THE FOREIGN CULTS: CYBELE, ISIS, MITHRAS. THE CHRISTIANS IN PAGAN EYES
=370. Saturnalia: the Exchange of Presents on New Year’s Day.=--Could
our visit to Rome be prolonged across the year we should dwell on such
so-called religious festivals as the Saturnalia which lasts seven
days, beginning the 17th of December, when the whole city abandons
itself to carnival mirth, when slaves for a brief and happy interval
put on the tall pileus, the liberty cap, are allowed to be very pert
to their masters, and indulge in all kinds of pranks and liberties;
and when people exchange with all their friends semi-comic gifts of
wax tapers and amusing little terra-cotta images, or other gifts of
real value such as napkins, writing tablets, and dishes of preserved
sweetmeats.[236]
More decorous is the ensuing holiday on the Kalends of January (New
Year’s Day) when ceremonious official calls are paid on every magnate
from the Emperor downward, and more gifts are exchanged, often of the
highest value.[237] In these festivities and distributions of presents
can perhaps be found the prototypes for the winter holidays of another
religion and later age.
=371. Multiplication of Oriental Cults.=--One dare not quit the
Rome of Hadrian, however, without a cursory inspection of something
extremely evident since we began our explorations on plebeian Mercury
Street--the foreign religions and their temples.
Very reluctantly did the grave fathers of the old Republic admit
Anatolian, Syrian, and Egyptian cults into their beloved city. Even
unlicensed Greek ceremonies were frowned upon and the disorderly
orgiastic rites of the Eastern gods for long were extremely repulsive
to the dignified builders of the Commonwealth. But as the Republic
declined the foreign cults thrust themselves in and with the coming of
the Empire all attempts to prohibit them practically disappeared. The
most the authorities can now do is to see that these strange private
worships are conducted with a certain degree of decency. Rome has never
countenanced the vile revelings of the groves of Syrian Astarte, much
less the horrid child-burnings of the Phœnician Moloch.
The votaries of these Eastern gods are not merely Orientals who
have drifted to Rome. The new religions have a great appeal to many
persons of good old Latin stock and especially to the women. The
reason for this is fairly obvious: the Roman official religion is a
legalistic religion devoid of the slightest spirituality. “Sin” except
in the sense of reckless contract breaking, “communion with God,”
“reconciliation with God,” “The Hereafter,” “Life Eternal,” and like
phrases are utterly unknown to pontiff, augur, or flamen.
For intelligent persons to whom neither the Stoic nor the Epicurean
guesses at the riddle of existence prove satisfying, who are torn in
conscience, bowed with bereavement, or crushed by disaster, there
must be some outlet better than that of scrupulously offering a black
pig to Mars. Atheism can never satisfy for long,--and the Oriental
religions, appealing at once to the love for the mysterious, and to the
passionate desire for some supernatural explanation of the problems
of humanity, as a result draw in their votaries by thousands. Some
of these worshipers are utterly ignorant and credulous. Others are
men and women of wealth and deep learning, who can turn the Syrian or
Egyptian jargon into elegant Platonic myths, and see, behind the coarse
Levantine ritual, spiritual allegories which would have astonished old
Memphis or Tyre.
=372. The Cult of the Deified Emperors.=--The Imperial Government
itself has added to this tendency to multiply cults--it created a new
and a very important one, that of the “Deified Emperors.” Augustus
Cæsar was far too shrewd and matter-of-fact an Italian to permit
himself to be worshiped as an actual deity within his native land;
but he did not discourage Orientals (accustomed to adore almost any
successful monarch as a “god”) from setting up altars to him, and he
took a great satisfaction in having his adoptive father Julius Cæsar
officially deified at Rome, and then in accepting for himself the
glories coming to the _son_ of the “Divine Julius.”
Furthermore, even a living Emperor has his _genius_--his special
guardian spirit, often to be half-confounded with his own personality.
The worship of Augustus’s genius was soon an important part of the
state religion. Oaths were taken by it; an insult to it became the
vilest blasphemy. If Augustus did not become a god in his lifetime, the
aura and effluence of divinity assuredly played all around him.
