Priapus, this much at any rate may be gathered from them without fear
of contradiction, that affections of the male genitals at the time when
they first became prevalent were taken to be the original cause of the
introduction of Phallic worship,—in connection with the defloration of
virgins mentioned in § 4. This is not without importance as bearing on
the antiquity of the well-known Indian legend of the Lingam-ritual; and
at the same time shows clearly that those affections of the genital
organs must have borne a malignant character that men could not explain
to themselves otherwise than as proceeding from the wrath of a Deity, a
deity who on the other hand alone possessed the power to remove these
ills. Another factor of great importance in connection with affections
of the genitals in Antiquity, and of all the greater importance in as
much as it leads us to the conclusion that resort was had for their
cure not to human but to divine assistance, partly indeed depends on
reasons which we shall discuss more exactly later on. However these
reasons may in part be gathered at once from the following _supremely
important_ poem in the Priapeia[87], to which _de Jurgenew_ first
called attention in his Dissertation, p. 11, but without communicating
it in its entirety:
VOTI SOLUTIO.
Cur pictum memori sit in tabella
Membrum quaeritis unde procreamur?
_Cum penis mihi forte laesus esset,
Chirurgique manum miser timerem,
Diis me legitimis, nimisque magnis_
Ut Phoebo puta, filioque Phoebi
_Curatum dare mentulam verebar_.
Huic dixi, fer opem, Priape, parti,
Cuius tu, pater, ipse par videris:[88]
Qua salva _sine sectione_ facta,
Ponetur tibi picta, quam levaris,
Parque consimilisque concolorque.
Promisit fore: mentulam movit
Pro nutu deus et rogata fecit.
PAYING A VOW.
(Why, you ask, is portrayed on the tablet the member whereby we are
begotten? _When, as it befell, my penis was damaged, and like a
wretched coward I dreaded the Surgeon’s hand, I was afraid to entrust
myself and the cure of my organ to the great official gods, that
were too high for me_, such I mean as Phoebus and Phoebus’ son. “To
the member, I said, do thou, Priapus, give aid,—the member that thou
art fashioned in the likeness of[88]. Then when it has been healed
_without the knife_, a painted image of the part thou has relieved
shall be dedicated to thee,—a match, a perfect match in form and in
hue.” Thus he made his vow; the god nodded his penis in token of
assent, and answered his prayers.)
This poem, whoever its author may have been[89], testifies most
explicitly that the Poet’s genital organs were seriously affected (by
Phimosis and Ulcers?), that he from fear (_timerem_) of the Surgeon’s
knife, from shame (_verebar_) before the regular physician in view of
the part affected and of the way in which he had got the disease, had
recourse to prayer and vow before the image of Priapus, and thereupon
happily recovered without medical assistance!
The veneration of Priapus was pretty well universal in Italy, as the
Roman poets teach us, and equally so the Phallic worship, of which
the frequent representations of the Phallus that we find at Pompeii
bear witness; in fact the latter, as _Knight_ shows, maintained itself
in connection with the veneration of Saints _Cosmus_ and _Damian_
down to the last Century at Isernia. The just quoted Poem from the
Priapeia might perhaps serve to afford us an indication as to how the
Phallus ritual has come to be connected with these Christian Saints;
for probably patients attacked by the Venereal disease prayed to them,
just as the Romans did to Priapus. Possibly examples of such cures by
the saints in question are found in the “Acta Sanctorum Bollandi”.
(Bollandist Lives of the Saints),—under Sept. 27.; but we are not able
to consult the book. These Saints however were not the only ones that
were venerated in the Middle Ages in the same way as the Priapus of the
Ancients. In France unfruitful wives used to pray to St. Guerlichon, in
Normandy to St. Giles, in Anjou to St. René, in connection with whom
they practised rites which _Stephanus_ declares himself ashamed to
specify[90].
Plague of Baal-Peor.
§ 8.
Although the period at which the worship of Priapus was introduced
among the different Peoples cannot be always definitely fixed, and
although Classical Mythology invariably counts him as belonging
to the newer[91] gods, yet he appears in quite early times to have
played a not unimportant part in Syria[92],—if that is to say the
conclusion[93], pretty generally believed on other grounds, is well
founded, that the god Baal Peor was a sort of Priapus, in whose
temple, situated on Mount Peor[94], young Maidens were offered up.
