὁ καρπὸς +εἶναι ἄδωνις; οἶον ἀδώνειος καρπός, +ἀρέσκων. Eusebius, <hi rend='italic'>Praepar. Evang.</hi> +iii. II. 9, Ἄδωνις τῆς τῶν τελείων +καρπῶν ἐκτομῆς σύμβολον. Sallustius +philosophus, <q>De diis et mundo,</q> +iv. <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum</hi>, +ed. F. G. A. Mullach, iii. 32, +οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι ... αὐτὰ τὰ σώματα θεοὺς +νομίσαντες ... Ἴσιν μὲν τὴν γῆν ... +Ἄδωνιν δὲ καρπούς. Joannes Lydus, +<hi rend='italic'>De mensibus</hi>, iv. 4, τῷ Ἀδώνιδι, τουτέστι +τῷ Μαΐῳ ... ἢ ὡς ἄλλοις, δοκεῖ, +Ἄδωνις μέν ἐστιν ὁ καρπός, κτλ. The +view that Tammuz or Adonis is a +personification of the dying and reviving +vegetation is now accepted by +many scholars. See P. Jensen, <hi rend='italic'>Kosmologie +der Babylonier</hi> (Strasburg, 1890), +p. 480; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Assyrisch-babylonische +Mythen und Epen</hi>, pp. 411, 560; H. +Zimmern, in E. Schrader's <hi rend='italic'>Keilinschriften +und das Alte Testament</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> p. +397; A. Jeremias, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Nergal,</q> in W. +H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und +röm. Mythologie</hi>, iii. 265; R. Wünsch, +<hi rend='italic'>Das Frühlingsfest der Insel Malta</hi> +(Leipsic, 1902), p. 21; M. J. Lagrange, +<hi rend='italic'>Études sur les Religions Sémitiques</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +pp. 306 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; W. W. Graf Baudissin, +<q>Tammuz,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Realencyclopädie für protestantische +Theologie und Kirchengeschichte</hi>; +<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Esmun und Adonis</hi>, +pp. 81, 141, 169, etc.; and Ed. +Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte des Altertums</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> i. 2. +pp. 394, 427. Prof. Jastrow regards +Tammuz as a god both of the sun and +of vegetation (<hi rend='italic'>Religion of Babylonia +and Assyria</hi>, pp. 547, 564, 574, 588). +But such a combination of disparate +qualities seems artificial and unlikely.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='230'/><anchor id='Pg230'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Tammuz +or Adonis +as a +corn-spirit +bruised and +ground in +a mill.</note> +The character of Tammuz or Adonis as a corn-spirit +comes out plainly in an account of his festival given by +an Arabic writer of the tenth century. In describing the +rites and sacrifices observed at the different seasons of the +year by the heathen Syrians of Harran, he says: +<q>Tammuz (July). In the middle of this month is the +festival of el-Bûgât, that is, of the weeping women, and this +is the Tâ-uz festival, which is celebrated in honour of the +god Tâ-uz. The women bewail him, because his lord slew +him so cruelly, ground his bones in a mill, and then scattered +them to the wind. The women (during this festival) eat +nothing which has been ground in a mill, but limit their +diet to steeped wheat, sweet vetches, dates, raisins, and the +like.</q><note place='foot'>D. Chwolsohn, <hi rend='italic'>Die Ssabier und +der Ssabismus</hi> (St. Petersburg, 1856), +ii. 27; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Ueber Tammûz und die +Menschenverehrung bei den alten Babylioniern</hi> +(St. Petersburg, 1860), p. 38. +Compare W. W. Graf Baudissin, +<hi rend='italic'>Adonis und Esmun</hi>, pp. 111 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Tâ-uz, who is no other than Tammuz, is here like +Burns's John Barleycorn— +</p> + +<pb n='231'/><anchor id='Pg231'/> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'><hi rend='italic'>They wasted o'er a scorching flame</hi></q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><hi rend='italic'>The marrow of his bones;</hi></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>But a miller us'd him worst of all—</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><q rend='post'><hi rend='italic'>For he crush'd him between two stones.</hi></q></l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +This concentration, so to say, of the nature of Adonis +upon the cereal crops is characteristic of the stage of culture +reached by his worshippers in historical times. They had +left the nomadic life of the wandering hunter and herdsman +far behind them; for ages they had been settled on the +land, and had depended for their subsistence mainly on the +products of tillage. The berries and roots of the wilderness, +the grass of the pastures, which had been matters of vital +importance to their ruder forefathers, were now of little +moment to them: more and more their thoughts and +energies were engrossed by the staple of their life, the corn; +more and more accordingly the propitiation of the deities +of fertility in general and of the corn-spirit in particular +tended to become the central feature of their religion. The +aim they set before themselves in celebrating the rites was +thoroughly practical. It was no vague poetical sentiment +which prompted them to hail with joy the rebirth of vegetation +and to mourn its decline. Hunger, felt or feared, was +the mainspring of the worship of Adonis. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +mourning +for Adonis +interpreted +as a harvest +rite.</note> +It has been suggested by Father Lagrange that the +mourning for Adonis was essentially a harvest rite designed +to propitiate the corn-god, who was then either perishing +under the sickles of the reapers, or being trodden to death +under the hoofs of the oxen on the threshing-floor. While +the men slew him, the women wept crocodile tears at home +to appease his natural indignation by a show of grief for his +death.<note place='foot'>M. J. Lagrange, <hi rend='italic'>Études sur les +Religions Sémitiques</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Paris, 1905), +pp. 307 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> The theory fits in well with the dates of the +festivals, which fell in spring or summer; for spring and +summer, not autumn, are the seasons of the barley and +wheat harvests in the lands which, worshipped Adonis.<note place='foot'>Hence Philo of Alexandria dates +the corn-reaping in the middle of +spring (Μεσοῦντος δὲ ἔαρος ἄμητος +ἐνίσταται, <hi rend='italic'>De special. legibus</hi>, i. 183, +vol. v. p. 44, ed. L. Cohn). On +this subject Professor W. M. Flinders +Petrie writes to me: <q>The Coptic +calendar puts on April 2 beginning +of wheat harvest in Upper Egypt, +May 2 wheat harvest, Lower Egypt. +Barley is two or three weeks earlier +than wheat in Palestine, but probably +less in Egypt. The Palestine harvest +is about the time of that in North +Egypt.</q> With regard to Palestine we +are told that <q>the harvest begins with +the barley in April; in the valley of +the Jordan it begins at the end of +March. Between the end of the +barley harvest and the beginning of +the wheat harvest an interval of two +or three weeks elapses. Thus as a +rule the business of harvest lasts about +seven weeks</q> (J. Benzinger, <hi rend='italic'>Hebräische +Archäologie</hi>, Freiburg i. B. and Leipsic, +1894, p. 209). <q>The principal grain +crops of Palestine are barley, wheat, +lentils, maize, and millet. Of the +latter there is very little, and it is all +gathered in by the end of May. The +maize is then only just beginning to +shoot. In the hotter parts of the +Jordan valley the barley harvest is over +by the end of March, and throughout +the country the wheat harvest is at its +height at the end of May, excepting in +the highlands of Galilee, where it is +about a fortnight later</q> (H. B. Tristram, +<hi rend='italic'>The Land of Israel</hi>, Fourth Edition, +London, 1882, pp. 583 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). As to +Greece, Professor E. A. Gardner tells +me that harvest is from April to May in +the plains and about a month later in +the mountains. He adds that <q>barley +may, then, be assigned to the latter +part of April, wheat to May in the +lower ground, but you know the great +difference of climate between different +parts; there is the same difference of +a month in the vintage.</q> Mrs. Hawes +(Miss Boyd), who excavated at Gournia, +tells me that in Crete the barley is cut +in April and the beginning of May, and +that the wheat is cut and threshed from +about the twentieth of June, though +the dates naturally vary somewhat with +the height of the place above the sea. +June is also the season when the wheat +is threshed in Euboea (R. A. Arnold, +<hi rend='italic'>From the Levant</hi>, London, 1868, i. +250). Thus it seems possible that the +spring festival of Adonis coincided +with the cutting of the first barley in +March, and his summer festival with +the threshing of the last wheat in June. +Father Lagrange (<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 305 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>) +argues that the rites of Adonis were +always celebrated in summer at the +solstice of June or soon afterwards. +Baudissin also holds that the summer +celebration is the only one which is +clearly attested, and that if there was +a celebration in spring it must have +had a different signification than the +death of the god. See his <hi rend='italic'>Adonis und +Esmun</hi>, pp. 132 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +<pb n='232'/><anchor id='Pg232'/> +Further, the hypothesis is confirmed by the practice of the +Egyptian reapers, who lamented, calling upon Isis, when +they cut the first corn;<note place='foot'>Diodorus Siculus, i. 14. 2. See +below, vol. ii. pp. 45 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> and it is recommended by the +analogous customs of many hunting tribes, who testify great +respect for the animals which they kill and eat.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Spirits of the Corn and of the +Wild</hi>, ii. 180 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 204 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>But +probably +Adonis +was a spirit +of fruits, +edible +roots, and +grass +before he +became +a spirit +of the +cultivated +corn.</note> +Thus interpreted the death of Adonis is not the natural +decay of vegetation in general under the summer heat or +the winter cold; it is the violent destruction of the corn by +man, who cuts it down on the field, stamps it to pieces on +the threshing-floor, and grinds it to powder in the mill. +That this was indeed the principal aspect in which Adonis +presented himself in later times to the agricultural peoples +of the Levant, may be admitted; but whether from the +beginning he had been the corn and nothing but the corn, +<pb n='233'/><anchor id='Pg233'/> +may be doubted. At an earlier period he may have been +to the herdsman, above all, the tender herbage which +sprouts after rain, offering rich pasture to the lean and +hungry cattle. Earlier still he may have embodied the +spirit of the nuts and berries which the autumn woods +yield to the savage hunter and his squaw. And just as +the husbandman must propitiate the spirit of the corn +which he consumes, so the herdsman must appease the +spirit of the grass and leaves which his cattle munch, and +the hunter must soothe the spirit of the roots which he digs, +and of the fruits which he gathers from the bough. In +all cases the propitiation of the injured and angry sprite +would naturally comprise elaborate excuses and apologies, +accompanied by loud lamentations at his decease whenever, +through some deplorable accident or necessity, he happened +to be murdered as well as robbed. Only we must bear in +mind that the savage hunter and herdsman of those early +days had probably not yet attained to the abstract idea of +vegetation in general; and that accordingly, so far as Adonis +existed for them at all, he must have been the <foreign rend='italic'>Adon</foreign> or lord +of each individual tree and plant rather than a personification +of vegetable life as a whole. Thus there would be as +many Adonises as there were trees and shrubs, and each +of them might expect to receive satisfaction for any damage +done to his person or property. And year by year, when +the trees were deciduous, every Adonis would seem to bleed +to death with the red leaves of autumn and to come to life +again with the fresh green of spring. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The propitiation +of +the corn-spirit +may +have fused +with the +worship of +the dead.</note> +We have seen reason to think that in early times +Adonis was sometimes personated by a living man who +died a violent death in the character of the god. Further, +there is evidence which goes to show that among the +agricultural peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean, the corn-spirit, +by whatever name he was known, was often represented, +year by year, by human victims slain on the harvest-field.<note place='foot'>W. Mannhardt, <hi rend='italic'>Mythologische Forschungen</hi> +(Strasburg, 1884), pp. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +<hi rend='italic'>Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild</hi>, +i. 216 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +If that was so, it seems likely that the propitiation +of the corn-spirit would tend to fuse to some extent with +the worship of the dead. For the spirits of these victims +<pb n='234'/><anchor id='Pg234'/> +might be thought to return to life in the ears which they +had fattened with their blood, and to die a second death at +the reaping of the corn. Now the ghosts of those who +have perished by violence are surly and apt to wreak their +vengeance on their slayers whenever an opportunity offers. +Hence the attempt to appease the souls of the slaughtered +victims would naturally blend, at least in the popular conception, +with the attempt to pacify the slain corn-spirit. And +as the dead came back in the sprouting corn, so they might +be thought to return in the spring flowers, waked from their +long sleep by the soft vernal airs. They had been laid to +their rest under the sod. What more natural than to +imagine that the violets and the hyacinths, the roses and +the anemones, sprang from their dust, were empurpled or +incarnadined by their blood, and contained some portion of +their spirit? +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> + +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'><hi rend='italic'>I sometimes think that never blows so red</hi></q></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'><hi rend='italic'>That every Hyacinth the Garden wears</hi></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head.</hi></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'><hi rend='italic'>And this reviving Herb whose tender Green</hi></q></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>Fledges the River-Lip on which we lean—</hi></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'><hi rend='italic'>Ah, lean upon it lightly, for who knows</hi></l> +<l><q rend='post'><hi rend='italic'>From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen?</hi></q></l> +</lg> + +</quote> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The festival +of the dead +a festival +of flowers.</note> +In the summer after the battle of Landen, the most +sanguinary battle of the seventeenth century in Europe, the +earth, saturated with the blood of twenty thousand slain, +broke forth into millions of poppies, and the traveller who +passed that vast sheet of scarlet might well fancy that the +earth had indeed given up her dead.<note place='foot'>T. B. Macaulay, <hi rend='italic'>History of England</hi>, chapter xx. vol. iv. (London, +1855) p. 410.</note> At Athens the great +Commemoration of the Dead fell in spring about the middle +of March, when the early flowers are in bloom. Then the +dead were believed to rise from their graves and go about +the streets, vainly endeavoring to enter the temples and +the dwellings, which were barred against these perturbed +spirits with ropes, buckthorn, and pitch. The name of the +festival, according to the most obvious and natural interpretation, +means the Festival of Flowers, and the title would +<pb n='235'/><anchor id='Pg235'/> +fit well with the substance of the ceremonies if at that +season the poor ghosts were indeed thought to creep from +the narrow house with the opening flowers.<note place='foot'>This explanation of the name +<foreign rend='italic'>Anthesteria</foreign>, as applied to a festival of +the dead, is due to Mr. R. Wünsch +(<hi rend='italic'>Das Frühlingsfest der Insel Malta</hi>, +Leipsic, 1902, pp. 43 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>). I cannot +accept the late Dr. A. W. Verrall's +ingenious derivation of the word from +a verb ἀναθέσσασθαι in the sense of +<q>to conjure up</q> (<q>The Name Anthesteria,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic Studies</hi>, +xx. (1900) pp. 115-117). As to +the festival see E. Rohde, <hi rend='italic'>Psyche</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +(Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903), i. 236 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Miss J. E. Harrison, <hi rend='italic'>Prolegomena +to the Study of Greek Religion</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +(Cambridge, 1908), pp. 32 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> In +Annam people offer food to their dead +on the graves when the earth begins +to grow green in spring. The ceremony +takes place on the third day of +the third month, the sun then entering +the sign of Taurus. See Paul Giran, +<hi rend='italic'>Magie et Religion Annamites</hi> (Paris, +1912), pp. 423 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> There may +therefore be a measure of truth in the theory of Renan, +who saw in the Adonis worship a dreamy voluptuous cult +of death, conceived not as the King of Terrors, but as an +insidious enchanter who lures his victims to himself and +lulls them into an eternal sleep. The infinite charm of +nature in the Lebanon, he thought, lends itself to religious +emotions of this sensuous, visionary sort, hovering vaguely +between pain and pleasure, between slumber and tears.<note place='foot'>E. Renan, <hi rend='italic'>Mission de Phénicie</hi> +(Paris, 1864), p. 216.</note> It +would doubtless be a mistake to attribute to Syrian peasants +the worship of a conception so purely abstract as that of +death in general. Yet it may be true that in their simple +minds the thought of the reviving spirit of vegetation was +blent with the very concrete notion of the ghosts of the +dead, who come to life again in spring days with the early +flowers, with the tender green of the corn and the many-tinted +blossoms of the trees. Thus their views of the death +and resurrection of nature would be coloured by their views +of the death and resurrection of man, by their personal sorrows +and hopes and fears. In like manner we cannot doubt that +Renan's theory of Adonis was itself deeply tinged by +passionate memories, memories of the slumber akin to death +which sealed his own eyes on the slopes of the Lebanon, +memories of the sister who sleeps in the land of Adonis +never again to wake with the anemones and the roses. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='236'/><anchor id='Pg236'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter X. The Gardens of Adonis.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Pots of +corn, +herbs, and +flowers, +called the +gardens +of Adonis.</note> +Perhaps the best proof that Adonis was a deity of vegetation, +and especially of the corn, is furnished by the gardens +of Adonis, as they were called. These were baskets or pots +filled with earth, in which wheat, barley, lettuces, fennel, and +various kinds of flowers were sown and tended for eight +days, chiefly or exclusively by women. Fostered by the +sun's heat, the plants shot up rapidly, but having no root +they withered as rapidly away, and at the end of eight days +were carried out with the images of the dead Adonis, and +flung with them into the sea or into springs.<note place='foot'>For the authorities see Raoul +Rochette, <q>Mémoire sur les jardins +d'Adonis,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Revue Archéologique</hi>, viii. +(1851) pp. 97-123; W. Mannhardt, +<hi rend='italic'>Antike Wald- und Feldkulte</hi>, p. 279, +note 2, and p. 280, note 2. To the +authorities cited by Mannhardt add +Theophrastus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Plant.</hi> vi. 7. 3; +<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>De Causis Plant.</hi> i. 12. 2; Gregorius +Cyprius, i. 7; Macarius, i. 63; +Apostolius, i. 34; Diogenianus, i. 14; +Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>De sera num. vind.</hi> 17. +Women only are mentioned as planting +the gardens of Adonis by Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>; +Julian, <hi rend='italic'>Convivium</hi>, p. 329 ed. Spanheim +(p. 423 ed. Hertlein); Eustathius +on Homer, <hi rend='italic'>Od.</hi> xi. 590. On the other +hand, Apostolius and Diogenianus (<hi rend='italic'>ll.cc.</hi>) +say φυτεύοντες ἢ φυτεύουσαι. The earliest +extant Greek writer who mentions the +gardens of Adonis is Plato (<hi rend='italic'>Phaedrus</hi>, +p. 276 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b</hi>). The procession at the +festival of Adonis is mentioned in an +Attic inscription of 302 or 301 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> +(G. Dittenberger, <hi rend='italic'>Sylloge Inscriptionum +Graecarum</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> vol. ii. p. 564, No. 726). +Gardens of Adonis are perhaps alluded +to by Isaiah (xvii. 10, with the commentators).</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>These +gardens +of Adonis +were +charms to +promote +the growth +of +vegetation. The +throwing +of the +<q>gardens</q> +into water +was a rain-charm. +Parallel +European +customs of +drenching +the corn +with water +at harvest +or sowing. Use of +water as a +rain-charm +at harvest +and +sowing.</note> +These gardens of Adonis are most naturally interpreted +as representatives of Adonis or manifestations of his power; +they represented him, true to his original nature, in vegetable +form, while the images of him, with which they were carried +out and cast into the water, portrayed him in his later +human shape. All these Adonis ceremonies, if I am right, +were originally intended as charms to promote the growth +<pb n='237'/><anchor id='Pg237'/> +or revival of vegetation; and the principle by which they +were supposed to produce this effect was homoeopathic +or imitative magic. For ignorant people suppose that by +mimicking the effect which they desire to produce they +actually help to produce it; thus by sprinkling water they +make rain, by lighting a fire they make sunshine, and so on. +Similarly, by mimicking the growth of crops they hope to +ensure a good harvest. The rapid growth of the wheat and +barley in the gardens of Adonis was intended to make the +corn shoot up; and the throwing of the gardens and of the +images into the water was a charm to secure a due supply +of fertilizing rain.<note place='foot'>In hot southern countries like +Egypt and the Semitic regions of +Western Asia, where vegetation depends +chiefly or entirely upon irrigation, +the purpose of the charm is +doubtless to secure a plentiful flow +of water in the streams. But as the +ultimate object and the charms for +securing it are the same in both cases, +I have not thought it necessary always +to point out the distinction.</note> The same, I take it, was the object of +throwing the effigies of Death and the Carnival into water in +the corresponding ceremonies of modern Europe.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, pp. 232, 233 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Certainly +the custom of drenching with water a leaf-clad person, who +undoubtedly personifies vegetation, is still resorted to in +Europe for the express purpose of producing rain.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, i. 272 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Similarly +the custom of throwing water on the last corn cut at +harvest, or on the person who brings it home (a custom +observed in Germany and France, and till quite lately in +England and Scotland), is in some places practised with the +avowed intent to procure rain for the next year's crops. +Thus in Wallachia and amongst the Roumanians in Transylvania, +when a girl is bringing home a crown made of the +last ears of corn cut at harvest, all who meet her hasten to +throw water on her, and two farm-servants are placed at the +door for the purpose; for they believe that if this were not +done, the crops next year would perish from drought.<note place='foot'>W. Mannhardt, <hi rend='italic'>Der Baumkultus +der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme</hi> +(Berlin, 1875), p. 214; W. +Schmidt, <hi rend='italic'>Das Jahr und seine Tage in +Meinung und Branch der Romänen +Siebenbürgens</hi> (Hermannstadt, 1866), +pp. 18 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The custom of throwing +water on the last wagon-load of corn +returning from the harvest-field has +been practised within living memory +in Wigtownshire, and at Orwell in Cambridgeshire. +See J. G. Frazer, <q>Notes +on Harvest Customs,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Folk-lore Journal</hi>, +vii. (1889) pp. 50, 51. (In the first +of these passages the Orwell at which +the custom used to be observed is said +to be in Kent; this was a mistake of +mine, which my informant, the Rev. +E. B. Birks, formerly Fellow of Trinity +College, Cambridge, afterwards corrected.) +Mr. R. F. Davis writes to +me (March 4, 1906) from Campbell +College, Belfast: <q>Between 30 and +40 years ago I was staying, as a very +small boy, at a Nottinghamshire farmhouse +at harvest-time, and was allowed—as +a great privilege—to ride home +on the top of the last load. All the +harvesters followed the waggon, and +on reaching the farmyard we found the +maids of the farm gathered near the +gate, with bowls and buckets of water, +which they proceeded to throw on the +men, who got thoroughly drenched.</q></note> So +<pb n='238'/><anchor id='Pg238'/> +amongst the Saxons of Transylvania, the person who wears +the wreath made of the last corn cut is drenched with water +to the skin; for the wetter he is, the better will be next +year's harvest, and the more grain there will be threashed out. +Sometimes the wearer of the wreath is the reaper who cut +the last corn.<note place='foot'>G. A. Heinrich, <hi rend='italic'>Agrarische Sitten +und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen +Siebenbürgens</hi> (Hermanstadt, 1880), p. +24; H. von Wlislocki, <hi rend='italic'>Sitten und +Brauch der Siebenbürger Sachsen</hi> (Hamburg, +1888), p. 32.</note> In Northern Euboea, when the corn-sheaves +have been piled in a stack, the farmer's wife brings a pitcher +of water and offers it to each of the labourers that he may +wash his hands. Every man, after he has washed his hands, +sprinkles water on the corn and on the threshing-floor, +expressing at the same time a wish that the corn may last +long. Lastly, the farmer's wife holds the pitcher slantingly +and runs at full speed round the stack without spilling a +drop, while she utters a wish that the stack may endure as +long as the circle she has just described.<note place='foot'>G. Drosinis, <hi rend='italic'>Land und Leute in +Nord-Euböa</hi> (Leipsic, 1884), p. 53.</note> At the spring +ploughing in Prussia, when the ploughmen and sowers +returned in the evening from their work in the fields, the +farmer's wife and the servants used to splash water over +them. The ploughmen and sowers retorted by seizing every +one, throwing them into the pond, and ducking them under +the water. The farmer's wife might claim exemption on +payment of a forfeit, but every one else had to be ducked. +By observing this custom they hoped to ensure a due +supply of rain for the seed.<note place='foot'>Matthäus Prätorius, <hi rend='italic'>Deliciae Prussicae</hi> +(Berlin, 1871), p. 55; W. Mannhardt, +<hi rend='italic'>Baumkultus</hi>, pp. 214 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, note.</note> Also after harvest in Prussia, +the person who wore a wreath made of the last corn cut +was drenched with water, while a prayer was uttered that +<q>as the corn had sprung up and multiplied through the +water, so it might spring up and multiply in the barn and +granary.</q><note place='foot'>M. Prätorius, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 60; W. +Mannhardt, <hi rend='italic'>Baumkultus</hi>, p. 215, +note.</note> At Schlanow, in Brandenburg, when the sowers +<pb n='239'/><anchor id='Pg239'/> +return home from the first sowing they are drenched +with water <q>in order that the corn may grow.</q><note place='foot'>H. Prahn, <q>Glaube und Brauch +in der Mark Brandenburg,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Zeitschrift +des Vereins für Volkskunde</hi>, i. (1891) +p. 186.</note> In +Anhalt on the same occasion the farmer is still often +sprinkled with water by his family; and his men and +horses, and even the plough, receive the same treatment. +The object of the custom, as people at Arensdorf explained +it, is <q>to wish fertility to the fields for the whole year.</q><note place='foot'>O. Hartung, <q>Zur Volkskunde +aus Anhalt,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Zeitschrift des Vereins +für Volkskunde</hi>, vii. (1897) p. 150.</note> +So in Hesse, when the ploughmen return with the plough +from the field for the first time, the women and girls lie in +wait for them and slyly drench them with water.<note place='foot'>W. Kolbe, <hi rend='italic'>Hessische Volks-Sitten +und Gebräuche</hi> (Marburg, 1888), p. 51.</note> Near +Naaburg, in Bavaria, the man who first comes back from +sowing or ploughing has a vessel of water thrown over him +by some one in hiding.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde +des Königreichs Bayern</hi>, ii. (Munich, +1863) p. 297.</note> At Hettingen in Baden the +farmer who is about to begin the sowing of oats is sprinkled +with water, in order that the oats may not shrivel up.<note place='foot'>E. H. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>Badisches Volksleben</hi> +(Strasburg, 1900), p. 420.</note> +Before the Tusayan Indians of North America go out to +plant their fields, the women sometimes pour water on them; +the reason for doing so is that <q>as the water is poured on +the men, so may water fall on the planted fields.</q><note place='foot'>J. Walter Fewkes, <q>The Tusayan +New Fire Ceremony,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Proceedings of +the Boston Society of Natural History</hi>, +xxvi. (1895) p. 446.</note> The +Indians of Santiago Tepehuacan steep the seed of the maize +in water before they sow it, in order that the god of the +waters may bestow on the fields the needed moisture.<note place='foot'><q>Lettre du curé de Santiago +Tepehuacan à son évêque,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Bulletin +de la Société de Géographie</hi> (Paris), +Deuxième Série, ii. (1834) pp. 181 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Gardens +of Adonis +among the +Oraons and +Mundas of +Bengal.</note> +The opinion that the gardens of Adonis are essentially +charms to promote the growth of vegetation, especially of +the crops, and that they belong to the same class of customs +as those spring and midsummer folk-customs of modern +Europe which I have described elsewhere,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 59 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> does not rest for +its evidence merely on the intrinsic probability of the case. +Fortunately we are able to show that gardens of Adonis +(if we may use the expression in a general sense) are still +planted, first, by a primitive race at their sowing season, +<pb n='240'/><anchor id='Pg240'/> +and, second, by European peasants at midsummer. Amongst +the Oraons and Mundas of Bengal, when the time comes for +planting out the rice which has been grown in seed-beds, a +party of young people of both sexes go to the forest and cut +a young Karma-tree, or the branch of one. Bearing it in +triumph they return dancing, singing, and beating drums, +and plant it in the middle of the village dancing-ground. +A sacrifice is offered to the tree; and next morning the +youth of both sexes, linked arm-in-arm, dance in a great +circle round the Karma-tree, which is decked with strips of +coloured cloth and sham bracelets and necklets of plaited +straw. As a preparation for the festival, the daughters of +the headman of the village cultivate blades of barley in a +peculiar way. The seed is sown in moist, sandy soil, mixed +with turmeric, and the blades sprout and unfold of a pale-yellow +or primrose colour. On the day of the festival the +girls take up these blades and carry them in baskets to the +dancing-ground, where, prostrating themselves reverentially, +they place some of the plants before the Karma-tree. +Finally, the Karma-tree is taken away and thrown into a +stream or tank.<note place='foot'>E. T. Dalton, <hi rend='italic'>Descriptive Ethnology +of Bengal</hi> (Calcutta, 1872), p. +259.</note> The meaning of planting these barley +blades and then presenting them to the Karma-tree is +hardly open to question. Trees are supposed to exercise +a quickening influence upon the growth of crops, and +amongst the very people in question—the Mundas or +Mundaris—<q>the grove deities are held responsible for the +crops.</q><note place='foot'>E. T. Dalton, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 188. +As to the influence which trees are +supposed to exercise on the crops, see +<hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution of +Kings</hi>, ii. 47 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Therefore, when at the season for planting out the +rice the Mundas bring in a tree and treat it with so much +respect, their object can only be to foster thereby the growth +of the rice which is about to be planted out; and the custom +of causing barley blades to sprout rapidly and then presenting +them to the tree must be intended to subserve the same +purpose, perhaps by reminding the tree-spirit of his duty +towards the crops, and stimulating his activity by this visible +example of rapid vegetable growth. The throwing of the +Karma-tree into the water is to be interpreted as a rain-charm. +<pb n='241'/><anchor id='Pg241'/> +Whether the barley blades are also thrown into the +water is not said; but if my interpretation of the custom +is right, probably they are so. A distinction between this +Bengal custom and the Greek rites of Adonis is that in the +former the tree-spirit appears in his original form as a tree; +whereas in the Adonis worship he appears in human form, +represented as a dead man, though his vegetable nature is +indicated by the gardens of Adonis, which are, so to say, a +secondary manifestation of his original power as a tree-spirit. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Gardens of +Adonis in +Rajputana.</note> +Gardens of Adonis are cultivated also by the Hindoos, +with the intention apparently of ensuring the fertility both +of the earth and of mankind. Thus at Oodeypoor in +Rajputana a festival is held <q>in honour of Gouri, or Isani, +the goddess of abundance, the Isis of Egypt, the Ceres of +Greece. Like the Rajpoot Saturnalia, which it follows, it +belongs to the vernal equinox, when nature in these regions +proximate to the tropic is in the full expanse of her charms, +and the matronly Gouri casts her golden mantle over the +verdant Vassanti, personification of spring. Then the fruits +exhibit their promise to the eye; the kohil fills the ear with +melody; the air is impregnated with aroma, and the crimson +poppy contrasts with the spikes of golden grain to form a +wreath for the beneficent Gouri. Gouri is one of the names +of Isa or Parvati, wife of the greatest of the gods, Mahadeva +or Iswara, who is conjoined with her in these rites, which +almost exclusively appertain to the women. The meaning +of <foreign rend='italic'>gouri</foreign> is <q>yellow,</q> emblematic of the ripened harvest, when +the votaries of the goddess adore her effigies, which are +those of a matron painted the colour of ripe corn.</q> The +rites begin when the sun enters the sign of the Ram, the +opening of the Hindoo year. An image of the goddess +Gouri is made of earth, and a smaller one of her husband +Iswara, and the two are placed together. A small trench +is next dug, barley is sown in it, and the ground watered +and heated artificially till the grain sprouts, when the women +dance round it hand in hand, invoking the blessing of Gouri +on their husbands. After that the young corn is taken up +and distributed by the women to the men, who wear it in +their turbans. Every wealthy family, or at least every subdivision +of the city, has its own image. These and other +<pb n='242'/><anchor id='Pg242'/> +rites, known only to the initiated, occupy several days, and +are performed within doors. Then the images of the +goddess and her husband are decorated and borne in procession +to a beautiful lake, whose deep blue waters mirror +the cloudless Indian sky, marble palaces, and orange groves. +Here the women, their hair decked with roses and jessamine +carry the image of Gouri down a marble staircase to the +water's edge, and dance round it singing hymns and love-songs. +Meantime the goddess is supposed to bathe in the +water. No men take part in the ceremony; even the +image of Iswara, the husband-god, attracts little attention.<note place='foot'>Lieut.-Col. James Tod, <hi rend='italic'>Annals +and Antiquities of Rajast'han</hi>, i. (London, +1829) pp. 570-572.</note> +In these rites the distribution of the barley shoots to the +men, and the invocation of a blessing on their husbands by +the wives, point clearly to the desire of offspring as one +motive for observing the custom. The same motive probably +explains the use of gardens of Adonis at the marriage +of Brahmans in the Madras Presidency. Seeds of five or +nine sorts are mixed and sown in earthen pots, which are +made specially for the purpose and are filled with earth. +Bride and bridegroom water the seeds both morning and +evening for four days; and on the fifth day the seedlings are +thrown, like the real gardens of Adonis, into a tank or river.<note place='foot'>G. F. D'Penha, <q>A Collection of +Notes on Marriage Customs in the +Madras Presidency,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Indian Antiquary</hi>, +xxv. (1896) p. 144; E. Thurston, +<hi rend='italic'>Ethnographic Notes in Southern +India</hi> (Madras, 1906), p. 2.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Gardens of +Adonis in +North-Western +and Central India.</note> +In the Himalayan districts of North-Western India the +cultivators sow barley, maize, pulse, or mustard in a basket +of earth on the twenty-fourth day of the fourth month +(<foreign rend='italic'>Asárh</foreign>), which falls about the middle of July. Then on the +last day of the month they place amidst the new sprouts +small clay images of Mahadeo and Parvati and worship +them in remembrance of the marriage of those deities. +Next day they cut down the green stalks and wear them in +their head-dress.<note place='foot'>E. T. Atkinson, <hi rend='italic'>The Himalayan +Districts of the North-Western Provinces +of India</hi>, ii. (Allahabad, 1884) p. 870.</note> Similar is the barley feast known as +Jâyî or Jawâra in Upper India and as Bhujariya in the +Central Provinces. On the seventh day of the light half of +the month Sâwan grains of barley are sown in a pot of +manure, and spring up so quickly that by the end of the +<pb n='243'/><anchor id='Pg243'/> +month the vessel is full of long, yellowish-green stalks. On +the first day of the next month, Bhâdon, the women and +girls take the stalks out, throw the earth and manure into +water, and distribute the plants among their male friends, +who bind them in their turbans and about their dress.<note place='foot'>W. Crooke, <hi rend='italic'>Popular Religion and +Folk-lore of Northern India</hi> (Westminster, +1896), ii. 293 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Compare +Baboo Ishuree Dass, <hi rend='italic'>Domestic Manners +and Customs of the Hindoos of Northern +India</hi> (Benares, 1860), pp. 111 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +According to the latter writer, the +festival of Salono [not Salonan] takes +place in August, and the barley is +planted by women and girls in baskets +a few days before the festival, to be +thrown by them into a river or tank +when the grain has sprouted to the +height of a few inches.</note> At +Sargal in the Central Provinces of India this ceremony is +observed about the middle of September. None but women +may take part in it, though crowds of men come to look on. +Some little time before the festival wheat or other grain has +been sown in pots ingeniously constructed of large leaves, +which are held together by the thorns of a species of acacia. +Having grown up in the dark, the stalks are of a pale +colour. On the day appointed these gardens of Adonis, as +we may call them, are carried towards a lake which abuts +on the native city. The women of every family or circle of +friends bring their own pots, and having laid them on the +ground they dance round them. Then taking the pots of +sprouting corn they descend to the edge of the water, wash +the soil away from the pots, and distribute the young plants +among their friends.<note place='foot'>Mrs. J. C. Murray-Aynsley, +<q>Secular and Religious Dances,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Folk-lore +Journal</hi>, v. (1887) pp. 253 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +The writer thinks that the ceremony +<q>probably fixes the season for sowing +some particular crop.</q></note> At the temple of the goddess Padmavati, +near Pandharpur in the Bombay Presidency, a Nine +Nights' festival is held in the bright half of the month +Ashvin (September-October). At this time a bamboo frame +is hung in front of the image, and from it depend garlands +of flowers and strings of wheaten cakes. Under the frame +the floor in front of the pedestal is strewn with a layer of +earth in which wheat is sown and allowed to sprout.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency</hi>, +xx. (Bombay, 1884) p. 454. This +passage was pointed out to me by my +friend Mr. W. Crooke.</note> A +similar rite is observed in the same month before the images +of two other goddesses, Ambabai and Lakhubai, who also +have temples at Pandharpur.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency</hi>, +xx. 443, 460.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='244'/><anchor id='Pg244'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Gardens of +Adonis in +Bavaria. +Gardens of +Adonis on +St. John's +Day in +Sardinia.</note> +In some parts of Bavaria it is customary to sow flax +in a pot on the last three days of the Carnival; from the +seed which grows best an omen is drawn as to whether the +early, the middle, or the late sowing will produce the best +crop.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern</hi> (Munich, 1860-1867), +ii. 298.</note> In Sardinia the gardens of Adonis are still planted +in connexion with the great Midsummer festival which bears +the name of St. John. At the end of March or on the first +of April a young man of the village presents himself to a girl, +and asks her to be his <foreign rend='italic'>comare</foreign> (gossip or sweetheart), offering +to be her <foreign rend='italic'>compare</foreign>. The invitation is considered as an honour +by the girl's family, and is gladly accepted. At the end of +May the girl makes a pot of the bark of the cork-tree, fills +it with earth, and sows a handful of wheat and barley in it. +The pot being placed in the sun and often watered, the corn +sprouts rapidly and has a good head by Midsummer Eve +(St. John's Eve, the twenty-third of June). The pot is then +called <foreign rend='italic'>Erme</foreign> or <foreign rend='italic'>Nenneri</foreign>. On St. John's Day the young man +and the girl, dressed in their best, accompanied by a long +retinue and preceded by children gambolling and frolicking, +move in procession to a church outside the village. Here +they break the pot by throwing it against the door of the +church. Then they sit down in a ring on the grass and eat +eggs and herbs to the music of flutes. Wine is mixed in a +cup and passed round, each one drinking as it passes. +Then they join hands and sing <q>Sweethearts of St. John</q> +(<foreign rend='italic'>Compare e comare di San Giovanni</foreign>) over and over again, +the flutes playing the while. When they tire of singing +they stand up and dance gaily in a ring till evening. This +is the general Sardinian custom. As practised at Ozieri it +has some special features. In May the pots are made of +cork-bark and planted with corn, as already described. +Then on the Eve of St. John the window-sills are draped +with rich cloths, on which the pots are placed, adorned with +crimson and blue silk and ribbons of various colours. On +each of the pots they used formerly to place a statuette or +cloth doll dressed as a woman, or a Priapus-like figure made +of paste; but this custom, rigorously forbidden by the +Church, has fallen into disuse. The village swains go about +<pb n='245'/><anchor id='Pg245'/> +in a troop to look at the pots and their decorations and to +wait for the girls, who assemble on the public square to +celebrate the festival. Here a great bonfire is kindled, +round which they dance and make merry. Those who wish +to be <q>Sweethearts of St. John</q> act as follows. The young +man stands on one side of the bonfire and the girl on the +other, and they, in a manner, join hands by each grasping +one end of a long stick, which they pass three times backwards +and forwards across the fire, thus thrusting their hands +thrice rapidly into the flames. This seals their relationship +to each other. Dancing and music go on till late at night.<note place='foot'>Antonio Bresciani, <hi rend='italic'>Dei costumi +dell' isola di Sardegna comparati cogli +antichissimi popoli orientali</hi> (Rome +and Turin, 1866), pp. 427 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; R. +Tennant, <hi rend='italic'>Sardinia and its Resources</hi> +(Rome and London, 1885), p. 187; S. +Gabriele, <q>Usi dei contadini della +Sardegna,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Archivio per lo Studio delle +Tradizioni Popolari</hi>, vii. (1888) pp. +469 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Tennant says that the pots +are kept in a dark warm place, and +that the children leap across the fire.</note> +The correspondence of these Sardinian pots of grain to the +gardens of Adonis seems complete, and the images formerly +placed in them answer to the images of Adonis which +accompanied his gardens. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Gardens of +Adonis on +St. John's +Day in +Sicily.</note> +Customs of the same sort are observed at the same +season in Sicily. Pairs of boys and girls become gossips of +St. John on St. John's Day by drawing each a hair from his +or her head and performing various ceremonies over them. +Thus they tie the hairs together and throw them up in +the air, or exchange them over a potsherd, which they +afterwards break in two, preserving each a fragment with +pious care. The tie formed in the latter way is supposed +to last for life. In some parts of Sicily the gossips of St. +John present each other with plates of sprouting corn, lentils, +and canary seed, which have been planted forty days before +the festival. The one who receives the plate pulls a stalk +of the young plants, binds it with a ribbon, and preserves it +among his or her greatest treasures, restoring the platter to +the giver. At Catania the gossips exchange pots of basil +and great cucumbers; the girls tend the basil, and the +thicker it grows the more it is prized.<note place='foot'>G. Pitrè, <hi rend='italic'>Usi e Costumi, Credenze +e Pregiudizi del Popolo Siciliano</hi> +(Palermo, 1889), ii. 271-278. Compare +<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Spettacoli e Feste Popolari +Siciliane</hi> (Palermo, 1881), pp. 297 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +In the Abruzzi also young men and +young women become gossips by exchanging +nosegays on St. John's Day, +and the tie thus formed is regarded as +sacred. See G. Finamore, <hi rend='italic'>Credenze, +Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi</hi> (Palermo, +1890), pp. 165 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<pb n='246'/><anchor id='Pg246'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>In these +Sardinian +and Sicilian +ceremonies +St. John +may have +taken the +place of +Adonis. +Custom of +bathing in +water or +washing in +dew on +the Eve or +Day of St. +John (Midsummer +Eve or Midsummer +Day). Petrarch at +Cologne on +St. John's +Eve.</note> +In these midsummer customs of Sardinia and Sicily it +is possible that, as Mr. R. Wünsch supposes,<note place='foot'>R. Wünsch, <hi rend='italic'>Das Frühlingsfest +der Insel Malta</hi>, pp. 47-57.</note> St. John +has replaced Adonis. We have seen that the rites of +Tammuz or Adonis were commonly celebrated about midsummer; +according to Jerome, their date was June.<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg010'>10</ref>, note 1, <ref target='Pg224'>224</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +<ref target='Pg226'>226</ref>.</note> And +besides their date and their similarity in respect of the pots +of herbs and corn, there is another point of affinity between +the two festivals, the heathen and the Christian. In both +of them water plays a prominent part. At his midsummer +festival in Babylon the image of Tammuz, whose name is +said to mean <q>true son of the deep water,</q> was bathed with +pure water: at his summer festival in Alexandria the image +of Adonis, with that of his divine mistress Aphrodite, was +committed to the waves; and at the midsummer celebration +in Greece the gardens of Adonis were thrown into the sea +or into springs. Now a great feature of the midsummer +festival associated with the name of St. John is, or used to +be, the custom of bathing in the sea, springs, rivers, or the +dew on Midsummer Eve or the morning of Midsummer Day. +Thus, for example, at Naples there is a church dedicated to +St. John the Baptist under the name of St. John of the Sea +(<foreign lang='it' rend='italic'>S. Giovan a mare</foreign>); and it was an old practice for men +and women to bathe in the sea on St. John's Eve, that is, +on Midsummer Eve, believing that thus all their sins were +washed away.<note place='foot'>J. Grimm, <hi rend='italic'>Deutsche Mythologie</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> +i. 490.</note> In the Abruzzi water is still supposed to +acquire certain marvellous and beneficent properties on St. +John's Night. They say that on that night the sun and +moon bathe in the water. Hence many people take a bath +in the sea or in a river at that season, especially at the +moment of sunrise. At Castiglione a Casauria they go +before sunrise to the Pescara River or to springs, wash their +faces and hands, then gird themselves with twigs of bryony +(<foreign rend='italic'>vitalba</foreign>) and twine the plant round their brows, in order +that they may be free from pains. At Pescina boys and +girls wash each other's faces in a river or a spring, then +exchange kisses, and become gossips. The dew, also, that +<pb n='247'/><anchor id='Pg247'/> +falls on St. John's Night is supposed in the Abruzzi to +benefit whatever it touches, whether it be water, flowers, or +the human body. For that reason people put out vessels +of water on the window-sills or the terraces, and wash themselves +with the water in the morning in order to purify +themselves and escape headaches and colds. A still more +efficacious mode of accomplishing the same end is to rise at +the peep of dawn, to wet the hands in the dewy grass, and +then to rub the moisture on the eyelids, the brow, and the +temples, because the dew is believed to cure maladies of the +head and eyes. It is also a remedy for diseases of the skin. +Persons who are thus afflicted should roll on the dewy +grass. When patients are prevented by their infirmity or +any other cause from quitting the house, their friends will +gather the dew in sheets or tablecloths and so apply it to +the suffering part.<note place='foot'>G. Finamore, <hi rend='italic'>Credenze, Usi e +Costumi Abruzzesi</hi>, pp. 156-160. A +passage in Isaiah (xxvi. 19) seems to +imply that dew possessed the magical +virtue of restoring the dead to life. +In this passage of Isaiah the customs +which I have cited in the text perhaps +favour the ordinary interpretation of +טל אורת as <q>dew of herbs</q> (compare 2 +Kings iv. 39) against the interpretation +<q>dew of lights,</q> which some modern +commentators (Dillmann, Skinner, +Whitehouse), following Jerome, have +adopted.</note> At Marsala in Sicily there is a spring +of water in a subterranean grotto called the Grotto of the +Sibyl. Beside it stands a church of St. John, which has +been supposed to occupy the site of a temple of Apollo. +On St. John's Eve, the twenty-third of June, women and +girls visit the grotto, and by drinking of the prophetic water +learn whether their husbands have been faithful to them in +the year that is past, or whether they themselves will wed +in the year that is to come. Sick people, too, imagine that +by bathing in the water, drinking of it, or ducking thrice in +it in the name of the Trinity, they will be made whole.<note place='foot'>G. Pitrè, <hi rend='italic'>Feste patronali in Sicilia</hi> +(Turin and Palermo, 1900), pp. 488, +491-493.</note> At +Chiaramonte in Sicily the following custom is observed on +St. John's Eve. The men repair to one fountain and the +women to another, and dip their heads thrice in the water, +repeating at each ablution certain verses in honour of +St. John. They believe that this is a cure or preventive of +the scald.<note place='foot'>G. Pitrè, <hi rend='italic'>Spettacoli e Feste Popolari +Siciliane</hi>, p. 307.</note> When Petrarch visited Cologne, he chanced to +<pb n='248'/><anchor id='Pg248'/> +arrive in the town on St. John's Eve. The sun was nearly +setting, and his host at once led him to the Rhine. A +strange sight there met his eyes, for the banks of the +river were covered with pretty women. The crowd was great +but good-humoured. From a rising ground on which he +stood the poet saw many of the women, girt with fragrant +herbs, kneel down on the water's edge, roll their sleeves +up above their elbows, and wash their white arms and hands +in the river, murmuring softly some words which the Italian +did not understand. He was told that the custom was a +very old one, much honoured in the observance; for the +common folk, especially the women, believed that to wash +in the river on St. John's Eve would avert every misfortune +in the coming year.<note place='foot'>Petrarch, <hi rend='italic'>Epistolae de rebus familiaribus</hi>, +i. 4 (vol. i. pp. 44-46 ed. J. +Fracassetti, Florence, 1859-1862). +The passage is quoted by J. Grimm, +<hi rend='italic'>Deutsche Mythologie</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> i. 489 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> On St. John's Eve the people of +Copenhagen used to go on pilgrimage to a neighbouring +spring, there to heal and strengthen themselves in the +water.<note place='foot'>J. Grimm, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> i. 489.</note> In Spain people still bathe in the sea or roll naked +in the dew of the meadows on St. John's Eve, believing that +this is a sovereign preservative against diseases of the skin.<note place='foot'>Letter of Dr. Otero Acevado, of +Madrid, <hi rend='italic'>Le Temps</hi>, September 1898.</note> +To roll in the dew on the morning of St. John's Day is also +esteemed a cure for diseases of the skin in Normandy and +Perigord. In Perigord a field of hemp is especially recommended +for the purpose, and the patient should rub himself +with the plants on which he has rolled.<note place='foot'>J. Lecœur, <hi rend='italic'>Esquisses du Bocage +Normand</hi> (Condé-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), +ii. 8; A. de Nore, <hi rend='italic'>Coutumes, +Mythes et Traditions des provinces de +France</hi> (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. +150.</note> At Ciotat in +Provence, while the midsummer bonfire blazed, young people +used to plunge into the sea and splash each other vigorously. +At Vitrolles they bathed in a pond in order that they might +not suffer from fever during the year, and at Saint-Maries +they watered the horses to protect them from the itch.<note place='foot'>A. de Nore, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 20; +Bérenger-Féraud, <hi rend='italic'>Réminiscences populaires +de la Provence</hi> (Paris, 1885), +pp. 135-141.</note> A +custom of drenching people on this occasion with water +formerly prevailed in Toulon, Marseilles, and other towns of +the south of France. The water was squirted from syringes, +poured on the heads of passers-by from windows, and so +<pb n='249'/><anchor id='Pg249'/> +forth.<note place='foot'>A. Breuil, <q>Du Culte de St. Jean +Baptiste,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Mémoires de la Société des +Antiquaires de Picardie</hi>, viii. (1845) +pp. 237 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Compare <hi rend='italic'>Balder the +Beautiful</hi>, i. 193 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> From Europe the practice of bathing in rivers and +springs on St. John's Day appears to have passed with the +Spaniards to the New World.<note place='foot'>Diego Duran, <hi rend='italic'>Historia de las +Indias de Nueva España</hi>, edited by +J. F. Ramirez (Mexico, 1867-1880), +ii. 293.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +custom of +bathing +at midsummer +is +pagan, not +Christian, +in its origin.</note> +It may perhaps be suggested that this wide-spread +custom of bathing in water or dew on Midsummer Eve or +Midsummer Day is purely Christian in origin, having been +adopted as an appropriate mode of celebrating the day +dedicated to the Baptist. But in point of fact the custom +is older than Christianity, for it was denounced and forbidden +as a heathen practice by Augustine,<note place='foot'>Augustine, <hi rend='italic'>Opera</hi>, v. (Paris, 1683) +col. 903; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, Pars Secunda, coll. 461 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The second of these passages +occurs in a sermon of doubtful authenticity. +Both have been quoted by +J. Grimm, <hi rend='italic'>Deutsche Mythologie</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> i. +490.</note> and to this day it is +practised at midsummer by the Mohammedan peoples of +North Africa.<note place='foot'>E. Doutté, <hi rend='italic'>Magie et Religion dans +l'Afrique du Nord</hi> (Algiers, 1908), +pp. 567 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; E. Westermarck, <q>Midsummer +Customs in Morocco,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Folk-lore</hi>, +xvi. (1905) pp. 31 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with +Agriculture, Certain Dates of the Solar +Year, and the Weather</hi> (Helsingfors, +1913), pp. 84-86. See <hi rend='italic'>Balder the +Beautiful</hi>, i. 216.</note> We may conjecture that the Church, unable +to put down this relic of paganism, followed its usual policy +of accommodation by bestowing on the rite of a Christian +name and acquiescing, with a sigh, in its observance. And +casting about for a saint to supplant a heathen patron of +bathing, the Christian doctors could hardly have hit upon a +more appropriate successor than St. John the Baptist. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Old +heathen +festival +of midsummer +in +Europe +and the +East.</note> +But into whose shoes did the Baptist step? Was the +displaced deity really Adonis, as the foregoing evidence +seems to suggest? In Sardinia and Sicily it may have +been so, for in these islands Semitic influence was certainly +deep and probably lasting. The midsummer pastimes of +Sardinian and Sicilian children may therefore be a direct +continuation of the Carthaginian rites of Tammuz. Yet the +midsummer festival seems too widely spread and too deeply +rooted in Central and Northern Europe to allow us to trace +it everywhere to an Oriental origin in general and to the cult +of Adonis in particular. It has the air of a native of the soil +rather than of an exotic imported from the East. We shall +<pb n='250'/><anchor id='Pg250'/> +do better, therefore, to suppose that at a remote period +similar modes of thought, based on similar needs, led men +independently in many distant lands, from the North Sea +to the Euphrates, to celebrate the summer solstice with rites +which, while they differed in some things, yet agreed closely +in others; that in historical times a wave of Oriental +influence, starting perhaps from Babylonia, carried the +Tammuz or Adonis form of the festival westward till it +met with native forms of a similar festival; and that under +pressure of the Roman civilization these different yet kindred +festivals fused with each other and crystallized into a variety +of shapes, which subsisted more or less separately side by +side, till the Church, unable to suppress them altogether, +stripped them so far as it could of their grosser features, and +dexterously changing the names allowed them to pass +muster as Christian. And what has just been said of the +midsummer festivals probably applies, with the necessary +modifications, to the spring festivals also. They, too, seem +to have originated independently in Europe and the East, +and after ages of separation to have amalgamated under +the sway of the Roman Empire and the Christian Church. +In Syria, as we have seen, there appears to have been +a vernal celebration of Adonis; and we shall presently meet +with an undoubted instance of an Oriental festival of spring +in the rites of Attis. Meantime we must return for a little +to the midsummer festival which goes by the name of +St. John. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Midsummer +fires and +midsummer +couples in +relation to +vegetation.</note> +The Sardinian practice of making merry round a great +bonfire on St. John's Eve is an instance of a custom which +has been practised at the midsummer festival from time +immemorial in many parts of Europe. That custom has +been more fully dealt with by me elsewhere.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Balder the Beautiful</hi>, i. 160 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> The instances +which I have cited in other parts of this work seem to +indicate a connexion of the midsummer bonfire with vegetation. +For example, both in Sweden and Bohemia an essential +part of the festival is the raising of a May-pole or Midsummer-tree, +which in Bohemia is burned in the bonfire.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</hi>, ii. 65 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Again, in +a Russian midsummer ceremony a straw figure of Kupalo, +<pb n='251'/><anchor id='Pg251'/> +the representative of vegetation, is placed beside a May-pole +or Midsummer-tree and then carried to and fro across a +bonfire.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, p. 262.</note> Kupalo is here represented in duplicate, in tree-form +by the Midsummer-tree, and in human form by the +straw effigy, just as Adonis was represented both by an +image and a garden of Adonis; and the duplicate representatives +of Kupalo, like those of Adonis, are finally cast +into water. In the Sardinian and Sicilian customs the +Gossips or Sweethearts of St. John probably answer, on the +one hand to Adonis and Astarte, on the other to the King +and Queen of May. In the Swedish province of Blekinge +part of the midsummer festival is the election of a Midsummer +Bride, who chooses her bridegroom; a collection is +made for the pair, who for the time being are looked upon +as man and wife.<note place='foot'>L. Lloyd, <hi rend='italic'>Peasant Life in Sweden</hi> +(London, 1870), p. 257.</note> Such Midsummer pairs may be supposed, +like the May pairs, to stand for the powers of vegetation or +of fertility in general: they represent in flesh and blood what +the images of Siva or Mahadeo and Parvati in the Indian +ceremonies, and the images of Adonis and Aphrodite in the +Alexandrian ceremony, set forth in effigy. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Gardens +of Adonis +intended to +foster the +growth of +vegetation, +and +especially +of the +crops. Modes of +divination +at midsummer +like the +gardens of +Adonis.</note> +The reason why ceremonies whose aim is to foster the +growth of vegetation should thus be associated with bonfires; +why in particular the representative of vegetation should be +burned in the likeness of a tree, or passed across the fire in +effigy or in the form of a living couple, has been discussed +by me elsewhere.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Balder the Beautiful</hi>, i. 328 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, +ii. 21 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Here it is enough to have adduced +evidence of such association, and therefore to have obviated +the objection which might have been raised to my theory of +the Sardinian custom, on the ground that the bonfires have +nothing to do with vegetation. One more piece of evidence +may here be given to prove the contrary. In some parts of +Germany and Austria young men and girls leap over midsummer +bonfires for the express purpose of making the hemp +or flax grow tall.<note place='foot'>W. Mannhardt, <hi rend='italic'>Baumkultus</hi>, p. +464; K. von Leoprechting, <hi rend='italic'>Aus dem +Lechrain</hi> (Munich, 1855), p. 183. +For more evidence see <hi rend='italic'>Balder the +Beautiful</hi>, i. 165, 166, 166 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 168, +173, 174.</note> We may, therefore, assume that in the +Sardinian custom the blades of wheat and barley which are +<pb n='252'/><anchor id='Pg252'/> +forced on in pots for the midsummer festival, and which +correspond so closely to the gardens of Adonis, form one +of those widely-spread midsummer ceremonies, the original +object of which was to promote the growth of vegetation, +and especially of the crops. But as, by an easy extension +of ideas, the spirit of vegetation was believed to exercise a +beneficent and fertilizing influence on human as well as +animal life, the gardens of Adonis would be supposed, like +the May-trees or May-boughs, to bring good luck, and more +particularly perhaps offspring,<note place='foot'>The use of gardens of Adonis to +fertilize the human sexes appears plainly +in the corresponding Indian practices. +See above, pp. <ref target='Pg241'>241</ref>, <ref target='Pg242'>242</ref>, <ref target='Pg243'>243</ref>.</note> to the family or to the person +who planted them; and even after the idea had been abandoned +that they operated actively to confer prosperity, they +might still be used to furnish omens of good or evil. It is +thus that magic dwindles into divination. Accordingly we +find modes of divination practised at midsummer which +resemble more or less closely the gardens of Adonis. Thus +an anonymous Italian writer of the sixteenth century has +recorded that it was customary to sow barley and wheat a +few days before the festival of St. John (Midsummer Day) +and also before that of St. Vitus; and it was believed that +the person for whom they were sown would be fortunate, and +get a good husband or a good wife, if the grain sprouted well; +but if it sprouted ill, he or she would be unlucky.<note place='foot'>G. Pitrè, <hi rend='italic'>Spettacoli e Feste Popolari +Siciliane</hi>, pp. 296 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> In various +parts of Italy and all over Sicily it is still customary to put +plants in water or in earth on the Eve of St. John, and from +the manner in which they are found to be blooming or +fading on St. John's Day omens are drawn, especially as to +fortune in love. Amongst the plants used for this purpose +are <foreign lang='it' rend='italic'>Ciuri di S. Giuvanni</foreign> (St. John's wort?) and nettles.<note place='foot'>G. Pitrè, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 302 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Antonio de Nino, <hi rend='italic'>Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi</hi> +(Florence, 1879-1883), i. 55 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +A. de Gubernatis, <hi rend='italic'>Usi Nuziali in Italia +e presso gli altri Popoli Indo-Europei</hi> +(Milan, 1878), pp. 39 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Compare +L. Passarini, <q>Il Comparatico e la +Festa di S. Giovanni nelle Marche e +in Roma,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Archivio per lo Studio delle +Tradizioni Popolari</hi>, i. (1882) p. 135. +At Smyrna a blossom of the <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Agnus +castus</foreign> is used on St. John's Day for a +similar purpose, but the mode in which +the omens are drawn is somewhat +different. See Teofilo, <q>La notte di +San Giovanni in Oriente,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Archivio +per lo Studio delle Tradizioni Popolari</hi>, +vii. (1888) pp. 128-130.