(Vol. viii., p. 343. &c.)
The setting sun and the darkness of evening has been immemorially connected
with death, just as the rising orb and the light of morning with life. In
Sophocles (_Oedipus Rex_, 179.), Pluto is called [Greek: hesperos theos];
and the "Oxford translation" has the following note on the line:
"In Lysia's Oration against Andocides is this passage: To expiate this
pollution (the mutilation of the {592} Hermae), the priestesses and
priests _turning towards the setting sun, the dwelling of the infernal
gods_, devoted with curses the sacrilegious wretch, and shook their
purple robes, in the manner prescribed by that law, which has been
transmitted from the earliest times."--Mitford, _History of Greece_,
ch. xxii.
Liddell and Scott consider [Greek: Erebos] (the nether gloom) to be derived
from [Greek: erepho], to cover; akin to [Greek: eremnos], and probably also
to Hebrew _erev_ or _ereb_, our _eve_-ning; and mention as analogous the
Egyptian Amenti, _Hades_, from _ement_, the west. (Wilkinson's _Egyptians_,
ii. 2. 74.)
Turning to the East on solemn occasions is a practice more frequently
mentioned. There is an interesting note on the subject in the Translation
above quoted, at Oedipus Col., 477.,
"[Greek: choas cheasthai stanta pros proten heo],"
and doubtless much more may be found in the commentators. The custom, as is
well known, found its way into the Christian Church.
"The primitive Christians used to assemble on the steps of the basilica
of St. Peter, to see the first rays of the rising sun, and kneel,
curvatis cervicibus in honorem splendidi orbis. (S. Leo. Serm. VII. _De
Nativ._) The practice was prohibited, as savouring of, or leading to,
Gentilism. (Bernino, i. 45.)"--Southey's _Common-Place Book_, ii. 44.
"The rule of Orientation, though prescribed in the Apostolic
Constitutions, never obtained in Italy, where the churches are turned
indiscriminately towards every quarter of the heaven."--_Quarterly
Review_, vol. lxxv. p. 382.
In the Reformed Church in England the custom is _recognised_, as far as the
position of the material church goes. (See rubric at the beginning of the
Communion Service.) "The priest shall stand at the _north side_ of the
table;" but turning eastward at the Creeds has no sanction that I know of,
but usage. (Compare Wheatly _On the Common Prayer_, ch. ii. s. 3., ch. iii.
s. 8.; and Williams, _The Cathedral_ ("Stanzas on the Cloisters"),
xxiv.-xxviii.)
The _rationale_ of western paradise is given in the following extract, with
which I will conclude:
"When the stream of mankind was flowing towards the West, it is no
wonder that the weak reflux of positive information from that quarter
should exhibit only the impulses of hope and superstition. Greece was
nearly on the western verge of the world, as it was known to Homer; and
it was natural for him to give wing to his imagination as he turned
towards the dim prospects beyond.... All early writers in Greece
believed in the existence of certain regions situated in the West
beyond the bounds of their actual knowledge, and, as it appears, of too
fugitive a nature ever to be fixed within the circle of authentic
geography. Homer describes at the extremity of the ocean the Elysian
plain, "where, under a serene sky, the favourites of Jove, exempt from
the common lot of mortals, enjoy eternal felicity." Hesiod, in like
manner, sets the Happy Isles, the abode of departed heroes, beyond the
deep ocean. The Hesperia of the Greeks continually fled before them as
their knowledge advanced, and they saw the terrestrial paradise still
disappearing in the West."--Cooley's _History of Maritime Discov_.,
vol. i. p. 25., quoted in Anthon's _Horace_.