The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2)

985

Op. cit. 27, § 1.

986

Isis et Osiris, 21, αινῶ δὲ τομὴν ξύλου καὶ σχίσιν λίνου καὶ χοὰς χεομένας. διὰ τὸ πολλὰ τῶν μυστικῶν ἀναμεμῖχθαι τούτοις. Again, c. 42, τὸ δὲ ξύλον ἐν ταῖς λεγομέναις; Ὀσίριδος ταφαῖς τέμνοντες κατασκευάζουσι λάρνακα μηνοειδὴ.

987

See above, p. 304.

988

Lefébure, Le mythe Osirien, pp. 194, 198, referring to Mariette, Denderah, iv. 66 and 72.

989

Lefébure, op. cit. pp. 195, 197.

990

Birch, in Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (London, 1878), iii. 84.

991

Wilkinson, op. cit. iii. 63 sq.; Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Alterthums, i. §§ 56, 60.

992

Wilkinson, op. cit. iii. 349 sq.; Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter, p. 621; Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 20. In Plutarch l. c. Parthey proposes to read μυρίκης for μηθίδης, and this conjecture appears to be accepted by Wilkinson, l. c.

993

Lefébure, Le mythe Osirien, p. 191.

994

Lefébure, op. cit. p. 188.

995

Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 35. One of the points in which the myths of Isis and Demeter agree, is that both goddesses in their search for the loved and lost one are said to have sat down, sad at heart and weary, on the edge of a well. Hence those who had been initiated at Eleusis were forbidden to sit on a well. Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 15; Homer, Hymn to Demeter, 98 sq.; Pausanias, i. 39, 1; Apollodorus, i. 5, 1; Nicander, Theriaca, 486; Clemens Alex., Protrept. ii. 20.

996

Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter, p. 645.

997

C. P. Tiele, History of Egyptian Religion, p. 57.

998

Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 111.

999

Diodorus, i. 14. Eusebius (Praeparat. Evang. iii. 3) quotes from Diodorus (i. 11-13) a long passage on the early religion of Egypt, prefacing the quotation (c. 2) with the remark γράφει δὲ καὶ τὰ περὶ τούτων πλατύτερον μὲν ὁ Μανέθως, ἐπετετμημένως δὲ ὁ Διόδωρος, which seems to imply that Diodorus epitomised Manetho.

1000

Brugsch, op. cit. p. 647.

1001

Brugsch, op. cit. p. 649.

1002

Brugsch,l. c.

1003

Herodotus, ii. 59, 156; Diodorus, i. 13, 25, 96; Apollodorus, ii. 1, 3; Tzetzes, Schol. in Lycophron. 212.

1004

Antholog. Planud. 264, 1.

1005

Orphica, ed. Abel, p. 295 sqq.

1006

Jablonski, Pantheon Aegyptiorum (Frankfurt, 1750), i. 125 sq.

1007

i. 11.

1008

See p. 310, note.

1009

See the Saturnalia, bk. i.

1010

Saturn. i. 21, 11.

1011

Maspero, Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient4 (Paris, 1886), p. 35.

1012

Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (London, 1878), iii. 353.

1013

Isis et Osiris, 52.

1014

De errore profan. religionum, 8.

1015

Lepsius, “Ueber den ersten aegyptischen Götterkreis und seine geschichtlich-mythologische Entstehung,” in Abhandlungen der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1851, p. 194 sq.

1016

The view here taken of the history of Egyptian religion is based on the sketch in Erman's Aegypten und aegyptisches Leben im Altertum, p. 351 sqq.

1017

On this attempted revolution in religion see Lepsius in Verhandl. d. königl. Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1851, pp. 196-201; Erman, op. cit. p. 355 sqq.

1018

Tiele, History of the Egyptian Religion, p. 44.

1019

Tiele, op. cit. p. 46.

1020

Ib. p. 45.

1021

Le Page Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 111 sqq.

1022

Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 113. Cp. Maspero, Histoire ancienne,4 p. 35; Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Alterthums, i. §§ 55, 57.