</note> +In Prussia two hundred years ago the farmers used to send +out their servants, especially their maids, to gather St. John's +<pb n='253'/><anchor id='Pg253'/> +wort on Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day (St. John's +Day). When they had fetched it, the farmer took as many +plants as there were persons and stuck them in the wall or +between the beams; and it was thought that he or she +whose plant did not bloom would soon fall sick or die. The +rest of the plants were tied in a bundle, fastened to the end +of a pole, and set up at the gate or wherever the corn would +be brought in at the next harvest. The bundle was called +<foreign lang='de' rend='italic'>Kupole</foreign>: the ceremony was known as Kupole's festival; +and at it the farmer prayed for a good crop of hay, and +so forth.<note place='foot'>Matthäus Prätorius, <hi rend='italic'>Deliciae Prussicae</hi> +(Berlin, 1871), p. 56.</note> This Prussian custom is particularly notable, +inasmuch as it strongly confirms the opinion that Kupalo +(doubtless identical with Kupole) was originally a deity of +vegetation.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, pp. 261 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> For here Kupalo is represented by a bundle of +plants specially associated with midsummer in folk-custom; +and her influence over vegetation is plainly signified by +placing her vegetable emblem over the place where the +harvest is brought in, as well as by the prayers for a good +crop which are uttered on the occasion. This furnishes a +fresh argument in support of the view that the Death, whose +analogy to Kupalo, Yarilo, and the rest I have shown elsewhere, +originally personified vegetation, more especially the +dying or dead vegetation of winter.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, pp. 233 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, +261 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Further, my interpretation +of the gardens of Adonis is confirmed by finding that +in this Prussian custom the very same kind of plants is used +to form the gardens of Adonis (as we may call them) and +the image of the deity. Nothing could set in a stronger light +the truth of the theory that the gardens of Adonis are merely +another manifestation of the god himself. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Sicilian +gardens of +Adonis in +spring.</note> +In Sicily gardens of Adonis are still sown in spring +as well as in summer, from which we may perhaps infer +that Sicily as well as Syria celebrated of old a vernal festival +of the dead and risen god. At the approach of Easter, +Sicilian women sow wheat, lentils, and canary-seed in plates, +which they keep in the dark and water every two days. +The plants soon shoot up; the stalks are tied together with +red ribbons, and the plates containing them are placed on +<pb n='254'/><anchor id='Pg254'/> +the sepulchres which, with the effigies of the dead Christ, +are made up in Catholic and Greek churches on Good +Friday,<note place='foot'>G. Pitrè, <hi rend='italic'>Spettacoli e Feste Popolari +Siciliane</hi>, p. 211.</note> just as the gardens of Adonis were placed on the +grave of the dead Adonis.<note place='foot'>Κήπους ὡσίουν ἐπιταφίους Ἀδώνιδι, +Eustathius on Homer, <hi rend='italic'>Od.</hi> xi. 590.</note> The practice is not confined +to Sicily, for it is observed also at Cosenza in Calabria,<note place='foot'>Vincenzo Dorsa, <hi rend='italic'>La tradizione +Greco-Latina negli usi e nelle credenze +popolari della Calabria Citeriore</hi> (Cosenza, +1884), p. 50.</note> and +perhaps in other places. The whole custom—sepulchres as +well as plates of sprouting grain—may be nothing but a continuation, +under a different name, of the worship of Adonis. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Resemblance +of +the Easter +ceremonies +in the +Greek +Church to +the rites +of Adonis.</note> +Nor are these Sicilian and Calabrian customs the only +Easter ceremonies which resemble the rites of Adonis. +<q>During the whole of Good Friday a waxen effigy of the +dead Christ is exposed to view in the middle of the Greek +churches and is covered with fervent kisses by the thronging +crowd, while the whole church rings with melancholy, monotonous +dirges. Late in the evening, when it has grown quite +dark, this waxen image is carried by the priests into the +street on a bier adorned with lemons, roses, jessamine, and +other flowers, and there begins a grand procession of the +multitude, who move in serried ranks, with slow and solemn +step, through the whole town. Every man carries his taper +and breaks out into doleful lamentation. At all the houses +which the procession passes there are seated women with +censers to fumigate the marching host. Thus the community +solemnly buries its Christ as if he had just died. At +last the waxen image is again deposited in the church, and +the same lugubrious chants echo anew. These lamentations, +accompanied by a strict fast, continue till midnight on +Saturday. As the clock strikes twelve, the bishop appears +and announces the glad tidings that <q>Christ is risen,</q> to +which the crowd replies, <q>He is risen indeed,</q> and at once +the whole city bursts into an uproar of joy, which finds vent +in shrieks and shouts, in the endless discharge of carronades +and muskets, and the explosion of fire-works of every sort. +In the very same hour people plunge from the extremity +of the fast into the enjoyment of the Easter lamb and neat +wine.</q><note place='foot'>C. Wachsmuth, <hi rend='italic'>Das alte Griechenland +im neuen</hi> (Bonn, 1864), pp. 26. +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The writer compares these ceremonies +with the Eleusinian rites. But +I agree with Mr. R. Wünsch (<hi rend='italic'>Das +Frühlingsfest der Insel Malta</hi>, pp. 49 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>) that the resemblance to the Adonis +festival is still closer. Compare V. +Dorsa, <hi rend='italic'>La tradizione Greco-Latina +negli usi e nelle credenze popolari della +Calabria Citeriore</hi>, pp. 49 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Prof. +Wachsmuth's description seems to +apply to Athens. In the country districts +the ritual is apparently similar. +See R. A. Arnold, <hi rend='italic'>From the Levant</hi> +(London, 1868), pp. 251 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 259 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +So in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre +at Jerusalem the death and burial of +Christ are acted over a life-like effigy. +See Henry Maundrell, <hi rend='italic'>Journey from +Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter, <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> +1697</hi>, Fourth Edition (Perth, 1800), +pp. 110 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, in Th. Wright's +<hi rend='italic'>Early Travels in Palestine</hi> (London, +1848), pp. 443-445.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='255'/><anchor id='Pg255'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Resemblance +of +the Easter +ceremonies +in the +Catholic +Church to +the rites +of Adonis.</note> +In like manner the Catholic Church has been accustomed +to bring before its followers in a visible form the death and +resurrection of the Redeemer. Such sacred dramas are well +fitted to impress the lively imagination and to stir the warm +feelings of a susceptible southern race, to whom the pomp +and pageantry of Catholicism are more congenial than to +the colder temperament of the Teutonic peoples. The +solemnities observed in Sicily on Good Friday, the official +anniversary of the Crucifixion, are thus described by a native +Sicilian writer. <q>A truly moving ceremony is the procession +which always takes place in the evening in every commune +of Sicily, and further the Deposition from the Cross. The +brotherhoods took part in the procession, and the rear was +brought up by a great many boys and girls representing +saints, both male and female, and carrying the emblems of +Christ's Passion. The Deposition from the Cross was +managed by the priests. The coffin with the dead Christ +in it was flanked by Jews armed with swords, an object of +horror and aversion in the midst of the profound pity +excited by the sight not only of Christ but of the Mater +Dolorosa, who followed behind him. Now and then the +<q>mysteries</q> or symbols of the Crucifixion went in front. +Sometimes the procession followed the <q>three hours of +agony</q> and the <q>Deposition from the Cross.</q> The <q>three +hours</q> commemorated those which Jesus Christ passed upon +the Cross. Beginning at the eighteenth and ending at the +twenty-first hour of Italian time two priests preached +alternately on the Passion. Anciently the sermons were +delivered in the open air on the place called the Calvary: at +last, when the third hour was about to strike, at the words +<pb n='256'/><anchor id='Pg256'/> +<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>emisit spiritum</foreign> Christ died, bowing his head amid the sobs +and tears of the bystanders. Immediately afterwards in +some places, three hours afterwards in others, the sacred +body was unnailed and deposited in the coffin. In Castronuovo, +at the Ave Maria, two priests clad as Jews, representing +Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, with their +servants in costume, repaired to the Calvary, preceded by +the Company of the Whites. There, with doleful verses +and chants appropriate to the occasion, they performed the +various operations of the Deposition, after which the procession +took its way to the larger church.... In Salaparuta +the Calvary is erected in the church. At the preaching of +the death, the Crucified is made to bow his head by means +of machinery, while guns are fired, trumpets sound, and +amid the silence of the people, impressed by the death of +the Redeemer, the strains of a melancholy funeral march +are heard. Christ is removed from the Cross and deposited +in the coffin by three priests. After the procession of the +dead Christ the burial is performed, that is, two priests lay +Christ in a fictitious sepulchre, from which at the mass of +Easter Saturday the image of the risen Christ issues and is +elevated upon the altar by means of machinery.</q><note place='foot'>G. Pitrè, <hi rend='italic'>Spettacoli e Feste Popolari +Siciliane</hi>, pp. 217 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Scenic +representations of the same sort, with variations of detail, are +exhibited at Easter in the Abruzzi,<note place='foot'>G. Finamore, <hi rend='italic'>Credenze, Usi e +Costumi Abruzzesi</hi>, pp. 118-120; A. +de Nino, <hi rend='italic'>Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi</hi>, +i. 64 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, ii. 210-212. At Roccacaramanico +part of the Easter spectacle is +the death of Judas, who, personated by +a living man, pretends to hang himself +upon a tree or a great branch, which +has been brought into the church and +planted near the high altar for the purpose +(A. de Nino, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> ii. 211).</note> and probably in many +other parts of the Catholic world.<note place='foot'>The drama of the death and resurrection +of Christ was formerly celebrated +at Easter in England. See +Abbot Gasquet, <hi rend='italic'>Parish Life in Mediaeval +England</hi>, pp. 177 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 182 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Christian +festival of +Easter +perhaps +grafted on +a festival +of Adonis.</note> +When we reflect how often the Church has skilfully contrived +to plant the seeds of the new faith on the old stock +of paganism, we may surmise that the Easter celebration of +the dead and risen Christ was grafted upon a similar celebration +of the dead and risen Adonis, which, as we have seen +reason to believe, was celebrated in Syria at the same season. +The type, created by Greek artists, of the sorrowful goddess +with her dying lover in her arms, resembles and may have +<pb n='257'/><anchor id='Pg257'/> +been the model of the <foreign rend='italic'>Pietà</foreign> of Christian art, the Virgin with +the dead body of her divine Son in her lap, of which the +most celebrated example is the one by Michael Angelo in +St. Peter's. That noble group, in which the living sorrow of +the mother contrasts so wonderfully with the languor of +death in the son, is one of the finest compositions in marble. +Ancient Greek art has bequeathed to us few works so +beautiful, and none so pathetic.<note place='foot'>The comparison has already been +made by A. Maury, who also compares +the Easter ceremonies of the +Catholic Church with the rites of +Adonis (<hi rend='italic'>Histoire des Religions de la +Grèce Antique</hi>, Paris, 1857-1859, vol. +iii. p. 221).</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +worship of +Adonis at +Bethlehem. The +Morning +Star, +identified +with +Venus, +may have +been the +signal for +the festival +of Adonis. The Star of +Bethlehem.</note> +In this connexion a well-known statement of Jerome +may not be without significance. He tells us that Bethlehem, +the traditionary birthplace of the Lord, was shaded +by a grove of that still older Syrian Lord, Adonis, and +that where the infant Jesus had wept, the lover of Venus +was bewailed.<note place='foot'>Jerome, <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> lviii. 3 (Migne's +<hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Latina</hi>, xxii. 581).</note> Though he does not expressly say so, +Jerome seems to have thought that the grove of Adonis +had been planted by the heathen after the birth of Christ +for the purpose of defiling the sacred spot. In this +he may have been mistaken. If Adonis was indeed, +as I have argued, the spirit of the corn, a more suitable +name for his dwelling-place could hardly be found than +Bethlehem, <q>the House of Bread,</q><note place='foot'>Bethlehem is בית-לחם, literally +<q>House of Bread.</q> The name is +appropriate, for <q>the immediate neighbourhood +is very fertile, bearing, besides +wheat and barley, groves of olive and +almond, and vineyards. The wine of +Bethlehem (<q>Talhamī</q>) is among the +best of Palestine. So great fertility +must mean that the site was occupied, +in spite of the want of springs, from the +earliest times</q> (George Adam Smith, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Bethlehem,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia +Biblica</hi>, i. 560). It was in the harvest-fields +of Bethlehem that Ruth, at least +in the poet's fancy, listened to the +nightingale <q>amid the alien corn.</q></note> and he may well have +been worshipped there at his House of Bread long ages +before the birth of Him who said, <q>I am the bread of life.</q><note place='foot'>John vi. 35.</note> +Even on the hypothesis that Adonis followed rather than +preceded Christ at Bethlehem, the choice of his sad figure +to divert the allegiance of Christians from their Lord cannot +but strike us as eminently appropriate when we remember the +similarity of the rites which commemorated the death and +resurrection of the two. One of the earliest seats of the +worship of the new god was Antioch, and at Antioch, +<pb n='258'/><anchor id='Pg258'/> +as we have seen,<note place='foot'>Above, p. <ref target='Pg227'>227</ref>.</note> the death of the old god was annually +celebrated with great solemnity. A circumstance which +attended the entrance of Julian into the city at the time of +the Adonis festival may perhaps throw some light on the date +of its celebration. When the emperor drew near to the city +he was received with public prayers as if he had been a god, +and he marvelled at the voices of a great multitude who +cried that the Star of Salvation had dawned upon them in +the East.<note place='foot'>Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii. 9. +14, <q><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Urbique propinquans in speciem +alicujus numinis votis excipitur publicis, +miratus voces multitudinis magnae, +salutare sidus inluxisse eois partibus +adclamantis.</foreign></q> We may compare +the greeting which a tribe of South +American Indians used to give to a +worshipful star after its temporary disappearance. +<q>The Abipones think +that the Pleiades, composed of seven +stars, is an image of their ancestor. As +the constellation is invisible for some +months in the sky of South America, +they believe that their ancestor is ill, +and every year they are mortally afraid +that he will die. But when the said +stars reappear in the month of May, +they imagine that their ancestor is +recovered from his sickness and has +returned; so they hail him with joyous +shouts and the glad music of pipes and +war-horns. They congratulate him on +his recovery. <q>How we thank you! +At last you have come back? Oh, +have you happily recovered?</q> With +such cries they fill the air, attesting at +once their gladness and their folly.</q> +See M. Dobrizhoffer, <hi rend='italic'>Historia de Abiponibus</hi> +(Vienna, 1784), ii. 77.</note> This may doubtless have been no more than a +fulsome compliment paid by an obsequious Oriental crowd +to the Roman emperor. But it is also possible that +the rising of a bright star regularly gave the signal for +the festival, and that as chance would have it the star +emerged above the rim of the eastern horizon at the very +moment of the emperor's approach. The coincidence, if it +happened, could hardly fail to strike the imagination of a +superstitious and excited multitude, who might thereupon +hail the great man as the deity whose coming was +announced by the sign in the heavens. Or the emperor +may have mistaken for a greeting to himself the shouts +which were addressed to the star. Now Astarte, the divine +mistress of Adonis, was identified with the planet Venus, +and her changes from a morning to an evening star were +carefully noted by the Babylonian astronomers, who drew +omens from her alternate appearance and disappearance.<note place='foot'>M. Jastrow, <hi rend='italic'>The Religion of +Babylonia and Assyria</hi>, pp. 370 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's <hi rend='italic'>Die +Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +p. 424.</note> +Hence we may conjecture that the festival of Adonis was +regularly timed to coincide with the appearance of Venus as +<pb n='259'/><anchor id='Pg259'/> +the Morning or Evening Star. But the star which the +people of Antioch saluted at the festival was seen in the +East; therefore, if it was indeed Venus, it can only have +been the Morning Star. At Aphaca in Syria, where there +was a famous temple of Astarte, the signal for the celebration +of the rites was apparently given by the flashing of a +meteor, which on a certain day fell like a star from the top +of Mount Lebanon into the river Adonis. The meteor was +thought to be Astarte herself,<note place='foot'>Sozomenus, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Ecclesiastica</hi>, +ii. 5 (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, lxvii. +948). The connexion of the meteor +with the festival of Adonis is not +mentioned by Sozomenus, but is confirmed +by Zosimus, who says (<hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> i. +58) that a light like a torch or a globe +of fire was seen on the sanctuary at the +seasons when the people assembled to +worship the goddess and to cast their +offerings of gold, silver, and fine +raiment into a lake beside the temple. +As to Aphaca and the grave of Adonis +see above, pp. <ref target='Pg028'>28</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> and its flight through the air +might naturally be interpreted as the descent of the amorous +goddess to the arms of her lover. At Antioch and elsewhere +the appearance of the Morning Star on the day of the festival +may in like manner have been hailed as the coming of the +goddess of love to wake her dead leman from his earthy bed. +If that were so, we may surmise that it was the Morning +Star which guided the wise men of the East to Bethlehem,<note place='foot'>Matthew ii. 1-12.</note> +the hallowed spot which heard, in the language of Jerome, the +weeping of the infant Christ and the lament for Adonis. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='261'/><anchor id='Pg261'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Book Second. Attis.</head> + +<pb n='263'/><anchor id='Pg263'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter I. The Myth and Ritual of Attis.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Attis the +Phrygian +counterpart +of +Adonis. +His +relation +to Cybele. +His +miraculous +birth. The death +of Attis.</note> +Another of those gods whose supposed death and resurrection +struck such deep roots into the faith and ritual of +Western Asia is Attis. He was to Phrygia what Adonis +was to Syria. Like Adonis, he appears to have been a god +of vegetation, and his death and resurrection were annually +mourned and rejoiced over at a festival in spring.<note place='foot'>Diodorus Siculus, iii. 59. 7; Sallustius +philosophus, <q>De diis et mundo,</q> +iv., <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum</hi>, +ed. F. G. A. Mullach, iii. 33; +Scholiast on Nicander, <hi rend='italic'>Alexipharmaca</hi>, +8; Firmicus Maternus, <hi rend='italic'>De errore profanarum +religionum</hi>, 3 and 22. The +ancient evidence, literary and inscriptional, +as to the myth and ritual of +Attis has been collected and discussed +by Mr. H. Hepding in his monograph, +<hi rend='italic'>Attis, seine Mythen und sein Kult</hi> +(Giessen, 1903).</note> The +legends and rites of the two gods were so much alike that +the ancients themselves sometimes identified them.<note place='foot'>Hippolytus, <hi rend='italic'>Refutatio omnium +haeresium</hi>, v. 9, p. 168 ed. L. Duncker +and F. G. Schneidewin (Göttingen, +1859); Socrates, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Ecclesiastica</hi>, +iii. 23. 51 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Attis +was said to have been a fair young shepherd or herdsman +beloved by Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, a great +Asiatic goddess of fertility, who had her chief home in +Phrygia.<note place='foot'>Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Fasti</hi>, iv. 223 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Tertullian, +<hi rend='italic'>Apologeticus</hi>, 15; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Ad Nationes</hi>, i. +10; Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, iv. +35. As to Cybele, the Great Mother, +the Mother of the Gods, conceived as +the source of all life, both animal and +vegetable, see Rapp, in W. H. Roscher's +<hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Kybele,</q> ii. 1638 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Some held that Attis was her son.<note place='foot'>Scholiast on Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>Jupiter +Tragoedus</hi>, 8, p. 60 ed. H. Rabe +(Leipsic, 1906), (vol. iv. p. 173 ed. +C. Jacobitz); Hippolytus, <hi rend='italic'>Refutatio +omnium haeresium</hi>, v. 9, pp. 168, 170 +ed. Duncker and Schneidewin.</note> His birth, +like that of many other heroes, is said to have been +miraculous. His mother, Nana, was a virgin, who conceived +by putting a ripe almond or a pomegranate in her bosom. +Indeed in the Phrygian cosmogony an almond figured +<pb n='264'/><anchor id='Pg264'/> +as the father of all things,<note place='foot'>Pausanias, vii. 17. 11; Hippolytus, +<hi rend='italic'>Refutatio omnium haeresium</hi>, v. 9, pp. +166, 168 ed. Duncker and Schneidewin; +Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, v. 6.</note> perhaps because its delicate lilac +blossom is one of the first heralds of the spring, appearing on +the bare boughs before the leaves have opened. Such tales of +virgin mothers are relics of an age of childish ignorance when +men had not yet recognized the intercourse of the sexes as +the true cause of offspring. That ignorance, still shared by +the lowest of existing savages, the aboriginal tribes of central +Australia,<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg099'>99</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> was doubtless at one time universal among +mankind. Even in later times, when people are better +acquainted with the laws of nature, they sometimes +imagine that these laws may be subject to exceptions, +and that miraculous beings may be born in miraculous +ways by women who have never known a man. In Palestine +to this day it is believed that a woman may conceive by a +jinnee or by the spirit of her dead husband. There is, or +was lately, a man at Nebk who is currently supposed to be +the offspring of such a union, and the simple folk have +never suspected his mother's virtue.<note place='foot'>S. I. Curtiss, <hi rend='italic'>Primitive Semitic +Religion To-day</hi>, pp. 115 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> See +above, pp. 78, 213 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Two different accounts +of the death of Attis were current. According to the +one he was killed by a boar, like Adonis. According to +the other he unmanned himself under a pine-tree, and +bled to death on the spot. The latter is said to have +been the local story told by the people of Pessinus, a great +seat of the worship of Cybele, and the whole legend of +which the story forms a part is stamped with a character +of rudeness and savagery that speaks strongly for its +antiquity.<note place='foot'>That Attis was killed by a boar +was stated by Hermesianax, an elegiac +poet of the fourth century <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> (Pausanias, +vii. 17); compare Scholiast +on Nicander, <hi rend='italic'>Alexipharmaca</hi>, 8. The +other story is told by Arnobius (<hi rend='italic'>Adversus +Nationes</hi>, v. 5 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>) on the +authority of Timotheus, who professed +to derive it from recondite antiquarian +works and from the very heart of the +mysteries. It is obviously identical +with the account which Pausanias (<hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>) +mentions as the story current in +Pessinus. According to Servius (on +Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> ix. 115), Attis was found +bleeding to death under a pine-tree, +but the wound which robbed him of +his virility and his life was not inflicted +by himself. The Timotheus cited by +Pausanias may be the Timotheus who +was consulted by Ptolemy Soter on +religious matters and helped to establish +the worship of Serapis. See Plutarch, +<hi rend='italic'>Isis et Osiris</hi>, 28; Franz Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Les +Religions Orientales dans le Paganisme +Romain</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Paris, 1909), pp. 77, 113, +335.</note> Both tales might claim the support of custom, +<pb n='265'/><anchor id='Pg265'/> +or rather both were probably invented to explain certain +customs observed by the worshippers. The story of the self-mutilation +of Attis is clearly an attempt to account for the +self-mutilation of his priests, who regularly castrated themselves +on entering the service of the goddess. The story of +his death by the boar may have been told to explain why his +worshippers, especially the people of Pessinus, abstained from +eating swine.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, vii. 17. 10; Julian, <hi rend='italic'>Orat.</hi> +v. 177 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b</hi>, p. 229, ed. F. C. Hertlein +(Leipsic, 1875-1876). Similarly at +Comana in Pontus, the seat of the worship +of the goddess Ma, pork was not eaten, +and swine might not even be brought +into the city (Strabo, xii. 8. 9, p. 575). +As to Comana see above, p. <ref target='Pg039'>39</ref>.</note> In like manner the worshippers of Adonis +abstained from pork, because a boar had killed their god.<note place='foot'>S. Sophronius, <q>SS. Cyri et +Joannis Miracula,</q> Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia +Graeca</hi>, lxxxvii. Pars Tertia, col. 3624, +πρὸς πλάνην Ἑλληνικὴν ἀποκλίνουσαν +[<hi rend='italic'>scil.</hi> τὴν Ἰουλίαν] καὶ ταύτῃ διὰ τὸν +Ἀδώνιδος Θάνατον τὰ κρέα παραιτεῖσθαι +τὰ ὕεια.</note> +After his death Attis is said to have been changed into +a pine-tree.<note place='foot'>Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> x. 103 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Worship +of Cybele +introduced +into Rome +in 204 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi></note> +The worship of the Phrygian Mother of the Gods was +adopted by the Romans in 204 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> towards the close of their +long struggle with Hannibal. For their drooping spirits had +been opportunely cheered by a prophecy, alleged to be drawn +from that convenient farrago of nonsense, the Sibylline Books, +that the foreign invader would be driven from Italy if the +great Oriental goddess were brought to Rome. Accordingly +ambassadors were despatched to her sacred city Pessinus in +Phrygia. The small black stone which embodied the mighty +divinity was entrusted to them and conveyed to Rome, +where it was received with great respect and installed in the +temple of Victory on the Palatine Hill. It was the middle +of April when the goddess arrived,<note place='foot'>Livy, xxix. chs. 10, 11, and 14; +Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Fasti</hi>, iv. 259 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Herodian, ii. +11. As to the stone which represented +the goddess see Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus +Nationes</hi>, vii. 49.</note> and she went to work at +once. For the harvest that year was such as had not been +seen for many a long day,<note place='foot'>Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> xviii. 16.</note> and in the very next year +Hannibal and his veterans embarked for Africa. As he +looked his last on the coast of Italy, fading behind him in +the distance, he could not foresee that Europe, which had +repelled the arms, would yet yield to the gods, of the Orient. +The vanguard of the conquerors had already encamped in +<pb n='266'/><anchor id='Pg266'/> +the heart of Italy before the rearguard of the beaten army +fell sullenly back from its shores. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Attis and +his eunuch +priests the +Galli at +Rome.</note> +We may conjecture, though we are not told, that the +Mother of the Gods brought with her the worship of her +youthful lover or son to her new home in the West. +Certainly the Romans were familiar with the Galli, the +emasculated priests of Attis, before the close of the Republic. +These unsexed beings, in their Oriental costume, with little +images suspended on their breasts, appear to have been a +familiar sight in the streets of Rome, which they traversed in +procession, carrying the image of the goddess and chanting +their hymns to the music of cymbals and tambourines, flutes +and horns, while the people, impressed by the fantastic show +and moved by the wild strains, flung alms to them in +abundance, and buried the image and its bearers under +showers of roses.<note place='foot'>Lucretius, ii. 598 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Catullus, +lxiii.; Varro, <hi rend='italic'>Satir. Menipp.</hi>, ed. F. +Bücheler (Berlin, 1882), pp. 176, 178; +Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Fasti</hi>, iv. 181 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 223 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, +361 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, +<hi rend='italic'>Antiquit. Rom.</hi> ii. 19, compare Polybius, +xxii. 18 ed. L. Dindorf (Leipsic, +1866-1868).</note> A further step was taken by the Emperor +Claudius when he incorporated the Phrygian worship of +the sacred tree, and with it probably the orgiastic rites of +Attis, in the established religion of Rome.<note place='foot'><p>Joannes Lydus, <hi rend='italic'>De mensibus</hi>, iv. +41. See Robinson Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>Commentary +on Catullus</hi> (Oxford, 1876), pp. 206 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 142 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +Fr. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Les Religions Orientales +dans le Paganisme Romain</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Paris, +1909), pp. 83 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +</p> +<p> +It is held by Prof. A. von Domaszewski +that the Claudius who incorporated +the Phrygian worship of the +sacred tree in the Roman ritual was +not the emperor of the first century +but the emperor of the third century, +Claudius Gothicus, who came to the +throne in 268 <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> See A. von +Domaszewski, <q>Magna Mater in Latin +Inscriptions,</q> <hi rend='italic'>The Journal of Roman +Studies</hi>, i. (1911) p. 56. The later +date, it is said, fits better with the +slow development of the worship. But +on the other hand this view is open to +certain objections. (1) Joannes Lydus, +our only authority on the point, appears +to identify the Claudius in question +with the emperor of the first century. +(2) The great and widespread popularity +of the Phrygian worship in the +Roman empire long before 268 <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> is +amply attested by an array of ancient +writers and inscriptions, especially by a +great series of inscriptions referring to +the colleges of Tree-bearers (<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Dendrophori</foreign>), +from which we learn that one +of these colleges, devoted to the worship +of Cybele and Attis, existed at +Rome in the age of the Antonines, +about a century before the accession of +Claudius Gothicus. (3) Passages of +the Augustan historians (Aelius Lampridius, +<hi rend='italic'>Alexander Severus</hi>, 37; Trebellius +Pollio, <hi rend='italic'>Claudius</hi>, iv. 2) refer to +the great spring festival of Cybele and +Attis in a way which seems to imply +that the festival was officially recognized +by the Roman government before +Claudius Gothicus succeeded to the +purple; and we may hesitate to follow +Prof. von Domaszewski in simply +excising these passages as the work +of an <q>impudent forger.