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Title: The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism
Author: Franz Cumont
Release Date: August 1, 2007 [EBook #22213]
Language: English
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* * * * *
The Oriental Religions in
Roman Paganism
By
Franz Cumont
With an Introductory Essay by
Grant Showerman
Authorized Translation
Chicago
The Open Court Publishing Company
London Agents
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.
1911
* * * * *
COPYRIGHT BY
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO.
1911
* * * * *
TO MY TEACHER AND FRIEND
CHARLES MICHEL
* * * * *
{iii}
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.--The Significance of Franz Cumont's Work, By Grant Showerman
... v
PREFACE ... xv
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION ... xxv
I. ROME AND THE ORIENT ... 1
Superiority of the Orient, 1.--Its Influence on Political Institutions,
3.--Its Influence on Civil Law, 5.--Its Influence on Science, 6.--Its
Influence on Literature and Art, 7.--Its Influence on Industry,
9.--SOURCES: Destruction of Pagan Rituals, 11.--Mythographers,
12.--Historians, 13.--Satirists, 13.--Philosophers, 14.--Christian
Polemicists, 15.--Archeological Documents, 16.
II. WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD ... 20
Difference in the Religions of the Orient and the Occident, 20.--Spread of
Oriental Religions, 22.--Economic Influences, 23.--Theory of Degeneration,
25.--Conversions are of Individuals, 27.--Appeal of the Oriental Religions
to the Senses, 28.--Appeal to the Intelligence, 31.--Appeal to the
Conscience, 35.--Inadequacy of the Roman Religion, 35.--Skepticism,
37.--Imperial Power, 38.--The Purification of Souls, 39.--Hope of
Immortality, 42.--Conclusion, 43.
III. ASIA MINOR ... 46
Arrival of Cybele at Rome, 46.--Her Religion in Asia Minor, 47.--Religion
at Rome under the Republic, 51.--Adoption of the Goddess Ma-Bellona,
53.--Politics of Claudius, 55.--Spring Festival, 56.--Spread of the
Phrygian Religion in the Provinces, 57.--Causes of Its Success, 58.--Its
Official Recognition, 60.--ARRIVAL OF OTHER CULTS: Mèn, 61.--Judaism,
63.--Sabazius, 64.--Anahita, 65.--The Taurobolium, 66.--Philosophy,
70.--Christianity, 70.--Conclusion, 71.
IV. EGYPT ... 73
Foundation of Serapis Worship, 73.--The Egyptian Religion Hellenized,
75.--Diffusion in Greece, 79.--Adoption at Rome, 80.--Persecutions,
82.--Adoption Under Caligula, 84.--Its History, 85.--Its Transformation,
86.--Uncertainty in Egyptian Theology, 87.--Insufficiency of Its Ethics,
90.--Power of Its Ritual, 93.--Daily Liturgy, 95.--Festivals, 97.--Doctrine
of Immortality, 99.--The _Refrigerium_, 101.
{iv} V. SYRIA ... 103
The Syrian Goddess, 103.--Importation of New Gods by Syrian Slaves,
105.--Syrian Merchants, 107.--Syrian Soldiers, 112.--Heliogabalus and
Aurelian, 114.--Value of Semitic Paganism, 115.--Animal Worship,
116.--Baals, 118.--Human Sacrifice, 119.--Transformation of the Sacerdotal
Religion, 120.--Purity, 121.--Influence of Babylon, 122.--Eschatology,
125.--THEOLOGY: God is Supreme, 127.--God is Omnipotent, 129.--God is
Eternal and Universal, 130.--Semitic Syncretism, 131.--Solar Henotheism,
133.
VI. PERSIA ... 135
Persia and Europe, 135.--Influence of the Achemenides, 136.--Influence of
Mazdaism, 138.--Conquests of Rome, 139.--Influence of the Sassanides,
140.--Origin of the Mysteries of Mithra, 142.--Persians in Asia Minor,
144.--The Mazdaism of Anatolia, 146.--Its Diffusion in the Occident,
149.--Its Qualities, 150.--Dualism, 151.--The Ethics of Mithraism,
155.--The Future Life, 158.--Conclusion, 159.
VII. ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC ... 162
Prestige of Astrology, 162.--Its Introduction in the Occident,
163.--Astrology Under the Empire, 164.--Polemics Powerless Against
Astrology, 166.--Astrology a Scientific Religion, 169.--The Primitive Idea
of Sympathy, 171.--Divinity of the Stars, 172.--Transformation of the Idea
of God, 174.--New Gods, 175.--Big Years, 176.--Astrological Eschatology,
177.--Man's Relation to Heaven, 178.--Fatalism, 179.--Efficacy of Prayer,
180.--Efficacy of Magic, 182.--Treatises on Magic, 182.--Idea of Sympathy,
183.--Magic a Science, 184.--Magic is Religious, 185.--Ancient Italian
Sorcery, 186.--Egypt and Chaldea, 187.--Theurgy, 188.--Persian Magic,
189.--Persecutions, 191.--Conclusion, 193.
VIII. THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM ... 196
Paganism Before Constantine, 196.--Religion of Asia Minor, 197.--Religion
of Egypt and Syria, 198.--Religion of Persia, 199.--Many Pagan Religions,
200.--Popular Religion and Philosophy, 201.--Christian Polemics,
202.--Roman Paganism Become Oriental, 204.--Mysteries, 205.--Nature
Worship, 206.--Supreme God, 207.--Sidereal Worship, 208.--The Ritual Given
a Moral Significance, 209.--The End of the World, 209.--Conclusion, 210.
NOTES ... 213
Preface, 213.--I. Rome and the Orient, 214,--II. Why the Oriental Religions
Spread, 218.--III. Asia Minor, 223.--IV. Egypt, 228.--V. Syria, 241.--VI.
Persia, 260.--VII. Astrology and Magic, 270.--VIII. The Transformation of
Paganism, 281.
INDEX ... 289
* * * * *
{v}
INTRODUCTION.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FRANZ CUMONT'S WORK.
Franz Cumont, born January 3, 1868, and educated at Ghent, Bonn, Berlin,
and Paris, resides in Brussels, and has been Professor in the University of
Ghent since 1892. His monumental work, _Textes et monuments figurés
relatifs aux mystères de Mithra_, published in 1896 and 1899 in two
volumes, was followed in 1902 by the separate publication, under the title
_Les Mystères de Mithra_, of the second half of Vol. I, the _Conclusions_
in which he interpreted the great mass of evidence contained in the
remainder of the work. The year following, this book appeared in the
translation of Thomas J. McCormack as _The Mysteries of Mithra_, published
by the Open Court Publishing Company. M. Cumont's other work of prime
interest to students of the ancient faiths, _Les religions orientales dans
le paganisme romain_, appeared in 1906, was revised and issued in a second
edition in 1909, and is now presented in English in the following pages.
M. Cumont is an ideal contributor to knowledge in his chosen field. As an
investigator, he combines in one person Teutonic thoroughness and Gallic
intuition. As a writer, his virtues are no less pronounced. Recognition of
his mastery of an enormous array of detailed learning followed immediately
on the publication {vi} of _Textes et monuments_, and the present series of
essays, besides a numerous series of articles and monographs, makes
manifest the same painstaking and thorough scholarship; but he is something
more than the mere _savant_ who has at command a vast and difficult body of
knowledge. He is also the literary architect who builds up his material
into well-ordered and graceful structure.
Above all, M. Cumont is an interpreter. In _The Mysteries of Mithra_ he put
into circulation, so to speak, the coin of the ideas he had minted in the
patient and careful study of _Textes et Monuments_; and in the studies of
_The Oriental Religions_ he is giving to the wider public the
interpretation of the larger and more comprehensive body of knowledge of
which his acquaintance with the religion of Mithra is only a part, and
against which as a background it stands. What his book _The Mysteries of
Mithra_ is to his special knowledge of Mithraism, _The Oriental Religions_
is to his knowledge of the whole field. He is thus an example of the
highest type of scholar--the exhaustive searcher after evidence, and the
sympathetic interpreter who mediates between his subject and the lay
intellectual life of his time.
And yet, admirable as is M. Cumont's presentation in _The Mysteries of
Mithra_ and _The Oriental Religions_, nothing is a greater mistake than to
suppose that his popularizations are facile reading. The few specialists in
ancient religions may indeed sail smoothly in the current of his thought;
but the very nature of a subject which ramifies so extensively and so
intricately into the whole of ancient life, concerning itself with
practically all the manifestations of ancient {vii}
civilization--philosophy, religion, astrology, magic, mythology,
literature, art, war, commerce, government--will of necessity afford some
obstacle to readers unfamiliar with the study of religion.
It is in the hope of lessening somewhat this natural difficulty of
assimilating M. Cumont's contribution to knowledge, and above all, to life,
that these brief words of introduction are undertaken. The presentation in
outline of the main lines of thought which underlie his conception of the
importance of the Oriental religions in universal history may afford the
uninitiated reader a background against which the author's depiction of the
various cults of the Oriental group will be more easily and clearly seen.
M. Cumont's work, then, transports us in imagination to a time when
Christianity was still--at least in the eyes of Roman pagans--only one of a
numerous array of foreign Eastern religions struggling for recognition in
the Roman world, and especially in the city of Rome. To understand the
conditions under which the new faith finally triumphed, we should first
realize the number of these religions, and the apparently chaotic condition
of paganism when viewed as a system.
"Let us suppose," says M. Cumont, "that in modern Europe the faithful had
deserted the Christian churches to worship Allah or Brahma, to follow the
precepts of Confucius or Buddha, or to adopt the maxims of the Shinto; let
us imagine a great confusion of all the races of the world in which Arabian
mullahs, Chinese scholars, Japanese bonzes, Tibetan lamas and Hindu pundits
should all be preaching fatalism and {viii} predestination,
ancestor-worship and devotion to a deified sovereign, pessimism and
deliverance through annihilation--a confusion in which all those priests
should erect temples of exotic architecture in our cities and celebrate
their disparate rites therein. Such a dream, which the future may perhaps
realize, would offer a pretty accurate picture of the religious chaos in
which the ancient world was struggling before the reign of Constantine."
But it is no less necessary to realize, in the second place, that, had
there not been an essential solidarity of all these different faiths, the
triumph of Christianity would have been achieved with much less difficulty
and in much less time. We are not to suppose that religions are long-lived
and tenacious unless they possess something vital which enables them to
resist. In his chapter on "The Transformation of Roman Paganism," M. Cumont
thus accounts for the vitality of the old faiths: "The mass of religions at
Rome finally became so impregnated by neo-Platonism and Orientalism that
paganism may be called a single religion with a fairly distinct theology,
whose doctrines were somewhat as follows: adoration of the elements,
especially the cosmic bodies; the reign of one God, eternal and omnipotent,
with messenger attendants; spiritual interpretation of the gross rites yet
surviving from primitive times; assurance of eternal felicity to the
faithful; belief that the soul was on earth to be proved before its final
return to the universal spirit, of which it was a spark; the existence of
an abysmal abode for the evil, against whom the faithful must keep up an
unceasing struggle; the destruction of the universe, {ix} the death of the
wicked, and the eternal happiness of the good in a reconstructed world."[1]
If this formulation of pagan doctrine surprises those who have been told
that paganism was "a fashion rather than a faith," and are accustomed to
think of it in terms of Jupiter and Juno, Venus and Mars, and the other
empty, cold, and formalized deities that have so long filled literature and
art, it will be because they have failed to take into account that between
Augustus and Constantine three hundred years elapsed, and are unfamiliar
with the very natural fact that during all that long period the character
of paganism was gradually undergoing change and growth. "The faith of the
friends of Symmachus," M. Cumont tells us, "was much farther removed from
the religious ideal of Augustus, although they would never have admitted
it, than that of their opponents in the senate."
To what was due this change in the content of the pagan ideal, so great
that the phraseology in which the ideal is described puts us in mind of
Christian doctrine itself? First, answers M. Cumont, to neo-Platonism,
which attempted the reconciliation of the antiquated religions with the
advanced moral and intellectual ideas of its own time by spiritual
interpretation of outgrown cult stories and cult practices. A second and
more vital cause, however, wrought to bring about the same result. This was
the invasion of the Oriental religions, and the slow working, from the
advent of the Great Mother of the Gods in B. C. 204 to the downfall of
paganism at the end of the fourth {x} century of the Christian era, of the
leaven of Oriental sentiment. The cults of Asia and Egypt bridged the gap
between the old religions and Christianity, and in such a way as to make
the triumph of Christianity an evolution, not a revolution. The Great
Mother and Attis, with self-consecration, enthusiasm, and asceticism; Isis
and Serapis, with the ideals of communion and purification; Baal, the
omnipotent dweller in the far-off heavens; Jehovah, the jealous God of the
Hebrews, omniscient and omnipresent; Mithra, deity of the sun, with the
Persian dualism of good and evil, and with after-death rewards and
punishments--all these, and more, flowed successively into the channel of
Roman life and mingled their waters to form the late Roman paganism which
proved so pertinacious a foe to the Christian religion. The influence that
underlay their pretensions was so real that there is some warrant for the
view of Renan that at one time it was doubtful whether the current as it
flowed away into the Dark Ages should be Mithraic or Christian.
The vitalization of the evidence regarding these cults is M. Cumont's great
contribution. His perseverance in the accurate collection of material is
equalled only by his power to see the real nature and effect of the
religions of which he writes. Assuming that no religion can succeed merely
because of externals, but must stand on some foundation of moral
excellence, he shows how the pagan faiths were able to hold their own, and
even to contest the ground with Christianity. These religions, he asserts,
gave greater satisfaction first, to the senses and passions, secondly, to
the intelligence, finally, and above all, to the conscience. "The spread of
the Oriental religions"--again I quote {xi} a summary from _Classical
Philology_--"was due to merit. In contrast to the cold and formal religions
of Rome, the Oriental faiths, with their hoary traditions and basis of
science and culture, their fine ceremonial, the excitement attendant on
their mysteries, their deities with hearts of compassion, their cultivation
of the social bond, their appeal to conscience and their promises of
purification and reward in a future life, were personal rather than civic,
and satisfied the individual soul.... With such a conception of latter-day
paganism, we may more easily understand its strength and the bitter rivalry
between it and the new faith, as well as the facility with which pagan
society, once its cause was proved hopeless, turned to Christianity." The
Oriental religions had made straight the way. Christianity triumphed after
long conflict because its antagonists also were not without weapons from
the armory of God. Both parties to the struggle had their loins girt about
with truth, and both wielded the sword of the spirit; but the steel of the
Christian was the more piercing, the breastplate of his righteousness was
the stronger, and his feet were better shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace.
Nor did Christianity stop there. It took from its opponents their own
weapons, and used them; the better elements of paganism were transferred to
the new religion. "As the religious history of the empire is studied more
closely," writes M. Cumont, "the triumph of the church will, in our
opinion, appear more and more as the culmination of a long evolution of
beliefs. We can understand the Christianity of the fifth century with its
greatness and weaknesses, its spiritual exaltation and its puerile
superstitions, if we {xii} know the moral antecedents of the world in which
it developed."
M. Cumont is therefore a contributor to our appreciation of the continuity
of history. Christianity was not a sudden and miraculous transformation,
but a composite of slow and laborious growth. Its four centuries of
struggle were not a struggle against an entirely unworthy religion, else
would our faith in its divine warrant be diminished; it is to its own great
credit, and also to the credit of the opponents that succumbed to it, that
it finally overwhelmed them. To quote Emil Aust: "Christianity did not wake
into being the religious sense, but it afforded that sense the fullest
opportunity of being satisfied; and paganism fell because the less perfect
must give place to the more perfect, not because it was sunken in sin and
vice. It had out of its own strength laid out the ways by which it advanced
to lose itself in the arms of Christianity, and to recognize this does not
mean to minimize the significance of Christianity. We are under no
necessity of artificially darkening the heathen world; the light of the
Evangel streams into it brightly enough without this."[2]
Finally, the work of M. Cumont and others in the field of the ancient
Oriental religions is not an isolated activity, but part of a larger
intellectual movement. Their effort is only one manifestation of the
interest of recent years in the study of universal religion; other
manifestations of the same interest are to be seen in the histories of the
Greek and Roman religions by {xiii} Gruppe, Farnell, and Wissowa, in the
anthropological labors of Tylor, Lang, and Frazer, in the publication of
Reinach's _Orpheus_, in the study of comparative religion, and in such a
phenomenon as a World's Parliament of Religions.
In a word, M. Cumont and his companion ancient Orientalists are but one
brigade engaged in the modern campaign for the liberation of religious
thought. His studies are therefore not concerned alone with paganism, nor
alone with the religions of the ancient past; in common with the labors of
students of modern religion, they touch our own faith and our own times,
and are in vital relation with our philosophy of living, and consequently
with our highest welfare. "To us moderns," says Professor Frazer in the
preface to his _Golden Bough_, "a still wider vista is vouchsafed, a
greater panorama is unrolled by the study which aims at bringing home to us
the faith and the practice, the hopes and the ideals, not of two highly
gifted races only, but of all mankind, and thus at enabling us to follow
the long march, the slow and toilsome ascent, of humanity from savagery to
civilization.... But the comparative study of the beliefs and institutions
of mankind is fitted to be much more than a means of satisfying an
enlightened curiosity and of furnishing materials for the researches of the
learned. Well handled, it may become a powerful instrument to expedite
progress...."
It is possible that all this might disquiet the minds of those who have
been wont to assume perfection in the primitive Christian church, and who
assume also that present-day Christianity is the ultimate form of the
Christian religion. Such persons--if there are {xiv} such--should rather
take heart from the whole-souled devotion to truth everywhere to be seen in
the works of scholars in ancient religion, and from their equally evident
sympathy with all manifestations of human effort to establish the divine
relation; but most of all from their universal testimony that for all time
and in all places and under all conditions the human heart has felt
powerfully the need of the divine relation. From the knowledge that the
desire to get right with God--the common and essential element in all
religions--has been the most universal and the most potent and persistent
factor in past history, it is not far to the conviction that it will always
continue to be so, and that the struggle toward the divine light of
religion pure and undefiled will never perish from the earth.
GRANT SHOWERMAN.
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.
* * * * *
Notes to Introduction.
[1] This summary of M. Cumont's chapter is quoted from my review of the
first edition of _Les religions orientales_ in _Classical Philology_, III,
4, p. 467.
[2] _Die Religion der Römer_, p. 116. For the significance of the pagan
faiths, see an essay on "The Ancient Religions in Universal History,"
_American Journal of Philology_, XXIX, 2. pp. 156-171.
* * * * *
{xv}
PREFACE.
In November, 1905, the Collège de France honored the writer by asking him
to succeed M. Naville in opening the series of lectures instituted by the
Michonis foundation. A few months later the "Hibbert Trust" invited him to
Oxford to develop certain subjects which he had touched upon at Paris. In
this volume have been collected the contents of both series with the
addition of a short bibliography and notes intended for scholars desirous
of verifying assertions made in the text.[1] The form of the work has
scarcely been changed, but we trust that these pages, intended though they
were for oral delivery, will bear reading, and that the title of these
studies will not seem too ambitious for what they have to offer. The
propagation of the Oriental religions, with the development of
neo-Platonism, is the leading fact in the moral history of the pagan
empire. May this small volume on a great subject throw at least some light
upon this truth, and may the reader receive these essays with the same kind
interest shown by the audiences at Paris and Oxford.
The reader will please remember that the different chapters were thought
out and written as lectures. They do not claim to contain a debit and
credit account of what the Latin paganism borrowed from or loaned to the
Orient. Certain well-known facts have been {xvi} deliberately passed over
in order to make room for others that are perhaps less known. We have taken
liberties with our subject matter that would not be tolerated in a didactic
treatise, but to which surely no one will object.
We are more likely to be reproached for an apparently serious omission. We
have investigated only the internal development of paganism in the Latin
world, and have considered its relation to Christianity only incidentally
and by the way. The question is nevertheless important and has been the
subject of celebrated lectures as well as of learned monographs and widely
distributed manuals.[2] We wish to slight neither the interest nor the
importance of that controversy, and it is not because it seemed negligible
that we have not entered into it.
By reason of their intellectual bent and education the theologians were for
a long time more inclined to consider the continuity of the Jewish
tradition than the causes that disturbed it; but a reaction has taken
place, and to-day they endeavor to show that the church has borrowed
considerably from the conceptions and ritualistic ceremonies of the pagan
mysteries. In spite of the prestige that surrounded Eleusis, the word
"mysteries" calls up Hellenized Asia rather than Greece proper, because in
the first place the earliest Christian communities were founded, formed and
developed in the heart of Oriental populations, Semites, Phrygians and
Egyptians. Moreover the religions of those people were much farther
advanced, much richer in ideas and sentiments, more striking and stirring
than the Greco-Latin anthropomorphism. Their liturgy always derives its
inspiration from generally accepted beliefs {xvii} about purification
embodied in certain acts regarded as sanctifying. These facts were almost
identical in the various sects. The new faith poured its revelation into
the hallowed moulds of earlier religions because in that form alone could
the world in which it developed receive its message.
This is approximately the point of view adopted by the latest historians.
But, however absorbing this important problem may be, we could not think of
going into it, even briefly, in these studies on Roman paganism. In the
Latin world the question assumes much more modest proportions, and its
aspect changes completely. Here Christianity spread only after it had
outgrown the embryonic state and really became established. Moreover like
Christianity the Oriental mysteries at Rome remained for a long time
chiefly the religion of a foreign minority. Did any exchange take place
between these rival sects? The silence of the ecclesiastical writers is not
sufficient reason for denying it. We dislike to acknowledge a debt to our
adversaries, because it means that we recognize some value in the cause
they defend, but I believe that the importance of these exchanges should
not be exaggerated. Without a doubt certain ceremonies and holidays of the
church were based on pagan models. In the fourth century Christmas was
placed on the 25th of December because on that date was celebrated the
birth of the sun (_Natalis Invicti_) who was born to a new life each year
after the solstice.[3] Certain vestiges of the religions of Isis and Cybele
besides other polytheistic practices perpetuated themselves in the
adoration of local saints. On the other hand as soon as Christianity became
a moral power in {xviii} the world, it imposed itself even on its enemies.
The Phrygian priests of the Great Mother openly opposed their celebration
of the vernal equinox to the Christian Easter, and attributed to the blood
shed in the taurobolium the redemptive power of the blood of the divine
Lamb.[4]
All these facts constitute a series of very delicate problems of chronology
and interrelation, and it would be rash to attempt to solve them _en bloc_.
Probably there is a different answer in each particular case, and I am
afraid that some cases must always remain unsolved. We may speak of
"vespers of Isis" or of a "eucharist of Mithra and his companions," but
only in the same sense as when we say "the vassal princes of the empire" or
"Diocletian's socialism." These are tricks of style used to give prominence
to a similarity and to establish a parallel strongly and closely. A word is
not a demonstration, and we must be careful not to infer an influence from
an analogy. Preconceived notions are always the most serious obstacles to
an exact knowledge of the past. Some modern writers, like the ancient
Church Fathers, are fain to see a sacrilegious parody inspired by the
spirit of lies in the resemblance between the mysteries and the church
ceremonies. Other historians seem disposed to agree with the Oriental
priests, who claimed priority for their cults at Rome, and saw a plagiarism
of their ancient rituals in the Christian ceremonies. It would appear that
both are very much mistaken. Resemblance does not necessarily presuppose
imitation, and frequently a similarity of ideas and practices must be
explained by common origin, exclusive of any borrowing. {xix}
An illustration will make my thought clearer. The votaries of Mithra
likened the practice of their religion to military service. When the
neophyte joined he was compelled to take an oath (_sacramentum_) similar to
the one required of recruits in the army, and there is no doubt that an
indelible mark was likewise branded on his body with a hot iron. The third
degree of the mystical hierarchy was that of "soldier" (_miles_).
Thenceforward the initiate belonged to the sacred militia of the invincible
god and fought the powers of evil under his orders. All these ideas and
institutions are so much in accord with what we know of Mazdean dualism, in
which the entire life was conceived as a struggle against the malevolent
spirits; they are so inseparable from the history even of Mithraism, which
always was a soldiers' religion, that we cannot doubt they belonged to it
before its appearance in the Occident.
On the other hand, we find similar conceptions in Christianity. The society
of the faithful--the term is still in use--is the "Church Militant." During
the first centuries the comparison of the church with an army was carried
out even in details;[5] the baptism of the neophyte was the oath of
fidelity to the flag taken by the recruits. Christ was the "emperor," the
commander-in-chief, of his disciples, who formed cohorts triumphing under
his command over the demons; the apostates were deserters; the sanctuaries,
camps; the pious practices, drills and sentry-duty, and so on.
If we consider that the gospel preached peace, that for a long time the
Christians felt a repugnance to military service, where their faith was
threatened, we are tempted to admit _a priori_ an influence of the
belligerent cult of Mithra upon Christian thought. {xx}
But this is not the case. The theme of the _militia Christi_ appears in the
oldest ecclesiastical authors, in the epistles of St. Clement and even in
those of St. Paul. It is impossible to admit an imitation of the Mithraic
mysteries then, because at that period they had no importance whatever.
But if we extend our researches to the history of that notion, we shall
find that, at least under the empire, the mystics of Isis were also
regarded as forming sacred cohorts enlisted in the service of the goddess,
that previously in the Stoic philosophy human existence was frequently
likened to a campaign, and that even the astrologers called the man who
submitted to destiny and renounced all revolt a "soldier of fate."[6]
This conception of life, especially of religious life, was therefore very
popular from the beginning of our era. It was manifestly prior both to
Christianity and to Mithraism. It developed in the military monarchies of
the Asiatic Diadochi. Here the soldier was no longer a citizen defending
his country, but in most instances a volunteer bound by a sacred vow to the
person of his king. In the martial states that fought for the heritage of
the Achemenides this personal devotion dominated or displaced all national
feeling. We know the oaths taken by those subjects to their deified
kings.[7] They agreed to defend and uphold them even at the cost of their
own lives, and always to have the same friends and the same enemies as
they; they dedicated to them not only their actions and words, but their
very thoughts. Their duty was a complete abandonment of their personality
in favor of those monarchs who were held the equals of the gods. The sacred
_militia_ of the mysteries was nothing but this civic {xxi} morality viewed
from the religious standpoint. It confounded loyalty with piety.
As we see, the researches into the doctrines or practices common to
Christianity and the Oriental mysteries lead almost always beyond the
limits of the Roman empire into the Hellenistic Orient. The religious
conceptions which imposed themselves on Latin Europe under the Cæsars[8]
were developed there, and it is there we must look for the key to enigmas
still unsolved. It is true that at present nothing is more obscure than the
history of the religions that arose in Asia when Greek culture came in
contact with barbarian theology. It is rarely possible to formulate
satisfactory conclusions with any degree of certainty, and before further
discoveries are made we shall frequently be compelled to weigh contrasting
probabilities. We must frequently throw out the sounding line into the
shifting sea of possibility in order to find secure anchorage. But at any
rate we perceive with sufficient distinctness the direction in which the
investigations must be pursued.
It is our belief that the main point to be cleared up is the composite
religion of those Jewish or Jewish-pagan communities, the worshipers of
Hypsistos, the Sabbatists, the Sabaziasts and others in which the new creed
took root during the apostolic age. In those communities the Mosaic law had
become adapted to the sacred usages of the Gentiles even before the
beginning of our era, and monotheism had made concessions to idolatry. Many
beliefs of the ancient Orient, as for instance the ideas of Persian dualism
regarding the infernal world, arrived in Europe by two roads, the more or
less orthodox Judaism of the communities of {xxii} the dispersion in which
the gospel was accepted immediately, and the pagan mysteries imported from
Syria or Asia Minor. Certain similarities that surprised and shocked the
apologists will cease to look strange as soon as we reach the distant
sources of the channels that reunited at Rome.
But these delicate and complicated researches into origins and
relationships belong especially to the history of the Alexandrian period.
In considering the Roman empire, the principal fact is that the Oriental
religions propagated doctrines, previous to and later side by side with
Christianity, that acquired with it universal authority at the decline of
the ancient world. The preaching of the Asiatic priests also unwittingly
prepared for the triumph of the church which put its stamp on the work at
which they had unconsciously labored.
Through their popular propaganda they had completely disintegrated the
ancient national faith of the Romans, while at the same time the Cæsars had
gradually destroyed the political particularism. After their advent it was
no longer necessary for religion to be connected with a state in order to
become universal. Religion was no longer regarded as a public duty, but as
a personal obligation; no longer did it subordinate the individual to the
city-state, but pretended above all to assure his welfare in this world and
especially in the world to come. The Oriental mysteries offered their
votaries radiant perspectives of eternal happiness. Thus the focus of
morality was changed. The aim became to realize the sovereign good in the
life hereafter instead of in this world, as the Greek philosophy had done.
No longer did man act in view of tangible {xxiii} realities, but to attain
ideal hopes. Existence in this life was regarded as a preparation for a
sanctified life, as a trial whose outcome was to be either everlasting
happiness or everlasting pain.
As we see, the entire system of ethical values was overturned.
The salvation of the soul, which had become the one great human care, was
especially promised in these mysteries upon the accurate performance of the
sacred ceremonies. The rites possessed a power of purification and
redemption. They made man better and freed him from the dominion of hostile
spirits. Consequently, religion was a singularly important and absorbing
matter, and the liturgy could be performed only by a clergy devoting itself
entirely to the task. The Asiatic gods exacted undivided service; their
priests were no longer magistrates, scarcely citizens. They devoted
themselves unreservedly to their ministry, and demanded of their adherents
submission to their sacred authority.
All these features that we are but sketching here, gave the Oriental
religions a resemblance to Christianity, and the reader of these studies
will find many more points in common among them. These analogies are even
more striking to us than they were in those times because we have become
acquainted in India and China with religions very different from the Roman
paganism and from Christianity as well, and because the relationships of
the two latter strike us more strongly on account of the contrast. These
theological similarities did not attract the attention of the ancients,
because they scarcely conceived of the existence of other possibilities,
while differences were what they {xxiv} remarked especially. I am not at
all forgetting how considerable these were. The principal divergence was
that Christianity, by placing God in an ideal sphere beyond the confines of
this world, endeavored to rid itself of every attachment to a frequently
abject polytheism. But even if we oppose tradition, we cannot break with
the past that has formed us, nor separate ourselves from the present in
which we live. As the religious history of the empire is studied more
closely, the triumph of the church will, in our opinion, appear more and
more as the culmination of a long evolution of beliefs. We can understand
the Christianity of the fifth century with its greatness and weaknesses,
its spiritual exaltation and its puerile superstitions, if we know the
moral antecedents of the world in which it developed. The faith of the
friends of Symmachus was much farther removed from the religious ideal of
Augustus, although they would never have admitted it, than that of their
opponents in the senate. I hope that these studies will succeed in showing
how the pagan religions from the Orient aided the long continued effort of
Roman society, contented for many centuries with a rather insipid idolatry,
toward more elevated and more profound forms of worship. Possibly their
credulous mysticism deserves as much blame as is laid upon the theurgy of
neo-Platonism, which drew from the same sources of inspiration, but like
neo-Platonism it has strengthened man's feeling of eminent dignity by
asserting the divine nature of the soul. By making inner purity the main
object of earthly existence, they refined and exalted the psychic life and
gave it an almost supernatural intensity, which until then was unknown in
the ancient world. {xxv}
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In this second edition the eight lectures forming the reading matter of
this book have suffered scarcely any change, and, excepting the chapter on
Syria, the additions are insignificant. It would have been an easy matter
to expand them, but I did not want these lectures to become erudite
dissertations, nor the ideas which are the essential part of a sketch like
the present to be overwhelmed by a multiplicity of facts. In general I have
therefore limited myself to weeding out certain errors that were
overlooked, or introduced, in the proofreading.
The notes, however, have been radically revised. I have endeavored to give
expression to the suggestions or observations communicated to me by
obliging readers; to mention new publications and to utilize the results of
my own studies. The index makes it easy to find the subjects discussed.
And here I must again thank my friend Charles Michel, who undertook the
tedious task of rereading the proofs of this book, and whose scrupulous and
sagacious care has saved me from many and many a blunder.
F. C.
PARIS, FRANCE, February, 1909.
* * * * *
{1}
ROME AND THE ORIENT.
We are fond of regarding ourselves as the heirs of Rome, and we like to
think that the Latin genius, after having absorbed the genius of Greece,
held an intellectual and moral supremacy in the ancient world similar to
the one Europe now maintains, and that the culture of the peoples that
lived under the authority of the Cæsars was stamped forever by their strong
touch. It is difficult to forget the present entirely and to renounce
aristocratic pretensions. We find it hard to believe that the Orient has
not always lived, to some extent, in the state of humiliation from which it
is now slowly emerging, and we are inclined to ascribe to the ancient
inhabitants of Smyrna, Beirut or Alexandria the faults with which the
Levantines of to-day are being reproached. The growing influence of the
Orientals that accompanied the decline of the empire has frequently been
considered a morbid phenomenon and a symptom of the slow decomposition of
the ancient world. Even Renan does not seem to have been sufficiently free
from an old prejudice when he wrote on this subject:[1] "That the oldest
and most worn out civilization should by its corruption subjugate the
younger was inevitable."
But if we calmly consider the real facts, avoiding the optical illusion
that makes things in our immediate {2} vicinity look larger, we shall form
a quite different opinion. It is beyond all dispute that Rome found the
point of support of its military power in the Occident. The legions from
the Danube and the Rhine were always braver, stronger and better
disciplined than those from the Euphrates and the Nile. But it is in the
Orient, especially in these countries of "old civilization," that we must
look for industry and riches, for technical ability and artistic
productions, as well as for intelligence and science, even before
Constantine made it the center of political power.
While Greece merely vegetated in a state of poverty, humiliation and
exhaustion; while Italy suffered depopulation and became unable to provide
for her own support; while the other countries of Europe were hardly out of
barbarism; Asia Minor, Egypt and Syria gathered the rich harvests Roman
peace made possible. Their industrial centers cultivated and renewed all
the traditions that had caused their former celebrity. A more intense
intellectual life corresponded with the economic activity of these great
manufacturing and exporting countries. They excelled in every profession
except that of arms, and even the prejudiced Romans admitted their
superiority. The menace of an Oriental empire haunted the imaginations of
the first masters of the world. Such an empire seems to have been the main
thought of the dictator Cæsar, and the triumvir Antony almost realized it.
Even Nero thought of making Alexandria his capital. Although Rome,
supported by her army and the right of might, retained the political
authority for a long time, she bowed to the fatal moral ascendency of more
advanced peoples. Viewed from this standpoint the history of the empire {3}
during the first three centuries may be summarized as a "peaceful
infiltration" of the Orient into the Occident.[2] This truth has become
evident since the various aspects of Roman civilization are being studied
in greater detail; and before broaching the special subject of these
studies we wish to review a few phases of the slow metamorphosis of which
the propagation of the Oriental religions was one phenomenon.
In the first place the imitation of the Orient showed itself plainly in
political institutions.[3] To be convinced of this fact it is sufficient to
compare the government of the empire in the time of Augustus with what it
had become under Diocletian. At the beginning of the imperial régime Rome
ruled the world but did not govern it. She kept the number of her
functionaries down to a minimum, her provinces were mere unorganized
aggregates of cities where she only exercised police power, protectorates
rather than annexed countries.[4] As long as law and order were maintained
and her citizens, functionaries and merchants could transact their
business, Rome was satisfied. She saved herself the trouble of looking
after the public service by leaving broad authority to the cities that had
existed before her domination, or had been modeled after her. The taxes
were levied by syndicates of bankers and the public lands rented out.
Before the reforms instituted by Augustus, even the army was not an organic
and permanent force, but consisted theoretically of troops levied before a
war and discharged after victory.
Rome's institutions remained those of a city. It was difficult to apply
them to the vast territory she attempted to govern with their aid. They
were a clumsy {4} apparatus that worked only by sudden starts, a
rudimentary system that could not and did not last.
What do we find three centuries later? A strongly centralized state in
which an absolute ruler, worshiped like a god and surrounded by a large
court, commanded a whole hierarchy of functionaries; cities divested of
their local liberties and ruled by an omnipotent bureaucracy, the old
capital herself the first to be dispossessed of her autonomy and subjected
to prefects. Outside of the cities the monarch, whose private fortune was
identical with the state finances, possessed immense domains managed by
intendants and supporting a population of serf-colonists. The army was
composed largely of foreign mercenaries, professional soldiers whose pay or
bounty consisted of lands on which they settled. All these features and
many others caused the Roman empire to assume the likeness of ancient
Oriental monarchies.
It would be impossible to admit that like causes produce like results, and
then maintain that a similarity is not sufficient proof of an influence in
history. Wherever we can closely follow the successive transformations of a
particular institution, we notice the action of the Orient and especially
of Egypt. When Rome had become a great cosmopolitan metropolis like
Alexandria, Augustus reorganized it in imitation of the capital of the
Ptolemies. The fiscal reforms of the Cæsars like the taxes on sales and
inheritances, the register of land surveys and the direct collection of
taxes, were suggested by the very perfect financial system of the
Lagides,[5] and it can be maintained that their government was the first
source from which those of modern Europe were derived, through the medium
{5} of the Romans. The imperial _saltus_, superintended by a procurator and
cultivated by metayers reduced to the state of serfs, was an imitation of
the ones that the Asiatic potentates formerly cultivated through their
agents.[6] It would be easy to increase this list of examples. The absolute
monarchy, theocratic and bureaucratic at the same time, that was the form
of government of Egypt, Syria and even Asia Minor during the Alexandrine
period was the ideal on which the deified Cæsars gradually fashioned the
Roman empire.
One cannot however deny Rome the glory of having elaborated a system of
private law that was logically deduced from clearly formulated principles
and was destined to become the fundamental law of all civilized
communities. But even in connection with this private law, where the
originality of Rome is uncontested and her preeminence absolute, recent
researches have shown with how much tenacity the Hellenized Orient
maintained its old legal codes, and how much resistance local customs, the
woof of the life of nations, offered to unification. In truth, unification
never was realized except in theory.[7] More than that, these researches
have proved that the fertile principles of that provincial law, which was
sometimes on a higher moral plane than the Roman law, reacted on the
progressive transformation of the old _ius civile_. And how could it be
otherwise? Were not a great number of famous jurists like Ulpian of Tyre
and Papinian of Hemesa natives of Syria? And did not the law-school of
Beirut constantly grow in importance after the third century, until during
the fifth century it became the most brilliant center of legal education?
Thus Levantines {6} cultivated even the patrimonial field cleared by
Scaevola and Labeo.[8]
In the austere temple of law the Orient held as yet only a minor position;
everywhere else its authority was predominant. The practical mind of the
Romans, which made them excellent lawyers, prevented them from becoming
great scholars. They esteemed pure science but little, having small talent
for it, and one notices that it ceased to be earnestly cultivated wherever
their direct domination was established. The great astronomers,
mathematicians, and physicians, like the originators or defenders of the
great metaphysical systems, were mostly Orientals. Ptolemy and Plotinus
were Egyptians, Porphyry and Iamblichus, Syrians, Dioscorides and Galen,
Asiatics. All branches of learning were affected by the spirit of the
Orient. The clearest minds accepted the chimeras of astrology and magic.
Philosophy claimed more and more to derive its inspiration from the
fabulous wisdom of Chaldea and Egypt. Tired of seeking truth, reason
abdicated and hoped to find it in a revelation preserved in the mysteries
of the barbarians. Greek logic strove to coordinate into an harmonious
whole the confused traditions of the Asiatic religions.
Letters, as well as science, were cultivated chiefly by the Orientals.
Attention has often been called to the fact that those men of letters that
were considered the purest representatives of the Greek spirit under the
empire belonged almost without exception to Asia Minor, Syria or Egypt. The
rhetorician Dion Chrysostom came from Prusa in Bithynia, the satirist
Lucian from Samosata in Commagene on the borders of the Euphrates. A number
of other names could be cited. {7} From Tacitus and Suetonius down to
Ammianus, there was not one author of talent to preserve in Latin the
memory of the events that stirred the world of that period, but it was a
Bithynian again, Dion Cassius of Nicea, who, under the Severi, narrated the
history of the Roman people.
It is a characteristic fact that, besides this literature whose language
was Greek, others were born, revived and developed. The Syriac, derived
from the Aramaic which was the international language of earlier Asia,
became again the language of a cultured race with Bardesanes of Edessa. The
Copts remembered that they had spoken several dialects derived from the
ancient Egyptian and endeavored to revive them. North of the Taurus even
the Armenians began to write and polish their barbarian speech. Christian
preaching, addressed to the people, took hold of the popular idioms and
roused them from their long lethargy. Along the Nile as well as on the
plains of Mesopotamia or in the valleys of Anatolia it proclaimed its new
ideas in dialects that had been despised hitherto, and wherever the old
Orient had not been entirely denationalized by Hellenism, it successfully
reclaimed its intellectual autonomy.
A revival of native art went hand in hand with this linguistic awakening.
In no field of intellect has the illusion mentioned above been so complete
and lasting as in this one. Until a few years ago the opinion prevailed
that an "imperial" art had come into existence in the Rome of Augustus and
that thence its predominance had slowly spread to the periphery of the
ancient world. If it had undergone some special modifications in Asia these
were due to exotic influences, undoubtedly {8} Assyrian or Persian. Not
even the important discoveries of M. de Vogüé in Hauran[9] were sufficient
to prove the emptiness of a theory that was supported by our lofty
conviction of European leadership.
To-day it is fully proven not only that Rome has given nothing or almost
nothing to the Orientals but also that she has received quite a little from
them. Impregnated with Hellenism, Asia produced an astonishing number of
original works of art in the kingdoms of the Diadochs. The old processes,
the discovery of which dates back to the Chaldeans, the Hittites or the
subjects of the Pharaohs, were first utilized by the conquerors of
Alexander's empire who conceived a rich variety of new types, and created
an original style. But if during the three centuries preceding our era,
sovereign Greece played the part of the demiurge who creates living beings
out of preexisting matter, during the three following centuries her
productive power became exhausted, her faculty of invention weakened, the
ancient local traditions revolted against her empire and with the help of
Christianity overcame it. Transferred to Byzantium they expanded in a new
efflorescence and spread over Europe where they paved the way for the
formation of the Romanesque art of the early Middle Ages.[10]
Rome, then, far from having established her suzerainty, was tributary to
the Orient in this respect. The Orient was her superior in the extent and
precision of its technical knowledge as well as in the inventive genius and
ability of its workmen. The Cæsars were great builders but frequently
employed foreign help. Trajan's principal architect, a magnificent builder,
was a Syrian, Apollodorus of Damascus.[11] {9}
Her Levantine subjects not only taught Italy the artistic solution of
architectonic problems like the erection of a cupola on a rectangular or
octagonal edifice, but also compelled her to accept their taste, and they
saturated her with their genius. They imparted to her their love of
luxuriant decoration, and of violent polychromy, and they gave religious
sculpture and painting the complicated symbolism that pleased their
abstruse and subtle minds.
In those times art was closely connected with industry, which was entirely
manual and individual. They learned from each other, they improved and
declined together, in short they were inseparable. Shall we call the
painters that decorated the architecturally fantastic and airy walls of
Pompeii in Alexandrian or perhaps Syrian taste artisans or artists? And how
shall we classify the goldsmiths, Alexandrians also, who carved those
delicate leaves, those picturesque animals, those harmoniously elegant or
cunningly animated groups that cover the phials and goblets of Bosco Reale?
And descending from the productions of the industrial arts to those of
industry itself, one might also trace the growing influence of the Orient;
one might show how the action of the great manufacturing centers of the
East gradually transformed the material civilization of Europe; one might
point out how the introduction into Gaul[12] of exotic patterns and
processes changed the old native industry and gave its products a
perfection and a popularity hitherto unknown. But I dislike to insist
overmuch on a point apparently so foreign to the one now before us. It was
important however to mention this subject at the beginning because in
whatever direction scholars of {10} to-day pursue their investigations they
always notice Asiatic culture slowly supplanting that of Italy. The latter
developed only by absorbing elements taken from the inexhaustible reserves
of the "old civilizations" of which we spoke at the beginning. The
Hellenized Orient imposed itself everywhere through its men and its works;
it subjected its Latin conquerors to its ascendancy in the same manner as
it dominated its Arabian conquerors later when it became the civilizer of
Islam. But in no field of thought was its influence, under the empire, so
decisive as in religion, because it finally brought about the complete
destruction of the Greco-Latin paganism.[13]
The invasion of the barbarian religions was so open, so noisy and so
triumphant that it could not remain unnoticed. It attracted the anxious or
sympathetic attention of the ancient authors, and since the Renaissance
modern scholars have frequently taken interest in it. Possibly however they
did not sufficiently understand that this religious evolution was not an
isolated and extraordinary phenomenon, but that it accompanied and aided a
more general evolution, just as that aided it in turn. The transformation
of beliefs was intimately connected with the establishment of the monarchy
by divine right, the development of art, the prevailing philosophic
tendencies, in fact with all the manifestations of thought, sentiment and
taste.
We shall attempt to sketch this religious movement with its numerous and
far-reaching ramifications. First we shall try to show what caused the
diffusion of the Oriental religions. In the second place we shall examine
those in particular that originated in Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria and Persia,
and we shall endeavor to {11} distinguish their individual characteristics
and estimate their value. We shall see, finally, how the ancient idolatry
was transformed and what form it assumed in its last struggle against
Christianity, whose victory was furthered by Asiatic mysteries, although
they opposed its doctrine.
* * * * *
But before broaching this subject a preliminary question must be answered.
Is the study which we have just outlined possible? What items will be of
assistance to us in this undertaking? From what sources are we to derive
our knowledge of the Oriental religions in the Roman empire?
It must be admitted that the sources are inadequate and have not as yet
been sufficiently investigated.
Perhaps no loss caused by the general wreck of ancient literature has been
more disastrous than that of the liturgic books of paganism. A few mystic
formulas quoted incidentally by pagan or Christian authors and a few
fragments of hymns in honor of the gods[14] are practically all that
escaped destruction. In order to obtain an idea of what those lost rituals
may have been one must turn to their imitations contained in the chorus of
tragedies, and to the parodies comic authors sometimes made; or look up in
books of magic the plagiarisms that writers of incantations may have
committed.[15] But all this gives us only a dim reflection of the religious
ceremonies. Shut out from the sanctuary like profane outsiders, we hear
only the indistinct echo of the sacred songs and not even in imagination
can we attend the celebration of the mysteries.
We do not know how the ancients prayed, we cannot penetrate into the
intimacy of their religious life, {12} and certain depths of the soul of
antiquity we must leave unsounded. If a fortunate windfall could give us
possession of some sacred book of the later paganism its revelations would
surprise the world. We could witness the performance of those mysterious
dramas whose symbolic acts commemorated the passion of the gods; in company
with the believers we could sympathize with their sufferings, lament their
death and share in the joy of their return to life. In those vast
collections of archaic rites that hazily perpetuated the memory of
abolished creeds we would find traditional formulas couched in obsolete
language that was scarcely understood, naive prayers conceived by the faith
of the earliest ages, sanctified by the devotion of past centuries, and
almost ennobled by the joys and sufferings of past generations. We would
also read those hymns in which philosophic thought found expression in
sumptuous allegories[16] or humbled itself before the omnipotence of the
infinite, poems of which only a few stoic effusions celebrating the
creative or destructive fire, or expressing a complete surrender to divine
fate can give us some idea.[17]
But everything is gone, and thus we lose the possibility of studying from
the original documents the internal development of the pagan religions.
We should feel this loss less keenly if we possessed at least the works of
Greek and Latin mythographers on the subject of foreign divinities like the
voluminous books published during the second century by Eusebius and Pallas
on the Mysteries of Mithra. But those works were thought devoid of interest
or even dangerous by the devout Middle Ages, and they are not likely to
have survived the fall of paganism. The {13} treatises on mythology that
have been preserved deal almost entirely with the ancient Hellenic fables
made famous by the classic writers, to the neglect of the Oriental
religions.[18]
As a rule, all we find in literature on this subject are a few incidental
remarks and passing allusions. History is incredibly poor in that respect.
This poverty of information was caused in the first place by a narrowness
of view characteristic of the rhetoric cultivated by historians of the
classical period and especially of the empire. Politics and the wars of the
rulers, the dramas, the intrigues and even the gossip of the courts and of
the official world were of much higher interest to them than the great
economic or religious transformations. Moreover, there is no period of the
Roman empire concerning which we are so little informed as the third
century, precisely the one during which the Oriental religions reached the
apogee of their power. From Herodianus and Dion Cassius to the Byzantines,
and from Suetonius to Ammianus Marcellinus, all narratives of any
importance have been lost, and this deplorable blank in historic tradition
is particularly fatal to the study of paganism.
It is a strange fact that light literature concerned itself more with these
grave questions. The rites of the exotic religions stimulated the
imagination of the satirists, and the pomp of the festivities furnished the
novelists with brilliant descriptive matter. Juvenal laughs at the
mortifications of the devotees of Isis; in his _Necromancy_ Lucian parodies
the interminable purifications of the magi, and in the _Metamorphoses_
Apuleius relates the various scenes of an initiation into the mysteries of
Isis with the fervor of a neophyte and {14} the studied refinement of a
rhetorician. But as a rule we find only incidental remarks and superficial
observations in the authors. Not even the precious treatise _On the Syrian
Goddess_, in which Lucian tells of a visit to the temple of Hierapolis and
repeats his conversation with the priests, has any depth. What he relates
is the impression of an intelligent, curious and above all an ironical
traveler.[19]
In order to obtain a more perfect initiation and a less fragmentary insight
into the doctrines taught by the Oriental religions, we are compelled to
turn to two kinds of testimony, inspired by contrary tendencies, but
equally suspicious: the testimony of the philosophers, and that of the
fathers of the church. The Stoics and the Platonists frequently took an
interest in the religious beliefs of the barbarians, and it is to them that
we are indebted for the possession of highly valuable data on this subject.
Plutarch's treatise _Isis and Osiris_ is a source whose importance is
appreciated even by Egyptologists, whom it aids in reconstructing the
legends of those divinities.[20] But the philosophers very seldom expounded
foreign doctrines objectively and for their own sake. They embodied them in
their systems as a means of proof or illustration; they surrounded them
with personal exegesis or drowned them in transcendental commentaries; in
short, they claimed to discover their own ideas in them. It is always
difficult and sometimes impossible to distinguish the dogmas from the
self-confident interpretations which are usually as incorrect as possible.
The writings of the ecclesiastical authors, although prejudiced, are very
fertile sources of information, but in perusing them one must guard against
another kind {15} of error. By a peculiar irony of fate those
controversialists are to-day in many instances our only aid in reviving the
idolatry they attempted to destroy. Although the Oriental religions were
the most dangerous and most persistent adversaries of Christianity, the
works of the Christian writers do not supply as abundant information as one
might suppose. The reason for this is that the fathers of the church often
show a certain reserve in speaking of idolatry, and affect to recall its
monstrosities only in guarded terms. Moreover, as we shall see later
on,[21] the apologists of the fourth century were frequently behind the
times as to the evolution of doctrines, and drawing on literary tradition,
from epicureans and skeptics, they fought especially the beliefs of the
ancient Grecian and Italian religions that had been abolished or were dying
out, while they neglected the living beliefs of the contemporary world.
Some of these polemicists nevertheless directed their attacks against the
divinities of the Orient and their Latin votaries. Either they derived
their information from converts or they had been pagans themselves during
their youth. This was the case with Firmicus Maternus who has written a bad
treatise on astrology and finally fought the _Error of the Profane
Religions_. However, the question always arises as to how much they can
have known of the esoteric doctrines and the ritual ceremonies, the secret
of which was jealously guarded. They boast so loudly of their power to
disclose these abominations, that they incur the suspicion that the
discretion of the initiates baffled their curiosity. In addition they were
too ready to believe all the calumnies that were circulated against the
pagan mysteries, {16} calumnies directed against occult sects of all times
and against the Christians themselves.
In short, the literary tradition is not very rich and frequently little
worthy of belief. While it is comparatively considerable for the Egyptian
religions because they were received by the Greek world as early as the
period of the Ptolemies, and because letters and science were always
cultivated at Alexandria, it is even less important for Phrygia, although
Cybele was Hellenized and Latinized very early, and excepting the tract by
Lucian on the goddess of Hierapolis it is almost nothing for the Syrian,
Cappadocian and Persian religions.
The insufficiency of the data supplied by writers increases the value of
information furnished by epigraphic and archeological documents, whose
number is steadily growing. The inscriptions possess a certainty and
precision that is frequently absent in the phrases of the writers. They
enable one to draw important conclusions as to the dates of propagation and
disappearance of the various religions, their extent, the quality and
social rank of their votaries, the sacred hierarchy and sacerdotal
personnel, the constitution of the religious communities, the offerings
made to the gods, and the ceremonies performed in their honor; in short,
conclusions as to the secular and profane history of these religions, and
in a certain measure their ritual. But the conciseness of the lapidary
style and the constant repetition of stereotyped formulas naturally render
that kind of text hardly explicit and sometimes enigmatical. There are
dedications like the _Nama Sebesio_ engraved upon the great Mithra
bas-relief preserved in the Louvre, that caused a number of {17}
dissertations to be written without any one explaining it. And besides, in
a general way, epigraphy gives us but little information about the liturgy
and almost nothing regarding the doctrines.
Archeology must endeavor to fill the enormous blanks left by the written
tradition; the monuments, especially the artistic ones, have not as yet
been collected with sufficient care nor interpreted with sufficient method.
By studying the arrangement of the temples and the religious furniture that
adorned them, one can at the same time determine part of the liturgic
ceremonies which took place there. On the other hand, the critical
interpretation of statuary relics enables us to reconstruct with sufficient
correctness certain sacred legends and to recover part of the theology of
the mysteries. Unlike Greek art, the religious art at the close of paganism
did not seek, or sought only incidentally, to elevate the soul through the
contemplation of an ideal of divine beauty. True to the traditions of the
ancient Orient, it tried to edify and to instruct at the same time.[22] It
told the history of the gods and the world in cycles of pictures, or it
expressed through symbols the subtle conceptions of theology and even
certain doctrines of profane science, like the struggle of the four
elements; just as during the Middle Ages, so the artist of the empire
interpreted the ideas of the clergy, teaching the believers by means of
pictures and rendering the highest religious conceptions intelligible to
the humblest minds. But to read this mystic book whose pages are scattered
in our museums we must laboriously look for its key, and we cannot take for
a guide and exegetist some Vincent de Beauvais of Diocletian's period[23]
as when looking over the marvelous {18} sculptured encyclopedias in our
Gothic cathedrals. Our position is frequently similar to that of a scholar
of the year 4000 who would undertake to write the history of the Passion
from the pictures of the fourteen stations, or to study the veneration of
the saints from the statues found in the ruins of our churches.
But, as far as the Oriental religions are concerned, the results of all the
laborious investigations now being made in the classical countries can be
indirectly controlled, and this is a great advantage. To-day we are
tolerably well acquainted with the old religions of Egypt, Babylonia and
Persia. We read and translate correctly the hieroglyphics of the Nile, the
cuneiform tablets of Mesopotamia and the sacred books, Zend or Pahlavi, of
Parseeism. Religious history has profited more by their deciphering than
the history of politics or of civilization. In Syria also, the discovery of
Aramaic and Phoenician inscriptions and the excavations made in temples
have in a certain measure covered the deficiency of information in the
Bible or in the Greek writers on Semitic paganism. Even Asia Minor, that is
to say the uplands of Anatolia, is beginning to reveal herself to explorers
although almost all the great sanctuaries, Pessinus, the two Comanas,
Castabala, are as yet buried underground. We can, therefore, even now form
a fairly exact idea of the beliefs of some of the countries that sent the
Oriental mysteries to Rome. To tell the truth, these researches have not
been pushed far enough to enable us to state precisely what form religion
had assumed in those regions at the time they came into contact with Italy,
and we should be likely to commit very strange errors, if we brought
together practices that may have been {19} separated by thousands of years.
It is a task reserved for the future to establish a rigorous chronology in
this matter, to determine the ultimate phase that the evolution of creeds
in all regions of the Levant had reached at the beginning of our era, and
to connect them without interruption of continuity to the mysteries
practiced in the Latin world, the secrets of which archeological researches
are slowly bringing to light.
We are still far from welding all the links of this long chain firmly
together; the orientalists and the classical philologists cannot, as yet,
shake hands across the Mediterranean. We raise only one corner of Isis's
veil, and scarcely guess a part of the revelations that were, even
formerly, reserved for a pious and chosen few. Nevertheless we have
reached, on the road of certainty, a summit from which we can overlook the
field that our successors will clear. In the course of these lectures I
shall attempt to give a summary of the essential results achieved by the
erudition of the nineteenth century and to draw from them a few conclusions
that will, possibly, be provisional. The invasion of the Oriental religions
that destroyed the ancient religions and national ideals of the Romans also
radically transformed the society and government of the empire, and in view
of this fact it would deserve the historian's attention even if it had not
foreshadowed and prepared the final victory of Christianity.
* * * * *
{20}
WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD.
When, during the fourth century, the weakened empire split asunder like an
overburdened scale whose beam is broken, this political divorce perpetuated
a moral separation that had existed for a long time. The opposition between
the Greco-Oriental and the Latin worlds manifests itself especially in
religion and in the attitude taken by the central power toward it.
Occidental paganism was almost exclusively Latin under the empire. After
the annexation of Spain, Gaul and Brittany, the old Iberian, Celtic and
other religions were unable to keep up the unequal struggle against the
more advanced religion of the conquerors. The marvelous rapidity with which
the literature of the civilizing Romans was accepted by the subject peoples
has frequently been pointed out. Its influence was felt in the temples as
well as in the forum; it transformed the prayers to the gods as well as the
conversation between men. Besides, it was part of the political program of
the Cæsars to make the adoption of the Roman divinities general, and the
government imposed the rules of its sacerdotal law as well as the
principles of its public and civil law upon its new subjects. The municipal
laws prescribed the election of pontiffs and augurs in common with the
judicial duumvirs. In Gaul druidism, with its oral traditions embodied in
{21} long poems, perished and disappeared less on account of the police
measures directed against it than in consequence of its voluntary
relinquishment by the Celts, as soon as they came under the ascendency of
Latin culture. In Spain it is difficult to find any traces of the
aboriginal religions. Even in Africa, where the Punic religion was far more
developed, it maintained itself only by assuming an entirely Roman
appearance. Baal became Saturn and Eshmoun Æsculapius. It is doubtful if
there was one temple in all the provinces of Italy and Gaul where, at the
time of the disappearance of idolatry, the ceremonies were celebrated
according to native rites and in the local idiom. To this exclusive
predominance of Latin is due the fact that it remained the only liturgic
language of the Occidental church, which here as in many other cases
perpetuated a preexisting condition and maintained a unity previously
established. By imposing her speech upon the inhabitants of Ireland and
Germany, Christian Rome simply continued the work of assimilation in the
barbarian provinces subject to her influence that she had begun while
pagan.[1]
In the Orient, however, the churches that are separate from the Greek
orthodoxy use, even to-day, a variety of dialects calling to mind the great
diversity of races formerly subject to Rome. In those times twenty
varieties of speech translated the religious thought of the peoples joined
under the dominion of the Cæsars. At the beginning of our era Hellenism had
not yet conquered the uplands of Anatolia,[2] nor central Syria, nor the
divisions of Egypt. Annexation to the empire might retard and in certain
regions weaken the power of expansion of Greek civilization, {22} but it
could not substitute Latin culture for it[3] except around the camps of the
legions guarding the frontier, and in a very few colonies. It especially
benefitted the individuality of each region. The native religions retained
all their prestige and independence. In their ancient sanctuaries that took
rank with the richest and most famous of the world, a powerful clergy
continued to practise ancestral devotions according to barbarian rites, and
frequently in a barbarian tongue. The traditional liturgy, everywhere
performed with scrupulous respect, remained Egyptian or Semitic, Phrygian
or Persian, according to the locality.
Neither pontifical law nor augural science ever obtained credit outside of
the Latin world. It is a characteristic fact that the worship of the
deified emperors, the only official worship required of every one by the
government as a proof of loyalty, should have originated of its own accord
in Asia, received its inspiration from the purest monarchic traditions, and
revived in form and spirit the veneration accorded to the Diadochi by their
subjects.