The Rabbis[95] derive the name from פְּעוֹר _aperire_ sc. _hymenem
virgineum_, (to open _sc._ the hymen of a virgin), as if it had sprung
from the Phallus ritual, as still found in Italy. At Goa indeed a man’s
member made of iron or ivory is fastened in the Pagoda, which in the
case of every bride is pushed by the parents and relations into her
vagina, until it brings away with it visibly the bloody traces of the
rupture of the hymen[96]; a proceeding that is connected, as shown in
§ 4., with the belief in the malignity of the menstrual blood, and in
that of blood coming from the ruptured hymen. On the Coromandel Coast
likewise a wooden Priapus is to the present day most ardently venerated
by the inhabitants[97].
Here again we encounter a legend, which is not without importance
for the history of the affections consequent upon the misuse of the
genital organs, to wit the story of the _Plague_ that broke out amongst
the Jews at Shittim in consequence of their having taken part in the
worship of Baal-Peor. _Sickler_[98] was the first who, as a champion of
the antiquity of the Venereal disease, made this the subject of a more
precise examination. However, in order to obtain as clear an insight
into the matter as possible, it will be needful to quote at length the
passages of the Old Testament connected with the subject, according to
the English Revised Version[99]:
Numbers, Ch. 25. verses 1-18: “And Israel
“abode in Shittim, and the people began to
“commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab:
2) “for they called the people unto the sacrifices
“of their gods, and the people did eat, and
3) “bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined
“himself unto Baal-Peor: and the anger of the
4) “Lord was kindled against Israel. And the
“Lord said unto Moses, Take all the chiefs of
“the people, and hang them up unto the Lord
“before the sun, that the fierce anger of the
5) “Lord may turn away from Israel. And Moses
“said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every
“one his men that have jointed themselves unto
6) “Baal-Peor. And, behold one of the children
“of Israel came and brought unto his brethren
“a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses,
“and in the sight of all the congregation of
“the children of Israel, while they were weeping
7) “at the door of the tent of meeting. And
“when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son
“of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from
“the midst of the congregation, and took a
8) “spear in his hand; and he went after the man
“of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of
“them through, the man of Israel, and the
“woman through her belly. So the plague was
9) “stayed from the children of Israel. And those
“that died by the plague were twenty and four
“thousand[100].... Now the name of the
14) “man of Israel that was slain, who was slain
“with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the
“son of Salu, a prince of a fathers’ house among
15) “the Simeonites. And the name of the Midianitish
“woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter
“of Zur; he was head of the people of a fathers’
16) “house in Midian.—And the Lord spake unto
17) “Moses, saying, Vex the Midianites, and smite
18) “them: for they vex you with their wiles, wherewith
“they have beguiled you in the matter of
“Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter
“of the prince of Midian, their sister, which
“was slain on the day of the plague in the
“matter of Peor.”
Numbers, Ch. 31. verses 7-24: “And they
“warred against Midian, as the Lord commanded
9) “Moses; and they slew every male.... And
“the children of Israel took captive the women
“of Midian and their little ones; and all their
14) “cattle, etc.... And Moses was wroth with
15) “the officers of the host, ... and Moses said
“unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
16) “_Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through
“the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against
“the Lord in the matter of Peor, and so the plague
17) “was among the congregation of the Lord._ Now
“therefore kill every male among the little ones,
“and kill _every woman that hath known man by
18) “lying with him_. But all the women children,
“that have _not_ known man by lying with him,
19) “keep alive for yourselves. And encamp ye
“without the camp seven days: whosoever hath
“killed any person, and whosoever hath touched
“any slain, purify yourselves on the third day
“and on the seventh day, ye and your captives.
20) “And as to every garment, and all that is made
“of skin, and all work of goats’ hair, and all
“things made of wood, ye shall purify yourselves.
21) “And Eleazar the priest said unto the
“men of war which went to the battle, This is the
“statute of the law which the Lord hath commanded
22) “Moses: howbeit the gold, and the
23) “silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the
“lead, every thing that may abide the fire, ye
“shall make to go through the fire, and it shall
“be clean; nevertheless it shall be purified with
“the water of separation (impurity): and all that
“abideth not the fire ye shall make to go through
24) “the water. And ye shall wash your clothes
“on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean,
“and afterward ye shall come into the camp.”
Besides these passages in the Books of Moses we find the plague
of Baal-Peor further mentioned in the following places in the Old
Testament:
_Joshua_, Ch. 22. v. 17: “Is the iniquity of
“Peor too little for us, _from which we have not
“cleansed ourselves unto this day_, although there
“came a plague upon the congregation of the
“Lord?”