=373. The “Divine Augustus” and His Successors.=--The instant Augustus
died a solemn decree of the Senate forthwith made him “Divus Augustus,”
with temples, priests, and ritual--all the paraphernalia in short of a
prominent member of the Pantheon. Since then in the provincial towns
the priests of Augustus, _Augustales_, are ordinarily appointed from
among the rich freedmen--men of short lineage but of great economic
influence, who are delighted at the trappings and pompous honors
awarded this holy office, and who become, therefore, the ardent
supporters of the imperial régime.
Since 14 A.D. there have been still other gods thus enrolled by vote
of the Senate--notably the “Divine Claudius” (“dragged to heaven by a
hook,” people sarcastically remark, remembering Agrippina’s poisoned
mushrooms), and the equally “divine” Vespasian, Titus, Nerva, and
Trajan. Their temples and cults are among the most splendid and
prominent in Rome. In the basilicas and in the government houses
(_prætoria_) and magistrates’ halls all over the Empire stand the
arrays of statues of these Deified Augusti along with that of the
“genius” of the reigning Hadrian himself. Every litigant and every
witness must cast his pinch of incense into the brazier before them and
swear by their godhead.
Intelligent men, of course, understand that these Imperial “gods”
somehow differ in nature from Jupiter, but the homage offered to them
seems really an affirmation of loyalty to the great principles of law
and order which bind the vast Empire together. Every good Emperor
is entitled to expect this honor, after a worthy reign. “I think
I’m becoming a god!” muttered the pragmatic Vespasian while on his
death-bed. On the other hand the refusal of deification is a form of
branding a tyrant’s memory; and Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, and Domitian
receive no incense.[238]
The state thus teaches all its subjects how easily new deities can be
introduced--apparently by very human agencies. Of the host of Oriental
gods that have thrust themselves into Rome there are three or four
which have won peculiar prominence; notably the cults of Cybele, Isis
and Serapis, and Mithras. There is also the extremely despised sect of
the Christians.
=374. The Cult of Cybele, the “Great Mother.”=--The cult of Cybele
is the oldest and best recognized of this foreign group. Cybele is an
Asiatic goddess with her most famous temple at Pessinus in Galatia. In
the crisis of the Hannibalic War when public opinion was on edge, the
Romans fetched an image of this “Great Mother of Pessinus” to Rome and
set up a temple to her on the Palatine. The Roman matrons, henceforth,
honored her with the festival of the Megalesia.
[Illustration: ARCHI-GALLUS, PRIEST OF CYBELE.]
The worship of Cybele, the Great Mother, despite this naturalization,
retains something about it that is grossly orgiastic and un-Italian.
Everywhere over the city can be met groups of her priestesses, the
Corybantes, and especially of her smooth-cheeked, squeaky-voiced eunuch
priests, the _Galli_, executing their wild, noisy dances with drums,
cymbals, and trumpets, and leaping about in suits of armor which they
clash violently, while uttering screams alleged to be inspired.
In the country districts bands of these Galli are reported to drift
frequently from village to village, exciting the rustics by displays
of “mysteries” which are simply a gross hocus-pocus, and which often
wind up in scenes of sheer depravity. Nevertheless, the cult has great
attractions for the superstitious. The processions of these effeminate
figures with redolent locks, painted faces, and soft womanish bearing
are always able to wheedle the sesterces out of the crowd.
The coarse legends of the Great Mother are furthermore caught up by
the philosophers and given a refined, metaphysical meaning, and among
the priests at her temples about the city are enrolled many senators
and equites, and among the priestesses a good many more of these
noblemen’s wives. To be a chanter, drummer, or cymbal player at her
great spectacular “orgies” has a morbid fascination--all the more
because much of the cult of Cybele worship is so gross that words
may not describe it. The Great Mother is, therefore, one of the most
undesirable of all the gifts offered to Rome by the conquered East.
[Illustration: SHRINE OF CYBELE.]
=375. Cult of Isis and Associated Egyptian Gods.=--Worthier and more
popular with the better classes is the worship of Isis.