Not only were the gods of Egypt and Asia never supplanted like those of
Gaul or Spain, but they soon crossed the seas and gained worshipers in
every Latin province. Isis and Serapis, Cybele and Attis, the Syrian Baals,
Sabazius and Mithra were honored by brotherhoods of believers as far as the
remotest limits of Germany. The Oriental reaction that we perceive from the
beginning of our era, in studying the history of art, literature, and
philosophy, manifested itself with incomparably greater power in the
religious sphere. First, there was a slow infiltration of despised exotic
religions, then, toward the end of the first {23} century, the Orontes, the
Nile and the Halys, to use the words of Juvenal, flowed into the Tiber, to
the great indignation of the old Romans. Finally, a hundred years later, an
influx of Egyptian, Semitic and Persian beliefs and conceptions took place
that threatened to submerge all that the Greek and Roman genius had
laboriously built up. What called forth and permitted this spiritual
commotion, of which the triumph of Christianity was the outcome? Why was
the influence of the Orient strongest in the religious field? These
questions claim our attention. Like all great phenomena of history, this
particular one was determined by a number of influences that concurred in
producing it. In the mass of half-known particulars that brought it about,
certain factors or leading causes, of which every one has in turn been
considered the most important, may be distinguished.
If we yielded to the tendency of many excellent minds of to-day and
regarded history as the resultant of economic and social forces, it would
be easy to show their influence in that great religious movement. The
industrial and commercial preponderance of the Orient was manifest, for
there were situated the principal centers of production and export. The
ever increasing traffic with the Levant induced merchants to establish
themselves in Italy, in Gaul, in the Danubian countries, in Africa and in
Spain; in some cities they formed real colonies. The Syrian emigrants were
especially numerous. Compliant, quick and diligent, they went wherever they
expected profit, and their colonies, scattered as far as the north of Gaul,
were centers for the religious propaganda of paganism just as the Jewish
communities of the Diaspora were for Christian {24} preaching. Italy not
only bought her grain from Egypt, she imported men also; she ordered slaves
from Phrygia, Cappadocia, Syria and Alexandria to cultivate her depopulated
fields and perform the domestic duties in her palaces. Who can tell what
influence chambermaids from Antioch or Memphis gained over the minds of
their mistresses? At the same time the necessities of war removed officers
and men from the Euphrates to the Rhine or to the outskirts of the Sahara,
and everywhere they remained faithful to the gods of their far-away
country. The requirements of the government transferred functionaries and
their clerks, the latter frequently of servile birth, into the most distant
provinces. Finally, the ease of communication, due to the good roads,
increased the frequency and extent of travel.
Thus the exchange of products, men and ideas necessarily increased, and it
might be maintained that theocracy was a necessary consequence of the
mingling of the races, that the gods of the Orient followed the great
commercial and social currents, and that their establishment in the
Occident was a natural result of the movement that drew the excess
population of the Asiatic cities and rural districts into the less thickly
inhabited countries.
These reflections, which could be developed at some length, surely show the
way in which the Oriental religions spread. It is certain that the
merchants acted as missionaries in the seaports and places of commerce, the
soldiers on the frontiers and in the capital, the slaves in the city
homes,[4] in the rural districts and in public affairs. But while this
acquaints us with the means and the agents of the diffusion of those
religions, {25} it tells us nothing of the reasons for their adoption by
the Romans. We perceive the how, but not the why, of their sudden
expansion. Especially imperfect is our understanding of the reasons for the
difference between the Orient and the Occident pointed out above.
An example will make my meaning clear. A Celtic divinity, Epona,[5] was
held in particular honor as the protectress of horses, as we all know. The
Gallic horsemen worshiped her wherever they were cantoned; her monuments
have been found scattered from Scotland to Transylvania. And yet, although
this goddess enjoyed the same conditions as, for instance Jupiter
_Dolichenus_ whom the cohorts of Commagene introduced into Europe, it does
not appear that she ever received the homage of many strangers; it does not
appear, above all, that druidism ever assumed the shape of "mysteries of
Epona" into which Greeks and Romans would have asked to be initiated. It
was too deficient in the intrinsic strength of the Oriental religions, to
make proselytes.
Other historians and thinkers of to-day prefer to apply the laws of natural
science to religious phenomena; and the theories about the variation of
species find an unforeseen application here. It is maintained that the
immigration of Orientals, of Syrians in particular, was considerable enough
to provoke an alteration and rapid deterioration in the robust Italic and
Celtic races. In addition, a social status contrary to nature, and a bad
political régime effected the destruction of the strongest, the
extermination of the best and the ascendancy of the worst elements of the
population. This multitude, corrupted by deleterious cross-breeding and
weakened by bad selection, became unable to {26} oppose the invasion of the
Asiatic chimeras and aberrations. A lowering of the intellectual level and
the disappearance of the critical spirit accompanied the decline of morals
and the weakening of character. In the evolution of beliefs the triumph of
the Orient denoted a regression toward barbarism, a return to the remote
origins of faith and to the worship of natural forces. This is a brief
outline of explanations recently proposed and received with some favor.[6]
It cannot be denied that souls and morals appear to have become coarser
during the Roman decline. Society as a whole was deplorably lacking in
imagination, intellect and taste. It seemed afflicted with a kind of
cerebral anemia and incurable sterility. The impaired reason accepted the
coarsest superstitions, the most extreme asceticism and most extravagant
theurgy. It resembled an organism incapable of defending itself against
contagion. All this is partly true; but the theories summarized proceed
from an incorrect conception of things; in reality they are based on the
illusion that Asia, under the empire, was inferior to Europe. While the
triumph of the Oriental religions sometimes assumed the appearance of an
awakening of savagery, these religions in reality represented a more
advanced type in the evolution of religious forms than the ancient national
devotions. They were less primitive, less simple, and, if I may use the
expression, provided with more organs than the old Greco-Roman idolatry. We
have indicated this on previous occasions, and hope to bring it out with
perfect clearness in the course of these studies.
It is hardly necessary to state that a great religious conquest can be
explained only on moral grounds. {27} Whatever part must be ascribed to the
instinct of imitation and the contagion of example, in the last analysis we
are always face to face with a series of individual conversions. The
mysterious affinity of minds is as much due to reflection as to the
continued and almost unconscious influence of confused aspirations that
produce faith. The obscure gestation of a new ideal is accomplished with
pangs of anguish. Violent struggles must have disturbed the souls of the
masses when they were torn away from their old ancestral religions, or more
often from indifference, by those exacting gods who demanded a surrender of
the entire person, a _devotion_ in the etymological meaning of the word.
The consecration to Isis of the hero of Apuleius was the result of a call,
of an appeal, by the goddess who wanted the neophyte to enlist in her
sacred militia.[7]
If it is true that every conversion involves a psychological crisis, a
transformation of the intimate personality of the individual, this is
especially true of the propagation of the Oriental religions. Born outside
of the narrow limits of the Roman city, they grew up frequently in
hostility to it, and were international, consequently individual. The bond
that formerly kept devotion centered upon the city or the tribe, upon the
_gens_ or the family, was broken. In place of the ancient social groups
communities of initiates came into existence, who considered themselves
brothers no matter where they came from.[8] A god, conceived of as being
universal, received every mortal as his child. Whenever these religions had
any relation to the state they were no longer called upon to support old
municipal or social institutions, but to lend their strength to the {28}
authority of a sovereign regarded as the eternal lord of the whole world
jointly with God himself. In the circles of the mystics, Asiatics mingled
with Romans, and slaves with high functionaries. The adoption of the same
faith made the poor freedman the equal and sometimes the superior, of the
decurion and the _clarissimus_. All submitted to the same rules and
participated in the same festivities, in which the distinctions of an
aristocratic society and the differences of blood and country were
obliterated. The distinctions of race and nationality, of magistrate and
father of a family, of patrician and plebeian, of citizen and foreigner,
were abolished; all were but men, and in order to recruit members, those
religions worked upon man and his character.
In order to gain the masses and the cream of Roman society (as they did for
a whole century) the barbarian mysteries had to possess a powerful charm,
they had to satisfy the deep wants of the human soul, and their strength
had to be superior to that of the ancient Greco-Roman religion. To explain
the reasons for their victory we must try to reveal the nature of this
superiority--I mean their superiority in the struggle, without assuming
innate superiority.
I believe that we can define it by stating that those religions gave
greater satisfaction first, to the senses and passions, secondly, to the
intelligence, finally, and above all, to the conscience.
In the first place, they appealed more strongly to the senses. This was
their most obvious feature, and it has been pointed out more often than any
other. Perhaps there never was a religion so cold and prosaic as the Roman.
Being subordinated to politics, it sought, {29} above all, to secure the
protection of the gods for the state and to avert the effects of their
malevolence by the strict execution of appropriate practices. It entered
into a contract with the celestial powers from which mutual obligations
arose: sacrifices on one side, favors on the other. The pontiffs, who were
also magistrates, regulated the religious practices with the exact
precision of jurists;[9] as far as we know the prayers were all couched in
formulas as dry and verbose as notarial instruments. The liturgy reminds
one of the ancient civil law on account of the minuteness of its
prescriptions. This religion looked suspiciously at the abandonment of the
soul to the ecstasies of devotion. It repressed, by force if necessary, the
exuberant manifestations of too ardent faith and everything that was not in
keeping with the grave dignity befitting the relations of a _civis Romanus_
with a god. The Jews had the same scrupulous respect as the Romans for a
religious code and formulas of the past, "but in spite of their dry and
minute practices, the legalism of the Pharisees stirred the heart more
strongly than did Roman formalism."[10]
Lacking the recognized authority of official creeds, the Oriental religions
had to appeal to the passions of the individual in order to make
proselytes. They attracted men first by the disturbing seductiveness of
their mysteries, where terror and hope were evoked in turns, and charmed
them by the pomp of their festivities and the magnificence of their
processions. Men were fascinated by the languishing songs and intoxicating
melodies. Above all these religions taught men how to reach that blissful
state in which the soul was freed from the tyranny of the body and of
suffering, {30} and lost itself in raptures. They led to ecstasy either by
means of nervous tension resulting from continued maceration and fervent
contemplation or by more material means like the stimulation of vertiginous
dances and dizzy music, or even by the absorption of fermented liquors
after a long abstinence,[11] as in the case of the priests of the Great
Mother. In mysticism it is easy to descend from the sublime to the vile.
Even the gods, with whom the believers thought they were uniting themselves
in their mystic outbursts, were more human and sometimes more sensual than
those of the Occident. The latter had that quietude of soul in which the
philosophic morality of the Greeks saw a privilege of the sage; in the
serenity of Olympus they enjoyed perpetual youth; they were Immortals. The
divinities of the Orient, on the contrary, suffered and died, but only to
revive again.[12] Osiris, Attis and Adonis were mourned like mortals by
wife or mistress, Isis, Cybele or Astarte. With them the mystics moaned for
their deceased god and later, after he had revived, celebrated with
exultation his birth to a new life. Or else they joined in the passion of
Mithra, condemned to create the world in suffering. This common grief and
joy were often expressed with savage violence, by bloody mutilations, long
wails of despair, and extravagant acclamations. The manifestations of the
extreme fanaticism of those barbarian races that had not been touched by
Greek skepticism and the very ardor of their faith inflamed the souls of
the multitudes attracted by the exotic gods.
The Oriental religions touched every chord of sensibility and satisfied the
thirst for religious emotion that the austere Roman creed had been unable
to quench. {31} But at the same time they satisfied the intellect more
fully, and this is my second point.
In very early times Greece--later imitated by Rome--became resolutely
rationalistic: her greatest originality lies here. Her philosophy was
purely laical; thought was unrestrained by any sacred tradition; it even
pretended to pass judgment upon these traditions and condemned or approved
of them. Being sometimes hostile, sometimes indifferent and some times
conciliatory, it always remained independent of faith. But while Greece
thus freed herself from the fetters of a superannuated mythology, and
openly and boldly constructed those systems of metaphysics by means of
which she claimed to solve the enigmas of the universe, her religion lost
its vitality and dried up because it lacked the strengthening nourishment
of reflection. It became a thing devoid of sense, whose _raison d'être_ was
no longer understood; it embodied dead ideas and an obsolete conception of
the world. In Greece as well as at Rome it was reduced to a collection of
unintelligible rites, scrupulously and mechanically reproduced without
addition or omission because they had been practised by the ancestors of
long ago, and formulas hallowed by the _mos maiorum_, that were no longer
understood or sincerely cherished. Never did a people of advanced culture
have a more infantile religion.
The Oriental civilizations on the contrary were sacerdotal in character. As
in medieval Europe, the scholars of Asia and Egypt were priests. In the
temples the nature of the gods and of man were not the only subjects of
discussion; mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philology and history were
also studied. The successors of Berosus, a priest from Babylonia, and {32}
Manetho, a priest from Heliopolis, were considered deeply versed in all
intellectual disciplines as late as the time of Strabo.[13]
This state of affairs proved detrimental to the progress of science.
Researches were conducted according to preconceived ideas and were
perverted through strange prejudices. Astrology and magic were the
monstrous fruit of a hybrid union. But all this certainly gave religion a
power it had never possessed either in Greece or Rome.
All results of observation, all conquests of thought, were used by an
erudite clergy to attain the principal object of their activities, the
solution of the problem of the destiny of man and matter, and of the
relations of heaven and earth. An ever enlarging conception of the universe
kept transforming the modes of belief. Faith presumed to enslave both
physics and metaphysics. The credit of every discovery was given to the
gods. Thoth in Egypt and Bel in Chaldea were the revealers not only of
theology and the ritual, but of all human knowledge.[14] The names of the
Oriental Hipparchi and Euclids who solved the first problems of astronomy
and geometry were unknown; but a confused and grotesque literature made use
of the name and authority of Hermes Trismegistus. The doctrines of the
planetary spheres and the opposition of the four elements were made to
support systems of anthropology and of morality; the theorems of astronomy
were used to establish an alleged method of divination; formulas of
incantation, supposed to subject divine powers to the magician, were
combined with chemical experiments and medical prescriptions.
This intimate union of erudition and faith continued {33} in the Latin
world. Theology became more and more a process of deification of the
principles or agents discovered by science and a worship of time regarded
as the first cause, the stars whose course determined the events of this
world, the four elements whose innumerable combinations produced the
natural phenomena, and especially the sun which preserved heat, fertility
and life. The dogmas of the mysteries of Mithra were, to a certain extent,
the religious expression of Roman physics and astronomy. In all forms of
pantheism the knowledge of nature appears to be inseparable from that of
God.[15] Art itself complied more and more with the tendency to express
erudite ideas by subtle symbolism, and it represented in allegorical
figures the relations of divine powers and cosmic forces, like the sky, the
earth, the ocean, the planets, the constellations and the winds. The
sculptors engraved on stone everything man thought and taught. In a general
way the belief prevailed that redemption and salvation depended on the
revelation of certain truths, on a knowledge of the gods, of the world and
of our person, and piety became gnosis.[16]
But, you will say, since in the classic age philosophy also claimed to lead
to morality through instruction and to acquaint man with the supreme good,
why did it yield to Oriental religions that were in reality neither
original nor innovating? Quite right, and if a powerful rationalist school,
possessed of a good critical method, had led the minds, we may believe that
it would have checked the invasion of the barbarian mysteries or at least
limited their field of action. However, as has frequently been pointed out,
even in ancient Greece the philosophic critics had very little hold on {34}
popular religion obstinately faithful to its inherited superstitious forms.
But how many second century minds shared Lucian's skepticism in regard to
the dogmatic systems! The various sects were fighting each other for ever
so long without convincing one another of their alleged error. The satirist
of Samosata enjoyed opposing their exclusive pretensions while he himself
reclined on the "soft pillow of doubt." But only intelligent minds could
delight in doubt or surrender to it; the masses wanted certainties. There
was nothing to revive confidence in the power of a decrepit and threadbare
science. No great discovery transformed the conception of the universe.
Nature no longer betrayed her secrets, the earth remained unexplored and
the past inscrutable. Every branch of knowledge was forgotten. The world
cursed with sterility, could but repeat itself; it had the poignant
appreciation of its own decay and impotence. Tired of fruitless researches,
the mind surrendered to the necessity of believing. Since the intellect was
unable to formulate a consistent rule of life faith alone could supply it,
and the multitudes gravitated toward the temples, where the truths taught
to man in earlier days by the Oriental gods were revealed. The stanch
adherence of past generations to beliefs and rites of unlimited antiquity
seemed to guarantee their truth and efficacy. This current was so strong
that philosophy itself was swept toward mysticism and the neo-Platonist
school became a theurgy.
The Oriental mysteries, then, could stir the soul by arousing admiration
and terror, pity and enthusiasm in turn. They gave the intellect the
illusion of learned depth and absolute certainty and finally--our third
{35} point--they satisfied conscience as well as passion and reason. Among
the complex causes that guaranteed their domination, this was without doubt
the most effective.
In every period of their history the Romans, unlike the Greeks in this
respect, judged theories and institutions especially by their practical
results. They always had a soldier's and business man's contempt for
metaphysicians. It is a matter of frequent observation that the philosophy
of the Latin world neglected metaphysical speculations and concentrated its
attention on morals, just as later the Roman church left to the subtle
Hellenes the interminable controversies over the essence of the divine
logos and the double nature of Christ. Questions that could rouse and
divide her were those having a direct application to life, like the
doctrine of grace.
The old religion of the Romans had to respond to this demand of their
genius. Its poverty was honest.[17] Its mythology did not possess the
poetic charm of that of Greece, nor did its gods have the imperishable
beauty of the Olympians, but they were more moral, or at least pretended to
be. A large number were simply personified qualities, like chastity and
piety. With the aid of the censors they imposed the practice of the
national virtues, that is to say of the qualities useful to society,
temperance, courage, chastity, obedience to parents and magistrates,
reverence for the oath and the law, in fact, the practice of every form of
patriotism. During the last century of the republic the pontiff Scaevola,
one of the foremost men of his time, rejected as futile the divinities of
fable and poetry, as superfluous or obnoxious those of the philosophers and
the exegetists, {36} and reserved all his favors for those of the
statesmen, as the only ones fit for the people.[18] These were the ones
protecting the old customs, traditions and frequently even the old
privileges. But in the perpetual flux of things conservatism ever carries
with it a germ of death. Just as the law failed to maintain the integrity
of ancient principles, like the absolute power of the father of the family,
principles that were no longer in keeping with the social realities, so
religion witnessed the foundering of a system of ethics contrary to the
moral code that had slowly been established. The idea of collective
responsibility contained in a number of beliefs is one instance. If a
vestal violated her vow of chastity the divinity sent a pest that ceased
only on the day the culprit was punished. Sometimes the angry heavens
granted victory to the army only on condition that a general or soldier
dedicate himself to the infernal gods as an expiatory victim. However,
through the influence of the philosophers and the jurists the conviction
slowly gained ground that each one was responsible for his own misdeeds,
and that it was not equitable to make a whole city suffer for the crime of
an individual. People ceased to admit that the gods crushed the good as
well as the wicked in one punishment. Often, also, the divine anger was
thought to be as ridiculous in its manifestations as in its cause. The
rural superstitions of the country districts of Latium continued to live in
the pontifical code of the Roman people. If a lamb with two heads or a colt
with five legs was born, solemn supplications were prescribed to avert the
misfortunes foreboded by those terrifying prodigies.[19]
All these puerile and monstrous beliefs that burdened {37} the religion of
the Latins had thrown it into disrepute. Its morality no longer responded
to the new conception of justice beginning to prevail. As a rule Rome
remedied the poverty of her theology and ritual by taking what she needed
from the Greeks. But here this resource failed her because the poetic,
artistic and even intellectual religion of the Greeks was hardly moral. And
the fables of a mythology jeered at by the philosophers, parodied on the
stage and put to verse by libertine poets were anything but edifying.
Moreover--this was its second weakness--whatever morality it demanded of a
pious man went unrewarded. People no longer believed that the gods
continually intervened in the affairs of men to reveal hidden crimes and to
punish triumphant vice, or that Jupiter would hurl his thunderbolt to crush
the perjurer. At the time of the proscriptions and the civil wars under
Nero or Commodus it was more than plain that power and possessions were for
the strongest, the ablest or even the luckiest, and not for the wisest or
the most pious. The idea of reward or punishment beyond the grave found
little credit. The notions of future life were hazy, uncertain, doubtful
and contradictory. Everybody knows Juvenal's famous lines: "That there are
manes, a subterranean kingdom, a ferryman with a long pole, and black frogs
in the whirlpools of the Styx; that so many thousand men could cross the
waves in a single boat, to-day even children refuse to believe."[20]
After the fall of the republic indifference spread, the temples were
abandoned and threatened to tumble into ruins, the clergy found it
difficult to recruit members, the festivities, once so popular, fell into
desuetude, and {38} Varro, at the beginning of his _Antiquities_, expressed
his fear lest "the gods might perish, not from the blows of foreign
enemies, but from very neglect on the part of the citizens."[21] It is well
known that Augustus, prompted by political rather than by religious
reasons, attempted to revive the dying religion. His religious reforms
stood in close relation to his moral legislation and the establishment of
the imperial dignity. Their tendency was to bring the people back to the
pious practice of ancient virtues but also to chain them to the new
political order. The alliance of throne and altar in Europe dates from that
time.
This attempted reform failed entirely. Making religion an auxiliary to
moral policing is not a means of establishing its empire over souls. Formal
reverence for the official gods is not incompatible with absolute and
practical skepticism. The restoration attempted by Augustus is nevertheless
very characteristic because it is so consistent with the Roman spirit which
by temperament and tradition demanded that religion should support morality
and the state.
The Asiatic religions fulfilled the requirements. The change of régime,
although unwelcome, brought about a change of religion. The increasing
tendency of Cæsarism toward absolute monarchy made it lean more and more
upon the Oriental clergy. True to the traditions of the Achemenides and the
Pharaohs, those priests preached doctrines tending to elevate the sovereign
above humanity, and they supplied the emperors with dogmatic justification
for their despotism.[22]
It is a noteworthy fact that the rulers who most loudly proclaimed their
autocratic pretentions, like {39} Domitian and Commodus, were also those
that favored foreign creeds most openly.
But his selfish support merely sanctioned a power already established. The
propaganda of the Oriental religions was originally democratic and
sometimes even revolutionary like the Isis worship. Step by step they
advanced, always reaching higher social classes and appealing to popular
conscience rather than to the zeal of functionaries.
As a matter of fact all these religions, except that of Mithra, seem at
first sight to be far less austere than the Roman creed. We shall have
occasion to note that they contained coarse and immodest fables and
atrocious or vile rites. The Egyptian gods were expelled from Rome by
Augustus and Tiberius on the charge of being immoral, but they were called
immoral principally because they opposed a certain conception of the social
order. They gave little attention to the public interest but attached
considerable importance to the inner life and consequently to the value of
the individual. Two new things, in particular, were brought to Italy by the
Oriental priests: mysterious methods of purification, by which they claimed
to wash away the impurities of the soul, and the assurance that a blessed
immortality would be the reward of piety.[23]
These religions pretended to restore lost purity[24] to the soul either
through the performance of ritual ceremonies or through mortifications and
penance. They had a series of ablutions and lustrations supposed to restore
original innocence to the mystic. He had to wash himself in the sacred
water according to certain prescribed forms. This was really a magic rite,
because bodily purity acted sympathetically upon the soul, or {40} else it
was a real spiritual disinfection with the water driving out the evil
spirits that had caused pollution. The votary, again, might drink or
besprinkle himself with the blood of a slaughtered victim or of the priests
themselves, in which case the prevailing idea was that the liquid
circulating in the veins was a vivifying principle capable of imparting a
new existence.[25] These and similar rites[26] used in the mysteries were
supposed to regenerate the initiated person and to restore him to an
immaculate and incorruptible life.[27]
Purgation of the soul was not effected solely by liturgic acts but also by
self-denial and suffering.[28] The meaning of the term _expiatio_ changed.
Expiation, or atonement, was no longer accomplished by the exact
performance of certain ceremonies pleasing to the gods and required by a
sacred code like a penalty for damages, but by privation and personal
suffering. Abstinence, which prevented the introduction of deadly elements
into the system, and chastity, which preserved man from pollution and
debility, became means of getting rid of the domination of the evil powers
and of regaining heavenly favor.[29] Macerations, laborious pilgrimages,
public confessions, sometimes flagellations and mutilations, in fact all
forms of penance and mortifications uplifted the fallen man and brought him
nearer to the gods. In Phrygia a sinner would write his sin and the
punishment he suffered upon a stela for every one to see and would return
thanks to heaven that his prayer of repentance had been heard.[30] The
Syrian, who had offended his goddess by eating her sacred fish, dressed in
sordid rags, covered himself with a sack and sat in the public highway
humbly to proclaim his misdeed in order to obtain forgiveness.[31] {41}
"Three times, in the depths of winter," says Juvenal, "the devotee of Isis
will dive into the chilly waters of the Tiber, and shivering with cold,
will drag herself around the temple upon her bleeding knees; if the goddess
commands, she will go to the outskirts of Egypt to take water from the Nile
and empty it within the sanctuary."[32] This shows the introduction into
Europe of Oriental asceticism.
But there were impious acts and impure passions that contaminated and
defiled the soul. Since this infection could be destroyed only by
expiations prescribed by the gods, the extent of the sin and the character
of the necessary penance had to be estimated. It was the priest's
prerogative to judge the misdeeds and to impose the penalties. This
circumstance gave the clergy a very different character from the one it had
at Rome. The priest was no longer simply the guardian of sacred traditions,
the intermediary between man or the state and the gods, but also a
spiritual guide. He taught his flock the long series of obligations and
restrictions for shielding their weakness from the attacks of evil spirits.
He knew how to quiet remorse and scruples, and to restore the sinner to
spiritual calm. Being versed in sacred knowledge, he had the power of
reconciling the gods. Frequent sacred repasts maintained a spirit of
fellowship among the mystics of Cybele, Mithra or the Baals,[33] and a
daily service unceasingly revived the faith of the Isis worshipers. In
consequence, the clergy were entirely absorbed in their holy office and
lived only for and by their temples. Unlike the sacerdotal colleges of Rome
in which the secular and religious functions were not yet clearly
differentiated,[34] they were not an {42} administrative commission ruling
the sacred affairs of the state under the supervision of the senate; they
formed what might almost be called a caste of recluses distinguished from
ordinary men by their insignia, garb, habits and food, and constituting an
independent body with a hierarchy, formulary and even councils of their
own.[35] They did not return to every-day duties as private citizens or to
the direction of public affairs as magistrates as the ancient pontiffs had
done after the solemn festival service.
We can readily understand that these beliefs and institutions were bound to
establish the Oriental religions and their priests on a strong basis. Their
influence must have been especially powerful at the time of the Cæsars. The
laxity of morals at the beginning of our era has been exaggerated but it
was real. Many unhealthy symptoms told of a profound moral anarchy weighing
on a weakened and irresolute society. The farther we go toward the end of
the empire the more its energy seems to fail and the character of men to
weaken. The number of strong healthy minds incapable of a lasting
aberration and without need of guidance or comfort was growing ever
smaller. We note the spread of that feeling of exhaustion and debility
which follows the aberrations of passion, and the same weakness that led to
crime impelled men to seek absolution in the formal practices of
asceticism. They applied to the Oriental priests for spiritual remedies.
People flattered themselves that by performing the rites they would attain
a condition of felicity after death. All barbarian mysteries pretended to
reveal to their adherents the secret of blessed immortality. Participation
in the occult ceremonies of the sect was a {43} chief means of
salvation.[36] The vague and disheartening beliefs of ancient paganism in
regard to life after death were transformed into the firm hope of a
well-defined form of happiness.[37]
This faith in a personal survival of the soul and even of the body was
based upon a strong instinct of human nature, the instinct of
self-preservation. Social and moral conditions in the empire during its
decline gave it greater strength than it had ever possessed before.[38] The
third century saw so much suffering, anguish and violence, so much
unnecessary ruin and so many unpunished crimes, that the Roman world took
refuge in the expectation of a better existence in which all the iniquity
of this world would be retrieved. No earthly hope brightened life. The
tyranny of a corrupt bureaucracy choked all disposition for political
progress. Science stagnated and revealed no more unknown truths. Growing
poverty discouraged the spirit of enterprise. The idea gained ground that
humanity was afflicted with incurable decay, that nature was approaching
her doom and that the end of world was near.[39] We must remember all these
causes of discouragement and despondency to understand the power of the
idea, expressed so frequently, that the spirit animating man was forced by
bitter necessity to imprison itself in matter and that it was delivered
from its carnal captivity by death. In the heavy atmosphere of a period of
oppression and impotence the dejected soul longed with incredible ardor to
fly to the radiant abode of heaven.
To recapitulate, the Oriental religions acted upon the senses, the
intellect and the conscience at the same time, and therefore gained a hold
on the entire man. {44} Compared with the ancient creeds, they appear to
have offered greater beauty of ritual, greater truth of doctrine and a far
superior morality. The imposing ceremonial of their festivities and the
alternating pomp and sensuality, gloom and exaltation of their services
appealed especially to the simple and the humble, while the progressive
revelation of ancient wisdom, inherited from the old and distant Orient,
captivated the cultured mind. The emotions excited by these religions and
the consolations offered strongly attracted the women, who were the most
fervent and generous followers and most passionate propagandists[40] of the
religions of Isis and Cybele. Mithra was worshiped almost exclusively by
men, whom he subjected to a rigid moral discipline. Thus souls were gained
by the promise of spiritual purification and the prospect of eternal
happiness.
The worship of the Roman gods was a civic duty, the worship of the foreign
gods the expression of a personal belief. The latter were the objects of
the thoughts, feelings and intimate aspirations of the individual, not
merely of the traditional and, one might say, functional adoration of the
citizen. The ancient municipal devotions were connected with a number of
earthly interests that helped to support each other. They were one of
various forms of family spirit and patriotism and guaranteed the prosperity
of the community. The Oriental mysteries, directing the will toward an
ideal goal and exalting the inner spirit, were less mindful of economic
utility, but they could produce that vibration of the moral being that
caused emotions, stronger than any rational faculty, to gush forth from the
depths of the soul. Through a sudden illumination {45} they furnished the
intuition of a spiritual life whose intensity made all material happiness
appear insipid and contemptible. This stirring appeal of supernatural life
made the propaganda irresistible. The same ardent enthusiasm guaranteed at
the same time the uncontested domination of neo-Platonism among the
philosophers. Antiquity expired and a new era was born.
* * * * *
{46}
ASIA MINOR.
The first Oriental religion adopted by the Romans was that of the goddess
of Phrygia, whom the people of Pessinus and Mount Ida worshiped, and who
received the name of _Magna Mater deum Idea_ in the Occident. Its history
in Italy covers six centuries, and we can trace each phase of the
transformation that changed it in the course of time from a collection of
very primitive nature beliefs into a system of spiritualized mysteries used
by some as a weapon against Christianity. We shall now endeavor to outline
the successive phases of that slow metamorphosis.
This religion is the only one whose success in the Latin world was caused
originally by a mere chance circumstance. In 205 B. C, when Hannibal,
vanquished but still threatening, made his last stand in the mountains of
Bruttium, repeated torrents of stones frightened the Roman people. When the
books were officially consulted in regard to this prodigy they promised
that the enemy would be driven from Italy if the Great Mother of Ida could
be brought to Rome. Nobody but the Sibyls themselves had the power of
averting the evils prophesied by them. They had come to Italy from Asia
Minor, and in this critical situation their sacred poem recommended the
practice of their native religion as a remedy. In token of his {47}
friendship, King Attalus presented the ambassadors of the senate with the
black aerolite, supposed to be the abode of the goddess, that this ruler
had shortly before transferred from Pessinus to Pergamum. According to the
mandate of the oracle the stone was received at Ostia by the best citizen
of the land, an honor accorded to Scipio Nasica--and carried by the most
esteemed matrons to the Palatine, where, hailed by the cheers of the
multitude and surrounded by fumes of incense, it was solemnly installed
(Nones of April, 204). This triumphal entry was later glorified by
marvelous legends, and the poets told of edifying miracles that had
occurred during Cybele's voyage. In the same year Scipio transferred the
seat of war to Africa, and Hannibal, compelled to meet him there, was
beaten at Zama. The prediction of the Sybils had come true and Rome was rid
of the long Punic terror. The foreign goddess was honored in recognition of
the service she had rendered. A temple was erected to her on the summit of
the Palatine, and every year a celebration enhanced by scenic plays, the
_ludi Megalenses_, commemorated the date of dedication of the sanctuary and
the arrival of the goddess (April 4th-10th).
What was this Asiatic religion that had suddenly been transferred into the
heart of Rome by an extraordinary circumstance? Even then it could look
back upon a long period of development. It combined beliefs of various
origin. It contained primitive usages of the religion of Anatolia, some of
which have survived to this day in spite of Christianity and Islam. Like
the Kizil-Bash peasants of to-day, the ancient inhabitants of the peninsula
met on the summits of mountains covered with woods no ax had desecrated,
and {48} celebrated their festal days.[1] They believed that Cybele resided
on the high summits of Ida and Berecyntus, and the perennial pines, in
conjunction with the prolific and early maturing almond tree, were the
sacred trees of Attis. Besides trees, the country people worshiped stones,
rocks or meteors that had fallen from the sky like the one taken from
Pessinus to Pergamum and thence to Rome. They also venerated certain
animals, especially the most powerful of them all, the lion, who may at one
time have been the totem of savage tribes.[2] In mythology as well as in
art the lion remained the riding or driving animal of the Great Mother.
Their conception of the divinity was indistinct and impersonal. A goddess
of the earth, called Mâ or Cybele, was revered as the fecund mother of all
things, the "mistress of the wild beasts"[3] that inhabit the woods. A god
Attis, or Papas, was regarded as her husband, but the first place in this
divine household belonged to the woman, a reminiscence of the period of
matriarchy.[4]
When the Phrygians at a very early period came from Thrace and inserted
themselves like a wedge in the old Anatolian races, they adopted the vague
deities of their new country by identifying them with their own, after the
habit of pagan nations. Thus Attis became one with the Dionysus-Sabazius of
the conquerors, or at least assumed some of his characteristics. This
Thracian Dionysus was a god of vegetation. Foucart has thus admirably
pictured his savage nature: "Wooded summits, deep oak and pine forests,
ivy-clad caverns were at all times his favorite haunts. Mortals who were
anxious to know the powerful divinity ruling these solitudes had to observe
the life of his kingdom, {49} and to guess the god's nature from the
phenomena through which he manifested his power. Seeing the creeks descend
in noisy foaming cascades, or hearing the roaring of steers in the uplands
and the strange sounds of the wind-beaten forests, the Thracians thought
they heard the voice and the calls of the lord of that empire, and imagined
a god who was fond of extravagant leaps and of wild roaming over the wooded
mountains. This conception inspired their religion, for the surest way for
mortals to ingratiate themselves with a divinity was to imitate him, and as
far as possible to make their lives resemble his. For this reason the
Thracians endeavored to attain the divine delirium that transported their
Dionysus, and hoped to realize their purpose by following their invisible
yet ever-present lord in his chase over the mountains."[5]
In the Phrygian religion we find the same beliefs and rites, scarcely
modified at all, with the one difference that Attis, the god of vegetation,
was united to the goddess of the earth instead of living "in sullen
loneliness." When the tempest was beating the forests of the Berecyntus or
Ida, it was Cybele traveling about in her car drawn by roaring lions
mourning her lover's death. A crowd of worshipers followed her through
woods and thickets, mingling their shouts with the shrill sound of flutes,
with the dull beat of tambourines, with the rattling of castanets and the
dissonance of brass cymbals. Intoxicated with shouting and with uproar of
the instruments, excited by their impetuous advance, breathless and
panting, they surrendered to the raptures of a sacred enthusiasm. Catullus
has left us a dramatic description of this divine ecstasy.[6] {50}
The religion of Phrygia was perhaps even more violent than that of Thrace.
The climate of the Anatolian uplands is one of extremes. Its winters are
rough, long and cold, the spring rains suddenly develop a vigorous
vegetation that is scorched by the hot summer sun. The abrupt contrasts of
a nature generous and sterile, radiant and bleak in turn, caused excesses
of sadness and joy that were unknown in temperate and smiling regions,
where the ground was never buried under snow nor scorched by the sun. The
Phrygians mourned the long agony and death of the vegetation, but when the
verdure reappeared in March they surrendered to the excitement of a
tumultuous joy. In Asia savage rites that had been unknown in Thrace or
practiced in milder form expressed the vehemence of those opposing
feelings. In the midst of their orgies, and after wild dances, some of the
worshipers voluntarily wounded themselves and, becoming intoxicated with
the view of the blood, with which they besprinkled their altars, they
believed they were uniting themselves with their divinity. Or else,
arriving at a paroxysm of frenzy, they sacrificed their virility to the
gods as certain Russian dissenters still do to-day. These men became
priests of Cybele and were called Galli. Violent ecstasis was always an
endemic disease in Phrygia. As late as the Antonines, montanist prophets
that arose in that country attempted to introduce it into Christianity.
All these excessive and degrading demonstrations of an extreme worship must
not cause us to slight the power of the feeling that inspired it. The
sacred ecstasy, the voluntary mutilations and the eagerly sought sufferings
manifested an ardent longing for {51} deliverance from subjection to carnal
instincts, and a fervent desire to free the soul from the bonds of matter.
The ascetic tendencies went so far as to create a kind of begging
monachism--the _métragyrtes_. They also harmonized with some of the ideas
of renunciation taught by Greek philosophy, and at an early period Hellenic
theologians took an interest in this devotion that attracted and repelled
them at the same time. Timotheus the Eumolpid, who was one of the founders
of the Alexandrian religion of Serapis, derived the inspiration for his
essays on religious reform, among other sources, from the ancient Phrygian
myths. Those thinkers undoubtedly succeeded in making the priests of
Pessinus themselves admit many speculations quite foreign to the old
Anatolian nature worship. The votaries of Cybele began at a very remote
period to practise "mysteries"[7] in which the initiates were made
acquainted, by degrees, with a wisdom that was always considered divine,
but underwent peculiar variations in the course of time.
* * * * *
Such is the religion which the rough Romans of the Punic wars accepted and
adopted. Hidden under theological and cosmological doctrines it contained
an ancient stock of very primitive and coarse religious ideas, such as the
worship of trees, stones and animals. Besides this superstitious fetichism
it involved ceremonies that were both sensual and ribald, including all the
wild and mystic rites of the bacchanalia which the public authorities were
to prohibit a few years later.
When the senate became better acquainted with the divinity imposed upon it
by the Sibyls, it must have been quite embarrassed by the present of King
Attalus. {52} The enthusiastic transports and the somber fanaticism of the
Phrygian worship contrasted violently with the calm dignity and respectable
reserve of the official religion, and excited the minds of the people to a
dangerous degree. The emasculated Galli were the objects of contempt and
disgust and what in their own eyes was a meritorious act was made a crime
punishable by law, at least under the empire.[8] The authorities hesitated
between the respect due to the powerful goddess that had delivered Rome
from the Carthaginians and the reverence for the _mos maiorum_. They solved
the difficulty by completely isolating the new religion in order to prevent
its contagion. All citizens were forbidden to join the priesthood of the
foreign goddess or to participate in her sacred orgies. The barbarous rites
according to which the Great Mother was to be worshiped were performed by
Phrygian priests and priestesses. The holidays celebrated in her honor by
the entire nation, the _Megalensia_, contained no Oriental feature and were
organized in conformity with Roman traditions.
A characteristic anecdote told by Diodorus[9] shows what the public feeling
was towards this Asiatic worship at the end of the republic. In Pompey's
time a high priest from Pessinus came to Rome, presented himself at the
forum in his sacerdotal garb, a golden diadem and a long embroidered
robe--and pretending that the statue of his goddess had been profaned
demanded public expiation. But a tribune forbade him to wear the royal
crown, and the populace rose against him in a mob and compelled him to seek
refuge in his house. Although apologies were made later, this story shows
how little the people of that period felt {53} the veneration that attached
to Cybele and her clergy after a century had passed.
Kept closely under control, the Phrygian worship led an obscure existence
until the establishment of the empire. That closed the first period of its
history at Rome. It attracted attention only on certain holidays, when its
priests marched the streets in procession, dressed in motley costumes,
loaded with heavy jewelry, and beating tambourines. On those days the
senate granted them the right to go from house to house to collect funds
for their temples. The remainder of the year they confined themselves to
the sacred enclosure of the Palatine, celebrating foreign ceremonies in a
foreign language. They aroused so little notice during this period that
almost nothing is known of their practices or of their creed. It has even
been maintained that Attis was not worshiped together with his companion,
the Great Mother, during the times of the republic, but this is undoubtedly
wrong, because the two persons of this divine couple must have been as
inseparable in the ritual as they were in the myths.[10]
But the Phrygian religion kept alive in spite of police surveillance, in
spite of precautions and prejudices; a breach had been made in the cracked
wall of the old Roman principles, through which the entire Orient finally
gained ingress.
Directly after the fall of the republic a second divinity from Asia Minor,
closely related to the Great Mother, became established in the capital.
During the wars against Mithridates the Roman soldiers learned to revere
Mâ, the great goddess of the two Comanas, who was worshiped by a whole
people of hierodules in the ravines of the Taurus and along the banks of
the {54} Iris. Like Cybele she was an ancient Anatolian divinity and
personified fertile nature. Her worship, however, had not felt the
influence of Thrace, but rather that of the Semites and the Persians,[11]
like the entire religion of Cappadocia. It is certain that she was
identical with the Anâhita of the Mazdeans, who was of much the same
nature.
The rites of her cult were even more sanguinary and savage than those of
Pessinus, and she had assumed or preserved a warlike character that gave
her a resemblance to the Italian Bellona. The dictator Sulla, to whom this
invincible goddess of combats had appeared in a dream, was prompted by his
superstition to introduce her worship into Rome. The terrible ceremonies
connected with it produced a deep impression. Clad in black robes, her
"fanatics," as they were called, would turn round and round to the sound of
drums and trumpets, with their long, loose hair streaming, and when vertigo
seized them and a state of anesthesia was attained, they would strike their
arms and bodies great blows with swords and axes. The view of the running
blood excited them, and they besprinkled the statue of the goddess and her
votaries with it, or even drank it. Finally a prophetic delirium would
overcome them, and they foretold the future.
This ferocious worship aroused curiosity at first, but it never gained
great consideration. It appears that the Cappadocian Bellona joined the
number of divinities that were subordinated to the _Magna Mater_ and, as
the texts put it, became her follower (_pedisequa_).[12] The brief
popularity enjoyed by this exotic _Mâ_ at the beginning of our era shows,
nevertheless, the growing {55} influence of the Orient, and of the
religions of Asia Minor in particular.
After the establishment of the empire the apprehensive distrust in which
the worship of Cybele and Attis had been held gave way to marked favor and
the original restrictions were withdrawn. Thereafter Roman citizens were
chosen for _archigalli_, and the holidays of the Phrygian deities were
solemnly and officially celebrated in Italy with even more pomp than had
been displayed at Pessinus.
According to Johannes Lydus, the Emperor Claudius was the author of this
change. Doubts have been expressed as to the correctness of the statement
made by this second-rate compiler, and it has been claimed that the
transformation in question took place under the Antonines. This is
erroneous. The testimony of inscriptions corroborates that of the Byzantine
writer.[13] In spite of his love of archaism, it was Claudius who permitted
this innovation to be made, and we believe that we can divine the motives
of his action.
Under his predecessor, Caligula, the worship of Isis had been authorized
after a long resistance. Its stirring festivities and imposing processions
gained considerable popularity. This competition must have been disastrous
to the priests of the _Magna Mater_, who were secluded in their temple on
the Palatine, and Caligula's successor could not but grant to the Phrygian
goddess, so long established in the city, the favor accorded the Egyptian
divinity who had been admitted into Rome but very recently. In this way
Claudius prevented too great an ascendency in Italy of this second stranger
and supplied a distributary to the current of popular superstition. Isis
must have been held under great {56} suspicion by a ruler who clung to old
national institutions.[14]
The Emperor Claudius introduced a new cycle of holidays that were
celebrated from March 15th to March 27th, the beginning of spring at the
time of the revival of vegetation, personified in Attis. The various acts
of this grand mystic drama are tolerably well known. The prelude was a
procession of _cannophori_ or reed-bearers on the fifteenth; undoubtedly
they commemorated Cybele's discovery of Attis, who, according to the
legends, had been exposed while a child on the banks of the Sangarius, the
largest river of Phrygia, or else this ceremony may have been the
transformation of an ancient phallephory intended to guarantee the
fertility of the fields.[15] The ceremonies proper began with the equinox.
A pine was felled and transferred to the temple of the Palatine by a
brotherhood that owed to this function its name of "tree-bearers"
(_dendrophori_). Wrapped like a corpse in woolen bands and garlands of
violets, this pine represented Attis dead. This god was originally only the
spirit of the plants, and the honors given to the "March-tree"[16] in front
of the imperial palace perpetuated a very ancient agrarian rite of the
Phrygian peasants. The next day was a day of sadness and abstinence on
which the believers fasted and mourned the defunct god. The twenty-fourth
bore the significant name of _Sanguis_ in the calendars. We know that it
was the celebration of the funeral of Attis, whose manes were appeased by
means of libations of blood, as was done for any mortal. Mingling their
piercing cries with the shrill sound of flutes, the Galli flagellated
themselves and cut their flesh, and neophytes performed the supreme {57}
sacrifice with the aid of a sharp stone, being insensible to pain in their
frenzy.[17] Then followed a mysterious vigil during which the mystic was
supposed to be united as a new Attis with the great goddess.[18] On March
25th there was a sudden transition from the shouts of despair to a
delirious jubilation, the _Hilaria_. With springtime Attis awoke from his
sleep of death, and the joy created by his resurrection burst out in wild
merry-making, wanton masquerades, and luxurious banquets. After twenty-four
hours of an indispensable rest (_requietio_), the festivities wound up, on
the twenty-seventh, with a long and gorgeous procession through the streets
of Rome and surrounding country districts. Under a constant rain of flowers
the silver statue of Cybele was taken to the river Almo and bathed and
purified according to an ancient rite (_lavatio_).
The worship of the Mother of the Gods had penetrated into the Hellenic
countries long before it was received at Rome, but in Greece it assumed a
peculiar form and lost most of its barbarous character. The Greek mind felt
an unconquerable aversion to the dubious nature of Attis. The _Magna
Mater_, who is thoroughly different from her Hellenized sister, penetrated
into all Latin provinces and imposed herself upon them with the Roman
religion. This was the case in Spain, Brittany, the Danubian countries,
Africa and especially in Gaul.[19] As late as the fourth century the car of
the goddess drawn by steers was led in great state through the fields and
vineyards of Autun in order to stimulate their fertility.[20] In the
provinces the _dendrophori_, who carried the sacred pine in the spring
festivities, formed associations recognized by the state. These
associations had charge of the work of our {58} modern fire departments,
besides their religious mission. In case of necessity these woodcutters and
carpenters, who knew how to fell the divine tree of Attis, were also able
to cut down the timbers of burning buildings. All over the empire religion
and the brotherhoods connected with it were under the high supervision of
the quindecimvirs of the capital, who gave the priests their insignia. The
sacerdotal hierarchy and the rights granted to the priesthood and believers
were minutely defined in a series of senate decrees. These Phrygian
divinities who had achieved full naturalization and had been placed on the
official list of gods, were adopted by the populations of the Occident as
Roman gods together with the rest. This propagation was clearly different
from that of any other Oriental religion, for here the action of the
government aided the tendencies that attracted the devout masses to these
Asiatic divinities.
This popular zeal was the result of various causes. Ancient authors
describe the impression produced upon the masses by those magnificent
processions in which Cybele passed along on her car, preceded by musicians
playing captivating melodies, by priests wearing gorgeous costumes covered
with amulets, and by the long line of votaries and members of the
fraternities, all barefoot and wearing their insignia. All this, however,
created only a fleeting and exterior impression upon the neophyte, but as
soon as he entered the temple a deeper sensation took hold of him. He heard
the pathetic story of the goddess seeking the body of her lover cut down in
the prime of his life like the grass of the fields. He saw the bloody
funeral services in which the cruel death of the young man was mourned,
{59} and heard the joyful hymns of triumph, and the gay songs that greeted
his return to life. By a skilfully arranged gradation of feelings the
onlookers were uplifted to a state of rapturous ecstasy. Feminine devotion
in particular found encouragement and enjoyment in these ceremonies, and
the Great Mother, the fecund and generous goddess, was always especially
worshiped by the women.
Moreover, people founded great hopes on the pious practice of this
religion. Like the Thracians, the Phrygians began very early to believe in
the immortality of the soul. Just as Attis died and came to life again
every year, these believers were to be born to new life after their death.
One of the sacred hymns said: "Take courage, oh mystics, because the god is
saved; and for you also will come salvation from your trials."[21] Even the
funeral ceremonies were affected by the strength of that belief. In some
cities, especially at Amphipolis in Macedonia, graves have been found
adorned with earthenware statuettes representing the shepherd Attis;[22]
and even in Germany the gravestones are frequently decorated with the
figure of a young man in Oriental costume, leaning dejectedly upon a
knotted stick (_pedum_), who represented the same Attis. We are ignorant of
the conception of immortality held by the Oriental disciples of the
Phrygian priests. Maybe, like the votaries of Sabazius, they believed that
the blessed ones were permitted to participate with Hermes Psychopompos in
a great celestial feast, for which they were prepared by the sacred repasts
of the mysteries.[23] {60}
Another agent in favor of this imported religion was, as we have stated
above, the fact of its official recognition. This placed it in a privileged
position among Oriental religions, at least at the beginning of the
imperial régime. It enjoyed a toleration that was neither precarious nor
limited; it was not subjected to arbitrary police measures nor to coercion
on the part of magistrates; its fraternities were not continually
threatened with dissolution, nor its priests with expulsion. It was
publicly authorized and endowed, its holidays were marked in the calendars
of the pontiffs, its associations of dendrophori were organs of municipal
life in Italy and in the provinces, and had a corporate entity.
Therefore it is not surprising that other foreign religions, after being
transferred to Rome, sought to avert the dangers of an illicit existence by
an alliance with the Great Mother. The religion of the latter frequently
consented to agreements and compromises, from which it gained in reality as
much as it gave up. In exchange for material advantages it acquired
complete moral authority over the gods that accepted its protection. Thus
Cybele and Attis absorbed a majority of the divinities from Asia Minor that
had crossed the Ionian Sea. Their clergy undoubtedly intended to establish
a religion complex enough to enable the emigrants from every part of the
vast peninsula, slaves, merchants, soldiers, functionaries, scholars, in
short, people of all classes of society, to find their national and
favorite devotions in it. As a matter of fact no other Anatolian god could
maintain his independence side by side with the deities of Pessinus.[24]
We do not know the internal development of the {61} Phrygian mysteries
sufficiently to give details of the addition of each individual part. But
we can prove that in the course of time certain religions were added to the
one that had been practised in the temple of the Palatine ever since the
republic.
In the inscriptions of the fourth century, Attis bears the cognomen of
_menotyrannus_. At that time this name was undoubtedly understood to mean
"lord of the months," because Attis represented the sun who entered a new
sign of the zodiac every month.[25] But that was not the original meaning
of the term. "_Mèn tyrannus_" appears with quite a different meaning in
many inscriptions found in Asia Minor. _Tyrannos_ ([Greek: Turannos]),
"lord," is a word taken by the Greeks from the Lydian, and the honorable
title of "tyrant" was given to Mèn, an old barbarian divinity worshiped by
all Phrygia and surrounding regions.[26] The Anatolian tribes from Caria to
the remotest mountains of Pontus worshiped a lunar god under that name who
was supposed to rule not only the heavens but also the underworld, because
the moon was frequently brought into connection with the somber kingdom of
the dead. The growth of plants and the increase of cattle and poultry were
ascribed to his celestial influence, and the villagers invoked his
protection for their farms and their district. They also placed their rural
burial grounds under the safeguard of this king of shadows. No god enjoyed
greater popularity in the country districts.
This powerful divinity penetrated into Greece at an early period. Among the
mixed populations of the Ægean seaports, in the Piræus, at Rhodes, Delos
and Thasos, religious associations for his worship were {62} founded. In
Attica the presence of the cult can be traced back to the fourth century,
and its monuments rival those of Cybele in number and variety. In the Latin
Occident, however, no trace of it can be found, because it had been
absorbed by the worship of _Magna Mater_. In Asia itself, Attis and Mèn
were sometimes considered identical, and this involved the Roman world in a
complete confusion of those two persons, who in reality were very
different. A marble statue discovered at Ostia represents Attis holding the
lunar crescent, which was the characteristic emblem of Mèn. His
assimilation to the "tyrant" of the infernal regions transformed the
shepherd of Ida into a master of the underworld, an office that he combined
with his former one as author of resurrection.
A second title that was given to him reveals another influence. A certain
Roman inscription is dedicated to Attis the Supreme ([Greek: Attei
hupsistôi]).[27] This epithet is very significant. In Asia Minor
"Hypsistos" was the appellation used to designate the god of Israel.[28] A
number of pagan thiasi had arisen who, though not exactly submitting to the
practice of the synagogue, yet worshiped none but the Most High, the
Supreme God, the Eternal God, God the Creator, to whom every mortal owed
service. These must have been the attributes ascribed to Cybele's companion
by the author of the inscription, because the verse continues: ([Greek: kai
sunechonti to pan]) "To thee, who containest and maintainest all
things."[29] Must we then believe that Hebraic monotheism had some
influence upon the mysteries of the Great Mother? This is not at all
improbable. We know that numerous Jewish colonies were established in
Phrygia by the Seleucides, and that {63} these expatriated Jews agreed to
certain compromises in order to conciliate their hereditary faith with that
of the pagans in whose midst they lived. It is also possible that the
clergy of Pessinus suffered the ascendancy of the Biblical theology. Under
the empire Attis and Cybele became the "almighty gods" (_omnipotentes_)
_par excellence_, and it is easy to see in this new conception a leaning
upon Semitic or Christian doctrines, more probably upon Semitic ones.[30]
We shall now take up the difficult question of the influence of Judaism
upon the mysteries during the Alexandrian period and at the beginning of
the empire. Many scholars have endeavored to define the influence exercised
by the pagan beliefs on those of the Jews; it has been shown how the
Israelitic monotheism became Hellenized at Alexandria and how the Jewish
propaganda attracted proselytes who revered the one God, without, however,
observing all the prescriptions of the Mosaic law. But no successful
researches have been made to ascertain how far paganism was modified
through an infiltration of Biblical ideas. Such a modification must
necessarily have taken place to some extent. A great number of Jewish
colonies were scattered everywhere on the Mediterranean, and these were
long animated with such an ardent spirit of proselytism that they were
bound to impose some of their conceptions on the pagans that surrounded
them. The magical texts which are almost the only original literary
documents of paganism we possess, clearly reveal this mixture of Israelitic
theology with that of other peoples. In them we frequently find names like
Iao (Yahveh), Sabaoth, or the names of angels side by side with those of
Egyptian or Greek divinities. Especially in Asia {64} Minor, where the
Israelites formed a considerable and influential element of the population,
an intermingling of the old native traditions and the religion of the
strangers from the other side of the Taurus must have occurred.
This mixture certainly took place in the mysteries of Sabazius, the
Phrygian Jupiter or Dionysus.[31] They were very similar to those of Attis,
with whom he was frequently confounded. By means of an audacious etymology
that dates back to the Hellenistic period, this old Thraco-Phrygian
divinity has been identified with "Yahveh Zebaoth," the Biblical "Lord of
Hosts." The corresponding expression ([Greek: kurios Sabaôth]) in the
Septuagint has been regarded as the equivalent of the _kurios Sabazios_
([Greek: kurios Sabazios]) of the barbarians. The latter was worshiped as
the supreme, almighty and holy Lord. In the light of a new interpretation
the purifications practised in the mysteries were believed to wipe out the
hereditary impurity of a guilty ancestor who had aroused the wrath of
heaven against his posterity, much as the original sin with which Adam's
disobedience had stained the human race was to be wiped out. The custom
observed by the votaries of Sabazius of dedicating votive hands which made
the liturgic sign of benediction with the first three fingers extended (the
_benedictio latina_ of the church) was probably taken from the ritual of
the Semitic temples through the agency of the Jews. The initiates believed,
again like the Jews, that after death their good angel (_angelus bonus_)
would lead them to the banquet of the eternally happy, and the everlasting
joys of these banquets were anticipated on earth by the liturgic repasts.
This celestial feast can {65} be seen in a fresco painting on the grave of
a priest of Sabazius called Vincentius, who was buried in the Christian
catacomb of Prætextatus, a strange fact for which no satisfactory
explanation has as yet been furnished. Undoubtedly he belonged to a
Jewish-pagan sect that admitted neophytes of every race to its mystic
ceremonies. In fact, the church itself formed a kind of secret society
sprung from the synagogue but distinct from it, in which Gentiles and the
Children of Israel joined in a common adoration.
If it is a fact, then, that Judaism influenced the worship of Sabazius, it
is very probable that it influenced the cult of Cybele also, although in
this case the influence cannot be discerned with the same degree of
certainty. The religion of the Great Mother did not receive rejuvenating
germs from Palestine only, but it was greatly changed after the gods of
more distant Persia came and joined it. In the ancient religion of the
Achemenides, Mithra, the genius of light, was coupled with Anâhita, the
goddess of the fertilizing waters. In Asia Minor the latter was assimilated
with the fecund Great Mother, worshiped all over the peninsula,[32] and
when at the end of the first century of our era the mysteries of Mithra
spread over the Latin provinces, its votaries built their sacred crypts in
the shadow of the temples of the _Magna Mater_.
Everywhere in the empire the two religions lived in intimate communion. By
ingratiating themselves with the Phrygian priests, the priests of Mithra
obtained the support of an official institution and shared in the
protection granted by the state. Moreover, men alone could participate in
the secret ceremonies of the Persian liturgy, at least in the Occident.
Other {66} mysteries, to which women could be admitted, had therefore to be
added in order to complete them, and so the mysteries of Cybele received
the wives and daughters of the Mithraists.
This union had even more important consequences for the old religion of
Pessinus than the partial infusion of Judaic beliefs had had. Its theology
gained a deeper meaning and an elevation hitherto unknown, after it had
adopted some of the conceptions of Mazdaism.
The introduction of the taurobolium in the ritual of the _Magna Mater_,
where it appeared after the middle of the first century, was probably
connected with this transformation. We know the nature of this sacrifice,
of which Prudentius gives a stirring description based on personal
recollection of the proceeding. On an open platform a steer was killed, and
the blood dropped down upon the mystic, who was standing in an excavation
below. "Through the thousand crevices in the wood," says the poet, "the
bloody dew runs down into the pit. The neophyte receives the falling drops
on his head, clothes and body. He leans backward to have his cheeks, his
ears, his lips and his nostrils wetted; he pours the liquid over his eyes,
and does not even spare his palate, for he moistens his tongue with blood
and drinks it eagerly."[33] After submitting to this repulsive sprinkling
he offered himself to the veneration of the crowd. They believed that he
was purified of his faults, and had become the equal of the deity through
his red baptism.
Although the origin of this sacrifice that took place in the mysteries of
Cybele at Rome is as yet shrouded in obscurity, recent discoveries enable
us to trace back {67} very closely the various phases of its development.
In accordance with a custom prevalent in the entire Orient at the beginning
of history, the Anatolian lords were fond of pursuing and lassoing wild
buffalos, which they afterwards sacrificed to the gods. Beasts caught
during a hunt were immolated, and frequently also prisoners of war.
Gradually the savagery of this primitive rite was modified until finally
nothing but a circus play was left. During the Alexandrian period people
were satisfied with organizing a _corrida_ in the arena, in the course of
which the victim intended for immolation was seized. This is the proper
meaning of the terms taurobolium and criobolium ([Greek: taurobolion,
kriobolion.]), which had long been enigmas,[34] and which denoted the act
of catching a steer or a ram by means of a hurled weapon, probably the
thong of a lasso. Without doubt even this act was finally reduced to a mere
sham under the Roman empire, but the weapon with which the animal was slain
always remained a hunting weapon, a sacred boar spear.[35]
The ideas on which the immolation was based were originally just as
barbarous as the sacrifice itself. It is a matter of general belief among
savage peoples that one acquires the qualities of an enemy slain in battle
or of a beast killed in the chase by drinking or washing in the blood, or
by eating some of the viscera of the body. The blood especially has often
been considered as the seat of vital energy. By moistening his body with
the blood of the slaughtered steer, the neophyte believed that he was
transfusing the strength of the formidable beast into his own limbs.