_Psalm_ 106. verses 28-30.: “They joined
“themselves also unto Baal-Peor, and ate the
29) “sacrifices of the dead (idols). Thus they
“provoked him to anger with their doings; and
30) “the plague brake in upon them. Then stood
“up Phinehas, and executed judgement: and
“so the plague was stayed.”
_Hosea_, Ch. 9. v. 10.: “I found Israel like
“grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers
“as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first
“season; but they came to Baal peor, and
“consecrated themselves unto the shameful thing,
“and became abominable like that which they
“loved.”
§ 9.
We find the Jews on their march towards Canaan already arrived at
the Jordan, from which river Shittim lay at a distance of 60 Stades
or 2½ leagues according to _Josephus_[101], and the neighbouring
Peoples in a state of terror at their near approach and at their
victories. The King of the Moabites, Balak, had sent to the soothsayer
Balaam, that the latter by his arts (his curse) might annihilate the
threatening foe. Balaam however, inspired by the spirit of the Lord,
blessed the sons of Israel instead of cursing them, but gave Balak
counsel how he could in another way bring about the ruin of the Jews.
This counsel is indicated in the passage quoted, Numbers Ch. 31, v.
16, without being explicitly stated; but what it was can indeed be
partially gathered from the context of the whole passage, and was
apparently so understood by the author of the Apocalypse, when he
says:[102] “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast
there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a
stumblingblock before the children of Israel, _to eat things sacrificed
to idols, and to commit fornication_.” Both _Philo_ and _Josephus_, who
perhaps lived only a little later, picture the course of events in full
detail, though, it is true, from unknown authorities.
_Philo_[103] writes as follows:
“Quae prius, inquit (Bileam), dixi oracula sunt omnia et
vaticinationes: de reliquo quae loquar, animi mei coniecturae
erunt.—Age vero praeclara eius monita videamus, quibus artibus
instructa fuerint ad certissimam offensionem eorum, qui semper
vincere poterant. Cum enim intelligeret Hebraeos una tantum ratione
capi posse, violata facinore aliquo lege, per stupri libidinem et
intemperantiam, magna mala, ad maius impietatis scelus inducere
studebat voluptatis esca. Huius enim, aiebat, regionis, o rex, mulieres
specie reliquis longe praestant: viri autem nulla re facilius quam
mulieris forma expugnari possunt. Proinde si formosissimas quaestum
facere prostareque permiseris, iuventutem adversariorum velut hamis
capient. Ita autem doceri eas oportet, ne statim floris sui volentibus
copiam faciant. Nam molestus ille aculeus simulatae recusationis
libidinem acrius excitabit, et amorem accendet, actique libidine
tanquam obtorto collo trahuntur, quidvis et facere et pati in animum
inducent. Amatorem igitur ut quaeque sic affectum nacta erit, quae
ad venationem illam subornantur, ferociter dicat: tibi consuetudine
mea frui nefas est, nisi a patriis institutis desciveris, mutataque
sententia eadem iuxta mecum colere coeperis. Huius defectionis fides
ea demum mihi perspecta fuerit, si libamentorum eorundem et sacrorum
particeps esse volueris, quae simulacris et statuis reliquisque signis
ex ritu facere solemus.—Sic igitur ille tum consulebat: rex ista non
abs re dici ratus, sublata de adulteris lege et abrogatis omnibus
de stupro corruptelaque sanctionibus, proinde quasi nunquam rogatae
essent, liberam facit mulieribus quibuscum vellent consuescendi
potestatem. Illae vero licentia et impunitate data adolescentulorum
multitudinem illiciebant, multo ante eorum animis circumventis et
illecebrarum praestigiis ad impietatem impulsis: usque dum postremo
pontificis filius Phinees, facta ista supra modum indignatus
(teterrimum enim ei videbatur eodem tempore corpora et animos pro
deditiis, illa voluptatibus, hos sceleri et impiae fraudi tradi
iuvenilis audaciae memorabile facinus viroque dignum forti edidit. Nam
quendam sui generis sacris operatum ad scortum ingredi conspicatus,
neque submittentem in terram vultum, neque latere cupientem, neque,
ut assolet, clanculum aditum suffurantem, sed inverecundam fiduciae
intemperantiam prae se ferentem et in flagitio ridiculo velut in re
praeclara magnifice se efferentem, exacerbatus indignitate rei et
iusta repletus ira, cursu irrumpens adhuc in lecto iacentes amatorem
et meretriculam confodit, genitaliaque eis praeterea desecat,
quibus incestum satum patrarant. Istud exemplum aliqui continentiae
et religionis studiosi iussu Mosis imitati, omnibus qui initiati
fuerant simulacris manu factis, propinquis iuxta necessariisque
occidione occisis, scelus gentis expiarunt inexorabili sceleratorum
supplicio,—unoque die viginti quatuor millia hominum caesa sunt, et
una statim sublata est communis labes, qua totus exercitus maculosus
polluebatur.”