1023

There are far more plausible grounds for identifying Osiris with the moon than with the sun – 1. He was said to have lived or reigned twenty-eight years; Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, cc. 13, 42. This might be taken as a mythical expression for a lunar month. 2. His body was rent into fourteen pieces (ib. cc. 18, 42). This might be interpreted of the moon on the wane, losing a piece of itself on each of the fourteen days which make up the second half of a lunation. It is expressly mentioned that Typhon found the body of Osiris at the full moon (ib. 8); thus the dismemberment of the god would begin with the waning of the moon. 3. In a hymn supposed to be addressed by Isis to Osiris, it is said that Thoth

“Placeth thy soul in the bark Ma-at,In that name which is thine, of God Moon.”

And again,

“Thou who comest to us as a child each month,We do not cease to contemplate thee,Thine emanation heightens the brilliancyOf the stars of Orion in the firmament,” etc.

Records of the Past, i. 121 sq.; Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter, p. 629 sq. Here then Osiris is identified with the moon in set terms. If in the same hymn he is said to “illuminate us like Ra” (the sun), this, as we have already seen, is no reason for identifying him with the sun, but quite the contrary. 4. At the new moon of the month Phanemoth, being the beginning of spring, the Egyptians celebrated what they called “the entry of Osiris into the moon.” Plutarch, Is. et Os. 43. 5. The bull Apis, which was regarded as an image of the soul of Osiris (Is. et Os. cc. 20, 29), was born of a cow which was believed to have been impregnated by the moon (ib. 43). 6. Once a year, at the full moon, pigs were sacrificed simultaneously to the moon and Osiris. Herodotus, ii. 47; Plutarch, Is. et Os. 8. The relation of the pig to Osiris will be examined later on.

Without attempting to explain in detail why a god of vegetation, as I take Osiris to have been, should have been brought into such close connection with the moon, I may refer to the intimate relation which is vulgarly believed to subsist between the growth of vegetation and the phases of the moon. See e. g. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 221, xvi. 190, xvii. 108, 215, xviii. 200, 228, 308, 314; Plutarch, Quaest. Conviv. iii. 10, 3; Aulus Gellius, xx. 8, 7; Macrobius, Saturn. vii. 16, 29 sq. Many examples are furnished by the ancient writers on agriculture, e. g. Cato, 37, 4; Varro, i. 37; Geoponica, i. 6.

1024

Herodotus, ii. 42, 49, 59, 144, 156; Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 13, 35; id., Quaest. Conviv. iv. 5, 3; Diodorus, i. 13, 25, 96, iv. 1; Orphica, Hymn 42; Eusebius, Praepar. Evang. iii. 11, 31; Servius on Virgil, Aen. xi. 287; id., on Georg. i. 166; Hippolytus, Refut. omn. haeres. v. 9, p. 168; Socrates, Eccles. Hist. iii. 23, p. 204; Tzetzes, Schol. in Lycophron, 212; Διηγήματα, xxii. 2, in Mythographi Graeci, ed. Westermann, p. 368; Nonnus, Dionys. iv. 269 sq.; Cornutus, De natura deorum, c. 28; Clemens Alexandr. Protrept. ii. 19; Firmicus Maternus, De errore profan. relig. 7.

1025

Lucian, De dea Syria, 7.

1026

Herodotus, ii. 49.

1027

Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 35.

1028

Osiris, Attis, Adonis, and Dionysus were all explained by him as the sun; but he stopped short at Demeter (Ceres), whom, however, he interpreted as the moon. See the Saturnalia, bk. i.

1029

On Dionysus in general see Preller, Griechische Mythologie,3 i. 544 sqq.; Fr. Lenormant, article “Bacchus” in Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines, i. 591 sqq.; Voigt and Thraemer's article “Dionysus,” in Roscher's Ausführliches Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, i. c. 1029 sqq.

1030

Plutarch, Quaest. Conviv. v. 3, Διονύσῳ δὲ δενδρίτῃ πάντες, ὡς ἔθος εἰπεῖν, Ἕλληνες θύουσιν.

1031

Hesychius, s. v. Ἔνδενδρος.

1032

See the pictures of his images, taken from ancient vases, in Bötticher, Baumkultus der Hellenen, plates 42, 43, 43a, 43b, 44; Daremberg et Saglio, op. cit. i. 361, 626.