This naive and purely material conception was soon {68} modified and
refined. The Thracians brought into Phrygia, and the Persian magi into
Cappadocia, the fast spreading belief in the immortality of mankind. Under
their influence, especially under that of Mazdaism, which made the mythical
steer the author of creation and of resurrection, the old savage practice
assumed a more spiritual and more elevated meaning. By complying with it,
people no longer thought they were acquiring the buffalo's strength; the
blood, as the principle of life, was no longer supposed to renew physical
energy, but to cause a temporary or even an eternal rebirth of the soul.
The descent into the pit was regarded as burial, a melancholy dirge
accompanied the burial of the old man who had died. When he emerged
purified of all his crimes by the sprinkling of blood and raised to a new
life, he was regarded as the equal of a god, and the crowd worshiped him
from a respectful distance.[36]
The vogue obtained in the Roman empire by the practice of this repugnant
rite can only be explained by the extraordinary power ascribed to it. He
who submitted to it was _in aeternum renatus_,[37] according to the
inscriptions.
We could also outline the transformation of other Phrygian ceremonies, of
which the spirit and sometimes the letter slowly changed under the
influence of more advanced moral ideas. This is true of the sacred feasts
attended by the initiates. One of the few liturgic formulas antiquity has
left us refers to these Phrygian banquets. One hymn says: "I have eaten
from the tambourine, I have drunk from the cymbal, I have become a mystic
of Attis." The banquet, which is found in several Oriental religions, was
sometimes simply the {69} external sign indicating that the votaries of the
same divinity formed one large family. Admitted to the sacred table, the
neophyte was received as the guest of the community and became a brother
among brothers. The religious bond of the thiasus or _sodalicium_ took the
place of the natural relationship of the family, the gens or the clan, just
as the foreign religion replaced the worship of the domestic hearth.
Sometimes other effects were expected of the food eaten in common. When the
flesh of some animal supposed to be of a divine nature was eaten, the
votary believed that he became identified with the god and that he shared
in his substance and qualities. In the beginning the Phrygian priests
probably attributed the first of these two meanings to their barbarous
communions.[38] Towards the end of the empire, moral ideas were
particularly connected with the assimilation of sacred liquor and meats
taken from the tambourine and cymbal of Attis. They became the staff of the
spiritual life and were to sustain the votary in his trials; at that period
he considered the gods as especially "the guardians of his soul and
thoughts."[39]
As we see, every modification of the conception of the world and of man in
the society of the empire had its reflection in the doctrine of the
mysteries. Even the conception of the old deities of Pessinus was
constantly changing. When astrology and the Semitic religions caused the
establishment of a solar henotheism as the leading religion at Rome, Attis
was considered as the sun, "the shepherd of the twinkling stars." He was
identified with Adonis, Bacchus, Pan, Osiris and Mithra; he was made a
"polymorphous"[40] being in which all celestial powers manifested {70}
themselves in turn; a _pantheos_ who wore the crown of rays and the lunar
crescent at the same time, and whose various emblems expressed an infinite
multiplicity of functions.
When neo-Platonism was triumphing, the Phrygian fable became the
traditional mould into which subtle exegetists boldly poured their
philosophic speculations on the creative and stimulating forces that were
the principles of all material forms, and on the deliverance of the divine
soul that was submerged in the corruption of this earthly world. In his
hazy oration on the Mother of the Gods, Julian lost all notion of reality
on account of his excessive use of allegory and was swept away by an
extravagant symbolism.[41]
Any religion as susceptible to outside influences as this one was bound to
yield to the ascendancy of Christianity. From the explicit testimony of
ecclesiastical writers we know that attempts were made to oppose the
Phrygian mysteries to those of the church. It was maintained that the
sanguinary purification imparted by the taurobolium was more efficacious
than baptism. The food that was taken during the mystic feasts was likened
to the bread and wine of the communion; the Mother of the Gods was
undoubtedly placed above the Mother of God, whose son also had risen again.
A Christian author, writing at Rome about the year 375, furnishes some
remarkable information on this subject. As we have seen, a mournful
ceremony was celebrated on March 24th, the _dies sanguinis_ in the course
of which the _galli_ shed their blood and sometimes mutilated themselves in
commemoration of the wound that had caused Attis's death, ascribing an
expiatory and atoning power to the blood thus shed. The pagans {71} claimed
that the church had copied their most sacred rites by placing her Holy Week
at the vernal equinox in commemoration of the sacrifice of the cross on
which the divine Lamb, according to the church, had redeemed the human
race. Indignant at these blasphemous pretensions, St. Augustine tells of
having known a priest of Cybele who kept saying: _Et ipse Pileatus
christianus est_--"and even the god with the Phrygian cap [i. e., Attis] is
a Christian."[42]
But all efforts to maintain a barbarian religion stricken with moral
decadence were in vain. On the very spot on which the last taurobolia took
place at the end of the fourth century, in the _Phrygianum_, stands to-day
the basilica of the Vatican.
* * * * *
There is no Oriental religion whose progressive evolution we could follow
at Rome so closely as the cult of Cybele and Attis, none that shows so
plainly one of the reasons that caused their common decay and
disappearance. They all dated back to a remote period of barbarism, and
from that savage past they inherited a number of myths the odium of which
could be masked but not eradicated by philosophical symbolism, and
practices whose fundamental coarseness had survived from a period of rude
nature worship, and could never be completely disguised by means of mystic
interpretations. Never was the lack of harmony greater between the
moralizing tendencies of theologians and the cruel shamelessness of
tradition. A god held up as the august lord of the universe was the pitiful
and abject hero of an obscene love affair; the taurobolium, performed to
satisfy man's most exalted aspirations for spiritual purification and
immortality, looked like a {72} shower bath of blood and recalled
cannibalistic orgies. The men of letters and senators attending those
mysteries saw them performed by painted eunuchs, ill reputed for their
infamous morals, who went through dizzy dances similar to those of the
dancing dervishes and the Aissaouas. We can imagine the repugnance these
ceremonies caused in everybody whose judgment had not been destroyed by a
fanatical devotion. Of no other pagan superstition do the Christian
polemicists speak with such profound contempt, and there is undoubtedly a
reason for their attitude. But they were in a more fortunate position than
their pagan antagonists; their doctrine was not burdened with barbarous
traditions dating back to times of savagery; and all the ignominies that
stained the old Phrygian religion must not prejudice us against it nor
cause us to slight the long continued efforts that were made to refine it
gradually and to mould it into a form that would fulfil the new demands of
morality and enable it to follow the laborious march of Roman society on
the road of religious progress.
* * * * *
{73}
EGYPT.
We know more about the religion of the early Egyptians than about any other
ancient religion. Its development can be traced back three or four thousand
years; we can read its sacred texts, mythical narratives, hymns, rituals,
and the Book of the Dead in the original, and we can ascertain its various
ideas as to the nature of the divine powers and of future life. A great
number of monuments have preserved for our inspection the pictures of
divinities and representations of liturgic scenes, while numerous
inscriptions and papyri enlighten us in regard to the sacerdotal
organization of the principal temples. It would seem that the enormous
quantity of documents of all kinds that have been deciphered in the course
of nearly an entire century should have dispelled every uncertainty about
the creed of ancient Egypt, and should have furnished exact information
with regard to the sources and original character of the worship which the
Greeks and the Romans borrowed from the subjects of the Ptolemies.
And yet, this is not the case. While of the four great Oriental religions
which were transplanted into the Occident, the religion of Isis and Serapis
is the one whose relation to the ancient belief of the mother country we
can establish with greatest accuracy, we {74} know very little of its first
form and of its nature before the imperial period, when it was held in high
esteem.
One fact, however, appears to be certain. The Egyptian worship that spread
over the Greco-Roman world came from the Serapeum founded at Alexandria by
Ptolemy Soter, somewhat in the manner of Judaism that emanated from the
temple of Jerusalem. But the earliest history of that famous sanctuary is
surrounded by such a thick growth of pious legends, that the most sagacious
investigators have lost their way in it. Was Serapis of native origin, or
was he imported from Sinope or Seleucia, or even from Babylon? Each of
these opinions has found supporters very recently. Is his name derived from
that of the Egyptian god Osiris-Apis, or from that of the Chaldean deity
Sar-Apsi? _Grammatici certant_.[1]
Whichever solution we may adopt, one fact remains, namely, that Serapis and
Osiris were either immediately identified or else were identical from the
beginning. The divinity whose worship was started at Alexandria by Ptolemy
was the god that ruled the dead and shared his immortality with them. He
was fundamentally an Egyptian god, and the most popular of the deities of
the Nile. Herodotus says that Isis and Osiris were revered by every
inhabitant of the country, and their traditional holidays involved secret
ceremonies whose sacred meaning the Greek writer dared not reveal.[2]
Recognizing their Osiris in Serapis, the Egyptians readily accepted the new
cult. There was a tradition that a new dynasty should introduce a new god
or give a sort of preeminence to the god of its own district. From time
immemorial politics had changed the {75} government of heaven when changing
that of earth. Under the Ptolemies the Serapis of Alexandria naturally
became one of the principal divinities of the country, just as the Ammon of
Thebes had been the chief of the celestial hierarchy under the Pharaohs of
that city, or as, under the sovereigns from Sais, the local Neith had the
primacy. At the time of the Antonines there were forty-two Serapeums in
Egypt.[3]
But the purpose of the Ptolemies was not to add one more Egyptian god to
the countless number already worshiped by their subjects. They wanted this
god to unite in one common worship the two races inhabiting the kingdom,
and thus to further a complete fusion. The Greeks were obliged to worship
him side by side with the natives. It was a clever political idea to
institute a Hellenized Egyptian religion at Alexandria. A tradition
mentioned by Plutarch[4] has it that Manetho, a priest from Heliopolis, a
man of advanced ideas, together with Timotheus, a Eumolpid from Eleusis,
thought out the character that would best suit the newcomer. The result was
that the composite religion founded by the Lagides became a combination of
the old creed of the Pharaohs and the Greek mysteries.
First of all, the liturgic language was no longer the native idiom but
Greek. This was a radical change. The philosopher Demetrius of Phalerum,
who had been cured of blindness by Serapis, composed poems in honor of the
god that were still sung under the Cæsars several centuries later.[5] We
can easily imagine that the poets, who lived on the bounty of the
Ptolemies, vied with each other in their efforts to celebrate their
benefactors' god, and the old rituals that were translated from the
Egyptian were also enriched with {76} edifying bits of original
inspiration. A hymn to Isis, found on a marble monument in the island of
Andros,[6] gives us some idea of these sacred compositions, although it is
of more recent date.
In the second place, the artists replaced the old hieratic idols by more
attractive images and gave them the beauty of the immortals. It is not
known who created the figure of Isis draped in a linen gown with a fringed
cloak fastened over the breast, whose sweet meditative, graciously maternal
face is a combination of the ideals imagined for Hera and Aphrodite. But we
know the sculptor of the first statue of Serapis that stood in the great
sanctuary of Alexandria until the end of paganism. This statue, the
prototype of all the copies that have been preserved, is a colossal work of
art made of precious materials by a famous Athenian sculptor named Bryaxis,
a contemporary of Scopas. It was one of the last divine creations of
Hellenic genius. The majestic head, with its somber and yet benevolent
expression, with its abundance of hair, and with a crown in the shape of a
bushel, bespoke the double character of a god ruling at the same time both
the fertile earth and the dismal realm of the dead.[7]
As we see, the Ptolemies had given their new religion a literary and
artistic shape that was capable of attracting the most refined and cultured
minds. But the adaptation to the Hellenic feeling and thinking was not
exclusively external. Osiris, the god whose worship was thus renewed, was
more adapted than any other to lend his authority to the formation of a
syncretic faith. At a very early period, in fact before the time of
Herodotus, Osiris had been identified with Dionysus, and Isis with Demeter.
M. Foucart has {77} endeavored to prove in an ingenious essay that this
assimilation was not arbitrary, that Osiris and Isis came into Crete and
Attica during the prehistoric period, and that they were mistaken for
Dionysus and Demeter[8] by the people of those regions. Without going back
to those remote ages, we shall merely say with him that the mysteries of
Dionysus were connected with those of Osiris by far-reaching affinities,
not simply by superficial and fortuitous resemblances. Each commemorated
the history of a god governing both vegetation and the underworld at the
same time, who was put to death and torn to pieces by an enemy, and whose
scattered limbs were collected by a goddess, after which he was
miraculously revived. The Greeks must have been very willing to adopt a
worship in which they found their own divinities and their own myths again
with something more poignant and more magnificent added. It is a very
remarkable fact that of all the many deities worshiped by the Egyptian
districts those of the immediate neighborhood, or if you like, the cycle of
Osiris, his wife Isis, their son Harpocrates and their faithful servant
Anubis, were the only ones that were adopted by the Hellenic populations.
All other heavenly or infernal spirits worshiped by the Egyptians remained
strangers to Greece.[9]
In the Greco-Latin literature we notice two opposing attitudes toward the
Egyptian religion. It was regarded as the highest and the lowest of
religions at the same time, and as a matter of fact there was an abyss
between the always ardent popular beliefs and the enlightened faith of the
official priests. The Greeks and Romans gazed with admiration upon the
splendor of the temples and ceremonial, upon the fabulous {78} antiquity of
the sacred traditions and upon the erudition of a clergy possessed of a
wisdom that had been revealed by divinity. In becoming the disciples of
that clergy, they imagined they were drinking from the pure fountain whence
their own myths had sprung. They were overawed by the pretensions of a
clergy that prided itself on a past in which it kept on living, and they
strongly felt the attraction of a marvelous country where everything was
mysterious, from the Nile that had created it to the hieroglyphs engraved
upon the walls of its gigantic edifices.[10] At the same time they were
shocked by the coarseness of its fetichism and by the absurdity of its
superstitions. Above all they felt an unconquerable repulsion at the
worship of animals and plants, which had always been the most striking
feature of the vulgar Egyptian religion and which, like all other archaic
devotions, seems to have been practised with renewed fervor after the
accession of the Saite dynasty. The comic writers and the satirists never
tired of scoffing at the adorers of the cat, the crocodile, the leek and
the onion. Juvenal says ironically: "O holy people, whose very
kitchen-gardens produce gods."[11] In a general way, this strange people,
entirely separated from the remainder of the world, were regarded with
about the same kind of feeling that Europeans entertained toward the
Chinese for a long time.
A purely Egyptian worship would not have been acceptable to the Greco-Latin
world. The main merit of the mixed creation of the political genius of the
Ptolemies consisted in the rejection or modification of everything
repugnant or monstrous like the phallophories of Abydos, and in the
retention of none but {79} stirring or attractive elements. It was the most
civilized of all barbarian religions; it retained enough of the exotic
element to arouse the curiosity of the Greeks, but not enough to offend
their delicate sense of proportion, and its success was remarkable.
It was adopted wherever the authority or the prestige of the Lagides was
felt, and wherever the relations of Alexandria, the great commercial
metropolis, extended. The Lagides induced the rulers and the nations with
whom they concluded alliances to accept it. King Nicocreon introduced it
into Cyprus after having consulted the oracle of the Serapeum,[12] and
Agathocles introduced it into Sicily, at the time of his marriage with the
daughter-in-law of Ptolemy I (298).[13] At Antioch, Seleucus Callinicus
built a sanctuary for the statue of Isis sent to him from Memphis by
Ptolemy Euergetes.[14] In token of his friendship Ptolemy Soter introduced
his god Serapis into Athens, where the latter had a temple at the foot of
the Acropolis[15] ever after, and Arsinoë, his mother or wife, founded
another at Halicarnassus, about the year 307.[16] In this manner the
political activity of the Egyptian dynasty was directed toward having the
divinities, whose glory was in a certain measure connected with that of
their house, recognized everywhere. Through Apuleius we know that under the
empire the priests of Isis mentioned the ruling sovereign first of all in
their prayers.[17] And this was simply an imitation of the grateful
devotion which their predecessors had felt toward the Ptolemies.
Protected by the Egyptian squadrons, sailors and merchants propagated the
worship of Isis, the goddess of navigators, simultaneously on the coasts of
Syria, {80} Asia Minor and Greece, in the islands of the Archipelago,[18]
and as far as the Hellespont and Thrace.[19] At Delos, where the
inscriptions enable us to study this worship somewhat in detail, it was not
merely practised by strangers, but the very sacerdotal functions were
performed by members of the Athenian aristocracy. A number of funereal
bas-reliefs, in which the deified dead wears the _calathos_ of Serapis on
his head, prove the popularity of the belief in future life propagated by
these mysteries. According to the Egyptian faith he was identified with the
god of the dead.[20]
Even after the splendor of the court of Alexandria had faded and vanished;
even after the wars against Mithridates and the growth of piracy had ruined
the traffic of the Ægean Sea, the Alexandrian worship was too deeply rooted
in the soil of Greece to perish, although it became endangered in certain
seaports like Delos. Of all the gods of the Orient, Isis and Serapis were
the only ones that retained a place among the great divinities of the
Hellenic world until the end of paganism.[21]
* * * * *
It was this syncretic religion that came to Rome after having enjoyed
popularity in the eastern Mediterranean. Sicily and the south of Italy were
more than half Hellenized, and the Ptolemies had diplomatic relations with
these countries, just as the merchants of Alexandria had commercial
relations with them. For this reason the worship of Isis spread as rapidly
in those regions as on the coasts of Ionia or in the Cyclades.[22] It was
introduced into Syracuse and Catana during the earliest years of the third
century by {81} Agathocles. The Serapeum of Pozzuoli, at that time the
busiest seaport of Campania, was mentioned in a city ordinance of the year
105 B. C.[23] About the same time an Iseum was founded at Pompeii, where
the decorative frescos attest to this day the power of expansion possessed
by the Alexandrian culture.
After its adoption by the southern part of the Italian peninsula, this
religion was bound to penetrate rapidly to Rome. Ever since the second
century before our era, it could not help but find adepts in the chequered
multitude of slaves and freedmen. Under the Antonines the college of the
_pastophori_ recalled that it had been founded in the time of Sulla.[24] In
vain did the authorities try to check the invasion of the Alexandrian gods.
Five different times, in 59, 58, 53, and 48 B. C., the senate ordered their
altars and statues torn down,[25] but these violent measures did not stop
the diffusion of the new beliefs. The Egyptian mysteries were the first
example at Rome of an essentially popular religious movement that was
triumphant over the continued resistance of the public authorities and the
official clergy.
Why was this Egyptian worship the only one of all Oriental religions to
suffer repeated persecutions? There were two motives, one religious and one
political.
In the first place, this cult was said to exercise a corrupting influence
perversive of piety. Its morals were loose, and the mystery surrounding it
excited the worst suspicions. Moreover, it appealed violently to the
emotions and senses. All these factors offended the grave decency that a
Roman was wont to {82} maintain in the presence of the gods. The innovators
had every defender of the _mos maiorum_ for an adversary.
In the second place, this religion had been founded, supported and
propagated by the Ptolemies; it came from a country that was almost hostile
to Italy during the last period of the republic;[26] it issued from
Alexandria, whose superiority Rome felt and feared. Its secret societies,
made up chiefly of people of the lower classes, might easily become clubs
of agitators and haunts of spies. All these motives for suspicion and
hatred were undoubtedly more potent in exciting persecution than the purely
theological reasons, and persecution was stopped or renewed according to
the vicissitudes of general politics.
As we have stated, the chapels consecrated to Isis were demolished in the
year 48 B. C. After Cæsar's death, the triumvirs decided in 43 B. C. to
erect a temple in her honor out of the public funds, undoubtedly to gain
the favor of the masses. This action would have implied official
recognition, but the project appears never to have been executed. If Antony
had succeeded at Actium, Isis and Serapis would have entered Rome in
triumph, but they were vanquished with Cleopatra; and when Augustus had
become the master of the empire, he professed a deep aversion for the gods
of his former enemies. Moreover, he could not have suffered the intrusion
of the Egyptian clergy into the Roman sacerdotal class, whose guardian,
restorer and chief he was. In 28 B. C. an ordinance was issued forbidding
the erecting of altars to the Alexandrian divinities inside the sacred
enclosure of the _pomerium_, and seven years later Agrippa extended this
prohibitive regulation to a radius of a thousand paces around the {83}
city. Tiberius acted on the same principle and in 19 A. D. instituted the
bloodiest persecution against the priests of Isis that they ever suffered,
in consequence of a scandalous affair in which a matron, a noble and some
priests of Isis were implicated.
All these police measures, however, were strangely ineffectual. The
Egyptian worship was excluded from Rome and her immediate neighborhood in
theory if not in fact, but the rest of the world remained open to its
propaganda.[27]
With the beginning of the empire it slowly invaded the center and the north
of Italy and spread into the provinces. Merchants, sailors, slaves,
artisans, Egyptian men of letters, even the discharged soldiers of the
three legions cantoned in the valley of the Nile contributed to its
diffusion. It entered Africa by way of Carthage, and the Danubian countries
through the great emporium of Aquileia. The new province of Gaul was
invaded through the valley of the Rhone. At that period many Oriental
emigrants went to seek their fortunes in these new countries. Intimate
relations existed between the cities of Arles and Alexandria, and we know
that a colony of Egyptian Greeks, established at Nimes by Augustus, took
the gods of their native country thither.[28] At the beginning of our era
there set in that great movement of conversion that soon established the
worship of Isis and Serapis from the outskirts of the Sahara to the vallum
of Britain, and from the mountains of Asturias to the mouths of the Danube.
The resistance still offered by the central power could not last much
longer. It was impossible to dam in this overflowing stream whose
thundering waves struck the {84} shaking walls of the _pomerium_ from every
side. The prestige of Alexandria seemed invincible. At that period the city
was more beautiful, more learned, and better policed than Rome. She was the
model capital, a standard to which the Latins strove to rise. They
translated the works of the scholars of Alexandria, imitated her authors,
invited her artists and copied her institutions. It is plain that they had
also to undergo the ascendancy of her religion. As a matter of fact, her
fervent believers maintained her sanctuaries, despite the law, on the very
Capitol. Under Cæsar, Alexandrian astronomers had reformed the calendar of
the pontiffs, and Alexandrian priests soon marked the dates of Isis
holidays upon it.
The decisive step was taken soon after the death of Tiberius. Caligula
erected the great temple of Isis Campensis on the Campus Martius probably
in the year 38.[29] In order to spare the sacerdotal susceptibilities, he
founded it outside of the sacred enclosure of the city of Servius. Later
Domitian made one of Rome's most splendid monuments of that temple. From
that time Isis and Serapis enjoyed the favor of every imperial dynasty, the
Flavians as well as the Antonines and the Severi. About the year 215
Caracalla built an Isis temple, even more magnificent than that of
Domitian, on the Quirinal, in the heart of the city, and perhaps another
one on the Coelian. As the apologist Minucius Felix states, the Egyptian
gods had become entirely Roman.[30]
The climax of their power seems to have been reached at the beginning of
the third century; later on the popular vogue and official support went to
other divinities, like the Syrian Baals and the Persian {85} Mithras. The
progress of Christianity also deprived them of their power, which was,
however, still considerable until the end of the ancient world. The Isis
processions that marched the streets of Rome were described by an eye
witness as late as the year 394,[31] but in 391 the patriarch Theophilus
had consigned the Serapeum of Alexandria to the flames, having himself
struck the first blow with an ax against the colossal statue of the god
that had so long been the object of a superstitious veneration. Thus the
prelate destroyed the "very head of idolatry," as Rufinus put it.[32]
As a matter of fact, idolatry received its death blow. The worship of the
gods of the Ptolemies died out completely between the reigns of Theodosius
and Justinian,[33] and in accordance with the sad prophecy of Hermes
Trismegistus[34] Egypt, Egypt herself, lost her divinities and became a
land of the dead. Of her religions nothing remained but fables that were no
longer believed, and the only thing that reminded the barbarians who came
to inhabit the country of its former piety, were words engraved on stone.
* * * * *
This rapid sketch of the history of Isis and Serapis shows that these
divinities were worshiped in the Latin world for more than five centuries.
The task of pointing out the transformations of the cult during that long
period, and the local differences there may have been in the various
provinces, is reserved for future researches. These will undoubtedly find
that the Alexandrian worship did not become Latinized under the empire, but
that its Oriental character became more and more pronounced. When Domitian
restored the Iseum of the Campus Martius and that of Beneventum, he {86}
transferred from the valley of the Nile sphinxes, cynocephali and obelisks
of black or pink granite bearing borders of hieroglyphics of Amasis,
Nectanebos or even Rameses II. On other obelisks that were erected in the
propyleums even the inscriptions of the emperors were written in
hieroglyphics.[35] Half a century later that true dilettante, Hadrian,
caused the luxuries of Canopus to be reproduced, along with the vale of
Tempe, in his immense villa at Tibur, to enable him to celebrate his
voluptuous feasts under the friendly eyes of Serapis. He extolled the
merits of the deified Antinous in inscriptions couched in the ancient
language of the Pharaohs, and set the fashion of statues hewn out of black
basalt in the Egyptian style.[36] The amateurs of that period affected to
prefer the hieratic rigidity of the barbarian idols to the elegant freedom
of Alexandrian art. Those esthetic manifestations probably corresponded to
religious prejudices, and the Latin worship always endeavored to imitate
the art of temples in the Nile valley more closely than did the Greek. This
evolution was in conformity with all the tendencies of the imperial period.
By what secret virtue did the Egyptian religion exercise this irresistible
influence over the Roman world? What new elements did those priests, who
made proselytes in every province, give the Roman world? Did the success of
their preaching mean progress or retrogression from the standard of the
ancient Roman faith? These are complex and delicate questions that would
require minute analysis and cautious treatment with a constant and exact
observation of shades. I am compelled to limit myself to a rapid sketch,
which, I {87} fear, will appear rather dry and arbitrary, like every
generalization.
The particular doctrines of the mysteries of Isis and Serapis in regard to
the nature and power of the gods were not, or were but incidentally, the
reasons for the triumph of these mysteries. It has been said that the
Egyptian theology always remained in a "fluid state,"[37] or better in a
state of chaos. It consisted of an amalgamation of disparate legends, of an
aggregate of particular cults, as Egypt herself was an aggregate of a
number of districts. This religion never formulated a coherent system of
generally accepted dogmas. It permitted the coexistence of conflicting
conceptions and traditions, and all the subtlety of its clergy never
accomplished, or rather never began, the task of fusing those
irreconcilable elements into one harmonious synthesis.[38] For the
Egyptians there was no principle of contradiction. All the heterogeneous
beliefs that ever obtained in the various districts during the different
periods of a very long history, were maintained concurrently and formed an
inextricable confusion in the sacred books.
About the same state of affairs prevailed in the Occidental worship of the
Alexandrian divinities. In the Occident, just as in Egypt, there were
"prophets" in the first rank of the clergy, who learnedly discussed
religion, but never taught a theological system that found universal
acceptance. The sacred scribe Cheremon, who became Nero's tutor, recognized
the stoical theories in the sacerdotal traditions of his country.[39] When
the eclectic Plutarch speaks of the character of the Egyptian gods, he
finds it agrees surprisingly with his own philosophy,[40] and when the
neo-Platonist {88} Iamblichus examines them, their character seems to agree
with his doctrines. The hazy ideas of the Oriental priests enabled every
one to see in them the phantoms he was pursuing. The individual imagination
was given ample scope, and the dilettantic men of letters rejoiced in
molding these malleable doctrines at will. They were not outlined sharply
enough, nor were they formulated with sufficient precision to appeal to the
multitude. The gods were everything and nothing; they got lost in a
_sfumato_. A disconcerting anarchy and confusion prevailed among them. By
means of a scientific mixture of Greek, Egyptian and Semitic elements
"Hermetism"[41] endeavored to create a theological system that would be
acceptable to all minds, but it seems never to have imposed itself
generally on the Alexandrian mysteries which were older than itself, and
furthermore it could not escape the contradictions of Egyptian thought. The
religion of Isis did not gain a hold on the soul by its dogmatism.
It must be admitted, however, that, owing to its extreme flexibility, this
religion was easily adapted to the various centers to which it was
transferred, and that it enjoyed the valuable advantage of being always in
perfect harmony with the prevailing philosophy. Moreover, the syncretic
tendencies of Egypt responded admirably to those that began to obtain at
Rome. At a very early period henotheistic theories had been favorably
received in sacerdotal circles, and while crediting the god of their own
temple with supremacy, the priests admitted that he might have a number of
different personalities, under which he was worshiped simultaneously. In
this way the unity of the supreme being was affirmed for the thinkers, and
polytheism with its {89} intangible traditions maintained for the masses.
In the same manner Isis and Osiris had absorbed several local divinities
under the Pharaohs, and had assumed a complex character that was capable of
indefinite extension. The same process continued under the Ptolemies when
the religion of Egypt came into contact with Greece. Isis was identified
simultaneously with Demeter, Aphrodite, Hera, Semele, Io, Tyche, and
others. She was considered the queen of heaven and hell, of earth and sea.
She was "the past, the present and the future,"[42] "nature the mother of
things, the mistress of the elements, born at the beginning of the
centuries."[43] She had numberless names, an infinity of different aspects
and an inexhaustible treasure of virtues. In short, she became a
pantheistic power that was everything in one, _una quae est omnia_.[44]
The authority of Serapis was no less exalted, and his field no less
extensive. He also was regarded as a universal god of whom men liked to say
that he was "unique." ([Greek: Heis Zeus Sarapis]) In him all energies were
centered, although the functions of Zeus, of Pluto or of Helios were
especially ascribed to him. For many centuries Osiris had been worshiped at
Abydos both as author of fecundity and lord of the underworld,[45] and this
double character early caused him to be identified with the sun, which
fertilizes the earth during its diurnal course and travels through the
subterranean realms at night. Thus the conception of this nature divinity,
that had already prevailed along the Nile, accorded without difficulty with
the solar pantheism that was the last form of Roman paganism. This
theological system, which did not gain the upper hand in the Occident until
the {90} second century of our era, was not brought in by Egypt. It did not
have the exclusive predominance there that it had held under the empire,
and even in Plutarch's time it was only one creed among many.[46] The
deciding influence in this matter was exercised by the Syrian Baals and the
Chaldean astrology.
The theology of the Egyptian mysteries, then, followed rather than led the
general influx of ideas. The same may be said of their ethics. It did not
force itself upon the world by lofty moral precepts, nor by a sublime ideal
of holiness. Many have admired the edifying list in the Book of the Dead,
that rightfully or otherwise sets forth the virtues which the deceased
claims to have practised in order to obtain a favorable judgment from
Osiris. If one considers the period in which it appears, this ethics is
undoubtedly very elevated, but it seems rudimentary and even childish if
one compares it with the principles formulated by the Roman jurists, to say
nothing of the minute psychological analyses of the Stoic casuists. In this
range of ideas also, the maintenance of the most striking contrasts
characterizes Egyptian mentality, which was never shocked by the cruelties
and obscenities that sullied the mythology and the ritual. Like Epicurus at
Athens, some of the sacred texts actually invited the believers to enjoy
life before the sadness of death.[47]
Isis was not a very austere goddess at the time she entered Italy.
Identified with Venus, as Harpocrates was with Eros, she was honored
especially by the women with whom love was a profession. In Alexandria, the
city of pleasure, she had lost all severity, and at Rome this good goddess
remained very indulgent to human weaknesses. Juvenal harshly refers to {91}
her as a procuress,[48] and her temples had a more than doubtful
reputation, for they were frequented by young men in quest of gallant
adventures. Apuleius himself chose a lewd tale in which to display his
fervor as an initiate.
But we have said that Egypt was full of contradictions, and when a more
exacting morality demanded that the gods should make man virtuous, the
Alexandrian mysteries offered to satisfy that demand.
At all times the Egyptian ritual attributed considerable importance to
purity, or, to use a more adequate term, to cleanliness. Before every
ceremony the officiating priest had to submit to ablutions, sometimes to
fumigations or anointing, and to abstain from certain foods and from
incontinence for a certain time. Originally no moral idea was connected
with this purification. It was considered a means of exorcising malevolent
demons or of putting the priest into a state in which the sacrifice
performed by him could have the expected effect. It was similar to the
diet, shower-baths and massage prescribed by physicians for physical
health. The internal status of the officiating person was a matter of as
much indifference to the celestial spirits as the actual worth of the
deceased was to Osiris, the judge of the underworld. All that was necessary
to have him open the fields of Aalu to the soul was to pronounce the
liturgic formulas, and if the soul declared its innocence in the prescribed
terms its word was readily accepted.
But in the Egyptian religion, as in all the religions of antiquity,[49] the
original conception was gradually transformed and a new idea slowly took
its place. The sacramental acts of purification were now {92} expected to
wipe out moral stains, and people became convinced that they made man
better. The devout female votaries of Isis, whom Juvenal[50] pictures as
breaking the ice to bathe in the Tiber, and crawling around the temple on
their bleeding knees, hoped to atone for their sins and to make up for
their shortcomings by means of these sufferings.
When a new ideal grew up in the popular conscience during the second
century, when the magicians themselves became pious and serious people,
free from passions and appetites, and were honored because of the dignity
of their lives more than for their white linen robes,[51] then the virtues
of which the Egyptian priests enjoined the practice also became less
external. Purity of the heart rather than cleanliness of the body was
demanded. Renunciation of sensual pleasures was the indispensable condition
for the knowledge of divinity, which was the supreme good.[52] No longer
did Isis favor illicit love. In the novel by Xenophon of Ephesus (about 280
A. D.) she protects the heroine's chastity against all pitfalls and assures
its triumph. According to the ancient belief man's entire existence was a
preparation for the formidable judgment held by Serapis after death, but to
have him decide in favor of the mystic, it was not enough to know the rites
of the sect; the individual life had to be free from crime; and the master
of the infernal regions assigned everybody a place according to his
deserts.[53] The doctrine of future retribution was beginning to develop.
However, in this regard, as in their conception of the divinity, the
Egyptian mysteries followed the general progress of ideas more than they
directed it. {93} Philosophy transformed them, but found in them little
inspiration.
* * * * *
How could a religion, of which neither the theology nor the ethics was
really new, stir up at the same time so much hostility and fervor among the
Romans? To many minds of to-day theology and ethics constitute religion,
but during the classical period it was different, and the priests of Isis
and Serapis conquered souls mainly by other means. They seduced them by the
powerful attraction of the ritual and retained them by the marvelous
promises of their doctrine of immortality.
To the Egyptians ritual had a value far superior to that we ascribe to it
to-day. It had an operative strength of its own that was independent of the
intentions of the officiating priest. The efficacy of prayer depended not
on the inner disposition of the believer, but on the correctness of the
words, gestures and intonation. Religion was not clearly differentiated
from magic. If a divinity was invoked according to the correct forms,
especially if one knew how to pronounce its real name, it was compelled to
act in conformity to the will of its priest. The sacred words were an
incantation that compelled the superior powers to obey the officiating
person, no matter what purpose he had in view. With the knowledge of the
liturgy men acquired an immense power over the world of spirits. Porphyry
was surprised and indignant because the Egyptians sometimes dared to
threaten the gods in their orations.[54] In the consecrations the priest's
summons compelled the gods to come and animate their {94} statues, and thus
his voice created divinities,[55] as originally the almighty voice of Thoth
had created the world.[56]
The ritual that conferred such superhuman power[57] developed in Egypt into
a state of perfection, completeness and splendor unknown in the Occident.
It possessed a unity, a precision and a permanency that stood in striking
contrast to the variety of the myths, the uncertainty of the dogmas and the
arbitrariness of the interpretations. The sacred books of the Greco-Roman
period are a faithful reproduction of the texts that were engraved upon the
walls of the pyramids at the dawn of history, notwithstanding the centuries
that had passed. Even under the Cæsars the ancient ceremonies dating back
to the first ages of Egypt, were scrupulously performed because the
smallest word and the least gesture had their importance.
This ritual and the attitude toward it found their way for the most part
into the Latin temples of Isis and Serapis. This fact has long been
ignored, but there can be no doubt about it. A first proof is that the
clergy of those temples were organized just like those of Egypt during the
period of the Ptolemies.[58] There was a hierarchy presided over by a high
priest, which consisted of _prophetes_ skilled in the sacred science,
_stolistes_, or _ornatrices_,[59] whose office it was to dress the statues
of the gods, _pastophori_ who carried the sacred temple plates in the
processions, and so on, just as in Egypt. As in their native country, the
priests were distinguished from common mortals by a tonsure, by a linen
tunic, and by their habits as well as by their garb. They devoted
themselves entirely to their ministry and had no other profession. This
{95} sacerdotal body always remained Egyptian in character, if not in
nationality, because the liturgy it had to perform remained so. In a
similar manner the priests of the Baals were Syrians,[60] because they were
the only ones that knew how to honor the gods of Syria.
In the first place a daily service had to be held just as in the Nile
valley. The Egyptian gods enjoyed a precarious immortality, for they were
liable to destruction and dependent on necessities. According to a very
primitive conception that always remained alive, they had to be fed,
clothed and refreshed every day or else perish. From this fact arose the
necessity of a liturgy that was practically the same in every district. It
was practised for thousands of years and opposed its unaltering form to the
multiplicity of legends and local beliefs.[61]
This daily liturgy was translated into Greek, perhaps later into Latin
also; it was adapted to the new requirements by the founders of the
Serapeum, and faithfully observed in the Roman temples of the Alexandrian
gods. The essential ceremony always was the opening (_apertio_)[62] of the
sanctuary. At dawn the statue of the divinity was uncovered and shown to
the community in the _naos_, that had been closed and sealed during the
night.[63] Then, again as in Egypt, the priest lit the sacred fire and
offered libations of water supposed to be from the deified Nile,[64] while
he chanted the usual hymns to the sound of flutes. Finally, "erect upon the
threshold"--I translate literally from Porphyry--"he awakens the god by
calling to him in the Egyptian language."[65] As we see, the god was
revived by the sacrifice and, as under the Pharaohs, awoke from his slumber
at the calling of {96} his name. As a matter of fact the name was
indissolubly connected with the personality; he who could pronounce the
exact name of an individual or of a divinity was obeyed as a master by his
slave.[66] This fact made it necessary to maintain the original form of
that mysterious word. There was no other motive for the introduction of a
number of barbarian appellatives into the magical incantations.
It is also probable that the toilet of the statue was made every day, that
its body and head were dressed,[67] as in the Egyptian ritual. We have seen
that the _ornatrices_ or _stolistes_ were especially entrusted with these
duties. The idol was covered with sumptuous raiment and ornamented with
jewels and gems. An inscription furnishes us with an inventory of the
jewels worn by an Isis of ancient Cadiz;[68] her ornaments were more
brilliant than those of a Spanish madonna.
During the entire forenoon, from the moment that a noisy acclamation had
greeted the rising of the sun, the images of the gods were exposed to the
silent adoration of the initiates.[69] Egypt is the country whence
contemplative devotion penetrated into Europe. Then, in the afternoon, a
second service was held to close the sanctuary.[70]
The daily liturgy must have been very absorbing. This innovation in the
Roman paganism was full of consequences. No longer were sacrifices offered
to the god on certain occasions only, but twice a day elaborate services
were held. As with the Egyptians, whom Herodotus had termed the most
religious of all peoples,[71] devotion assumed a tendency to fill out the
whole existence and to dominate private and public interests. The constant
repetition of the same prayers {97} kept up and renewed faith, and, we
might say, people lived continually under the eyes of the gods.
Besides the daily rites of the Abydos liturgy the holidays marking the
beginning of the different seasons were celebrated at the same date every
year.[72] It was the same in Italy. The calendars have preserved the names
of several of them, and of one, the _Navigium Isidis_, the rhetorician
Apuleius[73] has left us a brilliant description on which, to speak with
the ancients, he emptied all his color tubes. On March 5th, when navigation
reopened after the winter months, a gorgeous procession[74] marched to the
coast, and a ship consecrated to Isis, the protectress of sailors, was
launched. A burlesque group of masked persons opened the procession, then
came the women in white gowns strewing flowers, the _stolistes_ waving the
garments of the goddess and the _dadophori_ with lighted torches. After
these came the _hymnodes_, whose songs mingled in turn with the sharp sound
of the cross-flutes and the ringing of the brass timbrels; then the throngs
of the initiates, and finally the priests, with shaven heads and clad in
linen robes of a dazzling white, bearing the images of animal-faced gods
and strange symbols, as for instance a golden urn containing the sacred
water of the Nile. The procession stopped in front of altars[75] erected
along the road, and on these altars the sacred objects were uncovered for
the veneration of the faithful. The strange and sumptuous magnificence of
these celebrations made a deep impression on the common people who loved
public entertainments.
But of all the celebrations connected with the worship of Isis the most
stirring and the most suggestive {98} was the commemoration of the "Finding
of Osiris" (_Inventio_, [Greek: Heuresis]). Its antecedents date back to
remote antiquity. Since the time of the twelfth dynasty, and probably much
earlier, there had been held at Abydos and elsewhere a sacred performance
similar to the mysteries of our Middle Ages, in which the events of
Osiris's passion and resurrection were reproduced. We are in possession of
the ritual of those performances.[76] Issuing from the temple, the god fell
under Set's blows; around his body funeral lamentations were simulated, and
he was buried according to the rites; then Set was vanquished by Horus, and
Osiris, restored to life, reentered his temple triumphant over death.
The same myth was represented in almost the same manner at Rome at the
beginning of each November.[77] While the priests and the believers moaned
and lamented, Isis in great distress sought the divine body of Osiris,
whose limbs had been scattered by Typhon. Then, after the corpse had been
found, rehabilitated and revived, there was a long outburst of joy, an
exuberant jubilation that rang through the temples and the streets so
loudly that it annoyed the passers-by.
This mingled despair and enthusiasm acted as strongly upon the feelings of
the believers as did the spring-holiday ceremony in the Phrygian religion,
and it acted through the same means. Moreover, there was an esoteric
meaning attached to it that none but the pious elect understood. Besides
the public ceremonies there was a secret worship to which one was admitted
only after a gradual initiation. The hero of Apuleius had to submit to the
ordeal three times in order to obtain the whole revelation. In Egypt the
{99} clergy communicated certain rites and interpretations only upon a
promise not to reveal them. In fact this was the case in the worship of
Isis at Abydos and elsewhere.[78] When the Ptolemies regulated the Greek
ritual of their new religion, it assumed the form of the mysteries spread
over the Hellenic world and became very like those of Eleusis. The hand of
the Eumolpid Timotheus is noticeable in this connection.[79]
But while the ceremonial of the initiations and even the production of the
liturgic drama were thus adapted to the religious habits of the Greeks, the
doctrinal contents of the Alexandrian mysteries remained purely Egyptian.
The old belief that immortality could be secured by means of an
identification of the deceased with Osiris or Serapis never died out.
Perhaps in no other people did the epigram of Fustel de Coulanges find so
complete a verification as in the Egyptians: "Death was the first mystery;
it started man on the road to the other mysteries."[80] Nowhere else was
life so completely dominated by preoccupation with life after death;
nowhere else was such minute and complicated care taken to secure and
perpetuate another existence for the deceased. The funeral literature, of
which we have found a very great number of documents, had acquired a
development equaled by no other, and the architecture of no other nation
can exhibit tombs comparable with the pyramids or the rock-built sepulchers
of Thebes.
This constant endeavor to secure an after-existence for one's self and
relatives manifested itself in various ways, but it finally assumed a
concrete form in the worship of Osiris. The fate of Osiris, the god who
died and returned to life, became the prototype of the {100} fate of every
human being that observed the funeral rites. "As truly as Osiris lives,"
says an Egyptian text, "he also shall live; as truly as Osiris is not dead,
shall he not die; as truly as Osiris is not annihilated, shall he not be
annihilated."[81]
If, then, the deceased had piously served Osiris-Serapis, he was
assimilated to that god, and shared his immortality in the underworld,
where the judge of the dead held forth. He lived not as a tenuous shade or
as a subtle spirit, but in full possession of his body as well as of his
soul. That was the Egyptian doctrine, and that certainly was also the
doctrine of the Greco-Latin mysteries.[82]
Through the initiation the mystic was born again, but to a superhuman life,
and became the equal of the immortals.[83] In his ecstasy he imagined that
he was crossing the threshold of death and contemplating the gods of heaven
and hell face to face.[84] If he had accurately followed the prescriptions
imposed upon him by Isis and Serapis through their priests, those gods
prolonged his life after his decease beyond the duration assigned to it by
destiny, and he participated eternally in their beatitude and offered them
his homage in their realm.[85] The "unspeakable pleasure" he felt when
contemplating the sacred images in the temple[86] became perpetual rapture
when he was in the divine presence instead of in the presence of the image,
and drawn close to divinity his thirsting soul enjoyed the delights of that
ineffable beauty.[87]
When the Alexandrian mysteries spread over Italy under the republic, no
religion had ever brought to mankind so formal a promise of blest
immortality as these, and this, more than anything else, lent them an {101}
irresistible power of attraction. Instead of the vague and contradictory
opinions of the philosophers in regard to the destiny of the soul, Serapis
offered certainty founded on divine revelation corroborated by the faith of
the countless generations that had adhered to it. What the votaries of
Orpheus had confusedly discovered through the veil of the legends, and
taught to Magna Grecia,[88] namely, that this earthly life was a trial, a
preparation for a higher and purer life, that the happiness of an
after-life could be secured by means of rites and observances revealed by
the gods themselves, all this was now preached with a firmness and
precision hitherto unknown. These eschatological doctrines in particular,
helped Egypt to conquer the Latin world and especially the miserable
masses, on whom the weight of all the iniquities of Roman society rested
heavily.
* * * * *
The power and popularity of that belief in future life has left traces even
in the French language, and in concluding this study, from which I have
been compelled to exclude every picturesque detail, I would like to point
out how a French word of to-day dimly perpetuates the memory of the old
Egyptian ideas.
During the cold nights of their long winters the Scandinavians dreamed of a
Walhalla where the deceased warriors sat in well-closed brilliantly
illuminated halls, warming themselves and drinking the strong liquor served
by the Valkyries; but under the burning sky of Egypt, near the arid sand
where thirst kills the traveler, people wished that their dead might find a
limpid spring in their future wanderings to assuage the heat that devoured
them, and that they might be {102} refreshed by the breezes of the north
wind.[89] Even at Rome the adherents of the Alexandrian gods frequently
inscribed the following wish on their tombs: "May Osiris give you fresh
water."[90] Soon this water became, in a figurative sense, the fountain of
life pouring out immortality to thirsting souls. The metaphor obtained such
popularity that in Latin _refrigerium_ became synonymous with comfort and
happiness. The term retained this meaning in the liturgy of the church,[91]
and for that reason people continue to pray for spiritual
_rafraîchissement_ of the dead although the Christian paradise has very
little resemblance to the fields of Aalu.
* * * * *
{103}
SYRIA.
The religions of Syria never had the same solidarity in the Occident as
those from Egypt or Asia Minor. From the coasts of Phoenicia and the
valleys of Lebanon, from the borders of the Euphrates and the oases of the
desert, they came at various periods, like the successive waves of the
incoming tide, and existed side by side in the Roman world without uniting,
in spite of their similarities. The isolation in which they remained and
the persistent adherence of their believers to their particular rites were
a consequence and reflection of the disunited condition of Syria herself,
where the different tribes and districts remained more distinct than
anywhere else, even after they had been brought together under the
domination of Rome. They doggedly preserved their local gods and Semitic
dialects.
It would be impossible to outline each one of these religions in detail at
this time and to reconstruct their history, because our meager information
would not permit it, but we can indicate, in a general way, how they
penetrated into the Occidental countries at various periods, and we can try
to define their common characteristics by showing what new elements the
Syrian paganism brought to the Romans.
The first Semitic divinity to enter Italy was {104} _Atargatis_, frequently
mistaken for the Phoenician Astarte, who had a famous temple at Bambyce or
Hierapolis, not far from the Euphrates, and was worshiped with her husband,
Hadad, in a considerable part of Syria besides. The Greeks considered her
as the principal Syrian goddess ([Greek: Suria thea]), and in the Latin
countries she was commonly known as _dea Syria_, a name corrupted into
_Iasura_ by popular use.
We all remember the unedifying descriptions of her itinerant priests that
Lucian and Apuleius[1] have left. Led by an old eunuch of dubious habits, a
crowd of painted young men marched along the highways with an ass that bore
an elaborately adorned image of the goddess. Whenever they passed through a
village or by some rich villa, they went through their sacred exercises. To
the shrill accompaniment of their Syrian flutes they turned round and
round, and with their heads thrown back fluttered about and gave vent to
hoarse clamors until vertigo seized them and insensibility was complete.
Then they flagellated themselves wildly, struck themselves with swords and
shed their blood in front of a rustic crowd which pressed closely about
them, and finally they took up a profitable collection from the wondering
spectators. They received jars of milk and wine, cheeses, flour, bronze
coins of small denominations and even some silver pieces, all of which
disappeared in the folds of their capacious robes. If opportunity presented
they knew how to increase their profits by means of clever thefts or by
making commonplace predictions for a moderate consideration.
This picturesque description, based on a novel by {105} Lucius of Patras,
is undoubtedly extreme. It is difficult to believe that the sacerdotal
corps of the goddess of Hierapolis should have consisted only of charlatans
and thieves. But how can the presence in the Occident of that begging and
low nomadic clergy be explained?
It is certain that the first worshipers of the Syrian goddess in the Latin
world were slaves. During the wars against Antiochus the Great a number of
prisoners were sent to Italy to be sold at public auction, as was the
custom, and the first appearance in Italy of the _Chaldaei_[2] has been
connected with that event. The _Chaldaei_ were Oriental fortune-tellers who
asserted that their predictions were based on the Chaldean astrology. They
found credulous clients among the farm laborers, and Cato gravely exhorts
the good landlord to oust them from his estate.[3]
Beginning with the second century before Christ, merchants began to import
Syrian slaves. At that time Delos was the great trade center in this human
commodity, and in that island especially Atargatis was worshiped by
citizens of Athens and Rome.[4] Trade spread her worship in the
Occident.[5] We know that the great slave revolution that devastated Sicily
in 134 B. C. was started by a slave from Apamea, a votary of the Syrian
goddess. Simulating divine madness, he called his companions to arms,
pretending to act in accordance with orders from heaven.[6] This detail,
which we know by chance, shows how considerable a proportion of Semites
there was in the gangs working the fields, and how much authority Atargatis
enjoyed in the rural centers. Being too poor to build temples for their
national goddess, those agricultural laborers {106} waited with their
devotions until a band of itinerant _galli_ passed through the distant
hamlet where the lot of the auction had sent them. The existence of those
wandering priests depended, therefore, on the number of fellow-countrymen
they met in the rural districts, who supported them by sacrificing a part
of their poor savings.
Towards the end of the republic those diviners appear to have enjoyed
rather serious consideration at Rome. It was a pythoness from Syria that
advised Marius on the sacrifices he was to perform.[7]
Under the empire the importation of slaves increased. Depopulated Italy
needed more and more foreign hands, and Syria furnished a large quota of
the forced immigration of cultivators. But those Syrians, quick and
intelligent as they were strong and industrious, performed many other
functions. They filled the countless domestic positions in the palaces of
the aristocracy and were especially appreciated as litter-bearers.[8] The
imperial and municipal administrations, as well as the big contractors to
whom customs and the mines were farmed out, hired or bought them in large
numbers, and even in the remotest border provinces the _Syrus_ was found
serving princes, cities or private individuals. The worship of the Syrian
goddess profited considerably by the economic current that continually
brought new worshipers. We find her mentioned in the first century of our
era in a Roman inscription referring in precise terms to the slave market,
and we know that Nero took a devout fancy to the stranger that did not,
however, last very long.[9] In the popular Trastevere quarter she had a
temple until the end of paganism.[10] {107}
During the imperial period, however, the slaves were no longer the only
missionaries that came from Syria, and Atargatis was no longer the only
divinity from that country to be worshiped in the Occident. The propagation
of the Semitic worship progressed for the most part in a different manner
under the empire.
At the beginning of our era the Syrian merchants, _Syri negotiatores_,
undertook a veritable colonization of the Latin provinces.[11] During the
second century before Christ the traders of that nation had established
settlements along the coast of Asia Minor, on the Piraeus, and in the
Archipelago. At Delos, a small island but a large commercial center, they
maintained several associations that worshiped their national gods, in
particular Hadad and Atargatis. But the wars that shook the Orient at the
end of the republic, and above all the growth of piracy, ruined maritime
commerce and stopped emigration. This began again with renewed vigor when
the establishment of the empire guaranteed the safety of the seas and when
the Levantine traffic attained a development previously unknown. We can
trace the history of the Syrian establishments in the Latin provinces from
the first to the seventh century, and recently we have begun to appreciate
their economic, social and religious importance at its true value.
The Syrians' love of lucre was proverbial. Active, compliant and able,
frequently little scrupulous, they knew how to conclude first small deals,
then larger ones, everywhere. Using the special talents of their race to
advantage, they succeeded in establishing themselves on all coasts of the
Mediterranean, even in {108} Spain.[12] At Malaga an inscription mentions a
corporation formed by them. The Italian ports where business was especially
active, Pozzuoli, Ostia, later Naples, attracted them in great numbers. But
they did not confine themselves to the seashore; they penetrated far into
the interior of the countries, wherever they hoped to find profitable
trade. They followed the commercial highways and traveled up the big
rivers. By way of the Danube they went as far as Pannonia, by way of the
Rhone they reached Lyons. In Gaul they were especially numerous. In this
new country that had just been opened to commerce fortunes could be made
rapidly. A rescript discovered on the range of the Lebanon is addressed to
sailors from Arles, who had charge of the transportation of grain, and in
the department of Ain a bilingual epitaph has been found mentioning a
merchant of the third century, Thaïm or Julian, son of Saad, decurion of
the city of Canatha in Syria, who owned two factories in the Rhone basin,
where he handled goods from Aquitania.[13] Thus the Syrians spread over the
entire province as far as Treves, where they had a strong colony. Not even
the barbarian invasions of the fifth century stopped their immigration.
Saint Jerome describes them traversing the entire Roman world amidst the
troubles of the invasion, prompted by the lust of gain to defy all dangers.
In the barbarian society the part played by this civilized and city-bred
element was even more considerable. Under the Merovingians in about 591
they had sufficient influence at Paris to have one of their number elected
bishop and to gain possession of all ecclesiastical offices. Gregory of
Tours tells how King Gontrand, on entering the city of Orleans {109} in
585, was received by a crowd praising him "in the language of the Latins,
the Jews and the Syrians."[14] The merchant colonies existed until the
Saracen corsairs destroyed the commerce of the Mediterranean.
Those establishments exercised a strong influence upon the economic and
material life of the Latin provinces, especially in Gaul. As bankers the
Syrians concentrated a large share of the money business in their hands and
monopolized the importing of the valuable Levantine commodities as well as
of the articles of luxury; they sold wines, spices, glassware, silks and
purple fabrics, also objects wrought by goldsmiths, to be used as patterns
by the native artisans. Their moral and religious influence was not less
considerable: for instance, it has been shown that they furthered the
development of monastic life during the Christian period, and that the
devotion to the crucifix[15] that grew up in opposition to the
monophysites, was introduced into the Occident by them. During the first
five centuries Christians felt an unconquerable repugnance to the
representation of the Saviour of the world nailed to an instrument of
punishment more infamous than the guillotine of to-day. The Syrians were
the first to substitute reality in all its pathetic horror for a vague
symbolism.
In pagan times the religious ascendency of that immigrant population was no
less remarkable. The merchants always took an interest in the affairs of
heaven as well as in those of earth. At all times Syria was a land of
ardent devotion, and in the first century its children were as fervid in
propagating their barbarian gods in the Occident as after their conversion
they were enthusiastic in spreading Christianity as far {110} as Turkestan
and China. As soon as the merchants had established their places of
business in the islands of the Archipelago during the Alexandrian period,
and in the Latin period under the empire, they founded chapels in which
they practised their exotic rites.
It was easy for the divinities of the Phoenician coast to cross the seas.
Among them were Adonis, whom the women of Byblos mourned; Balmarcodes, "the
Lord of the dances," who came from Beirut; Marna, the master of rain,
worshiped at Gaza; and Maiuma,[16] whose nautical holiday was celebrated
every spring on the coast near Ostia as well as in the Orient.
Besides these half Hellenized religions, others of a more purely Semitic
nature came from the interior of the country, because the merchants
frequently were natives of the cities of the _Hinterland_, as for instance
Apamea or Epiphanea in Coele-Syria, or even of villages in that flat
country. As Rome incorporated the small kingdoms beyond the Lebanon and the
Orontes that had preserved a precarious independence, the current of
emigration increased. In 71 Commagene, which lies between the Taurus and
the Euphrates, was annexed by Vespasian, a little later the dynasties of
Chalcis and Emesa were also deprived of their power. Nero, it appears, took
possession of Damascus; half a century later Trajan established the new
province of Arabia in the south (106 A. D.), and the oasis of Palmyra, a
great mercantile center, lost its autonomy at the same time. In this manner
Rome extended her direct authority as far as the desert, over countries
that were only superficially Hellenized, and where the native devotions had
preserved all their {111} savage fervor. From that time constant
communication was established between Italy and those regions which had
heretofore been almost inaccessible. As roads were built commerce
developed, and together with the interests of trade the needs of
administration created an incessant exchange of men, of products and of
beliefs between those out-of-the-way countries and the Latin provinces.
These annexations, therefore, were followed by a renewed influx of Syrian
divinities into the Occident. At Pozzuoli, the last port of call of the
Levantine vessels, there was a temple to the Baal of Damascus (_Jupiter
Damascenus_) in which leading citizens officiated, and there were altars on
which two golden camels[17] were offered to Dusares, a divinity who had
come from the interior of Arabia. They kept company with a divinity of more
ancient repute, the Hadad of Baabek-Heliopolis (_Jupiter Heliopolitanus_),
whose immense temple, considered one of the world's wonders,[18] had been
restored by Antoninus Pius, and may still be seen facing Lebanon in
majestic elegance. Heliopolis and Beirut had been the most ancient colonies
founded by Augustus in Syria. The god of Heliopolis participated in the
privileged position granted to the inhabitants of those two cities, who
worshiped in a common devotion,[19] and he was naturalized as a Roman with
greater ease than the others.
The conquest of all Syria as far as Euphrates and the subjection of even a
part of Mesopotamia aided the diffusion of the Semitic religions in still
another manner. From these regions, which were partly inhabited by fighting
races, the Cæsars drew recruits for the imperial army. They levied a great
number of {112} legionaries, but especially auxiliary troops, who were
transferred to the frontiers. Troopers and foot-soldiers from those
provinces furnished important contingents to the garrisons of Europe and
Africa. For instance, a cohort of one thousand archers from Emesa was
established in Pannonia, another of archers from Damascus in upper Germany;
Mauretania received irregulars from Palmyra, and bodies of troops levied in
Ituraea, on the outskirts of the Arabian desert, were encamped in Dacia,
Germany, Egypt and Cappadocia at the same time. Commagene alone furnished
no less than six cohorts of five hundred men each that were sent to the
Danube and into Numidia.[20]
The number of inscriptions consecrated by soldiers proves both the ardor of
their faith and the diversity of their beliefs. Like the sailors of to-day
who are transferred to strange climes and exposed to incessant danger, they
were constantly inclined to invoke the protection of heaven, and remained
attached to the gods who seemed to remind them in their exile of the
distant home country. Therefore it is not surprising that the Syrians who
served in the army should have practised the religion of their Baals in the
neighborhood of their camps. In the north of England, near the wall of
Hadrian, an inscription in verse in honor of the goddess of Hierapolis has
been found; its author was a prefect, probably of a cohort of Hamites
stationed at this distant post.[21]
Not all the soldiers, however, went to swell the ranks of believers
worshiping divinities that had long been adopted by the Latin world, as did
that officer. They also brought along new ones that had come from a still
greater distance than their predecessors, in fact {113} from the outskirts
of the barbarian world, because from those regions in particular trained
men could be obtained. There were, for instance, _Baltis_, an "Our Lady"
from Osroene beyond the Euphrates;[22] _Aziz_, the "strong god" of Edessa,
who was identified with the star Lucifer;[23] _Malakbel_, the "Lord's
messenger," patron of the soldiers from Palmyra, who appeared with several
companions at Rome, in Numidia and in Dacia.[24] The most celebrated of
those gods then was the Jupiter of Doliche, a small city of Commagene, that
owed its fame to him. Because of the troops coming from that region, this
obscure Baal, whose name is mentioned by no author, found worshipers in
every Roman province as far as Africa, Germany and Brittany. The number of
known inscriptions consecrated to him exceeds a hundred, and it is still
growing. Being originally nothing but a god of lightning, represented as
brandishing an ax, this local genius of the tempest was elevated to the
rank of tutelary divinity of the imperial armies.[25]
The diffusion of the Semitic religions in Italy that commenced
imperceptibly under the republic became more marked after the first century
of our era. Their expansion and multiplication were rapid, and they
attained the apogee of their power during the third century. Their
influence became almost predominant when the accession of the Severi lent
them the support of a court that was half Syrian. Functionaries of all
kinds, senators and officers, vied with each other in devotion to the
patron gods of their sovereigns, gods which the sovereigns patronized in
turn. Intelligent and ambitious princesses like Julia Domna, Julia Maesa,
Julia Mammea, whose ascendency was very {114} considerable, became
propagators of their national religion. We all know the audacious
pronunciamento of the year 218 that placed upon the throne the
fourteen-year-old emperor Heliogabalus, a worshiper of the Baal of Emesa.