(All my words, said he (Balaam), thus far are dark sayings and
prophecies; what I shall speak henceforth will be the counsels of my
own mind.—But come let us look into his excellent advice, in what
artful ways it has been framed for the sure and certain destruction
of our ever-victorious foes. For perceiving that the Hebrews could be
overcome in one fashion only, viz. through their violating the law by
some terrible wrongdoing, he set himself, employing the bait of lust,
to lead them on by way of fornication and incontinence, great offences
in themselves, to the still greater crime of impiety. For this land,
he said, oh! King, far excels all others in the beauty of its women;
and by no other thing may men’s minds be so readily mastered as by a
woman’s fairness. So if thou suffer the fairest amongst them to play
the harlot and offer their beauty for a price, they will catch the
young men of our enemies, so to speak, on their hooks. But they must be
instructed not to surrender the enjoyment of their persons straightway
at the first offer. For the sharp sting of a feigned refusal will, as
thou knowest, excite their longing more keenly than ever, and inflame
their passion, till driven on by lustfulness they are dragged along, as
it were, by a halter round their necks, and there is nothing they will
not consent to do or suffer. Accordingly the lover that each of the
fair women who are set on to this task has won for herself and brought
to this condition, must be bluntly told: It is impossible for thee to
enjoy my love unless thou break with the customs of thy fathers, and
change thy heart, and undertake the observance of the same rites as
we. And this desertion of thy people’s faith will I then only hold as
manifested, when I shall see thee willing to partake in those same
libations and sacrifices that we are wont duly to pay to our idols and
statues and other images.—Now such was the advice Balaam then offered;
and the King deeming that he spake much to the purpose, repealed
the law as to unlawful intercourse, and removed all punishments for
fornication and licentious conduct, and made them as though they had
never been, giving free licence to the women to lie with any man
they pleased. And the latter, permission being granted and impunity
guaranteed, soon ensnared a great number of the young Jewish warriors,
whose minds indeed had long beforehand been entangled and by every
trick and allurement impelled towards impiety.
At the last the high-priest’s son, Phinehas, above measure indignant
at such deeds of shame, and convinced that both souls and bodies were
at one and the same time being enslaved, the one by sensual pleasures,
the other by wickedness and craft and impiety[104], did a deed at once
memorable for youthful daring, and worthy of a hero. For when he saw
a kinsman of his own and one of the priestly order go in to a harlot,
and this without any look of shame fixed on the ground, without any
attempt at concealment, without any stealing up privily and making,
as men are wont in such a case, a surreptitious entrance, but instead
carrying it off with an air of shameless self-confidence and bearing
himself proudly as though his act were one to merit renown and not
ridicule, he was fired by the indignity, and filled with righteous
anger rushes up and bursts in on the lover and his wanton actually
lying on the bed. He pierces them through, and furthermore cuts away
those organs wherewith they were satisfying their unholy passion.
This example was followed, by command of Moses, by other zealous
partisans of purity and religion; and those who had been initiated
into the service of idols died the death at the hands of their family
and kinsfolk, and so the wickedness of the nation was expiated by a
merciless punishment of the wrongdoers;—and in one day four and twenty
thousand men were slain, and thereby was straightway removed the common
stain wherewith the whole host was spotted and polluted).