1033

Daremberg et Saglio, op. cit. i. 626.

1034

Cornutus, De natura deorum, 30.

1035

Pindar, quoted by Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 35.

1036

Maximus Tyrius, Dissertat. viii. 1.

1037

Athenaeus, iii. pp. 78 c, 82 d.

1038

Himerius, Orat. i. 10, Διόνυσος γεωργεῖ.

1039

Orphica, Hymn l. 4, liii. 8.

1040

Aelian, Var. Hist. iii. 41; Hesychius, s. v. Φλέω[ς]. Cp. Plutarch, Quaest. Conviv. v. 8, 3.

1041

Pausanias, i. 31, 4; id. vii. 21, 6 (2).

1042

Plutarch, Quaest. Conviv. v. 3.

1043

Pausanias, ii. 2, 6 (5) sq. Pausanias does not mention the kind of tree; but from Euripides, Bacchae, 1064 sqq., and Philostratus, Imag. i. 17 (18), we may infer that it was a pine; though Theocritus (xxvi. 11) speaks of it as a mastich-tree.

1044

Müller-Wieseler, Denkmäler der alten Kunst, ii. pl. xxxii. sqq.; Baumeister, Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums, i. figures 489, 491, 492, 495. Cp. Lenormant in Daremberg et Saglio, i. 623; Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 700.

1045

Pausanias, i. 31, 6 (3).

1046

Athenaeus, iii. p. 78 c.

1047

Firmicus Maternus, De errore profanarum religionum, 6.

1048

Clemens Alexandr., Protrept. ii. 17. Cp. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 1111 sqq.

1049

Clemens Alexandr., Protrept. ii. 19.

1050

Clemens Alexandr., Protrept. ii. 18; Proclus on Plato's Timaeus, iii. 200 D, quoted by Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 562, and by Abel, Orphica, p. 234. Others said that the mangled body was pieced together, not by Apollo but by Rhea. Cornutus, De natura deorum, 30.

1051

Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 572 sqq. For a conjectural restoration of the temple, based on ancient authorities and an examination of the scanty remains, see an article by Professor J. H. Middleton, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. ix. p. 282 sqq.

1052

Diodorus, iii. 62.

1053

Macrobius, Comment. in Somn. Scip. i. 12, 12; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini tres Romae nuper reperti (commonly referred to as Mythographi Vaticani), ed. G. H. Bode (Cellis, 1834), iii. 12, 5, p. 246; Origen, c. Cels. iv. 171, quoted by Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 713.

1054

Himerius, Orat. ix. 4.

1055

Proclus, Hymn to Minerva, in Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 561; Orphica, ed. Abel, p. 235.

1056

Hyginus, Fab. 167.

1057

The festivals of Dionysus were biennial in many places. See Schömann, Griechische Alterthümer,3 ii. 500 sqq. (The terms for the festival were τριετηρίς, τριετηρικός both terms of the series being included in the numeration, in accordance with the ancient mode of reckoning.) Probably the festivals were formerly annual and the period was afterwards lengthened, as has happened with other festivals. See W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 172, 175; 491, 533 sq., 598. Some of the festivals of Dionysus, however, were annual.

1058

Firmicus Maternus, De err. prof. relig. 6.

1059

Mythogr. Vatic. ed. Bode, l. c.

1060

Plutarch, Consol. ad uxor. 10. Cp. id., Isis et Osiris, 35; id., De ei Delphico, 9; id., De esu carnium, i. 7.

1061

Pausanias, ii. 31, 2, and 37, 5; Apollodorus, iii. 5, 3.

1062

Pausanias, ii. 37, 5 sq.; Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 35; id., Quaest. Conviv. iv. 6, 2.

1063

Himerius, Orat. iii. 6, xiv. 7.

1064

For Dionysus, see Lenormant in Daremberg et Saglio, i. 632. For Osiris, see Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (London, 1878), iii. 65.

1065

Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 35; id., Quaest. Graec. 36; Athenaeus, xi. 476 a; Clemens Alexandr., Protrept. ii. 16; Orphica, Hymn xxx. vv. 3, 4, xlv. 1, lii. 2, liii. 8; Euripides, Bacchae, 99; Schol. on Aristophanes, Frogs, 357; Nicander, Alexipharmaca, 31; Lucian, Bacchus, 2.

