668 Plutarch, _Alcibiades_, 18; _id._, _Nicias_, 13; Zenobius, _Centur._

i. 49; Theocritus, xv. 132 _sqq._; Eustathius on Homer, _Od._ xi.

590.

669 Besides Lucian (cited below) see Origen, _Selecta in Ezechielem_

(Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, 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, _Commentar. in Ezechielem_, viii. 13, 14 (Migne’s

_Patrologia Latina_, xxv. 82, 83): “_Quem nos_ Adonidem

_interpretati sumus, et Hebraeus et Syrus sermo_ THAMUZ (תמוז)

_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._” Cyril of Alexandria, _In Isaiam_, lib. ii.

tomus iii. (Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, 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.

670 Theocritus, xv.

671 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_ (Berlin, 1877), p. 277.

672 Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 6. See above, p. 38. The flutes used by the

Phoenicians in the lament for Adonis are mentioned by Athenaeus (iv.

76, p. 174 F), and by Pollux (iv. 76), who say that the same name

_gingras_ was applied by the Phoenicians both to the flute and to

Adonis himself. Compare F. C. Movers, _Die Phoenizier_, i. 243 _sq._

We have seen that flutes were also played in the Babylonian rites of

Tammuz (above, p. 9). 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).

M174 Date of the festival at Byblus. The anemone and the red rose the

flowers of Adonis. Festivals of Adonis at Athens and Antioch.

673 Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 8. The discoloration of the river and the

sea was observed by H. Maundrell on 17/27 March 1696/1697. See his

_Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, at Easter, __A.D.__ 1697_, Fourth

Edition (Perth, 1800), pp. 59 _sq._; _id._, in Bohn’s _Early Travels

in Palestine_, edited by Thomas Wright (London, 1848), pp. 411 _sq._

Renan remarked the discoloration at the beginning of February

(_Mission de Phénicie_, p. 283). In his well-known lines on the

subject Milton has laid the mourning in summer:—

“_Thammuz came next behind,_

_ Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur’d_

_ The Syrian damsels to lament his fate_

_ In amorous ditties all a summer’s day._”

674 Ovid, _Metam._ x. 735; Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ v. 72; J. Tzetzes,

_Schol. on Lycophron_, 831. Bion, on the other hand, represents the

anemone as sprung from the tears of Aphrodite (_Idyl._ i. 66).

675 W. Robertson Smith, “Ctesias and the Semiramis Legend,” _English

Historical Review_, ii. (1887) p. 307, following Lagarde. Compare W.

W. Graf Baudissin, _Adonis und Esmun_, pp. 88 _sq._

676 J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on Lycophron_, 831; _Geoponica_, xi. 17;

_Mythographi Graeci_, ed. A. Westermann, p. 359. Compare Bion,

_Idyl._ i. 66; Pausanias, vi. 24. 7; Philostratus, _Epist._ i. and

iii.

677 Plutarch, _Alcibiades_, 18; _id._, _Nicias_, 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, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2

Nos. 726, 741 (vol. ii. pp. 564, 604).

678 Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii. 9. 15.

M175 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.

_ 679 The Dying God_, pp. 261-266.

680 In the Alexandrian ceremony, however, it appears to have been the

image of Adonis only which was thrown into the sea.

681 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 14. 4; Scholiast on Theocritus, i.

109; Antoninus Liberalis, _Transform._ 34; J. Tzetzes, _Scholia on

Lycophron_, 829; Ovid, _Metamorph._ x. 489 _sqq._; Servius on

Virgil, _Aen._ v. 72, and on _Bucol._ x. 18; Hyginus, _Fab._ 58,

164; Fulgentius, iii. 8. The word Myrrha or Smyrna is borrowed from

the Phoenician (Liddell and Scott, _Greek Lexicon_, _s.v._ σμύρνα).

Hence the mother’s name, as well as the son’s, was taken directly

from the Semites.

682 W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 383, note 2.

683 Above, p. 9.

684 Jeremiah xliv. 17-19.

685 Scholiast on Theocritus, iii. 48; Hyginus, _Astronom._ ii. 7;

Lucian, _Dialog. deor._ xi. 1; Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae

Compendium_, 28, p. 54, ed. C. Lang (Leipsic, 1881); Apollodorus,

_Bibliotheca_, iii. 14. 4.

686 The arguments which tell against the solar interpretation of Adonis

are stated more fully by the learned and candid scholar Graf

Baudissin (_Adonis und Esmun_, pp. 169 _sqq._), who himself formerly

accepted the solar theory but afterwards rightly rejected it in

favour of the view “_dass Adonis die Frühlingsvegetation darstellt,

die im Sommer abstirbt_” (_op. cit._ p. 169).

687 Bailly, _Lettres sur l’Origine des Sciences_ (London and Paris,

1777), pp. 255 _sq._; _id._, _Lettres sur l’Atlantide de Platon_

(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 (_French Revolution_, 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, _The Arctic Home

in the Vedas_ (Poona and Bombay, 1903).

688 Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 28, pp. 54 _sq._, 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, _Selecta in Ezechielem_ (Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, 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,

_Commentar. in Ezechielem_, viii. 13, 14 (Migne’s _Patrologia

Latina_, xxv. 83), “_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._” Ammianus

Marcellinus, xix. 1. 11, “_in sollemnibus Adonidis sacris, quod

simulacrum aliquod esse frugum adultarum religiones mysticae

docent_.” _Id._ xxii. 9. 15, “_amato Veneris, ut fabulae fingunt,

apri dente ferali deleto, quod in adulto flore sectarum est indicium

frugum_.” Clement of Alexandria, _Hom._ 6. 11 (quoted by W.

Mannhardt, _Antique Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 281), λαμβάνουσι δὲ καὶ

Ἄδωνιν εἰς ὡραίους καρπούς. _Etymologieum Magnum_ _s.v._ Ἄδωνις

κύριον; δύναται καὶ ὁ καρπὸς εἶναι ἄδωνις; οἶον ἀδώνειος καρπός,

ἀρέσκων. Eusebius, _Praepar. Evang._ iii. II. 9, Ἄδωνις τῆς τῶν

τελείων καρπῶν ἐκτομῆς σύμβολον. Sallustius philosophus, “De diis et

mundo,” iv. _Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum_, ed. F. G. A.

Mullach, iii. 32, οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι ... αὐτὰ τὰ σώματα θεοὺς νομίσαντες

... Ἴσιν μὲν τὴν γῆν ... Ἄδωνιν δὲ καρπούς. Joannes Lydus, _De

mensibus_, 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, _Kosmologie der

Babylonier_ (Strasburg, 1890), p. 480; _id._,

_Assyrisch-babylonische Mythen und Epen_, pp. 411, 560; H. Zimmern,

in E. Schrader’s _Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_,3 p. 397;

A. Jeremias, _s.v._ “Nergal,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der

griech. und röm. Mythologie_, iii. 265; R. Wünsch, _Das

Frühlingsfest der Insel Malta_ (Leipsic, 1902), p. 21; M. J.

Lagrange, _Études sur les Religions Sémitiques_,2 pp. 306 _sqq._; W.

W. Graf Baudissin, “Tammuz,” _Realencyclopädie für protestantische

Theologie und Kirchengeschichte_; _id._, _Esmun und Adonis_, pp. 81,

141, 169, etc.; and Ed. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_,2 i. 2.

pp. 394, 427. Prof. Jastrow regards Tammuz as a god both of the sun

and of vegetation (_Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 547,

564, 574, 588). But such a combination of disparate qualities seems

artificial and unlikely.

M176 Tammuz or Adonis as a corn-spirit bruised and ground in a mill.

689 D. Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_ (St. Petersburg,

1856), ii. 27; _id._, _Ueber Tammûz und die Menschenverehrung bei

den alten Babylioniern_ (St. Petersburg, 1860), p. 38. Compare W. W.

Graf Baudissin, _Adonis und Esmun_, pp. 111 _sqq._

M177 The mourning for Adonis interpreted as a harvest rite.

690 M. J. Lagrange, _Études sur les Religions Sémitiques_2 (Paris,

1905), pp. 307 _sq._

691 Hence Philo of Alexandria dates the corn-reaping in the middle of

spring (Μεσοῦντος δὲ ἔαρος ἄμητος ἐνίσταται, _De special. legibus_,

i. 183, vol. v. p. 44, ed. L. Cohn). On this subject Professor W. M.

Flinders Petrie writes to me: “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.” With regard to Palestine we

are told that “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” (J. Benzinger, _Hebräische

Archäologie_, Freiburg i. B. and Leipsic, 1894, p. 209). “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” (H. B.

Tristram, _The Land of Israel_, Fourth Edition, London, 1882, pp.

583 _sq._). 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 “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.” 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, _From the Levant_, 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 (_op. cit._

pp. 305 _sq._) 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 _Adonis und Esmun_, pp. 132 _sq._

692 Diodorus Siculus, i. 14. 2. See below, vol. ii. pp. 45 _sq._

_ 693 Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii. 180 _sqq._, 204 _sqq._

M178 But probably Adonis was a spirit of fruits, edible roots, and grass

before he became a spirit of the cultivated corn.

M179 The propitiation of the corn-spirit may have fused with the worship

of the dead.

694 W. Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_ (Strasburg, 1884), pp. 1

_sqq._; _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 216 _sqq._

M180 The festival of the dead a festival of flowers.

695 T. B. Macaulay, _History of England_, chapter xx. vol. iv. (London,

1855) p. 410.

696 This explanation of the name _Anthesteria_, as applied to a festival

of the dead, is due to Mr. R. Wünsch (_Das Frühlingsfest der Insel

Malta_, Leipsic, 1902, pp. 43 _sqq._). I cannot accept the late Dr.

A. W. Verrall’s ingenious derivation of the word from a verb

ἀναθέσσασθαι in the sense of “to conjure up” (“The Name

Anthesteria,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xx. (1900) pp.