</q> (4) The +official establishment of the bloody +Phrygian superstition suits better the +life and character of the superstitious, +timid, cruel, pedantic Claudius of the +first century than the gallant soldier +his namesake in the third century. +The one lounged away his contemptible +days in the safety of the palace, surrounded +by a hedge of lifeguards. The +other spent the two years of his brief +but glorious reign in camps and battlefields +on the frontier, combating the +barbarian enemies of the empire; and +it is probable that he had as little +leisure as inclination to pander to the +superstitions of the Roman populace. +For these reasons it seems better with +Mr. Hepding and Prof. Cumont to +acquiesce in the traditional view that +the rites of Attis were officially celebrated +at Rome from the first century +onward. +</p> +<p> +An intermediate view is adopted by +Prof. G. Wissowa, who, brushing aside +the statement of Joannes Lydus altogether, +would seemingly assign the public +institution of the rites to the middle of +the second century <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> on the ground +that the earliest extant evidence of their +public celebration refers to that period +(<hi rend='italic'>Religion und Kultus der Römer</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +Munich, 1912, p. 322). But, considering +the extremely imperfect evidence +at our disposal for the history of +these centuries, it seems rash to infer +that an official cult cannot have been +older than the earliest notice of it +which has chanced to come down to +us.</p></note> The great +<pb n='267'/><anchor id='Pg267'/> +spring festival of Cybele and Attis is best known to us in +the form in which it was celebrated at Rome; but as we +are informed that the Roman ceremonies were also Phrygian,<note place='foot'>Arrian, <hi rend='italic'>Tactica</hi>, 33; Servius on +Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> xii. 836.</note> +we may assume that they differed hardly, if at all, from +their Asiatic original. The order of the festival seems to +have been as follows.<note place='foot'>On the festival see J. Marquardt, +<hi rend='italic'>Römische Staatsverwaltung</hi>, iii.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Leipsic, +1885) pp. 370 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; the calendar +of Philocalus, in <hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum +Latinarum</hi>, vol. i.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> Pars prior (Berlin, +1893), p. 260, with Th. Mommsen's +commentary (pp. 313 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>); W. Mannhardt, +<hi rend='italic'>Antike Wald- und Feldkulte</hi>, +pp. 291 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Baumkultus</hi>, pp. +572 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; G. Wissowa, <hi rend='italic'>Religion und +Kultus der Römer</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 318 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 147 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +J. Toutain, <hi rend='italic'>Les Cultes Païens dans +l'Empire Romain</hi>, ii. (Paris, 1911) +pp. 82 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The spring +festival of +Cybele and +Attis at +Rome. The Day +of Blood.</note> +On the twenty-second day of March, a pine-tree was +cut in the woods and brought into the sanctuary of Cybele, +where it was treated as a great, divinity. The duty of +carrying the sacred tree was entrusted to a guild of Tree-bearers. +The trunk was swathed like a corpse with woollen +bands and decked with wreaths, of violets, for violets were +said to have sprung from the blood of Attis, as roses and +anemones from the blood of Adonis; and the effigy of a +young man, doubtless Attis himself, was tied to the middle +of the stem.<note place='foot'>Julian, <hi rend='italic'>Orat.</hi> v. 168 <hi rend='smallcaps'>c</hi>, p. 218 +ed. F. C. Hertlein (Leipsic, 1875-1876); +Joannes Lydus, <hi rend='italic'>De mensibus</hi>, +iv. 41; Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, +v. chs. 7, 16, 39; Firmicus Maternus, +<hi rend='italic'>De errore profanarum religionum</hi>, +27; Sallustius philosophus, <q>De +diis et mundo,</q> iv., <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta +Philosophorum Graecorum</hi>, ed. F. G. +A. Mullach, iii. 33. As to the guild of +Tree-bearers (<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Dendrophori</foreign>) see Joannes +Lydus, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>; H. Dessau, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones +Latinae Selectae</hi>, Nos. 4116 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 4171-4174, +4176; H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. +86, 92, 93, 96, 152 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; F. Cumont, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Dendrophori,</q> in Pauly-Wissowa's +<hi rend='italic'>Real-Encyclopädie der classischen +Altertumswissenschaft</hi>, v. 1. +coll. 216-219; J. Toutain, <hi rend='italic'>Les Cultes +Païens dans l'Empire Romain</hi>, ii. +82 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 92 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> On the second day of the festival, the twenty-third +<pb n='268'/><anchor id='Pg268'/> +of March, the chief ceremony seems to have been a +blowing of trumpets.<note place='foot'>Julian, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi> and 169 <hi rend='smallcaps'>c</hi>, p. 219 ed. +F. C. Hertlein. The ceremony may +have been combined with the old <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>tubilustrium</foreign> +or purification of trumpets, +which fell on this day. See Joannes +Lydus, <hi rend='italic'>De mensibus</hi>, iv. 42; Varro, +<hi rend='italic'>De lingua Latina</hi>, vi. 14; Festus, pp. +352, 353 ed. C. O. Müller; W. Warde +Fowler, <hi rend='italic'>Roman Festivals of the Period +of the Republic</hi> (London, 1899), p. +62.</note> The third day, the twenty-fourth of +March, was known as the Day of Blood: the Archigallus or +high-priest drew blood from his arms and presented it as an +offering.<note place='foot'>Trebellius Pollio, <hi rend='italic'>Claudius</hi>, 4; +Tertullian, <hi rend='italic'>Apologeticus</hi>, 25.</note> Nor was he alone in making this bloody sacrifice. +Stirred by the wild barbaric music of clashing cymbals, +rumbling drums, droning horns, and screaming flutes, the +inferior clergy whirled about in the dance with waggling +heads and streaming hair, until, rapt into a frenzy of excitement +and insensible to pain, they gashed their bodies with +potsherds or slashed them with knives in order to bespatter +the altar and the sacred tree with their flowing blood.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>Deorum dialogi</hi>, xii. 1; +Seneca, <hi rend='italic'>Agamemnon</hi>, 686 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Martial, +xi. 84. 3 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Valerius Flaccus, +<hi rend='italic'>Argonaut.</hi> viii. 239 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Statius, <hi rend='italic'>Theb.</hi> +x. 170 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Apuleius, <hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> viii. 27; +Lactantius, <hi rend='italic'>Divinarum Institutionum +Epitome</hi>, 23 (18, vol. i. p. 689 ed. +Brandt and Laubmann); H. Hepding, +<hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 158 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> As to the music +of these dancing dervishes see also +Lucretius, ii. 618 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> The +ghastly rite probably formed part of the mourning for Attis +and may have been intended to strengthen him for the +resurrection. The Australian aborigines cut themselves in +like manner over the graves of their friends for the purpose, +perhaps, of enabling them to be born again.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, i. 90 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 101 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Further, we +may conjecture, though we are not expressly told, that +it was on the same Day of Blood and for the same +purpose that the novices sacrificed their virility. Wrought +up to the highest pitch of religious excitement they dashed +the severed portions of themselves against the image of the +cruel goddess. These broken instruments of fertility were +afterwards reverently wrapt up and buried in the earth or in +subterranean chambers sacred to Cybele,<note place='foot'>Minucius Felix, <hi rend='italic'>Octavius</hi>, 22 and +24; Lactantius, <hi rend='italic'>Divin. Instit.</hi> i. 21. +16; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Epitoma</hi>, 8; Schol. on Lucian, +<hi rend='italic'>Jupiter Tragoedus</hi>, 8 (p. 60 ed. +H. Rabe); Servius on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> +ix. 115; Prudentius, <hi rend='italic'>Peristephan.</hi> x. +1066 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <q>Passio Sancti Symphoriani,</q> +chs. 2 and 6 (Migne's +<hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, v. 1463, 1466); +Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, v. 14; +Scholiast on Nicander, <hi rend='italic'>Alexipharmaca</hi>, +8; H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 163 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +A story told by Clement of Alexandria +(<hi rend='italic'>Protrept.</hi> ii. 15, p. 13 ed. Potter) suggests +that weaker brethren may have +been allowed to sacrifice the virility of +a ram instead of their own. We know +from inscriptions that rams and bulls +were regularly sacrificed at the mysteries +of Attis and the Great Mother, and +that the testicles of the bulls were used +for a special purpose, probably as a +fertility charm. May not the testicles +of the rams have been employed for the +same purpose? and may not those of +both animals have been substitutes for +the corresponding organs in men? As +to the sacrifices of rams and bulls see +G. Zippel, <q>Das Taurobolium,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Festschrift +zum fünfzigjährigen Doctorjubiläum +L. Friedlaender</hi> (Leipsic, +1895), pp. 498 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; H. Dessau, +<hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae</hi>, Nos. +4118 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; J. Toutain, <hi rend='italic'>Les Cultes +Païens dans l'Empire Romain</hi>, ii. +84 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> where, like the +<pb n='269'/><anchor id='Pg269'/> +offering of blood, they may have been deemed instrumental +in recalling Attis to life and hastening the general resurrection +of nature, which was then bursting into leaf and blossom in +the vernal sunshine. Some confirmation of this conjecture +is furnished by the savage story that the mother of Attis +conceived by putting in her bosom a pomegranate sprung +from the severed genitals of a man-monster named Agdestis, +a sort of double of Attis.<note place='foot'>Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, v. +5 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Eunuch +priests in +the service +of Asiatic +goddesses.</note> +If there is any truth in this conjectural explanation of +the custom, we can readily understand why other Asiatic +goddesses of fertility were served in like manner by eunuch +priests. These feminine deities required to receive from their +male ministers, who personated the divine lovers, the means +of discharging their beneficent functions: they had themselves +to be impregnated by the life-giving energy before they +could transmit it to the world. Goddesses thus ministered +to by eunuch priests were the great Artemis of Ephesus<note place='foot'>Strabo, xiv. 1. 23, p. 641.</note> and +the great Syrian Astarte of Hierapolis,<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 15, 27, 50-53.</note> whose sanctuary, +frequented by swarms of pilgrims and enriched by the +offerings of Assyria and Babylonia, of Arabia and Phoenicia, +was perhaps in the days of its glory the most popular in +the East.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> 10.</note> Now the unsexed priests of this Syrian goddess +resembled those of Cybele so closely that some people took +them to be the same.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> 15.</note> And the mode in which they +dedicated themselves to the religious life was similar. The +<pb n='270'/><anchor id='Pg270'/> +greatest festival of the year at Hierapolis fell at the beginning +of spring, when multitudes thronged to the sanctuary from +Syria and the regions round about. While the flutes played, +the drums beat, and the eunuch priests slashed themselves +with knives, the religious excitement gradually spread like a +wave among the crowd of onlookers, and many a one did +that which he little thought to do when he came as a holiday +spectator to the festival. For man after man, his veins +throbbing with the music, his eyes fascinated by the sight +of the streaming blood, flung his garments from him, leaped +forth with a shout, and seizing one of the swords which +stood ready for the purpose, castrated himself on the spot. +Then he ran through the city, holding the bloody pieces in +his hand, till he threw them into one of the houses which +he passed in his mad career. The household thus honoured +had to furnish him with a suit of female attire and female +ornaments, which he wore for the rest of his life.<note place='foot'>Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>, 49-51.</note> When +the tumult of emotion had subsided, and the man had come +to himself again, the irrevocable sacrifice must often have +been followed by passionate sorrow and lifelong regret. +This revulsion of natural human feeling after the frenzies of +a fanatical religion is powerfully depicted by Catullus in a +celebrated poem.<note place='foot'><p>Catullus, <hi rend='italic'>Carm.</hi> lxiii. I agree +with Mr. H. Hepding (<hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, p. 140) +in thinking that the subject of the +poem is not the mythical Attis, but +one of his ordinary priests, who bore +the name and imitated the sufferings of +his god. Thus interpreted the poem +gains greatly in force and pathos. The +real sorrows of our fellow-men touch +us more nearly than the imaginary +pangs of the gods. +</p> +<p> +As the sacrifice of virility and the +institution of eunuch priests appear to +be rare, I will add a few examples. +At Stratonicea in Caria a eunuch +held a sacred office in connexion +with the worship of Zeus and Hecate +(<hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum</hi>, No. +2715). According to Eustathius (on +Homer, <hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi>, xix. 254, p. 1183) the +Egyptian priests were eunuchs who +had sacrificed their virility as a first-fruit +to the gods. In Corea <q>during +a certain night, known as <foreign rend='italic'>Chu-il</foreign>, in +the twelfth moon, the palace eunuchs, +of whom there are some three hundred, +perform a ceremony supposed to ensure +a bountiful crop in the ensuing year. +They chant in chorus prayers, swinging +burning torches around them the while. +This is said to be symbolical of burning +the dead grass, so as to destroy the +field mice and other vermin.</q> See +W. Woodville Rockhill, <q>Notes on +some of the Laws, Customs, and +Superstitions of Korea,</q> <hi rend='italic'>The American +Anthropologist</hi>, iv. (Washington, 1891) +p. 185. Compare Mrs. Bishop, <hi rend='italic'>Korea +and her Neighbours</hi> (London, 1898), +ii. 56 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> It appears that among the +Ekoi of Southern Nigeria both men +and women are, or used to be, mutilated +by the excision of their genital +organs at an annual festival, which is +celebrated in order to produce plentiful +harvests and immunity from thunderbolts. +The victims apparently die from +loss of blood. See P. Amaury Talbot, +<hi rend='italic'>In the Shadow of the Bush</hi> (London, +1912), pp. 74 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> Mr. Talbot writes +to me: <q>A horrible case has just +happened at Idua, where, at the new +yam planting, a man cut off his own +<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>membrum virile</foreign></q> (letter dated Eket, +Nr Calabar, Southern Nigeria, Feb. +7th, 1913). Amongst the Ba-sundi +and Ba-bwende of the Congo many +youths are castrated <q>in order to more +fittingly offer themselves to the phallic +worship, which increasingly prevails +as we advance from the coast to the +interior. At certain villages between +Manyanga and Isangila there are curious +eunuch dances to celebrate the +new moon, in which a white cock is +thrown up into the air alive, with +clipped wings, and as it falls towards +the ground it is caught and plucked +by the eunuchs. I was told that +originally this used to be a human +sacrifice, and that a young boy or girl +was thrown up into the air and torn +to pieces by the eunuchs as he or +she fell, but that of late years slaves +had got scarce or manners milder, and +a white cock was now substituted</q> +(H. H. Johnston, <q>On the Races of +the Congo,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Anthropological +Institute</hi>, xiii. (1884) p. 473; +compare <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>The River Congo</hi>, London, +1884, p. 409). In India, men who +are born eunuchs or in some way +deformed are sometimes dedicated to +a goddess named Huligamma. They +wear female attire and might be mistaken +for women. Also men who are +or believe themselves impotent will +vow to dress as women and serve the +goddess in the hope of recovering +their virility. See F. Fawcett, <q>On +Basivis,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Anthropological +Society of Bombay</hi>, ii. 343 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> In +Pegu the English traveller, Alexander +Hamilton, witnessed a dance in honour +of the gods of the earth. <q>Hermaphrodites, +who are numerous in this +country, are generally chosen, if there +are enough present to make a set for +the dance. I saw nine dance like mad +folks for above half-an-hour; and +then some of them fell in fits, foaming +at the mouth for the space of half-an-hour; +and, when their senses are restored, +they pretend to foretell plenty +or scarcity of corn for that year, if the +year will prove sickly or salutary to +the people, and several other things of +moment, and all by that half hour's +conversation that the furious dancer +had with the gods while she was in a +trance</q> (A. Hamilton, <q>A New Account +of the East Indies,</q> in J. Pinkerton's +<hi rend='italic'>Voyages and Travels</hi>, viii. 427). +So in the worship of Attis the Archigallus +or head of the eunuch priests +prophesied; perhaps he in like manner +worked himself up to the pitch of inspiration +by a frenzied dance. See H. +Dessau, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae</hi>, +vol. ii. Pars i. pp. 142, 143, Nos. +4130, 4136; G. Wilmanns, <hi rend='italic'>Exempla +Inscriptionum Latinarum</hi> (Berlin, +1873), vol. i. p. 36, Nos. 119a, 120; +J. Toutain, <hi rend='italic'>Les Cultes Païens dans +l'Empire Romain</hi>, ii. 93 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> As to +the sacrifice of virility in the Syrian +religion compare Th. Nöldeke, <q>Die +Selbstentmannung bei den Syrern,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Archiv für Religionswissenschaft</hi>, x. +(1907) pp. 150-152.</p></note> +</p> + +<pb n='271'/><anchor id='Pg271'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The sacrifice +of +virility. The +mourning +for Attis.</note> +The parallel of these Syrian devotees confirms the view +that in the similar worship of Cybele the sacrifice of virility +took place on the Day of Blood at the vernal rites of the +goddess, when the violets, supposed to spring from the red +drops of her wounded lover, were in bloom among the pines. +Indeed the story that Attis unmanned himself under a pine-tree<note place='foot'>Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, v. 7 +and 16; Servius on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> ix. +115.</note> +was clearly devised to explain why his priests did the +same beside the sacred violet-wreathed tree at his festival. +<pb n='272'/><anchor id='Pg272'/> +At all events, we can hardly doubt that the Day of Blood +witnessed the mourning for Attis over an effigy of him +which was afterwards buried.<note place='foot'>Diodorus Siculus, iii. 59; Arrian, +<hi rend='italic'>Tactica</hi>, 33; Scholiast on Nicander, +<hi rend='italic'>Alexipharmaca</hi>, 8; Firmicus Maternus, +<hi rend='italic'>De errore profanarum religionum</hi>, 3 +and 22; Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, +v. 16; Servius on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> ix. +115.</note> The image thus laid in the +sepulchre was probably the same which had hung upon the +tree.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg267'>267</ref>.</note> Throughout the period of mourning the worshippers +fasted from bread, nominally because Cybele had done so in +her grief for the death of Attis,<note place='foot'>Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>; Sallustius philosophus, +<q>De diis et mundo,</q> iv., <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta +Philosophorum Graecorum</hi>, ed. +F. G. A. Mullach, iii. 33.</note> but really perhaps for the +same reason which induced the women of Harran to abstain +from eating anything ground in a mill while they wept for +Tammuz.<note place='foot'>Above, p. <ref target='Pg230'>230</ref>.</note> To partake of bread or flour at such a season +might have been deemed a wanton profanation of the bruised +and broken body of the god. Or the fast may possibly have +been a preparation for a sacramental meal.<note place='foot'>See below, p. <ref target='Pg274'>274</ref>.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +Festival +of Joy +(<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Hilaria</foreign>) +for the +resurrection +of +Attis on +March +25th. The procession +to +the Almo.</note> +But when night had fallen, the sorrow of the worshippers +was turned to joy. For suddenly a light shone in the +darkness: the tomb was opened: the god had risen from +the dead; and as the priest touched the lips of the weeping +mourners with balm, he softly whispered in their ears the +glad tidings of salvation. The resurrection of the god was +hailed by his disciples as a promise that they too would +issue triumphant from the corruption of the grave.<note place='foot'><p>Firmicus Maternus, <hi rend='italic'>De errore profanarum +religionum</hi>, 22, <q rend='pre'><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Nocte quadam +simulacrum in lectica supinum +ponitur et per numeros digestis fletibus +plangitur: deinde cum se ficta lamentatione +satiaverint, lumen infertur: tunc +a sacerdote omnium qui flebant fauces +unguentur, quibus perunctis hoc lento +murmure susurrat:</foreign></q> +</p> +<p> +θαρρεῖτε μύσται τοῦ θέου σεσωσμένου; +ἔσται γὰρ ἡμῖν ἐκ πόνων σωτήρια. +</p> +<p> +<q rend='post'><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Quid miseros hortaris gaudeant? quid +deceptos homines laetari compellis? +quam illis spem, quam salutem funesta +persuasione promittis? Dei tui mors +nota est, vita non paret.... Idolum +sepelis, idolum plangis, idolum de sepultura +proferis, et miser cum haec feceris, +gaudes. Tu deum tuum liberas, tu +jacentia lapidis membra componis, tu +insensibile corrigis saxum.</foreign></q> In this +passage Firmicus does not expressly +mention Attis, but that the reference +is to his rites is made probable by a +comparison with chapter 3 of the +same writer's work. Compare also +Damascius, in Photius's <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, +p. 345 <hi rend='smallcaps'>a</hi>, 5 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, ed. I. Bekker +(Berlin, 1824), τότε τῇ Ἱεραπόλει ἐγκαθευδήσας +ἐδόκουν ὄναρ ὁ Ἄττης γένεσθαι, +καί μοι ἐπιτελεῖσθαι παρὰ τῆς +μητρὸς τῶν θεῶν τὴν τῶν ἱλαρίων καλουμένων +ἑορτήν; ὅπερ ἐδήλου τὴν ἐξ ᾅδου +γεγονυῖαν ἡμῶν σωτηρίαν. See further +Fr. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Les Religions Orientales +dans le Paganisme Romain</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Paris, +1909), pp. 89 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></p></note> On the +<pb n='273'/><anchor id='Pg273'/> +morrow, the twenty-fifth day of March, which was reckoned the +vernal equinox, the divine resurrection was celebrated with a +wild outburst of glee. At Rome, and probably elsewhere, the +celebration took the form of a carnival. It was the Festival +of Joy (<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Hilaria</foreign>). A universal licence prevailed. Every man +might say and do what he pleased. People went about the +streets in disguise. No dignity was too high or too sacred for +the humblest citizen to assume with impunity. In the reign of +Commodus a band of conspirators thought to take advantage +of the masquerade by dressing in the uniform of the Imperial +Guard, and so, mingling with the crowd of merrymakers, to +get within stabbing distance of the emperor. But the plot +miscarried.<note place='foot'>Macrobius, <hi rend='italic'>Saturn</hi>. i. 21. 10; +Flavius Vopiscus, <hi rend='italic'>Aurelianus</hi>, i. 1; +Julian, <hi rend='italic'>Or.</hi> v. pp. 168 <hi rend='smallcaps'>d</hi>, 169 <hi rend='smallcaps'>d</hi>; +Damascius, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>; Herodian, i. 10. +5-7; Sallustius philosophus, <q>De diis +et mundo,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Philosophorum +Graecorum</hi>, ed. F. G. A. Mullach, iii. +33. In like manner Easter Sunday, +the Resurrection-day of Christ, was +called by some ancient writers the +Sunday of Joy (<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Dominica Gaudii</foreign>). +The emperors used to celebrate the +happy day by releasing from prison +all but the worst offenders. See +J. Bingham, <hi rend='italic'>The Antiquities of the +Christian Church</hi>, bk. xx. ch. vi. §§ +5 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> (Bingham's <hi rend='italic'>Works</hi> (Oxford, 1855), +vii. 317 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>).</note> Even the stern Alexander Severus used to +relax so far on the joyous day as to admit a pheasant to +his frugal board.<note place='foot'>Aelius Lampridius, <hi rend='italic'>Alexander +Severus</hi>, 37.</note> The next day, the twenty-sixth of March, +was given to repose, which must have been much needed +after the varied excitements and fatigues of the preceding +days.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</hi>, +i.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> Pars prior (Berlin, 1893), pp. 260, +313 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 51, +172.</note> Finally, the Roman festival closed on the twenty-seventh +of March with a procession to the brook Almo. The +silver image of the goddess, with its face of jagged black +stone, sat in a wagon drawn by oxen. Preceded by the nobles +walking barefoot, it moved slowly, to the loud music of pipes +and tambourines, out by the Porta Capena, and so down to the +banks of the Almo, which flows into the Tiber just below the +walls of Rome. There the high-priest, robed in purple, washed +the wagon, the image, and the other sacred objects in the +water of the stream. On returning from their bath, the wain +and the oxen were strewn with fresh spring flowers. All was +mirth and gaiety. No one thought of the blood that had +flowed so lately. Even the eunuch priests forgot their wounds.<note place='foot'>Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Fasti</hi>, iv. 337-346; Silius +Italicus, <hi rend='italic'>Punic.</hi> viii. 365; Valerius +Flaccus, <hi rend='italic'>Argonaut.</hi> viii. 239 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +Martial, iii. 47. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Ammianus +Marcellinus, xxiii. 3. 7; Arnobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, vii. 32; Prudentius, +<hi rend='italic'>Peristephon.</hi> x. 154 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> For the +description of the image of the goddess +see Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, vii. +49. At Carthage the goddess was +carried to her bath in a litter, not in +a wagon (Augustine, <hi rend='italic'>De civitate Dei</hi>, +ii. 4). The bath formed part of the +festival in Phrygia, whence the custom +was borrowed by the Romans (Arrian, +<hi rend='italic'>Tactica</hi>, 33). At Cyzicus the Placianian +Mother, a form of Cybele, was +served by women called <q>marine</q> +(Θαλάσσιαι), whose duty it probably +was to wash her image in the sea +(Ch. Michel, <hi rend='italic'>Recueil d'Inscriptions +Grecques</hi>, Brussels, 1900, pp. 403 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +No. 537). See further J. Marquardt, +<hi rend='italic'>Römische Staatsverwaltung</hi>, iii.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> 373; +H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 133 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<pb n='274'/><anchor id='Pg274'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +mysteries +of Attis. +The +sacrament. +The +baptism +of blood. The +Vatican +a centre of +the worship +of Attis.</note> +Such, then, appears to have been the annual solemnization +of the death and resurrection of Attis in spring. But +besides these public rites, his worship is known to have +comprised certain secret or mystic ceremonies, which probably +aimed at bringing the worshipper, and especially the +novice, into closer communication with his god. Our information +as to the nature of these mysteries and the date of +their celebration is unfortunately very scanty, but they seem +to have included a sacramental meal and a baptism of +blood. In the sacrament the novice became a partaker of +the mysteries by eating out of a drum and drinking out +of a cymbal, two instruments of music which figured prominently +in the thrilling orchestra of Attis.<note place='foot'>Clement of Alexandria, <hi rend='italic'>Protrept.</hi> +ii. 15, p. 13 ed. Potter; Firmicus +Maternus, <hi rend='italic'>De errore profanarum religionum</hi>, +18.</note> The fast +which accompanied the mourning for the dead god<note place='foot'>Above, p. <ref target='Pg272'>272</ref>.</note> may +perhaps have been designed to prepare the body of the +communicant for the reception of the blessed sacrament +by purging it of all that could defile by contact the sacred +elements.<note place='foot'>H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, p. 185.</note> In the baptism the devotee, crowned with gold +and wreathed with fillets, descended into a pit, the mouth +of which was covered with a wooden grating. A bull, +adorned with garlands of flowers, its forehead glittering +with gold leaf, was then driven on to the grating and there +stabbed to death with a consecrated spear. Its hot reeking +blood poured in torrents through the apertures, and was +received with devout eagerness by the worshipper on every +part of his person and garments, till he emerged from the +pit, drenched, dripping, and scarlet from head to foot, to +receive the homage, nay the adoration, of his fellows as one +who had been born again to eternal life and had washed +<pb n='275'/><anchor id='Pg275'/> +away his sins in the blood of the bull.<note place='foot'>Prudentius, <hi rend='italic'>Peristephan.</hi> x. 1006-1050; +compare Firmicus Maternus, +<hi rend='italic'>De errore profanarum religionum</hi>, 28. 8. +That the bath of bull's blood (<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>taurobolium</foreign>) +was believed to regenerate the +devotee for eternity is proved by an +inscription found at Rome, which records +that a certain Sextilius Agesilaus +Aedesius, who dedicated an altar to +Attis and the Mother of the Gods, was +<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>taurobolio criobolioque in aeternum +renatus</foreign> (<hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</hi>, +vi. No. 510; H. Dessau, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones +Latinae Selectae</hi>, No. 4152). +The phrase <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>arcanis perfusionibus in +aeternum renatus</foreign> occurs in a dedication +to Mithra (<hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum +Latinarum</hi>, vi. No. 736), which, however, +is suspected of being spurious. +As to the inscriptions which refer to +the <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>taurobolium</foreign> see G. Zippel, <q>Das +Taurobolium,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Festschrift zum +fünfzigjährigen Doctorjubiläum L. +Friedlaender dargebracht von seinen +Schülern</hi> (Leipsic, 1895), pp. 498-520; +H. Dessau, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones Latinae +Selectae</hi>, vol. ii. Pars i. pp. 140-147, +Nos. 4118-4159. As to the origin of +the <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>taurobolium</foreign> and the meaning of +the word, see Fr. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Textes et +Monuments Figurés relatifs aux Mystères +de Mithra</hi> (Brussels, 1896-1899), +i. 334 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Les Religions Orientales +dans le Paganisme Romain</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 100 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; J. Toutain, <hi rend='italic'>Les Cultes Païens +dans l'Empire Romain</hi>, ii. 84 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +G. Wissowa, <hi rend='italic'>Religion und Kultus der +Römer</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. 322 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>taurobolium</foreign> +seems to have formed no part +of the original worship of Cybele and +to have been imported into it at a comparatively +late date, perhaps in the +second century of our era. Its origin +is obscure. In the majority of the +older inscriptions the name of the rite +appears as <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>tauropolium</foreign>, and it has been +held that this is the true form, being +derived from the worship of the Asiatic +goddess Artemis Tauropolis (Strabo, +xii. 2. 7, p. 537). This was formerly +the view of Prof. F. Cumont (<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Anaitis,</q> in Pauly-Wissowa's <hi rend='italic'>Real-Encyclopädie +der classischen Altertumswissenschaft</hi>, +i. 2. col. 2031); but +he now prefers the form <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>taurobolium</foreign>, +and would deduce both the name and +the rite from an ancient Anatolian +hunting custom of lassoing wild bulls.</note> For some time +afterwards the fiction of a new birth was kept up by +dieting him on milk like a new-born babe.