As an authority in the field of Greek antiquities, as well as a scholar
of wide learning in various other fields, Professor Mahaffy, of Dublin
University, stands in high repute. Among his many published works, in
proof of this, are his “Twelve Lectures on Primitive Civilization,”
“Prolegomena to Ancient History,” “Social Life in Greece from Homer to
Menander,” “Greek Antiquities,” “Rambles and Studies in Greece,” “Greek
Life and Thought from Alexander to the Roman Conquest,” “The Greek World
under Roman Sway,” and “The Empire of the Ptolemies.” Returning the
proof-sheets of “The Threshold Covenant” to the author, he says
generously: “Your learning is to me quite astonishing, and I could not
venture to criticise you except in a passing way, as I read your proofs
hastily. But you will find [on them] rough notes in pencil, only to show
what I thought at the moment.”
In comment on the custom, in many lands, of carrying out the dead from a
house or a city through a special door or gate, instead of over the
threshold at the principal entrance,[717] he says: “At present, in the
farmhouses about Hoorn, in Holland, there is a state door opened only
for marriages and funerals. The family use a side or back door
only.”[718] Again, “the ἱερὰ πύλη (_hiera pule_, ‘sacred gate’) at
Athens seems to have been an accursed gate, through which criminals only
were led out.”
In confirmation of the claim that human life, or blood, was deemed
essential in the foundation, or the threshold laying of a city,[719]
Professor Mahaffy says: “Great Hellenistic cities, as, for instance,
Antioch, had a girl sacrificed at their foundation. It was she,
apparently, that afterwards appeared as the personification of the city,
ἡ τύχη [_hē tuchē_, ‘the fortune,’] as it was called.”
“The ‘red hand of the O’Neills’ is a famous coat-of-arms well known in
Ireland. Lord O’Neill now bears it.”
As to my assumption that the first hearthstone must have been, in the
nature of things, at the threshold of the cave or tent or hut, as it
still is among primitive peoples, and that the first stone laid at the
corner, or at the doorway, of a house or building, was, by the very fact
of its first laying, the threshold of that structure, Professor Mahaffy
says: “I don’t believe in the identification of (1) foundation stone,
(2) threshold, (3) house corner, (4) hearthstone, without clear proof.”
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Footnote 717:
See pp. 23–25, _supra_.
Footnote 718:
This was so in parts of New England, fifty years ago. I have seen the
main hall or front “entry” of a farmhouse in Connecticut used as a
bedroom, with a high-post state bedstead against the front door. In
case of a funeral or wedding the bedstead would be removed, in order
that the door might be opened.–H.C.T.
Footnote 719:
See pp. 45–57, _supra_.
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