1066

Euripides, Bacchae, 920 sqq., 1017.

1067

Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 35; Athenaeus, l. c.

1068

Diodorus, iii. 64, 2, iv. 4, 2; Cornutus, De natura deorum, 30.

1069

Diodorus, l. c.; Tzetzes, Schol. in Lycophr. 209; Philostratus, Imagines, i. 14 (15).

1070

Müller-Wieseler, Denkmäler der alten Kunst, ii. pl. xxxiii.; Daremberg et Saglio, i. 619 sq., 631; Roscher, Ausführl. Lexikon, i. c. 1149 sqq.

1071

Welcker, Alte Denkmäler, v. taf. 2.

1072

Plutarch, Quaest. Graec. 36; id., Isis et Osiris, 35.

1073

Nonnus, Dionys. vi. 205.

1074

Firmicus Maternus, De errore profan. religionum, 6.

1075

Euripides, Bacchae, 735 sqq.; Schol. on Aristophanes, Frogs, 357.

1076

Hesychius, s. v. Ἔριφος ὁ Διόνυσος, on which there is a marginal gloss ὁ μικρὸς αἴξ, ὁ ἐν τῷ ἔαρι φαινόμενος, ἤγουν ὁ πρώϊμος; Stephanus Byzant. s. v. Ἀκρώρεια. The title Εἰραφιώτης is probably to be explained in the same way. [Homer], Hymn xxxiv. 2; Porphyry, De abstin. iii. 17; Dionysius, Perieg. 576; Etymolog. Magnum, p. 371, 57.

1077

Apollodorus, iii. 4, 3.

1078

Ovid, Metam. v. 329; Antoninus Liberalis, 28; Mythogr. Vatic. ed. Bode, i. 86, p. 29.

1079

Arnobius, Adv. nationes, v. 19. Cp. Suidas, s. v. αἰγίζειν. As fawns appear to have been also torn in pieces at the rites of Dionysus (Photius, s. v. νεβρίζειν; Harpocration, s. v. νεβρίζων), it is probable that the fawn was another of the god's embodiments. But of this there seems no direct evidence. Fawn-skins were worn both by the god and his worshippers (Cornutus, De natura deorum, c. 30). Similarly the female Bacchanals wore goat-skins (Hesychius, s. v. τραγηφόροι).

1080

Varro, De re rustica i. 2, 19; Virgil, Georg. ii. 380, and Servius, ad I., and on Aen. iii. 118; Ovid, Fasti, i. 353 sqq.; id., Metam. xv. 114 sq.; Cornutus, De natura deorum, 30.

1081

Euripides, Bacchae, 138 sq. ἀγρεύων αἷμα τραγοκτόνον, ὡμοφάγον χάριν.

1082

Schol. on Aristophanes, Frogs, 357.

1083

Hera αἱγοφάγος at Sparta, Pausanias, iii. 15, 9 (cp. the representation of Hera clad in a goat's skin, with the animal's head and horns over her head, Müller-Wieseler, Denkmäler der alten Kunst, i. No. 299 b); Apollo ὁψοφάγος at Elis, Athenaeus, 346 b; Artemis καπροφάγος in Samos, Hesychius, s. v. καπροφάγος; cp. id., s. v. κριοφάγος. Divine titles derived from killing animals are probably to be similarly explained, as Dionysus αἱγόβολος, Pausanias ix. 8, 2; Rhea or Hecate κυνοσφαγής, Tzetzes, Schol. in Lycophr. 77; Apollo λυκοκτόνος, Sophocles, Electra, 6; Apollo σαυροκτόνος, Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxiv. 70.

1084

Porphyry, De abstin. ii. 55.

1085

Pausanias, ix. 8, 2.

1086

Plutarch, Quaest. Graec. 38.

1087

Aelian, Nat. An. xii. 34. Cp. W. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, i. 286 sqq.

1088

It is to be remembered that on the Mediterranean coasts the harvest never falls so late as autumn.