The Egyptian story of Isis and Osiris, of the temporary death of the
latter and the sufferings of the former, a story that connected itself
with the Greek myths about Demeter and Dionysus, and also those about
Adonis, had become very old a thousand years before the founding of
Rome. The cult was a late invader of Italy; not until the time of Sulla
did it figure even as an important private superstition, and on account
of the marked Oriental tendencies of the Isis worship the Senate for
long discouraged it; nevertheless the stately ritual and the appeal of
the mysterious made the cult extremely popular with the multitude.
In vain in 50 B.C. the consul Lucius Æmilius himself (his
superstitious lictors hesitating) struck the first blow with the ax
to demolish a prohibited Isis temple. Augustus had to content himself
merely with forbidding the erection of such buildings within the
official pomerium of Rome, but these could multiply in the suburbs, and
by the time of Vespasian practically all restraints disappeared.
Everybody now frequents the shrines of Isis, and many of the noblest
citizens and matrons are among her initiates. Her great temple in the
Campus Martius is among the stateliest in Rome and every morning before
its doors are arrayed a perfect host of votaries.
=376. Ceremonies at an Isis Temple.=--If we desire, it is easy
to witness a large part of the ritual, although the meaning of
the allegories is refused the unelect.[239] Before day-break the
shaven-skulled priests, clothed in trailing robes of snow-white linen,
enter the temple by a side entrance and throw back the great central
doors, although a long white curtain still hangs across the interior.
The multitude of the devout now stream into the temple. The curtains
whisk aside, and a statue of the goddess, a majestic female sculptured
somewhat in the Egyptian style, with her head crowned with a lotus
flower and in her right hand a holy rattle (_sistrum_), is exposed
to view. At her side stands her son Horus, a naked boy, holding his
forefinger in his mouth, a lotus flower also upon his head, and a horn
of plenty in his left hand.
The worshipers now stand or sit on the stones for a long time in silent
prayer and contemplation; while the new light of the rising sun streams
athwart the silent columns and draperies of the great temple. Presently
a priest appears bearing a golden vessel of holy water from the Nile,
and he pours it over a sacrifice of fruits and flowers upon the altar
standing before the images. The worshipers all prostrate themselves in
awe, then rise. The ceremony is over.
This is the ordinary side of the Isis worship but at times there
lack not violent dances; processions of all manner of harlequin
participants, men robed as soldiers, hunters, or gladiators, women
leaping in white gauzy garments, and shaven priests bearing holy
vessels--usually wrought with Egyptian hieroglyphics, and carrying
especially as center of all the tumult a sacred snake, lifting its
wrinkled and venomous head upon an ark of burnished gold.
The Isis worship appeals often to men of high intelligence who grow
weary and disgusted at the failure of secular philosophy to solve the
great problems of existence. An elaborate explanation exists for all
these symbols; one might even add a spiritual meaning. It is even
claimed that Isis is simply “Nature,” and that her cult is merely the
worthiest expression of “the One Sole Divinity whom the whole earth
venerates under a manifold form.”
To the initiates (into whose esoteric lore we cannot penetrate) is
promised in this world a very fortunate life and that then “having
accomplished the span of this existence, they shall descend to the
realms below, and even there, dwelling as they shall in the Elysian
fields, they shall frequently adore me--the goddess.”[240]
=377. Cult of Serapis and of Other Oriental Gods.=--The Isis
worship thus has its nobler side. Not unworthy too is that of her
Græco-Egyptian associate Serapis, the patron deity of Alexandria,
who has a considerable following in Rome, acclaiming him as “lord of
all the elements, dispenser of all good and master of human life.”
Unfortunately, however, along with these deities there goes a whole
swarm of lesser Oriental divinities who do nothing but provide fine
chances for the scoffers and the charlatans.
The priests of the dog-headed Nile-god Anubis are denounced by Juvenal
as a “linen-clad and cheating crew,” who levy on silly women, and who
will declare any infamy to be morally “pardoned” for the bribe of a fat
goose or some thick slices of cake. Korybus, Sabazius, the bull Apis,
and the Syrian Baal cannot pretend to be better. Many a decent Roman
beholding their worship will reëcho Plutarch’s recent words, “Better
not to believe in a god at all, than to cringe before a god who is
worse than the worst of men.” Nevertheless there is _one_ Oriental
cult now penetrating Rome which seems to lay stress on moral purity and
on noble living--the religion of Mithras.