115-117). As to the festival see E. Rohde, _Psyche_3 (Tübingen and

Leipsic, 1903), i. 236 _sqq._; Miss J. E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to

the Study of Greek Religion_2 (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 32 _sqq._ 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, _Magie et Religion Annamites_ (Paris, 1912),

pp. 423 _sq._

697 E. Renan, _Mission de Phénicie_ (Paris, 1864), p. 216.

M181 Pots of corn, herbs, and flowers, called the gardens of Adonis.

698 For the authorities see Raoul Rochette, “Mémoire sur les jardins

d’Adonis,” _Revue Archéologique_, viii. (1851) pp. 97-123; W.

Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, p. 279, note 2, and p. 280,

note 2. To the authorities cited by Mannhardt add Theophrastus,

_Hist. Plant._ vi. 7. 3; _id._, _De Causis Plant._ i. 12. 2;

Gregorius Cyprius, i. 7; Macarius, i. 63; Apostolius, i. 34;

Diogenianus, i. 14; Plutarch, _De sera num. vind._ 17. Women only

are mentioned as planting the gardens of Adonis by Plutarch, _l.c._;

Julian, _Convivium_, p. 329 ed. Spanheim (p. 423 ed. Hertlein);

Eustathius on Homer, _Od._ xi. 590. On the other hand, Apostolius

and Diogenianus (_ll.cc._) say φυτεύοντες ἢ φυτεύουσαι. The earliest

extant Greek writer who mentions the gardens of Adonis is Plato

(_Phaedrus_, p. 276 B). The procession at the festival of Adonis is

mentioned in an Attic inscription of 302 or 301 B.C. (G.

Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 vol. ii. p. 564,

No. 726). Gardens of Adonis are perhaps alluded to by Isaiah (xvii.

10, with the commentators).

M182 These gardens of Adonis were charms to promote the growth of

vegetation. The throwing of the “gardens” 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.

699 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.

_ 700 The Dying God_, pp. 232, 233 _sqq._

_ 701 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 272 _sqq._

702 W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme_

(Berlin, 1875), p. 214; W. Schmidt, _Das Jahr und seine Tage in

Meinung und Branch der Romänen Siebenbürgens_ (Hermannstadt, 1866),

pp. 18 _sq._ 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, “Notes on Harvest Customs,” _Folk-lore Journal_, 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: “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.”

703 G. A. Heinrich, _Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen

Siebenbürgens_ (Hermanstadt, 1880), p. 24; H. von Wlislocki, _Sitten

und Brauch der Siebenbürger Sachsen_ (Hamburg, 1888), p. 32.

704 G. Drosinis, _Land und Leute in Nord-Euböa_ (Leipsic, 1884), p. 53.

705 Matthäus Prätorius, _Deliciae Prussicae_ (Berlin, 1871), p. 55; W.

Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 214 _sq._, note.

706 M. Prätorius, _op. cit._ p. 60; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 215,

note.

707 H. Prahn, “Glaube und Brauch in der Mark Brandenburg,” _Zeitschrift

des Vereins für Volkskunde_, i. (1891) p. 186.

708 O. Hartung, “Zur Volkskunde aus Anhalt,” _Zeitschrift des Vereins

für Volkskunde_, vii. (1897) p. 150.

709 W. Kolbe, _Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebräuche_ (Marburg, 1888), p.

51.

_ 710 Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, ii.

(Munich, 1863) p. 297.

711 E. H. Meyer, _Badisches Volksleben_ (Strasburg, 1900), p. 420.

712 J. Walter Fewkes, “The Tusayan New Fire Ceremony,” _Proceedings of

the Boston Society of Natural History_, xxvi. (1895) p. 446.

713 “Lettre du curé de Santiago Tepehuacan à son évêque,” _Bulletin de

la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), Deuxième Série, ii. (1834) pp.

181 _sq._

M183 Gardens of Adonis among the Oraons and Mundas of Bengal.

_ 714 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 59 _sqq._

715 E. T. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_ (Calcutta, 1872), p.

259.

716 E. T. Dalton, _op. cit._ p. 188. As to the influence which trees are

supposed to exercise on the crops, see _The Magic Art and the

Evolution of Kings_, ii. 47 _sqq._

M184 Gardens of Adonis in Rajputana.

717 Lieut.-Col. James Tod, _Annals and Antiquities of Rajast’han_, i.

(London, 1829) pp. 570-572.

718 G. F. D’Penha, “A Collection of Notes on Marriage Customs in the

Madras Presidency,” _Indian Antiquary_, xxv. (1896) p. 144; E.

Thurston, _Ethnographic Notes in Southern India_ (Madras, 1906), p.

2.

M185 Gardens of Adonis in North-Western and Central India.

719 E. T. Atkinson, _The Himalayan Districts of the North-Western

Provinces of India_, ii. (Allahabad, 1884) p. 870.

720 W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India_

(Westminster, 1896), ii. 293 _sq._ Compare Baboo Ishuree Dass,

_Domestic Manners and Customs of the Hindoos of Northern India_

(Benares, 1860), pp. 111 _sq._ 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.

721 Mrs. J. C. Murray-Aynsley, “Secular and Religious Dances,”

_Folk-lore Journal_, v. (1887) pp. 253 _sq._ The writer thinks that

the ceremony “probably fixes the season for sowing some particular

crop.”

_ 722 Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency_, xx. (Bombay, 1884) p. 454.

This passage was pointed out to me by my friend Mr. W. Crooke.

_ 723 Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency_, xx. 443, 460.

M186 Gardens of Adonis in Bavaria. Gardens of Adonis on St. John’s Day in

Sardinia.

_ 724 Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_ (Munich,

1860-1867), ii. 298.

725 Antonio Bresciani, _Dei costumi dell’ isola di Sardegna comparati

cogli antichissimi popoli orientali_ (Rome and Turin, 1866), pp. 427

_sq._; R. Tennant, _Sardinia and its Resources_ (Rome and London,

1885), p. 187; S. Gabriele, “Usi dei contadini della Sardegna,”

_Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizioni Popolari_, vii. (1888) pp.

469 _sq._ Tennant says that the pots are kept in a dark warm place,

and that the children leap across the fire.

M187 Gardens of Adonis on St. John’s Day in Sicily.

726 G. Pitrè, _Usi e Costumi, Credenze e Pregiudizi del Popolo

Siciliano_ (Palermo, 1889), ii. 271-278. Compare _id._, _Spettacoli

e Feste Popolari Siciliane_ (Palermo, 1881), pp. 297 _sq._ 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, _Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_

(Palermo, 1890), pp. 165 _sq._

M188 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.

727 R. Wünsch, _Das Frühlingsfest der Insel Malta_, pp. 47-57.

728 See above, pp. 10, note 1, 224 _sq._, 226.

729 J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 i. 490.

730 G. Finamore, _Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_, 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 “dew of herbs” (compare 2

Kings iv. 39) against the interpretation “dew of lights,” which some

modern commentators (Dillmann, Skinner, Whitehouse), following

Jerome, have adopted.

731 G. Pitrè, _Feste patronali in Sicilia_ (Turin and Palermo, 1900),

pp. 488, 491-493.

732 G. Pitrè, _Spettacoli e Feste Popolari Siciliane_, p. 307.

733 Petrarch, _Epistolae de rebus familiaribus_, i. 4 (vol. i. pp. 44-46

ed. J. Fracassetti, Florence, 1859-1862). The passage is quoted by

J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,4 i. 489 _sq._

734 J. Grimm, _op. cit._ i. 489.

735 Letter of Dr. Otero Acevado, of Madrid, _Le Temps_, September 1898.

736 J. Lecœur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Condé-sur-Noireau,

1883-1887), ii. 8; A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des

provinces de France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 150.

737 A. de Nore, _op. cit._ p. 20; Bérenger-Féraud, _Réminiscences

populaires de la Provence_ (Paris, 1885), pp. 135-141.

738 A. Breuil, “Du Culte de St. Jean Baptiste,” _Mémoires de la Société

des Antiquaires de Picardie_, viii. (1845) pp. 237 _sq._ Compare

_Balder the Beautiful_, i. 193 _sq._

739 Diego Duran, _Historia de las Indias de Nueva España_, edited by J.

F. Ramirez (Mexico, 1867-1880), ii. 293.

M189 The custom of bathing at midsummer is pagan, not Christian, in its

origin.

740 Augustine, _Opera_, v. (Paris, 1683) col. 903; _id._, Pars Secunda,

coll. 461 _sq._ The second of these passages occurs in a sermon of

doubtful authenticity. Both have been quoted by J. Grimm, _Deutsche

Mythologie_,4 i. 490.

741 E. Doutté, _Magie et Religion dans l’Afrique du Nord_ (Algiers,

1908), pp. 567 _sq._; E. Westermarck, “Midsummer Customs in

Morocco,” _Folk-lore_, xvi. (1905) pp. 31 _sq._; _id._, _Ceremonies

and Beliefs connected with Agriculture, Certain Dates of the Solar

Year, and the Weather_ (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 84-86. See _Balder

the Beautiful_, i. 216.

M190 Old heathen festival of midsummer in Europe and the East.

M191 Midsummer fires and midsummer couples in relation to vegetation.

_ 742 Balder the Beautiful_, i. 160 _sqq._

_ 743 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 65 _sq._

_ 744 The Dying God_, p. 262.

745 L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), p. 257.

M192 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.

_ 746 Balder the Beautiful_, i. 328 _sqq._, ii. 21 _sqq._

747 W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 464; K. von Leoprechting, _Aus dem

Lechrain_ (Munich, 1855), p. 183. For more evidence see _Balder the

Beautiful_, i. 165, 166, 166 _sq._, 168, 173, 174.

748 The use of gardens of Adonis to fertilize the human sexes appears

plainly in the corresponding Indian practices. See above, pp. 241,

242, 243.

