The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 09 of 12)

Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 68.

879

F. C. Movers, Die Phoenizier, i. (Bonn, 1841) p. 496.

880

This suggestion was made by F. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde (Heilbronn, 1879), p. 9. It occurred to me independently.

881

Lucian, De dea Syria, 49.

882

Codex Theodosianus, Lib. xvi. Tit. viii. § 18: “Judaeos quodam festivitatis suae solleni Aman ad poenae quondam recordationem incendere, et sanctae crucis adsimulatam speciem in contemptu Christianae fidei sacrilega mente exurere provinciarum rectores prohibeant: ne locis suis fidei nostrae signum immisceant, sed ritus suos infra contemptum Christianae legis retineant: amissuri sine dubio permissa hactenus, nisi ab inlicitis temperaverint.” The decree is dated at Constantinople, in the consulship of Bassus and Philip. For locis we should probably read jocis with Mommsen.

883

Fr. Cumont, “Une formule grecque de renonciation au judaïsme,” Wiener Studien, xxiv. (1902) p. 468. The “Christian fast” referred to in the formula is no doubt Lent. The mention of the Jewish Sabbath (the Christian Saturday) raises a difficulty, which has been pointed out by the editor, Franz Cumont, in a note (p. 470): “The festival of Purim was celebrated on the 14th of Adar, that is, in February or March, about the beginning of the Christian Lent; but that festival, the date of which is fixed in the Jewish calendar, does not always fall on a Saturday. Either the author made a mistake or the civil authority obliged the Jews to transfer their rejoicings to a Sabbath” (Saturday).

884

Israel Abrahams, The Book of Delight and other Papers (Philadelphia, 1912), pp. 266 sq. Mr. Abrahams ingeniously suggests (op. cit. pp. 267 sq.) that the ring waved over the fire was an emblem of the sun, and that the kindling of the Purim fires was originally a ceremony of imitative magic to ensure a supply of solar light and heat.

885

Albîrûnî, The Chronology of Ancient Nations, translated and edited by Dr. C. Edward Sachau (London, 1879), pp. 273 sq.

886

Quoted by Lagarde, “Purim,” p. 13 (Abhandlungen der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, xxxiv. 1887).

887

M. Güdemann, Geschichte des Erziehungswesens und der Cultur der abendländischen Juden (Vienna, 1880-1888), ii. 211 sq.; I. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (London, 1896), pp. 260 sq.

888

J. J. Schudt, Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1714), ii. Theil, p. 309.

889

Socrates, Historia Ecclesiastica, vii. 16; Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. J. Classen (Bonn, 1839-1841), vol. i. p. 129. Theophanes places the event in the year 408 a. d. From a note in Migne's edition of Socrates, I learn that in the Alexandrian calendar, which Theophanes used, the year 408 corresponded to the year which in our reckoning began on the first of September 415. Hence if the murder was perpetrated in spring at Purim it must have taken place in 416.

890

This is the view of H. Graetz (Geschichte der Juden,

iv. Leipsic, 1866, pp. 393 sq.) and Dr. M. R. James (Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich (Cambridge, 1896), by A. Jessopp and M. R. James, pp. lxiii. sq.).

891

For an examination of some of these reported murders, see M. R. James, op. cit. pp. lxii. sqq.; H. L. Strack, Das Blut im Glauben und Aberglauben der Menschheit (Munich, 1900), pp. 121 sqq. Both writers incline to dismiss the charges as groundless.

892

Above, pp. 353 (#x_25_i17)sq.

893

J. Buxtorf, Synagoga Judaica (Bâle, 1661), cap. xxix. p. 554; J. Chr. G. Bodenschatz, Kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen Juden (Erlangen, 1748), ii. 253 sq.

894

Esther iv. 3 and 16, ix. 31.

895

So far as I know, Professor Jensen has not yet published his theory, but he has stated it in letters to correspondents. See W. Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebräischen Archäologie (Freiburg i. Baden and Leipsic, 1894), ii. 200; H. Günkel, Schöpfung und Chaos (Göttingen, 1895), pp. 311 sqq.; D. G. Wildeboer, in his commentary on Esther, pp. 174 sq. (Kurzer Hand-Commentar zum Alten Testament, herausgegeben von D. K. Marti, Lieferung 6, Freiburg i. B., 1898). In the Babylonian calendar the 13th of Adar was so far a fast day that on it no fish or fowl might be eaten. In one tablet the 13th of Adar is marked “not good,” while the 14th and 15th are marked “good.” See C. H. W. Johns, s. v. “Purim,” Encyclopaedia Biblica, iii. (London, 1902) col. 3980.

896

M. Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, U.S.A., 1898), pp. 471 sq., 475 sq., 481-486, 510-512; L. W. King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology (London, 1899), pp. 146 sqq.; P. Jensen, Assyrisch-Babylonische Mythen und Epen (Berlin, 1900), pp. 116-273; R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Literature (New York, 1901), pp. 324-368; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament

(Berlin, 1902), pp. 566-582; Das Gilgamesch-Epos, neu übersetzt von Arthur Ungnad und gemeinverständlich erklärt von Hugo Gressmann (Göttingen, 1911). Professor Jastrow points out that though a relation cannot be traced between each of the tablets of the poem and the corresponding month of the year, such a relation appears undoubtedly to exist between some of the tablets and the months. Thus, for example, the sixth tablet describes the affection of Ishtar for Gilgamesh, and the visit which she paid to Anu, her father in heaven, to complain of the hero's contemptuous rejection of her love. Now the sixth Babylonian month was called the “Mission of Ishtar,” and in it was held the festival of Tammuz, the hapless lover of the goddess. Again, the story of the great flood is told in the eleventh tablet, and the eleventh month was called the “month of rain.” See M. Jastrow, op. cit. pp. 484, 510.

897

Ezekiel viii. 14.

898

Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 183 sq., 227.

899

Esther vii. 8.

900

See above, p. 368 (#x_26_i21).

901

Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 183.

902