His intention was to give supremacy over all other gods to his barbarian
divinity, who had heretofore been almost unknown. The ancient authors
narrate with indignation how this crowned priest attempted to elevate his
black stone, the coarse idol brought from Emesa, to the rank of supreme
divinity of the empire by subordinating the whole ancient pantheon to it;
they never tire of giving revolting details about the dissoluteness of the
debaucheries for which the festivities of the new _Sol invictus Elagabal_
furnished a pretext.[26] However, the question arises whether the Roman
historians, being very hostile to that foreigner who haughtily favored the
customs of his own country, did not misrepresent or partly misunderstand
the facts. Heliogabalus's attempt to have his god recognized as supreme,
and to establish a kind of monotheism in heaven as there was monarchy on
earth, was undoubtedly too violent, awkward and premature, but it was in
keeping with the aspirations of the time, and it must be remembered that
the imperial policy could find the support of powerful Syrian colonies not
only at Rome but all over the empire.
Half a century later Aurelian[27] was inspired by the same idea when he
created a new worship, that of the "Invincible Sun." Worshiped in a
splendid temple, by pontiffs equal in rank to those of ancient Rome, having
magnificent plays held in his honor every fourth year, _Sol invictus_ was
also elevated to the supreme rank in the divine hierarchy, and became the
special {115} protector of the emperors and the empire. The country where
Aurelian found the pattern he sought to reproduce, was again Syria. Into
the new sanctuary he transferred the images of Bel and Helios, taken from
Palmyra, after it had fallen before his arms.
* * * * *
The sovereigns, then, twice attempted to replace the Capitoline Jupiter by
a Semitic god and to make a Semitic religion the principal and official
religion of the Romans. They proclaimed the fall of the old Latin idolatry
and the accession of a new paganism taken from Syria. What was the
superiority attributed to the creeds of that country? Why did even an
Illyrian general like Aurelian look for the most perfect type of pagan
religion in that country? That is the problem to be solved, but it must
remain unsolved unless an exact account is given of the fate of the Syrian
beliefs under the empire.
That question has not as yet been very completely elucidated. Besides the
superficial opuscule of Lucian on the _dea Syria_, we find scarcely any
reliable information in the Greek or Latin writers. The work by Philo of
Byblos is a euhemeristic interpretation of an alleged Phoenician cosmogony,
and a composition of little merit. Neither have we the original texts of
the Semitic liturgies, as we have for Egypt. Whatever we have learned we
owe especially to the inscriptions, and while these furnish highly valuable
indications as to the date and area of expansion of these religions, they
tell us hardly anything about their doctrines. Light on this subject may be
expected from the excavations that are being made in the great sanctuaries
of Syria, and also from a more exact interpretation {116} of the sculptured
monuments that we now possess in great numbers, especially those of Jupiter
Dolichenus.
Some characteristics of the Semitic paganism, however, are known at
present, and it must be admitted that it would appear at a disadvantage if
judged by those noticeable features that first attract our attention. It
had retained a stock of very primitive ideas and some aboriginal nature
worship that had lasted through many centuries and was to persist, in part,
under Christianity and Islam until the present day.[28] Such were the
worship of high elevations on which a rustic enclosure sometimes marked the
limits of the consecrated territory; the worship of the waters that flow to
the sea, the streams that arise in the mountains, the springs that gush out
of the soil, the ponds, the lakes and the wells, into all of which
offerings were thrown with the idea either of venerating in them the
thirst-quenching liquid or else the fecund nature of the earth; the worship
of the trees that shaded the altars and that nobody dared to fell or
mutilate; the worship of stones, especially of the rough stones called
bethels that were regarded, as their name (_beth-El_) indicates, as the
residence of the god, or rather, as the matter in which the god was
embodied.[29] Aphrodite Astarte was worshiped in the shape of a conical
stone at Paphos, and a black aerolite covered with projections and
depressions to which a symbolic meaning was attributed represented
Elagabal, and was transferred from Emesa to Rome, as we have said.
The animals, as well as inanimate things, received their share of homage.
Remnants of the old Semitic zoolatry perpetuated themselves until the end
of paganism and even later. Frequently the gods were {117} represented
standing erect on animals. Thus the Dolichean Baal stood on a steer, and
his spouse on a lion. Around certain temples there were sacred parks, in
which savage beasts roamed at liberty,[30] a reminder of the time when they
were considered divine. Two animals especially were the objects of
universal veneration, the pigeon and the fish. Vagrant multitudes of
pigeons received the traveler landing at Ascalon,[31] and they played about
the enclosures of all the temples of Astarte[32] in flocks resembling white
whirlwinds. The pigeon belonged, properly speaking, to the goddess of love,
whose symbol it has remained above all to the people worshiping that
goddess.
"Quid referam ut volitet crebras intacta per urbes
Alba Palaestino sancta columba Syro?"[33]
The fish was sacred to Atargatis, who undoubtedly had been represented in
that shape at first, as Dagon always was.[34] The fish were kept in ponds
in the proximity of the temples.[35] A superstitious fear prevented people
from touching them, because the goddess punished the sacrilegious by
covering their bodies with ulcers and tumors.[36] At certain mystic
repasts, however, the priests and initiates consumed the forbidden food in
the belief that they were absorbing the flesh of the divinity herself. That
worship and its practices, which were spread over Syria, probably suggested
the ichthus symbolism in the Christian period.[37]
However, over this lower and primordial stratum that still cropped out here
and there, other less rudimentary beliefs had formed. Besides inanimate
objects and animals, the Syrian paganism worshiped personal divinities
especially. The character of the gods that were originally adored by the
Semitic tribes has been {118} ingeniously reconstructed.[38] Each tribe had
its Baal and Baalat who protected it and whom only its members were
permitted to worship. The name of _Ba'al_, "master," summarizes the
conception people had of him. In the first place he was regarded as the
sovereign of his votaries, and his position in regard to them was that of
an Oriental potentate towards his subjects; they were his servants, or
rather his slaves.[39] The Baal was at the same time the "master" or
proprietor of the country in which he resided and which he made fertile by
causing springs to gush from its soil. Or his domain was the firmament and
he was the _dominus caeli_, whence he made the waters fall to the roar of
tempests. He was always united with a celestial or earthly "queen" and, in
the third place, he was the "lord" or husband of the "lady" associated with
him. The one represented the male, the other the female principle; they
were the authors of all fecundity, and as a consequence the worship of the
divine couple often assumed a sensual and voluptuous character.
As a matter of fact, immorality was nowhere so flagrant as in the temples
of Astarte, whose female servants honored the goddess with untiring ardor.
In no country was sacred prostitution so developed as in Syria, and in the
Occident it was to be found practically only where the Phoenicians had
imported it, as on Mount Eryx. Those aberrations, that were kept up until
the end of paganism,[40] probably have their explanation in the primitive
constitution of the Semitic tribe, and the religious custom must have been
originally one of the forms of exogamy, which compelled the woman to unite
herself first with a stranger.[41] {119}
As a second blemish, the Semitic religions practised human immolations
longer than any other religion, sacrificing children and grown men in order
to please sanguinary gods. In spite of Hadrian's prohibition of those
murderous offerings,[42] they were maintained in certain clandestine rites
and in the lowest practices of magic, up to the fall of the idols, and even
later. They corresponded to the ideas of a period during which the life of
a captive or slave had no greater value than that of an animal.
These sacred practices and many others, on which Lucian complacently
enlarges in his opuscule on the goddess of Hierapolis, daily revived the
habits of a barbarous past in the temples of Syria. Of all the conceptions
that had successively dominated the country, none had completely
disappeared. As in Egypt, beliefs of very different date and origin
coexisted, without any attempt to make them agree, or without success when
the task was undertaken. In these beliefs zoolatry, litholatry and all the
other nature worships outlived the savagery that had created them. More
than anywhere else the gods had remained the chieftains of clans[43]
because the tribal organizations of Syria were longer lived and more
developed than those of any other region. Under the empire many districts
were still subjected to the tribal régime and commanded by "ethnarchs" or
"phylarchs."[44] Religion, which sacrificed the lives of the men and the
honor of the women to the divinity, had in many regards remained on the
moral level of unsocial and sanguinary tribes. Its obscene and atrocious
rites called forth exasperated indignation on the part of {120} the Roman
conscience when Heliogabalus attempted to introduce them into Italy with
his Baal of Emesa.
* * * * *
How, then, can one explain the fact that in spite of all, the Syrian gods
imposed themselves upon the Occident and made even the Cæsars accept them?
The reason is that the Semitic paganism can no more be judged by certain
revolting practices, that perpetuated in the heart of civilization the
barbarity and puerilities of an uncultivated society, than the religion of
the Nile can be so judged. As in the case of Egypt we must distinguish
between the sacerdotal religion and the infinitely varied popular religion
that was embodied in local customs. Syria possessed a number of great
sanctuaries in which an educated clergy meditated and expatiated upon the
nature of the divine beings and on the meaning of traditions inherited from
remote ancestors. As their own interests demanded, that clergy constantly
amended the sacred traditions and modified their spirit when the letter was
immutable, in order to make them agree with the new aspirations of a more
advanced period. They had their mysteries and their initiates to whom they
revealed a wisdom that was above the vulgar beliefs of the masses.[45]
Frequently we can draw diametrically opposite conclusions from the same
principle. In that manner the old idea of _tabu_, that seems to have
transformed the temples of Astarte into houses of debauchery, also became
the source of a severe code of morals. The Semitic tribes were haunted with
the fear of the tabu. A multitude of things were either impure or sacred
because, in the original confusion, those two notions {121} had not been
clearly differentiated. Man's ability to use the products of nature to
satisfy his needs, was thus limited by a number of prohibitions,
restrictions and conditions. He who touched a forbidden object was soiled
and corrupted, his fellows did not associate with him and he could no
longer participate in the sacrifices. In order to wipe out the blemish, he
had recourse to ablutions and other ceremonies known to the priests.
Purity, that had originally been considered simply physical, soon became
ritualistic and finally spiritual. Life was surrounded by a network of
circumstances subject to certain conditions, every violation of which meant
a fall and demanded penance. The anxiety to remain constantly in a state of
holiness or regain that state when it had been lost, filled one's entire
existence. It was not peculiar to the Semitic tribes, but they ascribed a
prime importance to it.[46] And the gods, who necessarily possessed this
quality in an eminent degree, were holy beings ([Greek: hagioi])[47] _par
excellence_.
In this way principles of conduct and dogmas of faith have frequently been
derived from instinctive and absurd old beliefs. All theological doctrines
that were accepted in Syria modified the prevailing ancient conception of
the Baals. But in our present state of knowledge it is very difficult
indeed to determine the shares that the various influences contributed,
from the conquests of Alexander to the Roman domination, to make the Syrian
paganism what it became under the Cæsars. The civilization of the Seleucid
empire is little known, and we cannot determine what caused the alliance of
Greek thought with the Semitic traditions.[48] The religions of the
neighboring nations {122} also had an undeniable influence. Phoenicia and
Lebanon remained moral tributaries of Egypt long after they had liberated
themselves from the suzerainty of the Pharaohs. The theogony of Philo of
Byblos took gods and myths from that country, and at Heliopolis Hadad was
honored "according to Egyptian rather than Syrian rite."[49] The rigorous
monotheism of the Jews, who were dispersed over the entire country, must
also have acted as an active ferment of transformation.[50] But it was
Babylon that retained the intellectual supremacy, even after its political
ruin. The powerful sacerdotal caste ruling it did not fall with the
independence of the country, and it survived the conquests of Alexander as
it had previously lived through the Persian domination. The researches of
Assyriologists have shown that its ancient worship persisted under the
Seleucides, and at the time of Strabo the "Chaldeans" still discussed
cosmology and first principles in the rival schools of Borsippa and
Orchoë.[51] The ascendancy of that erudite clergy affected all surrounding
regions; it was felt by Persia in the east, Cappadocia in the north, but
more than anywhere else by the Syrians, who were connected with the
Oriental Semites by bonds of language and blood. Even after the Parthians
had wrested the valley of the Euphrates from the Seleucides, relations with
the great temples of that region remained uninterrupted. The plains of
Mesopotamia, inhabited by races of like origin, extended on both sides of
an artificial border line; great commercial roads followed the course of
the two rivers flowing into the Persian Gulf or cut across the desert, and
the pilgrims came to Babylon, as Lucian tells us, to perform their
devotions to the Lady of Bambyce.[52] {123}
Ever since the Captivity, constant spiritual relations had existed between
Judaism and the great religious metropolis. At the birth of Christianity
they manifested themselves in the rise of gnostic sects in which the
Semitic mythology formed strange combinations with Jewish and Greek ideas
and furnished the foundation for extravagant superstructures.[53] Finally,
during the decline of the empire, it was Babylon again from which emanated
Manicheism, the last form of idolatry received in the Latin world. We can
imagine how powerful the religious influence of that country on the Syrian
paganism must have been.
That influence manifested itself in various ways. First, it introduced new
gods. In this way Bel passed from the Babylonian pantheon into that of
Palmyra and was honored throughout northern Syria.[54] It also caused
ancient divinities to be arranged in new groups. To the primitive couple of
the Baal and the Baalat a third member was added in order to form one of
those triads dears to Chaldean theology. This took place at Hierapolis as
well as at Heliopolis, and the three gods of the latter city, Hadad,
Atargatis and Simios, became Jupiter, Venus and Mercury in Latin
inscriptions.[55] Finally, and most important, astrolatry wrought radical
changes in the characters of the celestial powers, and, as a further
consequence, in the entire Roman paganism. In the first place it gave them
a second personality in addition to their own nature. The sidereal myths
superimposed themselves upon the agrarian myths, and gradually obliterated
them. Astrology, born on the banks of the Euphrates, imposed itself in
Egypt upon the haughty and unapproachable clergy of the most conservative
of all nations.[56] Syria {124} received it without reserve and surrendered
unconditionally;[57] numismatics and archeology as well as literature prove
this. King Antiochus of Commagene, for instance, who died 34 B. C., built
himself a monumental tomb on a spur of the Taurus, in which he placed his
horoscope, designed on a large bas-relief, beside the images of his
ancestral divinities.[58]
The importance which the introduction of the Syrian religions into the
Occident has for us consists therefore in the fact that indirectly they
brought certain theological doctrines of the Chaldeans with them, just as
Isis and Serapis carried beliefs of old Egypt from Alexandria to the
Occident. The Roman empire received successively the religious tribute of
the two great nations that had formerly ruled the Oriental world. It is
characteristic that the god Bel whom Aurelian brought from Asia to set up
as the protector of his states, was in reality a Babylonian who had
emigrated to Palmyra,[59] a cosmopolitan center apparently predestined by
virtue of its location to become the intermediary between the civilizations
of the Euphrates and the Mediterranean.
The influence exercised by the speculations of the Chaldeans upon
Greco-Roman thought can be asserted positively, but cannot as yet be
strictly defined. It was at once philosophic and religious, literary and
popular. The entire neo-Platonist school used the names of those venerable
masters, but it cannot be determined how much it really owes to them. A
selection of poems that has often been quoted since the third century,
under the title of "Chaldaic Oracles" ([Greek: Logia Chaldaika]) combines
the ancient Hellenic theories with a fantastic {125} mysticism that was
certainly imported from the Orient. It is to Babylonia what the literature
of Hermes Trismegistus is to Egypt, and it is equally difficult to
determine the nature of the ingredients that the author put into his sacred
compositions. But at an earlier date the Syrian religions had spread far
and wide in the Occident ideas conceived on the distant banks of the
Euphrates. I shall try to indicate briefly what their share in the pagan
syncretism was.
We have seen that the gods from Alexandria gained souls especially by the
promise of blessed immortality. Those from Syria must also have satisfied
doubts tormenting all the minds of that time. As a matter of fact the old
Semitic ideas on man's fate in after-life were little comforting. We know
how sad, dull and hopeless their conception of life after death was. The
dead descended into a subterranean realm where they led a miserable
existence, a weak reflection of the one they had lost; since they were
subject to wants and suffering, they had to be supported by funeral
offerings placed on their sepulchers by their descendants. Those ancient
beliefs and customs were found also in primitive Greece and Italy.
This rudimentary eschatology, however, gave way to quite a different
conception, one that was closely related to the Chaldean astrology, and
which spread over the Occident towards the end of the republic. According
to this doctrine the soul returned to heaven after death, to live there
among the divine stars. While it remained on earth it was subject to all
the bitter necessities of a destiny determined by the revolutions of the
stars; but when it ascended into the upper regions, it escaped that fate
and even the limits of time; {126} it shared equally in the immortality of
the sidereal gods that surrounded it.[60] In the opinion of some, the soul
was attracted by the rays of the sun, and after passing through the moon,
where it was purified, it lost itself in the shining star of day.[61]
Another more purely astrological theory, that was undoubtedly a development
of the former, taught that the soul descended to earth from the heights of
heaven by passing through the spheres of the seven planets. During its
passage it acquired the dispositions and qualities proper to each planet.
After death it returned to its original abode by the same route. To get
from one sphere to another, it had to pass a door guarded by a commandant
([Greek: archôn]).[62] Only the souls of initiates knew the password that
made those incorruptible guardians yield, and under the conduct of a
psychopompus[63] they ascended safely from zone to zone. As the soul rose
it divested itself of the passions and qualities it had acquired on its
descent to the earth as though they were garments, and, free from
sensuality, it penetrated into the eighth heaven to enjoy everlasting
happiness as a subtle essence.
Perhaps this doctrine, undoubtedly of Babylonian origin, was not generally
accepted by the Syrian religions, as it was by the mysteries of Mithra, but
these religions, impregnated with astrology, certainly propagated the
belief that the souls of those worshipers that had led pious lives were
elevated to the heights of heaven, where an apotheosis made them the equals
of the luminous gods.[64] Under the empire this doctrine slowly supplanted
all others; the Elysian fields, which the votaries of Isis and Serapis
still located in {127} the depths of the earth, were transferred into the
ether bathing the fixed stars,[65] and the underworld was thereafter
reserved for the wicked who had not been allowed to pass through the
celestial gates.
The sublime regions occupied by the purified souls were also the abode of
the supreme god.[66] When it transformed the ideas on the destiny of man,
astrology also modified those relating to the nature of the divinity. In
this matter the Syrian religions were especially original; for even if the
Alexandrian mysteries offered man just as comforting prospects of
immortality as the eschatology of their rivals, they were backward in
building up a commensurate theology. To the Semitic races belongs the honor
of having reformed the ancient fetichism most thoroughly. Their base and
narrow conceptions of early times to which we can trace their existence,
broaden and rise until they form a kind of monotheism.
As we have seen, the Syrian tribes worshiped a god of lightning,[67] like
all primitive races. That god opened the reservoirs of the firmament to let
the rain fall and split the giant trees of the woods with the double ax
that always remained his emblem.[68] When the progress of astronomy removed
the constellations to incommensurable distances, the "Baal of the Heavens"
(_Ba'al [vs]amîn_) had to grow in majesty. Undoubtedly at the time of the
Achemenides, he was connected with the Ahura-Mazda of the Persians, the
ancient god of the vault of heaven, who had become the highest physical and
moral power, and this connection helped to transform the old genius of
thunder.[69] People continued to worship the material heaven in him; under
the Romans he was still simply called {128} _Caelus_, as well as "Celestial
Jupiter" (_Jupiter Caelestis_, [Greek: Zeus Ouranios]),[70] but it was a
heaven studied by a sacred science that venerated its harmonious mechanism.
The Seleucides represented him on their coins with a crescent over his
forehead and carrying a sun with seven rays, to symbolize the fact that he
presided over the course of the stars;[71] or else he was shown with the
two Dioscuri at his side, heroes who enjoyed life and suffered death in
turn, according to the Greek myth, and who had become the symbols of the
two celestial hemispheres. Religious uranography placed the residence of
the supreme divinity in the most elevated region of the world, fixing its
abode in the zone most distant from the earth, above the planets and the
fixed stars. This fact was intended to be expressed by the term Most-High
([Greek: Hupsistos]) applied to the Syrian Baals as well as to Jehovah.[72]
According to this cosmic religion, the Most High resided in the immense orb
that contained the spheres of all the stars and embraced the entire
universe which was subject to his domination. The Latins translated the
name of this "Hypsistos" by _Jupiter summus exsuperantissimus_[73] to
indicate his preeminence over all divine beings.
As a matter of fact, his power was infinite. The primary postulate of the
Chaldean astrology was that all phenomena and events of this world were
necessarily determined by sidereal influence. The changes of nature, as
well as the dispositions of men, were controlled according to fate, by the
divine energies that resided in the heavens. In other words, the gods were
almighty; they were the masters of destiny that governed the universe
absolutely. The notion of their {129} omnipotence resulted from the
development of the ancient autocracy with which the Baals were credited. As
we have stated, they were conceived after the image of an Asiatic monarch,
and the religious terminology was evidently intended to display the
humility of their priests toward them. In Syria we find nothing analogous
to what existed in Egypt, where the priest thought he could compel the gods
to act, and even dared to threaten them.[74] The distance separating the
human and the divine always was much greater with the Semitic tribes, and
all that astrology did was to emphasize the distance more strongly by
giving it a doctrinal foundation and a scientific appearance. In the Latin
world the Asiatic religions propagated the conception of the absolute and
illimitable sovereignty of God over the earth. Apuleius calls the Syrian
goddess _omnipotens et omniparens_, "mistress and mother of all
things."[75]
The observation of the starry skies, moreover, had led the Chaldeans to the
notion of a divine eternity. The constancy of the sidereal revolutions
inspired the conclusion as to their perpetuity. The stars follow their ever
uncompleted courses unceasingly; as soon as the end of their journey is
reached, they resume without stopping the road already covered, and the
cycles of years in which their movements take place extend from the
indefinite past into the indefinite future.[76] Thus a clergy of
astronomers necessarily conceived Baal, "Lord of the heavens," as the
"Master of eternity" or "He whose name is praised through all
eternity"[77]--titles which constantly recur in Semitic inscriptions. The
divine stars did not die, like Osiris or Attis; whenever they seemed to
weaken, they were {130} born to a new life and always remained invincible
(_invicti_).
Together with the mysteries of the Syrian Baals, this theological notion
penetrated into Occidental paganism.[78] Whenever an inscription to a _deus
aeternus_ is found in the Latin provinces it refers to a Syrian sidereal
god, and it is a remarkable fact that this epithet did not enter the ritual
before the second century, at the time the worship of the god Heaven
(_Caelus_)[79] was propagated. That the philosophers had long before placed
the first cause beyond the limits of time was of no consequence, for their
theories had not penetrated into the popular consciousness nor modified the
traditional formulary of the liturgies. To the people the divinities were
beings more beautiful, more vigorous, and more powerful than man, but born
like him, and exempt only from old age and death, the immortals of old
Homer. The Syrian priests diffused the idea of a god without beginning and
without end through the Roman world, and thus contributed, along lines
parallel with the Jewish proselytism, to lend the authority of dogma to
what had previously been only a metaphysical theory.
The Baals were universal as well as eternal, and their power became
limitless in regard to space as it had been in regard to time. These two
principles were correlative. The title of "_mar'olam_" which the Baals bore
occasionally may be translated by "Lord of the universe," or by "Lord of
eternity," and efforts certainly have been made to claim the twofold
quality for them.[80] Peopled with divine constellations and traversed by
planets assimilated to the inhabitants of Olympus, the heavens determined
the destinies of the {131} entire human race by their movements, and the
whole earth was subject to the changes produced by their revolutions.[81]
Consequently the old _Ba'al [vs]amîn_ was necessarily transformed into a
universal power. Of course, even under the Cæsars there existed in Syria
traces of a period when the local god was the fetich of a clan and could be
worshiped by the members of that clan only, a period when strangers were
admitted to his altars only after a ceremony of initiation, as brothers, or
at least as guests and clients.[82] But from the period when our knowledge
of the history of the great divinities of Heliopolis or Hierapolis begins,
these divinities were regarded as common to all Syrians, and crowds of
pilgrims came from distant countries to obtain grace in the holy cities. As
protectors of the entire human race the Baals gained proselytes in the
Occident, and their temples witnessed gatherings of devotees of every race
and nationality. In this respect the Baals were distinctly different from
Jehovah.
The essence of paganism implies that the nature of a divinity broadens as
the number of its votaries increases. Everybody credits it with some new
quality, and its character becomes more complex. As it gains in power it
also has a tendency to dominate its companion gods and to concentrate their
functions in itself. To escape this threatening absorption, these gods must
be of a very sharply defined personality and of a very original character.
The vague Semitic deities, however, were devoid of a well-defined
individuality. We fail to find among them a well organized society of
immortals, like that of the Greek Olympus where each divinity had its own
features and its own particular {132} life full of adventures and
experiences, and each followed its special calling to the exclusion of all
the others. One was a physician, another a poet, a third a shepherd, hunter
or blacksmith. The Greek inscriptions found in Syria are, in this regard,
eloquently concise.[83] Usually they have the name of Zeus accompanied by
some simple epithet: kurios ([Greek: kurios], Lord), _aniketos_ ([Greek:
anikêtos], invincible), _megistos_ ([Greek: megistos], greatest). All these
Baals seem to have been brothers. They were personalities of indeterminate
outline and interchangeable powers and were readily confused.
At the time the Romans came into contact with Syria, it had already passed
through a period of syncretism similar to the one we can study with greater
precision in the Latin world. The ancient exclusiveness and the national
particularism had been overcome. The Baals of the great sanctuaries had
enriched themselves with the virtues[84] of their neighbors; then, always
following the same process, they had taken certain features from foreign
divinities brought over by the Greek conquerors. In that manner their
characters had become indefinable, they performed incompatible functions
and possessed irreconcilable attributes. An inscription found in
Britain[85] assimilates the Syrian goddess to Peace, Virtue, Ceres, Cybele,
and even to the sign of the Virgin.
In conformity with the law governing the development of paganism, the
Semitic gods tended to become pantheistic because they comprehended all
nature and were identified with it. The various deities were nothing but
different aspects under which the supreme and infinite being manifested
itself. Although Syria {133} remained deeply and even coarsely idolatrous
in practice, in theory it approached monotheism or, better perhaps,
henotheism. By an absurd but curious etymology the name Hadad has been
explained as "one, one" (_'ad 'ad_).[86]
Everywhere the narrow and divided polytheism showed a confused tendency to
elevate itself into a superior synthesis, but in Syria astrology lent the
firmness of intelligent conviction to notions that were vague elsewhere.
The Chaldean cosmology, which deified all elements but ascribed a
predominant influence to the stars, ruled the entire Syrian syncretism. It
considered the world as a great organism which was kept intact by an
intimate solidarity, and whose parts continually influenced each other.
The ancient Semites believed therefore that the divinity could be regarded
as embodied in the waters, in the fire of the lightning, in stones or
plants. But the most powerful gods were the constellations and the planets
that governed the course of time and of all things.
The sun was supreme because it led the starry choir, because it was the
king and guide of all the other luminaries and therefore the master of the
whole world.[87] The astronomical doctrines of the "Chaldeans" taught that
this incandescent globe alternately attracted and repelled the other
sidereal bodies, and from this principle the Oriental theologians had
concluded that it must determine the entire life of the universe, inasmuch
as it regulated the movements of the heavens. As the "intelligent light" it
was especially the creator of human reason, and just as it repelled and
attracted the planets in turn, it was believed {134} to send out souls, at
the time of birth, into the bodies they animated, and to cause them to
return to its bosom after death by means of a series of emissions and
absorptions.
Later on, when the seat of the Most-High was placed beyond the limits of
the universe, the radiant star that gives us light became the visible image
of the supreme power, the source of all life and all intelligence, the
intermediary between an inaccessible god and mankind, and the one object of
special homage from the multitude.[88]
Solar pantheism, which grew up among the Syrians of the Hellenistic period
as a result of the influence of Chaldean astrolatry, imposed itself upon
the whole Roman world under the empire. Our very rapid sketch of the
constitution of that theological system shows incidentally the last form
assumed by the pagan idea of God. In this matter Syria was Rome's teacher
and predecessor. The last formula reached by the religion of the pagan
Semites and in consequence by that of the Romans, was a divinity unique,
almighty, eternal, universal and ineffable, that revealed itself throughout
nature, but whose most splendid and most energetic manifestation was the
sun. To arrive at the Christian monotheism[89] only one final tie had to be
broken, that is to say, this supreme being residing in a distant heaven had
to be removed beyond the world. So we see once more in this instance, how
the propagation of the Oriental cults levelled the roads for Christianity
and heralded its triumph. Although astrology was always fought by the
church, it had nevertheless prepared the minds for the dogmas the church
was to proclaim.
* * * * *
{135}
PERSIA.
The dominant historical fact in western Asia in ancient times was the
opposition between the Greco-Roman and Persian civilizations, which was
itself only an episode in the great struggle that was constantly in
progress between the Orient and the Occident in those countries. In the
first enthusiasm of their conquests, the Persians extended their dominion
as far as the cities of Ionia and the islands of the Ægean Sea, but their
power of expansion was broken at the foot of the Acropolis. One hundred and
fifty years later, Alexander destroyed the empire of the Achemenides and
carried Hellenic culture to the banks of the Indus. After two and a half
centuries the Parthians under the Arsacid dynasty advanced to the borders
of Syria, and Mithradates Eupator, an alleged descendant of Darius,
penetrated to the heart of Greece at the head of his Persian nobility from
Pontus.
After the flood came the ebb. The reconstructed Roman empire of Augustus
soon reduced Armenia, Cappadocia and even the kingdom of the Parthians to a
kind of vassalage. But after the middle of the third century the Sassanid
dynasty restored the power of Persia and revived its ancient pretensions.
From that time until the triumph of Islam it was one long {136} duel
between the two rival states, in which now one was victorious and now the
other, while neither was ever decisively beaten. An ambassador of king
Narses to Galerius called these two states "the two eyes of the human
race."[1]
The "invincible" star of the Persians might wane and vanish, but only to
reappear in greater glory. The political and military strength displayed by
this nation through the centuries was the result of its high intellectual
and moral qualities. Its original culture was always hostile to such an
assimilation as that experienced in different degrees by the Aryans of
Phrygia, the Semites of Syria and the Hamites of Egypt. Hellenism and
Iranism--if I may use that term--were two equally noble adversaries but
differently educated, and they always remained separated by instinctive
racial hostility as much as by hereditary opposition of interests.
Nevertheless, when two civilizations are in contact for more than a
thousand years, numerous exchanges are bound to occur. The influence
exercised by Hellenism as far as the uplands of Central Asia has frequently
been pointed out,[2] but the prestige retained by Persia throughout the
ages and the extent of area influenced by its energy has not perhaps been
shown with as much accuracy. For even if Mazdaism was the highest
expression of Persian genius and its influence in consequence mainly
religious, yet it was not exclusively so.
After the fall of the Achemenides the memory of their empire long haunted
Alexander's successors. Not only did the dynasties which claimed to be
descended from Darius, and which ruled over Pontus, {137} Cappadocia and
Commagene, cultivate political traditions that brought them nearer to their
supposed ancestors, but those traditions were partly adopted even by the
Seleucides and the Ptolemies, the legitimate heirs of the ancient masters
of Asia. People were fond of recalling the ideals of past grandeur and
sought to realize them in the present. In that manner several institutions
were transmitted to the Roman emperors through the agency of the Asiatic
monarchies. The institution of the _amici Augusti_, for instance, the
appointed friends and intimate counselors of the rulers, adopted in Italy
the forms in use at the court of the Diadochi, who had themselves imitated
the ancient organization of the palace of the Great Kings.[3]
The custom of carrying the sacred fire before the Cæsars as an emblem of
the perpetuity of their power, dated back to Darius and with other Persian
traditions passed on to the dynasties that divided the empire of Alexander.
There is a striking similarity not only between the observance of the
Cæsars and the practice of the Oriental monarchs, but also between the
beliefs that they held. The continuity of the political and religious
tradition cannot be doubted.[4] As the court ceremonial and the internal
history of the Hellenistic kingdoms become better known we shall be able to
outline with greater precision the manner in which the divided and
diminished heritage of the Achemenides, after generations of rulers, was
finally left to those Occidental sovereigns who called themselves the
sacrosanct lords of the world as Artaxerxes had done.[5] It may not be
generally known that the habit of welcoming friends with a kiss was a
ceremony in the {138} Oriental formulary before it became a familiar custom
in Europe.[6]
It is very difficult to trace the hidden paths by which pure ideas travel
from one people to another. But certain it is that at the beginning of our
era certain Mazdean conceptions had already spread outside of Asia. The
extent of the influence of Parseeism upon the beliefs of Israel under the
Achemenides cannot be determined, but its existence is undeniable.[7] Some
of its doctrines, as for instance those relating to angels and demons, the
end of the world and the final resurrection, were propagated everywhere in
the basin of the Mediterranean as a consequence of the diffusion of Jewish
colonies.
On the other hand, ever since the conquests of Cyrus and Darius, the active
attention of the Greeks had been drawn toward the doctrines and religious
practices of the new masters of the Orient.[8] A number of legends
representing Pythagoras, Democritus and other philosophers as disciples of
the magi prove the prestige of that powerful sacerdotal class. The
Macedonian conquest, which placed the Greeks in direct relations with
numerous votaries of Mazdaism, gave a new impetus to works treating that
religion, and the great scientific movement inaugurated by Aristotle caused
many scholars to look into the doctrines taught by the Persian subjects of
the Seleucides. We know from a reliable source that the works catalogued
under the name of Zoroaster in the library of Alexandria contained two
million lines. This immense body of sacred literature was bound to attract
the attention of scholars and to call forth the reflections of
philosophers. The dim and dubious science that reached {139} even the lower
classes under the name of "magic" was to a considerable extent of Persian
origin, as its name indicates, and along with physician's recipes and
thaumaturgic processes it imparted some theological doctrines in a confused
fashion.[9]
This explains why certain institutions and beliefs of the Persians had
found imitators and adepts in the Greco-Oriental world long before the
Romans had gained a foothold in Asia. Their influence was indirect, secret,
frequently indiscernible, but it was certain. The most active agencies in
the diffusion of Mazdaism as of Judaism seem to have been colonies of
believers who had emigrated far from the mother country. There was a
Persian dispersion similar to that of the Israelites. Communities of magi
were established not only in eastern Asia Minor, but in Galatia, Phrygia,
Lydia and even in Egypt. Everywhere they remained attached to their customs
and beliefs with persistent tenacity.[10]
When Rome extended her conquests into Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, the
influence of Persia became much more direct. Superficial contact with the
Mazdean populations began with the wars against Mithradates, but it did not
become frequent and lasting until the first century of our era. During that
century the empire gradually extended its limits to the upper Euphrates,
and thereby absorbed all the uplands of Anatolia and Commagene south of the
Taurus. The native dynasties which had fostered the secular isolation of
those distant countries in spite of the state of vassalage to which they
had been reduced disappeared one after another. The Flavians constructed
through those hitherto almost inaccessible regions an immense network {140}
of roads that were as important to Rome as the railways of Turkestan or of
Siberia are to modern Russia. At the same time Roman legions camped on the
banks of the Euphrates and in the mountains of Armenia. Thus all the little
Mazdean centers scattered in Cappadocia and Pontus were forced into
constant relation with the Latin world, and on the other hand the
disappearance of the buffer states made the Roman and Parthian empires
neighboring powers in Trajan's time (98-117 A. D.).
From these conquests and annexations in Asia Minor and Syria dates the
sudden propagation of the Persian mysteries of Mithra in the Occident. For
even though a congregation of their votaries seems to have existed at Rome
under Pompey as early as 67 B. C., the real diffusion of the mysteries
began with the Flavians toward the end of the first century of our era.
They became more and more prominent under the Antonines and the Severi, and
remained the most important cult of paganism until the end of the fourth
century. Through them as a medium the original doctrines of Mazdaism were
widely propagated in every Latin province, and in order to appreciate the
influence of Persia upon the Roman creeds, we must now give them our
careful attention.
However, it must be said that the growing influence of Persia did not
manifest itself solely in the religious sphere. After the accession of the
Sassanid dynasty (228 A. D.) the country once more became conscious of its
originality, again resumed the cultivation of national traditions,
reorganized the hierarchy of its official clergy and recovered the
political cohesion which had been wanting under the Parthians. It felt
{141} and showed its superiority over the neighboring empire that was then
torn by factions, thrown upon the mercy of manifestoes, and ruined
economically and morally. The studies now being made in the history of that
period show more and more that debilitated Rome had become the imitator of
Persia.
In the opinion of contemporaries the court of Diocletian, prostrating
itself before a master who was regarded as the equal of God, with its
complicated hierarchy and crowd of eunuchs that disgraced it, was an
imitation of the court of the Sassanides. Galerius declared in unmistakable
terms that Persian absolutism must be introduced in his empire,[11] and the
ancient Cæsarism founded on the will of the people seemed about to be
transformed into a sort of caliphate.
Recent discoveries also throw light upon a powerful artistic school that
developed in the Parthian empire and later in that of the Sassanides and
which grew up independently of the Greek centers of production. Even if it
took certain models from the Hellenic sculpture or architecture, it
combined them with Oriental motives into a decoration of exuberant
richness. Its field of influence extended far beyond Mesopotamia into the
south of Syria where it has left monuments of unequalled splendor. The
radiance of that brilliant center undoubtedly illuminated Byzantium, the
barbarians of the north, and even China.[12]
The Persian Orient, then, exerted a dominant influence on the political
institutions and artistic tastes of the Romans as well as on their ideas
and beliefs. The propagation of the religion of Mithra, which always
proudly proclaimed its Persian origin, was accompanied by a number of
parallel influences of the {142} people from which it had issued. Never,
not even during the Mohammedan invasions, had Europe a narrower escape from
becoming Asiatic than when Diocletian officially recognized Mithra as the
protector of the reconstructed empire.[13] The time when that god seemed to
be establishing his authority over the entire civilized world was one of
the critical phases in the moral history of antiquity. An irresistible
invasion of Semitic and Mazdean conceptions nearly succeeded in permanently
overwhelming the Occidental spirit. Even after Mithra had been vanquished
and expelled from Christianized Rome, Persia did not disarm. The work of
conversion in which Mithraism had failed was taken up by Manicheism, the
heir to its cardinal doctrines, and until the Middle Ages Persian dualism
continued to cause bloody struggles in the ancient Roman provinces.
* * * * *
Just as we cannot understand the character of the mysteries of Isis and
Serapis without studying the circumstances accompanying their creation by
the Ptolemies, so we cannot appreciate the causes of the power attained by
the mysteries of Mithra, unless we go far back to their origin.
Here the subject is unfortunately more obscure. The ancient authors tell us
almost nothing about the origin of Mithra. One point on which they all
agree is that he was a Persian god, but this we should know from the Avesta
even if they had not mentioned it. But how did he get to Italy from the
Persian uplands?
Two scant lines of Plutarch are the most explicit document we have on the
subject. He narrates incidentally that the pirates from Asia Minor
vanquished {143} by Pompey in 67 performed strange sacrifices on Olympus, a
volcano of Lycia, and practiced occult rites, among others those of Mithra
which, he says, "exist to the present day and were first taught by
them."[14] Lactantius Placidus, a commentator on Statius and a mediocre
authority, also tells us that the cult passed from the Persians to the
Phrygians and from the Phrygians to the Romans.[15]
These two authors agree then in fixing in Asia Minor the origin of this
Persian religion that later spread over the Occident, and in fact various
indications direct us to that country. The frequency of the name
Mithradates, for instance, in the dynasties of Pontus, Cappadocia, Armenia
and Commagene, connected with the Achemenides by fictitious genealogies,
shows the devotion of those kings to Mithra.
As we see, the Mithraism that was revealed to the Romans at the time of
Pompey had established itself in the Anatolian monarchies during the
preceding period, which was an epoch of intense moral and religious unrest.
Unfortunately we have no monuments of that period of its history. The
absence of direct testimony on the development of Mazdean sects during the
last three centuries before our era prevents us from gaining exact
knowledge of the Parseeism of Asia Minor.
None of the temples dedicated to Mithra in that religion have been
examined.[16] The inscriptions mentioning his name are as yet few and
insignificant, so that it is only by indirect means that we can arrive at
conclusions about this primitive cult. The only way to explain its
distinguishing features in the Occident is to study the environment in
which it originated.
During the domination of the Achemenides eastern {144} Asia Minor was
colonized by the Persians. The uplands of Anatolia resembled those of
Persia in climate and soil, and were especially adapted to the raising of
horses.[17] In Cappadocia and even in Pontus the aristocracy who owned the
soil belonged to the conquering nation. Under the various governments which
followed after the death of Alexander, those landlords remained the real
masters of the country, chieftains of clans governing the canton where they
had their domains, and, on the outskirts of Armenia at least, they retained
the hereditary title of satraps through all political vicissitudes until
the time of Justinian, thus recalling their Persian origin.[18] This
military and feudal aristocracy furnished Mithradates Eupator a
considerable number of the officers who helped him in his long defiance of
Rome, and later it defended the threatened independence of Armenia against
the enterprises of the Cæsars. These warriors worshiped Mithra as the
protecting genius of their arms, and this is the reason why Mithra always,
even in the Latin world, remained the "invincible" god, the tutelary deity
of armies, held in special honor by warriors.
Besides the Persian nobility a Persian clergy had also become established
in the peninsula. It officiated in famous temples, at Zela in Pontus and
Hierocæsarea in Lydia. Magi, called _magousaioi_ or _pyrethes_
(firelighters) were scattered over the Levant. Like the Jews, they retained
their national customs and traditional rites with such scrupulous loyalty
that Bardesanes of Edessa cited them as an example in his attempt to refute
the doctrines of astrology and to show that a nation can retain the same
customs in different climates.[19] We know their religion sufficiently to
be {145} certain that the Syrian author had good grounds for attributing
that conservative spirit to them. The sacrifices of the _pyrethes_ which
Strabo observed in Cappadocia recall all the peculiarities of the Avestan
liturgy. The same prayers were recited before the altar of the fire while
the priest held the sacred fasces (_bareçman_); the same offerings were
made of milk, oil and honey; and the same precautions were taken to prevent
the priest's breath from polluting the divine flame. Their gods were
practically those of orthodox Mazdaism. They worshiped Ahura Mazda, who had
to them remained a divinity of the sky as Zeus and Jupiter had been
originally. Below him they venerated deified abstractions (such as
Vohumano, "good mind," and Ameretat, "immortality") from which the religion
of Zoroaster made its Amshaspends, the archangels surrounding the Most
High.[20] Finally they sacrificed to the spirits of nature, the Yazatas:
for instance, Anahita or Anaites the goddess of the waters--that made
fertile the fields; Atar, the personification of fire; and especially
Mithra, the pure genius of light.
Thus the basis of the religion of the magi of Asia Minor was Mazdaism,
somewhat changed from that of the Avesta, and in certain respects holding
closer to the primitive nature worship of the Aryans, but nevertheless a
clearly characterized and distinctive Mazdaism, which was to remain the
most solid foundation for the greatness of the mysteries of Mithra in the
Occident.
Recent discoveries[21] of bilingual inscriptions have succeeded in
establishing the fact that the language used, or at least written, by the
Persian colonies of Asia Minor was not their ancient Aryan idiom, but {146}
Aramaic, which was a Semitic dialect. Under the Achemenides this was the
diplomatic and commercial language of all countries west of the Tigris. In
Cappadocia and Armenia it remained the literary and probably also the
liturgical language until it was slowly supplanted by Greek during the
Hellenistic period. The very name _magousaioi_ ([Greek: magousaioi]) given
to the magi in those countries is an exact transcription of a Semitic
plural.[22] This phenomenon, surprising at first sight, is explained by the
history of the _magousaioi_ who emigrated to Asia Minor. They did not come
there directly from Persepolis or Susa, but from Mesopotamia. Their
religion had been deeply influenced by the speculations of the powerful
clergy officiating in the temples of Babylon. The learned theology of the
Chaldeans imposed itself on the primitive Mazdaism, which was a collection
of traditions and rites rather than a body of doctrines. The divinities of
the two religions became identified, their legends connected, and the
Semitic astrology, the result of long continued scientific observations,
superimposed itself on the naturalistic myths of the Persians. Ahura Mazda
was assimilated to Bel, Anahita to Ishtar, and Mithra to Shamash, the solar
god. For that reason Mithra was commonly called _Sol invictus_ in the Roman
mysteries, and an abstruse and a complicated astronomic symbolism was
always part of the teachings revealed to candidates for initiation and
manifested itself also in the artistic embellishments of the temple.
In connection with a cult from Commagene we can observe rather closely how
the fusion of Parseeism with Semitic and Anatolian creeds took place,
because {147} in those regions the form of religious transformations was at
all times syncretic. On a mountain top in the vicinity of a town named
Doliche, a deity was worshiped who after a number of transformations became
a Jupiter Protector of the Roman armies. Originally this god, who was
believed to have discovered the use of iron, seems to have been brought to
Commagene by a tribe of blacksmiths, the Chalybes, who had come from the
north.[23] He was represented standing on a steer and holding in his hand a
two-edged ax, an ancient symbol venerated in Crete during the Mycenean age
and found also at Labranda in Caria and all over Asia Minor.[24] The ax
symbolized the god's mastery over the lightning which splits asunder the
trees of the forest amidst the din of storms. Once established on Syrian
soil, this genius of thunder became identified with some local Baal and his
cult took up all the Semitic features. After the conquests of Cyrus and the
founding of the Persian domination, this "Lord of the heavens" was readily
confounded with Ahura Mazda, who was likewise "the full circle of heaven,"
according to a definition of Herodotus,[25] and whom the Persians also
worshiped on mountain tops. When a half Persian, half Hellenic dynasty
succeeded Alexander in Commagene, this Baal became a _Zeus Oromasdes_
([Greek: Zeus Ôromasdês], Ahura Mazda) residing in the sublime ethereal
regions. A Greek inscription speaks of the celestial thrones "on which this
supreme divinity receives the souls of its worshipers."[26] In the Latin
countries "Jupiter Caelus" remained at the head of the Mazdean
pantheon,[27] and in all the provinces the temples of {148} "Jupiter
Dolichenus" were erected beside those of Mithra, and the two remained in
the closest relations.[28]
The same series of transformations took place elsewhere with a number of
other gods.[29] The Mithra worship was thus formed, in the main, by a
combination of Persian beliefs with Semitic theology, incidentally
including certain elements from the native cults of Asia Minor. The Greeks
later translated the names of the Persian divinities into their language
and imposed certain forms of their mysteries on the Mazdean cult.[30]
Hellenic art lent to the Yazatas that idealized form in which it liked to
represent the immortals, and philosophy, especially that of the Stoics,
endeavored to discover its own physical and metaphysical theories in the
traditions of the magi. But in spite of all these accommodations,
adaptations and interpretations, Mithraism always remained in substance a
Mazdaism blended with Chaldeanism, that is to say, essentially a barbarian
religion. It certainly was far less Hellenized than the Alexandrian cult of
Isis and Serapis, or even that of the Great Mother of Pessinus. For that
reason it always seemed unacceptable to the Greek world, from which it
continued to be almost completely excluded. Even language furnishes a
curious proof of that fact. Greek contains a number of theophorous ([Greek:
theophoros], god-bearing) names formed from those of Egyptian or Phrygian
gods, like Serapion, Metrodoros, Metrophilos--Isidore is in use at the
present day--but all known derivations of Mithra are of barbarian
formation. The Greeks never admitted the god of their hereditary enemies,
and the great centers of Hellenic {149} civilization escaped his influence
and he theirs.[31] Mithraism passed directly from Asia into the Latin
world.
There it spread with lightning rapidity from the time it was first
introduced. When the progressive march of the Romans toward the Euphrates
enabled them to investigate the sacred trust transmitted by Persia to the
magi of Asia Minor, and when they became acquainted with the Mazdean
beliefs which had matured in the seclusion of the Anatolian mountains, they
adopted them with enthusiasm. The Persian cult was spread by the soldiers
along the entire length of the frontiers towards the end of the first
century and left numerous traces around the camps of the Danube and the
Rhine, near the stations along the wall of Britain, and in the vicinity of
the army posts scattered along the borders of the Sahara or in the valleys
of the Asturias. At the same time the Asiatic merchants introduced it in
the ports of the Mediterranean, along the great waterways and roads, and in
all commercial cities. It also possessed missionaries in the Oriental
slaves who were to be found everywhere, engaging in every pursuit, employed
in the public service as well as in domestic work, in the cultivation of
land as well as in financial and mining enterprises, and above all in the
imperial service, where they filled the offices.
Soon this foreign god gained the favor of high functionaries and of the
sovereign himself. At the end of the second century Commodus was initiated
into the mysteries, a conversion that had a tremendous effect. A hundred
years later Mithra's power was such that at one time he seemed about to
eclipse both Oriental and Occidental rivals and to dominate the {150}
entire Roman world. In the year 307 Diocletian, Galerius and Licinius met
in a solemn interview at Carnuntum on the Danube and dedicated a sanctuary
there to Mithra, "the protector of their empire" (_fautori imperii
sui_).[32]
In previous works on the mysteries of Mithra we have endeavored to assign
causes for the enthusiasm that attracted humble plebeians and great men of
the world to the altars of this barbarian god. We shall not repeat here
what any one who has the curiosity may read either in a large or a small
book according to his preferences,[33] but we must consider the problem
from a different point of view. Of all Oriental religions the Persian cult
was the last to reach the Romans. We shall inquire what new principle it
contained; to what inherent qualities it owed its superiority; and through
what characteristics it remained distinct in the conflux of creeds of all
kinds that were struggling for supremacy in the world at that time.
The originality and value of the Persian religion lay not in its doctrines
regarding the nature of the celestial gods. Without doubt Parseeism is of
all pagan religions the one that comes closest to monotheism, for it
elevates Ahura Mazda high above all other celestial spirits. But the
doctrines of Mithraism are not those of Zoroaster. What it received from
Persia was chiefly its mythology and ritual; its theology, which was
thoroughly saturated with Chaldean erudition, probably did not differ
noticeably from the Syrian. At the head of the divine hierarchy it placed
as first cause an abstraction, deified Time, the Zervan Akarana of the
Avesta. This divinity regulated the revolutions of the stars and in
consequence was the absolute master of {151} all things. Ahura Mazda, whose
throne was in the heavens, had become the equivalent of _Ba'al Samin_, and
even before the magi the Semites had introduced into the Occident the
worship of the sun, the source of all energy and light. Babylonian
astrology and astrolatry inspired the theories of the mithreums as well as
of the Semitic temples, a fact that explains the intimate connection of the
two cults. This half religious, half scientific system which was not
peculiarly Persian nor original to Mithraism was not the reason for the
adoption of that worship by the Roman world.
Neither did the Persian mysteries win the masses by their liturgy.
Undoubtedly their secret ceremonies performed in mountain caves, or at any
rate in the darkness of the underground crypts, were calculated to inspire
awe. Participation in the liturgical meals gave rise to moral comfort and
stimulation. By submitting to a sort of baptism the votaries hoped to
expiate their sins and regain an untroubled conscience. But the sacred
feasts and purifying ablutions connected with the same spiritual hopes are
found in other Oriental cults, and the magnificent suggestive ritual of the
Egyptian clergy certainly was more impressive than that of the magi. The
mythic drama performed in the grottoes of the Persian god and culminating
in the immolation of a steer who was considered as the creator and
rejuvenator of the earth, must have seemed less important and affecting
than the suffering and joy of Isis seeking and reviving the mutilated body
of her husband, or than the moaning and jubilation of Cybele mourning over
and reviving her lover Attis.
But Persia introduced dualism as a fundamental principle in religion. It
was this that distinguished {152} Mithraism from other sects and inspired
its dogmatic theology and ethics, giving them a rigor and firmness unknown
to Roman paganism. It considered the universe from an entirely new point of
view and at the same time provided a new goal in life.
Of course, if we understand by dualism the antithesis of mind and matter,
of reason and intuition, it appeared at a considerably earlier period in
Greek philosophy,[34] where it was one of the leading ideas of
neo-Pythagoreanism and of Philo's system. But the distinguishing feature of
the doctrine of the magi is the fact that it deified the evil principle,
set it up as a rival to the supreme deity, and taught that both had to be
worshiped. This system offered an apparently simple solution to the problem
of evil, the stumbling block of theologies, and it attracted the cultured
minds as well as the masses, to whom it afforded an explanation of their
sufferings. Just as the mysteries of Mithra began to spread Plutarch wrote
of them favorably and was inclined himself to adopt them.[35] From that
time dates the appearance in literature of the anti-gods ([Greek:
antitheoi]),[36] under the command of the powers of darkness[37] and
arrayed against the celestial spirits, messengers or "angels"[38] of
divinity. They were Ahriman's _devas_ struggling with the Yazatas of
Ormuzd.
A curious passage in Porphyry[39] shows that the earliest neo-Platonists
had already admitted Persian demonology into their system. Below the
incorporeal and indivisible supreme being, below the stars and the planets,
there were countless spirits.[40] Some of them, the gods of cities and
nations, received special names: {153} the others comprised a nameless
multitude. They were divided into two groups. The first were the benevolent
spirits that gave fecundity to plants and animals, serenity to nature, and
knowledge to men. They acted as intermediaries between gods and men,
bearing up to heaven the homage and prayers of the faithful, and down from
heaven portents and warnings. The others were wicked spirits inhabiting
regions close to the earth and there was no evil that they did not exert
every effort to cause.[41] At the same time both violent and cunning,
impetuous and crafty, they were the authors of all the calamities that
befell the world, such as pestilence, famine, tempests and earthquakes.
They kindled evil passions and illicit desires in the hearts of men and
provoked war and sedition. They were clever deceivers rejoicing in lies and
impostures. They encouraged the phantasmagoria and mystification of the
sorcerers[42] and gloated over the bloody sacrifices which magicians
offered to them all, but especially to their chief.
Doctrines very similar to these were certainly taught in the mysteries of
Mithra; homage was paid to Ahriman (Arimanius) lord of the somber
underworld, and master of the infernal spirits.[43] This cult has continued
in the Orient to the present day among the Yezidis, or devil worshipers.
In his treatise against the magi, Theodore of Mopsuestia[44] speaks of
Ahriman as Satan ([Greek: Satanas]). At first sight there really is a
surprising resemblance between the two. Both are heads of a numerous army
of demons; both are spirits of error and falsehood, princes of darkness,
{154} tempters and corrupters. An almost identical picture of the pair
could be drawn, and in fact they are practically the same figure under
different names. It is generally admitted that Judaism took the notion of
an adversary of God[45] from the Mazdeans along with portions of their
dualism. It was therefore natural that Jewish doctrine, of which
Christianity is heir, should have been closely allied to the mysteries of
Mithra. A considerable part of the more or less orthodox beliefs and
visions that gave the Middle Ages their nightmare of hell and the devil
thus came from Persia by two channels: on the one hand Judeo-Christian
literature, both canonical and apocryphal; and on the other, the remnants
of the Mithra cult and the various sects of Manicheism that continued to
preach the old Persian doctrines on the antagonism between the two world
principles.
But a theoretical adherence of the mind to dogmas that satisfy it, does not
suffice to convert it to a new religion. There must be motives of conduct
and a basis for hope besides grounds for belief. The Persian dualism was
not only a powerful metaphysical conception; it was also the foundation of
a very efficacious system of ethics, and this was the chief agent in the
success of the mysteries of Mithra during the second and third centuries in
the Roman world then animated by unrealized aspirations for more perfect
justice and holiness.
A sentence of the Emperor Julian,[46] unfortunately too brief, tells us
that Mithra subjected his worshipers to "commandments" ([Greek: entolai])
and rewarded faithful observance both in this world and in the next. The
{155} importance attached by the Persians to their peculiar ethics and the
rigor with which they observed its precepts, are perhaps the most striking
features of their national character as manifested in history. They were a
race of conquerors subject to a severe discipline, like the Romans, and
like them they realized the necessity of discipline in the administration
of a vast empire. Certain affinities between the two imperial nations
connected them directly without the mediation of the Greek world. Mazdaism
brought long awaited satisfaction to the old-time Roman desire for a
practical religion that would subject the individual to a rule of conduct
and contribute to the welfare of the state.[47] Mithra infused a new vigor
into the paganism of the Occident by introducing the imperative ethics of
Persia.
Unhappily the text of the Mithraic decalogue has not been preserved and its
principal commandments can be restored only by implication.
Mithra, the ancient spirit of light, became the god of truth and justice in
the religion of Zoroaster and retained that character in the Occident. He
was the Mazdean Apollo, but while Hellenism, with a finer appreciation of
beauty, developed the esthetic qualities in Apollo, the Persians, caring
more for matters of conscience, emphasized the moral character in
Mithra.[48] The Greeks, themselves little scrupulous in that respect, were
struck by the abhorrence in which their Oriental neighbors held a lie. The
Persians conceived of Ahriman as the embodiment of deceit. Mithra was
always the god invoked as the guarantor of faith and protector of the
inviolability of contracts. Absolute fidelity to his oath had to be a
cardinal virtue {156} in the religion of a soldier, whose first act upon
enlistment was to pledge obedience and devotion to the sovereign. This
religion exalted loyalty and fidelity and undoubtedly tried to inspire a
feeling similar to our modern idea of honor.
In addition to respect for authority it preached fraternity. All the
initiates considered themselves as sons of the same father owing to one
another a brother's affection. It is a question whether they extended the
love of neighbor to that universal charity taught by philosophy and
Christianity. Emperor Julian, a devoted mystic, liked to set up such an
ideal, and it is probable that the Mithraists of later paganism rose to
this conception of duty,[49] but they were not its authors. They seemed to
have attached more importance to the virile qualities than to compassion
and gentleness. The fraternal spirit of initiates calling themselves
soldiers was doubtless more akin to the spirit of comradeship in a regiment
that has _esprit de corps_, than to the love of one's neighbor that
inspires works of mercy towards all.
All primitive people imagine nature filled with unclean and wicked spirits
that corrupt and torture those who disturb their repose; but dualism
endowed this universal belief with marvelous power as well as with a
dogmatic basis. Mazdaism is governed throughout by ideas of purity and
impurity. "No religion on earth has ever been so completely dominated by an
ideal of purification."[50] This kind of perfection was the goal of the
aspiration and effort of believers. They were obliged to guard with
infinite precaution against defiling the divine elements, for instance
water or fire, or their own persons, and to wipe out all pollution by {157}
repeated lustrations. But, as in the Syrian cults of the imperial period,
these Mithraic rites did remain simply formal, mechanical and of the flesh,
inspired by the old idea of _tabu_. Mithraic baptism wiped out moral
faults; the purity aimed at had become spiritual.
This perfect purity distinguishes the mysteries of Mithra from those of all
other Oriental gods. Serapis is the brother and husband of Isis, Attis the
lover of Cybele, every Syrian Baal is coupled with a spouse; but Mithra
lives alone. Mithra is chaste, Mithra is holy (_sanctus_),[51] and for the
worship of fecundity he substitutes a new reverence for continence.
However, although resistance to sensuality is laudable and although the
ideal of perfection of this Mazdean sect inclined towards the asceticism to
which the Manichean conception of virtue led, yet good does not consist
exclusively in abnegation and self-control, but also in action. It is not
sufficient for a religion to classify moral values, but in order to be
effective it must furnish motives for putting them into practice. Dualism
was peculiarly favorable for the development of individual effort and human
energy; here its influence was strongest. It taught that the world is the
scene of a perpetual struggle between two powers that share the mastery;
the goal to be reached is the disappearance of evil and the uncontested
dominion, the exclusive reign, of the good. Animals and plants, as well as
man, are drawn up in two rival camps perpetually hostile, and all nature
participates in the eternal combat of the two opposing principles. The
demons created by the infernal spirit emerge constantly from the abyss and
roam about the earth; they penetrate everywhere carrying corruption,
distress, {158} sickness and death. The celestial spirits and the
supporters of piety are compelled constantly to baffle their ever renewed
enterprises. The strife continues in the heart and conscience of man, the
epitome of the universe, between the divine law of duty and the suggestions
of the evil spirits. Life is a merciless war knowing no truce. The task of
the true Mazdean consisted in constantly fighting the evil in order to
bring about the gradual triumph of Ormuzd in the world. The believer was
the assistant of the gods in their work of purification and improvement.