749 G. Pitrè, _Spettacoli e Feste Popolari Siciliane_, pp. 296 _sq._

750 G. Pitrè, _op. cit._ pp. 302 _sq._; Antonio de Nino, _Usi e Costumi

Abruzzesi_ (Florence, 1879-1883), i. 55 _sq._; A. de Gubernatis,

_Usi Nuziali in Italia e presso gli altri Popoli Indo-Europei_

(Milan, 1878), pp. 39 _sq._ Compare L. Passarini, “Il Comparatico e

la Festa di S. Giovanni nelle Marche e in Roma,” _Archivio per lo

Studio delle Tradizioni Popolari_, i. (1882) p. 135. At Smyrna a

blossom of the _Agnus castus_ 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, “La notte di San Giovanni in

Oriente,” _Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizioni Popolari_, vii.

(1888) pp. 128-130.

751 Matthäus Prätorius, _Deliciae Prussicae_ (Berlin, 1871), p. 56.

_ 752 The Dying God_, pp. 261 _sq._

_ 753 The Dying God_, pp. 233 _sqq._, 261 _sqq._

M193 Sicilian gardens of Adonis in spring.

754 G. Pitrè, _Spettacoli e Feste Popolari Siciliane_, p. 211.

755 Κήπους ὡσίουν ἐπιταφίους Ἀδώνιδι, Eustathius on Homer, _Od._ xi.

590.

756 Vincenzo Dorsa, _La tradizione Greco-Latina negli usi e nelle

credenze popolari della Calabria Citeriore_ (Cosenza, 1884), p. 50.

M194 Resemblance of the Easter ceremonies in the Greek Church to the

rites of Adonis.

757 C. Wachsmuth, _Das alte Griechenland im neuen_ (Bonn, 1864), pp. 26.

_sq._ The writer compares these ceremonies with the Eleusinian

rites. But I agree with Mr. R. Wünsch (_Das Frühlingsfest der Insel

Malta_, pp. 49 _sq._) that the resemblance to the Adonis festival is

still closer. Compare V. Dorsa, _La tradizione Greco-Latina negli

usi e nelle credenze popolari della Calabria Citeriore_, pp. 49

_sq._ Prof. Wachsmuth’s description seems to apply to Athens. In the

country districts the ritual is apparently similar. See R. A.

Arnold, _From the Levant_ (London, 1868), pp. 251 _sq._, 259 _sq._

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, _Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter, __A.D.__

1697_, Fourth Edition (Perth, 1800), pp. 110 _sqq._; _id._, in Th.

Wright’s _Early Travels in Palestine_ (London, 1848), pp. 443-445.

M195 Resemblance of the Easter ceremonies in the Catholic Church to the

rites of Adonis.

758 G. Pitrè, _Spettacoli e Feste Popolari Siciliane_, pp. 217 _sq._

759 G. Finamore, _Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_, pp. 118-120; A. de

Nino, _Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_, i. 64 _sq._, 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, _op. cit._

ii. 211).

760 The drama of the death and resurrection of Christ was formerly

celebrated at Easter in England. See Abbot Gasquet, _Parish Life in

Mediaeval England_, pp. 177 _sqq._, 182 _sq._

M196 The Christian festival of Easter perhaps grafted on a festival of

Adonis.

761 The comparison has already been made by A. Maury, who also compares

the Easter ceremonies of the Catholic Church with the rites of

Adonis (_Histoire des Religions de la Grèce Antique_, Paris,

1857-1859, vol. iii. p. 221).

M197 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.

762 Jerome, _Epist._ lviii. 3 (Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_, xxii. 581).

763 Bethlehem is בית-לחם, literally “House of Bread.” The name is

appropriate, for “the immediate neighbourhood is very fertile,

bearing, besides wheat and barley, groves of olive and almond, and

vineyards. The wine of Bethlehem (‘Talhamī’) 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” (George

Adam Smith, _s.v._ “Bethlehem,” _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, i. 560). It

was in the harvest-fields of Bethlehem that Ruth, at least in the

poet’s fancy, listened to the nightingale “amid the alien corn.”

764 John vi. 35.

765 Above, p. 227.

766 Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii. 9. 14, “_Urbique propinquans in speciem

alicujus numinis votis excipitur publicis, miratus voces

multitudinis magnae, salutare sidus inluxisse eois partibus

adclamantis._” We may compare the greeting which a tribe of South

American Indians used to give to a worshipful star after its

temporary disappearance. “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. ‘How we thank you! At last you

have come back? Oh, have you happily recovered?’ With such cries

they fill the air, attesting at once their gladness and their

folly.” See M. Dobrizhoffer, _Historia de Abiponibus_ (Vienna,

1784), ii. 77.

767 M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 370 _sqq._;

H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte

Testament_,3 p. 424.

768 Sozomenus, _Historia Ecclesiastica_, ii. 5 (Migne’s _Patrologia

Graeca_, lxvii. 948). The connexion of the meteor with the festival

of Adonis is not mentioned by Sozomenus, but is confirmed by

Zosimus, who says (_Hist._ 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. 28 _sq._

769 Matthew ii. 1-12.

M198 Attis the Phrygian counterpart of Adonis. His relation to Cybele.

His miraculous birth. The death of Attis.

770 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 59. 7; Sallustius philosophus, “De diis et

mundo,” iv., _Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum_, ed. F. G. A.

Mullach, iii. 33; Scholiast on Nicander, _Alexipharmaca_, 8;

Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 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, _Attis, seine Mythen und sein Kult_ (Giessen,

1903).

771 Hippolytus, _Refutatio omnium haeresium_, v. 9, p. 168 ed. L.

Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin (Göttingen, 1859); Socrates, _Historia

Ecclesiastica_, iii. 23. 51 _sqq._

772 Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 223 _sqq._; Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, 15;

_id._, _Ad Nationes_, i. 10; Arnobius, _Adversus Nationes_, 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 _Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, _s.v._

“Kybele,” ii. 1638 _sqq._

773 Scholiast on Lucian, _Jupiter Tragoedus_, 8, p. 60 ed. H. Rabe

(Leipsic, 1906), (vol. iv. p. 173 ed. C. Jacobitz); Hippolytus,

_Refutatio omnium haeresium_, v. 9, pp. 168, 170 ed. Duncker and

Schneidewin.

774 Pausanias, vii. 17. 11; Hippolytus, _Refutatio omnium haeresium_, v.

9, pp. 166, 168 ed. Duncker and Schneidewin; Arnobius, _Adversus

Nationes_, v. 6.

775 See above, pp. 99 _sqq._

776 S. I. Curtiss, _Primitive Semitic Religion To-day_, pp. 115 _sq._

See above, pp. 78, 213 _sqq._

777 That Attis was killed by a boar was stated by Hermesianax, an

elegiac poet of the fourth century B.C. (Pausanias, vii. 17);

compare Scholiast on Nicander, _Alexipharmaca_, 8. The other story

is told by Arnobius (_Adversus Nationes_, v. 5 _sqq._) 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 (_l.c._)

mentions as the story current in Pessinus. According to Servius (on

Virgil, _Aen._ 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, _Isis et Osiris_, 28; Franz Cumont, _Les Religions

Orientales dans le Paganisme Romain_2 (Paris, 1909), pp. 77, 113,

335.

778 Pausanias, vii. 17. 10; Julian, _Orat._ v. 177 B, 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. 39.

779 S. Sophronius, “SS. Cyri et Joannis Miracula,” Migne’s _Patrologia

Graeca_, lxxxvii. Pars Tertia, col. 3624, πρὸς πλάνην Ἑλληνικὴν

ἀποκλίνουσαν [_scil._ τὴν Ἰουλίαν] καὶ ταύτῃ διὰ τὸν Ἀδώνιδος

Θάνατον τὰ κρέα παραιτεῖσθαι τὰ ὕεια.

780 Ovid, _Metam._ x. 103 _sqq._

M199 Worship of Cybele introduced into Rome in 204 B.C.

781 Livy, xxix. chs. 10, 11, and 14; Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 259 _sqq._;

Herodian, ii. 11. As to the stone which represented the goddess see

Arnobius, _Adversus Nationes_, vii. 49.

782 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xviii. 16.

M200 Attis and his eunuch priests the Galli at Rome.

783 Lucretius, ii. 598 _sqq._; Catullus, lxiii.; Varro, _Satir.

Menipp._, ed. F. Bücheler (Berlin, 1882), pp. 176, 178; Ovid,

_Fasti_, iv. 181 _sqq._, 223 _sqq._, 361 _sqq._; Dionysius

Halicarnasensis, _Antiquit. Rom._ ii. 19, compare Polybius, xxii. 18

ed. L. Dindorf (Leipsic, 1866-1868).

784 Joannes Lydus, _De mensibus_, iv. 41. See Robinson Ellis,

_Commentary on Catullus_ (Oxford, 1876), pp. 206 _sq._; H. Hepding,

_Attis_, pp. 142 _sqq._; Fr. Cumont, _Les Religions Orientales dans

le Paganisme Romain_2 (Paris, 1909), pp. 83 _sq._

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

A.D. See A. von Domaszewski, “Magna Mater in Latin Inscriptions,”

_The Journal of Roman Studies_, 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 A.D. 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

(_Dendrophori_), 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, _Alexander Severus_, 37; Trebellius Pollio, _Claudius_,

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 “impudent forger.”

(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.

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 A.D. on the ground that the earliest extant evidence

of their public celebration refers to that period (_Religion und

Kultus der Römer_,2 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.

785 Arrian, _Tactica_, 33; Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ xii. 836.

786 On the festival see J. Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, iii.2

(Leipsic, 1885) pp. 370 _sqq._; the calendar of Philocalus, in

_Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vol. i.2 Pars prior (Berlin,

1893), p. 260, with Th. Mommsen’s commentary (pp. 313 _sq._); W.

Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_, pp. 291 _sqq._; _id._,

_Baumkultus_, pp. 572 _sqq._; G. Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der

Römer_,2 pp. 318 _sqq._; H. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 147 _sqq._; J.