=378. The Cult of Mithras: Its Relative Nobility.=--Mithras is
by origin the Sun God of the Zoroastrian Persians.[241] He is the
“fiend smiter”; the beneficent light which disperses mental as well as
material darkness. _Sol Invictus_--“The All-Conquering Sun”--his
votaries call him, but in statues and pictures he is commonly
represented as a handsome youth, wearing the Phrygian cap and mantle,
and kneeling upon a bull which has been thrown upon the ground, and
whose throat the god is cutting. In the Mithras pictures there often
appear also the mysterious figures of a dog, a serpent, and a scorpion,
all somehow connected with the ritual of the god.
This cultus first passed from the East to the hardy pirates of
Cilicia, whom Pompey the Great subdued in the last years of the old
Republic. Then gradually the Western world began to learn about the
Mithras “chapels,” about the seven grades of initiates, about solemn
purifications from sin, and about an esoteric teaching which laid great
stress on personal righteousness, condemned vicious pretenses and
claimed to reconcile man with god in a manner promising the former a
joyous and noble hereafter.
[Illustration: MITHRAS THE BULL-SLAYER.]
The Mithras cult is now making its way very rapidly, especially in the
imperial army. All up and down the great garrison towns and standing
camps along the frontiers “Mithras chapels” are being erected, small
chambers suitable for only a few dozen of initiates. The rites and
teachings are very secret, and it is impossible to penetrate them as we
can part of the worship of Isis.
Mithras worship furthermore makes no pretense of being a cult for
the masses--it is a blessing reserved strictly for the proved and
purified. All we know about it, however, convinces us that its ethics
are noble, that it repudiates all coarse sensuality, and that it
leaves its votaries genuinely better men and women, summoning them to
be coadjutors of the “Unconquerable Sun” in his glorious war against
spiritual darkness.
As yet the Mithras worship in the West is relatively young, but the
time will approach when great Emperors, Aurelian and Diocletian,
will proudly number themselves among its initiates, and in Mithraism
ancient paganism will make its last real proffer for the allegiance of
high-minded men.[242]
[Illustration: MITHRAIC EMBLEMS.]
=379. The _Taurobolium_= (“=Bath in Bull’s Blood=”).--Connected with
these Oriental cults, worthy and unworthy, there has come in a ceremony
utterly strange to the religion of Numa, which, nevertheless, is
gaining increasing vogue,--the _Taurobolium_. Originally it belonged
to the votaries of Cybele, but the Mithras worshipers have adopted it
likewise.
The rite is supposed to give one a peculiar cleansing from sin, and
being decidedly expensive appeals not a little to wealthy personages
who do not mind showing how their riches can put them on better terms
with heaven than is possible for the run of mortals. With increasing
frequency can be seen tombstones of magnates inscribed “Reborn to
Eternity through the Taurobolium,” and it is held by many that persons
submitting to this ordeal are assured of a happy immortality--at least,
if they should die within twenty years of the ceremony; after which it
can be repeated.
Old line Romans ordinarily have not as yet felt a great need for the
Taurobolium,[243] but one of Calvus’s acquaintances, the senator
Faventinus, has followed his initiation into Mithraism by celebrating
the rite. It is indeed something which only deep religious convictions
can induce persons of sensitive and luxurious tastes to undergo,
although the special priests who conduct the proceeding know how to
render it an impressive ceremony.
Faventinus appeared at the appointed place before a concourse of
Mithraic initiates, wearing a golden crown and with his toga tightly
girded about him; then he descended into a deep pit over which was
placed a platform of stout boards. With mystical words and songs
a consecrated bull was led upon the platform and there directly
slaughtered in a manner causing its blood to flow freely through the
chinks in the timbers upon the worshiper below. As the blood descended
Faventinus extended his arms and uplifted his face that as much might
cover him as possible.
When the initiate was taken out--his whole person and garments
blood-soaked--other mysterious liturgies were recited over him. He
was now a “Father” in the Mithraic order--of the highest class of
initiates, purged of all human dross, and entitled to close communion
with the deity. After all, the price of a fine bull and round fees to
the priests seem little enough to pay for such an exalted privilege.
