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

J. J. Schudt, Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1714), ii. Theil, p. 316.

903

Dio Chrysostom makes Diogenes say to Alexander the Great, οὐκ ἐννενόηκας τὴν τῶν Σακαίων ἑορτήν, ἢν Πέρσαι ἄγουσιν (Or. iv. vol. i. p. 76 ed. L. Dindorf). The festival was mentioned by Ctesias in the second book of his Persian history (Athenaeus, xiv. 44 p. 639 c); and down to the time of Strabo it was associated with the nominal worship of the Persian goddess Anaitis (Strabo, xi. 8. 4 and 5, p. 512).

904

Lagarde, “Purim,” pp. 51 sqq. (Abhandlungen der königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, xxxiv. 1887).

905

Th. Hyde, Historia religionis veterum Persarum (Oxford, 1700), pp. 183, 249-251; Albîrûnî, The Chronology of Ancient Nations, translated and edited by Dr. C. Edward Sachau (London, 1879), p. 211.

906

The Dying God, pp. 148 sqq.

907

Esther vi. 8 sq., viii. 15.

908

The Dying God, pp. 254 sqq.

909

The goddess Ishtar certainly seems to have embodied the principle of fertility in animals as well as in plants; for in the poem which describes her descent into the world of the dead it is said that

“After the mistress Ishtar had descended to the land of No-Return,The bull did not mount the cow, nor did the ass leap upon the she-ass,The man did not approach the maid in the street,The man lay down to sleep upon his own couch,While the maid slept by herself.”

See C. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Literature (New York, 1901), pp. 410 sq.; P. Jensen, Assyrisch-Babylonische Mythen und Epen (Berlin, 1900), p. 87.

910

The interpretation here given of the four principal personages in the book of Esther was suggested by me in the second edition of this book (1900). It agrees substantially with the one which has since been adopted by Professor H. Zimmern (in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament,

Berlin, 1902, p. 519), and by Professor P. Haupt (Purim, Leipsic, 1906, pp. 21 sq.).

911

In this connexion it deserves to be noted that among the ancient Persians marriages are said to have been usually celebrated at the vernal equinox (Strabo, xv. 3. 17, p. 733).

912

The five days' duration of the mock king's reign may possibly have been an intercalary period introduced, as in ancient Egypt and Mexico, for the purpose of equalizing a year of 360 days (twelve months of 30 days each) to a solar year reckoned at 365 days. See above, pp. 339 sqq.

913

However, the legend that Semiramis burned herself on a pyre in Babylon for grief at the loss of a favourite horse (Hyginus, Fab. 243; compare Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 155) may perhaps point to an old custom of compelling the human representative of the goddess to perish in the flames. We have seen (above, p. 371 (#x_26_i25)) that one of the lovers of Ishtar had the form of a horse. Hence the legend recorded by Hyginus is a fresh link in the chain of evidence which binds Semiramis to Ishtar.

914

The Dying God, pp. 148 sqq.

915

The Dying God, pp. 46 sqq.

916

B. de Sahagun, Histoire Générale des Choses de la Nouvelle Espagne, traduite par D. Jourdanet et R. Simeon (Paris, 1880), pp. 478-480. Compare E. Seler, Altmexikanische Studien, ii. (Berlin, 1899) p. 117.

917

Berosus, quoted by Eusebius, Chronicorum liber prior, ed. A. Schoene (Berlin, 1875), coll. 14-18; id., in Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, ed. C. Muller, ii. 497 sq.; P. Jensen, Assyrisch-Babylonische Mythen und Epen (Berlin, 1900), pp. 2 sqq.; L. W. King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology (London, 1899), pp. 54 sqq.; M. Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, U.S.A., 1898), pp. 408 sqq.; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament

(Berlin, 1902), pp. 488 sqq.; M. J. Lagrange, Études sur les Religions Sémitiques

(Paris, 1905), pp. 366 sqq.; R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (Oxford, preface dated 1911), pp. 31 sq., 36. In the Hebrew account of the creation (Genesis i. 2) “the deep” (תהום tĕhom) is a reminiscence of the Babylonian mythical monster Tiamat.