Toutain, _Les Cultes Païens dans l’Empire Romain_, ii. (Paris, 1911)

pp. 82 _sqq._

M201 The spring festival of Cybele and Attis at Rome. The Day of Blood.

787 Julian, _Orat._ v. 168 C, p. 218 ed. F. C. Hertlein (Leipsic,

1875-1876); Joannes Lydus, _De mensibus_, iv. 41; Arnobius,

_Adversus Nationes_, v. chs. 7, 16, 39; Firmicus Maternus, _De

errore profanarum religionum_, 27; Sallustius philosophus, “De diis

et mundo,” iv., _Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum_, ed. F. G. A.

Mullach, iii. 33. As to the guild of Tree-bearers (_Dendrophori_)

see Joannes Lydus, _l.c._; H. Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae

Selectae_, Nos. 4116 _sq._, 4171-4174, 4176; H. Hepding, _Attis_,

pp. 86, 92, 93, 96, 152 _sqq._; F. Cumont, _s.v._ “Dendrophori,” in

Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen

Altertumswissenschaft_, v. 1. coll. 216-219; J. Toutain, _Les Cultes

Païens dans l’Empire Romain_, ii. 82 _sq._, 92 _sq._

788 Julian, _l.c._ and 169 C, p. 219 ed. F. C. Hertlein. The ceremony

may have been combined with the old _tubilustrium_ or purification

of trumpets, which fell on this day. See Joannes Lydus, _De

mensibus_, iv. 42; Varro, _De lingua Latina_, vi. 14; Festus, pp.

352, 353 ed. C. O. Müller; W. Warde Fowler, _Roman Festivals of the

Period of the Republic_ (London, 1899), p. 62.

789 Trebellius Pollio, _Claudius_, 4; Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, 25.

790 Lucian, _Deorum dialogi_, xii. 1; Seneca, _Agamemnon_, 686 _sqq._;

Martial, xi. 84. 3 _sq._; Valerius Flaccus, _Argonaut._ viii. 239

_sqq._; Statius, _Theb._ x. 170 _sqq._; Apuleius, _Metam._ viii. 27;

Lactantius, _Divinarum Institutionum Epitome_, 23 (18, vol. i. p.

689 ed. Brandt and Laubmann); H. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 158 _sqq._ As

to the music of these dancing dervishes see also Lucretius, ii. 618

_sqq._

_ 791 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 90 _sq._, 101 _sq._

792 Minucius Felix, _Octavius_, 22 and 24; Lactantius, _Divin. Instit._

i. 21. 16; _id._, _Epitoma_, 8; Schol. on Lucian, _Jupiter

Tragoedus_, 8 (p. 60 ed. H. Rabe); Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ ix.

115; Prudentius, _Peristephan._ x. 1066 _sqq._; “Passio Sancti

Symphoriani,” chs. 2 and 6 (Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, v. 1463,

1466); Arnobius, _Adversus Nationes_, v. 14; Scholiast on Nicander,

_Alexipharmaca_, 8; H. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 163 _sq._ A story told

by Clement of Alexandria (_Protrept._ 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, “Das Taurobolium,” _Festschrift zum fünfzigjährigen

Doctorjubiläum L. Friedlaender_ (Leipsic, 1895), pp. 498 _sqq._; H.

Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, Nos. 4118 _sqq._; J.

Toutain, _Les Cultes Païens dans l’Empire Romain_, ii. 84 _sqq._

793 Arnobius, _Adversus Nationes_, v. 5 _sq._

M202 Eunuch priests in the service of Asiatic goddesses.

794 Strabo, xiv. 1. 23, p. 641.

795 Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 15, 27, 50-53.

796 Lucian, _op. cit._ 10.

797 Lucian, _op. cit._ 15.

798 Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 49-51.

799 Catullus, _Carm._ lxiii. I agree with Mr. H. Hepding (_Attis_, 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.

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 (_Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum_, No. 2715).

According to Eustathius (on Homer, _Iliad_, xix. 254, p. 1183) the

Egyptian priests were eunuchs who had sacrificed their virility as a

first-fruit to the gods. In Corea “during a certain night, known as

_Chu-il_, 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.” See W. Woodville Rockhill, “Notes on some of

the Laws, Customs, and Superstitions of Korea,” _The American

Anthropologist_, iv. (Washington, 1891) p. 185. Compare Mrs. Bishop,

_Korea and her Neighbours_ (London, 1898), ii. 56 _sq._ 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, _In the Shadow of the

Bush_ (London, 1912), pp. 74 _sqq._ Mr. Talbot writes to me: “A

horrible case has just happened at Idua, where, at the new yam

planting, a man cut off his own _membrum virile_” (letter dated

Eket, Nr Calabar, Southern Nigeria, Feb. 7th, 1913). Amongst the

Ba-sundi and Ba-bwende of the Congo many youths are castrated “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” (H. H. Johnston, “On the Races of the Congo,”

_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xiii. (1884) p. 473;

compare _id._, _The River Congo_, 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, “On Basivis,”

_Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay_, ii. 343 _sq._ In

Pegu the English traveller, Alexander Hamilton, witnessed a dance in

honour of the gods of the earth. “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” (A. Hamilton, “A New Account of the East Indies,” in J.

Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_, 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, _Inscriptiones

Latinae Selectae_, vol. ii. Pars i. pp. 142, 143, Nos. 4130, 4136;

G. Wilmanns, _Exempla Inscriptionum Latinarum_ (Berlin, 1873), vol.

i. p. 36, Nos. 119a, 120; J. Toutain, _Les Cultes Païens dans

l’Empire Romain_, ii. 93 _sq._ As to the sacrifice of virility in

the Syrian religion compare Th. Nöldeke, “Die Selbstentmannung bei

den Syrern,” _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, x. (1907) pp.

150-152.

M203 The sacrifice of virility. The mourning for Attis.

800 Arnobius, _Adversus Nationes_, v. 7 and 16; Servius on Virgil,

_Aen._ ix. 115.

801 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 59; Arrian, _Tactica_, 33; Scholiast on

Nicander, _Alexipharmaca_, 8; Firmicus Maternus, _De errore

profanarum religionum_, 3 and 22; Arnobius, _Adversus Nationes_, v.

16; Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ ix. 115.

802 See above, p. 267.

803 Arnobius, _l.c._; Sallustius philosophus, “De diis et mundo,” iv.,

_Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum_, ed. F. G. A. Mullach, iii. 33.

804 Above, p. 230.

805 See below, p. 274.

M204 The Festival of Joy (_Hilaria_) for the resurrection of Attis on

March 25th. The procession to the Almo.

806 Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 22, “_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:_

θαρρεῖτε μύσται τοῦ θέου σεσωσμένου; ἔσται γὰρ ἡμῖν ἐκ πόνων

σωτήρια.

_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._” 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 _Bibliotheca_,

p. 345 A, 5 _sqq._, 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,

_Les Religions Orientales dans le Paganisme Romain_2 (Paris, 1909),

pp. 89 _sq._

807 Macrobius, _Saturn_. i. 21. 10; Flavius Vopiscus, _Aurelianus_, i.

1; Julian, _Or._ v. pp. 168 D, 169 D; Damascius, _l.c._; Herodian,

i. 10. 5-7; Sallustius philosophus, “De diis et mundo,” _Fragmenta

Philosophorum Graecorum_, 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 (_Dominica Gaudii_). The

emperors used to celebrate the happy day by releasing from prison

all but the worst offenders. See J. Bingham, _The Antiquities of the

Christian Church_, bk. xx. ch. vi. §§ 5 _sq._ (Bingham’s _Works_

(Oxford, 1855), vii. 317 _sqq._).

808 Aelius Lampridius, _Alexander Severus_, 37.

_ 809 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, i.2 Pars prior (Berlin, 1893), pp.

260, 313 _sq._; H. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 51, 172.

810 Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 337-346; Silius Italicus, _Punic._ viii. 365;

Valerius Flaccus, _Argonaut._ viii. 239 _sqq._; Martial, iii. 47. 1

_sq._; Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiii. 3. 7; Arnobius, _Adversus

Nationes_, vii. 32; Prudentius, _Peristephon._ x. 154 _sqq._ For the

description of the image of the goddess see Arnobius, _Adversus

Nationes_, vii. 49. At Carthage the goddess was carried to her bath

in a litter, not in a wagon (Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, ii. 4).

The bath formed part of the festival in Phrygia, whence the custom

was borrowed by the Romans (Arrian, _Tactica_, 33). At Cyzicus the

Placianian Mother, a form of Cybele, was served by women called

“marine” (Θαλάσσιαι), whose duty it probably was to wash her image

in the sea (Ch. Michel, _Recueil d’Inscriptions Grecques_, Brussels,

1900, pp. 403 _sq._, No. 537). See further J. Marquardt, _Römische

Staatsverwaltung_, iii.2 373; H. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 133 _sq._

M205 The mysteries of Attis. The sacrament. The baptism of blood. The

Vatican a centre of the worship of Attis.

811 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 15, p. 13 ed. Potter;

Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 18.

812 Above, p. 272.

813 H. Hepding, _Attis_, p. 185.

814 Prudentius, _Peristephan._ x. 1006-1050; compare Firmicus Maternus,

_De errore profanarum religionum_, 28. 8. That the bath of bull’s

blood (_taurobolium_) 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 _taurobolio criobolioque in

aeternum renatus_ (_Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vi. No. 510; H.

Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, No. 4152). The phrase

_arcanis perfusionibus in aeternum renatus_ occurs in a dedication

to Mithra (_Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vi. No. 736), which,

however, is suspected of being spurious. As to the inscriptions

which refer to the _taurobolium_ see G. Zippel, “Das Taurobolium,”

in _Festschrift zum fünfzigjährigen Doctorjubiläum L. Friedlaender

dargebracht von seinen Schülern_ (Leipsic, 1895), pp. 498-520; H.

Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, vol. ii. Pars i. pp.

140-147, Nos. 4118-4159. As to the origin of the _taurobolium_ and

the meaning of the word, see Fr. Cumont, _Textes et Monuments

Figurés relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra_ (Brussels, 1896-1899), i.

334 _sq._; _id._, _Les Religions Orientales dans le Paganisme

Romain_,2 pp. 100 _sqq._; J. Toutain, _Les Cultes Païens dans

l’Empire Romain_, ii. 84 _sqq._; G. Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus

der Römer_,2 pp. 322 _sqq._ The _taurobolium_ 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 _tauropolium_, 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 (_s.v._

“Anaitis,” in Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen

Altertumswissenschaft_, i. 2. col. 2031); but he now prefers the

form _taurobolium_, and would deduce both the name and the rite from

an ancient Anatolian hunting custom of lassoing wild bulls.

815 Sallustius philosophus, “De diis et mundo,” iv., _Fragmenta

Philosophorum Graecorum_, ed. F. G. A. Mullach, iii. 33.

816 Sallustius philosophus, _l.c._

_ 817 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vi. Nos. 497-504; H. Dessau,

_Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, Nos. 4145, 4147-4151, 4153;

_Inscriptiones Graecae Siciliae et Italiae_, ed. G. Kaibel (Berlin,

1890), p. 270, No. 1020; G. Zippel, _op. cit._ pp. 509 _sq._, 519;

H. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 83, 86-88, 176; Ch. Huelsen, _Topographie

der Stadt Rom im Alterthum, von H. Jordan_, i. 3 (Berlin, 1907), pp.

658 _sq._

_ 818 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiii. No. 1751; H. Dessau,

_Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, No. 4131; G. Wilmanns, _Exempla

Inscriptionum Latinarum_ (Berlin, 1873), vol. ii. p. 125, No. 2278;

G. Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_,2 p. 267; H. Hepding,

_Attis_, pp. 169-171, 176.

_ 819 Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, xiii. No. 1751; G. Wilmanns,

_Exempla Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vol. i. pp. 35-37, Nos. 119, 123,

124; H. Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, Nos. 4127, 4129,

4131, 4140; G. Wissowa, _Religion und Kultus der Römer_,2 pp. 322

_sqq._; H. Hepding, _Attis_, p. 191.

M206 The sanctity of the pine-tree in the worship of Attis.

820 As to the monuments see H. Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_,

Nos. 4143, 4152, 4153; H. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 82, 83, 88, 89.

821 Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 27.

_ 822 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 47 _sq._, 71;

_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 138, 143, 152, 153, 154,

155, 156, 157, 158.

823 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, _Aglaophamus_ (Königsberg,

1829), i. 657, who, in the passage quoted, rightly defends the

readings κατέστιχθαι and ἐστεφανοῦντο.

_ 824 Encyclopaedia Britannica_,9 xix. 105. Compare Athenaeus, ii. 49, p.

57. The nuts of the silver-pine (_Pinus edulis_) are a favourite

food of the Californian Indians (S. Powers, _Tribes of California_

(Washington, 1877), p. 421); the Wintun Indians hold a pine-nut

dance when the nuts are fit to be gathered (_ib._ 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, “Notes on the Shuswap People of British Columbia,”

_Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada_, ix.

(Montreal, 1892) Transactions, section ii. p. 22. With regard to the

Araucanian Indians of South America we read that “the great staple

food, the base of all their subsistence, save among the coast

tribes, was the _piñon_, the fruit of the Araucanian pine

(_Araucaria imbricata_). 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.” See R. E. Latcham,

“Ethnology of the Araucanos,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological

Institute_, xxxix. (1909) p. 341. The Gilyaks of the Amoor valley in

like manner eat the nutlets of the Siberian stone-pine (L. von

Schrenk, _Die Völker des Amur-Landes_, iii. 440). See also the

commentators on Herodotus, iv. 109 φθειροτραγέουσι.

825 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xiv. 103.

826 Strabo, x. 3. 12 _sqq._, pp. 469 _sqq._ However, tipsy people were

excluded from the sanctuary of Attis (Arnobius, _Adversus Nationes_,

v. 6).

827 Scholiast on Lucian, _Dial. Meretr._ ii. 1, p. 276 ed. H. Rabe

(Leipsic, 1906).

M207 Attis as a corn-god. Cybele as a goddess of fertility. The bathing

of her image either a rain-charm or a marriage-rite.

828 Hippolytus, _Refutatio omnium haeresium_, v. 8 and 9, pp. 162, 168

ed. Duncker and Schneidewin; Firmicus Maternus, _De errore

profanarum religionum_, 3; Sallustius philosophus, “De diis et

mundo,” _Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum_, ed. F. G. A. Mullach,

iii. 33. Others identified him with the spring flowers. See

Eusebius, _Praeparatio Evangelii_, iii. 11. 8 and 12, iii. 13. 10

ed. F. A. Heinichen (Leipsic, 1842-1843); Augustine, _De civitate

Dei_, vii. 25.

829 W. Helbig, _Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer

Altertümer in Rom_2 (Leipsic, 1899), i. 481, No. 721.

830 The urn is in the Lateran Museum at Rome (No. 1046). It is not

described by W. Helbig in his _Führer_.2 The inscription on the urn

(_M. Modius Maxximus archigallus coloniae Ostiens_) is published by

H. Dessau (_Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, 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 _gallus_, which in Latin means a cock as well

as a priest of Attis.

831 Gregory of Tours, _De gloria confessorum_, 77 (Migne’s _Patrologia

Latina_, lxxi. 884). That the goddess here referred to was Cybele

and not a native Gallic deity, as I formerly thought (_Lectures on

the Early History of the Kingship_, p. 178), seems proved by the

“Passion of St. Symphorian,” chs. 2 and 6 (Migne’s _Patrologia

Graeca_, v. 1463, 1466). Gregory and the author of the “Passion of

St. Symphorian” call the goddess simply Berecynthia, the latter

writer adding “the Mother of the Demons,” which is plainly a

Christian version of the title “Mother of the Gods.”

832 Above, p. 265. In the island of Thera an ox, wheat, barley, wine,

and “other first-fruits of all that the seasons produce” were

offered to the Mother of the Gods, plainly because she was deemed

the source of fertility. See G. Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum

Graecarum_,2 vol. ii. p. 426, No. 630.

833 H. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 215-217; compare _id._ p. 175 note 7.

834 Ptolemaeus, _Nov. Hist._ i. p. 183 of A. Westermann’s _Mythographi

Graeci_ (Brunswick, 1843).

835 Pausanias, viii. 25. 5 _sq._

836 Aelian, _Nat. Anim._ xii. 30. The place was in Mesopotamia, and the

goddess was probably Astarte. So Lucian (_De dea Syria_) calls the

Astarte of Hierapolis “the Assyrian Hera.”

837 Pausanias, ii. 38. 2.

838 Julian, _Orat._ v. 173 _sqq._ (pp. 225 _sqq._ ed. F. C. Hertlein);

H. Hepding, _Attis_, 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. 263,

269) 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.

M208 The name Attis seems to mean “father.”

839 P. Kretschmer, _Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen

Sprache_ (Göttingen, 1896), p. 355.

840 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 58. 4; Hippolytus, _Refutatio omnium

haeresium_, i. 9, p. 168 ed. Duncker and Schneidewin. A Latin

dedication to _Atte Papa_ has been found at Aquileia (F. Cumont, in

Pauly-Wissowa’s _Realencyclopädie der classischen

Altertumswissenschaft_, ii. 2180, _s.v._ “Attepata” H. Hepding,

_Attis_, p. 86). Greek dedications to Papas or to Zeus Papas occur

in Phrygia (H. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 78 _sq._). Compare A. B. Cook,

“Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak,” _Classical Review_, xviii. (1904) p.

79.

841 Arnobius, _Adversus Nationes_, v. 6 and 13.

842 (Sir) Edward B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_2 (London, 1873), i. 223.

M209 Relation of Attis to the Mother Goddess. Attis as a Sky-god or

Heavenly Father. Stories of the emasculation of the Sky-god.

843 Rapp, _s.v._ “Kybele,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und

röm. Mythologie_, ii. 1648.

844 She is called a “motherless virgin” by Julian (_Or._ v. 166 B, p.

215 ed. F. C. Hertlein), and there was a _Parthenon_ or virgin’s

chamber in her sanctuary at Cyzicus (Ch. Michel, _Recueil

d’Inscriptions Grecques_, p. 404, No. 538). Compare Rapp, in W. H.

Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 1648;

Wagner, _s.v._ “Nana,” _ibid._ iii. 4 _sq._ Another great goddess of

fertility who was conceived as a Virgin Mother was the Egyptian

Neith or Net. She is called “the Great Goddess, the Mother of All

the Gods,” and was believed to have brought forth Ra, the Sun,

without the help of a male partner. See C. P. Tiele, _Geschichte der

Religion im Altertum_, i. 111; E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the

Egyptians_ (London, 1904), i. 457-462. The latter writer says (p.

462): “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.”

845 Quoted by Eustathius on Homer, _Il._ v. 408; _Fragmenta Historicorum

Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iii. 592, Frag. 30.

846 (Sir) Edward B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_,2 i. 321 _sqq._, ii. 270

_sqq._ 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, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (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, _Haut-Sénégal-Niger_ (Paris, 1912), iii. 173-175.

847 Hesiod, _Theogony_, 159 _sqq._

848 Porphyry, _De antro nympharum_, 16; Aristides, _Or._ iii. (vol. i.

p. 35 ed. G. Dindorf, Leipsic, 1829); Scholiast on Apollonius

Rhodius, _Argon._ iv. 983.

849 A. Lang, _Custom and Myth_ (London, 1884), pp. 45 _sqq._; _id._,

_Myth, Ritual, and Religion_ (London, 1887), i. 299 _sqq._ 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, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_ (London, 1897), pp.