<note place='foot'>Sallustius philosophus, <q>De diis +et mundo,</q> iv., <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Philosophorum +Graecorum</hi>, ed. F. G. A. +Mullach, iii. 33.</note> The regeneration +of the worshipper took place at the same time as the +regeneration of his god, namely at the vernal equinox.<note place='foot'>Sallustius philosophus, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi></note> At +Rome the new birth and the remission of sins by the +shedding of bull's blood appear to have been carried out +above all at the sanctuary of the Phrygian goddess on the +Vatican Hill, at or near the spot where the great basilica of +St. Peter's now stands; for many inscriptions relating to +the rites were found when the church was being enlarged in +1608 or 1609.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</hi>, +vi. Nos. 497-504; H. Dessau, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones +Latinae Selectae</hi>, Nos. 4145, +4147-4151, 4153; <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones +Graecae Siciliae et Italiae</hi>, ed. G. +Kaibel (Berlin, 1890), p. 270, No. +1020; G. Zippel, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 509 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +519; H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 83, 86-88, +176; Ch. Huelsen, <hi rend='italic'>Topographie +der Stadt Rom im Alterthum, von H. +Jordan</hi>, i. 3 (Berlin, 1907), pp. 658 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> From the Vatican as a centre this barbarous +system of superstition seems to have spread to other parts +<pb n='276'/><anchor id='Pg276'/> +of the Roman empire. Inscriptions found in Gaul and +Germany prove that provincial sanctuaries modelled their +ritual on that of the Vatican.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</hi>, +xiii. No. 1751; H. Dessau, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones +Latinae Selectae</hi>, No. 4131; G. +Wilmanns, <hi rend='italic'>Exempla Inscriptionum +Latinarum</hi> (Berlin, 1873), vol. ii. p. +125, No. 2278; G. Wissowa, <hi rend='italic'>Religion +und Kultus der Römer</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> p. 267; H. +Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 169-171, 176.</note> From the same source we +learn that the testicles as well as the blood of the bull +played an important part in the ceremonies.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</hi>, +xiii. No. 1751; G. Wilmanns, <hi rend='italic'>Exempla +Inscriptionum Latinarum</hi>, vol. i. pp. +35-37, Nos. 119, 123, 124; H. Dessau, +<hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae</hi>, Nos. +4127, 4129, 4131, 4140; G. Wissowa, +<hi rend='italic'>Religion und Kultus der Römer</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. +322 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, p. 191.</note> Probably they +were regarded as a powerful charm to promote fertility and +hasten the new birth. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='277'/><anchor id='Pg277'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter II. Attis As a God of Vegetation.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +sanctity +of the +pine-tree +in the +worship +of Attis.</note> +The original character of Attis as a tree-spirit is brought +out plainly by the part which the pine-tree plays in his +legend, his ritual, and his monuments.<note place='foot'>As to the monuments see H. +Dessau, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae</hi>, +Nos. 4143, 4152, 4153; H. Hepding, +<hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 82, 83, 88, 89.</note> The story that he +was a human being transformed into a pine-tree is only one +of those transparent attempts at rationalizing old beliefs +which meet us so frequently in mythology. The bringing +in of the pine-tree from the woods, decked with violets and +woollen bands, is like bringing in the May-tree or Summer-tree +in modern folk-custom; and the effigy which was +attached to the pine-tree was only a duplicate representative +of the tree-spirit Attis. After being fastened to the tree, +the effigy was kept for a year and then burned.<note place='foot'>Firmicus Maternus, <hi rend='italic'>De errore +profanarum religionum</hi>, 27.</note> The same +thing appears to have been sometimes done with the May-pole; +and in like manner the effigy of the corn-spirit, made +at harvest, is often preserved till it is replaced by a new +effigy at next year's harvest.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 47 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 71; <hi rend='italic'>Spirits of the +Corn and of the Wild</hi>, i. 138, 143, +152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158.</note> The original intention of such +customs was no doubt to maintain the spirit of vegetation +in life throughout the year. Why the Phrygians should +have worshipped the pine above other trees we can only +guess. Perhaps the sight of its changeless, though sombre, +green cresting the ridges of the high hills above the fading +splendour of the autumn woods in the valleys may have +seemed to their eyes to mark it out as the seat of a diviner +life, of something exempt from the sad vicissitudes of the +<pb n='278'/><anchor id='Pg278'/> +seasons, constant and eternal as the sky which stooped to +meet it. For the same reason, perhaps, ivy was sacred to +Attis; at all events, we read that his eunuch priests were +tattooed with a pattern of ivy leaves.<note place='foot'>Etymologicum Magnum, p. 220, +line 20, Γάλλος, ὁ φιλοπάτωρ Πτολεμαῖος; +διὰ τὸ φύλλα κισσοῦ κατέστιχθαι, ὡς +οἱ γάλλοι. ᾽Αεὶ γὰρ ταῖς Διονυσιακαῖς +τελεταῖς κισσῷ ἐστεφανοῦντο. But there +seems to be some confusion here between +the rites of Dionysus and those +of Attis; ivy was certainly sacred to +Dionysus (Pausanias, i. 31. 6 with my +note). Compare C. A. Lobeck, <hi rend='italic'>Aglaophamus</hi> +(Königsberg, 1829), i. 657, +who, in the passage quoted, rightly +defends the readings κατέστιχθαι and +ἐστεφανοῦντο.</note> Another reason for +the sanctity of the pine may have been its usefulness. The +cones of the stone-pine contain edible nut-like seeds, which +have been used as food since antiquity, and are still eaten, +for example, by the poorer classes in Rome.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Britannica</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>9</hi> xix. +105. Compare Athenaeus, ii. 49, p. 57. +The nuts of the silver-pine (<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Pinus +edulis</foreign>) are a favourite food of the +Californian Indians (S. Powers, <hi rend='italic'>Tribes +of California</hi> (Washington, 1877), p. +421); the Wintun Indians hold a pine-nut +dance when the nuts are fit to be +gathered (<hi rend='italic'>ib.</hi> p. 237). The Shuswap +Indians of British Columbia collect the +cones of various sorts of pines and eat +the nutlets which they extract from +them. See G. M. Dawson, <q>Notes +on the Shuswap People of British +Columbia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Proceedings and Transactions +of the Royal Society of Canada</hi>, +ix. (Montreal, 1892) Transactions, +section ii. p. 22. With regard to the +Araucanian Indians of South America +we read that <q>the great staple food, +the base of all their subsistence, save +among the coast tribes, was the <foreign rend='italic'>piñon</foreign>, +the fruit of the Araucanian pine (<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Araucaria +imbricata</foreign>). Every year during +the autumn months excursions are made +by the whole tribe to the pine forests, +where they remain until they have +collected sufficient for the following +year. Each tribe has its own district, +inherited by custom from generation to +generation and inviolate, by unwritten +law, from other tribes, even in time of +warfare. This harvest was formerly +of such supreme importance, that all +inter-tribal quarrels and warfares were +suspended by mutual accord during +this period.</q> See R. E. Latcham, +<q>Ethnology of the Araucanos,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal +of the Royal Anthropological Institute</hi>, +xxxix. (1909) p. 341. The Gilyaks of +the Amoor valley in like manner eat +the nutlets of the Siberian stone-pine +(L. von Schrenk, <hi rend='italic'>Die Völker des Amur-Landes</hi>, +iii. 440). See also the commentators +on Herodotus, iv. 109 +φθειροτραγέουσι.</note> Moreover, +a wine was brewed from these seeds,<note place='foot'>Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> xiv. 103.</note> and this may partly +account for the orgiastic nature of the rites of Cybele, which +the ancients compared to those of Dionysus.<note place='foot'>Strabo, x. 3. 12 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, pp. 469 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +However, tipsy people were excluded +from the sanctuary of Attis (Arnobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, v. 6).</note> Further, pine-cones +were regarded as symbols or rather instruments of +fertility. Hence at the festival of the Thesmophoria they +were thrown, along with pigs and other agents or emblems of +fecundity, into the sacred vaults of Demeter for the purpose +of quickening the ground and the wombs of women.<note place='foot'>Scholiast on Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>Dial. Meretr.</hi> +ii. 1, p. 276 ed. H. Rabe (Leipsic, +1906).</note> +</p> + +<pb n='279'/><anchor id='Pg279'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Attis as a +corn-god. +Cybele as a +goddess of +fertility. The +bathing of +her image +either a +rain-charm +or a +marriage-rite.</note> +Like tree-spirits in general, Attis was apparently thought +to wield power over the fruits of the earth or even to be +identical with the corn. One of his epithets was <q>very +fruitful</q>: he was addressed as the <q>reaped green (or yellow) +ear of corn</q>; and the story of his sufferings, death, and +resurrection was interpreted as the ripe grain wounded by +the reaper, buried in the granary, and coming to life again +when it is sown in the ground.<note place='foot'>Hippolytus, <hi rend='italic'>Refutatio omnium +haeresium</hi>, v. 8 and 9, pp. 162, 168 +ed. Duncker and Schneidewin; Firmicus +Maternus, <hi rend='italic'>De errore profanarum +religionum</hi>, 3; Sallustius philosophus, +<q>De diis et mundo,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Philosophorum +Graecorum</hi>, ed. F. G. A. +Mullach, iii. 33. Others identified +him with the spring flowers. See +Eusebius, <hi rend='italic'>Praeparatio Evangelii</hi>, iii. +11. 8 and 12, iii. 13. 10 ed. F. A. +Heinichen (Leipsic, 1842-1843); Augustine, +<hi rend='italic'>De civitate Dei</hi>, vii. 25.</note> A statue of him in the +Lateran Museum at Rome clearly indicates his relation to +the fruits of the earth, and particularly to the corn; for it +represents him with a bunch of ears of corn and fruit in his +hand, and a wreath of pine-cones, pomegranates, and other +fruits on his head, while from the top of his Phrygian cap +ears of corn are sprouting.<note place='foot'>W. Helbig, <hi rend='italic'>Führer durch die +öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer +Altertümer in Rom</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Leipsic, 1899), +i. 481, No. 721.</note> On a stone urn, which contained +the ashes of an Archigallus or high-priest of Attis, +the same idea is expressed in a slightly different way. The +top of the urn is adorned with ears of corn carved in relief, +and it is surmounted by the figure of a cock, whose tail +consists of ears of corn.<note place='foot'>The urn is in the Lateran Museum +at Rome (No. 1046). It is not described +by W. Helbig in his <hi rend='italic'>Führer</hi>.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +The inscription on the urn (<hi rend='italic'>M. Modius +Maxximus archigallus coloniae Ostiens</hi>) +is published by H. Dessau (<hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones +Latinae Selectae</hi>, No. 4162), +who does not notice the curious and +interesting composition of the cock's +tail. The bird is chosen as an emblem +of the priest with a punning reference to +the word <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>gallus</foreign>, which in Latin means +a cock as well as a priest of Attis.</note> Cybele in like manner was conceived +as a goddess of fertility who could make or mar the +fruits of the earth; for the people of Augustodunum (Autun) +in Gaul used to cart her image about in a wagon for the +good of the fields and vineyards, while they danced and +sang before it,<note place='foot'>Gregory of Tours, <hi rend='italic'>De gloria +confessorum</hi>, 77 (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia +Latina</hi>, lxxi. 884). That the goddess +here referred to was Cybele +and not a native Gallic deity, as I +formerly thought (<hi rend='italic'>Lectures on the Early +History of the Kingship</hi>, p. 178), +seems proved by the <q>Passion of +St. Symphorian,</q> chs. 2 and 6 (Migne's +<hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, v. 1463, 1466). +Gregory and the author of the <q>Passion +of St. Symphorian</q> call the +goddess simply Berecynthia, the latter +writer adding <q>the Mother of the +Demons,</q> which is plainly a Christian +version of the title <q>Mother of the +Gods.</q></note> and we have seen that in Italy an unusually +<pb n='280'/><anchor id='Pg280'/> +fine harvest was attributed to the recent arrival of the Great +Mother.<note place='foot'>Above, p. <ref target='Pg265'>265</ref>. In the island of +Thera an ox, wheat, barley, wine, and +<q>other first-fruits of all that the seasons +produce</q> were offered to the Mother +of the Gods, plainly because she was +deemed the source of fertility. See +G. Dittenberger, <hi rend='italic'>Sylloge Inscriptionum +Graecarum</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> vol. ii. p. 426, No. 630.</note> The bathing of the image of the goddess in a +river may well have been a rain-charm to ensure an +abundant supply of moisture for the crops. Or perhaps, +as Mr. Hepding has suggested, the union of Cybele and +Attis, like that of Aphrodite and Adonis, was dramatically +represented at the festival, and the subsequent bath of the +goddess was a ceremonial purification of the bride, such as +is often observed at human marriages.<note place='foot'>H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 215-217; +compare <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi> p. 175 note 7.</note> In like manner +Aphrodite is said to have bathed after her union with +Adonis,<note place='foot'>Ptolemaeus, <hi rend='italic'>Nov. Hist.</hi> i. p. 183 of +A. Westermann's <hi rend='italic'>Mythographi Graeci</hi> +(Brunswick, 1843).</note> and so did Demeter after her intercourse with +Poseidon.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, viii. 25. 5 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> Hera washed in the springs of the river Burrha +after her marriage with Zeus;<note place='foot'>Aelian, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Anim.</hi> xii. 30. The +place was in Mesopotamia, and the +goddess was probably Astarte. So +Lucian (<hi rend='italic'>De dea Syria</hi>) calls the Astarte +of Hierapolis <q>the Assyrian Hera.</q></note> and every year she recovered +her virginity by bathing in the spring of Canathus.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, ii. 38. 2.</note> However +that may be, the rules of diet observed by the worshippers +of Cybele and Attis at their solemn fasts are clearly dictated +by a belief that the divine life of these deities manifested +itself in the fruits of the earth, and especially in such of +them as are actually hidden by the soil. For while the +devotees were allowed to partake of flesh, though not of +pork or fish, they were forbidden to eat seeds and the roots +of vegetables, but they might eat the stalks and upper parts +of the plants.<note place='foot'>Julian, <hi rend='italic'>Orat.</hi> v. 173 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> (pp. 225 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> ed. F. C. Hertlein); H. Hepding, +<hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 155-157. However, apples, +pomegranates, and dates were also +forbidden. The story that the mother +of Attis conceived him through contact +with a pomegranate (above, pp. <ref target='Pg263'>263</ref>, +<ref target='Pg269'>269</ref>) might explain the prohibition of +that fruit. But the reasons for tabooing +apples and dates are not apparent, +though Julian tried to discover them. +He suggested that dates may have been +forbidden because the date-palm does +not grow in Phrygia, the native land +of Cybele and Attis.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='281'/><anchor id='Pg281'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter III. Attis As The Father God.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The name +Attis seems +to mean +<q>father.</q></note> +The name Attis appears to mean simply <q>father.</q><note place='foot'>P. Kretschmer, <hi rend='italic'>Einleitung in die +Geschichte der griechischen Sprache</hi> +(Göttingen, 1896), p. 355.</note> This +explanation, suggested by etymology, is confirmed by the +observation that another name for Attis was Papas;<note place='foot'>Diodorus Siculus, iii. 58. 4; +Hippolytus, <hi rend='italic'>Refutatio omnium haeresium</hi>, +i. 9, p. 168 ed. Duncker and +Schneidewin. A Latin dedication to +<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Atte Papa</foreign> has been found at Aquileia +(F. Cumont, in Pauly-Wissowa's <hi rend='italic'>Realencyclopädie +der classischen Altertumswissenschaft</hi>, +ii. 2180, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Attepata</q> +H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, p. 86). Greek +dedications to Papas or to Zeus Papas +occur in Phrygia (H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, +pp. 78 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). Compare A. B. Cook, +<q>Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Classical +Review</hi>, xviii. (1904) p. 79.</note> for +Papas has all the appearance of being a common form of +that word for <q>father</q> which occurs independently in many +distinct families of speech all the world over. Similarly the +mother of Attis was named Nana,<note place='foot'>Arnobius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus Nationes</hi>, v. +6 and 13.</note> which is itself a form of +the world-wide word for <q>mother.</q> <q>The immense list +of such words collected by Buschmann shows that the types +<foreign rend='italic'>pa</foreign> and <foreign rend='italic'>ta</foreign>, with the similar forms <foreign rend='italic'>ap</foreign> and <foreign rend='italic'>at</foreign>, preponderate in +the world as names for <q>father,</q> while <foreign rend='italic'>ma</foreign> and <foreign rend='italic'>na</foreign>, <foreign rend='italic'>am</foreign> and +<foreign rend='italic'>an</foreign>, preponderate as names for <q>mother.</q></q><note place='foot'>(Sir) Edward B. Tylor, <hi rend='italic'>Primitive +Culture</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London, 1873), i. 223.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Relation of +Attis to the +Mother +Goddess. Attis as a +Sky-god or +Heavenly +Father. Stories of +the emasculation +of the +Sky-god.</note> +Thus the mother of Attis is only another form of his +divine mistress the great Mother Goddess,<note place='foot'>Rapp, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Kybele,</q> in W. H. +Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und röm. +Mythologie</hi>, ii. 1648.</note> and we are +brought back to the myth that the lovers were mother and +son. The story that Nana conceived miraculously without +commerce with the other sex shows that the Mother Goddess +of Phrygia herself was viewed, like other goddesses of the +same primitive type, as a Virgin Mother.<note place='foot'>She is called a <q>motherless +virgin</q> by Julian (<hi rend='italic'>Or.</hi> v. 166 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b</hi>, p. +215 ed. F. C. Hertlein), and there +was a <foreign rend='italic'>Parthenon</foreign> or virgin's chamber +in her sanctuary at Cyzicus (Ch. +Michel, <hi rend='italic'>Recueil d'Inscriptions Grecques</hi>, +p. 404, No. 538). Compare Rapp, in +W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. +und röm. Mythologie</hi>, ii. 1648; Wagner, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Nana,</q> <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi> iii. 4 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Another +great goddess of fertility who was +conceived as a Virgin Mother was +the Egyptian Neith or Net. She is +called <q>the Great Goddess, the Mother +of All the Gods,</q> and was believed to +have brought forth Ra, the Sun, without +the help of a male partner. See +C. P. Tiele, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der Religion im +Altertum</hi>, i. 111; E. A. Wallis Budge, +<hi rend='italic'>The Gods of the Egyptians</hi> (London, +1904), i. 457-462. The latter writer +says (p. 462): <q>In very early times +Net was the personification of the +eternal female principle of life which +was self-sustaining and self-existent, +and was secret and unknown, and all-pervading; +the more material thinkers, +whilst admitting that she brought forth +her son Rā without the aid of a +husband, were unable to divorce from +their minds the idea that a male germ +was necessary for its production, and +finding it impossible to derive it from +a being external to the goddess, +assumed that she herself provided not +only the substance which was to form +the body of Rā but also the male germ +which fecundated it. Thus Net was +the type of partheno-genesis.</q></note> That view of +<pb n='282'/><anchor id='Pg282'/> +her character does not rest on a perverse and mischievous +theory that virginity is more honourable than matrimony. +It is derived, as I have already indicated, from a state of +savagery in which the mere fact of paternity was unknown. +That explains why in later times, long after the true nature +of paternity had been ascertained, the Father God was often +a much less important personage in mythology than his +divine partner the Mother Goddess. With regard to Attis +in his paternal character it deserves to be noticed that the +Bithynians used to ascend to the tops of the mountains +and there call upon him under the name of Papas. The +custom is attested by Arrian,<note place='foot'>Quoted by Eustathius on Homer, +<hi rend='italic'>Il.</hi> v. 408; <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Historicorum +Graecorum</hi>, ed. C. Müller, iii. 592, +Frag. 30.</note> who as a native of Bithynia +must have had good opportunities of observing it. We may +perhaps infer from it that the Bithynians conceived Attis as +a sky-god or heavenly father, like Zeus, with whom indeed +Arrian identifies him. If that were so, the story of the +loves of Attis and Cybele, the Father God and the Mother +Goddess, might be in one of its aspects a particular version +of the widespread myth which represents Mother Earth +fertilized by Father Sky;<note place='foot'>(Sir) Edward B. Tylor, <hi rend='italic'>Primitive +Culture</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> i. 321 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, ii. 270 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +For example, the Ewe people of +Togo-land, in West Africa, think that +the Earth is the wife of the Sky, +and that their marriage takes place in +the rainy season, when the rain causes +the seeds to sprout and bear fruit. +These fruits they regard as the children +of Mother Earth, who in their opinion +is the mother also of men and of gods. +See J. Spieth, <hi rend='italic'>Die Ewe-Stämme</hi> +(Berlin, 1906), pp. 464, 548. In the +regions of the Senegal and the Niger +it is believed that the Sky-god and the +Earth-goddess are the parents of the +principal spirits who dispense life and +death, weal and woe, among mankind. +The eldest son of Sky and Earth is +represented in very various forms, +sometimes as a hermaphrodite, sometimes +in semi-animal shape, with the +head of a bull, a crocodile, a fish, or +a serpent. His name varies in the +different tribes, but the outward form +of his ceremonies is everywhere similar. +His rites, which are to some extent +veiled in mystery, are forbidden to +women. See Maurice Delafosse, <hi rend='italic'>Haut-Sénégal-Niger</hi> +(Paris, 1912), iii. 173-175.</note> and, further, the story of the +<pb n='283'/><anchor id='Pg283'/> +emasculation of Attis would be parallel to the Greek legend +that Cronus castrated his father, the old sky-god Uranus,<note place='foot'>Hesiod, <hi rend='italic'>Theogony</hi>, 159 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +and was himself in turn castrated by his own son, the +younger sky-god Zeus.<note place='foot'>Porphyry, <hi rend='italic'>De antro nympharum</hi>, +16; Aristides, <hi rend='italic'>Or.</hi> iii. (vol. i. p. 35 ed. +G. Dindorf, Leipsic, 1829); Scholiast +on Apollonius Rhodius, <hi rend='italic'>Argon.</hi> iv. +983.</note> The tale of the mutilation of +the sky-god by his son has been plausibly explained as a +myth of the violent separation of the earth and sky, which +some races, for example the Polynesians, suppose to have +originally clasped each other in a close embrace.<note place='foot'>A. Lang, <hi rend='italic'>Custom and Myth</hi> +(London, 1884), pp. 45 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</hi> (London, +1887), i. 299 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> In Egyptian +mythology the separation of heaven +and earth was ascribed to Shu, the +god of light, who insinuated himself +between the bodies of Seb (Keb) the +earth-god and of Nut the sky-goddess. +On the monuments Shu is represented +holding up the star-spangled body of +Nut on his hands, while Seb reclines +on the ground. See A. Wiedemann, +<hi rend='italic'>Religion of the Ancient Egyptians</hi> (London, +1897), pp. 230 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; E. A. Wallis +Budge, <hi rend='italic'>The Gods of the Egyptians</hi>, ii. +90, 97 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 100, 105; A. Erman, <hi rend='italic'>Die +ägyptische Religion</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Berlin, 1909), +pp. 35 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; C. P. Tiele, <hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der +Religion im Altertum</hi>, i. 33 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Thus +contrary to the usual mythical conception +the Egyptians regarded the earth +as male and the sky as female. An +allusion in the <hi rend='italic'>Book of the Dead</hi> (ch. +69, vol. ii. p. 235, E. A. Wallis +Budge's translation, London, 1901) has +been interpreted as a hint that Osiris +mutilated his father Seb at the separation +of earth and heaven, just as Cronus +mutilated his father Uranus. See H. +Brugsch, <hi rend='italic'>Religion und Mythologie der +alten Aegypter</hi> (Leipsic, 1885-1888), +p. 581; E. A. Wallis Budge, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> +ii. 99 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Sometimes the Egyptians +conceived the sky as a great cow standing +with its legs on the earth. See A. +Erman, <hi rend='italic'>Die ägyptische Religion</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> pp. +7, 8.</note> Yet it +seems unlikely that an order of eunuch priests like the Galli +should have been based on a purely cosmogonic myth: why +should they continue for all time to be mutilated because +the sky-god was so in the beginning? The custom of +castration must surely have been designed to meet a constantly +recurring need, not merely to reflect a mythical +event which happened at the creation of the world. Such +a need is the maintenance of the fruitfulness of the earth, +annually imperilled by the changes of the seasons. Yet +<pb n='284'/><anchor id='Pg284'/> +the theory that the mutilation of the priests of Attis and +the burial of the severed parts were designed to fertilize +the ground may perhaps be reconciled with the cosmogonic +myth if we remember the old opinion, held +apparently by many peoples, that the creation of the +world is year by year repeated in that great transformation +which depends ultimately on the annual increase of +the sun's heat.<note place='foot'>Compare <hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, pp. 105 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> However, the evidence for the celestial +aspect of Attis is too slight to allow us to speak with any +confidence on this subject. A trace of that aspect appears +to survive in the star-spangled cap which he is said to have +received from Cybele,<note place='foot'>Julian, <hi rend='italic'>Or.</hi> v. pp. 165 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b</hi>, 170 <hi rend='smallcaps'>d</hi> +(pp. 214, 221, ed. F. C. Hertlein); +Sallustius philosophus, <q>De diis et +mundo,</q> iv. <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Philosophorum +Graecorum</hi>, ed. F. G. A. Mullach, iii. +33.</note> and which is figured on some monuments +supposed to represent him.<note place='foot'>Drexler, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Men,</q> in W. H. +Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und +röm. Mythologie</hi>, ii. 2745; H. Hepding, +<hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, p. 120, note 8.</note> His identification with +the Phrygian moon-god Men Tyrannus<note place='foot'>H. Dessau, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones Latinae +Selectae</hi>, vol. ii. Pars i. pp. 145 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +Nos. 4146-4149; H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, +pp. 82, 86 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 89 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> As to Men +Tyrannus, see Drexler, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Men,</q> +in W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. +und röm. Myth.</hi> ii. 2687 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> points in the same +direction, but is probably due rather to the religious speculation +of a later age than to genuine popular tradition.<note place='foot'>On the other hand Sir W. M. +Ramsay holds that Attis and Men +are deities of similar character and +origin, but differentiated from each +other by development in different surroundings +(<hi rend='italic'>Cities and Bishoprics of +Phrygia</hi>, i. 169); but he denies that +Men was a moon-god (<hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> i. 104, +note 4).</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='285'/><anchor id='Pg285'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter IV. Human Representatives of Attis.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The high +priest of +Attis bore +the god's +name and +seems to +have personated +him. +The +drawing of +the high +priest's +blood may +have been +a substitute +for putting +him to +death in +the character +of +the god. +The name +of Attis in +the royal +families of +Phrygia +and Lydia. The +Phrygian +priests of +Attis may +have been +members +of the +royal +family.</note> +From inscriptions it appears that both at Pessinus and +Rome the high-priest of Cybele regularly bore the name of +Attis.<note place='foot'>In letters of Eumenes and Attalus, +preserved in inscriptions at Sivrihissar, +the priest at Pessinus is addressed as +Attis. See A. von Domaszewski, +<q>Briefe der Attaliden an den Priester +von Pessinus,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Archaeologische-epigraphische +Mittheilungen aus Oesterreich-Ungarn</hi>, +viii. (1884) pp. 96, +98; Ch. Michel, <hi rend='italic'>Recueil d'Inscriptions +Grecques</hi>, pp. 57 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> No. 45; W. +Dittenberger, <hi rend='italic'>Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones +Selectae</hi> (Leipsic, 1903-1905), +vol. i. pp. 482 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> No. 315. For +more evidence of inscriptions see H. +Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, p. 79; Rapp, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Attis,</q> in W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon +der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, i. 724. +See also Polybius, xxii. 18 (20), (ed. L. +Dindorf), who mentions a priest of +the Mother of the Gods named Attis +at Pessinus.</note> It is therefore a reasonable conjecture that he +played the part of his namesake, the legendary Attis, at the +annual festival.<note place='foot'>The conjecture is that of Henzen, +in <hi rend='italic'>Annal. d. Inst.</hi> 1856, p. 110, referred +to by Rapp, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi></note> We have seen that on the Day of Blood +he drew blood from his arms, and this may have been an +imitation of the self-inflicted death of Attis under the pine-tree. +It is not inconsistent with this supposition that Attis +was also represented at these ceremonies by an effigy; for +instances can be shown in which the divine being is +first represented by a living person and afterwards by +an effigy, which is then burned or otherwise destroyed.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 75 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, +pp. 151 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 209.</note> +Perhaps we may go a step farther and conjecture that this +mimic killing of the priest, accompanied by a real effusion +of his blood, was in Phrygia, as it has been elsewhere, a +substitute for a human sacrifice which in earlier times was +actually offered. Sir W. M. Ramsay, whose authority on +all questions relating to Phrygia no one will dispute, is +<pb n='286'/><anchor id='Pg286'/> +of opinion that at these Phrygian ceremonies <q>the representative +of the god was probably slain each year by a cruel +death, just as the god himself died.</q><note place='foot'>Article <q>Phrygia,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia +Britannica</hi>, 9th ed. xviii. (1885) p. 853. +Elsewhere, speaking of the religions of +Asia Minor in general, the same writer +says: <q>The highest priests and priestesses +played the parts of the great gods +in the mystic ritual, wore their dress, +and bore their names</q> (<hi rend='italic'>Cities and +Bishoprics of Phrygia</hi>, i. 101).</note> We know from +Strabo<note place='foot'>Strabo, xii. 5. 3, p. 567.