The worshipers of Mithra did not lose themselves in a contemplative
mysticism like other sects. Their morality particularly encouraged action,
and during a period of laxness, anarchy and confusion, they found
stimulation, comfort and support in its precepts. Resistance to the
promptings of degrading instincts assumed the glamor and prestige of
warlike exploits in their eyes and instilled an active principle of
progress into their character. By supplying a new conception of the world,
dualism also gave a new meaning to life. This same dualism determined the
eschatological beliefs of the Mithraists. The antagonism between heaven and
hell was extended into the life hereafter.[52] Mithra, the "invincible" god
who assisted the faithful in their struggle against the malignity of the
demons, was not only their strong companion in their human trials, but as
an antagonist of the infernal powers he insured the welfare of his
followers in the future life as well as on earth. When the genius of
corruption seizes the corpse after death, the spirits of darkness and the
celestial messengers struggle for the possession of the soul that has left
its corporeal prison. It stands {159} trial before Mithra, and if its
merits outweigh its shortcomings in the divine balance it is defended from
Ahriman's agents that seek to drag it into the infernal abyss. Finally it
is led into the ethereal regions where Jupiter-Ormuzd reigns in eternal
light. The believers in Mithra did not agree with the votaries of Serapis
who held that the souls of the just reside in the depths of the earth.[53]
To them that somber kingdom was the domain of wrong-doers. The souls of the
just live in the boundless light that extends above the stars, and by
divesting themselves of all sensuality and all lust in passing through the
planetary spheres[54] they become as pure as the gods whose company they
enter.
However, when the world came to an end the body also was to share in that
happiness because it was believed as in Egypt that the whole person would
enjoy eternal life. After time had run its course Mithra would raise all
men from the dead, pouring out a marvelous beverage of immortality for the
good, but all evil doers would be annihilated by fire together with Ahriman
himself.
* * * * *
Of all the Oriental cults none was so severe as Mithraism, none attained an
equal moral elevation, none could have had so strong a hold on mind and
heart. In many respects it gave its definite religious formula to the pagan
world and the influence of its ideas remained long after the religion
itself had come to a violent end. Persian dualism introduced certain
principles into Europe that have never ceased to exert an influence. Its
whole history proves the thesis with which we began, the power of
resistance and of {160} influence possessed by Persian culture and
religion. These possessed an originality so independent that after having
resisted in the Orient the power of absorption of Hellenism, and after
having checked the Christian propaganda, they even withstood the
destructive power of Islam. Firdusi (940-1020) glories in the ancient
national traditions and the mythical heroes of Mazdaism, and while the
idolatry of Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor has long since died out or
degenerated, there are votaries of Zoroaster at the present day who piously
perform the sacred ceremonies of the Avesta and practise genuine fire
worship.
Another witness to the vitality of Mithraic Mazdaism is the fact that it
escaped becoming a kind of state religion of the Roman empire during the
third century. An oft-quoted sentence of Renan's says:[55] "If Christianity
had been checked in its growth by some deadly disease, the world would have
become Mithraic." In hazarding that statement he undoubtedly conjured up a
picture of what would have been the condition of this poor world in that
case. He must have imagined, one of his followers would have us
believe,[56] that the morals of the human race would have been but little
changed, a little more virile perhaps, a little less charitable, but only a
shade different. The erudite theology taught by the mysteries would
obviously have shown a laudable respect for science, but as its dogmas were
based upon a false physics it would apparently have insured the persistence
of an infinity of errors. Astronomy would not be lacking, but astrology
would have been unassailable, while the heavens would still be revolving
around the earth to accord with its doctrines. The greatest {161} danger,
it appears to me, would have been that the Cæsars would have established a
theocratic absolutism supported by the Oriental ideas of the divinity of
kings. The union of throne and altar would have been inseparable, and
Europe would never have known the invigorating struggle between church and
state. But on the other hand the discipline of Mithraism, so productive of
individual energy, and the democratic organization of its societies in
which senators and slaves rubbed elbows, contain a germ of liberty.
We might dwell at some length on these contrasting possibilities, but it is
hard to find a mental pastime less profitable than the attempt to remake
history and to conjecture on what might have been had events proved
otherwise. If the torrent of actions and reactions that carries us along
were turned out of its course what imagination could describe the unknown
regions through which it would flow?
* * * * *
{162}
ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC.
When we consider the absolute authority that astrology exercised under the
Roman empire, we find it hard to escape a feeling of surprise. It is
difficult to think that people could ever consider astrology as the most
valuable of all arts and the queen of sciences,[1] and it is not easy for
us to imagine the moral conditions that made such a phenomenon possible,
because our state of mind to-day is very different. Little by little the
conviction has gained ground that all that can be known about the future,
at least the future of man and of human society, is conjecture. The
progress of knowledge has taught man to acquiesce in his ignorance.
In former ages it was different: forebodings and predictions found
universal credence. The ancient forms of divination, however, had fallen
somewhat into disrepute at the beginning of our era, like the rest of the
Greco-Roman religion. It was no longer thought that the eagerness or
reluctance with which the sacred hens ate their paste, or the direction of
the flight of the birds indicated coming success or disaster. Abandoned,
the Hellenic oracles were silent. Then appeared astrology, surrounded with
all the prestige of an exact science, and based upon the experience of many
centuries. It promised to ascertain the {163} occurrences of any one's life
with as much precision as the date of an eclipse. The world was drawn
towards it by an irresistible attraction. Astrology did away with, and
gradually relegated to oblivion, all the ancient methods that had been
devised to solve the enigmas of the future. Haruspicy and the augural art
were abandoned, and not even the ancient fame of the oracles could save
them from falling into irretrievable desuetude. This great chimera changed
religion as well as divination, its spirit penetrated everything. And
truly, if, as some scholars still hold, the main feature of science is the
ability to predict,[2] no branch of learning could compare with this one,
nor escape its influence.
The success of astrology was connected with that of the Oriental religions,
which lent it their support, as it in turn helped them. We have seen how it
forced itself upon Semitic paganism, how it transformed Persian Mazdaism
and even subdued the arrogance of the Egyptian sacerdotal caste.[3] Certain
mystical treatises ascribed to the old Pharaoh Nechepso and his confidant,
the priest Petosiris, nebulous and abstruse works that became, one might
say, the Bible of the new belief in the power of the stars, were translated
into Greek, undoubtedly in Alexandria, about the year 150 before our
era.[4] About the same time the Chaldean genethlialogy began to spread in
Italy, with regard to which Berosus, a priest of the god Baal, who came to
Babylon from the island of Cos, had previously succeeded in arousing the
curiosity of the Greeks. In 139 a prætor expelled the "Chaldaei" from Rome,
together with the Jews. But all the adherents of the Syrian goddess, of
whom there was quite a number in the Occident, were patrons and defenders
of these Oriental {164} prophets, and police measures were no more
successful in stopping the diffusion of their doctrines, than in the case
of the Asiatic mysteries. In the time of Pompey, the senator Nigidius
Figulus, who was an ardent occultist, expounded the barbarian uranography
in Latin. But the scholar whose authority contributed most to the final
acceptance of sidereal divination was a Syrian philosopher of encyclopedic
knowledge, Posidonius of Apamea, the teacher of Cicero.[5] The works of
that erudite and religious writer influenced the development of the entire
Roman theology more than anything else.
Under the empire, while the Semitic Baals and Mithra were triumphing,
astrology manifested its power everywhere. During that period everybody
bowed to it. The Cæsars became its fervent devotees, frequently at the
expense of the ancient cults. Tiberius neglected the gods because he
believed only in fatalism,[6] and Otho, blindly confiding in the Oriental
seer, marched against Vitellius in spite of the baneful presages that
affrighted his official clergy.[7] The most earnest scholars, Ptolemy under
the Antonines for instance, expounded the principles of that
pseudo-science, and the very best minds received them. In fact, scarcely
anybody made a distinction between astronomy and its illegitimate sister.
Literature took up this new and difficult subject, and, as early as the
time of Augustus or Tiberius, Manilius, inspired by the sidereal fatalism,
endeavored to make poetry of that dry "mathematics," as Lucretius, his
forerunner, had done with the Epicurean atomism. Even art looked there for
inspiration and depicted the stellar deities. At Rome and in the provinces
architects erected sumptuous _septizonia_ in the likeness of {165} the
seven spheres in which the planets that rule our destinies move.[8] This
Asiatic divination was first aristocratic[9]--because the obtaining of an
exact horoscope was a complicated matter, and consultations were
expensive--but it promptly became popular, especially in the urban centers
where Oriental slaves gathered in large numbers. The learned
genethlialogers of the observatories had unlicensed colleagues, who told
fortunes at street-crossings or in barnyards. Even common epitaphs, which
Rossi styles "the scum of inscriptions," have retained traces of that
belief. The custom arose of stating in epitaphs the exact length of a life
to the very hour, for the moment of birth determined that of death:
_Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet._[10]
Soon neither important nor small matters were undertaken without consulting
the astrologer. His previsions were sought not only in regard to great
public events like the conduct of a war, the founding of a city, or the
accession of a ruler, not only in case of a marriage, a journey, or a
change of domicile; but the most trifling acts of every-day life were
gravely submitted to his sagacity. People would no longer take a bath, go
to the barber, change their clothes or manicure their fingernails, without
first awaiting the propitious moment.[11] The collections of "initiatives"
([Greek: katarchai]) that have come to us contain questions that make us
smile: Will a son who is about to be born have a big nose? Will a girl just
coming into this world have gallant adventures?[12] And certain precepts
sound almost like burlesques: he who gets his hair cut while {166} the moon
is in her increase will become bald--evidently by analogy.[13]
The entire existence of states and individuals, down to the slightest
incidents, was thought to depend on the stars. The absolute control they
were supposed to exercise over everybody's daily condition, even modified
the language in every-day use and left traces in almost all idioms derived
from the Latin. If we speak of a martial, or a jovial character, or a
lunatic, we are unconsciously admitting the existence, in these heavenly
bodies (Mars, Jupiter, Luna) of their ancient qualities.
It must be acknowledged, however, that the Grecian spirit tried to combat
the folly that was taking hold of the world, and from the time of its
propagation astrology found opponents among the philosophers. The most
subtle of these adversaries was the probabilist Carneades, in the second
century before our era. The topical arguments which he advanced, were taken
up, reproduced, and developed in a thousand ways by later polemicists. For
instance, Were all the men that perish together in a battle, born at the
same moment, because they had the same fate? Or, on the other hand, do we
not observe that twins, born at the same time, have the most unlike
characters and the most different fortunes?
But dialectics are an accomplishment in which the Greeks ever excelled, and
the defenders of astrology found a reply to every objection. They
endeavored especially to establish firmly the truths of observation, upon
which rested the entire learned structure of their art: the influence of
the stars over the phenomena of nature and the characters of individuals.
Can it be {167} denied, they said, that the sun causes vegetation to appear
and to perish, and that it puts animals _en rut_ or plunges them into
lethargic sleep? Does not the movement of the tide depend on the course of
the moon? Is not the rising of certain constellations accompanied every
year by storms? And are not the physical and moral qualities of the
different races manifestly determined by the climate in which they live?
The action of the sky on the earth is undeniable, and, the sidereal
influences once admitted, all previsions based on them are legitimate. As
soon as the first principle is admitted, all corollaries are logically
derived from it.
This way of reasoning was universally considered irrefutable. Before the
advent of Christianity, which especially opposed it because of its
idolatrous character, astrology had scarcely any adversaries except those
who denied the possibility of science altogether, namely, the
neo-Academicians, who held that man could not attain certainty, and such
radical sceptics as Sextus Empiricus. Upheld by the Stoics, however, who
with very few exceptions were in favor of astrology, it can be maintained
that it emerged triumphant from the first assaults directed against it. The
only result of the objections raised to it was to modify some of its
theories. Later, the general weakening of the spirit of criticism assured
astrology an almost uncontested domination. Its adversaries did not renew
their polemics; they limited themselves to the repetition of arguments that
had been opposed, if not refuted, a hundred times, and consequently seemed
worn out. At the court of the Severi any one who should have denied the
influence of the planets upon the events of this world {168} would have
been considered more preposterous than he who would admit it to-day.
But, you will say, if the theorists did not succeed in proving the
doctrinal falsity of astrology, experience should have shown its
worthlessness. Errors must have occurred frequently and must have been
followed by cruel disillusionment. Having lost a child at the age of four
for whom a brilliant future had been predicted, the parents stigmatized in
the epitaph the "lying mathematician whose great renown deluded them."[14]
Nobody thought of denying the possibility of such errors. Manuscripts have
been preserved, wherein the makers of horoscopes themselves candidly and
learnedly explain how they were mistaken in such and such a case, because
they had not taken into account some one of the data of the problem.[15]
Manilius, in spite of his unlimited confidence in the power of reason,
hesitated at the complexity of an immense task that seemed to exceed the
capacity of human intelligence,[16] and in the second century, Vettius
Valens bitterly denounced the contemptible bunglers who claimed to be
prophets, without having had the long training necessary, and who thereby
cast odium and ridicule upon astrology, in the name of which they pretended
to operate.[17] It must be remembered that astrology, like medicine, was
not only a science ([Greek: epistêmê]), but also an art ([Greek: technê]).
This comparison, which sounds irreverent to-day, was a flattering one in
the eyes of the ancients.[18] To observe the sky was as delicate a task as
to observe the human body; to cast the horoscope of a newly born child,
just as perilous as to make a diagnosis, and to interpret the cosmic
symptoms just as hard as to {169} interpret those of our organism. In both
instances the elements were complex and the chances of error infinite. All
the examples of patients dying in spite of the physician, or on account of
him, will never keep a person who is tortured by physical pain from
appealing to him for help; and similarly those whose souls were troubled
with ambition or fear turned to the astrologer for some remedy for the
moral fever tormenting them. The calculator, who claimed to determine the
moment of death, and the medical practitioner who claimed to avert it
received the anxious patronage of people worried by this formidable issue.
Furthermore, just as marvelous cures were reported, striking predictions
were called to mind or, if need were, invented. The diviner had, as a rule,
only a restricted number of possibilities to deal with, and the calculus of
probabilities shows that he must have succeeded sometimes. Mathematics,
which he invoked, was in his favor after all, and chance frequently
corrected mischance. Moreover, did not the man who had a well-frequented
consulting-office, possess a thousand means, if he was clever, of placing
all the chances on his side, in the hazardous profession he followed, and
of reading in the stars anything he thought expedient? He observed the
earth rather than the sky, and took care not to fall into a well.
* * * * *
However, what helped most to make astrology invulnerable to the blows of
reason and of common sense, was the fact that in reality, the apparent
rigor of its calculus and its theorems notwithstanding, it was not a
science but a faith. We mean not only that {170} it implied belief in
postulates that could not be proved--the same thing might be said of almost
all of our poor human knowledge, and even our systems of physics and
cosmology in the last analysis are based upon hypotheses--but that
astrology was born and reared in the temples of Chaldea and Egypt.[19] Even
in the Occident it never forgot its sacerdotal origin and never more than
half freed itself from religion, whose offspring it was. Here lies the
connection between astrology and the Oriental religions, and I wish to draw
the reader's special attention to this point.
The Greek works and treatises on astrology that have come down to us reveal
this essential feature only very imperfectly. The Byzantines stripped this
pseudo-science, always regarded suspiciously by the church, of everything
that savored of paganism. Their process of purification can, in some
instances, be traced from manuscript to manuscript.[20] If they retained
the name of some god or hero of mythology, the only way they dared to write
it was by cryptography. They have especially preserved purely didactic
treatises, the most perfect type of which is Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos which
has been constantly quoted and commented upon; and they have reproduced
almost exclusively expurgated texts, in which the principles of various
doctrines are drily summarized. During the classic age works of a different
character were commonly read. Many "Chaldeans" interspersed their
cosmological calculations and theories with moral considerations and
mystical speculations. In the first part of a work that he names "Vision,"
([Greek: Horasis]) Critodemus, in prophetic language, represents the truths
he reveals {171} as a secure harbor of refuge from the storms of this
world, and he promises his readers to raise them to the rank of
immortals.[21] Vettius Valens, a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius, implored
them in solemn terms, not to divulge to the ignorant and impious the arcana
he was about to acquaint them with.[22] The astrologers liked to assume the
appearance of incorruptible and holy priests and to consider their calling
a sacerdotal one.[23] In fact, the two ministries sometimes combined: A
dignitary of the Mithraic clergy called himself _studiosus astrologiae_[24]
in his epitaph, and a member of a prominent family of Phrygian prelates
celebrated in verse the science of divination which enabled him to issue a
number of infallible predictions.[25]
The sacred character of astrology revealed itself in some passages that
escaped the orthodox censure and in the tone some of its followers assumed,
but we must go further and show that astrology was religious in its
principles as well as in its conclusions, the debt it owed to mathematics
and observation notwithstanding.
The fundamental dogma of astrology, as conceived by the Greeks, was that of
universal solidarity. The world is a vast organism, all the parts of which
are connected through an unceasing exchange of molecules of effluvia. The
stars, inexhaustible generators of energy, constantly act upon the earth
and man--upon man, the epitome of all nature, a "microcosm" whose every
element corresponds to some part of the starry sky. This was, in a few
words, the theory formulated by the Stoic disciples of the Chaldeans;[26]
but if we divest it of all the philosophic garments with which it has been
adorned, what do we find? The idea of {172} sympathy, a belief as old as
human society! The savage peoples also established mysterious relations
between all bodies and all the beings that inhabit the earth and the
heavens, and which to them were animated with a life of their own endowed
with latent power, but we shall speak of this later on, when taking up the
subject of magic. Even before the propagation of the Oriental religions,
popular superstition in Italy and Greece attributed a number of odd actions
to the sun, the moon, and the constellations as well.[27]
The Chaldaei, however, claimed a predominant power for the stars. In fact,
they were regarded as gods _par excellence_ by the religion of the ancient
Chaldeans in its beginnings. The sidereal religion of Babylon concentrated
deity, one might say, in the luminous moving bodies at the expense of other
natural objects, such as stones, plants, animals, which the primitive
Semitic faith considered equally divine. The stars always retained this
character, even at Rome. They were not, as to us, infinitely distant bodies
moving in space according to the inflexible laws of mechanics, and whose
chemical composition may be determined. To the Latins as to the Orientals,
they were propitious or baleful deities, whose ever-changing relations
determined the events of this world.
The sky, whose unfathomable depth had not yet been perceived, was peopled
with heroes and monsters of contrary passions, and the struggle above had
an immediate echo upon earth. By what principle have such a quality and so
great an influence been attributed to the stars? Is it for reasons derived
from their apparent motion and known through observation or experience?
Sometimes. Saturn made people {173} apathetic and irresolute, because it
moved most slowly of all the planets.[28] But in most instances purely
mythological reasons inspired the precepts of astrology. The seven planets
were associated with certain deities, Mars, Venus, or Mercury, whose
character and history are known to all. It is sufficient simply to
pronounce their names to call to mind certain personalities that may be
expected to act according to their natures, in every instance. It was
natural for Venus to favor lovers, and for Mercury to assure the success of
business transactions and dishonest deals. The same applies to the
constellations, with which a number of legends are connected: "catasterism"
or translation into the stars, became the natural conclusion of a great
many tales. The heroes of mythology, or even those of human society,
continued to live in the sky in the form of brilliant stars. There Perseus
again met Andromeda, and the Centaur Chiron, who is none other than
Sagittarius, was on terms of good fellowship with the Dioscuri.
These constellations, then, assumed to a certain extent the good and the
bad qualities of the mythical or historical beings that had been
transferred upon them. For instance, the serpent, which shines near the
northern pole, was the author of medical cures, because it was the animal
sacred to Æsculapius.[29]
The religious foundation of the rules of astrology, however, can not always
be recognized. Sometimes it is entirely forgotten, and in such cases the
rules assume the appearance of axioms, or of laws based upon long
observation of celestial phenomena. Here we have a simple aspect of
science. The process of {174} assimilation with the gods and catasterism
were known in the Orient long before they were practiced in Greece.
The traditional outlines that we reproduce on our celestial maps are the
fossil remains of a luxuriant mythological vegetation, and besides our
classic sphere the ancients knew another, the "barbarian" sphere, peopled
with a world of fantastic persons and animals. These sidereal monsters, to
whom powerful qualities were ascribed, were likewise the remnants of a
multitude of forgotten beliefs. Zoolatry was abandoned in the temples, but
people continued to regard as divine the lion, the bull, the bear, and the
fishes, which the Oriental imagination had seen in the starry vault. Old
totems of the Semitic tribes or of the Egyptian divisions lived again,
transformed into constellations. Heterogeneous elements, taken from all the
religions of the Orient, were combined in the uranography of the ancients,
and in the power ascribed to the phantoms that it evoked, vibrates in the
indistinct echo of ancient devotions that are often completely unknown to
us.[30]
Astrology, then, was religious in its origin and in its principles. It was
religious also in its close relation to the Oriental religions, especially
those of the Syrian Baals and of Mithra; finally, it was religious in the
effects that it produced. I do not mean the effects expected from a
constellation in any particular instance: as for example the power to evoke
the gods that were subject to their domination.[31] But I have in mind the
general influence those doctrines exercised upon Roman paganism.
When the Olympian gods were incorporated among the stars, when Saturn and
Jupiter became planets and {175} the celestial virgin a sign of the zodiac,
they assumed a character very different from the one they had originally
possessed. It has been shown[32] how, in Syria, the idea of an infinite
repetition of cycles of years according to which the celestial revolutions
took place, led to the conception of divine eternity, how the theory of a
fatal domination of the stars over the earth brought about that of the
omnipotence of the "lord of the heavens," and how the introduction of a
universal religion was the necessary result of the belief that the stars
exerted an influence upon the peoples of every climate. The logic of all
these consequences of the principles of astrology was plain to the Latin as
well as to the Semitic races, and caused a rapid transformation of the
ancient idolatry. As in Syria, the sun, which the astrologers called the
leader of the planetary choir, "who is established as king and leader of
the whole world,"[33] necessarily became the highest power of the Roman
pantheon.
Astrology also modified theology, by introducing into this pantheon a great
number of new gods, some of whom were singularly abstract. Thereafter man
worshiped the constellations of the firmament, particularly the twelve
signs of the zodiac, every one of which had its mythologic legend; the sky
(_Caelus_) itself, because it was considered the first cause, and was
sometimes confused with the supreme being; the four elements, the
antithesis and perpetual transmutations of which produced all tangible
phenomena, and which were often symbolized by a group of animals ready to
devour each other;[34] finally, time and its subdivisions.[35]
The calendars were religious before they were secular; their purpose was
not, primarily, to record fleeting {176} time, but to observe the
recurrence of propitious or inauspicious dates separated by periodic
intervals. It is a matter of experience that the return of certain moments
is associated with the appearance of certain phenomena; they have,
therefore, a special efficacy, and are endowed with a sacred character. By
determining periods with mathematical exactness, astrology continued to see
in them "a divine power,"[36] to use Zeno's term. Time, that regulates the
course of the stars and the transubstantiation of the elements, was
conceived of as the master of the gods and the primordial principle, and
was likened to destiny. Each part of its infinite duration brought with it
some propitious or evil movement of the sky that was anxiously observed,
and transformed the ever modified universe. The centuries, the years and
the seasons, placed into relation with the four winds and the four cardinal
points, the twelve months connected with the zodiac, the day and the night,
the twelve hours, all were personified and deified, as the authors of every
change in the universe. The allegorical figures contrived for these
abstractions by astrological paganism did not even perish with it.[37] The
symbolism it had disseminated outlived it, and until the Middle Ages these
pictures of fallen gods were reproduced indefinitely in sculpture, mosaics,
and in Christian miniatures.[38]
Thus astrology entered into all religious ideas, and the doctrines of the
destiny of the world and of man harmonized with its teachings. According to
Berosus, who is the interpreter of ancient Chaldean theories, the existence
of the universe consisted of a series of "big years," each having its
summer and its winter. Their summer took place when all the planets were in
{177} conjunction at the same point of Cancer, and brought with it a
general conflagration. On the other hand, their winter came when all the
planets were joined in Capricorn, and its result was a universal flood.
Each of these cosmic cycles, the duration of which was fixed at 432,000
years according to the most probable estimate, was an exact reproduction of
those that had preceded it. In fact, when the stars resumed exactly the
same position, they were forced to act in identically the same manner as
before. This Babylonian theory, an anticipation of that of the "eternal
return of things," which Nietzsche boasts of having discovered, enjoyed
lasting popularity during antiquity, and in various forms came down to the
Renaissance.[39] The belief that the world would be destroyed by fire, a
theory also spread abroad by the Stoics, found a new support in these
cosmic speculations.
Astrology, however, revealed the future not only of the universe, but also
of man. According to a Chaldeo-Persian doctrine, accepted by the pagan
mystics and previously pointed out by us,[40] a bitter necessity compelled
the souls that dwell in great numbers on the celestial heights, to descend
upon this earth and to animate certain bodies that are to hold them in
captivity. In descending to the earth they travel through the spheres of
the planets and receive some quality from each of these wandering stars,
according to its positions. Contrariwise, when death releases them from
their carnal prison, they return to their first habitation, providing they
have led a pious life, and if as they pass through the doors of the
superposed heavens they divest themselves of the passions and inclinations
acquired during their first journey, {178} to ascend finally, as pure
essence to the radiant abode of the gods. There they live forever among the
eternal stars, freed from the tyranny of destiny and even from the
limitations of time.
This alliance of the theorems of astronomy with their old beliefs supplied
the Chaldeans with answers to all the questions that men asked concerning
the relation of heaven and earth, the nature of God, the existence of the
world, and their own destiny. Astrology was really the first scientific
theology. Hellenistic logic arranged the Oriental doctrines properly,
combined them with the Stoic philosophy and built them up into a system of
indisputable grandeur, an ideal reconstruction of the universe, the
powerful assurance of which inspired Manilius to sublime language when he
was not exhausted by his efforts to master an ill-adapted theme.[41] The
vague and irrational notion of "sympathy" is transformed into a deep sense
of the relationship between the human soul, an igneous substance, and the
divine stars, and this feeling is strengthened by thought.[42] The
contemplation of the sky has become a communion. During the splendor of
night the mind of man became intoxicated with the light streaming from
above; born on the wings of enthusiasm, he ascended into the sacred choir
of the stars and took part in their harmonious movements. "He participates
in their immortality, and, before his appointed hour, converses with the
gods."[43] In spite of the subtle precision the Greeks always maintained in
their speculations, the feeling that permeated astrology down to the end of
paganism never belied its Oriental and religious origin. {179}
The most essential principle of astrology was that of fatalism. As the poet
says:[44]
_"Fata regunt orbem, certa stant omnia lege."_
The Chaldeans were the first to conceive the idea of an inflexible
necessity ruling the universe, instead of gods acting in the world
according to their passions, like men in society. They noticed that an
immutable law regulated the movements of the celestial bodies, and, in the
first enthusiasm of their discovery they extended its effects to all moral
and social phenomena. The postulates of astrology imply an absolute
determinism. Tyche, or deified fortune, became the irresistible mistress of
mortals and immortals alike, and was even worshiped exclusively by some
under the empire. Our deliberate will never plays more than a very limited
part in our happiness and success, but, among the pronunciamentos and in
the anarchy of the third century, blind chance seemed to play with the life
of every one according to its fancy, and it can easily be understood that
the ephemeral rulers of that period, like the masses, saw in chance the
sovereign disposer of their fates.[45]
The power of this fatalist conception during antiquity may be measured by
its long persistence, at least in the Orient, where it originated. Starting
from Babylonia,[46] it spread over the entire Hellenic world, as early as
the Alexandrian period, and towards the end of paganism a considerable part
of the efforts of the Christian apologists was directed against it.[47] But
it was destined to outlast all attacks, and to impose itself even on
Islam.[48] In Latin Europe, in spite of the anathemas of the church, the
belief remained confusedly {180} alive all through the Middle Ages that on
this earth everything happens somewhat
"Per ovra delle rote magne,
Che drizzan ciascun seme ad alcun fine
Secondo che le stella son campagne."[49]
The weapons used by the ecclesiastic writers in contending against this
sidereal fatalism were taken from the arsenal of the old Greek dialectics.
In general, they were those that all defenders of free will had used for
centuries: determinism destroys responsibility; rewards and punishments are
absurd if man acts under a necessity that compels him, if he is born a hero
or a criminal. We shall not dwell on these metaphysical discussions,[50]
but there is one argument that is more closely connected with our subject,
and therefore should be mentioned. If we live under an immutable fate, no
supplication can change its decisions; religion is unavailing, it is
useless to ask the oracles to reveal the secrets of a future which nothing
can change, and prayers, to use one of Seneca's expressions, are nothing
but "the solace of diseased minds."[51]
And, doubtless, some adepts of astrology, like the Emperor Tiberius,[52]
neglected the practice of religion, because they were convinced that fate
governed all things. Following the example set by the Stoics, they made
absolute submission to an almighty fate and joyful acceptance of the
inevitable a moral duty, and were satisfied to worship the superior power
that ruled the universe, without demanding anything in return. They
considered themselves at the mercy of even the most capricious fate, and
were like the intelligent slave who guesses the desires of his master to
satisfy them, and {181} knows how to make the hardest servitude
tolerable.[53] The masses, however, never reached that height of
resignation. They looked at astrology far more from a religious than from a
logical standpoint.[54] The planets and constellations were not only cosmic
forces, whose favorable or inauspicious action grew weaker or stronger
according to the turnings of a course established for eternity; they were
deities who saw and heard, who were glad or sad, who had a voice and sex,
who were prolific or sterile, gentle or savage, obsequious or arrogant.[55]
Their anger could therefore be soothed and their favor obtained through
rites and offerings; even the adverse stars were not unrelenting and could
be persuaded through sacrifices and supplications. The narrow and pedantic
Firmicus Maternus strongly asserts the omnipotence of fate, but at the same
time he invokes the gods and asks for their aid against the influence of
the stars. As late as the fourth century the pagans of Rome who were about
to marry, or to make a purchase, or to solicit a public office, went to the
diviner for his prognostics, at the same time praying to Fate for
prosperity in their undertaking.[56] Thus a fundamental antinomy manifested
itself all through the development of astrology, which pretended to be an
exact science, but always remained a sacerdotal theology.
Of course, the more the idea of fatalism imposed itself and spread, the
more the weight of this hopeless theory oppressed the consciousness. Man
felt himself dominated and crushed by blind forces that dragged him on as
irresistibly as they kept the celestial spheres in motion. His soul tried
to escape the oppression of this cosmic mechanism, and to leave the slavery
of {182} Ananke. But he no longer had confidence in the ceremonies of his
old religion. The new powers that had taken possession of heaven had to be
propitiated by new means. The Oriental religions themselves offered a
remedy against the evils they had created, and taught powerful and
mysterious processes for conjuring fate.[57] And side by side with
astrology we see magic, a more pernicious aberration, gaining ground.[58]
* * * * *
If, from the reading of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, we pass on to read a magic
papyrus, our first impression is that we have stepped from one end of the
intellectual world to the other. Here we find no trace of the systematic
order or severe method that distinguish the work of the scholar of
Alexandria. Of course, the doctrines of astrology are just as chimerical as
those of magic, but they are deduced with an amount of logic, entirely
wanting in works of sorcery, that compels reasoning intellects to accept
them. Recipes borrowed from medicine and popular superstition, primitive
practices rejected or abandoned by the sacerdotal rituals, beliefs
repudiated by a progressive moral religion, plagiarisms and forgeries of
literary or liturgic texts, incantations in which the gods of all barbarous
nations are invoked in unintelligible gibberish, odd and disconcerting
ceremonies--all these form a chaos in which the imagination loses itself, a
potpourri in which an arbitrary syncretism seems to have attempted to
create an inextricable confusion.
However, if we observe more closely how magic operates, we find that it
starts out from the same principles and acts along the same line of
reasoning {183} as astrology. Born during the same period in the primitive
civilizations of the Orient, both were based on a number of common
ideas.[59] Magic, like astrology, proceeded from the principle of universal
sympathy, yet it did not consider the relation existing between the stars
traversing the heavens, and physical or moral phenomena, but the relation
between whatever bodies there are. It started out from the preconceived
idea that an obscure but constant relation exists between certain things,
certain words, certain persons. This connection was established without
hesitation between dead material things and living beings, because the
primitive races ascribed a soul and existence similar to those of man, to
everything surrounding them. The distinction between the three kingdoms of
nature was unknown to them; they were "animists." The life of a person
might, therefore, be linked to that of a thing, a tree, or an animal, in
such a manner that one died if the other did, and that any damage suffered
by one was also sustained by its inseparable associate. Sometimes the
relation was founded on clearly intelligible grounds, like a resemblance
between the thing and the being, as where, to kill an enemy, one pierced a
waxen figure supposed to represent him. Or a contact, even merely passing
by, was believed to have created indestructible affinities, for instance
where the garments of an absent person were operated upon. Often, also,
these imaginary relations were founded on reasons that escape us: like the
qualities attributed by astrology to the stars, they may have been derived
from old beliefs the memory of which is lost.
Like astrology, then, magic was a science in some respects. First, like the
predictions of its sister, it {184} was partly based on
observation--observation frequently rudimentary, superficial, hasty, and
erroneous, but nevertheless important. It was an experimental discipline.
Among the great number of facts noted by the curiosity of the magicians,
there were many that received scientific indorsement later on. The
attraction of the magnet for iron was utilized by the thaumaturgi before it
was interpreted by the natural philosophers. In the vast compilations that
circulated under the venerable names of Zoroaster or Hostanes, many fertile
remarks were scattered among puerile ideas and absurd teachings, just as in
the Greek treatises on alchemy that have come down to us. The idea that
knowledge of the power of certain agents enables one to stimulate the
hidden forces of the universe into action and to obtain extraordinary
results, inspires the researches of physics to-day, just as it inspired the
claims of magic. And if astrology was a perverted astronomy, magic was
physics gone astray.
Moreover, and again like astrology, magic was a science, because it started
from the fundamental conception that order and law exist in nature, and
that the same cause always produces the same effect. An occult ceremony,
performed with the same care as an experiment in the chemical laboratory,
will always have the expected result. To know the mysterious affinities
that connect all things is sufficient to set the mechanism of the universe
into motion. But the error of the magicians consisted in establishing a
connection between phenomena that do not depend on each other at all. The
act of exposing to the light for an instant a sensitive plate in a camera,
then immersing it, according to given recipes, in appropriate liquids, and
of making {185} the picture of a relative or friend appear thereon, is a
magical operation, but based on real actions and reactions, instead of on
arbitrarily assumed sympathies and antipathies. Magic, therefore, was a
science groping in the dark, and later became "a bastard sister of
science," as Frazer puts it.
But, like astrology, magic was religious in origin, and always remained a
bastard sister of religion. Both grew up together in the temples of the
barbarian Orient. Their practices were, at first, part of the dubious
knowledge of fetichists who claimed to have control over the spirits that
peopled nature and animated everything, and who claimed that they
communicated with these spirits by means of rites known to themselves
alone. Magic has been cleverly defined as "the strategy of animism."[60]
But, just as the growing power ascribed by the Chaldeans to the sidereal
deities transformed the original astrology, so primitive sorcery assumed a
different character when the world of the gods, conceived after the image
of man, separated itself more and more from the realm of physical forces
and became a realm of its own. This gave the mystic element which always
entered the ceremonies, a new precision and development. By means of his
charms, talismans, and exorcisms, the magician now communicated with the
celestial or infernal "demons" and compelled them to obey him. But these
spirits no longer opposed him with the blind resistance of matter animated
by an uncertain kind of life; they were active and subtle beings having
intelligence and will-power. Sometimes they took revenge for the slavery
the magician attempted to impose on them and punished the audacious
operator, who feared them, although {186} invoking their aid. Thus the
incantation often assumed the shape of a prayer addressed to a power
stronger than man, and magic became a religion. Its rites developed side by
side with the canonical liturgies, and frequently encroached on them.[61]
The only barrier between them was the vague and constantly shifting
borderline that limits the neighboring domains of religion and
superstition.
* * * * *
This half scientific, half religious magic, with its books and its
professional adepts, is of Oriental origin. The old Grecian and Italian
sorcery appears to have been rather mild. Conjurations to avert
hail-storms, or formulas to draw rain, evil charms to render fields barren
or to kill cattle, love philters and rejuvenating salves, old women's
remedies, talismans against the evil eye,--all are based on popular
superstition and kept in existence by folk-lore and charlatanism. Even the
witches of Thessaly, whom people credited with the power of making the moon
descend from the sky, were botanists more than anything else, acquainted
with the marvelous virtues of medicinal plants. The terror that the
necromancers inspired was due, to a considerable extent, to the use they
made of the old belief in ghosts. They exploited the superstitious belief
in ghost-power and slipped metal tablets covered with execrations into
graves, to bring misfortune or death to some enemy. But neither in Greece
nor in Italy is there any trace of a coherent system of doctrines, of an
occult and learned discipline, nor of any sacerdotal instruction.
Originally the adepts in this dubious art were {187} despised. As late as
the period of Augustus they were generally equivocal beggar-women who plied
their miserable trade in the lowest quarters of the slums. But with the
invasion of the Oriental religions the magician began to receive more
consideration, and his condition improved.[62] He was honored, and feared
even more. During the second century scarcely anybody would have doubted
his power to call up divine apparitions, converse with the superior spirits
and even translate himself bodily into the heavens.[63]
Here the victorious progress of the Oriental religions shows itself. The
Egyptian ritual[64] originally was nothing but a collection of magical
practices, properly speaking. The religious community imposed its will upon
the gods by means of prayers or even threats. The gods were compelled to
obey the officiating priest, if the liturgy was correctly performed, and if
the incantations and the magic words were pronounced with the right
intonation. The well-informed priest had an almost unlimited power over all
supernatural beings on land, in the water, in the air, in heaven and in
hell. Nowhere was the gulf between things human and things divine smaller,
nowhere was the increasing differentiation that separated magic from
religion less advanced. Until the end of paganism they remained so closely
associated that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the texts of one
from those of the other.
The Chaldeans[65] also were past masters of sorcery, well versed in the
knowledge of presages and experts in conjuring the evils which the presages
foretold. In Mesopotamia, where they were confidential advisers of the
kings, the magicians belonged to the official {188} clergy; they invoked
the aid of the state gods in their incantations, and their sacred science
was as highly esteemed as haruspicy in Etruria. The immense prestige that
continued to surround it, assured its persistence after the fall of Nineveh
and Babylon. Its tradition was still alive under the Cæsars, and a number
of enchanters rightly or wrongly claimed to possess the ancient wisdom of
Chaldea.[66]
And the thaumaturgus, who was supposed to be the heir of the archaic
priests, assumed a wholly sacerdotal appearance at Rome. Being an inspired
sage who received confidential communications from heavenly spirits, he
gave to his life and to his appearance a dignity almost equal to that of
the philosopher. The common people soon confused the two,[67] and the
Orientalizing philosophy of the last period of paganism actually accepted
and justified all the superstitions of magic. Neo-Platonism, which
concerned itself to a large extent with demonology, leaned more and more
towards theurgy, and was finally completely absorbed by it.
But the ancients expressly distinguished, "magic," which was always under
suspicion and disapproved of, from the legitimate and honorable art for
which the name "theurgy"[68] was invented. The term "magician," ([Greek:
magos]) which applied to all performers of miracles, properly means the
priests of Mazdaism, and a well attested tradition makes the Persians[69]
the authors of the real magic, that called "black magic" by the Middle
Ages. If they did not invent it--because it is as old as humanity--they
were at least the first to place it upon a doctrinal foundation and to
assign to it a place {189} in a clearly formulated theological system. The
Mazdean dualism gave a new power to this pernicious knowledge by conferring
upon it the character that will distinguish it henceforth.
Under what influences did the Persian magic come into existence? When and
how did it spread? These are questions that are not well elucidated yet.
The intimate fusion of the religious doctrines of the Iranian conquerors
with those of the native clergy, which took place at Babylon, occurred in
this era of belief,[70] and the magicians that were established in
Mesopotamia combined their secret traditions with the rites and formulas
codified by the Chaldean sorcerers. The universal curiosity of the Greeks
soon took note of this marvelous science. Naturalist philosophers like
Democritus,[71] the great traveler, seem to have helped themselves more
than once from the treasure of observations collected by the Oriental
priests. Without a doubt they drew from these incongruous compilations, in
which truth was mingled with the absurd and reality with the fantastical,
the knowledge of some properties of plants and minerals, or of some
experiments of physics. However, the limpid Hellenic genius always turned
away from the misty speculations of magic, giving them but slight
consideration. But towards the end of the Alexandrine period the books
ascribed to the half-mythical masters of the Persian science, Zoroaster,
Hostanes and Hystaspes, were translated into Greek, and until the end of
paganism those names enjoyed a prodigious authority. At the same time the
Jews, who were acquainted with the arcana of the Irano-Chaldean doctrines
and proceedings, made some of the recipes known wherever the dispersion
brought {190} them.[72] Later, a more immediate influence was exercised
upon the Roman world by the Persian colonies of Asia Minor,[73] who
retained an obstinate faith in their ancient national beliefs.
The particular importance attributed to magic by the Mazdeans is a
necessary consequence of their dualist system, which has been treated by us
before.[74] Ormuzd, residing in the heavens of light, is opposed by his
irreconcilable adversary, Ahriman, ruler of the underworld. The one stands
for light, truth, and goodness, the other for darkness, falsehood, and
perversity. The one commands the kind spirits which protect the pious
believer, the other is master over demons whose malice causes all the evils
that afflict humanity. These opposite principles fight for the domination
of the earth, and each creates favorable or noxious animals and plants.
Everything on earth is either heavenly or infernal. Ahriman and his demons,
who surround man to tempt or hurt him,[75] are evil gods and entirely
different from those of which Ormuzd's host consists. The magician
sacrifices to them, either to avert evils they threaten, or to direct their
ire against enemies of true belief, and the impure spirits rejoice in
bloody immolations and delight in the fumes of flesh burning on the
altars.[76] Terrible acts and words attended all immolations. Plutarch[77]
mentions an example of the dark sacrifices of the Mazdeans. "In a mortar,"
he says, "they pound a certain herb called wild garlic, at the same time
invoking Hades (Ahriman), and the powers of darkness, then stirring this
herb in the blood of a slaughtered wolf, they take it away and drop it on a
spot never reached by the rays of the sun." A necromantic performance
indeed. {191}
We can imagine the new strength which such a conception of the universe
must have given to magic. It was no longer an incongruous collection of
popular superstitions and scientific observations. It became a reversed
religion: its nocturnal rites were the dreadful liturgy of the infernal
powers. There was no miracle the experienced magician might not expect to
perform with the aid of the demons, providing he know how to master them;
he would invent any atrocity in his desire to gain the favor of the evil
divinities whom crime gratified and suffering pleased. Hence the number of
impious practices performed in the dark, practices the horror of which is
equaled only by their absurdity: preparing beverages that disturbed the
senses and impaired the intellect; mixing subtle poisons extracted from
demoniac plants and corpses already in a state of putridity;[78] immolating
children in order to read the future in their quivering entrails or to
conjure up ghosts. All the satanic refinement that a perverted imagination
in a state of insanity could conceive[79] pleased the malicious evil
spirits; the more odious the monstrosity, the more assured was its
efficacy. These abominable practices were sternly suppressed by the Roman
government. Whereas, in the case of an astrologer who had committed an open
transgression, the law was satisfied with expelling him from Rome--whither
he generally soon returned,--the magician was put in the same class with
murderers and poisoners, and was subjected to the very severest punishment.
He was nailed to the cross or thrown to the wild beasts. Not only the
practice of the profession, but even the simple fact of possessing works of
sorcery made any one subject to prosecution.[80] {192}
However, there are ways of reaching an agreement with the police, and in
this case custom was stronger than law. The intermittent rigor of imperial
edicts had no more power to destroy an inveterate superstition than the
Christian polemics had to cure it. It was a recognition of its strength
when state and church united to fight it. Neither reached the root of the
evil, for they did not deny the reality of the power wielded by the
sorcerers. As long as it was admitted that malicious spirits constantly
interfered in human affairs, and that there were secret means enabling the
operator to dominate those spirits or to share in their power, magic was
indestructible. It appealed to too many human passions to remain unheard.
If, on the one hand, the desire of penetrating the mysteries of the future,
the fear of unknown misfortunes, and hope, always reviving, led the anxious
masses to seek a chimerical certainty in astrology, on the other hand, in
the case of magic, the blinding charm of the marvelous, the entreaties of
love and ambition, the bitter desire for revenge, the fascination of crime,
and the intoxication of bloodshed,--all the instincts that are not avowable
and that are satisfied in the dark, took turns in practising their
seductions. During the entire life of the Roman empire its existence
continued, and the very mystery that it was compelled to hide in increased
its prestige and almost gave it the authority of a revelation.
A curious occurrence that took place towards the end of the fifth century
at Beirut, in Syria, shows how deeply even the strongest intellects of that
period believed in the most atrocious practices of magic. One night some
students of the famous law-school of that {193} city attempted to kill a
slave in the circus, to aid the master in obtaining the favor of a woman
who scorned him. Being reported, they had to deliver up their hidden
volumes, of which those of Zoroaster and of Hostanes were found, together
with those written by the astrologer Manetho. The whole city was agitated,
and searches proved that many young men preferred the study of the illicit
science to that of Roman law. By order of the bishop a solemn auto-da-fé
was made of all this literature, in the presence of the city officials and
the clergy, and the most revolting passages were read in public, "in order
to acquaint everybody with the conceited and vain promises of the demons,"
as the pious writer of the story says.[81]
Thus the ancient traditions of magic continued to live in the Christian
Orient after the fall of paganism. They even outlived the domination of the
church. The rigorous principles of its monotheism notwithstanding, Islam
became infected with those Persian superstitions. In the Occident the evil
art resisted persecution and anathemas with the same obstinacy as in the
Orient. It remained alive in Rome all through the fifth century,[82] and
when scientific astrology in Europe went down with science itself, the old
Mazdean dualism continued to manifest itself, during the entire Middle Ages
in the ceremonies of the black mass and the worshiping of Satan, until the
dawn of the modern era.
* * * * *
Twin sisters, born of the superstitions of the learned Orient, magic and
astrology always remained the hybrid daughters of sacerdotal culture. Their
existence {194} was governed by two contrary principles, reason and faith,
and they never ceased to fluctuate between these two poles of thought. Both
were inspired by a belief in universal sympathy, according to which occult
and powerful relations exist between human beings and dead objects, all
possessing a mysterious life. The doctrine of sidereal influences, combined
with a knowledge of the immutability of the celestial revolutions, caused
astrology to formulate the first theory of absolute fatalism, whose decrees
might be known beforehand. But, besides this rigorous determinism, it
retained its childhood faith in the divine stars, whose favor could be
secured and malignity avoided through worship. In astrology the
experimental method was reduced to the completing of prognostics based on
the supposed character of the stellar gods.
Magic also remained half empirical and half religious. Like our physics, it
was based on observation, it proclaimed the constancy of the laws of
nature, and sought to conquer the latent energies of the material world in
order to bring them under the dominion of man's will. But at the same time
it recognized, in the powers that it claimed to conquer, spirits or demons
whose protection might be obtained, whose ill-will might be appeased, or
whose savage hostility might be unchained by means of immolations and
incantations.
All their aberrations notwithstanding, astrology and magic were not
entirely fruitless. Their counterfeit learning has been a genuine help to
the progress of human knowledge. Because they awakened chimerical hopes and
fallacious ambitions in the minds of their adepts, researches were
undertaken which undoubtedly {195} would never have been started or
persisted in for the sake of a disinterested love of truth. The
observations, collected with untiring patience by the Oriental priests,
caused the first physical and astronomical discoveries, and, as in the time
of the scholastics, the occult sciences led to the exact ones. But when
these understood the vanity of the astounding illusions on which astrology
and magic had subsisted, they broke up the foundation of the arts to which
they owed their birth.
* * * * *
{196}
THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM.
About the time of the Severi the religion of Europe must have presented an
aspect of surprising variety. Although dethroned, the old native Italian,
Celtic and Iberian divinities were still alive. Though eclipsed by foreign
rivals, they lived on in the devotion of the lower classes and in the
traditions of the rural districts. For a long time the Roman gods had been
established in every town and had received the homage of an official clergy
according to pontifical rites. Beside them, however, were installed the
representatives of all the Asiatic pantheons, and these received the most
fervent adoration from the masses. New powers had arrived from Asia Minor,
Egypt, Syria, and the dazzling Oriental sun outshone the stars of Italy's
temperate sky. All forms of paganism were simultaneously received and
retained while the exclusive monotheism of the Jews kept its adherents, and
Christianity strengthened its churches and fortified its orthodoxy, at the
same time giving birth to the baffling vagaries of gnosticism. A hundred
different currents carried away hesitating and undecided minds, a hundred
contrasting sermons made appeals to the conscience of the people.
Let us suppose that in modern Europe the faithful {197} had deserted the
Christian churches to worship Allah or Brahma, to follow the precepts of
Confucius or Buddha, or to adopt the maxims of the Shinto; let us imagine a
great confusion of all the races of the world in which Arabian mullahs,
Chinese scholars, Japanese bonzes, Tibetan lamas and Hindu pundits would be
preaching fatalism and predestination, ancestor-worship and devotion to a
deified sovereign, pessimism and deliverance through annihilation--a
confusion in which all those priests would erect temples of exotic
architecture in our cities and celebrate their disparate rites therein.
Such a dream, which the future may perhaps realize, would offer a pretty
accurate picture of the religious chaos in which the ancient world was
struggling before the reign of Constantine.
The Oriental religions that successively gained popularity exercised a
decisive influence on the transformation of Latin paganism. Asia Minor was
the first to have its gods accepted by Italy. Since the end of the Punic
wars the black stone symbolizing the Great Mother of Pessinus had been
established on the Palatine, but only since the reign of Claudius could the
Phrygian cult freely develop in all its splendor and excesses. It
introduced a sensual, highly-colored and fanatical worship into the grave
and somber religion of the Romans. Officially recognized, it attracted and
took under its protection other foreign divinities from Anatolia and
assimilated them to Cybele and Attis, who thereafter bore the symbols of
several deities together. Cappadocian, Jewish, Persian and even Christian
influences modified the old rites of Pessinus and filled them with ideas of
spiritual purification and {198} eternal redemption by the bloody baptism
of the taurobolium. But the priests did not succeed in eliminating the
basis of coarse naturism which ancient barbaric tradition had imposed upon
them.
Beginning with the second century before our era, the mysteries of Isis and
Serapis spread over Italy with the Alexandrian culture whose religious
expression they were, and in spite of all persecution established
themselves at Rome where Caligula gave them the freedom of the city. They
did not bring with them a very advanced theological system, because Egypt
never produced anything but a chaotic aggregate of disparate doctrines, nor
a very elevated ethics, because the level of its morality--that of the
Alexandrian Greeks--rose but slowly from a low stage. But they made Italy,
and later the other Latin provinces, familiar with an ancient ritual of
incomparable charm that aroused widely different feelings with its splendid
processions and liturgic dramas. They also gave their votaries positive
assurance of a blissful immortality after death, when they would be united
with Serapis and, participating body and soul in his divinity, would live
in eternal contemplation of the gods.
At a somewhat later period arrived the numerous and varied Baals of Syria.
The great economic movement starting at the beginning of our era which
produced the colonization of the Latin world by Syrian slaves and
merchants, not only modified the material civilization of Europe, but also
its conceptions and beliefs. The Semitic cults entered into successful
competition with those of Asia Minor and Egypt. They may not have had so
stirring a liturgy, nor have been so thoroughly absorbed in preoccupation
with a future {199} life, although they taught an original eschatology, but
they did have an infinitely higher idea of divinity. The Chaldean
astrology, of which the Syrian priests were enthusiastic disciples, had
furnished them with the elements of a scientific theology. It had led them
to the notion of a God residing far from the earth above the zone of the
stars, a God almighty, universal and eternal. Everything on earth was
determined by the revolutions of the heavens according to infinite cycles
of years. It had taught them at the same time the worship of the sun, the
radiant source of earthly life and human intelligence.
The learned doctrines of the Babylonians had also imposed themselves upon
the Persian mysteries of Mithra which considered time identified with
heaven as the supreme cause, and deified the stars; but they had
superimposed themselves upon the ancient Mazdean creed without destroying
it. Thus the essential principles of the religion of Iran, the secular and
often successful rival of Greece, penetrated into the Occident under cover
of Chaldean wisdom. The Mithra worship, the last and highest manifestation
of ancient paganism, had Persian dualism for its fundamental dogma. The
world is the scene and the stake of a contest between good and evil, Ormuzd
and Ahriman, gods and demons, and from this primary conception of the
universe flowed a strong and pure system of ethics. Life is a combat;
soldiers under the command of Mithra, invincible heroes of the faith, must
ceaselessly oppose the undertakings of the infernal powers which sow
corruption broadcast. This imperative ethics was productive of energy and
formed the characteristic {200} feature distinguishing Mithraism from all
other Oriental cults.
Thus every one of the Levantine countries--and that is what we meant to
show in this brief recapitulation--had enriched Roman paganism with new
beliefs that were frequently destined to outlive it. What was the result of
this confusion of heterogeneous doctrines whose multiplicity was extreme
and whose values were very different? How did the barbaric ideas refine
themselves and combine with each other when thrown into the fiery crucible
of imperial syncretism? In other words, what shape was assumed by ancient
idolatry, so impregnated with exotic theories during the fourth century,
when it was finally dethroned? It is this point that we should like to
indicate briefly as the conclusion to these studies.
However, can we speak of _one_ pagan religion? Did not the blending of the
races result in multiplying the variety of disagreements? Had not the
confused collision of creeds produced a division into fragments, a
communication of churches? Had not a complacent syncretism engendered a
multiplication of sects? The "Hellenes," as Themistius told the Emperor
Valens, had three hundred ways of conceiving and honoring deity, who takes
pleasure in such diversity of homage.[1] In paganism a cult does not die
violently, but after long decay. A new doctrine does not necessarily
displace an older one. They may co-exist for a long time as contrary
possibilities suggested by the intellect or faith, and all opinions, all
practices, seem respectable to paganism. It never has any radical or
revolutionary transformations. Undoubtedly, the pagan beliefs of the fourth
century or earlier did not {201} have the consistency of a metaphysical
system nor the rigor of canons formulated by a council. There is always a
considerable difference between the faith of the masses and that of
cultured minds, and this difference was bound to be great in an
aristocratic empire whose social classes were sharply separated. The
devotion of the masses was as unchanging as the depths of the sea; it was
not stirred up nor heated by the upper currents.[2] The peasants practised
their pious rites over anointed stones, sacred springs and blossoming
trees, as in the past, and continued celebrating their rustic holidays
during seed-time and harvest. They adhered with invincible tenacity to
their traditional usages. Degraded and lowered to the rank of
superstitions, these were destined to persist for centuries under the
Christian orthodoxy without exposing it to serious peril, and while they
were no longer marked in the liturgic calendars they were still mentioned
occasionally in the collections of folk-lore.
At the other extreme of society the philosophers delighted in veiling
religion with the frail and brilliant tissue of their speculations. Like
the emperor Julian they improvised bold and incongruous interpretations of
the myth of the Great Mother, and these interpretations were received and
relished by a restricted circle of scholars. But during the fourth century
these vagaries of the individual imagination were nothing but arbitrary
applications of uncontested principles. During that century there was much
less intellectual anarchy than when Lucian had exposed the sects "for sale
at public auction"; a comparative harmony arose among the pagans after they
joined the opposition. One single school, that of neo-Platonism, ruled all
{202} minds. This school not only respected positive religion, as ancient
stoicism had done, but venerated it, because it saw there the expression of
an old revelation handed down by past generations. It considered the sacred
books divinely inspired--the books of Hermes Trismegistus, Orpheus, the
Chaldean oracles, Homer, and especially the esoteric doctrines of the
mysteries--and subordinated its theories to their teachings. As there must
be no contradiction between all the disparate traditions of different
countries and different periods, because all have emanated from one
divinity, philosophy, the _ancilla theologiae_, attempted to reconcile them
by the aid of allegory. And thus, by means of compromises between old
Oriental ideas and Greco-Latin thought, an _ensemble_ of beliefs slowly
took form, the truth of which seemed to have been established by common
consent. So when the atrophied parts of the Roman religion had been
removed, foreign elements had combined to give it a new vigor and in it
themselves became modified. This hidden work of internal decomposition and
reconstruction had unconsciously produced a religion very different from
the one Augustus had attempted to restore.
However, we would be tempted to believe that there had been no change in
the Roman faith, were we to read certain authors that fought idolatry in
those days. Saint Augustine, for instance, in his _City of God_, pleasantly
pokes fun at the multitude of Italian gods that presided over the paltriest
acts of life.[3] But the useless, ridiculous deities of the old pontifical
litanies no longer existed outside of the books of antiquaries. As a matter
of fact, the Christian polemicist's authority in this instance was Varro.
The defenders of the {203} church sought weapons against idolatry even in
Xenophanes, the first philosopher to oppose Greek polytheism. It has
frequently been shown that apologists find it difficult to follow the
progress of the doctrines which they oppose, and often their blows fall
upon dead men. Moreover, it is a fault common to all scholars, to all
imbued with book learning, that they are better acquainted with the
opinions of ancient authors than with the sentiments of their
contemporaries, and that they prefer to live in the past rather than in the
world surrounding them. It was easier to reproduce the objections of the
Epicureans and the skeptics against abolished beliefs, than to study the
defects of an active organism with a view to criticizing it. In those times
the merely formal culture of the schools caused many of the best minds to
lose their sense of reality.
The Christian polemics therefore frequently give us an inadequate idea of
paganism in its decline. When they complacently insisted upon the
immorality of the sacred legends they ignored the fact that the gods and
heroes of mythology had no longer any but a purely literary existence.[4]
The writers of that period, like those of the Renaissance, regarded the
fictions of mythology as details necessary to poetical composition. They
were ornaments of style, rhetorical devices, but not the expression of a
sincere faith. Those old myths had fallen to the lowest degree of disrepute
in the theater. The actors of mimes ridiculing Jupiter's gallant adventures
did not believe in their reality any more than the author of Faust believed
in the compact with Mephistopheles.
So we must not be deceived by the oratorical effects {204} of a rhetorician
like Arnobius or by the Ciceronian periods of a Lactantius. In order to
ascertain the real status of the beliefs we must refer to Christian authors
who were men of letters less than they were men of action, who lived the
life of the people and breathed the air of the streets, and who spoke from
experience rather than from the treatises of mythmongers. They were high
functionaries like Prudentius;[5] like the man to whom the name
"Ambrosiaster"[6] has been given since the time of Erasmus; like the
converted pagan Firmicus Maternus,[7] who had written a treatise on
astrology before opposing "The Error of the Profane Religions"; like
certain priests brought into contact with the last adherents of idolatry
through their pastoral duties, as for instance the author of the homilies
ascribed to St. Maximus of Turin;[8] finally like the writers of anonymous
pamphlets, works prepared for the particular occasion and breathing the
ardor of all the passions of the movement.[9] If this inquiry is based on
the obscure indications in regard to their religious convictions left by
members of the Roman aristocracy who remained true to the faith of their
ancestors, like Macrobius or Symmachus; if it is particularly guided by the
exceptionally numerous inscriptions that seem to be the public expression
of the last will of expiring paganism, we shall be able to gain a
sufficiently precise idea of the condition of the Roman religion at the
time of its extinction.
One fact becomes immediately clear from an examination of those documents.
The old national religion of Rome was dead.[10] The great dignitaries still
adorned themselves with the titles of augur and quindecimvir, or of consul
and tribune, but those {205} archaic prelacies were as devoid of all real
influence upon religion as the republican magistracies were powerless in
the state. Their fall had been made complete on the day when Aurelian
established the pontiffs of the Invincible Sun, the protector of his
empire, beside and above the ancient high priests. The only cults still
alive were those of the Orient, and against them were directed the efforts
of the Christian polemics, who grew more and more bitter in speaking of
them. The barbarian gods had taken the place of the defunct immortals in
the devotion of the pagans. They alone still had empire over the soul.