230 _sq._; E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_, ii. 90,

97 _sq._, 100, 105; A. Erman, _Die ägyptische Religion_2 (Berlin,

1909), pp. 35 _sq._; C. P. Tiele, _Geschichte der Religion im

Altertum_, i. 33 _sq._ Thus contrary to the usual mythical

conception the Egyptians regarded the earth as male and the sky as

female. An allusion in the _Book of the Dead_ (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, _Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter_

(Leipsic, 1885-1888), p. 581; E. A. Wallis Budge, _op. cit._ ii. 99

_sq._ Sometimes the Egyptians conceived the sky as a great cow

standing with its legs on the earth. See A. Erman, _Die ägyptische

Religion_,2 pp. 7, 8.

850 Compare _The Dying God_, pp. 105 _sqq._

851 Julian, _Or._ v. pp. 165 B, 170 D (pp. 214, 221, ed. F. C.

Hertlein); Sallustius philosophus, “De diis et mundo,” iv.

_Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum_, ed. F. G. A. Mullach, iii. 33.

852 Drexler, _s.v._ “Men,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und

röm. Mythologie_, ii. 2745; H. Hepding, _Attis_, p. 120, note 8.

853 H. Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, vol. ii. Pars i. pp.

145 _sq._, Nos. 4146-4149; H. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 82, 86 _sq._, 89

_sq._ As to Men Tyrannus, see Drexler, _s.v._ “Men,” in W. H.

Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm. Myth._ ii. 2687 _sqq._

854 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 (_Cities and

Bishoprics of Phrygia_, i. 169); but he denies that Men was a

moon-god (_op. cit._ i. 104, note 4).

M210 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.

855 In letters of Eumenes and Attalus, preserved in inscriptions at

Sivrihissar, the priest at Pessinus is addressed as Attis. See A.

von Domaszewski, “Briefe der Attaliden an den Priester von

Pessinus,” _Archaeologische-epigraphische Mittheilungen aus

Oesterreich-Ungarn_, viii. (1884) pp. 96, 98; Ch. Michel, _Recueil

d’Inscriptions Grecques_, pp. 57 _sq._ No. 45; W. Dittenberger,

_Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae_ (Leipsic, 1903-1905), vol.

i. pp. 482 _sqq._ No. 315. For more evidence of inscriptions see H.

Hepding, _Attis_, p. 79; Rapp, _s.v._ “Attis,” in W. H. Roscher’s

_Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, 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.

856 The conjecture is that of Henzen, in _Annal. d. Inst._ 1856, p. 110,

referred to by Rapp, _l.c._

_ 857 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 75 _sq._; _The Dying

God_, pp. 151 _sq._, 209.

858 Article “Phrygia,” in _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, 9th ed. xviii.

(1885) p. 853. Elsewhere, speaking of the religions of Asia Minor in

general, the same writer says: “The highest priests and priestesses

played the parts of the great gods in the mystic ritual, wore their

dress, and bore their names” (_Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia_, i.

101).

859 Strabo, xii. 5. 3, p. 567.

860 (Sir) W. M. Ramsay, “A Study of Phrygian Art,” _Journal of Hellenic

Studies_, ix. (1888) pp. 379 _sqq._; _id._, “A Study of Phrygian

Art,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, x. (1889) pp. 156 _sqq._; G.

Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, _Histoire de l’Art dans l’Antiquité_, v. 82

_sqq._

861 Herodotus, i. 94. According to Sir W. M. Ramsay, the conquering and

ruling caste in Lydia belonged to the Phrygian stock (_Journal of

Hellenic Studies_, ix. (1888) p. 351).

862 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 _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 225 _sqq._

863 H. Stein on Herodotus, i. 43; Ed. Meyer, _s.v._ “Atys,” in

Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen

Altertumswissenschaft_, ii. 2 col. 2262.

864 See above, pp. 13, 16 _sq._, 48 _sqq._

_ 865 The Dying God_, pp. 161 _sqq._

866 See (Sir) W. M. Ramsay, _s.v._ “Phrygia,” _Encyclopaedia

Britannica_, 9th ed. xviii. 849 _sq._; _id._, “A Study of Phrygian

Art,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, ix. (1888) pp. 350 _sq._ Prof.

P. Kretschmer holds that both Cybele and Attis were gods of the

indigenous Asiatic population, not of the Phrygian invaders

(_Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache_, Göttingen,

1896, pp. 194 _sq._).

M211 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.

867 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 58 _sq._ As to Marsyas in the character of a

shepherd or herdsman see Hyginus, _Fab._ 165; Nonnus, _Dionys._ i.

41 _sqq._ He is called a Silenus by Pausanias (i. 24. 1).

868 Pausanias, x. 30. 9.

869 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, i. 4. 2; Hyginus, _Fab._ 165. Many

ancient writers mention that the tree on which Marsyas suffered

death was a pine. See Apollodorus, _l.c._; Nicander,

_Alexipharmaca_, 301 _sq._, with the Scholiast’s note; Lucian,

_Tragodopodagra_, 314 _sq._; Archias Mitylenaeus, in _Anthologia

Palatina_, vii. 696; Philostratus, Junior, _Imagines_, i. 3; Longus,

_Pastor._ iv. 8; Zenobius, _Cent._ iv. 81; J. Tzetzes, _Chiliades_,

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 (_Nat. Hist._ xvi. 240). On a candelabra in the

Vatican the defeated Marsyas is represented hanging on a pine-tree

(W. Helbig, _Führer_,2 i. 225 _sq._); but the monumental evidence is

not consistent on this point (Jessen, _s.v._ “Marsyas,” in W. H.

Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, 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.

870 Herodotus, vii. 26; Xenophon, _Anabasis_, i. 2. 8; Livy, xxxviii.

13. 6; Quintus Curtius, iii. 1. 1-5; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ v. 106.

Herodotus calls the river the Catarrhactes.

871 Aelian, _Var. Hist_. xiii. 21.

M212 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.

872 Catullus, lxiii. 22; Lucretius, ii. 620; Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 181

_sq._, 341; Polyaenus, _Stratagem._ viii. 53. 4. Flutes or pipes

often appear on her monuments. See H. Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae

Selectae_, Nos. 4100, 4143, 4145, 4152, 4153.

873 Hippolytus, _Refutatio omnium haeresium_, v. 9, p. 168, ed. Duncker

and Schneidewin.

874 Adam of Bremen, _Descriptio insularum Aquilonis_, 27 (Migne’s

_Patrologia Latina_, cxlvi. 643).

875 S. Bugge, _Studien über die Entstehung der nördischen Götter- und

Heldensagen_ (Munich, 1889), pp. 339 _sqq._; K. Simrock, _Die Edda_8

(Stuttgart, 1882), p. 382; K. Müllenhoff, _Deutsche Altertumskunde_

(Berlin, 1870-1900), iv. 244 _sq._; H. M. Chadwick, _The Cult of

Othin_ (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, _Zur

Volkskunde_ (Heilbronn, 1879), pp. 8 _sq._; K. von Amira, in H.

Paul’s _Grundriss der germanischen Philologie_,2 iii. (Strasburg,

1900) pp. 197 _sq._; G. Vigfusson and F. York Powell, _Corpus

Poeticum Boreale_ (Oxford, 1883), i. 410; W. Golther, _Handbuch der

germanischen Mythologie_ (Leipsic, 1895), pp. 548 _sq._; Th.

Mommsen, _Roman History_, bk. i. ch. 12 (vol. i. p. 192, ed. 1868);

_id._, _Römisches Strafrecht_ (Leipsic, 1899), pp. 900 _sqq._; F.

Granger, _The Worship of the Romans_ (London, 1895), pp. 259 _sqq._;

E. Westermarck, _The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, i.

(London, 1906) pp. 439 _sq._ 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, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_ (London, 1887),

pp. 169 _sq._; W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_2 (London,

1832-1836), i. 289; Diodorus Siculus, xx. 65; Strabo, vii. 2. 3, p.

294; Caesar, _De bello Gallico_, vi. 17; Tacitus, _Annals_, i. 61,

xiii. 57; Procopius, De bello Gothico, ii. 15. 24, ii. 25. 9;

Jornandes, _Getica_, vi. 41; J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_4

(Berlin, 1875-1878), i. 36 _sq._; Fr. Schwally, _Semitische

Kriegsaltertümer_ (Leipsic, 1901), pp. 29 _sqq._

_ 876 Havamal_, 139 _sqq._ (K. Simrock, _Die Edda_,8 p. 55; K.

Müllenhoff, _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, v. 270 _sq._).

877 Fay-Cooper Cole, _The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao_

(Chicago, 1913), pp. 114 _sqq._ (_Field Museum of Natural History,

Publication 170_).

M213 The hanging of Artemis. The hanging of Helen. The hanging of animal

victims.

878 Pausanias, viii. 23. 6 _sq._ 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, _Griechische

Mythologie_, i.4 305, note 2; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek

States_ (Oxford, 1896-1909), ii. 428 _sq._; M. P. Nilsson,

_Griechische Feste_ (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 232 _sqq._ The Arcadian

worship of the Hanged Artemis was noticed by Callimachus. See

Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 38, p. 32, ed. Potter.

879 Eustathius on Homer, _Od._ xii. 85, p. 1714; I. Bekker, _Anecdota

Graeca_ (Berlin, 1814-1821), i. 336 _sq._, _s.v._ Ἄγαλμα Ἑκάτης. The

goddess Hecate was sometimes identified with Artemis, though in

origin probably she was quite distinct. See L. R. Farnell, _The

Cults of the Greek States_, ii. 499 _sqq._

880 Antoninus Liberalis, _Transform._ xiii.

881 Pausanias, iii. 19. 9 _sq._

882 H. von Fritze, “Zum griechischen Opferritual,” _Jahrbuch des kaiser.

deutsch. Archäologischen Instituts_, 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, _Sylloge

Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 vol. ii. pp. 166 _sq._ No. 521 (ἤραντο δὲ

καὶ τοῖς μυστηρίοις τοὺς βοῦς ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι τῇ θυσίαι, κτλ.); E. S.