</note> that the priests of Pessinus were at one time +potentates as well as priests; they may, therefore, have +belonged to that class of divine kings or popes whose duty +it was to die each year for their people and the world. +The name of Attis, it is true, does not occur among the +names of the old kings of Phrygia, who seem to have borne +the names of Midas and Gordias in alternate generations; +but a very ancient inscription carved in the rock above a +famous Phrygian monument, which is known as the Tomb +of Midas, records that the monument was made for, or +dedicated to, King Midas by a certain Ates, whose name +is doubtless identical with Attis, and who, if not a king +himself, may have been one of the royal family.<note place='foot'>(Sir) W. M. Ramsay, <q>A Study +of Phrygian Art,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic +Studies</hi>, ix. (1888) pp. 379 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<q>A Study of Phrygian Art,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal +of Hellenic Studies</hi>, x. (1889) pp. 156 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, <hi rend='italic'>Histoire +de l'Art dans l'Antiquité</hi>, v. 82 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> It is +worthy of note also that the name Atys, which, again, +appears to be only another form of Attis, is recorded as +that of an early king of Lydia;<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 94. According to +Sir W. M. Ramsay, the conquering +and ruling caste in Lydia belonged to +the Phrygian stock (<hi rend='italic'>Journal of Hellenic +Studies</hi>, ix. (1888) p. 351).</note> and that a son of Croesus, +king of Lydia, not only bore the name Atys but was said +to have been killed, while he was hunting a boar, by a +member of the royal Phrygian family, who traced his lineage +to King Midas and had fled to the court of Croesus because +he had unwittingly slain his own brother.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, i. 34-45. The tradition +that Croesus would allow no iron +weapon to come near Atys suggests +that a similar taboo may have been +imposed on the Phrygian priests named +Attis. For taboos of this sort see +<hi rend='italic'>Taboo and the Perils of the Soul</hi>, pp. +225 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Scholars have +recognized in this story of the death of Atys, son of Croesus, +a mere double of the myth of Attis;<note place='foot'>H. Stein on Herodotus, i. 43; +Ed. Meyer, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Atys,</q> in Pauly-Wissowa's +<hi rend='italic'>Real-Encyclopädie der classischen +Altertumswissenschaft</hi>, ii. 2 +col. 2262.</note> and in view of the +facts which have come before us in the present inquiry<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg013'>13</ref>, <ref target='Pg016'>16</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, <ref target='Pg048'>48</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> it +<pb n='287'/><anchor id='Pg287'/> +is a remarkable circumstance that the myth of a slain +god should be told of a king's son. May we conjecture +that the Phrygian priests who bore the name of Attis +and represented the god of that name were themselves +members, perhaps the eldest sons, of the royal house, +to whom their fathers, uncles, brothers, or other kinsmen +deputed the honour of dying a violent death in the character +of gods, while they reserved to themselves the duty +of living, as long as nature allowed them, in the humbler +character of kings? If this were so, the Phrygian dynasty +of Midas may have presented a close parallel to the Greek +dynasty of Athamas, in which the eldest sons seem to have +been regularly destined to the altar.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Dying God</hi>, pp. 161 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> But it is also possible +that the divine priests who bore the name of Attis may +have belonged to that indigenous race which the Phrygians, +on their irruption into Asia from Europe, appear to have +found and conquered in the land afterwards known as +Phrygia.<note place='foot'>See (Sir) W. M. Ramsay, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Phrygia,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Encyclopaedia Britannica</hi>, +9th ed. xviii. 849 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, +<q>A Study of Phrygian Art,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Journal +of Hellenic Studies</hi>, ix. (1888) +pp. 350 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Prof. P. Kretschmer +holds that both Cybele and Attis +were gods of the indigenous Asiatic +population, not of the Phrygian invaders +(<hi rend='italic'>Einleitung in die Geschichte +der griechischen Sprache</hi>, Göttingen, +1896, pp. 194 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>).</note> On the latter hypothesis the priests may have +represented an older and higher civilization than that of +their barbarous conquerors. Be that as it may, the god +they personated was a deity of vegetation whose divine life +manifested itself especially in the pine-tree and the violets +of spring; and if they died in the character of that divinity, +they corresponded to the mummers who are still slain in +mimicry by European peasants in spring, and to the priest +who was slain long ago in grim earnest on the wooded shore +of the Lake of Nemi. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='288'/><anchor id='Pg288'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter V. The Hanged God.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The way +in which +the representatives +of Attis +were put +to death +is perhaps +shown by +the legend +of Marsyas, +who was +hung on a +pine-tree +and flayed +by Apollo.</note> +A reminiscence of the manner in which these old representatives +of the deity were put to death is perhaps preserved +in the famous story of Marsyas. He was said to be a +Phrygian satyr or Silenus, according to others a shepherd or +herdsman, who played sweetly on the flute. A friend of +Cybele, he roamed the country with the disconsolate goddess +to soothe her grief for the death of Attis.<note place='foot'>Diodorus Siculus, iii. 58 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> As +to Marsyas in the character of a +shepherd or herdsman see Hyginus, +<hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 165; Nonnus, <hi rend='italic'>Dionys.</hi> i. 41 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +He is called a Silenus by Pausanias +(i. 24. 1).</note> The composition +of the Mother's Air, a tune played on the flute in honour of +the Great Mother Goddess, was attributed to him by the +people of Celaenae in Phrygia.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, x. 30. 9.</note> Vain of his skill, he +challenged Apollo to a musical contest, he to play on the +flute and Apollo on the lyre. Being vanquished, Marsyas +was tied up to a pine-tree and flayed or cut limb from limb +either by the victorious Apollo or by a Scythian slave.<note place='foot'>Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, i. 4. 2; +Hyginus, <hi rend='italic'>Fab.</hi> 165. Many ancient +writers mention that the tree on +which Marsyas suffered death was a +pine. See Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi>; Nicander, +<hi rend='italic'>Alexipharmaca</hi>, 301 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, with +the Scholiast's note; Lucian, <hi rend='italic'>Tragodopodagra</hi>, +314 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Archias Mitylenaeus, +in <hi rend='italic'>Anthologia Palatina</hi>, vii. +696; Philostratus, Junior, <hi rend='italic'>Imagines</hi>, +i. 3; Longus, <hi rend='italic'>Pastor.</hi> iv. 8; Zenobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Cent.</hi> iv. 81; J. Tzetzes, <hi rend='italic'>Chiliades</hi>, +i. 353 sqq. Pliny alone declares +the tree to have been a plane, which +according to him was still shown at +Aulocrene on the way from Apamea +to Phrygia (<hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> xvi. 240). +On a candelabra in the Vatican the +defeated Marsyas is represented hanging +on a pine-tree (W. Helbig, <hi rend='italic'>Führer</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +i. 225 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>); but the monumental evidence +is not consistent on this point +(Jessen, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Marsyas,</q> in W. H. +Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und röm. +Mythologie</hi>, ii. 2442). The position +which the pine held in the myth and +ritual of Cybele supports the preponderance +of ancient testimony in favour of +that tree.</note> +His skin was shown at Celaenae in historical times. It +<pb n='289'/><anchor id='Pg289'/> +hung at the foot of the citadel in a cave from which the +river Marsyas rushed with an impetuous and noisy tide +to join the Maeander.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, vii. 26; Xenophon, +<hi rend='italic'>Anabasis</hi>, i. 2. 8; Livy, xxxviii. +13. 6; Quintus Curtius, iii. 1. 1-5; +Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> v. 106. Herodotus +calls the river the Catarrhactes.</note> So the Adonis bursts full-born from +the precipices of the Lebanon; so the blue river of Ibreez +leaps in a crystal jet from the red rocks of the Taurus; +so the stream, which now rumbles deep underground, used +to gleam for a moment on its passage from darkness to +darkness in the dim light of the Corycian cave. In all these +copious fountains, with their glad promise of fertility and +life, men of old saw the hand of God and worshipped him +beside the rushing river with the music of its tumbling +waters in their ears. At Celaenae, if we can trust tradition, +the piper Marsyas, hanging in his cave, had a soul +for harmony even in death; for it is said that at +the sound of his native Phrygian melodies the skin of +the dead satyr used to thrill, but that if the musician +struck up an air in praise of Apollo it remained deaf and +motionless.<note place='foot'>Aelian, <hi rend='italic'>Var. Hist</hi>. xiii. 21.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Marsyas +apparently +a double +of Attis. The +hanging +and spearing +of Odin +and his +human +victims on +sacred +trees. +The hanging +and +spearing +of human +victims +among the +Bagobos.</note> +In this Phrygian satyr, shepherd, or herdsman who +enjoyed the friendship of Cybele, practised the music so +characteristic of her rites,<note place='foot'>Catullus, lxiii. 22; Lucretius, +ii. 620; Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Fasti</hi>, iv. 181 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +341; Polyaenus, <hi rend='italic'>Stratagem.</hi> viii. +53. 4. Flutes or pipes often appear +on her monuments. See H. Dessau, +<hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae</hi>, Nos. +4100, 4143, 4145, 4152, 4153.</note> and died a violent death on her +sacred tree, the pine, may we not detect a close resemblance +to Attis, the favourite shepherd or herdsman of the goddess, +who is himself described as a piper,<note place='foot'>Hippolytus, <hi rend='italic'>Refutatio omnium +haeresium</hi>, v. 9, p. 168, ed. Duncker +and Schneidewin.</note> is said to have perished +under a pine-tree, and was annually represented by an effigy +hung, like Marsyas, upon a pine? We may conjecture that +in old days the priest who bore the name and played the +part of Attis at the spring festival of Cybele was regularly +hanged or otherwise slain upon the sacred tree, and that +this barbarous custom was afterwards mitigated into the +form in which it is known to us in later times, when the +priest merely drew blood from his body under the tree and +attached an effigy instead of himself to its trunk. In the +holy grove at Upsala men and animals were sacrificed by +<pb n='290'/><anchor id='Pg290'/> +being hanged upon the sacred trees.<note place='foot'>Adam of Bremen, <hi rend='italic'>Descriptio insularum +Aquilonis</hi>, 27 (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia +Latina</hi>, cxlvi. 643).</note> The human victims +dedicated to Odin were regularly put to death by hanging +or by a combination of hanging and stabbing, the man +being strung up to a tree or a gallows and then wounded +with a spear. Hence Odin was called the Lord of the +Gallows or the God of the Hanged, and he is represented +sitting under a gallows tree.<note place='foot'>S. Bugge, <hi rend='italic'>Studien über die Entstehung +der nördischen Götter- und +Heldensagen</hi> (Munich, 1889), pp. 339 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; K. Simrock, <hi rend='italic'>Die Edda</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>8</hi> (Stuttgart, +1882), p. 382; K. Müllenhoff, +<hi rend='italic'>Deutsche Altertumskunde</hi> (Berlin, +1870-1900), iv. 244 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; H. M. +Chadwick, <hi rend='italic'>The Cult of Othin</hi> (London, +1899), pp. 3-20. The old +English custom of hanging and disembowelling +traitors was probably +derived from a practice of thus sacrificing +them to Odin; for among many +races, including the Teutonic and +Latin peoples, capital punishment +appears to have been originally a +religious rite, a sacrifice or consecration +of the criminal to the god whom +he had offended. See F. Liebrecht, +<hi rend='italic'>Zur Volkskunde</hi> (Heilbronn, 1879), +pp. 8 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; K. von Amira, in H. Paul's +<hi rend='italic'>Grundriss der germanischen Philologie</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +iii. (Strasburg, 1900) pp. 197 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; G. Vigfusson and F. York Powell, +<hi rend='italic'>Corpus Poeticum Boreale</hi> (Oxford, +1883), i. 410; W. Golther, <hi rend='italic'>Handbuch +der germanischen Mythologie</hi> (Leipsic, +1895), pp. 548 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Th. Mommsen, +<hi rend='italic'>Roman History</hi>, bk. i. ch. 12 (vol. i. +p. 192, ed. 1868); <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Römisches +Strafrecht</hi> (Leipsic, 1899), pp. 900 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; F. Granger, <hi rend='italic'>The Worship of +the Romans</hi> (London, 1895), pp. 259 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; E. Westermarck, <hi rend='italic'>The Origin +and Development of the Moral Ideas</hi>, +i. (London, 1906) pp. 439 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> So, +too, among barbarous peoples the +slaughter of prisoners in war is often +a sacrifice offered by the victors to +the gods to whose aid they ascribe +the victory. See A. B. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>The +Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold +Coast</hi> (London, 1887), pp. 169 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +W. Ellis, <hi rend='italic'>Polynesian Researches</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +(London, 1832-1836), i. 289; Diodorus +Siculus, xx. 65; Strabo, vii. +2. 3, p. 294; Caesar, <hi rend='italic'>De bello Gallico</hi>, +vi. 17; Tacitus, <hi rend='italic'>Annals</hi>, i. 61, xiii. +57; Procopius, De bello Gothico, ii. +15. 24, ii. 25. 9; Jornandes, <hi rend='italic'>Getica</hi>, +vi. 41; J. Grimm, <hi rend='italic'>Deutsche Mythologie</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> +(Berlin, 1875-1878), i. 36 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +Fr. Schwally, <hi rend='italic'>Semitische Kriegsaltertümer</hi> +(Leipsic, 1901), pp. 29 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Indeed he is said to have +been sacrificed to himself in the ordinary way, as we learn +from the weird verses of the <hi rend='italic'>Havamal</hi>, in which the god +describes how he acquired his divine power by learning the +magic runes: +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'><hi rend='italic'>I know that I hung on the windy tree</hi></q></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>For nine whole nights,</hi></l> +<l><hi rend='italic'>Wounded with the spear, dedicated to Odin,</hi></l> +<l><q rend='post'><hi rend='italic'>Myself to myself.</hi></q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Havamal</hi>, 139 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> (K. Simrock, +<hi rend='italic'>Die Edda</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>8</hi> p. 55; K. Müllenhoff, +<hi rend='italic'>Deutsche Altertumskunde</hi>, v. 270 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>).</note></l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +The Bagobos of Mindanao, one of the Philippine Islands, +used annually to sacrifice human victims for the good of +the crops in a similar way. Early in December, when the +<pb n='291'/><anchor id='Pg291'/> +constellation Orion appeared at seven o'clock in the evening, +the people knew that the time had come to clear their fields +for sowing and to sacrifice a slave. The sacrifice was +presented to certain powerful spirits as payment for the good +year which the people had enjoyed, and to ensure the +favour of the spirits for the coming season. The victim was +led to a great tree in the forest; there he was tied with +his back to the tree and his arms stretched high above his +head, in the attitude in which ancient artists portrayed +Marsyas hanging on the fatal tree. While he thus hung +by the arms, he was slain by a spear thrust through his +body at the level of the armpits. Afterwards the body was +cut clean through the middle at the waist, and the upper +part was apparently allowed to dangle for a little from the +tree, while the under part wallowed in blood on the ground. +The two portions were finally cast into a shallow trench +beside the tree. Before this was done, anybody who wished +might cut off a piece of flesh or a lock of hair from the +corpse and carry it to the grave of some relation whose +body was being consumed by a ghoul. Attracted by the fresh +corpse, the ghoul would leave the mouldering old body in +peace. These sacrifices have been offered by men now living.<note place='foot'>Fay-Cooper Cole, <hi rend='italic'>The Wild Tribes +of Davao District, Mindanao</hi> (Chicago, +1913), pp. 114 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> (<hi rend='italic'>Field Museum +of Natural History, Publication 170</hi>).</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The +hanging of +Artemis. The +hanging +of Helen. +The +hanging +of animal +victims.</note> +In Greece the great goddess Artemis herself appears +to have been annually hanged in effigy in her sacred grove +of Condylea among the Arcadian hills, and there accordingly +she went by the name of the Hanged One.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, viii. 23. 6 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> The +story, mentioned by Pausanias, that +some children tied a rope round the +neck of the image of Artemis was +probably invented to explain a ritual +practice of the same sort, as scholars +have rightly perceived. See L. Preller, +<hi rend='italic'>Griechische Mythologie</hi>, i.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> 305, note 2; +L. R. Farnell, <hi rend='italic'>The Cults of the Greek +States</hi> (Oxford, 1896-1909), ii. 428 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +M. P. Nilsson, <hi rend='italic'>Griechische Feste</hi> +(Leipsic, 1906), pp. 232 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> The +Arcadian worship of the Hanged +Artemis was noticed by Callimachus. +See Clement of Alexandria, <hi rend='italic'>Protrept.</hi> +ii. 38, p. 32, ed. Potter.</note> Indeed a trace +of a similar rite may perhaps be detected even at Ephesus, +the most famous of her sanctuaries, in the legend of a woman +who hanged herself and was thereupon dressed by the +compassionate goddess in her own divine garb and called by the +name of Hecate.<note place='foot'>Eustathius on Homer, <hi rend='italic'>Od.</hi> xii. 85, +p. 1714; I. Bekker, <hi rend='italic'>Anecdota Graeca</hi> +(Berlin, 1814-1821), i. 336 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +Ἄγαλμα Ἑκάτης. The goddess Hecate +was sometimes identified with Artemis, +though in origin probably she was +quite distinct. See L. R. Farnell, +<hi rend='italic'>The Cults of the Greek States</hi>, ii. 499 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Similarly, at Melite in Phthia, a story +<pb n='292'/><anchor id='Pg292'/> +was told of a girl named Aspalis who hanged herself, but +who appears to have been merely a form of Artemis. +For after her death her body could not be found, but an +image of her was discovered standing beside the image of +Artemis, and the people bestowed on it the title of Hecaerge +or Far-shooter, one of the regular epithets of the goddess. +Every year the virgins sacrificed a young goat to the image +by hanging it, because Astypalis was said to have hanged +herself.<note place='foot'>Antoninus Liberalis, <hi rend='italic'>Transform.</hi> +xiii.</note> The sacrifice may have been a substitute for hanging +an image or a human representative of Artemis. Again, +in Rhodes the fair Helen was worshipped under the title of +Helen of the Tree, because the queen of the island had +caused her handmaids, disguised as Furies, to string her up +to a bough.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, iii. 19. 9 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> That the Asiatic Greeks sacrificed animals in +this fashion is proved by coins of Ilium, which represent an +ox or cow hanging on a tree and stabbed with a knife by a +man, who sits among the branches or on the animal's back.<note place='foot'>H. von Fritze, <q>Zum griechischen +Opferritual,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Jahrbuch des kaiser. +deutsch. Archäologischen Instituts</hi>, +xviii. (1903) pp. 58-67. In the +ritual of Eleusis the sacrificial oxen +were sometimes lifted up by young +men from the ground. See G. Dittenberger, +<hi rend='italic'>Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +vol. ii. pp. 166 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> No. 521 +(ἤραντο δὲ καὶ τοῖς μυστηρίοις τοὺς βοῦς +ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι τῇ θυσίαι, κτλ.); E. S. +Roberts and E. A. Gardner, <hi rend='italic'>Introduction +to Greek Epigraphy</hi>, ii. (Cambridge, +1905) pp. 176 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, No. 65. +In this inscription the word ἤραντο is +differently interpreted by P. Stengel, +who supposes that it refers merely to +turning backwards and upwards the +head of the victim. See P. Stengel, +<q>Zum griechischen Opferritual,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Jahrbuch +des kaiser. deutsch. Archäologischen +Instituts</hi>, xviii. (1903) pp. +113-123. But it seems highly improbable +that so trivial an act should +be solemnly commemorated in an inscription +among the exploits of the +young men (<foreign lang='el' rend='italic'>epheboi</foreign>) who performed it. +On the other hand, we know that at +Nysa the young men did lift and carry +the sacrificial bull, and that the act +was deemed worthy of commemoration +on the coins. See above, p. <ref target='Pg206'>206</ref>. +The Wajagga of East Africa dread the +ghosts of suicides; so when a man has +hanged himself they take the rope from +his neck and hang a goat in the fatal +noose, after which they slay the animal. +This is supposed to appease the ghost +and prevent him from tempting human +beings to follow his bad example. See +B. Gutmann, <q>Trauer und Begrabnissitten +der Wadschagga,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Globus</hi>, lxxxix. +(1906) p. 200.</note> +At Hierapolis also the victims were hung on trees before +they were burnt.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg146'>146</ref>.</note> With these Greek and Scandinavian +parallels before us we can hardly dismiss as wholly improbable +<pb n='293'/><anchor id='Pg293'/> +the conjecture that in Phrygia a man-god may have +hung year by year on the sacred but fatal tree. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Use of the +skins of +human +victims to +effect their +resurrection.</note> +The tradition that Marsyas was flayed and that his skin +was exhibited at Celaenae down to historical times may +well reflect a ritual practice of flaying the dead god and +hanging his skin upon the pine as a means of effecting his +resurrection, and with it the revival of vegetation in spring. +Similarly, in ancient Mexico the human victims who +personated gods were often flayed and their bloody skins +worn by men who appear to have represented the dead +deities come to life again.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Scapegoat</hi>, pp. 294 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> When a Scythian king died, he +was buried in a grave along with one of his concubines, his +cup-bearer, cook, groom, lacquey, and messenger, who were +all killed for the purpose, and a great barrow was heaped +up over the grave. A year afterwards fifty of his servants +and fifty of his best horses were strangled; and their bodies, +having been disembowelled and cleaned out, were stuffed +with chaff, sewn up, and set on scaffolds round about the +barrow, every dead man bestriding a dead horse, which was +bitted and bridled as in life.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, iv. 71 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> These strange horsemen were +no doubt supposed to mount guard over the king. The +setting up of their stuffed skins might be thought to ensure +their ghostly resurrection. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Skins of +men and +horses +stuffed and +set up at +graves. +Some +tribes of +Borneo use +the skulls +of their +enemies to +ensure the +fertility of +the ground +and of +women, +the abundance +of +game, and +so forth.</note> +That some such notion was entertained by the Scythians +is made probable by the account which the mediaeval +traveller de Plano Carpini gives of the funeral customs +of the Mongols. The traveller tells us that when a +noble Mongol died, the custom was to bury him seated in +the middle of a tent, along with a horse saddled and +bridled, and a mare and her foal. Also they used to eat +another horse, stuff the carcase with straw, and set it up on +poles. All this they did in order that in the other world +the dead man might have a tent to live in, a mare to yield +milk, and a steed to ride, and that he might be able to +breed horses. Moreover, the bones of the horse which they +ate were burned for the good of his soul.<note place='foot'>Jean du Plan de Carpin, <hi rend='italic'>Historia +Mongalorum</hi>, ed. D'Avezac (Paris, +1838), cap. iii. § iii.</note> When the Arab +traveller Ibn Batuta visited Peking in the fourteenth century, +<pb n='294'/><anchor id='Pg294'/> +he witnessed the funeral of an emperor of China who had +been killed in battle. The dead sovereign was buried along +with four young female slaves and six guards in a vault, +and an immense mound like a hill was piled over him. +Four horses were then made to run round the hillock till +they could run no longer, after which they were killed, +impaled, and set up beside the tomb.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah, texte +Arabe accompagné d'une traduction</hi>, +par C. Défrémery et B. R. Sanguinetti +(Paris, 1853-1858), iv. 300 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> For +more evidence of similar customs, observed +by Turanian peoples, see K. +Neumann, <hi rend='italic'>Die Hellenen im Skythenlande</hi> +(Berlin, 1855), pp. 237-239.</note> When an Indian of +Patagonia dies, he is buried in a pit along with some of his +property. Afterwards his favourite horse, having been +killed, skinned, and stuffed, is propped up on sticks with its +head turned towards the grave. At the funeral of a chief +four horses are sacrificed, and one is set up at each corner +of the burial-place. The clothes and other effects of the +deceased are burned; and to conclude all, a feast is made of +the horses' flesh.<note place='foot'>Captain R. Fitz-roy, <hi rend='italic'>Narrative of +the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's +Ships <q>Adventure</q> and <q>Beagle</q></hi> +(London, 1839), ii. 155 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> The Scythians certainly believed in the +existence of the soul after death and in the possibility of +turning it to account. This is proved by the practice of +one of their tribes, the Taurians of the Crimea, who used to +cut off the heads of their prisoners and set them on poles +over their houses, especially over the chimneys, in order +that the spirits of the slain men might guard the dwellings.<note place='foot'>Herodotus, iv. 103. Many Scythians +flayed their dead enemies, +and, stretching the skin on a wooden +framework, carried it about with them +on horseback (Herodotus, iv. 64). +The souls of the dead may have been +thought to attend on and serve the +man who thus bore their remains about +with him. It is also possible that +the custom was nothing more than a +barbarous mode of wreaking vengeance +on the dead. Thus a Persian king +has been known to flay an enemy, +stuff the skin with chaff, and hang it +on a high tree (Procopius, <hi rend='italic'>De bello +Persico</hi>, i. 5. 28). This was the +treatment which the arch-heretic +Manichaeus is said to have received +at the hands of the Persian king whose +son he failed to cure (Socrates, <hi rend='italic'>Historia +Ecclesiastica</hi>, i. 22; Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia +Graeca</hi>, lxvii. 137, 139). Still such a +punishment may have been suggested +by a religious rite. The idea of +crucifying their human victims appears +to have been suggested to the negroes +of Benin by the crucifixes of the early +Portuguese missionaries. See H. Ling +Roth, <hi rend='italic'>Great Benin</hi> (Halifax, 1903), +pp. 14 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +Some of the savages of Borneo allege a similar reason for +their favourite custom of taking human heads. <q>The +custom,</q> said a Kayan chief, <q>is not horrible. It is an +ancient custom, a good, beneficent custom, bequeathed to us +<pb n='295'/><anchor id='Pg295'/> +by our fathers and our fathers' fathers; it brings us blessings, +plentiful harvests, and keeps off sickness and pains. Those +who were once our enemies, hereby become our guardians, our +friends, our benefactors.</q><note place='foot'>W. H. Furness, <hi rend='italic'>Home-Life of +Borneo Head-Hunters</hi> (Philadelphia, +1902), p. 59. According to Messrs. +Hose and McDougall, the spirits which +animate the skulls appear not to be +those of the persons from whose +shoulders the heads were taken. However, +the spirits (called <foreign rend='italic'>Toh</foreign>) reside in +or about the heads, and <q>it is held +that in some way their presence in +the house brings prosperity to it, +especially in the form of good crops; +and so essential to the welfare of the +house are the heads held to be that, if +through fire a house has lost its heads +and has no occasion for war, the people +will beg a head, or even a fragment of +one, from some friendly house, and +will instal it in their own with the +usual ceremonies.</q> See Ch. Hose +and W. McDougall, <hi rend='italic'>The Pagan Tribes +of Borneo</hi> (London, 1912), ii. 20, 23.</note> Thus to convert dead foes into +friends and allies all that is necessary is to feed and otherwise +propitiate their skulls at a festival when they are +brought into the village. <q>An offering of food is made to +the heads, and their spirits, being thus appeased, cease to +entertain malice against, or to seek to inflict injury upon, +those who have got possession of the skull which formerly +adorned the now forsaken body.</q><note place='foot'>Spenser St. John, <hi rend='italic'>Life in the +Forests of the Far East</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London, +1863), i. 197.</note> When the Sea Dyaks +of Sarawak return home successful from a head-hunting +expedition, they bring the head ashore with much ceremony, +wrapt in palm leaves. <q>On shore and in the village, the +head, for months after its arrival, is treated with the greatest +consideration, and all the names and terms of endearment +of which their language is capable are abundantly lavished +on it; the most dainty morsels, culled from their abundant +though inelegant repast, are thrust into its mouth, and it is +instructed to hate its former friends, and that, having been +now adopted into the tribe of its captors, its spirit must be +always with them; sirih leaves and betel-nut are given to it, +and finally a cigar is frequently placed between its ghastly +and pallid lips. None of this disgusting mockery is +performed with the intention of ridicule, but all to propitiate +the spirit by kindness, and to procure its good wishes for the +tribe, of whom it is now supposed to have become a member.</q><note place='foot'>Hugh Low, <hi rend='italic'>Sarawak</hi> (London, +1848), pp. 206 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> In quoting this +passage I have taken the liberty to +correct a grammatical slip.</note> +Amongst these Dyaks the <q>Head-Feast,</q> which has been +just described, is supposed to be the most beneficial in its +<pb n='296'/><anchor id='Pg296'/> +influence of all their feasts and ceremonies. <q>The object of +them all is to make their rice grow well, to cause the forest +to abound with wild animals, to enable their dogs and +snares to be successful in securing game, to have the streams +swarm with fish, to give health and activity to the people +themselves, and to ensure fertility to their women. All these +blessings, the possessing and feasting of a fresh head are +supposed to be the most efficient means of securing. The +very ground itself is believed to be benefited and rendered +fertile, more fertile even than when the water in which +fragments of gold presented by the Rajah have been washed, +has been sprinkled over it.