With all the other "profane religions," Firmicus Maternus fought those of
the four Oriental nations. He connected them with the four elements. The
Egyptians were the worshipers of water--the water of the Nile fertilizing
their country; the Phrygians of the earth, which was to them the Great
Mother of everything; the Syrians and Carthaginians of the air, which they
adored under the name of celestial Juno;[11] the Persians of fire, to which
they attributed preeminence over the other three principles. This system
certainly was borrowed from the pagan theologians. In the common peril
threatening them, those cults, formerly rivals, had become reconciled and
regarded themselves as divisions and, so to speak, congregations, of the
same church. Each one of them was especially consecrated to one of the
elements which in combination form the universe. Their union constituted
the pantheistic religion of the deified world.
All the Oriental religions assumed the form of mysteries.[12] Their
dignitaries were at the same time pontiffs of the Invincible Sun, fathers
of Mithra, {206} celebrants of the taurobolium of the Great Mother,
prophets of Isis; in short, they had all titles imaginable. In their
initiation they received the revelation of an esoteric doctrine
strengthened by their fervor.[13] What was the theology they learned? Here
also a certain dogmatic homogeneity has established itself.
All writers agree with Firmicus that the pagans worshiped the
_elementa_.[14] Under this term were included not only the four simple
substances which by their opposition and blending caused all phenomena of
the visible world,[15] but also the stars and in general the elements of
all celestial and earthly bodies.[16]
We therefore may in a certain sense speak of the return of paganism to
nature worship; but must this transformation be regarded as a retrogression
toward a barbarous past, as a relapse to the level of primitive animism? If
so, we should be deceived by appearances. Religions do not fall back into
infancy as they grow old. The pagans of the fourth century no longer
naively considered their gods as capricious genii, as the disordered powers
of a confused natural philosophy; they conceived them as cosmic energies
whose providential action was regulated in a harmonious system. Faith was
no longer instinctive and impulsive, for erudition and reflection had
reconstructed the entire theology. In a certain sense it might be said that
theology had passed from the fictitious to the metaphysical state,
according to the formula of Comte. It was intimately connected with the
knowledge of the day, which was cherished by its last votaries with love
and pride, as faithful heirs of the ancient wisdom of the Orient and
Greece.[17] In many instances it was nothing but a religious form of the
cosmology of the {207} period. This constituted both its strength and its
weakness. The rigorous principles of astrology determined its conception of
heaven and earth.
The universe was an organism animated by a God, unique, eternal and
almighty. Sometimes this God was identified with the destiny that ruled all
things, with infinite time that regulated all visible phenomena, and he was
worshiped in each subdivision of that endless duration, especially in the
months and the seasons.[18] Sometimes, however, he was compared with a
king; he was thought of as a sovereign governing an empire, and the various
gods then were the princes and dignitaries interceding with the rulers on
behalf of his subjects whom they led in some manner into his presence. This
heavenly court had its messengers or "angels" conveying to men the will of
the master and reporting again the vows and petitions of his subjects. It
was an aristocratic monarchy in heaven as on earth.[19] A more philosophic
conception made the divinity an infinite power impregnating all nature with
its overflowing forces. "There is only one God, sole and supreme," wrote
Maximus of Madaura about 390, "without beginning or parentage, whose
energies, diffused through the world, we invoke under various names,
because we are ignorant of his real name. By successively addressing our
supplications to his different members we intend to honor him in his
entirety. Through the mediation of the subordinate gods the common father
both of themselves and of all men is honored in a thousand different ways
by mortals who are thus in accord in spite of their discord."[20]
However, this ineffable God, who comprehensively embraces everything,
manifests himself especially in {208} the resplendent brightness of the
ethereal sky.[21] He reveals his power in water and in fire, in the earth,
the sea and the blowing of the winds; but his purest, most radiant and most
active epiphany is in the stars whose revolutions determine every event and
all our actions. Above all he manifests himself in the sun, the motive
power of the celestial spheres, the inexhaustible seat of light and life,
the creator of all intelligence on earth. Certain philosophers like the
senator Praetextatus, one of the _dramatis personae_ of Macrobius,
confounded all the ancient divinities of paganism with the sun in a
thorough-going syncretism.[22]
Just as a superficial observation might lead to the belief that the
theology of the last pagans had reverted to its origin, so at first sight
the transformation of the ritual might appear like a return to savagery.
With the adoption of the Oriental mysteries barbarous, cruel and obscene
practices were undoubtedly spread, as for instance the masquerading in the
guise of animals in the Mithraic initiations, the bloody dances of the
_galli_ of the Great Mother and the mutilations of the Syrian priests.
Nature worship was originally as "amoral" as nature itself. But an ethereal
spiritualism ideally transfigured the coarseness of those primitive
customs. Just as the doctrine had become completely impregnated with
philosophy and erudition, so the liturgy had become saturated with ethical
ideas.
The taurobolium, a disgusting shower-bath of lukewarm blood, had become a
means of obtaining a new and eternal life; the ritualistic ablutions were
no longer external and material acts, but were supposed to cleanse the soul
of its impurities and to restore its original innocence; the sacred repasts
{209} imparted an intimate virtue to the soul and furnished sustenance to
the spiritual life. While efforts were made to maintain the continuity of
tradition, its content had slowly been transformed. The most shocking and
licentious fables were metamorphosed into edifying narratives by convenient
and subtle interpretations which were a joy to the learned mythographers.
Paganism had become a school of morality, the priest a doctor and director
of the conscience.[23]
The purity and holiness imparted by the practice of sacred ceremonies were
the indispensable condition for obtaining eternal life.[24] The mysteries
promised a blessed immortality to their initiates, and claimed to reveal to
them infallible means of effecting their salvation. According to a
generally accepted symbol, the spirit animating man was a spark, detached
from the fires shining in the ether; it partook of their divinity and so,
it was believed, had descended to the earth to undergo a trial. It could
literally be said that
"Man is a fallen god who still remembers heaven."
After having left their corporeal prisons, the pious souls reascended
towards the celestial regions of the divine stars, to live forever in
endless brightness beyond the starry spheres.[25]
But at the other extremity of the world, facing this luminous realm,
extended the somber kingdom of evil spirits. They were irreconcilable
adversaries of the gods and men of good will, and constantly left the
infernal regions to roam about the earth and scatter evil. With the aid of
the celestial spirits, the faithful had to struggle forever against their
designs and seek to avert their anger by means of bloody sacrifices. {210}
But, with the help of occult and terrible processes, the magician could
subject them to his power and compel them to serve his purposes. This
demonology, the monstrous offspring of Persian dualism, favored the rise of
every superstition.[26]
However, the reign of the evil powers was not to last forever. According to
common opinion the universe would be destroyed by fire[27] after the times
had been fulfilled. All the wicked would perish, but the just would be
revived and establish the reign of universal happiness in the regenerated
world.[28]
The foregoing is a rapid sketch of the theology of paganism after three
centuries of Oriental influence. From coarse fetichism and savage
superstitions the learned priests of the Asiatic cults had gradually
produced a complete system of metaphysics and eschatology, as the Brahmins
built up the spiritualistic monism of the Vedanta beside the monstrous
idolatry of Hinduism, or, to confine our comparisons to the Latin world, as
the jurists drew from the traditional customs of primitive tribes the
abstract principles of a legal system that governs the most cultivated
societies. This religion was no longer like that of ancient Rome, a mere
collection of propitiatory and expiatory rites performed by the citizen for
the good of the state; it now pretended to offer to all men a
world-conception which gave rise to a rule of conduct and placed the end of
existence in the future life. It was more unlike the worship that Augustus
had attempted to restore than the Christianity that fought it. The two
opposed creeds moved in the same intellectual and moral sphere,[29] and one
could actually pass from one to the other without shock or interruption.
Sometimes when {211} reading the long works of the last Latin writers, like
Ammianus Marcellinus or Boëthius, or the panegyrics of the official
orators,[30] scholars could well ask whether their authors were pagan or
Christian. In the time of Symmachus and Praetextatus, the members of the
Roman aristocracy who had remained faithful to the gods of their ancestors
did not have a mentality or morality very different from that of adherents
of the new faith who sat with them in the senate. The religious and
mystical spirit of the Orient had slowly overcome the whole social organism
and had prepared all nations to unite in the bosom of a universal church.
* * * * *
{213}
NOTES.
PREFACE.
1 We are indebted for more than one useful suggestion to our colleagues
Messrs. Charles Michel and Joseph Bidez, who were kind enough to read the
proofs of the French edition.
2 An outline of the present state of the subject will be found in a recent
volume by Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie_, 1906, pp. 1606 ff., whose views
are sharply opposed to the negative conclusions formulated, with certain
reservations, by Harnack, _Ausbreitung des Christentums_, II, pp. 274 ff.
Among the latest studies intended for the general reader that have appeared
on this subject, may be mentioned in Germany those of Geffcken (_Aus der
Werdezeit des Christentums_, Leipsic, 1904, pp. 114 ff.), and in England
those of Cheyne (_Bible Problems_, 1904), who expresses his opinion in
these terms: "The Christian religion is a synthesis, and only those who
have dim eyes can assert that the intellectual empires of Babylonia and
Persia have fallen."--Very useful is the new book of Clemen,
_Religionsgeschichtliche Erklärung des Neuen Testaments_, Giessen, 1909.
3 _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 342, n. 4; see the new texts commented on by
Usener, _Rhein. Museum_, LX, 1905, pp. 466 ff.; 489 ff., and my paper
"Natalis Invicti," _C. R. Acad. des inscr._, 1911.
4 See page 70. Compare also _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 341. The imitation
of the church is plain in the pagan reform attempted by the emperor Julian.
5 See Harnack, _Militia Christi_, 1905.
6 I have collected a number of texts on the religious "militias" in _Mon.
myst. Mithra_, I, p. 317, n. 1. Others could certainly be discovered:
Apuleius, _Metam._, XI, 14: _E cohorte {214} religionis unus_ (in
connection with a mystic of Isis);--Vettius Valens (V, 2, p. 220, 27, Kroll
ed.): [Greek: Stratiôtai tês heimarmenês]; (VII, 3, p. 271, 28) [Greek:
Sustrateuesthai tois kairois gennaiôs]. See Minucius Felix, 36, § 7: _Quod
patimur non est poena, militia est._--We might also mention the commonplace
term _militia Veneris_, which was popular with the Augustan poets
(Propertius, IV, 1, 137; see I, 6, 30; Horace, _Od._, III, 26, and
especially the parallel developed by Ovid, _Amor._, I, 9, 1 ff., and _Ars
amat._, III, 233 ff.)--Socrates, in Plato's _Apologia_ (p. 28 E),
incidentally likens the philosophic mission imposed on him by the divinity
to the campaigns he waged under the orders of the archons, but the
comparison of God with a "strategus" was developed especially by the
Stoics; see Capelle, "Schrift von der Welt," _Neue Jahrb. für das klass.
Altert._, XV, 1905, p. 558, n. 6, and Seneca, _Epist._, 107, 9: _Optimum
est Deum sine murmuratione comitari, malus miles est qui imperatorem gemens
sequitur_.--See now also Reitzenstein, _Hellenistische Mysterienreligion_,
1910, p. 66.
7 See _Rev. des études grecques_, XIV, 1901, pp. 43 ff.
8 This has been clearly shown by Wendland in connection with the idea of
the [Greek: sôtêria], _Zeitschrift für neutest. Wiss._, V, 1904, pp. 355
ff. More recently he has thrown light on the general influence of
Hellenistic civilization on Christianity (_Die hellenistisch-römische
Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zum Judentum und Christentum_, Tübingen, 1908).
A first attempt to determine the character of Hellenistic mysteries is to
be found in Reitzenstein's _Hellenistische Mysterienreligion_, 1910.
I. ROME AND THE ORIENT.
1 Renan, _L'Antéchrist_, p. 130.
2 M. Krumbacher (_Byzant. Zeitschr._, XVI, 1907, p. 710) notes, in
connection with the idea that I am defending here: "In ähnlicher Weise war
dieser Gedanke (der Ueberflügelung des Abendlandes durch die auf allen
Kulturgebieten vordringende Regsamkeit der Orientalen) kurz vorher in
meiner Skizze der byzantinischen Literatur (_Kultur der Gegenwart_, I, 8
[1907], pp. 246-253) auseinandergelegt worden; es ist ein erfreulicher und
bei dem Wirrsal widerstreitender Doctrinen tröstlicher Beweis für den
Fortschritt der Erkenntniss, dass {215} zwei von ganz verschiedenen
Richtungen ausgehende Diener der Wissenschaft sich in so wichtigen
allgemeinen Fragen so nahe kommen."
3. Cf. Kornemann, "Aegyptische Einflüsse im römischen Kaiserreich" (_Neue
Jahrb. für das klass. Altertum_, II, 1898, p. 118 ff.) and Otto Hirschfeld,
_Die kaiserl. Verwaltungsbeamten_, 2d. ed., p. 469.
4. See Cicero's statement regarding the ancient Roman dominion (_De off._,
II, 8): "Illud patrocinium orbis terrae verius quam imperium poterat
nominari."
5. O. Hirschfeld, _op. cit._, pp. 53, 91, 93, etc.; cf. Mitteis,
_Reichsrecht und Volksrecht_, p. 9, n. 2, etc. Thus have various
institutions been transmitted from the ancient Persians to the Romans; see
Ch. VI, n. 5.
6. Rostovtzew, "Der Ursprung des Kolonats" (_Beiträge zur alten Gesch._, I,
1901, p. 295); Haussoullier, _Histoire de Milet et du Didymeion_, 1902, p.
106.
7. Mitteis, _Reichsrecht und Volksrecht in den östlichen Provinzen_, 1891,
pp. 8 ff.
8. Mommsen, _Gesammelte Schriften_, II, 1905, p. 366: "Seit Diocletian
übernimmt der östliche Reichsteil, die _partes Orientis_, auf allen
Gebieten die Führung. Dieser späte Sieg des Hellenismus über die Lateiner
ist vielleicht nirgends auffälliger als auf dem Gebiet der juristischen
Schriftstellerei."
9. De Vogüe and Duthoit, _L'Architecture civile et religieuse de la Syrie
centrale_, Paris, 1866-1877.
10. This result is especially due to the researches of M. Strzygowski, but
we cannot enter here into the controversies aroused by his publications:
_Orient oder Rom_, 1911; _Hellas in des Orients Umarmung_, Munich, 1902,
and especially _Kleinasien, ein Neuland der Kunstgeschichte_, Leipsic,
1903; [cf. the reports of Ch. Diehl, _Journal des Savants_, 1904, pp. 236
ff. = _Etudes byzantines_, 1905, pp. 336 ff.; Gabriel Millet, _Revue
archéolog._, 1905, I, pp. 93 ff.; Marcel Laurent, _Revue de l'Instr. publ.
en Belgique_, 1905, pp. 145 ff.]; _Mschatta_, 1904, [cf. _infra_, Ch. VI,
n. 12].--M. Bréhier, "Orient ou Byzance?" (_Rev. archéol._, 1907, II, pp.
396 ff.), gives a substantial summary of the question.--In his last volume,
_Amida_ (1910), M. {216} Strzygowski tries to find the source of medieval
art in Mesopotamia. For this controversy see Diehl's _Manuel d'art
byzantin_, 1910.
11. See also Pliny, _Epist. Traian._, 40: "Architecti tibi [in Bithynia]
deesse non possunt ... cum ex Graecia etiam ad nos [at Rome] venire soliti
sint."--Among the names of architects mentioned in Latin inscriptions there
are a great many revealing Greek or Oriental origin (see Ruggiero, _Dizion.
epigr._, s. v. "Architectus"), in spite of the consideration which their
eminently useful profession always enjoyed at Rome.
12. The question of the artistic and industrial influences exercised by the
Orient over Gaul during the Roman period, has been broached
frequently--among others by Courajod (_Leçons du Louvre_, I, 1899, pp. 115,
327 ff.)--but it has never been seriously studied in its entirety.
Michaëlis has recently devoted a suggestive article to this subject in
connection with a statue from the museum of Metz executed in the style of
the school of Pergamum (_Jahrb. der Gesellsch. für lothring. Geschichte_,
XVII, 1905, pp. 203 ff.). By the influence of Marseilles in Gaul, and the
ancient connection of that city with the towns of Hellenic Asia, he
explains the great difference between the works of sculpture discovered
along the upper Rhine, which had been civilized by the Italian legions, and
those unearthed on the other side of the Vosges. This is a very important
discovery, rich in results. We believe, however, that Michaëlis ascribes
too much importance to the early Marseilles traders traveling along the old
"tin road" towards Brittany and the "amber road" towards Germany. The
Asiatic merchants and artisans did not set out from one point only. There
were many emigrants all over the valley of the Rhone. Lyons was a
half-Hellenized city, and the relations of Arles with Syria, of Nîmes with
Egypt, etc., are well known. We shall speak of them in connection with the
religions of those countries.
13. Even in the bosom of the church the Latin Occident of the fourth
century was still subordinate to the Greek Orient, which imposed its
doctrinal problems upon it (Harnack, _Mission und Ausbreitung_, II, p. 283,
n. 1).
14. The sacred formulas have been collected by Alb. Dieterich, _Eine
Mithrasliturgie_, pp. 212 ff. He adds [Greek: Doiê soi Osiris to psuchron
hudôr], {217} _Archiv für Religionswiss_., VII, 1905, p. 504, n. 1. [Cf.
_infra_, ch. IV, n. 90.] Among the hymns of greatest importance for the
Oriental cults we must cite those in honor of Isis, discovered in the
island of Andros (Kaibel, _Epigr._, 4028) and elsewhere (see ch. IV, n. 6).
Fragments of hymns in honor of Attis have been preserved by Hippolytus
(_Philosoph._, V, 9. pp. 168 ff.) The so-called orphic hymns (Abel,
_Orphica_, 1883), which date back to a rather remote period, do not seem to
contain many Oriental elements (see Maas, _Orpheus_, 1893, pp. 173 ff.),
but this does not apply to the gnostic hymns of which we possess very
instructive fragments.--Cf. _Mon. myst. de Mithra_, I, p. 313, n. 1.
15. Regarding the imitations of the stage, see Adami, _De poetis scen.
Graecis hymnorum sacrorum imitatoribus_, 1901. Wünsch has shown the
liturgic character of a prayer to Asklepios, inserted by Herondas into his
mimiambi (_Archiv für Religionswiss._, VII, 1904, pp. 95 ff.) Dieterich
believes he has found an extensive extract from the Mithraic liturgy in a
magic papyrus of Paris (see _infra_, ch. VI, Bibliography). But all these
discoveries amount to very little if we think of the enormous number of
liturgic texts that have been lost, and even in the case of ancient Greece
we know little regarding this sacred literature. See Ausfeld, _De Graecorum
precationibus_, Leipsic, 1903; Ziegler, _De precationum apud Graecos formis
quaestiones selectae_, Breslau, 1905; H. Schmidt, _Veteres philosophi
quomodo iudicaverint de precibus_, Giessen, 1907.
16. For instance, the hymn "which the magi sung" about the steeds of the
supreme god; its contents are given by Dion Chrysostom, Oral., XXXVI, 39
(see _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I. p. 298; II, p. 60).
17. I have in mind the hymns of Cleanthes (Von Arnim, _Stoic. fragm._, I,
Nos. 527, 537), also Demetrius's act of renunciation in Seneca, _De
Provid._, V, 5, which bears a surprising resemblance to one of the most
famous Christian prayers, the _Suscipe_ of Saint Ignatius which concludes
the book of Spiritual Exercises (Delehaye, _Les légendes hagiographiques_,
1905, p. 170, n. 1).--In this connection we ought to mention the prayer
translated in the _Asclepius_, the Greek text {218} of which has recently
been found on a papyrus (Reitzenstein, _Archiv für Religionswiss._, VII,
1904, p. 395). On pagan prayers introduced into the Christian liturgy see
Reitzenstein and Wendland, _Nachrichten Ges. Wiss._, Göttingen, 1910, pp.
325 ff.
18. This point has been studied more in detail in our _Monuments relatifs
aux mystères de Mithra_, from which we have taken parts of the following
observations (I, pp. 21 ff.).
19. Lucian's authorship of the treatise [Greek: Peri tês Suriês theou] has
been questioned but wrongly; see Maurice Croiset, _Essai sur Lucien_, 1882,
pp. 63, 204. I am glad to be able to cite the high authority of Nöldeke in
favor of its authenticity. Nöldeke writes me on this subject: "Ich habe
jeden Zweifel daran schon lange aufgegeben.... Ich habe lange den Plan
gehabt, einen Commentar zu diesem immerhin recht lehrreichen Stück zu
schreiben and viel Material dazu gesammelt. Aus der Annahme der Echtheit
dieser Schrift ergiebt sich mir, dass auch das [Greek: Peri astronomias]
echt ist."
20. Cf. Frisch, _De compositione libri Plutarchei qui inscribitur_, [Greek:
Peri Isidos], Leipsic, 1906, and the observations of Neustadt, _Berl.
Philol. Wochenschr._, 1907, p. 1117.--One of Plutarch's sources is the
[Greek: Ioudaika] by Apion.--See also Scott Moncrieft, _Journ. of Hell.
Studies_, XIX, 1909, p. 81.
21. See ch. VII, pp. 202-203.
22. Cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 75, p. 219.--For Egypt see Georges
Foucart, "L'art et la religion dans l'ancienne Egypte," _Revue des idées_,
Nov. 15, 1908.
23. The narrative and symbolic sculpture of the Oriental cults was a
preparation for that of the Middle Ages, and many remarks in Mâle's
beautiful book _L'Art du XIII^e siècle en France_, can be applied to the
art of dying paganism.
II. WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Boissier, _La religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins_,
especially Bk. II, ch. II.--Jean Réville, _La religion à Rome sous les
Sévères_, Paris, 1886.--Wissowa, _Religion und Cultus der Römer_, Munich,
1902, pp. 71 ff., 289 ff.--Samuel Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus
Aurelius_, London, 1905.--Bigg, _The Church's Task Under the Roman Empire_,
{219} Oxford, 1905.--Cf. also Gruppe, _Griech. Mythologie und
Religionsgeschichte_, 1906, pp. 1519 ff.--Wendland, _Die
hellenistisch-römische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zum Judentum und zum
Christentum_, Tübingen, 1907, pp. 54 f.--The monographs will be cited in
connection with the different cults which they treat.
1. _Mélanges Fredericq_, Brussels, 1904, pp. 63 ff. (_Pourquoi le latin fut
la seule langue liturgique de l'Occident_); cf. the observations of Lejay,
_Rev. d'hist. et litt. relig._, XI, 1906, p. 370.
2. Holl, _Volkssprache in Kleinasien_ (_Hermes_, 1908, pp. 250 ff.).
3. The volume of Hahn, _Rom und Romanismus im griechisch-römischen Osten
bis auf die Zeit Hadrians_ (Leipsic, 1906) discusses a period for the most
part prior to the one that interests us. On the period following we have
nothing but a provisional sketch by the same author, _Romanismus und
Hellenismus bis auf die Zeit Justinians_ (_Philologus_, Suppl. X), 1907.
4. Cf. Tacitus, Annales, XIV, 44: "_Nationes in familiis habemus quibus
diversi ritus, externa sacra aut nulla sunt._"
5. S. Reinach, _Epona_ (Extr. _Rev. archéol._). 1895.
6. The theory of the degeneration of races has been set forth in particular
by Stewart Chamberlain, _Die Grundlagen des XIX. Jahrhunderts_, 3d. ed.,
Munich, 1901, pp. 296 ff.--The idea of selection by retrogression, of the
_Ausrottung der Besten_, has been defended, as is well known, by Seeck in
his _Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt_, which outlines the
religious consequence (II, p. 344). His system is developed in the third
volume which appeared in 1909.
7. Apuleius, _Metam._, XI, 14 ff. See Preface. Manilius said of the divine
stars (IV, 910; cf. II, 125),
"_Ipse vocat nostros animos ad sidera mundus_."
8. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 178 ff., 187.
9. The intimate connection between the juridical and religious ideas of the
Romans has left numerous traces even in their language. One of the most
curious is the double meaning of the term _supplicium_, which stands at the
same time for a supplication addressed to the gods and a punishment {220}
demanded by custom, and later by law. In regard to the development of this
twofold meaning, see the recent note by Richard Heinze, _Archiv für
lateinische Lexicographie_, XV, pp. 90 ff. Sematology is often synonymous
with the study of customs.
10 Réville, _op. cit._, p. 144.
11 On ecstasy in the mysteries in general, cf. Rohde, _Psyche_, 2d ed., pp.
315-319; in the Oriental religions cf. De Jong, _De Apuleio Isiacorum
mysteriorum teste_, 1900, p. 100; De Jong, _Das antike Mysterienwesen_,
Leyden, 1909. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 323.
12 Firmicus Maternus mentioned this in _De errore prof. relig._, c. 8.
13 For Babylonia, cf. Strab., XVI, 1, § 6, and _infra_, ch. V, n. 51; for
Egypt, _id._, XVII, 21, § 46. From the very interesting account Otto has
written of the science of the Egyptian priests during the Hellenistic
period (_Priester und Tempel_, II, pp. 211 ff.; 234), it appears that it
remained quite worthy of consideration although progress had ceased.
14 Strabo, _loc. cit._: [Greek: Anatitheasi de tôi Hermêi pasan tên
toiautên sophian]; Pliny, _Hist. nat._, VI, 26, § 121: "(Belus) _inventor
fuit sideralis scientiae_"; cf. Solinus, 56, § 3; Achilles, _Isag._, 1
(Maass, _Comm. in Arat._, p. 27): [Greek: Bêlôi tên heuresin anathentes].
Let us remember that Hammurabi's code was represented as the work of
Marduk.--In a general way, the gods are the authors of all inventions
useful to humanity; cf. Reitzenstein, _Poimandres_, 1904, p. 123;
Deissmann, _Licht von Osten_, 91 ff. Likewise in the Occident: _CIL_, VII,
759 = Bücheler, _Carm. epigr._, 24: "(Dea Syria) ex quis muneribus nosse
contigit deos," etc., cf. Plut., _Crass._, 17.--"Religion im Sinne des
Orients ist die Erklärung alles dessen was ist, also eine Weltauffassung"
(Winckler, _Himmelsbild der Babylonier_, 1903, p. 9).
15 _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 312.--Manicheism likewise brought a complete
cosmological system from Babylonia. Saint Augustine criticizes the book of
that sect for containing long dissertations and absurd stories about
matters that have nothing at all to do with salvation; see my _Recherches
sur le manichéisme_, 1908, p. 53.
16 Cf. Porphyry, _Epist. Aneb._, 11; Jambl., _De myst._, II, 11. {221}
17 This upright character of the Roman religion has been thoroughly
expounded by G. Boissier (_op. cit._, I, 30 ff, 373 ff). See also the
remarks by Bailey, _Religion of Ancient Rome_, London, 1907, pp. 103 ff.
18 Varro in Augustine _De civ. Dei_, IV, 27; VI, 5; cf. Varro, _Antiq.
rerum divin._, ed. Aghad, pp. 145 ff. The same distinction between the
religion of the poets, of the legislators and of the philosophers has been
made by Plutarch, _Amatorius_, 18, p. 763 C. The author of this division is
Posidonius of Apamea. See Diels, _Doxographi Graeci_, p. 295, 10, and
Wendland, _Archiv für Gesch. der Philos._, I, pp. 200 ff.
19 Luterbacher, _Der Prodigienglaube der Römer_, Burgdorf, 1904.
20 Juvenal, II, 149; cf. Diodorus, I, 93, § 3. Cf. Plutarch also in
speaking of future punishment (_Non posse suaviter vivi_, c. 26, p. 1104
C-E: _Quo modo poetas aud._, c. 2, p. 17 C-E; _Consol. ad Apollon._, c. 10,
p. 106 F), "nous laisse entendre que pour la plupart de ses contemporains
ce sont là des contes de nourrice qui ne peuvent effrayer que des enfants"
(Decharme, _Traditions religieuses chez les Grecs_, 1904, p. 442).
21 Aug., _Civ. Dei_, VI, 2; Varro, _Antiqu._, ed. Aghad, 141; "Se timere ne
(dii) pereant non incursu hostili sed civium neglegentia."
22 I have developed this point in my _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 279 ff.
23 In Greece the Oriental cults expanded much less than in any other
religion, because the Hellenic mysteries, especially those of Eleusis,
taught similar doctrines and satisfied the religious needs.
24 The development of the "ritual of purification" has been broadly
expounded in its entirety, by Farnell in _The Evolution of Religion_, 1905,
pp. 88 ff.
25 We shall mention this subject again when speaking of the taurobolium in
ch. III, pp. 67 ff.
26 We cannot dwell here upon the various forms assumed by that purifying
rite of the Oriental mysteries. Often these forms remained quite primitive,
and the idea that inspired them is still clear, as where Juvenal (VI, 521
f.) pictures the {222} worshiper of the _Magna Mater_ divesting himself of
his beautiful garments and giving them to the _archigallus_ to wipe out all
the misdeeds of the year (_ut totum semel expiet annum_). The idea of a
mechanical transfer of the pollution by relinquishing the clothes is
frequent among savages; see Farnell, _op. cit._, p. 117; also Frazer,
_Golden Bough_, I^2, p. 60.
27 Dieterich, _Eine Mithrasliturgie_, pp. 157 ff.; Hepding, _Attis_, pp.
194 ff.--Cf. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, III^2 pp. 424 ff.
28 Cf. Augustine _Civit. Dei_, X, 28: "Confiteris tamen (sc. Porphyrius)
etiam spiritalem animam sine theurgicis artibus et sine teletis quibus
frustra discendis elaborasti, posse continentiae virtute purgari," cf.
_ibid._, X, 23 and _infra_, ch. VIII, n. 24.
29 Here we can only touch upon a subject of very great interest. Porphyry's
treatise _De abstinentia_ offers a fuller treatment than is often possible
in this kind of studies.--See Farnell, _op. cit._, pp. 154 ff.
30 On [Greek: exomologêsis] in the religions of Asia Minor, cf. Ramsay,
_Cities_, I, p. 134, p. 152, and Chapot, _La province romaine d'Asie_,
1904, pp. 509 ff. See also Crusius, "Paroemiographica," _Sitzungsb. Bayr.
Akad._, 1910, p. 111.
31 Menander in Porphyry _De abstin._, II, 15; cf. Plutarch, _De
Superstit._, 7, p. 168 D.; Tertullian, _De Paenit._, c. 9.--Regarding the
sacred fishes of Atargatis, see _infra_, ch. V.--In Apuleius (Met. VIII,
28) the _gallus_ of the goddess loudly accuses himself of his crime and
punishes himself by flagellation. See Gruppe, _Griech. Myth._, p. 1545;
Farnell, _Evol. of Religion_, p. 55.--As a matter of fact, the confession
of sin is an old religious tradition dating back to the Babylonians; cf.
Lagrange, _Religions sémit._, p. 225 ff. Schrank, _Babylonische Sühnriten_,
1909, p. 46.
32 Juvenal, VI, 523 ff., 537 ff.; cf. Seneca, _Vit. beat._, XXVI, 8.
33 On liturgic feasts in the religion of Cybele: _infra_, ch. II; in the
mysteries of Mithra: _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I. p. 320; in the Syrian cults:
ch. V, n. 37. See in general, Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 185 ff.
34 We know according to Herbert Spencer that the {223} progressive
differentiation of the ecclesiastic and lay functions is one of the
characteristics of religious evolution. In this regard Rome was far behind
the Orient.
35 An essential result of the researches of Otto (_op. cit._) is the proof
of the opposition existing in Egypt since the Ptolemies between the
hierarchic organization of the Egyptian clergy and the almost anarchical
autonomy of the Greek priests. See our remarks on the clergy of Isis and
the Galli. On the Mithraic hierarchy see our _Mysteries of Mithra_,
Chicago, 1903, p. 165.
36 The development of the conceptions of "salvation" and "saviour" after
the Hellenistic period has been studied by Wendland, [Greek: Sôtêr]
(_Zeitschrift für neutestam. Wissensch._, V, 1904, pp. 335 ff.). See also
Lietzmann, _Der Weltheiland_, Bonn, 1909. W. Otto, "Augustus [Greek:
Sôtêr]," _Hermes_, XLV, 1910, pp. 448 ff.
37 Later on we shall expound the two principal doctrines, that of the
Egyptian religions (identification with Osiris, god of the dead), and that
of the Syrian and Persian religions (ascension into heaven).
38 At that time man's fate after death was the one great interest. An
interesting example of the power of this idea is furnished by Arnobius. He
became converted to Christianity because, according to his peculiar
psychology, he feared that his soul might die, and believed that Christ
alone could protect him against final annihilation (cf. Bardenhewer,
_Gesch. der altkirchlichen Literatur_, II, 1903, p. 470.)
39 Lucretius had expressed this conviction (II, 1170 ff.). It spread to the
end of the empire as disasters multiplied; cf. _Rev. de philologie_, 1897,
p. 152.
40 Boissier, _Rel. rom._, I^3, p. 359; Friedländer, _Sittengesch._, I^6,
pp. 500 ff.
III. ASIA MINOR.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Jean Réville, _La religion à Rome sous les Sévères_, pp. 62
ff.--Drexler in Roscher, _Lexikon der Mythol._, s. v. "_Meter_," II,
2932.--Wissowa, _Religion und Cultus der Römer_, pp. 263 ff., where the
earlier bibliography will be found, {224} p. 271.--Showerman, "The Great
Mother of the Gods" (_Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin_, No. 43),
Madison, 1901.--Hepding, _Attis, seine Mythen und sein Kult_, Giessen,
1903.--Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, London, 1905,
pp. 547 ff.--Gruppe, _Griech. Mythologie_, 1906, pp. 1521 ff. Eisele, "Die
phrygischen Kulte," _Neue Jahrb. für das klass. Altertum_, XXIII, 1909, pp.
620 ff.
For a number of years Henri Graillot has been collecting the monuments of
the religion of Cybele with a view to publishing them in their
entirety.--Numerous remarks on the Phrygian religion will be found in the
works and articles of Ramsay, especially in _Cities and Bishoprics of
Phrygia_, 1895, and _Studies in the Eastern Roman Provinces_, 1906.
1. Arrien, fr. 30 (_FGH_, III, p. 592). Cf. our _Studio Pontica_, 1905, pp.
172 ff., and Statius, Achill., II, 345: "Phrygas lucos ... vetitasque solo,
procumbere pinus"; Virg., _Aen., IX_, 85.
2. Lion; cf. S. Reinach, _Mythes, cultes_, I, p. 293. The lion, represented
in Asia Minor at a very remote period as devouring a bull or other animals,
might possibly represent the sacred animal of Lydia or Phrygia vanquishing
the protecting _totem_ of the tribes of Cappadocia or the neighboring
countries (I am using the term _totem_ in its broadest meaning). This at
least is the interpretation given to similar groups in Egypt. Cf. Foucart,
_La méthode comparat. et l'histoire des religions_, 1909, p. 49, p. 70.
3. [Greek: Potnia thêrôn]. On this title, cf. Radet, _Revue des études
anciennes_, X, 1908, pp. 110 ff. The most ancient type of the goddess, a
winged figure leading lions, is known from monuments dating back to the
period of the Mermnadi (687-546 B. C.).
4. Cf. Ramsay, _Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia_, I, p. 7, p. 94.
5. Foucart, _Le culte de Dionysos en Attique_ (Extract from the _Mém. Acad.
Inscr._, XXXVII), 1904, pp. 22 ff.--The Thracians also seem to have spread,
in Asia Minor, the cult of the "riding god" which existed until the
beginning of the Roman period; cf. Remy, _Le Musée belge_, XI, 1907, pp.
136 ff.
6. Catullus, LXIII. {225}
7. The development of these mysteries has been well expounded by Hepding,
pp. 177 ff. (see Gruppe, _Gr. Myth._, p. 1544).--Ramsay has recently
commented upon inscriptions of Phrygian mystics, united by the knowledge of
certain secret signs ([Greek: tekmôr]); cf. _Studies in the Eastern Roman
Provinces_, 1906, pp. 346 ff.
8. Dig., XLVIII, 8, 4, 2: "Nemo liberum servumve invitum sinentemve
castrare debet." Cf. Mommsen, _Strafrecht_, p. 637.
9. Diodorus, XXXVI, 6; cf. Plutarch, _Marius_, 17.
10. Cf. Hepding, _op. cit._, p. 142.
11. Cf. chap. VI.
12. Wissowa, _op. cit._, p. 291.
13. Hepding, _op. cit._, pp. 145 ff. Cf. Pauly-Wissowa, _Realenc._, s. v.
"Dendrophori," V, col. 216 and Suppl., col, 225, s. v. "Attis."
14. Cf. Tacitus, _Annales_, XI, 15.
15. This opinion has recently been defended by Showerman, _Classical
Journal_, II, 1906, p. 29.
16. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, II^2, pp. 130 ff.
17. Hepding, pp. 160 ff. Cf. the texts of Ambrosiaster cited in _Rev. hist.
et litt. relig._, VIII, 1903, p. 423, n. 1.
18. Hepding, p. 193. Cf. Gruppe, p. 1541.
19. On this diffusion, cf. Drexler in Roscher, _Lexikon_, s. v. "Meter,"
col. 918.
20. Gregory of Tours, _De glor. confess._, c. 76. Cf. _Passio S.
Symphoriani_ in Ruinart, _Acta sinc._, ed. of 1859, p. 125. The _carpentum_
mentioned in these texts is found in Africa; cf. _CIL_, VIII, 8457, and
Graillot, _Rev. archéol._, 1904, I, p. 353; Hepding, op. cit., p. 173, n.
7.
21. [Greek: Tharreite mustai tou theou sesôsmenou | hestai gar humin ek
ponôn sôtêria]; cf. Hepding, op. cit., p. 167.--Attis has become a god
through his death (see Reitzenstein, _Poimandres_, p. 93), and in the same
way were his votaries to become the equals of the divinity through death.
The Phrygian epitaphs frequently have the character of dedications, and it
appears that the graves were grouped about the temple, see Ramsay,
_Studies_, pp. 65 ff., 271 ff., _passim_. {226}
22. Perdrizet, _Bull. corr. hell._, XIX, 1905, p. 534 ff.
23. We know of those beliefs of the Sabaziasts from the frescoes in the
catacombs of Praetextatus; the _Mercurius nuntius_, who leads the dead, is
found beside Attis under the Greek name of Hermes (see Hepding, p.
263).--Maybe the inscription _CIL_, VI, 509 = _Inscr. graec._, XIV, 1018,
should be completed: [Greek: Rheiêi [Hermêi] te genethlôi]; cf. _CIL_, VI,
499. Hermes appears beside the Mother of the gods on a bas-relief by Ouchak
published by Michon, _Rev. des études anciennes_, 1906, p. 185, pl. II. See
also Mendel, "Musée de Brousse," _Bull. corr. hell._, 1909, p. 255.--The
Thracian Hermes is mentioned in Herodotus, see Maury, _Rel. de la Grèce_,
III, p. 136.
24. Besides Bellona-Ma, subordinate to Cybele and Sabazius, who was as much
Jewish as Phrygian, there was only one god of Asia Minor, the Zeus Bronton
(the Thunderer) of Phrygia, prominently mentioned in Roman epigraphy. See
Pauly-Wissowa, _Realenc._, s. v. and Suppl. I, col. 258.
25. Cf. _CIL_, VI, 499: "Attidi menotyranno invicto." "Invictus" is the
characteristic epithet of the solar divinities.
26. P. Perdrizet, "Mèn" (_Bull. corr. hell._, XX), 1896; Drexler in
Roscher, _Lexikon_, s. v., II, col. 2687.
27. _CIL_, VI, 50 = _Inscr. graec._, XIV, 1018.
28. Schürer, _Sitzungsb. Akad. Berlin_, XIII, 1897, p. 200 f. and our
_Hypsistos_ (Suppl. _Revue instr. publ. en Belgique_), 1897.
29. The term is taken from the terminology of the mysteries: the
inscription cited dates back to 370 A. D. In 364, in connection with
Eleusis, Agorius Praetextatus spoke of [Greek: sunechonta to anthrôpeion
genos hagiôtata mustêria] (Zozimus, IV, 3, 2). Earlier the "Chaldean
oracles" applied to the intelligible god the term [Greek: mêtra sunechousa
ta panta] (Kroll, _De orac. Chaldeïcis_, p. 19).
30. Henri Graillot, _Les dieux Tout-Puissants, Cybèle et Attis_ (_Revue
archéol._, 1904, I), pp. 331 ff.--Graillot is rather inclined to admit a
Christian influence, but _omnipotentes_ was used as a liturgic epithet in
288 A. D., and at about the same date Arnobius (VII, 32) made use of the
periphrasis _omnipotentia numina_ to designate the Phrygian gods, and he
{227} certainly was understood by all. This proves that the use of that
periphrasis was general, and that it must have dated back to a much earlier
period. As a matter of fact a dedication has been found at Delos, reading
[Greek: Dii tôi pantôn kratounti kai Mêtri megalêi têi pantôn kratousêi]
(_Bull. corr. hellén._, 1882, p. 502, No. 25), that reminds the reader of
the [Greek: pantokratôr] of the Septuagint; and Graillot (loc. cit., p.
328, n. 7) justly observes, in this connection, that on certain bas-reliefs
Cybele was united with the Theos Hypsistos, that is to say, the god of
Israel; see Perdrizet, _Bull. corr. hell._, XXIII, 1899, p. 598. On the
influence of Judaism on the cult of Men cf. Sam. Wide, _Archiv für
Religionsw._, 1909, p. 227.--On the omnipotence of the Syrian gods, see ch.
V, pp. 128 ff.
31. We are here giving the substance of a short essay on "Les mystères de
Sabazius et le judaïsme," published in the _Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr._,
Febr. 9, 1906, pp. 63 ff. Cf. "A propos de Sabazius," _Musée belge_, XIV,
1910, pp. 56 ff.
32. Cf. _Monuments myst. de Mithra_, I, p. 333 f. The very early
assimilation of Cybele and Anahita justifies to a certain extent the
unwarranted practice of calling Cybele the Persian Artemis. See Radet,
_Revue des études anciennes_, X, 1908, p. 157. The pagan theologians often
considered Attis as the primeval man whose death brought about the
creation, and so they likened him to the Mazdean Gayomart, see Bousset,
_Hauptprobleme der Gnosis_, 1907, pp. 184 ff.
33. Prudentius, _Peristeph._, X, 1011 f.
34. Their meaning has been revealed through an inscription at Pergamum
published by Schröder, _Athen. Mitt._, 1904, pp. 152 ff.; cf. _Revue
archéologique_, 1905, I, pp. 29 ff.--The ideas on the development of that
ceremony, which we are summarizing here, have been expounded by us more
fully in the _Revue archéologique_, 1888, II, pp. 132 ff.; _Mon. myst. de
Mithra_, I, pp. 334 ff.; _Revue d'histoire et de litt. relig._, VI, 1901,
p. 97.--Although the conclusions of the last article have been contested by
Hepding (op. cit., 70 f.), it cannot be doubted that the taurobolium was
already practised in Asia Minor, in the cult of the Ma-Bellona. Moore
(_American Journal of Archeology_, 1905, p. 71) justly refers to the text
of Steph. Byz., in this connection: [Greek: Mastaura; ekaleito de kai hê
Rhea Ma kai tauros autêi ethueto para Ludois]. {228} The relation between
the cult of Ma and that of Mithra is shown in the epithet of [Greek:
Aneikêtos], given to the goddess as well as to the god; see _Athen. Mitt._,
XXIX, 1904, p. 169, and Keil und von Premerstein, "Reise in Lydien,"
_Denkschr. Akad. Wien_, 1908, p. 28 (inscription of the Hyrkanis plain).
35. Prudentius, Peristeph., 1027: "_Pectus sacrato dividunt venabulo._" The
_harpé_ shown on the taurobolic altars, is perhaps in reality a boar-spear
having a kind of hilt (_mora_; cf. Grattius, _Cyneg._, 110) to prevent the
blade from entering too far.
36. Hepding, pp. 196 ff.; cf. _supra_, n. 21.
37. _CIL_, VI, 510, = Dessau, _Inscr. sel._, 4152. Cf. Gruppe, _Griech.
Myth._, p. 1541, n. 7.
38. Hepding, pp. 186 ff.
39. _CIL_, VI, 499: "Dii animae mentisque custodes." Cf. 512: "Diis magnis
et tutatoribus suis," and _CIL_, XII, 1277, where Bel is called _mentis
magister_.
40. Hippolytus, _Refut. haeres._, V, 9.
41. Julien, _Or._, V; cf. Paul Allard, _Julien l'Apostat_, II, pp. 246 ff.;
Mau, _Die Religionsphilosophie Kaiser Julians_, 1908, pp. 90 ff. Proclus
also devoted a philosophic commentary to the Cybele myth (Marinus, _Vita
Procli_, 34).
42. Regarding all this see _Revue d'histoire et de littérat. relig._, VIII,
1903, pp. 423, ff.--Frazer (_Osiris, Attis, Adonis_, 1907, pp. 256 ff.) has
recently defended the position that the commemoration of the death of
Christ was placed by a great many churches upon March 25th to replace the
celebration of Attis's death on the same date, just as Christmas has been
substituted for the _Natalis Invicti_. The text of Ambrosiaster cited in
our article (Pseudo Augustin, _Quaest. veter. Test_, LXXXIV, 3, p. 145, 13,
Souter ed.) shows that this was asserted even in antiquity.
IV. EGYPT.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lafaye, _Histoire du culte des divinités d'Alexandrie hors de
l'Egypte_, Paris, 1884, and article "Isis" in Daremberg and Saglio,
_Dictionn. des antiquités_, III, 1899, {229} where may be found (p. 586) an
index of the earlier works.--Drexler, art. "Isis" in Roscher, _Lexikon der
Mythol._, II, p. 373-548.--Réville, _op. cit._, pp. 54 ff.--Wissowa, _op.
cit._, pp. 292 ff.--Dill, _op. cit._, pp. 560 ff.--Gruppe, _Griechische
Mythologie und Religionsgesch._, pp. 1563-1581 (published after the
revision of this chapter).--The study of the Roman cult of the Alexandrian
gods is inseparable from that of the Egyptian religion. It would be
impossible to furnish a bibliography of the latter here. We shall only
refer the reader to the general works of Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie_, 4
vols., Paris, 1893, and _Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient_, 1895
(_passim_).--Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, London, 1897
[cf. Hastings, _Dictionary of the Bible_, "Religion of Egypt," V, pp.
177-197].--Erman, _Die ägyptische Religion_, Berlin, 1910.--Naville, _La
religion des anciens Egyptiens_ (six lectures delivered at the Collège de
France), 1906.--W. Otto, _Priester und Tempel im hellenistischen Aegypten_,
2 vols., 1905, 1908.--The publication of a _Bulletin critique des religions
de l'Egypte_ by Jean Capart, begun in the _Rev. de l'hist. des religions_
(LI, 1905, pp. 192 ff.; LIII, 1906, pp. 307 ff.; 1909, pp. 162 ff.).
1. Cf. on this controversy Bouché-Leclercq, _Histoire des Lagides_, I, p.
102; S. Reinach, _Cultes, Mythes et Religions_, II, pp. 347 f.; Lehmann,
_Beiträge zur alten Geschichte_, IV, 1904, pp. 396 ff.; Wilcken, _Archiv f.
Papyrusforschung_, III, 1904, pp. 249 ff.; Otto, _Priester und Tempel_, I,
1905, pp. 11 ff.; Gruppe, loc. cit., pp. 1578 ff.; Petersen, _Die
Serapislegende_, 1910, pp. 47 ff.; Schmidt, _Kultübertragungen_, 1910, pp.
47 ff.
2. Herodotus, II, 42, 171.--Cf. n. 4.
3. Ælius Aristides, VIII, 56 (I, p. 96, ed. Dindorf). Cf. Plut., _De Iside
et Osiride_, ed. Parthey, p. 216.
4. Plut., _De Is. et Osir._, 28; cf. Otto, _Priester und Tempel_, II, pp.
215 ff.--This Timotheus is undoubtedly the same one that wrote about the
Phrygian mysteries; see _infra_, n. 79.--The question, to what extent the
Hellenistic cult had the form ascribed to it by Plutarch and Apuleius
immediately after its creation, is still unsettled; see Otto, _Priester und
Tempel_, II, p. 222. We do not appear to have any direct proof of the
existence of "mysteries" of Isis and Serapis {230} prior to the Empire, but
all probabilities are in favor of a more ancient origin, and the mysteries
were undoubtedly connected with the ancient Egyptian esoterism.--See
_infra_, n. 78.
5. Diogenes Laertius, V, 5, § 76: [Greek: Hothen kai tous paianas poiêsai
tous mechri nun haidomenous]. The [Greek: mechri nun] Diogenes took
undoubtedly from his source, Didymus. See Artemidorus, _Onirocr._, II, 44
(p. 143, 25 Hercher).--This information is explicitly confirmed by an
inscription which mentions [Greek: hê hiera taxis tôn paianistôn] (_Inscr.
Graec._, XIV, 1034).
6. Kaibel, _Epigr._ 1028 = Abel, _Orphica_, p. 295, etc.--See _supra_, ch.
I, n. 14.--According to recent opinion, M. de Wilamowitz was good enough to
write me, the date of the Andros hymn cannot have been later than the
period of Cicero, and it is very probably contemporary with Sulla.--See
_supra_, ch. I, n. 14.--On other similar texts, see Gruppe, _Griech.
Mythol._, P. 1563.
7. Amelung, _Le Sérapis de Bryaxis_ (_Revue archéol_, 1903, II), p. 178.
8. P. Foucart, _Le culte de Dionysos en Attique_ (_Mém. Acad. des Inscr._,
XXXVII), 1904. On the Isis cult in ancient Greece, we can now refer to
Gruppe, _Griech. Myth._, pp. 1565 ff.; Ruhl, _De Sarapide et Iside in
Graecia cultis_ (Diss. Berlin) 1906, has made careful use of the epigraphic
texts dating back to the time before the Roman period.
9. The only exception is the Zeus Ammon, who was only half Egyptian and
owed his very early adoption to the Greek colonies of Cyrene; see Gruppe,
_Griech. Myth._, p. 1558. The addition of other goddesses, like Nephtis or
Bubastis to Isis is exceptional.
10. Concerning the impression which Egypt made on travelers, see
Friedländer, _Sittengesch._, II^6, 144 ff.; Otto, _Priester und Tempel_,
II, p. 210.
11. Juvenal, XV, 10, and the notes of Friedländer on these passages.--The
Athenian comic writers frequently made fun of the Egyptian zoolatry
(Lafaye, _op. cit._, p. 32). Philo of Alexandria considered the Egyptians
as the most idolatrous heathens and he attacked their animal worship, in
particular {231} (_De Decal._, 16, II, p. 193 M., and _passim_). The pagan
writers were no less scandalized (Cicero, _Nat. deor._, III, 15, etc.)
except where they preferred to apply their ingenuity to justify it. See
Dill, _loc. cit._, p. 571.--The features of this cult in ancient Egypt have
been recently studied by George Foucart, _Revue des idées_, Nov. 15, 1908,
and _La méthode comparative et l'histoire des religions_, 1909, pp. 43 ff.
12. Macrobius, _Sat._, I, 20, § 16.
13. Holm, _Gesch. Siziliens_, I, p. 81.
14. Libanius, Or., XI, 114 (I, p. 473 Förster). Cf. Drexler in Roscher,
_op. cit._, col. 378.
15. Pausan., I, 18, 4: [Greek: Sarapidos hon para Ptolemaiou theon
eisêgagonto]. Ruhl (op. cit., p. 4) attaches no historic value to this
text, but, as he points out himself, we have proof that an official Isis
cult existed at Athens under Ptolemy Soter, and that Serapis was worshiped
in that city at the beginning of the third century.
16. Dittenberger, _Or. gr. inscr. sel._, No. 16.
17. Apul., _Metam._, XI, 17.
18. Thus it is found to be the case from the first half of the third
century at Thera, a naval station of the Ptolemies (Hiller von Gärtringen,
_Thera_, III, pp. 85 ff.; cf. Ruhl, _op. cit._, p. 59), and also at Rhodes
(_Rev. archéol._, 1905, I, p. 341). Cult of Serapis at Delos, cf. _Comptes
rendus Acad. inscr._, 1910, pp. 294 ff.
19. A number of proofs of its diffusion have been collected by Drexler,
_loc. cit._, p. 379. See Lafaye, "Isis" (cf. _supra_), p. 577; and Ruhl,
_De Sarapide et Iside in Graecia cultis_, 1906.
20. This interpretation has already been proposed by Ravaisson (_Gazette
archéologique_, I, pp. 55 ff.), and I believe it to be correct, see
_Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr._, 1906, p. 75, n. 1.
21. The power of the Egyptian cult in the Oriental half of the empire has
been clearly shown by von Domaszewski (_Röm. Mitt._, XVII, 1902, pp. 333
ff.), but perhaps with some exaggeration. All will endorse the restrictions
formulated by Harnack, _Ausbreitung des Christentums_, II, p. 274.
22. The very early spread of Orphic doctrines in Magna Graecia, evidenced
by the tablets of Sybaris and Petilia (Diels, {232} _Vorsokratiker_, II^2,
p. 480) must have prepared the way for it. These tablets possess many
points in common with the eschatological beliefs of Egypt, but, as their
latest commentator justly remarks (Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of
Greek Religion_, p. 624), these new ideas are fairly overwhelmed in the old
mythology. The mysteries of Isis and Serapis seemed to offer a revelation
that had been a presentiment for a long time, and the affirmation of a
truth foreshadowed by early symbols.
23. _CIL_, X, 1781, I, 15-6.
24. Apul., _Metam._, XI, 30.
25. Wissowa, _op. cit._, p. 292-3; cf. Seeck, _Hermes_, XLIII, 1908, p.
642.
26. Manicheism was later persecuted on a similar pretext, see _Collat. Mos.
et Rom. leg._, 15, 3, § 4: "De Persica adversaria nobis gente progressa."
27. A full list of the inscriptions and monuments discovered in the various
cities is given by Drexler in Roscher, _Lexikon_, s. v. "Isis," II, col.
409 ff.
28. Hirschfeld, _CIL_, XII, p. 382, and _Wiener Studien_, V, 1883, pp.
319-322.
29. Cf. Wissowa, _op. cit._, pp. 294 ff.
30. Minuc. Fel., _Octav._ 22, 2: "Haec Ægyptia quondam nunc et sacra Romana
sunt."
31. _Carmen contra paganos_ (_Anthol. lat._, ed. Riese, I, 20 ff.) v. 91,
95 ff.; cf. Ps. Aug., _Quaest. Vet. Test._, CXIV, 11 (p. 308, 10 Souter),
and _Rev. hist. litt. relig._, VIII, 1903, p. 422, n. 1.
32. Rufin, II, 24: "_Caput ipsum idolatriae._" A miniature from an
Alexandrian chronicle shows the patriarch Theophilus, crowned with a halo,
stamping the Serapeum under foot, see Bauer and Strzygowski, _Eine
alexandrinische Weltchronik_ (_Denkschr. Akad. Wien_, LI), 1905, to the
year 391, pp. 70 ff., 122, and pl. VI.
33. Cf. Drexler in Roscher, s. v. "Isis," II, p. 425; Harnack, _Ausbreitung
des Christentums_, II, pp. 147 ff.--Some curious details showing the
persistence of the Isis cult among the professors and students of
Alexandria during the last years of the {233} fifth century are given in
the life of Severus of Antioch by Zachariah the Scholastic (_Patrol.
orient._, I, ed. Kugener), pp. 17 ff., 27 ff.
34. Ps.-Apul., 34. Compare with a similar prophecy in the Sibylline
oracles, V, 184 f. (p. 127, Geffcken ed.).
35. Iseum of Beneventum; cf. _Notizie debgli scavi di ant._, 1904, pp. 107
ff. Iseum of the Campus Martius: see Lanciani, _Bollet. communale di Roma_,
1883, pp. 33 ff.; Marucchi, _ibid._, 1890, pp. 307 f.--The _signa
Memphitica_ (made of Memphian marble), are mentioned in an inscription
(Dessau, _Inscr. sel._, 4367-8).--The term used in connection with
Caracalla: "Sacra Isidis Romam deportavit," which Spartianus (_Carac._, 9;
cf. Aur. Vict., _Cæs._, 21, 4) no longer understood, also seems to refer to
a transfer of sacred Egyptian monuments. At Delos a statue of a singer
taken from some grave of the Saïs period had been placed in the temple.
Everything Egyptian was looked upon as sacred. (Ruhl, _op. cit._, p. 53).
36. Gregorovius, _Gesch. des Kaisers Hadrian_, pp. 222 ff.; cf. Drexler,
_loc. cit._, p. 410.
37. The term is Wiedemann's.
38. Naville, _op. cit._, pp. 89 ff.
39. On the [Greek: hierogammateus] Cheremon, see Otto, _Priester und
Tempel_ II, p. 216; Schwartz in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realenc._, III, col. 2025
ff.
40. Doctrines of Plutarch: cf. Decharme, _Traditions religieuses chez les
Grecs_, pp. 486 ff. and _supra_, ch. I, n. 20.
41. I did not mention Hermetism, made prominent by the researches of
Reitzenstein, because I believe its influence in the Occident to have been
purely literary. To my knowledge there is no trace in the Latin world of an
Hermetic sect with a clergy and following. The _Heliognostae_ or
_Deinvictiaci_ who, in Gaul, attempted to assimilate the native Mercury
with the Egyptian Thoth, (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 49, n. 2; cf. 359),
were Christian gnostics. I believe that Reitzenstein misunderstood the
facts when he stated (_Wundererzählungen_, 1906, p. 128): "Die hermetische
Literatur ist im zweiten und dritten Jahrhundert für alle
religiös-interessierten der allgemeine Ausdruck der Frömmigkeit geworden."
I believe that {234} Hermetism, which is used as a label for doctrines of
very different origin, was influenced by "the universal spirit of
devotion," and was not its creator. It was the result of a long continued
effort to reconcile the Egyptian traditions first with Chaldean astrology,
then with Greek philosophy, and it became transformed simultaneously with
the philosophy. But this subject would demand extended development. It is
admitted by Otto, the second volume of whose book has been published since
the writing of these lines, that not even during the Hellenistic period was
there enough theological activity of the Egyptian clergy to influence the
religion of the times. (_Priester und Tempel_, II, pp. 218-220).
42. Plut, _De Isid._, 9.
43. Apul., _Metam._, XI, 5.
44. _CIL_ X, 3800 = Dessau, _Inscr. sel._, 4362.
45. See the opening pages of this chapter.
46. Plut,. _De Iside et Osir._, 52; cf. Hermes Trismegistus, [Greek: Horoi
Asklêpiou], c. 16; and Reitzenstein, _Poimandres_, p. 197.
47. Cf. Naville, _op. cit._, pp. 170 ff.
48. Juv., VI, 489: "Isiacae sacraria lenae"; cf. Friedländer,
_Sittengeschichte_, I^6, p. 502.
49. In a recent book Farnell has brilliantly outlined the history of the
ritual of purification and that of the conception of purity throughout
antiquity (_Evolution of Religion_, London, 1905, pp. 88-192), but
unfortunately he has not taken Egypt into account where the primitive forms
have been maintained with perhaps the fewest alterations.
50. Juv., VI, 522 ff.
51. Friedländer, _Sittengeschichte_, I^6, p. 510.--On this transformation
of the Isis cult, cf. Réville, _op. cit._, p. 56.
52. Plut., _De Iside_, c. 2; cf. Apul., _Met._, XI, 6, end.
53. Ælius Arist., _In Sarap._, 25 (II, p. 359, Keil ed.); see Diodorus, I,
93, and Apuleius, XI, 6, end.--On future rewards and punishments in
Hermetism, see Ps.-Apul., _Asclepius_, c. 28; Lydus, _De mensib._, IV, 32
and 149, Wünsch ed.
54. Porph., _Epist. ad Aneb._, 29. The answer of the Ps.-Iamblichus (_de
Myst._, VI, 5-7) is characteristic. He {235} maintained that these threats
were addressed to demons; however, he was well aware that the Egyptians did
not distinguish clearly between incantations and prayers (VI, 7, 5).
55. Cf. G. Hock, _Griechische Weihegebräuche_, 1905, pp. 65 ff. Ps.-Apul.,
_Asclep._, 23: "Homo fictor est deorum qui in templis sunt et non solum
inluminatur, verum etiam inluminat"; c. 37: "Proavi invenerunt artem qua
efficerent deos." Cf. George Foucart, _loc. cit._ [n. 61]: "La statuaire
égyptienne a, avant tout autre, le caractère de créer des êtres vivants."