Roberts and E. A. Gardner, _Introduction to Greek Epigraphy_, ii.

(Cambridge, 1905) pp. 176 _sq._, 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, “Zum griechischen Opferritual,”

_Jahrbuch des kaiser. deutsch. Archäologischen Instituts_, 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 (_epheboi_) 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. 206. 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, “Trauer und Begrabnissitten

der Wadschagga,” _Globus_, lxxxix. (1906) p. 200.

883 See above, p. 146.

M214 Use of the skins of human victims to effect their resurrection.

_ 884 The Scapegoat_, pp. 294 _sqq._

885 Herodotus, iv. 71 _sq._

M215 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.

886 Jean du Plan de Carpin, _Historia Mongalorum_, ed. D’Avezac (Paris,

1838), cap. iii. § iii.

_ 887 Voyages d’Ibn Batoutah, texte Arabe accompagné d’une traduction_,

par C. Défrémery et B. R. Sanguinetti (Paris, 1853-1858), iv. 300

_sq._ For more evidence of similar customs, observed by Turanian

peoples, see K. Neumann, _Die Hellenen im Skythenlande_ (Berlin,

1855), pp. 237-239.

888 Captain R. Fitz-roy, _Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His

Majesty’s Ships __“__Adventure__”__ and __“__Beagle__”_ (London,

1839), ii. 155 _sq._

889 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, _De bello

Persico_, 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, _Historia Ecclesiastica_, i.

22; Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, 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, _Great Benin_ (Halifax, 1903), pp.

14 _sq._

890 W. H. Furness, _Home-Life of Borneo Head-Hunters_ (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

_Toh_) reside in or about the heads, and “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.” See Ch. Hose and

W. McDougall, _The Pagan Tribes of Borneo_ (London, 1912), ii. 20,

23.

891 Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_2 (London,

1863), i. 197.

892 Hugh Low, _Sarawak_ (London, 1848), pp. 206 _sq._ In quoting this

passage I have taken the liberty to correct a grammatical slip.

893 Spenser St. John, _op. cit._ i. 204. See further G. A. Wilken, “Iets

over de schedelvereering,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en

Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_, xxxviii. (1889) pp. 89-129;

_id._, _Verspreide Geschriften_ (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, “Het koppensnellen der Toradja’s van

Midden-Celebes, en zijne Beteekenis,” _Verslagen en Mededeelingen

der koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen_, Afdeeling Letterkunde,

Vierde Reeks, iii. 2 (Amsterdam, 1899), pp. 147 _sqq._

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, “Das ‘Koppensnellen’ auf Nias,” _Allgemeine

Missions-Zeitschrift_, 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, “Het eiland

Nias en zijne bewoners,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en

Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_, lxii. (1909) pp. 609-611.

M216 The stuffed skin of the human representative of the Phrygian god may

have been used for like purposes.

_ 894 Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii. 4-7.

_ 895 Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii. 169 _sqq._

M217 Popularity of the worship of Cybele and Attis in the Roman Empire.

896 H. Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, 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, _Attis_,

pp. 85, 86, 93, 94, 95, Inscr. Nos. 21-24, 26, 50, 51, 52, 61, 62,

63. See further, J. Toutain, _Les Cultes Païens dans l’Empire

Romain_ (Paris, 1911), pp. 73 _sqq._, 103 _sqq._

897 S. Dill, _Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire_2

(London, 1899), p. 16.

898 Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vii. 26.

899 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, _Des Associations

Religieuses chez les Grecs_ (Paris, 1873), pp. 85 _sqq._, 196; Ch.

Michel, _Recueil d’Inscriptions Grecques_, p. 772, No. 982.

900 Rapp, _s.v._ “Kybele,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und

röm. Mythologie_, ii. 1656.

901 As to the savage theory of inspiration or possession by a deity see

(Sir) Edward B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_,2 ii. 131 _sqq._ As to

the savage theory of a new birth see _Balder the Beautiful_, ii. 251

_sqq._ As to the use of blood to wash away sins see _The Magic Art

and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 107 _sqq._; _Psyche’s Task_, Second

Edition, pp. 44 _sq._, 47 _sqq._, 116 _sq._ 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, “Zur Religion der Kamerun-Neger,” in

_Mitteilungen der geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, xii. (1893)

pp. 93 _sq._ 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, “Extracts from

diaries kept in Car Nicobar,” in _Journal of the Anthropological

Institute_, 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 (_Geschichte der

Religionen_, Hanover, 1806-1807, ii. 137 _sq._) and of E. Rohde

(_Psyche_,3 Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903, ii. 77 _sq._).

902 A good instance of such an attempt to dress up savagery in the garb

of philosophy is the fifth speech of the emperor Julian, “On the

Mother of the Gods” (pp. 206 _sqq._ ed. F. C. Hertlein, Leipsic,

1875-1876).

M218 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.

903 As to the diffusion of Oriental religions in the Roman Empire see G.

Boissier, _La Religion Romaine d’Auguste aux Antonins_5 (Paris,

1900), i. 349 _sqq._; J. Reville, _La Religion à Rome sous les

Sévères_ (Paris, 1886), pp. 47 _sqq._; S. Dill, _Roman Society in

the Last Century of the Western Empire_2 (London, 1899), pp. 76

_sqq._

904 Compare Servius on Virgil, _Aen._ ii. 604, vi. 661; Origen, _Contra

Celsum_, viii. 73 (Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, xi. 1628); G.

Boissier, _La Religion Romaine d’Auguste aux Antonins_5 (Paris,

1900), i. 357 _sq._; E. Westermarck, _The Origin and Development of

the Moral Ideas_ (London, 1906-1908), i. 345 _sq._; H. H. Milman,

_History of Latin Christianity_,4 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, _History of

European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne_3 (London, 1877), ii.

139 _sqq._

905 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,

_Roman History_, iii. 115 _sq._, 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

(_Greece under the Romans_,2 Edinburgh and London, 1857, pp. 47

_sqq._).

M219 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.

906 See Fr. Cumont, _Textes et Monuments figurés relatifs aux Mystères

de Mithra_ (Brussels, 1896-1899); _id._, _s.v._ “Mithras,” in W. H.

Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 3028 _sqq._

Compare _id._, _Les Religions Orientales dans le Paganisme Romain_2

(Paris, 1909), pp. 207 _sqq._

907 Fr. Cumont, _Textes et Monuments_, i. 333 _sqq._

908 E. Renan, _Marc-Aurèle et la Fin du Monde Antique_ (Paris, 1882),

pp. 576 _sqq._; Fr. Cumont, _Textes et Monuments_, i. 339 _sqq._

909 Tertullian, _De corona_, 15; _id._, _De praescriptione

haereticorum_, 40; Justin Martyr, _Apologia_, i. 66; _id._,

_Dialogus cum Tryphone_, 78 (Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, vi. 429,

660). Tertullian explained in like manner the resemblance of the

fasts of Isis and Cybele to the fasts of Christianity (_De jejunio_,

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, _Apology_, i.

54.

910 J. de Acosta, _Natural and Moral History of the Indies_, translated

by E. Grimston (London, 1880), bk. v. chs. 11, 16, 17, 18, 24-28,

vol. ii. pp. 324 _sq._, 334 _sqq._, 356 _sqq._

911 Compare S. Dill, _Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western

Empire_2 (London, 1899), pp. 80 _sqq._; _id._, _Roman Society from

Nero to Marcus Aurelius_ (London, 1904), pp. 619 _sqq._

912 E. Renan, _Marc-Aurèle et la Fin du Monde Antique_ (Paris, 1882),

pp. 579 _sq._; Fr. Cumont, _Textes et Monuments_, i. 338.

913 Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xviii. 221; Columella, _De re rustica_, ix. 14.

12; L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen

Chronologie_ (Berlin, 1825-1826), ii. 124; G. F. Unger, in Iwan

Müller’s _Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft_, i.1

(Nördlingen, 1886) p. 649.

914 In the calendar of Philocalus the twenty-fifth of December is marked

_N. Invicti_, that is, _Natalis Solis Invicti_. See _Corpus

Inscriptionum Latinarum_, i.2 Pars prior (Berlin, 1893), p. 278,

with Th. Mommsen’s commentary, pp. 338 _sq._

915 Cosmas Hierosolymitanus, _Commentarii in Sancti Gregorii Nazianzeni

Carmina_ (Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, xxxviii. 464): ταύτην

[Christmas] ἧγον ἔκπαλαι δὲ τὴν ἡμέραν ἑορτὴν Ἔλληνες, καθ᾽ ἤν

ἐτελοῦντο κατὰ τὸ μεσονύκτιον, ἐν ἀδύτοις τισὶν ὑπεισερχόμενοι, ὄθεν

ἐξιόντες ἔκραζον: “Ἡ παρθένος ἕτεκεν, αὔξει φῶς.” 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, _Aglaophamus_ (Königsberg, 1829), ii. 1227 note 2. See

Franz Cumont, “Le Natalis Invicti,” _Comptes Rendus de l’Académie

des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1911_ (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 A.D.; for under the 25th December the

calendar has the entry, “Birthday of the Sun, the light waxes”

(Ἡλίου γενέθλιον; αὔξει φῶς). See F. Cumont, _op. cit._ p. 294.

916 Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, i. 18. 10.

917 F. Cumont, _s.v._ “Caelestis,” in Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie

der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_, v. i. 1247 _sqq._ 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, _Apologeticus_, 23; Augustine, _De

civitate Dei_, 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, _Sylloge

Inscriptionum Graecorum_,2 vol. ii. pp. 619 _sq._, No. 764; R. A.

Stewart Macalister, _The Philistines, their History and

Civilization_ (London, 1913), p. 94.