</q><note place='foot'><p>Spenser St. John, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> i. 204. +See further G. A. Wilken, <q>Iets over +de schedelvereering,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Bijdragen tot +de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van +Nederlandsch-Indië</hi>, xxxviii. (1889) pp. +89-129; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Verspreide Geschriften</hi> (The +Hague, 1912), iv. 37-81. A different +view of the purpose of head-hunting +is maintained by Mr. A. C. Kruyt, +in his essay, <q>Het koppensnellen +der Toradja's van Midden-Celebes, en +zijne Beteekenis,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Verslagen en Mededeelingen +der koninklijke Akademie van +Wetenschappen</hi>, Afdeeling Letterkunde, +Vierde Reeks, iii. 2 (Amsterdam, 1899), +pp. 147 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +</p> +<p> +The natives of Nias, an island to the +west of Sumatra, think it necessary to +obtain the heads of their enemies for +the purpose of celebrating the final +obsequies of a dead chief. Their +notion seems to be that the ghost of +the deceased ruler demands this sacrifice +in his honour, and will punish the +omission of it by sending sickness or +other misfortunes on the survivors. +Thus among these people the custom +of head-hunting is based on their belief +in human immortality and on their +conception of the exacting demands +which the dead make upon the living. +When the skulls have been presented +to a dead chief, the priest prays to him +for his blessing on the sowing and +harvesting of the rice, on the fruitfulness +of women, and so forth. See +C. Fries, <q>Das <q>Koppensnellen</q> auf +Nias,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift</hi>, +February, 1908, pp. 73-88. From +this account it would seem that it is +not the spirits of the slain men, but +the ghost of the dead chief from whom +the blessings of fertility and so forth +are supposed to emanate. Compare +Th. C. Rappard, <q>Het eiland Nias +en zijne bewoners,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Bijdragen tot de +Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van +Nederlandsch-Indië</hi>, lxii. (1909) pp. +609-611.</p></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The stuffed +skin of the +human +representative +of the +Phrygian +god may +have been +used for +like +purposes.</note> +In like manner, if my conjecture is right, the man who +represented the father-god of Phrygia used to be slain and +his stuffed skin hung on the sacred pine in order that his +spirit might work for the growth of the crops, the multiplication +of animals, and the fertility of women. So at Athens +an ox, which appears to have embodied the corn-spirit, was +killed at an annual sacrifice, and its hide, stuffed with straw +and sewn up, was afterwards set on its feet and yoked to +a plough as if it were ploughing, apparently in order to +represent, or rather to promote, the resurrection of the slain +<pb n='297'/><anchor id='Pg297'/> +corn-spirit at the end of the threshing.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Spirits of the Corn and of the +Wild</hi>, ii. 4-7.</note> This employment +of the skins of divine animals for the purpose of ensuring +the revival of the slaughtered divinity might be illustrated by +other examples.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Spirits of the Corn and of the +Wild</hi>, ii. 169 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Perhaps the hide of the bull which was +killed to furnish the regenerating bath of blood in the rites +of Attis may have been put to a similar use. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='298'/><anchor id='Pg298'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VI. Oriental Religions in the West.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Popularity +of the +worship of +Cybele and +Attis in the +Roman +Empire.</note> +The worship of the Great Mother of the Gods and her +lover or son was very popular under the Roman Empire. +Inscriptions prove that the two received divine honours, +separately or conjointly, not only in Italy, and especially at +Rome, but also in the provinces, particularly in Africa, +Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, and Bulgaria.<note place='foot'>H. Dessau, <hi rend='italic'>Inscriptiones Latinae +Selectae</hi>, Nos. 4099, 4100, 4103, 4105, +4106, 4116, 4117, 4119, 4120, 4121, +4123, 4124, 4127, 4128, 4131, 4136, +4139, 4140, 4142, 4156, 4163, 4167; +H. Hepding, <hi rend='italic'>Attis</hi>, pp. 85, 86, 93, +94, 95, Inscr. Nos. 21-24, 26, 50, 51, +52, 61, 62, 63. See further, J. Toutain, +<hi rend='italic'>Les Cultes Païens dans l'Empire +Romain</hi> (Paris, 1911), pp. 73 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, +103 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Their +worship survived the establishment of Christianity by +Constantine; for Symmachus records the recurrence of the +festival of the Great Mother,<note place='foot'>S. Dill, <hi rend='italic'>Roman Society in the Last +Century of the Western Empire</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London, +1899), p. 16.</note> and in the days of Augustine +her effeminate priests still paraded the streets and squares of +Carthage with whitened faces, scented hair, and mincing +gait, while, like the mendicant friars of the Middle Ages, +they begged alms from the passers-by.<note place='foot'>Augustine, <hi rend='italic'>De civitate Dei</hi>, vii. 26.</note> In Greece, on the +other hand, the bloody orgies of the Asiatic goddess and her +consort appear to have found little favour.<note place='foot'>But the two were publicly worshipped +at Dyme and Patrae in Achaia +(Pausanias, vii. 17. 9, vii. 20. 3), and +there was an association for their +worship at Piraeus. See P. Foucart, +<hi rend='italic'>Des Associations Religieuses chez les +Grecs</hi> (Paris, 1873), pp. 85 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 196; +Ch. Michel, <hi rend='italic'>Recueil d'Inscriptions +Grecques</hi>, p. 772, No. 982.</note> The barbarous +and cruel character of the worship, with its frantic excesses, +was doubtless repugnant to the good taste and humanity of +the Greeks, who seem to have preferred the kindred but +gentler rites of Adonis. Yet the same features which +shocked and repelled the Greeks may have positively +<pb n='299'/><anchor id='Pg299'/> +attracted the less refined Romans and barbarians of the +West. The ecstatic frenzies, which were mistaken for +divine inspiration,<note place='foot'>Rapp, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Kybele,</q> in W. H. +Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und röm. +Mythologie</hi>, ii. 1656.</note> the mangling of the body, the theory of +a new birth and the remission of sins through the shedding +of blood, have all their origin in savagery,<note place='foot'>As to the savage theory of inspiration +or possession by a deity see +(Sir) Edward B. Tylor, <hi rend='italic'>Primitive +Culture</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> ii. 131 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> As to the +savage theory of a new birth see +<hi rend='italic'>Balder the Beautiful</hi>, ii. 251 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> +As to the use of blood to wash away +sins see <hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 107 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>Psyche's +Task</hi>, Second Edition, pp. 44 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 47 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 116 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Among the Cameroon +negroes accidental homicide can be +expiated by the blood of an animal. +The relations of the slayer and of the +slain assemble. An animal is killed +and every person present is smeared +with its blood on his face and breast. +They think that the guilt of manslaughter +is thus atoned for, and that +no punishment will overtake the +homicide. See Missionary Autenrieth, +<q>Zur Religion der Kamerun-Neger,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Mitteilungen der geographischen +Gesellschaft zu Jena</hi>, xii. (1893) pp. +93 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> In Car Nicobar a man +possessed by devils is cleansed of +them by being rubbed all over with +pig's blood and beaten with leaves. +The devils are thus transferred to the +leaves, which are thrown into the sea +before daybreak. See V. Solomon, +<q>Extracts from diaries kept in Car +Nicobar,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Journal of the Anthropological +Institute</hi>, xxxii. (1902) p. 227. +Similarly the ancient Greeks purified a +homicide by means of pig's blood and +laurel leaves. See my note on Pausanias, +ii. 31. 8 (vol. iii. pp. 276-279). +The original idea of thus purging a +manslayer was probably to rid him of +the angry ghost of his victim, just as in +Car Nicobar a man is rid of devils in +the same manner. The purgative +virtue ascribed to the blood in these +ceremonies may be based on the notion +that the offended spirit accepts it as a +substitute for the blood of the guilty +person. This was the view of C. +Meiners (<hi rend='italic'>Geschichte der Religionen</hi>, +Hanover, 1806-1807, ii. 137 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>) and +of E. Rohde (<hi rend='italic'>Psyche</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> Tübingen and +Leipsic, 1903, ii. 77 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>).</note> and they naturally +appealed to peoples in whom the savage instincts were +still strong. Their true character was indeed often disguised +under a decent veil of allegorical or philosophical interpretation,<note place='foot'>A good instance of such an attempt +to dress up savagery in the garb of philosophy +is the fifth speech of the emperor +Julian, <q>On the Mother of the Gods</q> +(pp. 206 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> ed. F. C. Hertlein, +Leipsic, 1875-1876).</note> +which probably sufficed to impose upon the rapt and +enthusiastic worshippers, reconciling even the more cultivated +of them to things which otherwise must have filled them +with horror and disgust. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The spread +of Oriental +faiths over +the Roman +Empire +contributed +to undermine the +fabric of +Greek and +Roman +civilization +by inculcating +the +salvation +of the +individual +soul as the +supreme +aim of life.</note> +The religion of the Great Mother, with its curious +blending of crude savagery with spiritual aspirations, was +only one of a multitude of similar Oriental faiths which in +the later days of paganism spread over the Roman Empire, +and by saturating the European peoples with alien ideals of +<pb n='300'/><anchor id='Pg300'/> +life gradually undermined the whole fabric of ancient +civilization.<note place='foot'>As to the diffusion of Oriental +religions in the Roman Empire see +G. Boissier, <hi rend='italic'>La Religion Romaine +d'Auguste aux Antonins</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>5</hi> (Paris, 1900), +i. 349 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; J. Reville, <hi rend='italic'>La Religion à +Rome sous les Sévères</hi> (Paris, 1886), pp. +47 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; S. Dill, <hi rend='italic'>Roman Society in the +Last Century of the Western Empire</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +(London, 1899), pp. 76 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Greek and Roman society was built on the +conception of the subordination of the individual to the +community, of the citizen to the state; it set the safety of +the commonwealth, as the supreme aim of conduct, above +the safety of the individual whether in this world or in a +world to come. Trained from infancy in this unselfish +ideal, the citizens devoted their lives to the public service +and were ready to lay them down for the common good; +or if they shrank from the supreme sacrifice, it never +occurred to them that they acted otherwise than basely in +preferring their personal existence to the interests of their +country. All this was changed by the spread of Oriental +religions which inculcated the communion of the soul +with God and its eternal salvation as the only objects +worth living for, objects in comparison with which the +prosperity and even the existence of the state sank into +insignificance. The inevitable result of this selfish and +immoral doctrine was to withdraw the devotee more +and more from the public service, to concentrate his +thoughts on his own spiritual emotions, and to breed in +him a contempt for the present life which he regarded +merely as a probation for a better and an eternal. The +saint and the recluse, disdainful of earth and rapt in ecstatic +contemplation of heaven, became in popular opinion the +highest ideal of humanity, displacing the old ideal of the +patriot and hero who, forgetful of self, lives and is ready to +die for the good of his country. The earthly city seemed +poor and contemptible to men whose eyes beheld the City +of God coming in the clouds of heaven. Thus the centre +of gravity, so to say, was shifted from the present to a +future life, and however much the other world may have +gained, there can be little doubt that this one lost heavily +by the change. A general disintegration of the body +politic set in. The ties of the state and the family were +loosened: the structure of society tended to resolve itself +<pb n='301'/><anchor id='Pg301'/> +into its individual elements and thereby to relapse into +barbarism; for civilization is only possible through the +active co-operation of the citizens and their willingness to +subordinate their private interests to the common good. +Men refused to defend their country and even to continue +their kind.<note place='foot'>Compare Servius on Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Aen.</hi> +ii. 604, vi. 661; Origen, <hi rend='italic'>Contra +Celsum</hi>, viii. 73 (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia +Graeca</hi>, xi. 1628); G. Boissier, <hi rend='italic'>La +Religion Romaine d'Auguste aux +Antonins</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>5</hi> (Paris, 1900), i. 357 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; +E. Westermarck, <hi rend='italic'>The Origin and Development +of the Moral Ideas</hi> (London, +1906-1908), i. 345 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; H. H. +Milman, <hi rend='italic'>History of Latin Christianity</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> +i. 150-153, ii. 90. In the +passage just cited Origen tells us that +the Christians refused to follow the +Emperor to the field of battle even +when he ordered them to do so; but +he adds that they gave the emperor +the benefit of their prayers and thus +did him more real service than if they +had fought for him with the sword. +On the decline of the civic virtues +under the influence of Christian asceticism +see W. E. H. Lecky, <hi rend='italic'>History of +European Morals from Augustus to +Charlemagne</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> (London, 1877), ii. 139 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> In their anxiety to save their own souls and +the souls of others, they were content to leave the material +world, which they identified with the principle of evil, to +perish around them. This obsession lasted for a thousand +years. The revival of Roman law, of the Aristotelian +philosophy, of ancient art and literature at the close of the +Middle Ages, marked the return of Europe to native ideals +of life and conduct, to saner, manlier views of the world. +The long halt in the march of civilization was over. The +tide of Oriental invasion had turned at last. It is ebbing +still.<note place='foot'>To prevent misapprehension I will +add that the spread of Oriental religions +was only one of many causes which +contributed to the downfall of ancient +civilization. Among these contributory +causes a friend, for whose judgment and +learning I entertain the highest respect, +counts bad government and a ruinous +fiscal system, two of the most powerful +agents to blast the prosperity of nations, +as may be seen in our own day by the +blight which has struck the Turkish +empire. It is probable, too, as my +friend thinks, that the rapid diffusion +of alien faiths was as much an effect +as a cause of widespread intellectual +decay. Such unwholesome growths +could hardly have fastened upon the +Graeco-Roman mind in the days of +its full vigour. We may remember +the energy with which the Roman +Government combated the first outbreak +of the Bacchic plague (Th. +Mommsen, <hi rend='italic'>Roman History</hi>, iii. 115 +<hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, ed. 1894). The disastrous effects +of Roman financial oppression on the +industries and population of the empire, +particularly of Greece, are described +by George Finlay (<hi rend='italic'>Greece under the +Romans</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> Edinburgh and London, 1857, +pp. 47 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>).</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Popularity +of the +worship +of Mithra; +its resemblance +to +Christianity +and +its rivalry +with that +religion. The +festival of +Christmas +borrowed +by the +Church +from the +religion of +Mithra.</note> +Among the gods of eastern origin who in the decline +of the ancient world competed against each other for the +allegiance of the West was the old Persian deity Mithra. +<pb n='302'/><anchor id='Pg302'/> +The immense popularity of his worship is attested by the +monuments illustrative of it which have been found scattered +in profusion all over the Roman Empire.<note place='foot'>See Fr. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Textes et Monuments +figurés relatifs aux Mystères de +Mithra</hi> (Brussels, 1896-1899); <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> +<q>Mithras,</q> in W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon +der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, ii. +3028 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> Compare <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Les Religions +Orientales dans le Paganisme Romain</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +(Paris, 1909), pp. 207 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> In respect both +of doctrines and of rites the cult of Mithra appears to have +presented many points of resemblance not only to the +religion of the Mother of the Gods<note place='foot'>Fr. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Textes et Monuments</hi>, +i. 333 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> but also to Christianity.<note place='foot'>E. Renan, <hi rend='italic'>Marc-Aurèle et la Fin +du Monde Antique</hi> (Paris, 1882), pp. +576 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Fr. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Textes et Monuments</hi>, +i. 339 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> +The similarity struck the Christian doctors themselves and +was explained by them as a work of the devil, who sought +to seduce the souls of men from the true faith by a false +and insidious imitation of it.<note place='foot'>Tertullian, <hi rend='italic'>De corona</hi>, 15; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>De +praescriptione haereticorum</hi>, 40; Justin +Martyr, <hi rend='italic'>Apologia</hi>, i. 66; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Dialogus +cum Tryphone</hi>, 78 (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia +Graeca</hi>, vi. 429, 660). Tertullian +explained in like manner the resemblance +of the fasts of Isis and Cybele +to the fasts of Christianity (<hi rend='italic'>De jejunio</hi>, +16). Justin Martyr thought that by +listening to the words of the inspired +prophets the devils discovered the +divine intentions and anticipated them +by a series of profane and blasphemous +imitations. Among these travesties of +Christian truth he enumerates the +death, resurrection, and ascension of +Dionysus, the virgin birth of Perseus, +and Bellerophon mounted on Pegasus, +whom he regards as a parody of Christ +riding on an ass. See Justin Martyr, +<hi rend='italic'>Apology</hi>, i. 54.</note> So to the Spanish conquerors +of Mexico and Peru many of the native heathen +rites appeared to be diabolical counterfeits of the Christian +sacraments.<note place='foot'>J. de Acosta, <hi rend='italic'>Natural and Moral +History of the Indies</hi>, translated by E. +Grimston (London, 1880), bk. v. chs. +11, 16, 17, 18, 24-28, vol. ii. pp. +324 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 334 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, 356 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> With more probability the modern student +of comparative religion traces such resemblances to the +similar and independent workings of the mind of man in +his sincere, if crude, attempts to fathom the secret of the +universe, and to adjust his little life to its awful mysteries. +However that may be, there can be no doubt that the +Mithraic religion proved a formidable rival to Christianity, +combining as it did a solemn ritual with aspirations after +moral purity and a hope of immortality.<note place='foot'>Compare S. Dill, <hi rend='italic'>Roman Society +in the Last Century of the Western +Empire</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London, 1899), pp. 80 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +<hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Roman Society from Nero to Marcus +Aurelius</hi> (London, 1904), pp. 619 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Indeed the issue +of the conflict between the two faiths appears for a time to +have hung in the balance.<note place='foot'>E. Renan, <hi rend='italic'>Marc-Aurèle et la Fin +du Monde Antique</hi> (Paris, 1882), pp. +579 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Fr. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Textes et Monuments</hi>, +i. 338.</note> An instructive relic of the long +<pb n='303'/><anchor id='Pg303'/> +struggle is preserved in our festival of Christmas, which the +Church seems to have borrowed directly from its heathen +rival. In the Julian calendar the twenty-fifth of December +was reckoned the winter solstice,<note place='foot'>Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> xviii. 221; +Columella, <hi rend='italic'>De re rustica</hi>, ix. 14. 12; +L. Ideler, <hi rend='italic'>Handbuch der mathematischen +und technischen Chronologie</hi> (Berlin, +1825-1826), ii. 124; G. F. Unger, in +Iwan Müller's <hi rend='italic'>Handbuch der klassischen +Altertumswissenschaft</hi>, i.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>1</hi> (Nördlingen, +1886) p. 649.</note> and it was regarded as the +Nativity of the Sun, because the day begins to lengthen +and the power of the sun to increase from that turning-point +of the year.<note place='foot'>In the calendar of Philocalus the +twenty-fifth of December is marked <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>N. +Invicti</foreign>, that is, <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Natalis Solis Invicti</foreign>. +See <hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</hi>, +i.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> Pars prior (Berlin, 1893), p. 278, +with Th. Mommsen's commentary, +pp. 338 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> The ritual of the nativity, as it appears +to have been celebrated in Syria and Egypt, was remarkable. +The celebrants retired into certain inner shrines, from which +at midnight they issued with a loud cry, <q>The Virgin has +brought forth! The light is waxing!</q><note place='foot'>Cosmas Hierosolymitanus, <hi rend='italic'>Commentarii +in Sancti Gregorii Nazianzeni +Carmina</hi> (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, +xxxviii. 464): ταύτην [Christmas] ἧγον +ἔκπαλαι δὲ τὴν ἡμέραν ἑορτὴν Ἔλληνες, +καθ᾽ ἤν ἐτελοῦντο κατὰ τὸ μεσονύκτιον, +ἐν ἀδύτοις τισὶν ὑπεισερχόμενοι, ὄθεν +ἐξιόντες ἔκραζον: <q>Ἡ παρθένος ἕτεκεν, +αὔξει φῶς.</q> ταύτην Ἐπιφάνιος ὁ μέγας +τῆς Κυπρίων ἱερεύς φησι τὴν ἑορτὴν καὶ +Σαῤῥακηνούς ἄγειν τῇπαρ᾽ αὐτῶν σεβομένῃ +Ἀφροδίτῃ, ἤν δὴ Χαμαρᾶ τῇ αὐτῶν +προσαγορεύουσι γλώττῃ. The passage +is quoted, with some verbal variations, +by Ch. Aug. Lobeck, <hi rend='italic'>Aglaophamus</hi> +(Königsberg, 1829), ii. 1227 note 2. +See Franz Cumont, <q>Le Natalis Invicti,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Comptes Rendus de l'Académie +des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1911</hi> +(Paris, 1911), pp. 292-298, whose +learned elucidations I follow in the +text. That the festival of the Nativity +of the Sun was similarly celebrated in +Egypt may be inferred from a Greek +calendar drawn up by the astrologer +Antiochus in Lower Egypt at the end +of the second or the beginning of the +third century <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi>; for under the +25th December the calendar has the +entry, <q>Birthday of the Sun, the light +waxes</q> (Ἡλίου γενέθλιον; αὔξει φῶς). +See F. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 294.</note> The Egyptians +even represented the new-born sun by the image of an infant +which on his birthday, the winter solstice, they brought forth +and exhibited to his worshippers.<note place='foot'>Macrobius, <hi rend='italic'>Saturnalia</hi>, i. 18. 10.</note> No doubt the Virgin +who thus conceived and bore a son on the twenty-fifth of +December was the great Oriental goddess whom the Semites +called the Heavenly Virgin or simply the Heavenly Goddess; +in Semitic lands she was a form of Astarte.<note place='foot'>F. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Caelestis,</q> in +Pauly-Wissowa's <hi rend='italic'>Real-Encyclopädie +der classischen Altertumswissenschaft</hi>, +v. i. 1247 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> She was called the +Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah vii. 18, +xliv. 18), the Heavenly Goddess +(Herodotus, iii. 8; Pausanias, i. 14. +7), or the Heavenly Virgin (Tertullian, +<hi rend='italic'>Apologeticus</hi>, 23; Augustine, <hi rend='italic'>De civitate +Dei</hi>, ii. 4). The Greeks spoke of her +as the Heavenly Aphrodite (Herodotus, +i. 105; Pausanias, i. 14. 7). A Greek +inscription found in Delos contains a +dedication to Astarte Aphrodite; and +another found in the same island couples +Palestinian Astarte and Heavenly +Aphrodite. See G. Dittenberger, +<hi rend='italic'>Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecorum</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> vol. +ii. pp. 619 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, No. 764; R. A. +Stewart Macalister, <hi rend='italic'>The Philistines, +their History and Civilization</hi> (London, +1913), p. 94.</note> Now +<pb n='304'/><anchor id='Pg304'/> +Mithra was regularly identified by his worshippers with the +Sun, the Unconquered Sun, as they called him;<note place='foot'>Dedications to Mithra the Unconquered +Sun (<hi rend='italic'>Soli invicto Mithrae</hi>) +have been found in abundance. See +Fr. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Textes et Monuments</hi>, ii. +99 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> As to the worship of the +Unconquered Sun (<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Sol Invictus</foreign>) see +H. Usener, <hi rend='italic'>Das Weihnachtsfest</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +(Bonn, 1911), pp. 348 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> hence his +nativity also fell on the twenty-fifth of December.<note place='foot'>Fr. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> i. 325 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 339.</note> The +Gospels say nothing as to the day of Christ's birth, and +accordingly the early Church did not celebrate it. In time, +however, the Christians of Egypt came to regard the sixth +of January as the date of the Nativity, and the custom of +commemorating the birth of the Saviour on that day gradually +spread until by the fourth century it was universally +established in the East. But at the end of the third or the +beginning of the fourth century the Western Church, which +had never recognized the sixth of January as the day of the +Nativity, adopted the twenty-fifth of December as the true +date, and in time its decision was accepted also by the +Eastern Church. At Antioch the change was not introduced +till about the year 375 <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi><note place='foot'>J. Bingham, <hi rend='italic'>The Antiquities of +the Christian Church</hi>, bk. xx. ch. iv. +(Bingham's <hi rend='italic'>Works</hi>, vol. vii. pp. 279 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, Oxford, 1855); C. A. Credner, +<q>De natalitiorum Christi origine,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Zeitschrift für die historische Theologie</hi>, +iii. 2 (1833), pp. 236 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Mgr. L. +Duchesne, <hi rend='italic'>Origines du Culte Chrétien</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +(Paris, 1903), pp. 257 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Th. +Mommsen, in <hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum +Latinarum</hi>, i.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> Pars prior, p. 338. +The earliest mention of the festival +of Christmas is in the calendar of +Philocalus, which was drawn up at +Rome in 336 <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> The words are +<hi rend='italic'>VIII. kal. jan.</hi>, <foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>natus Christus in +Betleem Judee</foreign> (L. Duchesne, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> +p. 258).</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Motives +for the institution +of +Christmas.</note> +What considerations led the ecclesiastical authorities to +institute the festival of Christmas? The motives for the +innovation are stated with great frankness by a Syrian +writer, himself a Christian. <q>The reason,</q> he tells us, <q>why +the fathers transferred the celebration of the sixth of January +to the twenty-fifth of December was this. It was a custom +of the heathen to celebrate on the same twenty-fifth of +December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled +<pb n='305'/><anchor id='Pg305'/> +lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and +festivities the Christians also took part. Accordingly when +the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had +a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved +that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day +and the festival of the Epiphany on the sixth of January. +Accordingly, along with this custom, the practice has prevailed +of kindling fires till the sixth.</q><note place='foot'>Quoted by C. A. Credner, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> +p. 239, note 46; by Th. Mommsen, +<hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</hi>, i.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> +Pars prior, pp. 338 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; and by H. +Usener, <hi rend='italic'>Das Weihnachtsfest</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Bonn, +1911), pp. 349 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> The heathen origin +of Christmas is plainly hinted at, if not tacitly admitted, by +Augustine when he exhorts his Christian brethren not to +celebrate that solemn day like the heathen on account of +the sun, but on account of him who made the sun.<note place='foot'>Augustine, <hi rend='italic'>Serm.</hi> cxc. 1 (Migne's +<hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Latina</hi>, xxxviii. 1007).</note> In +like manner Leo the Great rebuked the pestilent belief that +Christmas was solemnized because of the birth of the new +sun, as it was called, and not because of the nativity of +Christ.<note place='foot'>Leo the Great, <hi rend='italic'>Serm.</hi> xxii. (<hi rend='italic'>al.</hi> +xxi.) 6 (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Latina</hi>, +liv. 198). Compare St. Ambrose, +<hi rend='italic'>Serm.</hi> vi. 1 (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Latina</hi>, +xvii. 614).</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The Easter +celebration +of the +death and +resurrection +of +Christ +appears to +have been +assimilated +to the +celebration +of the +death and +resurrection +of +Attis, +which was +held at +Rome at +the same +season. Heathen +festivals +displaced +by +Christian.</note> +Thus it appears that the Christian Church chose to +celebrate the birthday of its Founder on the twenty-fifth +of December in order to transfer the devotion of the heathen +from the Sun to him who was called the Sun of Righteousness.<note place='foot'>A. Credner, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> pp. 236 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; +E. B. Tylor, <hi rend='italic'>Primitive Culture</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> ii. +297 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Fr. Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Textes et Monuments</hi>, +i. 342, 355 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Th. Mommsen, +in <hi rend='italic'>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</hi>, +i.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> Pars prior, pp. 338 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; H. Usener, +<hi rend='italic'>Das Weihnachtsfest</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Bonn, 1911), +pp. 348 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi> A different explanation of +Christmas has been put forward by Mgr. +Duchesne. He shows that among the +early Christians the death of Christ was +commonly supposed to have fallen on +the twenty-fifth of March, that day +having been <q>chosen arbitrarily, or +rather suggested by its coincidence +with the official equinox of spring.</q> +It would be natural to assume that +Christ had lived an exact number of +years on earth, and therefore that his +incarnation as well as his death took +place on the twenty-fifth of March. In +point of fact the Church has placed the +Annunciation and with it the beginning +of his mother's pregnancy on that very +day. If that were so, his birth would +in the course of nature have occurred +nine months later, that is, on the +twenty-fifth of December. Thus on +Mgr. Duchesne's theory the date of the +Nativity was obtained by inference from +the date of the Crucifixion, which in its +turn was chosen because it coincided +with the official equinox of spring. +Mgr. Duchesne does not notice the +coincidence of the vernal equinox with +the festival of Attis. See his work, +<hi rend='italic'>Origines du Culte Chrétien</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> (Paris, +1903), pp. 261-265, 272. The tradition +that both the conception and the +death of Christ fell on the twenty-fifth +of March is mentioned and apparently +accepted by Augustine (<hi rend='italic'>De Trinitate</hi>, +iv. 9, Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Latina</hi>, xlii. +894).</note> +If that was so, there can be no intrinsic improbability +<pb n='306'/><anchor id='Pg306'/> +in the conjecture that motives of the same sort may +have led the ecclesiastical authorities to assimilate the +Easter festival of the death and resurrection of their Lord +to the festival of the death and resurrection of another +Asiatic god which fell at the same season. Now the Easter +rites still observed in Greece, Sicily, and Southern Italy bear +in some respects a striking resemblance to the rites of +Adonis, and I have suggested that the Church may have +consciously adapted the new festival to its heathen predecessor +for the sake of winning souls to Christ.