56. Maspero, _Sur la toute-puissance de la parole_ (_Recueil de travaux_,
XXIV), 1902, pp. 163-175; cf. my _Récherches sur le manichéisme_, p. 24, n.
2.--The parallelism between the divine and the sacerdotal influence is
established in Ps.-Apul., _Asclepius_, 23.
57. Iamblichus, _Myst._, VI, 6; cf. G. Foucart, _La méthode comparative et
l'histoire des religions_, 1909, p. 131, 141, 149 ff. and infra, n. 66. The
Egyptians prided themselves on having been the first "to know the sacred
names and to use the sacred speech" (Luc., _De Dea Syr._, 1).
58. This has been proven by Otto, _Priester und Tempel_, I, pp. 114 ff. Cf.
_supra_, chap. II, n. 35. Certain busts have recently inspired Mr. Dennison
to give his attention to the tonsure of the votaries of Isis (_American
Journ. of Archeology_, V, 1905, p. 341). The Pompeian frescoes representing
priests and ceremonies of the Isis cult are particularly important for our
knowledge of the liturgy (Guimet, _C. R. Acad. des Inscr._, 1896, pls.
VII-IX. Cf. von Bissing, _Transact. congr. relig. Oxford_, 1908, I, pp. 225
ff.).
59. _CIL_, XII, 3061: "Ornatrix fani."
60. Cf. Kan, _De Iove Dolicheno_, 1901, p. 33.
61. Cf. Moret, _Le rituel du culte divin journalier en Egypte_, Paris,
1902. Just as the ritual of consecration brought the statue to life
(_supra_, n. 55), the repeated sacrifices sustained life, and made it
_longa durare per tempora_ (Ps.-Apul., _Asclep._, 38). The epithet of
[Greek: aeizôos], given to several divinities (_CIG_, 4598; _Griech.
Urkunden_ of Berlin, I, No. 124), expresses it exactly. All this is in
conformity with the old ideas prevailing in the valley of the Nile (see
George Foucart, _Revue des {236} idées_, Nov. 15, 1908).--When compared
with the Egyptian ceremonial, the brief data scattered through the Greek
and Latin authors become wonderfully clear and coherent.
62. Apul., XI, 22: "Rituque sollemni apertionis celebrato ministerio." Cf.
XI, 20: "Matutinas apertiones templi."
63. Jusephus, _Ant. Jud._, XVIII, 3, 5, § 174.
64. Servius ad Verg., _Aen._, IV, 512: "In templo Isidis aqua sparsa de
Nilo esse dicebatur"; cf. II, 116. When, by pouring water taken from the
river, reality took the place of this fiction, the act was much more
effective; see Juv. VII, 527.
65. This passage, together with a chapter from Apuleius (XI, 20), is the
principal text we have in connection with the ritual of those Isis matins.
(_De Abstin._, IV, 9):
[Greek: Hôs pou eti kai nun en têi anoixei tou hagiou Sarapidos hê
therapeia dia puros kai hudatos ginetai, leibontos tou humnôdou to hudôr
kai to pur phainontos, hopênika hestôs epi tou oudou têi patriôi tôn
Aiguptiôn phônêi egeirei ton theon].
Arnobius (VII, 32) alludes to the same belief of the votaries of Isis:
"Quid sibi volunt excitationes illae quas canitis matutini conlatis ad
tibiam vocibus? Obdormiscunt enim superi remeare ut ad vigilias debeant?
Quid dormitiones illae quibus ut bene valeant auspicabili salutatione
mandatis?"
66. On the power of "barbarian names" see my _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p.
313, n. 4; Dieterich, _Mithrasliturgie_, pp. III ff. Cf. Charles Michel,
_Note sur un passage de Jamblique_ (Mélanges, Louis Havet), 1909, p.
279.--On the persistence of the same idea among the Christians, cf.
Harnack, _Ausbreitung des Christ._, I, pp. 124 ff.; Heitmüller, _Im Namen
Jesu_, Göttingen, 1903 (rich material).
67. Apul., _Met._, XI, 9.
68. _CIL_, II, 3386 = Dessau, _Inscr. sel._, 442; cf. 4423.
69. Apul., XI, 24; cf. Lafaye, pp. 118 ff. Porphyry (_De Abstin._, IV, 6)
dwells at length on this contemplative character of the Egyptian devotion:
The priests [Greek: apedosan holon ton bion têi tôn theôn theôriai kai
theasei].
70. In the Pharaonic ritual the closing ceremony seems to have taken place
during the morning, but in the Occident the sacred images were exposed for
contemplation, and the {237} ancient Egyptian service must, therefore, have
been divided into two ceremonies.
71. Herodotus, II, 37.
72. Cf. Maspero, _Rev. critique_, 1905, II, p. 361 ff.
73. Apul., _Metam._, XI, 7 ff.--This festival seems to have persisted at
Catana in the worship of Saint Agatha; cf. _Analecta Bollandiana_, XXV,
1906, p. 509.
74. Similar masquerades are found in a number of pagan cults (_Mon. myst.
Mithra_, I, p. 315), and from very early times they were seen in Egypt; see
von Bissing, _loc. cit._, n. 58, p. 228.
75. The _pausarii_ are mentioned in the inscriptions; cf. Dessau, _Inscr.
sel._, 4353, 4445.
76. Schäfer, _Die Mysterien des Osiris in Abydos unter Sesostris III_,
Leipsic, 1904; cf. Capart, _Rev. hist, relig._, LI, 1905, p. 229, and
Wiedemann, _Mélanges Nicole_, pp. 574 ff. Junker, "Die Stundenwachen in den
Osirismysterien" (_Denkschrift Akad. Wien_, LIV) 1910.
77. In the Abydos mysteries, the god Thoth set out in a boat to seek the
body of Osiris. Elsewhere it was Isis who sailed out in quest of it. We do
not know whether this scene was played at Rome; but it certainly was played
at Gallipoli where make-believe fishermen handled the nets in a
make-believe Nile; cf. P. Foucart, _Rech. sur les myst. d'Eleusis_ (_Mém.
Acad. Inscr._, XXXV), p. 37.
78. Cheremon in Porphyry, _Epist. ad Aneb._, 31:
[Greek: Kai ta krupta tês Isidos epainei kai to en Abudôi aporrêton
deixei].
Cf. Iamblichus, _De myster._, VI, 5-7.--On the "mysteries" of Isis in
Egypt, cf. Foucart, _loc. cit._, p. 19 f.; De Jong, _De Apuleio Isiacorum
mysteriorum teste_, Leyden, 1900, pp. 79 f., and _Das antike
Mysterienwesen_, Leyden, 1909.
79. Cf. _supra_.--De Jong, op. cit., pp. 40 ff.; Gruppe, _Griech. Mythol._,
p. 1574.
80. _La Cité antique_, I, ch. II, end.
81. Cf. Erman, _op. cit._, pp. 96-97.
82. Sufficient proof is contained in the bas-reliefs cited above (n. 20),
where apotheosized death assumes the shape of {238} Serapis. Compare
Kaibel, _Inscr. gr._, XIV, 2098: [Greek: Eupsuchi meta tou Oseiridos]. This
material conception of immortality could be easily reconciled with the old
Italian ideas, which had persisted in a dormant state in the minds of the
people, see Friedländer, _Sittengeschichte_, III^6, p. 758.
83. Reitzenstein, _Archiv für Religionswiss._, VII, 1904, 406 ff. These are
perhaps the most striking pages written on the meaning of the ceremony; it
is an [Greek: apathanatismos]. Cf. also Reitzenstein, _Hellenistische
Wundererzählungen_, p. 116.
84. Apul., _Metam._, 23.--De Jong, the latest commentator on this passage,
seems inclined to take it as a mere ecstatic vision, but the vision was
certainly caused by a dramatic scene in the course of which hell and heaven
were shown in the dark.--The Egyptians represented them even on the stage;
see Suetonius, _Calig._, 8: "Parabatur et in mortem spectaculum quo
argumenta inferorum per Aegyptios et Aethiopas explicarentur."
85. Apul., _Met._, XI, 6 end.
86. _Ibid._, c. 24: "Inexplicabili voluptate < aspectu > divini simulacri
perfruebar."
87. Plut., _De Isid._, 78, p. 383 A:
[Greek: Hôs an exêrtêmenais (tais psuchais ap' autou (tou Osiridos kai
theômenais aplêstôs kai pothousais to mê phaton mêde rhêton anthrôpois
kallos].
88. Cf., _supra_, n. 22.
89. We find similar wishes on the Egyptian monuments, frequently at least
since the Middle Empire. "Donnez-moi de l'eau courante à boire....
Mettez-moi la face au vent du nord sur le bord de l'eau et que sa fraîcheur
calme mon coeur" (Maspero, _Etudes égyptiennes_, I, 1881, p. 189). "Oh, si
j'avais de l'eau courante à boire et si mon visage était tourné vers le
vent du nord" (Naville,_op. cit._, p. 174). On a funerary stele in the
Brussels museum (Capart, _Guide_, 1905, p. 71) is inscribed, "Que les dieux
accordent de boire l'eau des sources, de respirer les doux vents du
nord."--The very material origin of this wish appears in the funeral texts,
where the soul is shown crossing the desert, threatened with hunger and
thirst, and obtaining refreshment by the aid of the gods (Maspero, _Etudes
de mythol. et d'archéol. égypt._, 1883, I, pp. {239} 366 ff.).--On a tablet
at Petilia (see _supra_, n. 22), the soul of the deceased is required to
drink the fresh water ([Greek: psuchron hudôr]) flowing from the lake of
Memory in order to reign with the heroes. There is nothing to prevent our
admitting with Foucart ("Myst. d'Eleusis," _Mém. Acad. des Inscr._, XXXV,
2, p. 67), that the Egyptian ideas may have permeated the Orphic worship of
southern Italy after the fourth or third century, since they are found
expressed a hundred years earlier at Carpentras (_infra_, n. 90).
90. [Greek: Doiê soi ho Osiris to psuchron hudôr], at Rome: Kaibel, _Inscr.
gr._ XIV. 1488, 1705, 1782, 1842; cf. 658 and _CIL_, VI, 3, 20616.--[Greek:
Soi de Oseiridos hagnon hudôr Eisis charisaito], _Rev. archéol._, 1887, p.
199, cf. 201.--[Greek: Psuchêi dipsôsêi psuchron hudôr metados], _CIG_,
6267 = Kaibel, 1890. It is particularly interesting to note that almost the
same wish appears on the Aramaic stele of Carpentras (_C. I. Sem._, II,
141), which dates back to the fourth or fifth century B. C.: "Blessed be
thou, take water from in front of Osiris."--A passage in the book of Enoch
manifestly inspired by Egyptian conceptions, mentions the "spring of
water," the "spring of life," in the realm of the dead (Enoch, xxii. 2, 9.
Cf. Martin, _Le livre d'Hénoch_, 1906, p. 58, n. 1, and Bousset, _Relig.
des Judentums_, 1903, p 271). From Judaism the expression has passed into
Christianity. Cf. Rev. vii. 17; xxi. 6.
91. The Egyptian origin of the Christian expression has frequently been
pointed out and cannot be doubted; see Lafaye, _op. cit._, p. 96, n. 1;
Rohde, _Psyche_, II, p. 391; Kraus, _Realencycl. der christl. Alt._, s. v.
"Refrigerium"; and especially Dieterich, _Nekyia_, pp. 95 ff. Cf.
Perdrizet, _Rev. des études anc._, 1905, p. 32; Audollent, _Mélanges Louis
Havet_, 1909, p. 575.--The _refrigerii sedes_, which the Catholic Church
petitions for the deceased in the anniversary masses, appears in the oldest
Latin liturgies, and the Greeks, who do not believe in purgatory, have
always expressed themselves along the same lines. For instance, Nubian
inscriptions which are in perfect agreement with the euchology of
Constantinople hope the soul will rest [Greek: en topôi chloerôi, en topôi
anapsuxeôs] (G. Lefebvre, _Inscr. gr. chrét. d'Eg._, No. 636, 664 ff., and
introd., p. xxx; cf. Dumont, _Mélanges_, Homolle ed., pp. 585 ff.). The
detail is not without significance because it furnishes a {240} valuable
indication as to the Egyptian origin of prayer for the dead; this is
unknown to Graeco-Roman paganism which prayed to the deified dead but never
_for_ the dead as such. The Church took this custom from the Synagogue, but
the Jews themselves seem to have taken it from the Egyptians during the
Hellenistic period, undoubtedly in the course of the second century (S.
Reinach, _Cultes, mythes_, I, p. 325), just as they were indebted to the
Egyptians for the idea of the "spring of life" (_supra_, n. 90). The
formula in the Christian inscriptions cited,
[Greek: anapauson tên psuchên en kolpois Abraam kai Isaak kai Iakôb],
appears to indicate a transposition of the doctrine of identification with
Osiris. In this way we can explain the persistence in the Christian
formulary of expressions, like _requies aeterna_, corresponding to the most
primitive pagan conceptions of the life of the dead, who were not to be
disturbed in their graves.--A name for the grave, which appears frequently
in Latin epitaphs, viz., _domus aeterna_ (or _aeternalis_) is undoubtedly
also of Egyptian importation. In Egypt, "la tombe est la maison du mort, sa
maison d'étérnite, comme disent les textes" (Capart, _Guide du musée de
Bruxelles_, 1905, p. 32). The Greeks were struck by this expression which
appears in innumerable instances. Diodorus of Sicily (I, 51, § 2) was aware
that the Egyptians
[Greek: tous tôn teteleutêkotôn taphous aidious oikous prosagoreuousin, hôs
en Haidou diatelountôn ton apeiron aiôna] (cf. I, 93, § 1, [Greek: eis tên
aiônion oikêsin]).--
It is probable that this appellation of the tomb passed from Egypt into
Palestine and Syria. It appears already in Ecclesiastes, xii. 7 (_beth
'olam_ = "house of eternity"), and it is found in Syrian epigraphy (for
instance in inscriptions of the third century (_Comptes Rendus Acad.
Inscr._, 1906, p. 123), also in the epigraphy of Palmyra. (Chabot, _Journal
asiatique_, 1900, p. 266, No. 47)).--Possibly the hope for consolation,
[Greek: Eupsuchei, oudeis athanatos], frequently found engraved upon tombs
even in Latin countries was also derived from the Egyptian religion, but
this is more doubtful. [Greek: Eupsuchei] is found in the epitaphs of
initiates in the Alexandrian mysteries. Kaibel, _Inscr. gr._, XIV, 1488,
1782 ([Greek: Eupsuchei kuria kai doiê soi ho Osiris to psuchron hudôr]),
2098 (cf. _supra_, n. 90). Possibly the twofold meaning of {241} [Greek:
eupsuchos] which stands both for _animosus_ and _frigidus_ (see Dieterich,
_Nekyia_, _loc. cit._) has been played upon. But on the other hand, the
idea contained in the formula "Be cheerful, nobody is immortal," also
inspired the "Song of the Harpist," a canonical hymn that was sung in Egypt
on the day of the funeral. It invited the listener to "make his heart glad"
before the sadness of inevitable death (Maspero, _Etudes égyptiennes_, I,
1881, pp. 171 ff.; cf. Naville, _op. cit._, p. 171).
V. SYRIA.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: The Syrian religions have been studied with especial
attention to their relation with Judaism: Baudissin, _Studien zur
semitischen Religionsgeschichte_, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1876. The same author
has published veritable monographs on certain divinities (Astarte, Baal,
Sonne, etc.) in the _Realencyclopädie für prot. Theol._, of Herzog-Hauck,
3d ed.--Bäthgen, _Beiträge zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte_, Berlin,
1888.--W. Robertson Smith, _The Religion of the Semites_, 2d. ed., London,
1894.--Lagrange, _Etudes sur les religions sémitiques_, 2d ed., Paris,
1905. The results of the excavations in Palestine, which are important in
regard to the funeral customs and the oldest idolatry, have been summarized
by Father Hugues Vincent, _Canaan d'après l'exploration récente_, 1907.--On
the propagation of the Syrian religions in the Occident, see Réville, _op.
cit._, pp. 70 _et passim_; Wissowa, _Religion der Römer_, pp. 299 ff.;
Gruppe, _Griech. Mythol._, pp. 1582 f.--Important observations will be
found in Clermont-Ganneau, _Recueil d'archéologie orientale_, 8 vols.,
1888, and in Dussaud, _Notes de mythologie syrienne_, Paris, 1903. We have
published a series of articles on particular divinities in the
_Realencyclopädie_ of Pauly-Wissowa (Baal, Balsamem, Dea Syria, Dolichenus,
Gad, etc.). Other monographs are cited below.
1. Lucian, _Lucius_, 53 ff.; Apul., _Metam._, VIII, 24 ff. The description
by these authors has recently been confirmed by the discovery of an
inscription at Kefr-Hauar in Syria: a slave of the Syrian goddess "sent by
her mistress ([Greek: kuria])," boasts of having brought back "seventy
sacks" from each of her trips (Fossey, _Bull. corr. hell._, XXI, 1897, p.
60; on the {242} meaning of [Greek: pêra], "sack," see Deissmann, _Licht
von Osten_, 1908, p. 73).
2. Cf. Riess in Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. _Astrologie_, col. 1816.
3. Cato, _De agric._, V, 4.
4. On dedication of Romans to Atargatis, see _Bull. corr. hell._, VI, 1882,
p. 497, No. 15; p. 498, No. 17.
5. Since the year 187 we find the Syrian musicians (_sambucistriae_)
mentioned also at Rome. Their number grew steadily (Livy, XXXIX, 6; see
Friedländer, _Sittengesch._, III^6, p. 346.)
6. Florus, II, 7 (III, 9); cf. Diodorus Sic., fr. 34, 2, 5.
7. Plut., _Vit. Marii_, 17.
8. Juvenal, VI, 351; Martial, IV, 53, 10; IX, 2, 11, IX, 22, 9.
9. _CIL_, VI, 399; cf. Wissowa, _op. cit._, p. 201.--Suetonius, _Nero_, 56.
10. A temple of the Syrian gods at Rome, located at the foot of the
Janiculum, has been excavated very recently. Cf. Gauckler, _Bolletino
communale di Roma_, 1907, pp. 5 ff. (Cf. Hülsen, _Mitt. Inst. Rom_, XXII,
1907, pp. 225 ff.); _Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr._, 1907, pp. 135 ff.; 1908,
pp. 510 ff.; 1909, pp. 424 ff., pp. 617 ff.; Nicole and Darier, _Le
sanctuaire des dieux orientaux au Janicule_, Rome, 1909 (Extr. des "Mél.
Ecole franç. de Rome," XXIX). In it have been found dedications to Hadad of
the Lebanon, to the Hadad [Greek: akroreitês], and to Maleciabrudus (in
regard to the latter see Clermont-Ganneau, _Rec. d'archéol. or._, VIII,
1907, p. 52). Cf. my article "Syria Dea" in Daremberg-Saglio-Pottier,
_Diction. des antiquités gr. et rom._, 1911.
11. I have said a few words on this colonization in my _Mon. rel. aux myst.
de Mithra_, I, p. 262. Courajod has considered it in regard to artistic
influences, _Leçons du Louvre_, I, 1899, pp. 115, 327 ff. For the
Merovingian period see Bréhier, _Les colonies d'orientaux en Occident au
commencement du moyen âge_ (_Byzant. Zeitschr._, XII), 1903, pp. 1 ff.
12. Kaibel, _Inscr. gr._, XIV, 2540.
13. _Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr._, 1899, p. 353 = Waltzing, _Corporations
professionelles_, II, No. 1961 = _CIL_, III S., {243} 14165^8.--Inscription
of Thaïm of Canatha: Kaibel, _Inscr. gr._, XIV, 2532.
14. Gregory of Tours, _Hist. Fr._, VIII, 1.--On the diffusion of the
Syrians in Gaul, see Bréhier, _loc. cit._, p. 16 ff.
15. Cf. Bréhier, _Les origines du crucifix dans l'art religieux_, Paris,
1904.
16. Adonis: Wissowa, p. 300, n. 1.--Balmarcodès: Pauly-Wissowa, _Realenc._,
s. v.; Jalabert, _Mél. fac. orient. Beyrouth_, I, p. 182.--Marnas: The
existence at Ostia of a "Marneum" can be deduced from the dedication _CIG_,
5892 (cf. Drexler in Roscher, _Lexikon_, s. v., col. 2382).--On
Maleciabrudus, cf. _supra_, n. 10.--The Maiuma festival was probably
introduced with the cult of the god of Gaza, Lydus, _De Mensib._, IV, 80
(p. 133, Wünsch ed.) = Suidas s. v. [Greek: Maioumas] and Drexler, _loc.
cit._, col. 2287. Cf. Clermont-Ganneau, _Rec. d'archéol. orient._, IV, p.
339.
17. Cf. Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. "Damascenus, Dusares."
18. Malalas, XI, p. 280, 12 (Bonn).--The temple has recently been excavated
by a German mission; cf. Puchstein, _Führer in Baalbek_, Berlin, 1905.--On
the Hadad at Rome, cf. _supra_, n. 10.
19. _CIL_, X, 1634: "Cultores Iovis Heliopolitani Berytenses qui Puteolis
consistunt"; cf. Wissowa, _loc. cit._, p. 504, n. 3; Ch. Dubois, _Pouzzoles
antique_, Paris, 1906, p. 156.
20. A list of the known military societies has been made by Cichorius in
Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencycl._, s. v. "Ala" and "Cohors."
21. _CIL_, VII, 759 = Buecheler, _Carmina epigr._, 24. Two inscriptions
dedicated to the Syrian Hercules (Melkarth) and to Astarte have been
discovered at Corbridge, near Newcastle (_Inscr. gr._, XIV, 2553). It is
possible that Tyrian archers were cantoned there.
22. Baltis: Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclop._, s. v.
23. Pauly-Wissowa, _Realenc._, s. v. "Aziz"; cf. Wissowa, _op. cit._, p.
303, n. 7.
24. On the etymology of Malakbel, see Dussaud, _Notes_, 24 ff. On the
religion in the Occident see Edu. Meyer in Roscher, _Lexikon_, s. v. {244}
25. Kan, _De Iovis Dolicheni cultu_, Groningen, 1901; cf. Pauly-Wissowa,
_Realencycl._, s. v. "Dolichenus."
26. Réville, _Relig. sous les Sévères_, pp. 237 ff.; Wissowa, _op. cit._,
p. 305; cf. Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. "Elagabal."--In a recent article (_Die
politische Bedeutung der Religion von Emesa_ [_Archiv für Religionsw._,
XI], 1908, pp. 223 ff.) M. von Domaszewski justly lays stress on the
religious value of the solar monotheism that arose in the temples of Syria,
but he attributes too important a part in its formation to the clergy of
Emesa (see _infra_, n. 88). The preponderant influence seems to have been
exercised by Palmyra (see _infra_, n. 59).
27. Cf. _infra_, n. 59.
28. Cf. Curtiss, _Primitive Semitic Religion To-day_, Chicago, 1902;
Jaussen, _Coutumes des Arabes du pays de Moab_, Paris, 1908, pp. 297 ff.
29. Cf. Robertson Smith, _passim_; Lagrange, pp. 158-216; Vincent, _op.
cit._, pp. 102-123; 144 f.--The power of this Semitic litholatry equaled
its persistence. Philo of Byblus defined the bethels as [Greek: lithoi
empsuchoi] (2, § 20, FHG, III, p. 563): Hippolytus also tells us (V, 1, p.
145, Cruice), that in the Syrian mysteries ([Greek: Assuriôn teletai]) it
was taught that the stones were animated ([Greek: hoi lithoi eisin
empsuchoi; echousi gar to auxêtikon]), and the same doctrine perpetuated
itself in Manicheism. (Titus of Bostra, II, 60, p. 60, 25, de Lagarde ed.:
[Greek: Ouk aischunetai de kai tous lithous epsuchôsthai legôn kai ta panta
empsucha eisêgoumenos]).
During the last years of paganism the neo-Platonists developed a
superstitious worship of the bethels; see Conybeare, _Transactions of the
Congress of Hist. of Rel._, Oxford, 1908, p. 177.
30. Luc., _De dea Syria_, c. 41. Cf. the inscription of Narnaka with the
note of Clermont-Ganneau, _Etudes d'arch. orient._, II, p. 163.--For bull
worship in Syria cf. Ronzevalle, _Mélanges fac. orient. Beyrouth_, I, 1906,
pp. 225, 238; Vincent, _op. cit._, p. 169.
31. Philo Alex., _De provid._, II, c. 107 (II, 646 M.); cf. Lucian, _De dea
Syria_, 54.
32. For instance on Mount Eryx in Sicily (Ael., _Nat. Anim._, {245} IV,
2).--Cf. Pauly-Wissowa, _Realenc._, s. v. "Dea Syria," col. 2242.
33. Tibullus, I, 7, 17.
34. Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 14; 54. Cf. Diodorus, II, 4, 2; Ovid, _Met._,
IV, 46; V, 331.
35. Pauly-Wissowa, _loc. cit._, col. 2241; W. Robertson Smith, p. 175.
36. The ancient authors frequently alluded to this superstition of the
Syrians (the texts have been collected by Selden, _De dis Syris_, II, C. 3,
pp. 268 ff., ed. of 1672). W. Robertson Smith (_loc. cit._, p. 449), is
right in connecting it with certain ideas of savages. Like many primitive
beliefs, this one has continued to the present day. It has been pointed out
to me that at Sam-Keuï, a little west of Doliché, there is a pond fed by a
spring and well stocked with fish, which one is forbidden to take. Near the
mosque of Edessa is a large pond where catching fish is prohibited. They
are considered sacred, and the people believe that any one who would eat
them would die instantly. (Sachau, _Reise in Syrien_, 1883, pp. 196 ff. Cf.
Lord Warkworth, _Diary in Asiatic Turkey_, London, 1898, p. 242). The same
is the case at the mosque of Tripoli and elsewhere (Lammens, _Au pays des
Nosaïris_ [_Revue de l'Orient chrétien_], 1908, p. 2). Even in Asia Minor
this superstition is found. At Tavshanli, north of Aezani on the upper
Rhyndacus, there is to-day a square cistern filled with sacred fish which
no one is allowed to take (on the authority of Munro). Travelers in Turkey
have frequently observed that the people do not eat fish, even when there
is a scarcity of food (Sachau, _loc. cit._, p. 196) and the general belief
that their flesh is unhealthful and can cause sickness is not entirely
unfounded. Here is what Ramsay has to say on the subject (_Impressions of
Turkey_, London, 1897, p. 288): "Fish are rarely found and when found are
usually bad: the natives have a prejudice against fish, and my own
experience has been unfavorable.... In the clear sparkling mountain stream
that flows through the Taurus by Bozanti-Khan, a small kind of fish is
caught; I had a most violent attack of sickness in 1891 after eating some
of them, and so had all who partook." Captain Wilson, who spent a number of
years in {246} Asia Minor, asserts (_Handbook of Asia-Minor_, p. 19), that
"the natives do not eat fish to any extent." The "totemic" prohibition in
this instance really seems to have a hygienic origin. People abstained from
all kinds of fish because some species were dangerous, that is to say,
inhabited by evil spirits, and the tumors sent by the Syrian goddess were
merely the edemas caused by the poisoning.
37. On the [Greek: Ichthus] symbolism I will merely refer to Usener,
_Sintflutsagen_, 1899, pp. 223 ff. Cf. S. Reinach, _Cultes, mythes_, III,
1908, pp. 43 ff. An exhaustive book on this subject has recently appeared:
Dölger, [Greek: ICHTHYS], _das Fischsymbol in frühchristlicher Zeit_, I,
Rome, 1910.
On sacred repasts where fish was eaten see Mnaseas, fragment 32 (_Fragm.
histor. graec._, III, 115); cf. Dittenberger, _Sylloge_, 584: [Greek: Ean
de tis tôn ichthuôn apothanêi, karpousthô authêmeron epi tou bômou], and
Diog. Laert., VIII, 34. There were also sacred repasts in the Occident in
the various Syrian cults: _Cenatorium et triclinium_ in the temples of
Jupiter Dolichenus (_CIL_, III, 4789; VI, 30931; XI, 696, cf. _Mon. myst.
Mithra_, II, p. 501); _promulsidaria et mantelium_ offered to the Venus
Caelestis (_CIL_, X, 1590); construction of a temple to Malachbel with a
_culina_ (_CIL_, III, 7954). Mention is made of a [Greek: deipnokritês,
deipnois kreinas polla met' euphrosunês], in the temple of the Janiculum
(Gauckler, _C.R. Acad. Inscr._, 1907, p. 142; _Bolletino communale_, 1907,
pp. 15 ff.). Cf. Lagrange, _Religions sémitiques_, II, p. 609, and
Pauly-Wissowa, _Realenc._, s. v. "Gad."
38. W. Robertson Smith, pp. 292 ff.
39. An inscription discovered at Kefr-Hauar (Fossey, _Bull. corr. hell._,
1897, p. 60) is very characteristic in this respect. A "slave" of the
Syrian goddess in that inscription offers his homage to his "mistress"
([Greek: kuria]).
40. Notably at Aphaca where they were not suppressed until the time of
Constantine (Eusebius, _Vit. Const._, III, 55; cf. Sozom., II, 5).
41. Much has been written about the sacred prostitutions in paganism, and
it is well known that Voltaire ridiculed the scholars who were credulous
enough to believe in the tales of Herodotus. But this practice has been
proven by {247} irrefutable testimony. Strabo, for instance, whose
great-uncle was arch-priest of Comana, mentions it in connection with that
city, (XII, 3, 36, p. 559 C), and he manifests no surprise. The history of
religion teaches many stranger facts; this one, however, is disconcerting.
The attempt has been made to see in it a relic of the primitive promiscuity
or polyandry, or a persistence of "sexual hospitality," ("No custom is more
widely spread than the providing for a guest a female companion, who is
usually a wife or daughter of the host," says Wake, _Serpent Worship_,
1888, p. 158); or the substitution of union with a man for union with the
god (Gruppe, _Griech. Mythol._, p. 915). But these hypotheses do not
explain the peculiarities of the religious custom as it is described by
more reliable authors. They insist upon the fact that the girls were
dedicated to the temple service while _virgins_, and that after having had
_strangers_ for lovers, they married in their own country. Thus Strabo (XI,
14, § 16, p. 532 C.) narrates in connection with the temple of Anaitïs in
Acilisena, that [Greek: thugateras hoi epiphanestatoi tou ethnous anierousi
parthenous, ais nomos esti kataporneutheisais polun chronon para têi theôi
meta tauta didosthai pros gamon, ouk apaxiountos têi toiautêi sunoikein
oudenos]. Herodotus (I, 93), who relates about the same thing of the Lydian
women, adds that they acquired a dowry in that manner; an inscription at
Tralles (_Bull. corr. hell._, VII, 1885, p. 276) actually mentions a
descendant of a sacred prostitute ([Greek: ek progonôn pallakidôn]) who had
temporarily filled the same office ([Greek: pallakeusasa kata chrêsmon
Dii]). Even at Thebes in Egypt there existed a similar custom with striking
local peculiarities in the time of Strabo (XVII, 1, § 46), and traces of it
seem to have been found in Greece among the Locrians (Vurtheim, _De Aiacis
origine_, Leyden, 1907). Every Algerian traveler knows how the girls of the
Ouled-Naïl earn their dowry in the _ksours_ and the cities, before they go
back to their tribes to marry, and Doutté (_Notes sur l'Islam maghrébien,
les Marabouts_, Extr. _Rev. hist. des relig._, XL-XLI, Paris, 1900), has
connected these usages with the old Semitic prostitution, but his thesis
has been attacked and the historical circumstances of the arrival of the
Ouled-Naïl in Algeria in the eleventh century render it very doubtful (Note
by Basset).--It seems certain (I do not know whether this explanation has
ever been offered) {248} that this strange practice is a modified
utilitarian form of an ancient exogamy. Besides it had certain favorable
results, since it protected the girl against the brutality of her kindred
until she was of marriageable age, and this fact must have insured its
persistence; but the idea that inspired it at first was different. "La
première union sexuelle impliquant une effusion de sang, a été interdite,
lorsque ce sang était celui d'une fille du clan versé par le fait d'un
homme du clan" (Salomon Reinach, _Mythes, cultes_, I, 1905, p. 79. Cf.
Lang, _The Secret of the Totem_, London, 1905.) Thence rose the obligation
on virgins to yield to a stranger first. Only then were they permitted to
marry a man of their own race. Furthermore, various means were resorted to
in order to save the husband from the defilement which might result from
that act (see for inst., Reinach, _Mythes, cultes_, I, p. 118).--The
opinion expressed in this note was attacked, almost immediately after its
publication, by Frazer (_Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, 1907, pp. 50 ff.) who
preferred to see in the sacred prostitutions a relic of primitive
communism. But at least one of the arguments which he uses against our
views is incorrect. Not the women, but the men, received presents in
Acilisena (Strabo, _loc. cit._) and the communistic theory does not seem to
account for the details of the custom prevailing in the temple of Thebes.
There the horror of blood clearly appears. On the discovery of a skull
(having served at a rite of consecration) in the temple of the Janiculum,
see the article cited above, "Dea Syria," in _Dict. des antiquités_.
42. Porphyry, _De Abstin._, II, 56; Tertull., _Apol._, 9. Cf. Lagrange,
_op. cit._, p. 445.
43. Even in the regions where the cities developed, the Baal and the Baalat
always remained the divinities [Greek: poliouchoi], the protectors of the
city which they were supposed to have founded.
44. Le Bas-Waddington, 2196.--Suidas, s. v. [Greek: Phularchês] (II, 2,
col. 1568, Bernhardy). Cf. Marquardt, _Staatsverwaltung_, I, p. 405, 409.
45. Hippolytus, Adv. Haeres., V, II, § 7: [Greek: Assuriôn teletai]; § 18:
[Greek: Assuriôn mustêria] (pp. 145, 148, ed. by Cruice). Cf. Origen,
_Contra Celsum_, I, 12. Pognon (_Inscrip. sémitiques_, {249} 1907, No. 48)
has recently published a Syrian epitaph that is unfortunately mutilated,
but which seems to be that of an adept of the pagan mysteries; see Nöldeke,
_Zeitschrift für Assyr._, XXI, 1907, p. 155.
46. On the Semitic notion of purity, W. Robertson Smith has written
admirably and convincingly (pp. 446 ff. and _passim_). The question has
been taken up from a different point of view by Lagrange, pp. 141 ff.--The
development of the notion of purity in the ancient religions has been
recently expounded by Farnell, _The Evolution of Religion_, 1905, pp. 88
ff., especially pp. 124 ff. Cf. also _supra_, p. 91 f. An example of the
prohibitions and purifications is found in the Occident in an inscription,
unfortunately mutilated, discovered at Rome and dedicated to Beellefarus
(_CIL_, VI, 30934, 31168; cf. Lafaye, _Rev. hist. relig._, XVII, 1888, pp.
218 ff.; Dessau, _Inscr. sel._, 4343). If I have understood the text
correctly it commands those who have eaten pork to purify themselves by
means of honey.--On penances in the Syrian religions see ch. II, n. 31.
47. M. Clermont-Ganneau (_Etudes d'archéologie orientale_, II, 1896, p.
104) states that the epithet [Greek: hagios] is extremely rare in pagan
Hellenism, and almost always betrays a Semitic influence. In such cases it
corresponds to [Hebrew: QRSH], which to the Semites is the epithet _par
excellence_ of the divinity. Thus Eshmon is [Hebrew: QRSH]; cf. Lidzbarski,
_Ephemer. für semit. Epigraph._, II, p. 155; Clermont-Ganneau, _Recueil
d'archéol. orient._, III, p. 330; V, p. 322.--In Greek Le Bas-Waddington,
2720, has: [Greek: Oi katochoi hagiou ouraniou Dios]. Dittenberger,
_Orientis inscript._, 620, [Greek: Zeus hagios Beel bôsôros]. Some time ago
I copied at a dealer's, a dedication engraved upon a lamp: [Greek: Theôi
hagiôi Arelselôi], in Latin: J. Dolichenus _sanctus_, _CIL_, VI, 413, X,
7949.--J. Heliopolitanus _sanctissimus_, _CIL_, VIII, 2627.--"Caelestis
_sancta_," VIII, 8433, etc.--The African Saturn (= Baal) is often called
_sanctus_.--_Hera sancta_ beside Jupiter Dolichenus, VI, 413.--Malakbel is
translated by _Sol sanctissimus_, in the bilingual inscription of the
Capitol, VI, 710 = Dessau, 4337. Cf. _deus sanctus aeternus_, V, 1058,
3761, and _Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr._, 1906, p. 69.--See in general
Delehaye, _Analecta Bollandiana_, 1909, pp. 157 ff. {250}
48. As curious examples of Greco-Syrian syncretism we may mention the
bas-relief of Ed-Douwaïr in the Louvre, which has been analyzed in detail
by Dussaud (_Notes_, pp. 89 ff.), and especially that of Homs in the
Brussels museum (_ibid._, 104 ff.).
49. Macrobius, I, 23, § 11: "Ritu Assyrio magis quam Aegyptio colitur"; cf.
Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 5.--"Hermetic" theories penetrated even to the
Sabians of Osrhoene (Reitzenstein, _Poimandres_, 166 ff.), although their
influence seems to have been merely superficial (Bousset, _Göttingische
gelehrt. Anzeigen_, 1905, 704 ff.)--The existence of [Greek: katochoi] at
Baetocécé and elsewhere appears to be due to Egyptian influence (Jalabert,
_Mélanges de la fac. orient. de Beyrouth_, II, 1907, pp. 308 ff.). The
meaning of [Greek: katochos] which has been interpreted in different ways,
is established, I think, by the passages collected by Kroll, _Cat. codd.
astrol. graec._, V, pars 2, p. 146; cf. Otto, _Priester und Tempel_, I, p.
119; Bouché-Leclercq, _Hist. des Lagides_, IV, p. 335. It refers to the
poor, the sick and even the "illumined" living within the temple enclosures
and undoubtedly supported by the clergy, as were the refugees of the
Christian period who availed themselves of the right of sanctuary in the
churches (cf. _Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr._, 1907, p. 454).
50. Cf. _infra_, n. 59.
51. Strabo, XVI, 1, 6. Cf. Pliny, _H. N._, VI, 6: "Durat adhuc ibi Iovis
Beli templum." Cf. my _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 35 ff.; Chapot, _Mém.
soc. antiq. de France_, 1902, pp. 239 ff.; Gruppe, _Griech. Mythol._, p.
1608, n. 1.
52. Lucian, _De dea Syria_, c. 10.
53. Harnack, _Dogmengeschichte_, I, pp. 233 ff. and _passim_.
54. On the worship of Bel in Syria cf. _Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr._, 1907,
pp. 447 ff.--Cf. _infra_, n. 59.
55. On the Heliopolitan triad and the addition of Mercury to the original
couple see Perdrizet, _Rev. études anc._, III, 1901, p. 258; Dussaud,
_Notes_, p. 24; Jalabert, _Mélanges fac. orient. de Bayrouth_, I, 1906, pp.
175 ff.--Triad of Hierapolis: Lucian, _De dea Syria_, c. 33. According to
Dussaud, the three divinities came from Babylon together, _Notes_, p.
115.--The existence of a Phoenician triad (Baal, Astarte, Eshmoun or {251}
Melkarth), and of a Palmyrian triad has been conjectured but without
sufficient reason (_ibid._, 170, 172 ff.); the existence of Carthaginian
triads is more probable (cf. Polybius, VII, 9, 11, and von Baudissin,
_Iolaos_ [_Philothesia für Paul Kleinert_], 1907, pp. 5 ff.)--See in
general Usener, _Dreiheit_ (Extr. _Rhein. Museum_, LVIII), 1903, p. 32. The
triads continued in the theology of the "Chaldaic Oracles" (Kroll, _De
orac. Chald._, 13 ff.) and a threefold division of the world and the soul
was taught in the "Assyrian mysteries" (_Archiv für Religionswiss._, IX,
1906, p. 331, n. 1).
56. Boll, _Sphaera_, p. 372.--The introduction of astrology into Egypt
seems to date back no further than the time of the Ptolemies.
57. The Seleucides, like the Roman emperors later, believed in Chaldean
astrology (Appian., _Syr._, 28; Diodorus, II, 31, 2; cf. Riess in
Pauly-Wissowa, _Realenc._, s. v. "Astrologie," col. 1814), and the kings of
Commagene, as well as of a great number of Syrian cities, had the signs of
the zodiac as emblems on their coins. It is even certain that this
pseudo-science penetrated into those regions long before the Hellenistic
period. Traces of it are found in the Old Testament (Schiaparelli;
translation by Lüdke, _Die Astron. im Alten Testament_, 1904, p. 46). It
modified the entire Semitic paganism. The only cult which we know in any
detail, that of the Sabians, assigned the highest importance to it; but in
the myths and doctrines of the others its influence is no less apparent
(Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencycl._, s. v. "Dea Syria," IV, col. 2241, and s. v.
"Gad"; cf. Baudissin, _Realencycl. für prot. Theol._, s. v., "Sonne," pp.
510-520). To what extent, for instance, the clergy of Emesa had been
subjected to its ascendency is shown by the novel of Heliodorus, written by
a priest of that city (Rohde, _Griech. Roman_^2, p. 464 [436]), and by the
horoscope that put Julia Domna upon the throne (_Vita Severi_, 3, 8; cf. A.
von Domaszewski, _Archiv für Religionsw._, XI, 1908, p. 223). The
irresistible influence extended even to the Arabian paganism (Nöldeke in
Hastings, _Encyclop. of Religion_, s. v. "Arabs," I, p. 661; compare,
_Orac. Sibyll._, XIII, 64 ff., on Bostra). The sidereal character which has
been attributed to the Syrian gods, was borrowed, but none the less real.
From very early times the Semites worshiped the sun, {252} the moon, and
the stars (see Deut. iv. 19; Job xxxi. 25), especially the planet Venus,
but this cult was of secondary importance only (see W. Robertson Smith,
_op. cit._, p. 135, n. 1), although it grew in proportion as the Babylonian
influence became stronger. The polemics of the Fathers of the Syrian Church
show how considerable its prestige was in the Christian era (cf. Ephrem,
_Opera Syriaca_, Rome, 1740, II, pp. 447 ff.; the "Assyrian" Tatian, c. 9
ff., etc.).
58. Humann and Puchstein, _Reise in Klein-Asien und Nord-Syrien_, 1890, pl.
XL; _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 188, fig. 8; Bouché-Leclercq, _Astrol. gr._,
p. 439.
59. Cf. Wissowa, _op. cit._, p. 306-7.--On the temple of Bel at Palmyra,
cf. Sobernheim, _Palmyrenische Inschriften_ (_Mitt. der vorderasiat.
Gesellsch._, X), 1905, pp. 319 ff.; Lidzbarski, _Ephemeris_, I, pp. 255
ff., II, p. 280.--Priests of Bel: Clermont-Ganneau, _Recueil d'arch.
orient._, VII, p. 12, 24, 364. Cf. _supra_, n. 54. The power of Palmyra
under Zenobia, who ruled from the Tigris to the Nile, must have had as a
corollary the establishment of an official worship that was necessarily
syncretic. Hence its special importance for the history of paganism.
Although the Babylonian astrology was a powerful factor in this worship,
Judaism seems to have had just as great an influence in its formation.
There was at Palmyra a large Jewish colony, which the writers of the Talmud
considered only tolerably orthodox (Chaps, _Gli Ebrei di Palmira_ [_Rivista
Israelitica_, I], Florence, 1904, pp. 171 ff., 238 f. Cf. "Palmyra" in the
_Jewish Encycl._; Jewish insc. of Palmyra; Euting, _Sitzb. Berl. Acad._,
1885, p. 669; Landauer, _ibid._, 1884, pp. 933 ff.). This colony seems to
have made compromises with the idolaters. On the other hand we see Zenobia
herself rebuilding a synagogue in Egypt (_Revue archéologique_, XXX, 1875,
p. III; _Zeitschrift für Numismatik_, V, p. 229; Dittenberger, _Orientis
inscript._, 729). This influence of Judaism seems to explain the
development at Palmyra of the cult of [Greek: Zeus hupsitos kai epêkoos],
"he whose name is blessed in eternity." The name of Hypsistos has been
applied everywhere to Jehovah and to the pagan Zeus (_supra_, p. 62, 128)
at the same time. The text of Zosimus (I, 61), according to which Aurelian
brought from Palmyra to Rome the statues of [Greek: Hêliou te kai Bêlou]
(this has been wrongly changed to read [Greek: tou kai Bêlou]), proves that
the {253} astrological religion of the great desert city recognized a
supreme god residing in the highest heavens, and a solar god, his visible
image and agent, according to the Semitic theology of the last period of
paganism (_supra_, p. 134).
60. I have spoken of this solar eschatology in the memorial cited _infra_,
n. 88.
61. This opinion is that of Posidonius (see Wendland, _Philos Schrift über
die Vorsehung_, Berlin, 1892, p. 68, n. 1; 70, n. 2). It is shared by the
ancient astrologers.
62. This old pagan and gnostic idea has continued to the present day in
Syria among the Nosaïris; cf. Dussaud, _Histoire et religion des Nosaïris_,
1900, p. 125.
63. The belief that pious souls are guided to heaven by a psychopompus, is
found not only in the mysteries of Mithra (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 310),
but also in the Syrian cults where that rôle was often assigned to the
solar god, see Isid. Lévy, _Cultes syriens dans le Talmud_ (_Revue des
études juives_, XLIII), 1901, p. 5, and Dussaud, _Notes_, p. 27; cf. the Le
Bas-Waddington inscription, 2442:
"[Greek: Basileu despota] (= the sun), [Greek: hilathi kai didou pasin
hêmin hugiên katharan, prêxis agathas kai biou telos esthlon]."--
The same idea is found in inscriptions in the Occident; as for instance in
the peculiar epitaph of a sailor who died at Marseilles (Kaibel, _Inscr.
gr._, XIV, 2462 = _Epigr._, 650):
"[Greek: En de [te] tethneioisin homêguri [es] ge pelousin]
[Greek: doiai; tôn heterê men epichthoniê pephorêtai,]
[Greek: hê d' heterê teiressi sun aitherioisi choreuei,]
[Greek: ês stratiês eis eimi, lachôn theon hêgemonêa]."
It is the same term that Julian used (_Césars_, p. 336 C) in speaking of
Mithra, the guide of souls: [Greek: hêgemona theon]. Cf. also _infra_, n.
66 and ch. VIII, n. 24.
64. The Babylonian origin of the doctrine that the souls returned to heaven
by crossing the seven planetary spheres, has been maintained by Anz (_Zur
Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus_, 1897; cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_,
I. pp. 38 ff., p. 309; Bousset, _Die Himmelsreise der Seele_ [_Archiv für
Religionsw._, IV], 1901, pp. 160 ff.) and "Gnosis" in Pauly-Wissowa,
_Realencyclopädie_, col. 1520. It has since been denied by Reitzenstein
(_Poimandres_, p. 79; cf. Kroll, _Berl. philol. Wochensch._, {254} 1906, p.
486). But although it may have been given its precise shape and been
transformed by the Greeks and even by the Egyptians, I persist in believing
that it is of Chaldean and religious origin. I heartily agree with the
conclusions recently formulated by Bousset, (_Göttingische gelehrte
Anzeigen_, 1905, pp. 707 ff.). We can go farther: Whatever roots it may
have had in the speculations of ancient Greece (Aristoph., _Pax_, 832,
Plato, _Tim._, 42B, cf. Haussoullier, _Rev. de philol._, 1909, pp. 1 ff.),
whatever traces of it may be found in other nations (Dieterich,
_Mithrasliturgie_, pp. 182 ff.; _Nekyia_, p. 24, note; Rohde, _Psyche_, II,
p. 131, n. 3), the idea itself of the soul rising to the divine stars after
death certainly developed under the influence of the sidereal worship of
the Semites to a point where it dominated all other eschatological
theories. The belief in the eternity of souls is the corollary to the
belief in the eternity of the celestial gods (p. 129). We cannot give the
history of this conception here, and we shall limit ourselves to brief
observations. The first account of this system ever given at Rome is found
in "Scipio's Dream" (c. 3); it probably dates back to Posidonius of Apamea
(cf. Wendland, _Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur_, p. 85, 166, n. 3, 168,
n. 1), and is completely impregnated with mysticism and astrolatry. The
same idea is found a little later in the astrologer Manilius (I, 758; IV,
404, etc.). The shape which it assumed in Josephus (_Bell. Judaic._, V, 1,
5, § 47) is also much more religious than philosophical and is strikingly
similar to a dogma of Islam (happiness in store for those dying in battle;
a Syrian [_ibid._, § 54] risks his life that his soul may go to heaven).
This recalls the inscription of Antiochus of Commagene (Michel, _Recueil_,
No. 735, l. 40):
[Greek: Sôma pros ouranious Dios Ôromasdou thronous theophilê psuchên
propempsan eis ton apeiron aiôna koimêsetai].
It must be said that this sidereal immortality was not originally common to
all men; it was reserved "omnibus qui patriam conservaverint adiuverint,
auxerint" (_Somn. Scip._ c. 3, c. 8; cf. _Manil._, I, 758; Lucan, _Phars._,
IX, 1 ff.; Wendland, _op. cit._, p. 85 n. 2), and this also is in
conformity with the oldest Oriental traditions. The rites first used to
assure immortality to kings and to make them the equals of the gods were
extended little by little as a kind of privilege, to the important {255}
persons of the state, and only very much later were they applied to all who
died.
Regarding the diffusion of this belief from the beginning of the first
century of our era, see Diels, _Elementum_, 1899, p. 73, cf. 78;
Badstübner, _Beiträge zur Erklärung Senecas_, Hamburg, pp. 2 ff.--It is
expressed in many inscriptions (Friedländer, _Sitteng._, III, pp. 749 ff.;
Rohde, _Psyche_, p. 673, cf. 610; epitaph of Vezir-Keupru, _Studia
Pontica_, No. 85; _CIL_. III (Salone), 6384; _supra_, n. 63, etc.) It
gained access into Judaism and paganism simultaneously (cf. Bousset, _Die
Religion des Judentums im neutest. Zeitalter_, 1903, p. 271, and, for Philo
of Alexandria, Zeller, _Philos. der Griechen_, V, p. 397 and p.
297).--During the third century it was expounded by Cornelius Labeo, the
source of Arnobius and Servius (Nieggetiet, _De Cornelio Labeone_ [Diss.
Munster], 1908, pp. 77-86). It was generally accepted towards the end of
the empire; see _infra_, n. 25.--I hope soon to have the opportunity of
setting forth the development of this sidereal eschatology with greater
precision in my lectures on "Astrology and Religion in Antiquity" which
will appear in 1912 (chap. VI).
65. According to the doctrine of the Egyptian mysteries the Elysian Fields
were in the under-world (Apul., _Metam._, XI, 6).--According to the
astrological theory, the Elysian Fields were in the sphere of the fixed
stars (Macrobius, _Comm. somn. Scip._, I, 11, § 8; cf. _infra_, chap. VIII,
n. 25). Others placed them in the moon (Servius, _Ad Aen._, VI, 887; cf.
Norden, _Vergils Buch_, VI, p. 23; Rohde, _Psyche_, pp. 609 ff.).
Iamblichus placed them between the moon and the sun (Lydus, _De mens._, IV,
149, p. 167, 23, Wünsch).
66. The relation between the two ideas is apparent in the alleged account
of the Pythagorean doctrine which Diogenes Laertius took from Alexander
Polyhistor, and which is in reality an apocryphal composition of the first
century of our era. It was said that Hermes guided the pure souls, after
their separation from the body, [Greek: eis ton Hupsiston] (Diog. Laert.,
VIII, § 31; cf. Zeller, _Philos. der Griechen_, V, p. 106, n. 2).--On the
meaning of Hypsistos, cf. _supra_, p. 128. It appears very plainly in the
passage of Isaiah, xiv, 13, as rendered by the Septuagint: {256}
[Greek: Eis ton ouranon anabêsomai, epanô tôn asterôn thêsô ton thronon mou
... esomai homoios tôi Hupsistôi.]
67. Originally he was the thunder-god, in Greek [Greek: Keraunos]. Under
this name he appeared for instance on the bas-relief preserved in the
museum of Brussels (Dussaud, _Notes_, p. 105). Later, by a familiar
process, the influence of a particular god becomes the attribute of a
greater divinity, and we speak of a [Greek: Zeus Keraunios] (cf. Usener,
_Keraunos_, Rhein. Museum, N. F., LX, 1901).--This Zeus Keraunios appears
in many inscriptions of Syria (_CIG_, 4501, 4520; Le Bas-Waddington, 2195,
2557 _a_, 2631, 2739; cf. Roscher, _Lexikon Myth._, s. v. "Keraunos").
He is the god to whom Seleucus sacrificed when founding Seleucia (Malalas,
p. 199), and a dedication to the same god has been found recently in the
temple of the Syrian divinities at Rome (_supra_, n. 10).--An equivalent of
the Zeus Keraunios is the Zeus [Greek: Kataibatês]--"he who descends in the
lightning"--worshiped at Cyrrhus (Wroth, _Greek Coins in the British
Museum_: "Galatia, Syria," p. 52 and LII; Roscher, _Lexikon_, s. v.)
68. For instance the double ax was carried by Jupiter Dolichenus (cf.
_supra_, p. 147). On its significance, cf. Usener, _loc. cit._, p. 20.
69. Cf. Lidzbarski, _Balsamem, Ephem. semit. Epigr._, I, p. 251.--Ba'al
Samaïn is mentioned as early as the ninth century B. C. in the inscription
of Ben Hadad (Pognon, _Inscr. sémit._, 1907, pp. 165 ff.; cf. Dussaud,
_Rev. archéol._, 1908, I, p. 235). In Aramaic papyri preserved at Berlin,
the Jews of Elephantine call Jehovah "the god of heaven" in an address to a
Persian governor, and the same name was used in the alleged edicts of Cyrus
and his successors, which were inserted in the book of Esdras (i. 1; vi. 9,
etc.)--If there were the slightest doubt as to the identity of the god of
thunder with Baalsamin, it would be dispelled by the inscription of
Et-Tayibé, where this Semitic name is translated into Greek as [Greek: Zeus
megistos keraunios]; cf. Lidzbarski, _Handbuch_, p. 477, and Lagrange, _op.
cit._, p. 508.
70. On the worship of Baalsamin, confused with Ahura-Mazda and transformed
into _Caelus_, see _Mon. myst. Mithra_, p. 87.--The texts attesting the
existence of a real cult of {257} heaven among the Semites are very
numerous. Besides the ones I have gathered (_loc. cit._, n. 5); see
Conybeare, _Philo about the Contemplative Life_, p. 33, n. 16; Kayser, _Das
Buch der Erkenntniss der Wahrheit_, 1893, p. 337, and _infra_, n. 75. Zeus
[Greek: Ouranios]: Le Bas-Waddington, 2720 _a_ (Baal of Bétocécé); Renan,
_Mission de Phénicie_, p. 103.--Cf. _Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, IX,
1906, p. 333.
71. Coins of Antiochus VIII Grypus (125-96 B. C.); Babelon, _Rois de Syrie,
d'Arménie_, 1890, p. CLIV, pp. 178 ff.
72. All these qualities ascribed to the Baals by astrological paganism
([Greek: hupsistos, pantokratôr], etc.), are also the attributes which,
according to the doctrine of Alexandrian Judaism, characterized Jehovah
(see _supra_, n. 66). If he was originally a god of thunder, as has been
maintained, the evolution of the Jewish theology was parallel to that of
the pagan conceptions (see _supra_, n. 69).
73. On this subject cf. _Jupiter summus exsuperantissimus_ (_Archiv f.
Religionsw._, IX), 1906, pp. 326 ff.
74. Ps.-Iamblichus, _De mysteriis_, VI, 7 (cf. Porph., _Epist. Aneb._, c.
29), notes this difference between the two religions.
75. Apul., _Met._, VIII, 25. Cf. _CIL_, III, 1090; XII, 1227 (= Dessau,
2998, 4333); Macrobius, _Comm. somn. Scipionis_, I, 14, § 2: "Nihil aliud
esse deum nisi caelum ipsum et caelestia ipsa quae cernimus, ideo ut summi
omnipotentiam dei ostenderet posse vix intellegi."--[Greek: Hêlios
pantokratôs]: Macrob., I, 23, 21.
76. Diodorus, II, 30: [Greek: Chaldaioi tên tou kosmou phusin aidion phasin
einai k. t. l.]; cf. Cicero, _Nat. deor._, II, 20, § 52 ff.; Pliny, _H.
N._, II, 8, § 30. The notion of eternity was correlative with that of
[Greek: heimarmenê]; cf. Ps.-Apul., _Asclep._, 40; Apul., _De deo
Socratis_, c. 2: "(The planets) quae in deflexo cursu ... meatus aeternos
divinis vicibus efficiunt."--This subject will be more fully treated in my
lectures on "Astrology and Religion" (chaps. IV-V).
77. At Palmyra: De Vogüé, _Inscr. sem._, pp. 53 ff., etc.--On the first
title, see _infra_, n. 80.
78. Note especially _CIL_, VI, 406 = 30758, where Jupiter Dolichenus is
called _Aeternus conservator totius poli_. The {258} relation to heaven
here remained apparent. See _Somn. Scip._, III, 4; IV, 3.
79. Cf. _Rev. archéol._, 1888, I, pp. 184 ff.; Pauly-Wissowa, s. v.
"Aeternus," and _Festschrift für Otto Benndorf_, 1898, p. 291.--The idea of
the eternity of the gods also appeared very early in Egypt, but it does not
seem that the mysteries of Isis--in which the death of Osiris was
commemorated--made it prominent, and it certainly was spread in the
Occident only by the sidereal cults.
80. The question has been raised whether the epithet [Hebrew: MR' `LM']
means "lord of the world" or "lord of eternity" (cf. Lidzbarski,
_Ephemeris_, I, 258; II, 297; Lagrange, p. 508), but in our opinion the
controversy is to no purpose, since in the spirit of the Syrian priests the
two ideas are inseparable and one expression in itself embraces both, the
world being conceived as eternal (_supra_, n. 76). See for Egypt,
Horapoll., _Hieroglyph._, I (serpent as symbol of the [Greek: aiôn] and
[Greek: kosmos]). At Palmyra, too, the title "lord of all" is found,
[Hebrew: MR' KL] (Lidzbarski, _loc. cit._); cf. Julian, Or., IV, p. 203, 5
(Hertlein): [Greek: Ho basileus tôn holôn Hêlios], and infra, n. 81; n. 87.
Already at Babylon the title "lord of the universe" was given to Shamash
and Hadad; see Jastrow, _Religion Babyloniens_, I, p. 254, n. 10. Nöldeke
has been good enough to write me as follows on this subject: "Daran kan
kein Zweifel sein, dass [Hebrew: `LM] zunächst (lange Zeit) Ewigkeit
heisst, und dass die Bedeutung 'Welt' secundär ist. Ich halte es daher für
so gut wie gewiss dass das palmyrenische [Hebrew: MR' `LM'], wenn es ein
alter Name ist, den 'ewigen' Herrn bedeutet, wie ohne Zweifel [Hebrew: 'L
`WLM], Gen., xxi. 33. Das biblische Hebräisch kennt die Bedeutung 'Welt'
noch nicht, abgesehen wohl von der späten Stelle, Eccl. iii. 11. Und, so
viel ich sehe, ist im Palmyrenischen sonst [Hebrew: `LM'] immer 'Ewigkeit,'
z.B. in der häufigen Redensart [Hebrew: LBRYK SHMCH L`LM']. Aber das
daneben vorkommende palmyr. [Hebrew: MR' KL] führt allerdings darauf, dass
die palmyrenische Inschrift auch in [Hebrew: MR' `LM'] den 'Herrn der Welt'
sah. Ja der syrische Uebersetzer sieht auch in jenem hebräischen [Hebrew:
'L `WLM] 'den Gott der Welt.' Das Syrische hat nämlich einen formalen
Unterschied festgestellt zwischen _'[=a]l[)a]m_, dem Status absolutus,
'Ewigkeit,' und _'[=a]lm[=a]_ [_[=a]l^em[=a]_] dem Status emphaticus
'Welt.'--Sollte übrigens die {259} Bedeutung Welt diesem Worte erst durch
Einfluss griechischer Speculation zu Teil geworden sein? In der
Zingirli-Inschrift bedeuted [Hebrew: BTSLM] noch bloss 'in seiner Zeit.'"