918

Hymns of the Rig Veda, x. 90 (vol. iv. pp. 289-293 of R. T. H. Griffith's translation, Benares, 1889-1892). Compare A. A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (Strasburg, 1897), pp. 12 sq.

919

The Satapatha Brâhmana, translated by Julius Eggeling, Part iv. (Oxford, 1897) pp. xiv. – xxiv. (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. xliii.). Compare Sylvain Lévi, La doctrine du sacrifice dans les Brâhmanas (Paris, 1898), pp. 13 sqq.

920

[The following Note formed part of the text in the Second Edition of The Golden Bough (London, 1900), vol. iii. pp. 186-198. The hypothesis which it sets forth has not been confirmed by subsequent research, and is admittedly in a high degree speculative and uncertain. Hence I have removed it from the text but preserved it as an appendix on the chance that, under a pile of conjectures, it contains some grains of truth which may ultimately contribute to a solution of the problem. As my views on this subject appear to have been strangely misunderstood, I desire to point out explicitly that my theory assumes the historical reality of Jesus of Nazareth as a great religious and moral teacher, who founded Christianity and was crucified at Jerusalem under the governorship of Pontius Pilate. The testimony of the Gospels, confirmed by the hostile evidence of Tacitus (Annals, xv. 44) and the younger Pliny (Epist. x. 96), appears amply sufficient to establish these facts to the satisfaction of all unprejudiced enquirers. It is only the details of the life and death of Christ that remain, and will probably always remain, shrouded in the mists of uncertainty. The doubts which have been cast on the historical reality of Jesus are in my judgment unworthy of serious attention. Quite apart from the positive evidence of history and tradition, the origin of a great religious and moral reform is inexplicable without the personal existence of a great reformer. To dissolve the founder of Christianity into a myth, as some would do, is hardly less absurd than it would be to do the same for Mohammed, Luther, and Calvin. Such dissolving views are for the most part the dreams of students who know the great world chiefly through its pale reflection in books. These extravagances of scepticism have been well exposed by Professor C. F. Lehmann-Haupt in his Israel, seine Entwicklung im Rahmen der Weltgeschichte (Tübingen, 1911), pp. 275-285. In reprinting the statement of my theory I have added a few notes, which are distinguished by being enclosed in square brackets.]

921

P. Wendland, “Jesus als Saturnalien-König,” Hermes, xxxiii. (1898) pp. 175-179.

922

The resemblance had struck me when I wrote this book originally [1889-1890], but as I could not definitely explain it I preferred to leave it unnoticed. [The first in recent years to call attention to the resemblance seems to have been Mr. W. R. Paton, who further conjectured that the crucifixion of Christ between two malefactors was not accidental, but had a ritual significance “as an expiatory sacrifice to a triple god.” See F. C. Conybeare, The Apology and Acts of Apollonius and other Monuments of Early Christianity (London, 1894), pp. 257 sqq.; W. R. Paton, “Die Kreuzigung Jesu,” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, ii. (1901) pp. 339-341. The grounds for the conjecture are somewhat slender. It is true that a Persian martyr, S. Hiztibouzit, is said to have been crucified between two malefactors on a hill top, opposite the sun (F. C. Conybeare, op. cit. p. 270), but the narrator of the martyrdom gives no hint of any sacred significance attaching to the triple crucifixion.]

923

Matthew xxvii. 26-31. Mark's description (xv. 15-20) is nearly identical.

924

Dio Chrysostom, Or. iv. vol. i. p. 76 ed. L. Dindorf. As I have already mentioned, the Greek word which describes the execution (ἐκρέμασαν) leaves it uncertain whether the man was crucified or hanged.