<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg253'>253</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> But this +adaptation probably took place in the Greek-speaking +rather than in the Latin-speaking parts of the ancient +world; for the worship of Adonis, while it flourished among +the Greeks, appears to have made little impression on Rome +and the West.<note place='foot'>However, the lament for Adonis +is mentioned by Ovid (<hi rend='italic'>Ars Amat.</hi> i. +75 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>) along with the Jewish observance +of the Sabbath.</note> Certainly it never formed part of the official +Roman religion. The place which it might have taken in +the affections of the vulgar was already occupied by the +similar but more barbarous worship of Attis and the Great +Mother. Now the death and resurrection of Attis were +officially celebrated at Rome on the twenty-fourth and +twenty-fifth of March,<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg268'>268</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> the latter being regarded as the +spring equinox,<note place='foot'>Columella, <hi rend='italic'>De re rustica</hi>, ix. 14. 1; +Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> xviii. 246; Macrobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Saturn.</hi> i. 21. 10; L. Ideler, +<hi rend='italic'>Handbuch der mathematischen und +technischen Chronologie</hi>, ii. 124.</note> and therefore as the most appropriate day +for the revival of a god of vegetation who had been dead +or sleeping throughout the winter. But according to an +ancient and widespread tradition Christ suffered on the +twenty-fifth of March, and accordingly some Christians +regularly celebrated the Crucifixion on that day without +any regard to the state of the moon. This custom was +certainly observed in Phrygia, Cappadocia, and Gaul, and +there seem to be grounds for thinking that at one time it +was followed also in Rome.<note place='foot'>Mgr. L. Duchesne, <hi rend='italic'>Origines du +Culte Chrétien</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> pp. 262 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> That +Christ was crucified on the twenty-fifth +of March in the year 29 is expressly +affirmed by Tertullian (<hi rend='italic'>Adversus +Judaeos</hi>, 8, vol. ii. p. 719, ed. F. +Oehler), Hippolytus (<hi rend='italic'>Commentary on +Daniel</hi>, iv. 23, vol. i. p. 242, ed. +Bonwetsch and Achelis), and Augustine +(<hi rend='italic'>De civitate Dei</hi>, xviii. 54; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>De +Trinitate</hi>, iv. 9). See also <hi rend='italic'>Thesaurus +Linguae Latinae</hi>, iv. (Leipsic, 1906- +1909) col. 1222, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Crucimissio</q>: +<q><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'><hi rend='smallcaps'>pol. silv.</hi> fast. Mart 25 aequinoctium. +principium veris. crucimissio gentilium. +Christus passus hoc die.</foreign></q> From this +last testimony we learn that there was +a gentile as well as a Christian crucifixion +at the spring equinox. The +gentile crucifixion was probably the +affixing of the effigy of Attis to the +tree, though at Rome that ceremony +appears to have taken place on the +twenty-second rather than on the +twenty-fifth of March. See above, p. +267. The Quartodecimans of Phrygia +celebrated the twenty-fifth of March +as the day of Christ's death, quoting +as their authority certain acts of Pilate; +in Cappadocia the adherents of this +sect were divided between the twenty-fifth +of March and the fourteenth of +the moon. See Epiphanius, <hi rend='italic'>Adversus +Haeres.</hi> l. 1 (vol. ii. p. 447, ed. G. +Dindorf; Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Graeca</hi>, +xli. 884 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>). In Gaul the death and +resurrection of Christ were regularly +celebrated on the twenty-fifth and +twenty-seventh of March as late as +the sixth century. See Gregory of +Tours, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Francorum</hi>, viii. 31. 6 +(Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Latina</hi>, lxxi. 566); +S. Martinus Dumiensis (bishop of +Braga), <hi rend='italic'>De Pascha</hi>, 1 (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia +Latina</hi>, lxxii. 50), who says: +<q><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>A plerisque Gallicanis episcopis usque +ante non multum tempus custoditum +est, ut semper VIII. Kal. April. diem +Paschae celebrent, in quo facta Christi +resurrectio traditur.</foreign></q> According to +this last testimony, it was the resurrection, +not the crucifixion, of Christ that +was celebrated on the twenty-fifth of +March; but Mgr. Duchesne attributes +the statement to a mistake of the +writer. With regard to the Roman +practice the twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh +of March are marked in ancient +Martyrologies as the dates of the +Crucifixion and Resurrection. See +<hi rend='italic'>Vetustius Occidentalis Ecclesiae Martyrologium</hi>, +ed. Franciscus Maria +Florentinus (Lucca, 1667), pp. 396 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, +405 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> On this subject Mgr. Duchesne +observes: <q>Hippolytus, in his Paschal +Table, marks the Passion of Christ in +a year in which the fourteenth of Nisan +falls on Friday twenty-fifth March. +In his commentary on Daniel he expressly +indicates Friday the twenty-fifth +of March and the consulship of +the two Gemini. The Philocalien Catalogue +of the Popes gives the same date +as to day and year. It is to be noted +that the cycle of Hippolytus and the +Philocalien Catalogue are derived from +official documents, and may be cited +as evidence of the Roman ecclesiastical +usage</q> (<hi rend='italic'>Origines du Culte Chrétien</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> +p. 262).</note> Thus the tradition which +<pb n='307'/><anchor id='Pg307'/> +placed the death of Christ on the twenty-fifth of March +was ancient and deeply rooted. It is all the more remarkable +because astronomical considerations prove that it can +have had no historical foundation.<note place='foot'>Mgr. L. Duchesne, <hi rend='italic'>op. cit.</hi> p. 263.</note> The inference appears +to be inevitable that the passion of Christ must have been +arbitrarily referred to that date in order to harmonize with +an older festival of the spring equinox. This is the view +of the learned ecclesiastical historian Mgr. Duchesne, who +points out that the death of the Saviour was thus made +to fall upon the very day on which, according to a widespread +belief, the world had been created.<note place='foot'>Mgr. L. Duchesne, <hi rend='italic'>l.c.</hi> A sect of +the Montanists held that the world +began and that the sun and moon were +created at the spring equinox, which, +however, they dated on the twenty-fourth +of March (Sozomenus, <hi rend='italic'>Historia +Ecclesiastica</hi>, vii. 18). At Henen-Su in +Egypt there was celebrated a festival +of the <q>hanging out of the heavens,</q> +that is, the supposed reconstituting of +the heavens each year in the spring +(E. A. Wallis Budge, <hi rend='italic'>The Gods of the +Egyptians</hi>, ii. 63). But the Egyptians +thought that the creation of the world +took place at the rising of Sirius +(Porphyry, <hi rend='italic'>De antro nympharum</hi>, 24; +Solinus, xxxii. 13), which in antiquity +fell on the twentieth of July (L. Ideler, +<hi rend='italic'>Handbuch der mathematischen und +technischen Chronologie</hi>, i. 127 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>).</note> But the resurrection +<pb n='308'/><anchor id='Pg308'/> +of Attis, who combined in himself the characters +of the divine Father and the divine Son,<note place='foot'>See above, pp. <ref target='Pg263'>263</ref>, <ref target='Pg281'>281</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> was officially +celebrated at Rome on the same day. When we remember +that the festival of St. George in April has replaced the +ancient pagan festival of the Parilia;<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, ii. 324 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> that the festival of +St. John the Baptist in June has succeeded to a heathen +Midsummer festival of water;<note place='foot'>Above, pp. <ref target='Pg246'>246</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> that the festival of the +Assumption of the Virgin in August has ousted the festival +of Diana;<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>The Magic Art and the Evolution +of Kings</hi>, i. 14 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> that the feast of All Souls in November is a +continuation of an old heathen feast of the dead;<note place='foot'>See below, vol. ii. pp. 81 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> and +that the Nativity of Christ himself was assigned to the +winter solstice in December because that day was deemed +the Nativity of the Sun;<note place='foot'>Above, pp. <ref target='Pg302'>302</ref> <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> we can hardly be thought rash +or unreasonable in conjecturing that the other cardinal +festival of the Christian church—the solemnization of +Easter—may have been in like manner, and from like +motives of edification, adapted to a similar celebration of +the Phrygian god Attis at the vernal equinox.<note place='foot'>Another instance of the substitution +of a Christian for a pagan festival +may be mentioned. On the first of +August the people of Alexandria used +to commemorate the defeat of Mark +Antony by Augustus and the entrance +of the victor into their city. The +heathen pomp of the festival offended +Eudoxia, wife of Theodosius the +Younger, and she decreed that on that +day the Alexandrians should thenceforth +celebrate the deliverance of St. +Peter from prison instead of the deliverance +of their city from the yoke of +Antony and Cleopatra. See L. Ideler, +<hi rend='italic'>Handbuch der mathematischen und +technischen Chronologie</hi>, i. 154.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Coincidence +between the +pagan +and the +Christian +festivals of +the divine +death and +resurrection.</note> +At least it is a remarkable coincidence, if it is nothing +more, that the Christian and the heathen festivals of the +divine death and resurrection should have been solemnized +at the same season and in the same places. For the places +which celebrated the death of Christ at the spring equinox +were Phrygia, Gaul, and apparently Rome, that is, the very +regions in which the worship of Attis either originated or +<pb n='309'/><anchor id='Pg309'/> +struck deepest root. It is difficult to regard the coincidence +as purely accidental. If the vernal equinox, the season at +which in the temperate regions the whole face of nature +testifies to a fresh outburst of vital energy, had been viewed +from of old as the time when the world was annually created +afresh in the resurrection of a god, nothing could be more +natural than to place the resurrection of the new deity at +the same cardinal point of the year. Only it is to be +observed that if the death of Christ was dated on the +twenty-fifth of March, his resurrection, according to Christian +tradition, must have happened on the twenty-seventh of +March, which is just two days later than the vernal equinox +of the Julian calendar and the resurrection of Attis. A +similar displacement of two days in the adjustment of +Christian to heathen celebrations occurs in the festivals +of St. George and the Assumption of the Virgin. However, +another Christian tradition, followed by Lactantius and +perhaps by the practice of the Church in Gaul, placed the +death of Christ on the twenty-third and his resurrection on +the twenty-fifth of March.<note place='foot'>Lactantius, <hi rend='italic'>De mortibus persecutorum</hi>, +2; <hi rend='italic'>id.</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Divin. Institut.</hi> iv. +10. 18. As to the evidence of the +Gallic usage see S. Martinus Dumiensis, +quoted above, p. <ref target='Pg307'>307</ref> note.</note> If that was so, his resurrection +coincided exactly with the resurrection of Attis. +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Different +theories by +which +pagans and +Christians +explained +the +coincidence.</note> +In point of fact it appears from the testimony of an +anonymous Christian, who wrote in the fourth century of +our era, that Christians and pagans alike were struck by the +remarkable coincidence between the death and resurrection +of their respective deities, and that the coincidence formed +a theme of bitter controversy between the adherents of the +rival religions, the pagans contending that the resurrection +of Christ was a spurious imitation of the resurrection of +Attis, and the Christians asserting with equal warmth that +the resurrection of Attis was a diabolical counterfeit of the +resurrection of Christ. In these unseemly bickerings the +heathen took what to a superficial observer might seem +strong ground by arguing that their god was the older +and therefore presumably the original, not the counterfeit, +since as a general rule an original is older than its copy. +This feeble argument the Christians easily rebutted. They +<pb n='310'/><anchor id='Pg310'/> +admitted, indeed, that in point of time Christ was the junior +deity, but they triumphantly demonstrated his real seniority +by falling back on the subtlety of Satan, who on so +important an occasion had surpassed himself by inverting +the usual order of nature.<note place='foot'>The passage occurs in the 84th +of the <hi rend='italic'>Quaestiones Veteris et Novi +Testamenti</hi> (Migne's <hi rend='italic'>Patrologia Latina</hi>, +xxxv. 2279), which are printed in the +works of Augustine, though internal +evidence is said to shew that they +cannot be by that Father, and that they +were written three hundred years after +the destruction of Jerusalem. The +writer's words are as follows: <q><foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Diabolus +autem, qui est satanas, ut fallaciae suae +auctoritatem aliquam possit adhibere, +et mendacia sua commentitia veritate +colorare, primo mense quo sacramenta +dominica scit celebranda, quia non +mediocris potentiae est, Paganis quae +observarent instituit mysteria, ut +animas eorum duabus ex causis in +errore detineret: ut quia praevenit +veritatem fallacia, melius quiddam +fallacia videretur, quasi antiquitate +praejudicans veritati. Et quia in +primo mense, in quo aequinoctium +habent Romani, sicut et nos, ea ipsa +observatio ab his custoditur; ita etiam +per sanguinem dicant expiationem fieri, +sicut et nos per crucem: hac versutia +Paganos detinet in errore, ut putent +veritatem nostram imitationem potius +videri quam veritatem, quasi per +aemulationem superstitione quadam +inventam. Nec enim verum potest, +inquiunt, aestimari quod postea est +inventum. Sed quia apud nos pro +certo veritas est, et ab initio haec est, +virtutum atque prodigiorum signa perhibent +testimonium, ut, teste virtute, +diaboli improbitas innotescat.</foreign></q> I have +to thank my learned friend Professor +Franz Cumont for pointing out this +passage to me. He had previously +indicated and discussed it (<q>La +Polémique de l'Ambrosiaster contre les +Païens,</q> <hi rend='italic'>Revue d'Histoire et de Littérature +religieuses</hi>, viii. (1903) pp. 419 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>). Though the name of Attis is +not mentioned in the passage, I agree +with Prof. Cumont in holding that +the bloody expiatory rites at the spring +equinox, to which the writer refers, +can only be those of the Day of Blood +which formed part of the great aequinoctial +festival of Attis. Compare F. +Cumont, <hi rend='italic'>Les Religions Orientales dans +le Paganisme Romain</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (Paris, 1909), +pp. 106 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 333 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi></note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Compromise +of +Christianity +with +paganism. +Parallel +with +Buddhism.</note> +Taken altogether, the coincidences of the Christian with +the heathen festivals are too close and too numerous to be +accidental. They mark the compromise which the Church +in the hour of its triumph was compelled to make with +its vanquished yet still dangerous rivals. The inflexible +Protestantism of the primitive missionaries, with their fiery +denunciations of heathendom, had been exchanged for the +supple policy, the easy tolerance, the comprehensive +charity of shrewd ecclesiastics, who clearly perceived +that if Christianity was to conquer the world it could +do so only by relaxing the too rigid principles of its +Founder, by widening a little the narrow gate which leads +to salvation. In this respect an instructive parallel might +be drawn between the history of Christianity and the +<pb n='311'/><anchor id='Pg311'/> +history of Buddhism.<note place='foot'>On the decadence of Buddhism +and its gradual assimilation to those +popular Oriental superstitions against +which it was at first directed, see +Monier Williams, <hi rend='italic'>Buddhism</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> (London, +1890), pp. 147 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> Both systems were in their origin +essentially ethical reforms born of the generous ardour, +the lofty aspirations, the tender compassion of their noble +Founders, two of those beautiful spirits who appear at +rare intervals on earth like beings come from a better +world to support and guide our weak and erring nature.<note place='foot'>The historical reality both of +Buddha and of Christ has sometimes +been doubted or denied. It would +be just as reasonable to question the +historical existence of Alexander the +Great and Charlemagne on account +of the legends which have gathered +round them. The great religious +movements which have stirred humanity +to its depths and altered the beliefs +of nations spring ultimately from the +conscious and deliberate efforts of extraordinary +minds, not from the blind unconscious +co-operation of the multitude. +The attempt to explain history without +the influence of great men may flatter +the vanity of the vulgar, but it will +find no favour with the philosophic +historian.</note> +Both preached moral virtue as the means of accomplishing +what they regarded as the supreme object of life, the +eternal salvation of the individual soul, though by a curious +antithesis the one sought that salvation in a blissful eternity, +the other in a final release from suffering, in annihilation. +But the austere ideals of sanctity which they inculcated +were too deeply opposed not only to the frailties but to +the natural instincts of humanity ever to be carried out in +practice by more than a small number of disciples, who +consistently renounced the ties of the family and the state +in order to work out their own salvation in the still +seclusion of the cloister. If such faiths were to be +nominally accepted by whole nations or even by the +world, it was essential that they should first be modified +or transformed so as to accord in some measure with the +prejudices, the passions, the superstitions of the vulgar. +This process of accommodation was carried out in after +ages by followers who, made of less ethereal stuff than +their masters, were for that reason the better fitted to +mediate between them and the common herd. Thus as +time went on, the two religions, in exact proportion to +their growing popularity, absorbed more and more of those +baser elements which they had been instituted for the very +purpose of suppressing. Such spiritual decadences are +<pb n='312'/><anchor id='Pg312'/> +inevitable. The world cannot live at the level of its great +men. Yet it would be unfair to the generality of our kind +to ascribe wholly to their intellectual and moral weakness +the gradual divergence of Buddhism and Christianity from +their primitive patterns. For it should never be forgotten +that by their glorification of poverty and celibacy both +these religions struck straight at the root not merely of +civil society but of human existence. The blow was +parried by the wisdom or the folly of the vast majority +of mankind, who refused to purchase a chance of saving +their souls with the certainty of extinguishing the species. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='313'/><anchor id='Pg313'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VII. Hyacinth.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The Greek +Hyacinth +interpreted +as the +vegetation +which +blooms +and +withers +away.</note> +Another mythical being who has been supposed to belong +to the class of gods here discussed is Hyacinth. He too +has been interpreted as the vegetation which blooms in +spring and withers under the scorching heat of the summer +sun.<note place='foot'>G. F. Schömann, <hi rend='italic'>Griechische +Alterthümer</hi><hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> (Berlin, 1897-1902), ii. +473; L. Preller, <hi rend='italic'>Griechische Mythologie</hi>, +i.<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>4</hi> (Berlin, 1894) pp. 248 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; Greve, +<hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Hyakinthos,</q> in W. H. Roscher's +<hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie</hi>, +i. 2763 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> Other views of Hyacinth +have been expressed by G. F. Welcker +(<hi rend='italic'>Griechische Götterlehre</hi>, Göttingen, +1857-1862, i. 472), G. F. Unger +(<q>Der Isthmientag und die Hyakinthien,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Philologus</hi>, xxxvii. (1877) pp. +20 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>), E. Rohde (<hi rend='italic'>Psyche</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> i. 137 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>) and S. Wide (<hi rend='italic'>Lakonische Kulte</hi>, +Leipsic, 1893, p. 290).</note> Though he belongs to Greek, not to Oriental +mythology, some account of him may not be out of place +in the present discussion. According to the legend, +Hyacinth was the youngest and handsomest son of the +ancient king Amyclas, who had his capital at Amyclae in +the beautiful vale of Sparta. One day playing at quoits with +Apollo, he was accidentally killed by a blow of the god's +quoit. Bitterly the god lamented the death of his friend. +The hyacinth—<q>that sanguine flower inscribed with woe</q>—sprang +from the blood of the hapless youth, as anemones and +roses from the blood of Adonis, and violets from the blood +of Attis:<note place='foot'>Apollodorus, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi>, i. 3. 3, +iii. 10. 3; Nicander, <hi rend='italic'>Ther.</hi> 901 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>, +with the Scholiast's note; Lucian, +<hi rend='italic'>De saltatione</hi>, 45; Pausanias, iii. 1. 3, +iii. 19. 5; J. Tzetzes, <hi rend='italic'>Chiliades</hi>, i. 241 +<hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Ovid, <hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> x. 161-219; Pliny, +<hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> xxi. 66.</note> like these vernal flowers it heralded the advent +of another spring and gladdened the hearts of men with +the promise of a joyful resurrection. The flower is usually +supposed to be not what we call a hyacinth, but a little +purple iris with the letters of lamentation (AI, which in +<pb n='314'/><anchor id='Pg314'/> +Greek means <q>alas</q>) clearly inscribed in black on its petals. +In Greece it blooms in spring after the early violets but +before the roses.<note place='foot'>Theophrastus, <hi rend='italic'>Histor. Plant.</hi> vi. +8. 1 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> That the hyacinth was a +spring flower is plainly indicated also +by Philostratus (<hi rend='italic'>Imag.</hi> i. 23. 1) and +Ovid (<hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> x. 162-166). See further +Greve, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Hyakinthos,</q> in W. H. +Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. und +röm. Mythologie</hi>, i. 2764; J. Murr, +<hi rend='italic'>Die Pflanzenwelt in der griechischen +Mythologie</hi> (Innsbruck, 1890), +pp. 257 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; O. Schrader, <hi rend='italic'>Reallexikon +der Indogermanischen Altertumskunde</hi> +(Strasburg, 1901), pp. 383 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +Miss J. E. Harrison was so kind as to +present me with two specimens of the +flower (<foreign lang='la' rend='italic'>Delphinium Ajacis</foreign>) on which +the woful letters were plainly visible. +A flower similarly marked, of a colour +between white and red, was associated +with the death of Ajax (Pausanias, +i. 35. 4). But usually the two flowers +were thought to be the same (Ovid, +<hi rend='italic'>Metam.</hi> xiii. 394 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi>; Scholiast on +Theocritus, x. 28; Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Nat. Hist.</hi> +xxi. 66; Eustathius on Homer, <hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi>, +ii. 557, p. 285).</note> One spring, when the hyacinths were in +bloom, it happened that the red-coated Spartan regiments +lay encamped under the walls of Corinth. Their commander +gave the Amyclean battalion leave to go home +and celebrate as usual the festival of Hyacinth in their +native town. But the sad flower was to be to these men +an omen of death; for they had not gone far before they +were enveloped by clouds of light-armed foes and cut to +pieces.<note place='foot'>Xenophon, <hi rend='italic'>Hellenica</hi>, iv. 5. 7-17; +Pausanias, iii. 10. 1.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The tomb +and the +festival of +Hyacinth +at +Amyclae.</note> +The tomb of Hyacinth was at Amyclae under a massive +altar-like pedestal, which supported an archaic bronze image +of Apollo. In the left side of the pedestal was a bronze +door, and through it offerings were passed to Hyacinth, as +to a hero or a dead man, not as to a god, before sacrifices +were offered to Apollo at the annual Hyacinthian festival. +Bas-reliefs carved on the pedestal represented Hyacinth +and his maiden sister Polyboea caught up to heaven by +a company of goddesses.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, iii. 1. 3, iii. 19. 1-5.</note> The annual festival of the +Hyacinthia was held in the month of Hecatombeus, which +seems to have corresponded to May.<note place='foot'>Hesychius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Ἑκατομβεύς; G. +F. Unger in <hi rend='italic'>Philologus</hi>, xxxvii. (1877) +pp. 13-33; Greve, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> <q>Hyakinthos,</q> +in W. H. Roscher's <hi rend='italic'>Lexikon der griech. +und röm. Mythologie</hi>, i. 2762; W. +Smith, <hi rend='italic'>Dictionary of Greek and +Roman Antiquities</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> i. 339. From +Xenophon (<hi rend='italic'>Hellenica</hi>, iv. 5) we learn +that in 390 <hi rend='smallcaps'>b.c.</hi> the Hyacinthian +followed soon after the Isthmian +festival, which that year fell in spring. +Others, however, identifying Hecatombeus +with the Attic month Hecatombaeon, +would place the Hyacinthia in +July (K. O. Müller, <hi rend='italic'>Dorier</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> Breslau, +1844, i. 358). In Rhodes, Cos, and +other Greek states there was a month +called Hyacinthius, which probably +took its name from the Hyacinthian +festival. The month is thought to +correspond to the Athenian Scirophorion +and therefore to June. See E. Bischof, +<q>De fastis Graecorum antiquioribus,</q> +<hi rend='italic'>Leipziger Studien für classische Philologie</hi>, +vii. (1884) pp. 369 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>, 381, +384, 410, 414 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi>; G. Dittenberger, +<hi rend='italic'>Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>2</hi> vol. +i. pp. 396, 607, Nos. 614, note 3, 744, +note 1. If this latter identification of +the month is correct, it would furnish +an argument for dating the Spartan +festival of Hyacinth in June also. The +question is too intricate to be discussed +here.</note> The ceremonies +occupied three days. On the first the people mourned for +<pb n='315'/><anchor id='Pg315'/> +Hyacinth, wearing no wreaths, singing no paeans, eating +no bread, and behaving with great gravity. It was on this +day probably that the offerings were made at Hyacinth's +tomb. Next day the scene was changed. All was joy and +bustle. The capital was emptied of its inhabitants, who +poured out in their thousands to witness and share the +festivities at Amyclae. Boys in high-girt tunics sang +hymns in honour of the god to the accompaniment of flutes +and lyres. Others, splendidly attired, paraded on horseback +in the theatre: choirs of youths chanted their native +ditties: dancers danced: maidens rode in wicker carriages +or went in procession to witness the chariot races: sacrifices +were offered in profusion: the citizens feasted their friends and +even their slaves.<note place='foot'>Athenaeus, iv. 17, pp. 139 <hi rend='italic'>sq.</hi> +Strabo speaks (vi. 3. 2, p. 278) of a +contest at the Hyacinthian festival. +It may have been the chariot races +mentioned by Athenaeus.</note> This outburst of gaiety may be supposed +to have celebrated the resurrection of Hyacinth and perhaps +also his ascension to heaven, which, as we have seen, +was represented on his tomb. However, it may be that the +ascension took place on the third day of the festival; +but as to that we know nothing. The sister who went +to heaven with him was by some identified with Artemis or +Persephone.<note place='foot'>Hesychius, <hi rend='italic'>s.v.</hi> Πολύβοια.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Hyacinth +an +aboriginal +god, +perhaps +a king, +who was +worshipped +in Laconia +before the +invasion +of the +Dorians. His sister +Polyboea +may +perhaps +have been +his spouse.</note> +It is highly probable, as Erwin Rohde perceived,<note place='foot'>E. Rohde, <hi rend='italic'>Psyche</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> i. 137 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> that +Hyacinth was an old aboriginal deity of the underworld +who had been worshipped at Amyclae long before the +Dorians invaded and conquered the country. If that was +so, the story of his relation to Apollo must have been a +comparatively late invention, an attempt of the newcomers +to fit the ancient god of the land into their own mythical +system, in order that he might extend his protection to +them. On this theory it may not be without significance +<pb n='316'/><anchor id='Pg316'/> +that sacrifices at the festival were offered to Hyacinth, as to +a hero, before they were offered to Apollo.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, iii. 19. 3. The Greek +word here used for sacrifice (ἐναγίζειν) +properly denotes sacrifices offered to +the heroic or worshipful dead; another +word (θύειν) was employed for sacrifices +offered to gods. The two terms are +distinguished by Pausanias here and +elsewhere (ii. 10. 1, ii. 11. 7). Compare +Herodotus, ii. 44. Sacrifices to +the worshipful dead were often annual. +See Pausanias, iii. 1. 8, vii. 19. 10, +vii. 20. 9, viii. 14. 11, viii. 41. 1, ix. +38. 5, x. 24. 6. It has been observed +by E. Rehde (<hi rend='italic'>Psyche</hi>,<hi rend='vertical-align: super'>3</hi> i. 139, note 2) +that sacrifices were frequently offered +to a hero before a god, and he suggests +with much probability that in these +cases the worship of the hero was +older than that of the deity.</note> Further, on +the analogy of similar deities elsewhere, we should expect +to find Hyacinth coupled, not with a male friend, but with a +female consort. That consort may perhaps be detected in +his sister Polyboea, who ascended to heaven with him. The +new myth, if new it was, of the love of Apollo for Hyacinth +would involve a changed conception of the aboriginal god, +which in its turn must have affected that of his spouse. +For when Hyacinth came to be thought of as young and +unmarried there was no longer room in his story for a wife, +and she would have to be disposed of in some other way. +What was easier for the myth-maker than to turn her into +his unmarried sister? However we may explain it, a +change seems certainly to have come over the popular idea +of Hyacinth; for whereas on his tomb he was portrayed as +a bearded man, later art represented him as the pink of +youthful beauty.<note place='foot'>Pausanias, iii. 19. 14.</note> But it is perhaps needless to suppose +that the sisterly relation of Polyboea to him was a late +modification of the myth. The stories of Cronus and Rhea, +of Zeus and Hera, of Osiris and Isis, remind us that in old +days gods, like kings, often married their sisters, and probably +for the same reason, namely, to ensure their own title +to the throne under a rule of female kinship which treated +women and not men as the channel in which the blood royal +flowed.<note place='foot'>See above, p. <ref target='Pg044'>44</ref>; and below, vol. +ii. pp. 213 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> It is not impossible that Hyacinth may have been +a divine king who actually reigned in his lifetime at Amyclae +and was afterwards worshipped at his tomb. The representation +of his triumphal ascent to heaven in company with +his sister suggests that, like Adonis and Persephone, he may +have been supposed to spend one part of the year in the +<pb n='317'/><anchor id='Pg317'/> +under-world of darkness and death, and another part in the +upper-world of light and life. And as the anemones and +the sprouting corn marked the return of Adonis and +Persephone, so the flowers to which he gave his name may +have heralded the ascension of Hyacinth. +</p> + +<p> +End Of Vol. 1. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +</body> +<back rend="page-break-before: right"> + <div id="footnotes"> + <index index="toc" /> + <index index="pdf" /> + <head>Footnotes</head> + <divGen type="footnotes"/> + </div> + <div rend="page-break-before: right"> + <divGen type="pgfooter" /> + </div> +</back> +</text> +</TEI.2> diff --git a/43605-tei/images/cover.jpg b/43605-tei/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a84aabb --- /dev/null +++ b/43605-tei/images/cover.jpg |