=380. The Christians: Pagan Account of Their Origin.=--There is still
another cult in Rome, although cultivated men and women no less than
the run of plebeians speak of it with utter aversion. Since the
reign of Claudius there has existed a sect of degraded creatures, at
first Jews[244] and Levantines, but later comprising also Greeks and
Italians, known as _Christians_.
Excluding the vulgar tattle of the mob, as good an authority as Tacitus
writes thus: “Christus from whom the name of the sect is derived was
put to death in the reign of Tiberius, by the procurator Pontius
Pilatus. The deadly superstition having been checked for a while, began
to break out again not only throughout Judea, where this mischief first
arose but also at Rome, where from all sides all things scandalous and
shameful meet and become fashionable.”[245]
By Nero’s time the Christians were in such disfavor with the populace,
being “misanthropes” and “enemies of the human race,” as well as
blasphemers of the gods, that the evil Emperor tried to make them
scapegoats for the burning of Rome--although the pretense was too
thin. People said the Christians were wicked enough, but that they were
not guilty at least of _that_!
=381. The Persecution of Christians: Their “Insane
Obstinacy.”=--Nowhere, in those respectable quarters in which our
visit has moved, can we get any detailed information as to what these
Christians really do and believe. Very few important persons have so
far adhered to them, although there is a story that Flavius Clemens,
a consul and a kinsman of Domitian (who put him to death along with
so many other nobles), was actually caught by their supposedly crazy
doctrines.
The sect has been declared unlawful ever since Nero’s day, and from
time to time its members have been arrested and their conventicles
(usually held in half-concealed burial places or in sand pits in the
suburbs) have been broken up. The magistrates, however, are slack; the
vigiles are busy chasing down ordinary thieves and murderers; and the
Christians most of the time are left alone. Hadrian, in fact, with
his general tolerance, is said somewhat to have discouraged active
persecution. The Christians, nevertheless, are still under the ban of
the law; and being mostly slaves, freedmen, and resident foreigners,
get very short shrift if actually brought before the Præfect.
It is extremely easy to convict them: there is no need of elaborate
testimony, you merely summon the defendants to burn incense to the
image of the Genius of the Emperor and to curse the name of Christus.
No Christian will ever do this. The trials therefore are usually very
brief, and soon after they occur the crowd at the Flavian is ordinarily
gratified by the sight of one of the Christians’ “overseers” (bishops)
or “assistants” (deacons) instead of an ordinary bandit, awaiting the
spring of the lion.
These sectaries are said to be very bold, professing not to fear death
which will only give them a surer and a better immortality than that
secured by the Taurobolium. Beyond a doubt (any cultivated man will
tell us) such defiant persons ought to be executed, if merely for their
“insane obstinacy,” although the edicts are only enforced spasmodically
and the Christians are often allowed several years of peace.[246]
=382. Current Charges against the Christians.=--If popular gossip,
however, means anything, these people should deserve the worst possible
fate. At their nocturnal gatherings, where men and women assemble,
it is alleged, for a wild orgy, the central rite is said to consist
of killing a babe and drinking its blood, while celebrants pledge
themselves to commit every kind of wickedness. Finally they tie a dog
to the lamp standards and incite the brute to upset the lights; then in
the ensuing darkness follow deeds of violence indescribable.
It is also rumored that their Christus (who, of course, died the basest
of possible deaths on the cross) actually had the head of an ass. You
can see crude wall drawings deriding his votaries, as for example, one
showing a youth kneeling before an ass-headed figure on a cross, with
the scribbled legend, “Alexander is adoring _his_ god.”[247]
How far are these gross charges true? Such aristocrats as Calvus
merely shrug their shoulders; they are not interested. However,
about 112 A.D. Pliny the Younger, while governor of Bithynia, being
compelled to enforce the Anti-Christian laws, seized two Christian
women known as “deaconesses” and put them to torture in order to find
out what _really_ happened at their gatherings. He reported that he
had discovered that nothing criminal went on but only “a perverse and
excessive superstition.” Probably, senatorial circles will assure us,
there is not much to be dreaded from such a movement which cannot
possibly appeal to educated men well grounded in philosophy. Of
course, Mithraism is very much more respectable, and according to all
fashionable judgment has a far greater future before it!