1089

On Demeter as a corn-goddess see Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, p. 224 sqq.; on Proserpine in the same character see Cornutus, De nat. deor. c. 28; Varro in Augustine, Civ. Dei, vii. 20; Hesychius, s. v. Φερσεφόνεια; Firmicus Maternus, De errore prof. relig. 17. In his careful account of Demeter as a corn-goddess Mannhardt appears to have overlooked the very important statement of Hippolytus (Refut. omn. haeres. v. 8, p. 162, ed. Duncker and Schneidewin) that at the initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries (the most famous of all the rites of Demeter) the central mystery revealed to the initiated was a reaped ear of corn.

1090

Welcker, Griechische Götterlehre, ii. 532; Preller, in Pauly's Real-Encyclopädie für class. Alterthumswiss. vi. 107; Lenormant, in Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines, i. pt. ii. 1047 sqq.

1091

Homer, Hymn to Demeter; Apollodorus, i. 5; Ovid, Fasti, iv. 425 sqq.; id., Metam. v. 385 sqq.

1092

A third, according to Homer, H. to Demeter, 399, and Apollodorus, i. 5, 3; a half, according to Ovid, Fasti, iv. 614; id., Metam. v. 567; Hyginus, Fab. 146.

1093

Schömann, Griech. Alterthümer,3 ii. 393; Preller, Griech. Mythologie,3 i. 628 sq., 644 sq., 650 sq. The evidence of the ancients on this head, though not full and definite, seems sufficient. See Diodorus, v. 4; Firmicus Maternus, cc. 7, 27; Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 69; Apuleius, Met. vi. 2; Clemens Alex., Protrept. ii. §§ 12, 17.

1094

Mythol. Forschungen, p. 292 sqq.

1095

Etymol. Magnum, p. 264, 12 sq.

1096

O. Schrader, Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte2 (Jena, 1890), pp. 409, 422; V. Hehn, Kulturpflanzen und Hausthiere in ihrem Uebergang aus Asien,4 p. 54. Δηαί is doubtless equivalent etymologically to ζειαί, which is often taken to be spelt, but this seems uncertain.

1097

Hesiod, Theog. 971; Lenormant, in Daremberg et Saglio, i. pt. ii. p. 1029.

1098

W. Mannhardt, Mythol. Forsch. p. 296.

1099

Ib. p. 297.

1100

Ib. p. 297 sq.

1101

Ib. p. 299.

1102

Ib. p. 300.

1103

Ib. p. 310.

1104

W. Mannhardt, Mythol. Forsch. p. 310 sq.

1105

Ib. p. 316.

1106

Ib. p. 316.

1107

Ib. p. 316 sq.

1108

See above, pp. 16 sq., 286 sq.

1109

W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 317.

1110

Ib. p. 317 sq.

1111

Ib. p. 318.

1112

W. Mannhardt, Mythol. Forsch. p. 318.

1113

Ib. p. 318 sq.

1114

Sébillot, Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne, p. 306.

1115

W. Mannhardt, M. F. p. 319.

1116

Ib. p. 320.

1117

Mannhardt, Mythol. Forsch. p. 321.

1118

Ib. pp. 321, 323, 325 sq.

1119

Ib. p. 323; Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, ii. p. 219, No. 403.

1120

W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 325.

1121

Ib. p. 323.

1122

Ib.

1123

Ib. p. 323 sq.

1124

W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 324.

1125

Ib. p. 320.

1126

Ib. p. 325.

1127

See abbove, p. 83 sqq.

1128

W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 324.

1129

Ib. p. 324 sq.

1130

Ib. p. 325.

1131

W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 327.

1132

Ib. p. 328.

1133

Jamieson, Dictionary of the Scottish Language, s. v. “Maiden”; W. Mannhardt, Mythol. Forschungen, p. 326.

1134

Communicated by my friend Prof. W. Ridgeway, of Queen's College, Cork.

1135

W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 328.

1136

Ib.

1137

Ib. p. 328 sq.

1138

Ib. p. 329.

1139

Ib. p. 330.

1140

W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 330.

1141

Ib. p. 331.

1142

Ib. p. 331.

1143

Ib. p. 332.

1144

Hutchinson, History of Northumberland, ii. ad finem, 17, quoted by Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 20, Bohn's ed.

1145

Quoted by Brand, op. cit. ii. 22.