918 Dedications to Mithra the Unconquered Sun (_Soli invicto Mithrae_)

have been found in abundance. See Fr. Cumont, _Textes et Monuments_,

ii. 99 _sqq._ As to the worship of the Unconquered Sun (_Sol

Invictus_) see H. Usener, _Das Weihnachtsfest_2 (Bonn, 1911), pp.

348 _sqq._

919 Fr. Cumont, _op. cit._ i. 325 _sq._, 339.

920 J. Bingham, _The Antiquities of the Christian Church_, bk. xx. ch.

iv. (Bingham’s _Works_, vol. vii. pp. 279 _sqq._, Oxford, 1855); C.

A. Credner, “De natalitiorum Christi origine,” _Zeitschrift für die

historische Theologie_, iii. 2 (1833), pp. 236 _sqq._; Mgr. L.

Duchesne, _Origines du Culte Chrétien_3 (Paris, 1903), pp. 257

_sqq._; Th. Mommsen, in _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, i.2 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

A.D. The words are _VIII. kal. jan._, _natus Christus in Betleem

Judee_ (L. Duchesne, _op. cit._ p. 258).

M220 Motives for the institution of Christmas.

921 Quoted by C. A. Credner, _op. cit._ p. 239, note 46; by Th. Mommsen,

_Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, i.2 Pars prior, pp. 338 _sq._; and

by H. Usener, _Das Weihnachtsfest_2 (Bonn, 1911), pp. 349 _sq._

922 Augustine, _Serm._ cxc. 1 (Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_, xxxviii.

1007).

923 Leo the Great, _Serm._ xxii. (_al._ xxi.) 6 (Migne’s _Patrologia

Latina_, liv. 198). Compare St. Ambrose, _Serm._ vi. 1 (Migne’s

_Patrologia Latina_, xvii. 614).

M221 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.

924 A. Credner, _op. cit._ pp. 236 _sqq._; E. B. Tylor, _Primitive

Culture_,2 ii. 297 _sq._; Fr. Cumont, _Textes et Monuments_, i. 342,

355 _sq._; Th. Mommsen, in _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, i.2

Pars prior, pp. 338 _sq._; H. Usener, _Das Weihnachtsfest_2 (Bonn,

1911), pp. 348 _sqq._ 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 “chosen

arbitrarily, or rather suggested by its coincidence with the

official equinox of spring.” 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, _Origines

du Culte Chrétien_3 (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 (_De Trinitate_, iv. 9, Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_, xlii.

894).

925 See above, pp. 253 _sqq._

926 However, the lament for Adonis is mentioned by Ovid (_Ars Amat._ i.

75 _sq._) along with the Jewish observance of the Sabbath.

927 See above, pp. 268 _sqq._

928 Columella, _De re rustica_, ix. 14. 1; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xviii.

246; Macrobius, _Saturn._ i. 21. 10; L. Ideler, _Handbuch der

mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_, ii. 124.

929 Mgr. L. Duchesne, _Origines du Culte Chrétien_,3 pp. 262 _sq._ That

Christ was crucified on the twenty-fifth of March in the year 29 is

expressly affirmed by Tertullian (_Adversus Judaeos_, 8, vol. ii. p.

719, ed. F. Oehler), Hippolytus (_Commentary on Daniel_, iv. 23,

vol. i. p. 242, ed. Bonwetsch and Achelis), and Augustine (_De

civitate Dei_, xviii. 54; _id._, _De Trinitate_, iv. 9). See also

_Thesaurus Linguae Latinae_, iv. (Leipsic, 1906- 1909) col. 1222,

_s.v._ “Crucimissio”: “_POL. SILV.__ fast. Mart 25 aequinoctium.

principium veris. crucimissio gentilium. Christus passus hoc die._”

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, _Adversus Haeres._ l. 1

(vol. ii. p. 447, ed. G. Dindorf; Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, xli.

884 _sq._). 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, _Historia

Francorum_, viii. 31. 6 (Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_, lxxi. 566); S.

Martinus Dumiensis (bishop of Braga), _De Pascha_, 1 (Migne’s

_Patrologia Latina_, lxxii. 50), who says: “_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._” 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 _Vetustius Occidentalis Ecclesiae Martyrologium_,

ed. Franciscus Maria Florentinus (Lucca, 1667), pp. 396 _sq._, 405

_sq._ On this subject Mgr. Duchesne observes: “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” (_Origines du Culte

Chrétien_,3 p. 262).

930 Mgr. L. Duchesne, _op. cit._ p. 263.

931 Mgr. L. Duchesne, _l.c._ 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, _Historia Ecclesiastica_, vii. 18). At Henen-Su in Egypt

there was celebrated a festival of the “hanging out of the heavens,”

that is, the supposed reconstituting of the heavens each year in the

spring (E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_, ii. 63).

But the Egyptians thought that the creation of the world took place

at the rising of Sirius (Porphyry, _De antro nympharum_, 24;

Solinus, xxxii. 13), which in antiquity fell on the twentieth of

July (L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen

Chronologie_, i. 127 _sqq._).

932 See above, pp. 263, 281 _sqq._

_ 933 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 324 _sqq._

934 Above, pp. 246 _sqq._

_ 935 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 14 _sqq._

936 See below, vol. ii. pp. 81 _sqq._

937 Above, pp. 302 _sqq._

938 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, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen

Chronologie_, i. 154.

M222 Coincidence between the pagan and the Christian festivals of the

divine death and resurrection.

939 Lactantius, _De mortibus persecutorum_, 2; _id._, _Divin. Institut._

iv. 10. 18. As to the evidence of the Gallic usage see S. Martinus

Dumiensis, quoted above, p. 307 note.

M223 Different theories by which pagans and Christians explained the

coincidence.

940 The passage occurs in the 84th of the _Quaestiones Veteris et Novi

Testamenti_ (Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_, 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: “_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._” I

have to thank my learned friend Professor Franz Cumont for pointing

out this passage to me. He had previously indicated and discussed it

(“La Polémique de l’Ambrosiaster contre les Païens,” _Revue

d’Histoire et de Littérature religieuses_, viii. (1903) pp. 419

_sqq._). 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, _Les Religions Orientales dans

le Paganisme Romain_2 (Paris, 1909), pp. 106 _sq._, 333 _sq._

M224 Compromise of Christianity with paganism. Parallel with Buddhism.

941 On the decadence of Buddhism and its gradual assimilation to those

popular Oriental superstitions against which it was at first

directed, see Monier Williams, _Buddhism_2 (London, 1890), pp. 147

_sqq._

942 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.

M225 The Greek Hyacinth interpreted as the vegetation which blooms and

withers away.

943 G. F. Schömann, _Griechische Alterthümer_4 (Berlin, 1897-1902), ii.

473; L. Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_, i.4 (Berlin, 1894) pp.

248 _sq._; Greve, _s.v._ “Hyakinthos,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon

der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, i. 2763 _sq._ Other views of

Hyacinth have been expressed by G. F. Welcker (_Griechische

Götterlehre_, Göttingen, 1857-1862, i. 472), G. F. Unger (“Der

Isthmientag und die Hyakinthien,” _Philologus_, xxxvii. (1877) pp.

20 _sqq._), E. Rohde (_Psyche_,3 i. 137 _sqq._) and S. Wide

(_Lakonische Kulte_, Leipsic, 1893, p. 290).

944 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, i. 3. 3, iii. 10. 3; Nicander, _Ther._

901 _sqq._, with the Scholiast’s note; Lucian, _De saltatione_, 45;

Pausanias, iii. 1. 3, iii. 19. 5; J. Tzetzes, _Chiliades_, i. 241

_sqq._; Ovid, _Metam._ x. 161-219; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxi. 66.

945 Theophrastus, _Histor. Plant._ vi. 8. 1 _sq._ That the hyacinth was

a spring flower is plainly indicated also by Philostratus (_Imag._

i. 23. 1) and Ovid (_Metam._ x. 162-166). See further Greve, _s.v._

“Hyakinthos,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm.

Mythologie_, i. 2764; J. Murr, _Die Pflanzenwelt in der griechischen

Mythologie_ (Innsbruck, 1890), pp. 257 _sqq._; O. Schrader,

_Reallexikon der Indogermanischen Altertumskunde_ (Strasburg, 1901),

pp. 383 _sq._ Miss J. E. Harrison was so kind as to present me with

two specimens of the flower (_Delphinium Ajacis_) 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, _Metam._ xiii. 394 _sqq._; Scholiast on

Theocritus, x. 28; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxi. 66; Eustathius on Homer,

_Iliad_, ii. 557, p. 285).

946 Xenophon, _Hellenica_, iv. 5. 7-17; Pausanias, iii. 10. 1.

M226 The tomb and the festival of Hyacinth at Amyclae.

947 Pausanias, iii. 1. 3, iii. 19. 1-5.

948 Hesychius, _s.v._ Ἑκατομβεύς; G. F. Unger in _Philologus_, xxxvii.

(1877) pp. 13-33; Greve, _s.v._ “Hyakinthos,” in W. H. Roscher’s

_Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, i. 2762; W. Smith,

_Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_,3 i. 339. From Xenophon

(_Hellenica_, iv. 5) we learn that in 390 B.C. 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, _Dorier_,2 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, “De fastis Graecorum antiquioribus,” _Leipziger Studien

für classische Philologie_, vii. (1884) pp. 369 _sq._, 381, 384,

410, 414 _sq._; G. Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2

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.

949 Athenaeus, iv. 17, pp. 139 _sq._ Strabo speaks (vi. 3. 2, p. 278) of

a contest at the Hyacinthian festival. It may have been the chariot

races mentioned by Athenaeus.

950 Hesychius, _s.v._ Πολύβοια.

M227 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.

951 E. Rohde, _Psyche_,3 i. 137 _sqq._

952 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 (_Psyche_,3 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.

953 Pausanias, iii. 19. 14.

954 See above, p. 44; and below, vol. ii. pp. 213 _sqq._