In much the same way, only still more fully, _Josephus_[105] relates
the circumstance. Licentiousness had laid hold of almost the entire
host, and ancestral institutions were in danger of being abandoned
altogether. Consequently, Josephus says, Moses appointed an assemblage
of the People and in a speech drew attention to the perils that
threatened. Sambrias (Simri) however made a defence, maintaining that
they had long enough obeyed tyrannous laws and would fain live free
henceforth. Hereupon he quitted the assembly, and was assassinated in
his tent by the enraged Phinehas. Josephus (§ 12.) proceeds:
“Iuvenes autem omnes, qui virtutis aliquid sibi vindicarent et
honestatis studio tenerentur, Phineesis fortitudinis exemplo accensi,
eiusdem cum Zambria criminis reos interfecerunt. Multi itaque
illorum, qui leges patrias violarant, horum egregia virtute perempti
sunt. Peste autem reliqui omnes perierunt, deo hunc illis morbum
immittente. Et quotquot e cognatis, qui cum prohibere debuerint, eos
ad haec impulerant, a deo pro sceleris sociis habiti, pariter sublati
erant.”[106]
(But all the younger men who laid any claim to manly virtue and tried
to live honorably, fired by the example of Phinehas’ bold deed, slew
all that were guilty of the same crime as Sambrias. And so by their
singular courage and patriotism numbers of the men who had broken
their ancestral laws were destroyed. But all that survived perished
by a plague, that God sent upon them. Moreover such of their kinsfolk
as ought to have hindered them, but instead had urged them to these
courses, these God deemed accomplices in the wickedness, and they also
were cut off.) Philo and Josephus are not indeed to be regarded as
authentic eye-witnesses of what they record; still the passages quoted
from them prove this much, that in their time the opinions they express
were generally held.
The Jews were thus led astray by the daughters of the Moabites, and
both practised fornication with them and made sacrifice in their
temples to the god of the country, whose priestesses, as Balaam
declared, were conspicuous above other women for their beauty. The
_consequence_ of these excesses was an infectious disease, (according
to _Josephus_ it communicated itself, but, he says, only to kinsmen!),
which cost many[107] their lives. The number however fell far short
of 24000, for these perished mainly by the sword of their brethren,
as _Philo_ and _Josephus_ expressly remark, and the author of the
Pentateuch intimates, when he says (Numbers Ch. 26. v. 5.), “And
Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that
have joined themselves unto Baal-Peor.” The narrator declares that
by this slaughter the plague was stayed for the sons of Israel; but
it certainly cannot have ceased altogether, as is manifest from the
passages quoted from Joshua, where Phinehas asserts: that to that day
the people was not yet cleansed from the misdoing of Peor.
The disease therefore cannot have been merely some passing disorder. It
must evidently have been somewhat widely disseminated by the Moabitish
women, and have been of very common occurrence among them; and that
it was readily infectious follows from the whole course of Moses’
proceedings. The latter was angry because the woman had been suffered
to live, and commanded to put to death all of them that had known men
in carnal intercourse, but to keep alive the young virgins,—and their
number was, according to Ch. 31. v. 35., thirty-two thousand!—who
were brought into the camp as prisoners and there divided amongst
their captors. So we see the executions took place not in order that
opportunity for intercourse with the heathen women,—a thing which
might very well on its own account have been an abomination to the
Lord,—might be altogether removed, (for how in that case account
for the maidens being saved alive, brought into camp, and divided
as booty?)[108] but that by this means the risk of the further
dissemination of the disease might be for ever prevented.
The imminence of this risk in Moses’ opinion is shown finally by the
purification of the host which he had despatched for the massacre
of the Moabites and their women. He made it, prisoners and all the
spoil included, halt for a period of seven days outside the camp, and
twice over submit to a thorough purification. The Jews had slain many
thousands of men in their previous wars, nay! just before they marched
against the Moabites, they had actually slaughtered 24000 of their own
youth; yet they had never been ordered to leave the camp for seven
days, and twice over during this time to purify themselves and all
their possessions. Only after the annihilation of the Moabitish women
(not of the Moabite men), from the accomplishment of which they had
just returned, had this happened. All this points to some most cogent
reason. Here comes into operation the same law which was enforced on
occasion of purification after Leprosy and after foul discharge: and
indeed also after contact with a dead person,—even where they had
first caused the death of the said person! Thus no one can very well
dispute the view taken by _Philo_,[109] when he says with regard to the
purification after the annihilation of the Moabites:—
“Nam ut legitima hostium caedes sit, attamen qui hominem interfecit
quamquam iure, quamquam vim propulsans, quamquam coactus, non insons
esse videtur nec extra noxiam, propter summam illam et communem hominum
inter ipsos cognationem. Quo nomine piacula suscipienda fuerunt
interfectoribus ad luendum scelus, quod conceptum censebatur.”