81. Cf. _CIL_, III, 1090 = Dessau, _Inscr._, 2998: "Divinarum humanarumque
rerum rectori." Compare _ibid._, 2999 and Cagnet, _Année épigr._, 1905, No.
235: "I. O. M., id est universitatis principi." Cf. the article of the
_Archiv_ cited, n. 73. The _Asclepius_ says (c. 39), using an astrological
term: "Caelestes dii catholicorum dominantur, terreni incolunt singula."
82. Cf. W. Robertson Smith, 75 ff., _passim_. In the Syrian religions as in
that of Mithra, the initiates regarded each other as members of the same
family, and the phrase "dear brethren" as used by our preachers, was
already in use among the votaries of Jupiter Dolichenus (_fratres
carissimos_, _CIL_, VI, 406 = 30758).
83. Renan mentioned this fact in his _Apotres_, p. 297 = _Journal
Asiatique_, 1859, p. 259. Cf. Jalabert, _Mél. faculté orient. Beyrout_, I,
1906, p. 146.
84. This is the term (_virtutes_) used by the pagans. See the inscription
_Numini et virtutibus dei aeterni_ as reconstructed in _Revue de
Philologie_, 1902, p. 9; _Archiv für Religionsw._, _loc. cit._, p. 335, n.
1 and _infra_, ch. VIII, n. 20.
85. _CIL_, VII, 759 = Bücheler, _Carm. epig._, 24.--Cf. Lucian, _De dea
Syria_, 32.
86. Macrobius, _Sat._, I, 23, § 17: "Nominis (Adad) interpretatio
significat unus unus."
87. Cicero, _Somnium Scip._, c. 4: "Sol dux et princeps et moderator
luminum reliquorum, mens mundi et temperatio." Pliny, _H. N._, II, 6, § 12:
"Sol ... siderum ipsorum caelique rector. Hunc esse mundi totius animam ac
planius mentem, hunc principale naturae regimen ac numen credere decet,"
etc. Julian of Laodicea, _Cat. codd. astr._, I, p. 136, l. 1:
[Greek: Hêlios basileus kai hêgemôn tou sumpantos kosmou kathestôs, pantôn
kathêgoumenos kai pantôn ôn genesiarchês.]
88. We are here recapitulating some conclusions of a study on _La théologie
solaire du paganisme romain_ published in _Mémoires des savants étrangers
présentés à l'Acad. des Inscr._, XII, 2d part, pp. 447 ff., Paris, 1910.
{260}
89. The hymns of Synesius (II, 10 ff., IV, 120 ff., etc.) contain peculiar
examples of the combination of the old astrological ideas with Christian
theology.
VI. PERSIA.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: We shall not attempt here to give a bibliography of the works
devoted to Mazdaism. We shall merely refer the reader to that of Lehmann in
Chantepie de la Saussaye, _Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte_, II, p. 150.
We should mention, in the first place, Darmesteter, _Le Zend Avesta_, 1892
ff., with introductions and commentary.--In my _Textes et monuments
relatifs aux mystères de Mithra_ (2 vols., 1894-1900), I, pp. xx ff., I
have furnished a list of the earlier works on this subject; the conclusions
of the book have been published separately without the notes, under the
title: _Les Mystères de Mithra_, (2d ed., Paris and Brussels, 1902; English
translation, Chicago, 1903). See also the article "Mithra" in the
_Dictionnaire des antiquités_ of Daremberg and Saglio, 1904.--General
outlines of certain phases of this religion have been since given by Grill,
_Die persische Mysterienreligion und das Christentum_, 1903; Roeses, _Ueber
Mithrasdienst_, Stralsund, 1905; G. Wolff, _Ueber Mithrasdienst und
Mithreen_, Frankfort, 1909; Reinach, _La morale du mithraïsme_ in _Cultes,
mythes_, II, 1906, pp. 220 ff.; Dill, _op. cit._, pp. 594-626; cf. also
Bigg, _op. cit._ [p. 321], 1905, p. 46 ff.; Harnack, _Ausbreitung des
Christent._, II, p. 270. Among the learned researches which we cannot
enumerate here, the most important is that of Albrecht Dieterich, _Eine
Mithrasliturgie_, 1903. He has endeavored with some ingenuity to show that
a mystical passage inserted in a magic papyrus preserved at Paris is in
reality a fragment of a Mithraic liturgy, but here I share the skepticism
of Reitzenstein (_Neue Jahrb. f. das class. Altertum_, 1904, p. 192) and I
have given my reasons in _Rev. de l'Instr. publ. en Belg._, XLVII, 1904,
pp. 1 ff. Dieterich answered briefly in _Archiv f. Religionswis._, VIII,
1905, p. 502, but without convincing me. The author of the passage in
question may have been more or less accurate in giving his god the external
appearance of Mithra, but he certainly did not know the eschatology of the
Persian mysteries. We know, for {261} instance, through positive testimony
that they taught the dogma of the passage of the soul through the seven
planetary spheres, and that Mithra acted as a guide to his votaries in
their ascension to the realm of the blessed. Neither the former nor the
latter doctrine, however, is found in the fantastic uranography of the
magician. The name of Mithra, as elsewhere that of the magi Zoroaster and
Hostanes, helped to circulate an Egyptian forgery., cf. Wendland, _Die
hellenistisch-römische Kultur_, 1907, p. 168, n. 1. See on this controversy
Wünsch's notes in the 2d ed. of the _Mithrasliturgie_, 1910, pp. 225 ff.--A
considerable number of new monuments have been published of late years (the
mithreum of Saalburg by Jacobi, etc.). The most important ones are those of
the temple of Sidon preserved in the collection of Clercq (De Ridder,
_Marbres de la collection de C._, 1906, pp. 52 ff.) and those of Stockstadt
published by Drexel (_Der obergerm. Limes_, XXXIII, Heidelberg, 1910). In
the following notes I shall only mention the works or texts which could not
be utilized in my earlier researches.
1. Cf. Petr. Patricius, _Excerpta de leg._, 12 (II, p. 393, de Boor ed.).
2. Cf. Chapot, _Les destinées de l'hellénisme au delà l'Euphrate_ (_Mém.
soc. antiq. de France_), 1902, pp. 207 ff.
3. Humbert in Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire_, s. v. "Amici," I, p.
228 (cf. 160). Cf. Friedländer, _Sittengesch._, I, pp. 202 ff.
4. Cf. _L'Eternité des empereurs romains_ (_Rev. d'hist. et de litt.
relig._, I), 1896, p. 442.
5. Friedländer (_loc. cit._, p. 204) has pointed out several instances
where Augustus borrowed from his distant predecessors the custom of keeping
a journal of the palace, of educating the children of noble families at
court, etc. Certain public institutions were undoubtedly modeled on them;
for instance, the organization of the mails (Otto Hirschfeld,
_Verwaltungsbeamten_, p. 190, n. 2; Rostovtzev, _Klio_, VI, p. 249 (on
angariae)); cf. Preisigke, _Die Ptolemäische Staatspost_ (_Klio_, VII, p.
241), that of the secret police (Friedländer, I, p. 427).--On the Mazdean
_Hvareno_ who became [Greek: Tuchê basileôs], then _Fortuna Augusti_, cf.
_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 284 ff.--Even Mommsen (_Röm. Gesch._, V, p.
343), although {262} predisposed to look for the continuity of the Roman
tradition, adds, after setting forth the rules that obtained at the court
of the Parthians: "Alle Ordnungen die mit wenigen Abminderungen bei den
römischen Caesaren wiederkehren und vielleicht zum Teil von diesen der
älteren Grossherrschaft entlehnt sind."--Cf. also _infra_, ch. VIII, n. 19.
6. Friedländer, _loc. cit._, p. 204; cf. p. 160.
7. Bousset, _Die Religion des Judentums im neutestam. Zeitalter_, 1903 (2d
ed. 1906), pp. 453 ff., _passim_.
8. Cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 21 ff.
9. Cf. _infra_, ch. VII, pp. 188 ff.
10. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 9 ff., pp. 231 ff.
11. Lactantius, _De mort. persec._, 21, 2; cf. Seeck, _Gesch. des
Untergangs der antiken Welt_, II, pp. 7 ff.
12. Cf. Strzygowski, _Mschatta_ (_Jahrb. preuss. Kunstsammlungen_, XXV),
Berlin, 1904, pp. 324 ff., 371 ff.--From a communication made to the
Congress of Orientalists at Copenhagen (1908) by Father Lammens, it would
appear that the façade of Mschatta is the work of an Omaiyad kalif of
Damascus, and Strzygowski's conclusions would, therefore, have to be
modified considerably; but the influence of Sassanid art in Syria is
nevertheless certain; see Dussaud, _Les Arabes en Syrie avant l'Islam_,
1907, pp. 33, 51 ff.
13. Cf. _infra_, n. 32.
14. Plutarch, _V. Pompei_, 24:
[Greek: Xenas de thusias ethuon autoi tas en Olumpôi kai teletas tinas
aporrêtous eteloun, ôn hê tou Mithrou kai mechri deuro diasôzetai
katadeichtheisa prôton hup' ekeinôn].
15. Lactantius Placidus ad Stat., _Theb._ IV, 717: "Quae sacra primum
Persae habuerunt, a Persis Phryges, a Phrygibus Romani."
16. In the _Studio Pontica_, p. 368, I have described a grotto located near
Trapezus and formerly dedicated to Mithra, but now transformed into a
church. We know of no other Mithreum. A bilingual dedication to Mithra, in
Greek and Aramaic, is engraved upon a rock in a wild pass near Farasha
(Rhodandos) in Cappadocia. Recently it has been republished {263} with
excellent notes by Henri Grégoire (_Comptes Rendus Acad. des Inscr._, 1908,
pp. 434 ff.), but the commentator has mentioned no trace of a temple. The
text says that a strategus from Ariaramneia [Greek: emageuse Mithrêi].
Perhaps these words must be translated according to a frequent meaning of
the aorist, by "became a magus of Mithra" or "began to serve Mithra as a
magus." This would lead to the conclusion that the inscription was made on
the occasion of an initiation. The magus dignity was originally hereditary
in the sacred caste; strangers could acquire it after the cult had assumed
the form of mysteries. If the interpretation offered by us is correct the
Cappadocian inscription would furnish interesting evidence of that
transformation in the Orient. Moreover, we know that Tiridates of Armenia
initiated Nero; see _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 239.
17. Strabo, XI, 14, § 9. On the studs of Cappadocia, cf. Grégoire, _Saints
jumeaux et dieux cavaliers_, 1905, pp. 56 ff.
18. Cf. _C. R. Acad. des Inscr._, 1905, pp. 99 ff. (note on the bilingual
inscription of Aghatcha-Kalé); cf. Daremberg-Saglio-Pottier, _Dict.
Antiqu._, s. v. "Satrapa."
19. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 10, n. 1. The argument undoubtedly dates
back to Carneades, see Boll, _Studien über Claudius Ptolemäus_, 1894, pp.
181 ff.
20. Louis H. Gray (_Archiv für Religionswiss._, VII, 1904, p. 345) has
shown how these six Amshaspands passed from being divinities of the
material world to the rank of moral abstractions. From an important text of
Plutarch it appears that they already had this quality in Cappadocia; cf.
_Mon. myst. Mithra_, II, p. 33, and Philo, _Quod omn. prob. lib._, 11 (II,
456 M).--On Persian gods worshiped in Cappadocia, see _Mon. myst. Mithra_,
I, p. 132.
21. See _supra_, n. 16 and 18.--According to Grégoire, the bilingual
inscription of Farasha dates back to the first century, before or after
Christ (_loc. cit._, p. 445).
22. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 9, n. 5.
23. Comparison of the type of Jupiter Dolichenus with the bas-reliefs of
Boghaz-Keui led Kan (_De Iovis Dolicheni cultu_, Groningen, 1901, pp. 3
ff.) to see an Anatolian god in him. {264} The comparison of the formula
_ubi ferrum nascitur_ with the expression [Greek: hopou ho sidêros
tiktetai], used in connection with the Chalybians, leads to the same
conclusion, see _Revue de philologie_, XXVI, 1902, p. 281.--Still, the
representations of Jupiter Dolichnus also possess a remarkable resemblance
to those of the Babylonian god Ramman; cf. Jeremias in Roscher, _Lexikon
der Myth._, s. v. "Ramman," IV, col. 50 ff.
24. _Rev. archéol._ 1905, I, p. 189. Cf. _supra_, p. 127, n. 68.
25. Herod., I, 131.--On the assimilation of Baalsamin to Ahura-Mazda, cf.
_supra_, p. 127, and _infra_, n. 29. At Rome, Jupiter Dolichenus was
_conservator totius poli et numen praestantissimum_ (_CIL_, VI, 406 =
30758).
26. Inscription of King Antiochus of Commagene (Michel, _Recueil_, No.
735), l. 43:
[Greek: Pros ouranious Dios Ôromasdou thronous theophilê psuchên
propempsan]; cf. l. 33: [Greek: Ouraniôn anchista thronôn].
27. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 87.
28. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 333.--An inscription discovered in a
mithreum at Dorstadt (Sacidava in Dacia, _CIL_, III, 7728, cf. 7729),
furnishes, if I rightly understand, another proof of the relation existing
between the Semitic cults and that of the Persian gods. It speaks of a
"de[orum?] sacerdos creatus a Pal[myr]enis, do[mo] Macedonia, et adven[tor]
huius templi." This rather obscure text becomes clear when compared with
Apul., _Metam._, XI, 26. After the hero had been initiated into the
mysteries of Isis in Greece, he was received at Rome in the great temple of
the Campus Martius, "fani quidem advena, religionis autem indigena." It
appears also that this Macedonian, who was made a priest of their national
gods (Bel, Malakbel, etc.) by a colony of Palmyrenians, was received in
Dacia by the mystics of Mithra as a member of their religion.
29. At Venasa in Cappadocia, for instance, the people, even during the
Christian period, celebrated a panegyric on a mountain, where the celestial
Zeus, representing Baalsamin and Ahura-Mazda, was formerly worshiped
(Ramsay, _Church in the Roman Empire_, 1894, pp. 142, 457). The
identification of Bel with Ahura-Mazda in Cappadocia results from the
Aramaic inscription of Jarpuz (Clermont-Ganneau, _Recueil_, III, {265} p.
59; Lidzbarski, _Ephemeris für semit. Epigraphik_, I, pp. 59 ff.). The Zeus
Stratios worshiped upon a high summit near Amasia was in reality
Ahura-Mazda, who in turn probably supplanted some local god (_Studia
Pontica_, pp. 173 ff.).--Similarly the equation Anahita = Ishtar = Ma or
Cybele for the great female divinity is accepted everywhere (_Mon. myst.
Mithra_, I, p. 333), and Ma takes the epithet [Greek: anikêtos] like Mithra
(_Athen. Mitt._, XVIII, 1893, p. 415, and XXIX, 1904, p. 169). A temple of
this goddess was called [Greek: hieron Astartês] in a decree of Anisa
(Michel, _Recueil_, No. 536, l. 32).
30. The Mithra "mysteries" are not of Hellenic origin (_Mon. myst. Mithra_,
I, p. 239), but their resemblance to those of Greece, which Gruppe insists
upon (_Griech. Mythologie_, pp. 1596 ff.) was such that the two were bound
to become confused in the Alexandrian period.
31. Harnack (_Ausbreitung des Christentums_, II, p. 271) sees in this
exclusion of the Hellenic world a prime cause of the weakness of the Mithra
worship in its struggle against Christianity. The mysteries of Mithra met
the Greek culture with the culture of Persia, superior in some respects.
But if it was capable of attracting the Roman mind by its moral qualities,
it was too Asiatic, on the whole, to be accepted without repugnance by the
Occidentals. The same was true of Manicheism.
32. _CIL_, III, 4413; cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 281.
33. Cf. the bibliography at the head of the notes for this chapter.
34. As Plato grew older he believed that he could not explain the evils of
this world without admitting the existence of an "evil soul of the world"
(Zeller, _Philos. der Griechen_, II, p. 973, p. 981, n. 1). But this late
conception, opposed as it is to his entire system, is probably due to the
influence of Oriental dualism. It is found in the Epinomis (Zeller,
_ibid._, p. 1042, n. 4), where the influence of "Chaldean" theories is
undeniable; cf. Bidez, _Revue de Philologie_, XXIX, 1905, p. 319.
35. Plutarch, _De Iside_, 46 ff.; cf. Zeller, _Philos. der Griechen_, V, p.
188; Eisele, _Zur Demonologie des Plutarch_ (_Archiv für Gesch. der
Philos._, XVII), 1903, p. 283 f.--Cf. _infra_, n. 40. {266}
36. Arnobius, who was indebted to Cornelius Labeo for some exact
information on the doctrines of the magi, says (IV, 12, p. 150, 12,
Reifferscheid): "Magi suis in accitionibus memorant antitheos saepius
obrepere pro accitis, esse autem hos quosdam materiis ex crassioribus
spiritus qui deos se fingant, nesciosque mendaciis et simulationibus
ludant." Lactantius, the pupil of Arnobius, used the same word in speaking
of Satan that a Mazdean would have used in referring to Ahriman (_Inst.
divin._, II, 9, 13, p. 144, 13, Brandt): "Nox quam pravo illi antitheo
dicimus attributam"; he is the _aemulus Dei_.--Heliodorus who has made use
in his _Aethiopica_ of data taken from the Mazdean beliefs (see _Monuments
relatifs aux mystères de Mithra_, volume I, p. 336, n. 2) uses the Greek
word in the same sense, (IV, 7, p. 105, 27, Bekker ed.): [Greek: Antitheos
tis eoiken empodizein tên praxin].--The Ps.-Iamblichus, _De myster._, III,
31, § 15, likewise speaks of [Greek: daimones ponêrous hous dê kai kalousin
antitheous]. Finally the magical papyri also knew of the existence of these
deceiving spirits (Wessely, _Denksch. Akad. Wien_, XLII, p. 42, v. 702:
[Greek: Pempson moi ton alêthinon Asklêpion dicha tinos antitheou
planodaimonos]).
37. In a passage to which we shall return in note 39, Porphyry (_De
Abstin._, II, 42), speaks of the demons in almost the same terms as
Arnobius: [Greek: To gar pseudos toutois hoikeion; Boulontai gar einai
theoi kai hê proestôsa autôn dunamis dokein theos einai ho megistos] (cf.
c. 41: [Greek: Toutous kai ton proestôta autôn]); likewise Ps.-Iamblichus,
_De myst._, III, 30, 6: [Greek: Ton megan hêgemona tôn daimonôn].--In the
_De philos. ex orac. haur._ (pp. 147 ff. Wolff), an early work in which he
followed other sources than those in _De Abstinentia_, Porphyry made
Serapis (= Pluto) the chief of the malevolent demons. There was bound to be
a connection between the Egyptian god of the underworld and the Ahriman of
the Persians at an early date.--A veiled allusion to this chief of demons
may be contained in Lucan, VI, 742 ff., and Plutarch who, in _De Iside_,
46, called Ahriman Hades (_supra_, p. 190; cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, II, p.
131, No. 3), says elsewhere (_De latenter viv._, 6, p. 1130): [Greek: Ton
de tês enantias kurion moiras, eite theos eite daimôn estin, Aidên
onomazousin]. Cf. Decharme, _Traditions religieuses chez les Grecs_, 1904,
p. 431, n. 1.
38. The dedication _Diis angelis_ recently found at {267} Viminacium
(_Jahresh. Instituts in Wien_, 1905, Beiblatt, p. 6), in a country where
the Mithra worship had spread considerably seems to me to refer to this.
See Minuc. Felix, _Octav._, 26: "Magorum et eloquio et negotio primus
Hostanes angelos, id est ministros et nuntios Dei, eius venerationi novit
assistere." St. Cypr., "Quod idola dii n. s.," c. 6 (p. 24, 2, Hartel):
"Ostanes et formam Dei veri negat conspici posse et angelos veros sedi eius
dicit adsistere." Cf. Tertullian, _Apol._, XXIII: "Magi habentes
invitatorum angelorum et daemonum adsistentem sibi potestatem;" Arnobius,
II, 35 (p. 76, 15, Reifferscheid); Aug., _Civ. Dei_, X, 9, and the texts
collected by Wolff, _Porphyrii de philos. ex orac. haurienda_, 1856, pp.
223 ff.; Kroll, _De orac. Chaldaïcis_, 1894, pp. 53; Roscher, _Die
Hebdomadenlehre der griech. Philosophen_, Leipsic, 1906, p. 145; Abt,
_Apuleius und die Zauberei_, Giessen, 1909, p. 256.
39. Porphyry, _De Abstin._, II, 37-43, expounds a theory about the demons,
which, he says, he took from "certain Platonists" ([Greek: Platônikoi
tines], Numenius and Cronius?). That these authors, whoever they were,
helped themselves freely to the doctrines of the magi, seems to appear
immediately from the whole of Porphyry's exposition (one could almost give
an endless commentary on it with the help of the Mazdean books) and in
particular from the mention that is made of a power commanding the spirits
of evil (see _supra_, n. 37). This conclusion is confirmed by a comparison
with the passage of Arnobius cited above (n. 36), who attributes similar
theories to the "magi," and with a chapter of the Ps.-Iamblichus (_De
mysteriis_, III, 31) which develops analogous beliefs as being those of
"Chaldean prophets."--Porphyry also cites a "Chaldean" theologian in
connection with the influence of the demons, _De regressu animae_ (Aug.,
_Civ. Dei_, X, 9).
I conjecture that the source of all this demonology is the book attributed
to Hostanes which we find mentioned in the second century of our era by
Minucius Felix, St. Cyprian (_supra_, n. 38), etc.; cf. Wolff, op. cit., p.
138; _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 33. As a matter of fact it would be false
logic to try to explain the evolution of demonology, which is above
everything else religious, by the development of the philosophic theories
of the Greeks (see for instance the communications of Messrs. Stock and
Glover: _Transactions of the Congress of {268} History of Rel._, Oxford,
1908, II, pp. 164 ff.). The influence of the popular Hellenic or foreign
ideas has always been preponderant here; and the Epinomis, which contains
one of the oldest accounts of the theory of demons, as proved _supra_, n.
34, was influenced by the Semitic notions about genii, the ancestors of the
_djinns_ and the _wélys_ of Islam.
If, as we believe, the text of Porphyry really sets forth the theology of
the magi, slightly modified by Platonic ideas based on popular beliefs of
the Greeks and perhaps of the barbarians, we shall be able to draw
interesting conclusions in regard to the mysteries of Mithra. For instance,
one of the principles developed is that the gods must not be honored by the
sacrifice of animated beings ([Greek: empsucha]), and that immolation of
victims should be reserved for the demons. The same idea is found in
Cornelius Labeo, (Aug., _Civ. Dei_, VIII, 13; see Arnobius, VII, 24), and
possibly it was the practice of the Mithra cult. Porphyry (II, 36) speaks
in this connection of rites and mysteries, but without divulging them, and
it is known that in the course of its history Mazdaism passed from the
bloody to the bloodless sacrifice (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 6).
40. Cf. Plutarch, _De defectu orac._, 10, p. 415 A:
[Greek: Emoi de dokousi pleionas lusai aporias hoi to tôn daimonôn genos en
mesôi thentes theôn kai anthrôpôn kai tropon tina tên koinônian hêmôn
sunagon eis tauto kai sunapton exeurontes; eite magôn tôn peri Zôroastrên
ho logos outos esti, eite Thraikios]....
41. Cf. Minucius Felix, 26, § 11: "Hostanes daemonas prodidit terrenos
vagos humanitatis inimicos." The pagan idea, that the air was peopled with
evil spirits against whom man had to struggle perpetually, persisted among
the Christians; cf. Ephes., ii. 2, vi. 12, see also Prudentius,
_Hamartigenia_, 514 ff.
42. Cf. Minucius Felix, _loc. cit._: "Magi non solum sciunt daemonas, sed
quidquid miraculi ludunt, per daemonas faciunt," etc. Cf. Aug., _Civ. Dei_,
X, 9 and _infra_, ch. VII, n. 76.
43. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 139 ff.
44. Theod. Mopsuest. ap. Photius, _Bibl._ 81. Cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I,
p. 8. {269}
45. Cf. Bousset, _Die Religion des Judentums im neutest. Zeitalter_, 1903,
pp. 483 ff.
46. Julian, _Caesares_, p. 336 C. The term [Greek: entolai] is the one also
used in the Greek Church for the commandments of the Lord.
47. Cf. _supra_, p. 36.
48. The remark is from Darmesteter, _Zend-Avesta_, II, p. 441.
49. Cf. Reinach, _op. cit._, [260], pp. 230 ff.
50. Farnell, _Evolution of Religion_, p. 127.
51. Mithra is _sanctus_ (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, II, p. 533), like the Syrian
gods; cf. _supra_, ch. V, n. 47.
52. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 309 ff. The eschatology of orthodox
Mazdaism has been expounded recently by Söderblom, _La vie future d'après
le mazdéisme_, Paris, 1901.
53. Cf. _supra_, ch. IV, p. 100, ch. V, p. 126.
54. We have explained this theory above, p. 125. It was foreign to the
religion of Zoroaster and was introduced into the mysteries of Mithra with
the Chaldean astrology. Moreover, ancient mythological ideas were always
mixed with this learned theology. For instance, it was an old Oriental
belief that souls, being regarded as material, wore clothing (_Mon. myst.
Mithra_, I, p. 15, n. 5; Bousset, _Archiv für Religionswiss._, IV, 1901, p.
233, n. 2; _Rev. hist. des relig._, 1899, p. 243, and especially Böklen,
_Die Verwandtschaft der jüdisch-christlichen und der parsischen
Eschatologie_, Göttingen, 1902, pp. 61 ff.) Thence arose the notion
prevalent to the end of paganism, that the soul in passing through the
planetary spheres, took on the qualities of the stars "like successive
tunics." Porphyry, _De abstin._, I, 31: [Greek: Apoduteon ara tous pollous
hêmin chitônas k. t. l.]; Macrobius, _Somnium Sc._, I, 11, § 12: "In
singulis sphaeris aetherea obvolutione vestitur"; I, 12, § 13: "Luminosi
corporis amicitur accessu"; Proclus, _In Tim._, I, 113, 8, Diehl ed.:
[Greek: Periballesthai chitônas], Procl., _Opera_, Cousin ed., p. 222:
"Exuendum autem nobis et tunicas quas descendentes induti sumus"; Kroll,
_De orac. Chaldaïcis_, p. 51, n. 2: [Greek: Psuchê hessamenê noun]; Julian,
Or., II, p. 123, 22, (Hertlein). Cf. Wendland, _Die hellenistisch-römische
Kultur_, p. 168 n. 1. Compare what {270} Hippolytus, _Philos._, V, I, says
of Isis (Ishtar?) in connection with the Naasenians. She is [Greek:
heptastolos], because nature also is covered with seven ethereal garments,
the seven heavens of the planets; see Ps.-Apul., _Asclepius_, 34 (p. 75, 2
Thomas): "Mundum sensibilem et, quae in eo sunt, omnia a superiore illo
mundo quasi ex vestimento esse contecta." I have insisted upon the
persistence of this idea, because it may help us to grasp the significance
attributed to a detail of the Mithra ritual in connection with which
Porphyry relates nothing but contradictory interpretations. The persons
initiated into the seven degrees were obliged to put on different costumes.
The seven degrees of initiation successively conferred upon the mystic were
symbols of the seven planetary spheres, through which the soul ascended
after death (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 316), the garments assumed by the
initiates were probably considered as emblems of those "tunics" which the
soul put on when descending into the lower realms and discarded on
returning to heaven.
55. Renan, _Marc-Aurèle_, p. 579.
56. Anatole France, _Le mannequin d'osier_, p. 318. Cf. Reinach, _op. cit._
[p. 260], p. 232.
VII. ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bouché-Leclercq's book _L'astrologie grecque_ (Paris, 1899)
makes it unnecessary to refer to the earlier works of Saumaise (_De annis
climactericis_, 1648), of Seiffarth (_Beiträge sur Lit. des alten
Aegypten_, II, 1883), etc. Most of the facts cited by us are taken from
that monumental treatise, unless otherwise stated.--A large number of new
texts has been published in the _Catalogus codicum astrologorum Graecorum_
(9 vols. ready, Brussels, 1898).--Franz Boll, _Sphaera_ (Leipsic, 1903) is
important for the history of the Greek and barbarian constellations (see
_Rev. archéol._, 1903, I, p. 437).--De la Ville de Mirmont has furnished
notes on _L'astrologie en Gaule au V^e siècle_ (_Rev. des Etudes
anciennes_, 1902, pp. 115 ff.; 1903, pp. 255 ff.; 1906, p. 128). Also in
book form, Bordeaux, 1904. The principal results of the latest researches
have been outlined to perfection by Boll, _Die Erforschung der {271}
antiken Astrologie_ (_Neue Jahrb. für das klass. Altert._, XI), 1908, pp.
104 ff.--For the bibliography of magic, cf. _infra_, notes, 58 ff.
1. Stephan. Byzant. (_Cat. codd. astr._, II, p. 235), I, 12: [Greek:
Exochôtatê kai pasês epistêmês despoina]. Theophil. Edess., _ibid._, V, 1,
p. 184: [Greek: Hoti pasôn timiôtera technôn]. Vettius Valens, VI, proem.
(_ibid._, V, 2, p. 34, 7 = p. 241, 19, Kroll ed.): [Greek: Tis gar ouk an
krinai tautên tên theôrian pasôn prouchein kai makariôtatên tunchanein].
2. Cf. Louis Havet, _Revue bleue_, Nov., 1905, p. 644.
3. Cf. _supra_, p. 146, p. 123.
4. Kroll, _Aus der Gesch. der Astrol._ (_Neue Jahrb. für das klass.
Altertum_, VII), 1901, pp. 598 ff. Cf. Boll, _Cat. codd. astr._, VII, p.
130.
5. The argumentation of Posidonius, placed at the beginning of the
Tetrabiblos, inspired the defense of astrology, and it has been drawn upon
considerably by authors of widely different spirit and tendencies, see
Boll, _Studien über Claudius Ptolemäus_, 1894, pp. 133 ff.
6. Suetonius, Tib., 69.
7. Suetonius, _Othon_, 8; cf. _Bouché-Leclercq_, p. 556, n. 4.
8. On these edifices, cf. Maass, _Tagesgötter_, 1902. The form "Septizonia"
is preferable to "Septizodia"; cf. Schürer, _Siebentägige Woche_ (Extr.
_Zeitschr. neutestam. Wissensch._, VI), 1904, pp. 31, 63.
9. Friedländer, _Sittengesch._, I, p. 364. It appears that astrology never
obtained a hold on the lower classes of the rural population. It has a very
insignificant place in the folklore and healing arts of the peasantry.
10. Manilius, IV, 16.--For instance _CIL_, VI, 13782, the epitaph of a
Syrian freedman: "L. Caecilius L. l(ibertus) Syrus, natus mense Maio hora
noctis VI, die Mercuri, vixit ann. VI dies XXXIII, mortuus est IIII Kal.
Iulias hora X, elatus est h(ora) III frequentia maxima." Cf. Bucheler,
_Carm. epigr._, 1536: "Voluit hoc astrum meum."
11. Chapter [Greek: Peri deipnou]: _Cat. codd. astr._, IV, p. 94. The
precept: "Ungues Mercurio, barbam Iove, Cypride crinem," {272} ridiculed by
Ausonius, (VII, 29, p. 108, Piper) is well known. There are many chapters
[Greek: Peri onuchôn, Peri himatiôn], etc.
12. _Cat. codd. astr._, V, 1 (Rom.) p. 11, cod. 2, f. 34: [Greek: Peri tou
ei echei megan rhina ho gennêtheis. Poteron pornê genêtai hê gennêtheisa.]
13. Varro, _De re rustica_, I, 37, 2; cf. Pliny, _Hist. nat._, XVI, 75,
§ 194. Olympiod, _Comm. in Alcibiad Plat._, p. 18 (ed. Creuzer, 1821):
[Greek: Tous hieratikôs zôntas estin idein mê apokeiromenous auxousês tês
selênês]. This applies to popular superstition rather than to astrology.
14. _CIL_, VI, 27140 = Bücheler, _Carmina epigraph._, 1163: "Decepit
utrosque | Maxima mendacis fama mathematici."
15. Palchos in the _Cat. codd. astr._, I, pp. 106-107.
16. Manilius, IV, 386 ff., 866 ff. _passim_.
17. Vettius Valens, V, 12 (_Cat. codd. astr._, V, 2, p. 32 = p. 239, 8,
Kroll ed.); cf. V, 9 (_Cat._, V, 2, p. 31, 20 = p. 222, 11 Kroll ed.).
18. Cf. Steph. Byz., _Cat. codd. astr._, II, p. 186. He calls both [Greek:
stochasmos entechnos]. The expression is taken up again by Manuel Comnenus
(_Cat._, V, 1, p. 123, 4), and by the Arab Abou-Mashar [Apomasar] (_Cat._,
V, 2, p. 153).
19. The sacerdotal origin of astrology was well known to the ancients; see
Manilius, I, 40 ff.
20. Thus in the chapter on the fixed stars which passed down to Theophilus
of Edessa and a Byzantine of the ninth century, from a pagan author who
wrote at Rome in 379; cf. _Cat. codd. astrol._, V, 1, pp. 212, 218.--The
same observation has been made in the manuscripts of the Cyranides, cf. F.
de Mély and Ruelle, _Lapidaires grecs_, II, p. xi. n. 3.--See also _Mon.
myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 31 ff.; Boll, _Die Erforsch. der antiken Astrologie_,
pp. 110 ff.
21. In Vettius Valens, III, 12 (p. 150, 12 Kroll ed.) and IX, prooem. (p.
329, 20); cf. VI, prooem. (p. 241, 16); Riess, _Petosiridis et Necheps.
fragm._, fr. 1.
22. Vettius Valens, IV, 11 (_Cat. codd, astr._, V, 2, p. 86 = p. 172, 31
ff., Kroll ed.), cf. V, 12, (_Cat._, _ibid._, p. 32 = p. 238, 18 ff.), VII
prooem. (_Cat._, p. 41 = p. 263, l. 4, Kroll ed. and the note). {273}
23. Firmicus Maternus, II, 30, VIII, prooem. and 5. Cf. Theophilus of
Edessa, _Cat._, V, 1, p. 238, 25; Julian of Laod., _Cat._, IV, p. 104, 4.
24. _CIL_, V, 5893.--Chaeremon, an Egyptian priest, was also an astrologer.
25. Souter, _Classical Review_, 1897, p. 136; Ramsay, _Cities and
Bishoprics of Phrygia_, II, p. 566, 790.
26. On the Stoic theory of sympathy see Bouché-Leclercq, pp. 28 ff.,
_passim_. A brilliant account will be found in Proclus, _In remp. Plat._,
II, 258 f., Kroll ed. Cf. also Clem. Alex., _Strom._, VI, 16, p. 143 (p.
504, 21, Stähelin ed.)--Philo attributed it to the Chaldeans (_De migrat.
Abrahami_, 32, II, p. 303, 5, Wendland):
[Greek: Chaldaioi tôn allôn anthrôpôn ekpeponêkenai kai diapherontôs
dokousin astronomian kai genethlialogikên, ta epigeia tois meteôrois kai ta
ourania tois epi gês harmozomenoi kai hôsper dia mousikês logôn tên
emmelestatên sumphônian tou pantos epideiknumenoi têi tôn merôn pros allêla
koinôniai kai sumpatheiai, topois men diezeugmenôn, sungeneiai de ou
diôikismenôn.]
27. Riess in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realenc._, s. v. "Aberglaube," I, col. 38 f.
28. (_No note with this number in original book--Transcriber._).
29. _Cat._, V, 1, p. 210, where a number of other examples will be found.
30. See Boll, _Sphaera_ (_passim_), and his note on the lists of animals
assigned to the planets, in Roscher, _Lexikon Myth._, s. v. "Planeten,"
III, col. 2534; cf. _Die Erforsch. der Astrologie_, p. 110, n. 3.
31. _Cat._, V, 1, pp. 210 ff.
32. Cf. _supra_, ch. V. pp. 128 ff.
33. Cf. _supra_, ch. V, n. 87.
34. On worship of the sky, of the signs of the zodiac, and of the elements,
cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 85 ff., 98 ff., 108 ff.
35. The magico-religious notion of sanctity, of _mana_, appeared in the
idea and notation of time. This has been shown by Hubert in his profound
analysis of _La représentation du temps dans la religion et la magie_
(_Progr. éc. des Hautes-Etudes_), 1905 = _Mélanges hist. des rel._, Paris,
1909, p. 190.
36. On the worship of Time see _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 20, {274} 74
ff.; of the seasons: _ibid._, pp. 92 ff. There is no doubt that the
veneration of time and its subdivisions (seasons, months, days, etc.)
spread through the influence of astrology. Zeno had deified them; see
Cicero, _Nat. D._, II, 63 (= von Arnim, fr. 165): "Astris hod idem (i. e.
vim divinam) tribuit, tum annis, mensibus, annorumque mutationibus." In
conformity with the materialism of the Stoics these subdivisions of time
were conceived by him as bodies (von Arnim, _loc. cit._, II, fr. 665; cf.
Zeller, _Ph. Gr._, IV, p. 316, p. 221). The later texts have been collected
by Drexler in Roscher, _Lexikon_, s. v. "Mên," II, col. 2689. See also
Ambrosiaster, _Comm. in epist. Galat._, IV, 10 (Migne, col. 381 B). Egypt
had worshiped the hours, the months, and the propitious and adverse years
as gods long before the Occident; see Wiedemann, _loc. cit._ (_infra_, n.
64) pp. 7 ff.
37. They adorn many astronomical manuscripts, particularly the _Vaticanus
gr._ 1291, the archetype of which dates back to the third century of our
era; cf. Boll, _Sitzungsb. Akad. München_, 1899, pp. 125 ff., 136 ff.
38. Piper, _Mythologie der christl. Kunst_, 1851, II, pp. 313 f. Cf. _Mon.
myst. Mithra_, I, p. 220.
39. Bidez, _Bérose et la grande année_ in the _Mélanges Paul Fredericq_,
Brussels, 1904, pp. 9 ff.
40. Cf. _supra_, pp. 126, 158 f.
41. When Goethe had made the ascent of the Brocken, in 1784, during
splendid weather, he expressed his admiration by writing the following
verses from memory, (II, 115): "Quis caelum possit, nisi caeli munere,
nosse | Et reperire deum, nisi qui pars ipse deorum est?"; cf. _Brief an
Frau von Stein_, No. 518, (Schöll) 1885, quoted by Ellis in _Noctes
Manilianae_, p. viii.
42. This idea in the verse of Manilius (n. 41, cf. IV, 910), and which may
be found earlier in _Somnium Scipionis_ (III, 4; see Macrobius, _Comment._
I, 14, § 16; "Animi societatem cum caelo et sideribus habere communem";
Pseudo-Apul., _Asclepius_, c. 6, c. 9. Firmicus Maternus, _Astrol._, I, 5,
§ 10). dates back to Posidonius who made the contemplation of the sky one
of the sources of the belief in God (Capelle, _Jahrb._ {275} _für das
klass. Altertum_, VIII, 1905, p. 534, n. 4), and it is even older than
that, for Hipparchus had already admitted a "cognationem cum homine
siderum, animasque, nostras partem esse caeli" (Pliny, _Hist. nat._, II,
26, § 95).
43. Vettius Valens, IX, 8 (_Cat. codd. astr._, V, 2, p. 123 = p. 346, 20,
Kroll ed.), VI, prooem. (_Cat._, ibid. p. 34, p. 35, 14 = p. 242, 16, 29,
Kroll ed.); cf. the passages of Philo collected by Cohn, _De opificio
mundi_, c. 23, p. 24, and Capelle, _loc. cit._
44. Manilius, IV, 14.
45. Cf. my article on _L'éternité des empereurs_ (_Rev. hist. litt.
relig._, I), 1898, pp. 445 ff.
46. Reitzenstein, to whom belongs the credit of having shown the strength
of this astrological fatalism (see _infra_, n. 57), believes that it
developed in Egypt, but surely he is wrong. In this connection see the
observations of Bousset, _Götting. gel. Anzeigen_, 1905, p. 704.
47. The most important work is unfortunately lost: it was the [Greek: Peri
heimarmenês] by Diodorus of Tarsus. Photius has left us a summary (_cod._
223). We possess a treatise on the same subject by Gregory of Nyssa (_P.
G._, XLV, p. 145). They were supported by the Platonist Hierocles (Photius,
_cod._ 214, p. 172 b.).--Many attacks on astrology are found in St.
Ephraim, _Opera syriaca_, II, pp. 437 ff.; St. Basil (_Hexaem._, VI, 5),
St. Gregory of Nazianzen, St. Methodus (_Symp., P. G._, XVII, p. 1173);
later in St. John Chrysostom, Procopus of Gaza, etc. A curious extract from
Julian of Halicarnassus has been published by Usener, _Rheinisches Mus._,
LV, 1900, p. 321.--We have spoken briefly of the Latin polemics in the
_Revue d'hist. et de litt. relig._, VIII, 1903, pp. 423 f. A work entitled
De Fato (Bardenhewer, _Gesch. altchr. Lit._, I, p. 315) has been attributed
to Minucius Felix; Nicetas of Remesiana (about 400) wrote a book _Adversus
genethlialogiam_ (Gennadius, _Vir. inl._, c. 22), but the principal
adversary of the _mathematici_ was St. Augustine (_Civ. Dei_, c. 1 ff.;
_Epist._, 246, ad Lampadium, etc.). See also Wendland, _Die
hellenistisch-römische Kultur_, p. 172, n. 2.
48. The influence of the astrological ideas was felt by the Arabian
paganism before Mohammed; see _supra_, ch. V, n. 57. {276}
49. Dante, _Purg._, XXX, 109 ff.--In the _Convivio_, II, ch. XIV, Dante
expressly professes the doctrine of the influence of the stars over human
affairs.--The church succeeded in extirpating the learned astrology of the
Latin world almost completely at the beginning of the Middle Ages. We do
not know of one astrological treatise, or of one manuscript of the
Carlovingian period, but the ancient faith in the power of the stars
continued in secret and gained new strength when Europe came in contact
with Arabian science.
50. Bouché-Leclercq devotes a chapter to them (pp. 609 ff.).
51. Seneca, _Quaest. Nat._, II, 35: "Expiationes et procurationes nihil
aliud esse quam aegrae mentis solatia. Fata inrevocabiliter ius suum
peragunt nec ulla commoventur prece." Cf. Schmidt, _Veteres philosophi
quomodo iudicaverint de precibus_, Giessen, 1907, p. 34.--Vettius Valens,
V, 9, (_Catal. codd. astr._, V, 2 p. 30, 11 = p. 220, 28, Kroll ed.),
professes that [Greek: Adunaton tina euchais ê thusiais epinikêsai tên ex
archês katabolên k. t. l.], but he seems to contradict himself, IX, 8 (p.
347, 1 ff.).
52. Suetonius, _Tib._, 69: "Circa deos ac religiones neglegentior, quippe
addictus mathematicae, plenusque persuasionis cuncta fato agi." Cf.
Manilius, IV.
53. Vettius Valens, IX, 11 (_Cat. codd. astr._, V, 2, p. 51, 8 ff. = p.
355, 15. Kroll ed.), cf. VI, prooem. (_Cat._, p. 33 = p. 240, Kroll).
54. "Si tribuunt fata genesis, cur deos oratis?" reads a verse of
Commodianus (I, 16, 5). The antinomy between the belief in fatalism and
this practice did not prevent the two from existing side by side, cf. _Mon.
myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 120, 311; _Revue d'hist. et de litt. relig._, VIII,
1903, p. 431.--The peripatetic Alexander of Aphrodisias who fought fatalism
in his [Greek: Peri heimarmenês], at the beginning of the third century,
and who violently attacked the charlatanism and cupidity of the astrologers
in another book (_De anima mantissa_, p. 180, 14, Bruns), formulated the
contradiction in the popular beliefs of his time (_ibid._, p. 182, 18):
[Greek: Pote men anthrôpoi to tês heimarmenês humnousin hôs anankaion, pote
de ou pantêi tên sunecheian autês pisteuousi sôzein; kai gar hoi dia tôn
logôn huper autês hôs ousês anankaias diateinomenoi sphodra kai panta
anatithentes autêi, en tais kata ton bion praxesin ouk eoikasin autêi
pepisteukenai;] {277} [Greek: Tuchên goun pollakis epiboôntai, allên
homologountes einai tautên aitian tês heimarmenês; alla kai tois theois ou
dialeipousin euchomenoi, hôs dunamenon tinos hup' autôn dia tas euchas
genesthai kai para tên heimarmenên; ... kai manteiais ouk oknousi
chrêsthai, hôs enon autois, ei promathoien, phulaxasthai ti tôn heimarmenôn
... apithanôtatai goun eisin autôn hai pros tên toutôn sumphônian
heurêsilogiai.] Cf. also _De Fato_, c. 2 (p. 165, 26 ff. Bruns).
55. Manilius, II, 466: "Quin etiam propriis inter se legibus astra |
Conveniunt, ut certa gerant commercia rerum, | Inque vicem praestant visus
atque auribus haerent, | Aut odium, foedusque gerunt," etc.--Signs [Greek:
bleponta] and [Greek: akouonta]: cf. Bouché-Leclercq, pp. 139 ff.--The
planets rejoice ([Greek: chairein]) in their mansions, etc.--Signs [Greek:
phônêenta], etc.: cf. _Cat._, I, pp. 164 ff.; Bouché-Leclercq, pp. 77 ff.
The terminology of the driest didactic texts is saturated with mythology.
56. Saint Leo, _In Nativ._, VII, 3 (Migne, _P. L._, LIV, col. 218);
Firmicus, I, 6, 7; Ambrosiaster, in the _Revue d'hist. et litt. relig._,
VIII, 1903, p. 16.
57. Cf. Reitzenstein, _Poimandres_, pp. 77 ff., cf. p. 103, where a text of
Zosimus attributes this theory to Zoroaster. Wendland, _Die
hellenistisch-röm. Kultur_, 1907, p. 81. This is the meaning of the verse
of the _Orac. Chaldaïca_: [Greek: Ou gar huph' heimartên agelên piptousi
theourgoi] (p. 59 Kroll). According to Arnobius (II, 62, Cornelius Labeo)
the magi claimed "deo esse se gnatos nec fati obnoxios legibus."
58. _Bibliography._ We have no complete book on Greek and Roman magic.
Maury, _La magie et l'astrologie dans l'antiquité et au moyen âge_, 1864,
is a mere sketch. The most complete account is Hubert's art. "Magia" in the
_Dict. des antiquités_ of Daremberg, Saglio, Pottier. It contains an index
of the sources and the earlier bibliography. More recent studies are: Fahz,
_De poet. Roman. doctrina magica_, Giessen, 1903; Audollent, _Defixionum
tabulae_, Paris, 1904; Wünsch, _Antikes Zaubergerät aus Pergamon_, Berlin,
1905 (important objects found dating back to the third century, A. D.);
Abt, _Die Apologie des Apuleius und die Zauberei_, Giessen, 1908.--The
superstition that is not magic, but borders upon it, is the subject of a
very important article by Riess, "Aberglaube," in the _Realenc._ of
Pauly-Wissowa. An essay by Kroll, _Antiker Aberglaube_, Hamburg, 1897,
deserves mention.--Cf. Ch. Michel {278} in the _Revue d'hist. et litt.
rel._, VII, 1902, p. 184. See also _infra_, nn. 64, 65, 72.
59. The question of the principles of magic has recently been the subject
of discussions started by the theories of Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, 2d
ed., 1900 (cf. Goblet d'Alviella, _Revue de l'univ. de Bruxelles_, Oct.
1903). See Andrew Lang, _Magic and Religion_, London, 1901; Hubert and
Mauss, _Esquisse d'une théorie générale de la magie_ (_Année sociologique_,
VII), 1904, p. 56; cf. _Mélanges hist. des relig._, Paris, 1909, pp. xvii
ff.; Jevons, _Magic_, in the _Transactions of the Congress for the History
of Religions_, Oxford, 1908, I, p. 71. Loisy, "Magie science et religion,"
in _A propos d'hist. des religions_, 1911, p. 166.
60. S. Reinach, _Mythes, cultes et relig._, II, Intr., p. xv.
61. The infiltration of magic into the liturgy under the Roman empire is
shown especially in connection with the ritual of consecration of the
idols, by Hock, _Griechische Weihegebräuche_, Würzburg, 1905, p. 66.--Cf.
also Kroll, _Archiv für Religionsw._, VIII, 1905, Beiheft, pp. 27 ff.
62. Friedländer, _Sittengeschichte_, I, pp. 509 f.
63. Arnobius, II, 62, cf. II, 13; Ps.-Iamblichus, _De Myst._, VIII, 4.
64. Magic in Egypt: Budge, _Egyptian Magic_, London, 1901; Wiedemann,
_Magie und Zauberei im alten Aegypten_, Leipsic, 1905 [cf. Maspero, _Rev.
critique_, 1905, II, p. 166]; Otto, _Priester und Tempel_, II, p. 224;
Griffith, _The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden_, 1904 (a
remarkable collection dating back to the third century of our era), and the
writings analyzed by Capart, _Rev. hist. des relig._, 1905 (Bulletin of
1904, p. 17), 1906 (Bull. of 1905, p. 92).
65. Fossey, _La magie assyrienne_, Paris, 1902. The earlier bibliography
will be found p. 7. See also Hubert in Daremberg, Saglio, Pottier, _Dict.
des antiq._, s. v. "Magia," p. 1505, n. 5. Campbell Thomson, _Semitic
Magic, Its Origin and Development_, London, 1908.
Traces of magical conceptions have survived even in the prayers of the
orthodox Mohammedans; see the curious {279} observations of Goldziher,
_Studien, Theodor Nöldeke gewidmet_, 1906, I, pp. 302 ff. The
Assyrio-Chaldean magic may be compared profitably with Hindu magic (Victor
Henry, _La Magie dans l'Inde antique_, Paris, 1904).
66. There are many indications that the Chaldean magic spread over the
Roman empire, probably as a consequence of the conquests of Trajan and
Verus (Apul., _De Magia_, c. 38; Lucian, _Philopseudes_, c. 11; _Necyom._,
c. 6, etc. Cf. Hubert, loc. cit.) Those most influential in reviving these
studies seem to have been two rather enigmatical personages, Julian the
Chaldean, and his son Julian the Theurge, who lived under Marcus Aurelius.
The latter was Considered the author of the [Greek: Logia Chaldaika], which
in a measure became the Bible of the last neo-Platonists.
67. Apul., _De Magia_, c. 27. The name [Greek: philosophos], _philosophus_,
was finally applied to all adepts in the occult sciences.
68. The term seems to have been first used by Julian, called the Theurge,
and thence to have passed to Porphyry (_Epist. Aneb._, c. 46; Augustine,
_Civ. Dei_, X, 9-10) and to the neo-Platonists.
69. Hubert, article cited, pp. 1494, n. 1; 1499 f.; 1504. Ever since
magical papyri were discovered in Egypt, there has been a tendency to
exaggerate the influence exercised by that country on the development of
magic. It made magic prominent as we have said, but a study of these same
papyri proves that elements of very different origin had combined with the
native sorcery, which seems to have laid special stress upon the importance
of the "barbarian names," because to the Egyptians the name had a reality
quite independent of the object denoted by it, and possessed an effective
force of its own (_supra_, pp. 93, 95). But that is, after all, only an
incidental theory, and it is significant that in speaking of the origin of
magic, Pliny (XXX, 7) names the Persians in the first place, and does not
even mention the Egyptians.
70. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, pp. 230 ff.--Consequently Zoroaster, the
undisputed master of the magi, is frequently considered a disciple of the
Chaldeans or as himself coming from Babylon. The blending of Persian and
Chaldean beliefs appears clearly in Lucian, _Necyom._, 6 ff. {280}
71. The majority of the magical formulas attributed to Democritus are the
work of forgers like Bolos of Mendes (cf. Diels, _Fragmente der
Vorsokratiker_, I^2, pp. 440 f.), but the authorship of this literature
could not have been attributed to him, had not these tendencies been so
favorable.
72. On Jewish magic see: Blau, _Das altjüdische Zauberwesen_, 1898; cf.
Hubert, _loc. cit._, p. 1505.
73. Pliny, _H. N._, XXX, 1, § 6; Juvenal, VI, 548 ff. In Pliny's opinion
these magicians were especially acquainted with _veneficas artes_. The
toxicology of Mithridates goes back to that source (Pliny, XXV, 2, 7). Cf.
Horace, _Epod._, V, 21; Virgil, _Buc._ VIII, 95, etc.
74. Cf. _supra_, pp. 151 ff.
75. Minucius Felix, _Octavius_, 26; cf. _supra_, ch. VI, p. 152.
76. In a passage outlining the Persian demonology (see _supra_, n. 39),
Porphyry tells us (_De Abst._, II, 41):
[Greek: Toutous] (sc. [Greek: tous daimonas]) [Greek: malista kai ton
proestôta autôn] (c. 42, [Greek: hê proestôsa autôn dunamis] = Ahriman)
[Greek: ektimôsin hoi ta kaka dia tôn goêteiôn prattomenoi k. t. l.] Cf.
Lactantius, _Divin. Inst._, II, 14 (I, p. 164, 10, Brandt ed.); Clem. of
Alexandria, _Stromat._, III, p. 46 C, and _supra_, n. 37. The idea that the
demons subsisted on the offerings and particularly on the smoke of the
sacrifices agrees entirely with the old Persian and Babylonian ideas. See
Yasht V, XXI, 94: What "becomes of the libations which the wicked bring to
you after sunset?" "The devas receive them," etc.--In the cuneiform tablet
of the deluge (see 160 ff.), the gods "smell the good odor and gather above
the officiating priest like flies." (Dhorme, _Textes religieux
assyro-babyloniens_, 1907, p. 115; cf. Maspero, _Hist. anc. des peuples de
l'Orient_, I, p. 681.).
77. Plut., _De Iside_, c. 46.
78. The _druj Nasu_ of the Mazdeans; cf. Darmesteter, _Zend-Avesta_, II, p.
xi and 146 ff.
79. Cf. Lucan, _Phars._, VI, 520 ff.
80. Mommsen, _Strafrecht_, pp. 639 ff. There is no doubt that the
legislation of Augustus was directed against magic, cf. Dion, LII, 34,
3.--Manilius (II, 108) opposes to astrology the {281} _artes quorum haud
permissa facultas_. Cf. also Suet., _Aug._, 31.
81. Zachariah the Scholastic, _Vie de Sévère d'Antioche_, Kugener ed.
(_Patrol. orientalis_, II), 1903, pp. 57 ff.
82. Magic at Rome in the fifth century: Wünsch, _Sethianische
Verfluchungstafeln aus Rom_, Leipsic, 1898 (magical leads dated from 390 to
420); _Revue hist. litt. relig._, VIII, 1903, p. 435, and Burchardt, _Die
Zeit Constantin's_, 2d ed., 1880, pp. 236 ff.
VIII. THE TRANSFORMATION OF PAGANISM.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: The history of the destruction of paganism is a subject that
has tempted many historians. Beugnot (1835), Lasaulx (1854), Schulze (Jena,
1887-1892) have tried it with varying success (see Wissowa, _Religion der
Römer_, pp. 84 ff.). But hardly any one has been interested in the
reconstruction of the theology of the last pagans, although material is not
lacking. The meritorious studies of Gaston Boissier (_La fin du Paganisme_,
Paris, 1891) treat especially the literary and moral aspects of that great
transformation. Allard (_Julien l'Apostat_, I, 1900, p. 39 ff.) has
furnished a summary of the religious evolution during the fourth century.
1. Socrates, _Hist. Eccl._, IV, 32.
2. It is a notable fact that astrology scarcely penetrated at all into the
rural districts (_supra_, ch. VII, n. 9), where the ancient devotions
maintained themselves; see the _Vita S. Eligii_, Migne, _P. L._, XL, col.
1172 f.--In the same way the cult of the menhirs in Gaul persisted in the
Middle Ages; see d'Arbois de Jubainville, _Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr._,
1906, pp. 146 ff.; S. Reinach, _Mythes, cultes_, III, 1908, pp. 365 ff.
3. Aug., _Civ. Dei_, IV, 21 _et passim_. Arnobius and Lactantius had
previously developed this theme.
4. On the use made of mythology during the fourth century, cf. Burckhardt,
_Zeit Contantins_, 2d ed., 1880, pp. 145-147; Boissier, _La fin du
paganisme_, II, pp. 276 ff. and _passim_. {282}
5. It is well known that the poems of Prudentius (348-410), especially the
Peristephanon, contain numerous attacks on paganism and the pagans.
6. Cf. _La polémique de l'Ambrosiaster contre les païens_ (_Rev. hist. et
litt. relig._, VIII, 1903, pp. 418 ff.). On the personality of the author
(probably the converted Jew Isaac), cf. Souter, _A Study of Ambrosiaster_,
Cambridge, 1905 (_Texts and Studies_, VII) and his edition of the
_Quaestiones_, (Vienna, 1908), intr. p. xxiv.
7. The identity of Firmicus Maternus, the author of _De errore profanarum
religionum_, and that of the writer of the eight books _Matheseos_ appears
to have been definitely established.
8. Maximus was Bishop of Turin about 458-465 A. D. We possess as yet only a
very defective edition of the treatises _Contra Paganos_ and _Contra
Judaeos_ (Migne, _Patr. lat._, LVII, col. 781 ff.).
9. Particularly the _Carmen adversus paganos_ written after Eugene's
attempt at restoration in 394 A. D. (Riese, _Anthol. lat._, I, 20) and the
_Carmen ad senatorem ad idolorum servitutem conversum_, attributed to St.
Cyprian (Hartel. ed., III, p. 302), which is probably contemporaneous with
the former.
10. On this point see the judicious reflections of Paul Allard, _Julien
l'Apostat_, I, 1900, p. 35.
11. Hera was the goddess of the air after the time of the Stoics ([Greek:
Hêra] = [Greek: aêr]).
12. Cf. _supra_, pp. 51, 75, 99, 120, 148. Besides the Oriental gods the
only ones to retain their authority were those of the Grecian mysteries,
Bacchus and Hecate, and even these were transformed by their neighbors.
13. The wife of Praetextatus, after praising his career and talents in his
epitaph, adds: "Sed ista parva: tu pius mystes sacris | teletis reperta
mentis arcano premis, | divumque numen multiplex doctus colis" (_CIL_, 1779
= Dessau, _Inscr. sel._, 1259).
14. Pseudo-August. [Ambrosiaster], _Quaest. Vet. et Nov. Test._, (p. 139,
9-11, Souter ed.): "Paganos elementis esse {283} subiectos nulli dubium
est.... Paganos elementa colere omnibus cognitum est"; cf. 103 (p. 304, 4
Souter ed.): "Solent (pagani) ad elementa confugere dicentes haec se colere
quibus gubernaculis regitur vita humana" (cf. _Rev. hist. lit. rel._, VIII,
1903, p. 426, n. 3).--Maximus of Turin (Migne, _P. L._, LVII, 783): "Dicunt
pagani: nos solem, lunam et stellas et universa elementa colimus et
veneramur." Cf. _Mon myst. Mithra_, I, p. 103, n. 4, p. 108.
15. Firmicus Maternus, _Mathes._, VII prooem: "(Deus) qui ad fabricationem
omnium elementorum diversitate composita ex contrariis et repugnantibus
cuncta perfecit."
16. _Elementum_ is the translation of [Greek: stoicheion], which has had
the same meaning in Greek at least ever since the first century (see Diels,
_Elementum_, 1899, pp. 44 ff., and the Septuagint, Sap. Sal., 7, 18; 19,
17.) Pfister, "_Die [Greek: stoicheia tou kosmou] in den Briefen des
Paulus_," _Philologus_, LXIX, 1910, p. 410.--In the fourth century this
meaning was generally accepted: Macrobius, _Somn. Scipionis_, I, 12, § 16:
"Caeli dico et siderum, aliorumque elementorum"; cf. I, 11, § 7 ff.
Martianus Capella, II, 209; Ambrosiaster, _loc. cit._; Maximus of Turin,
_loc. cit._; Lactantius, II, 13, 2: "Elementa mundi, caelum, solem, terram,
mare."--Cf. Diels, _op. cit._, pp. 78 ff.
17. Cf. _Rev. hist. litt. rel._, VIII, 1903, pp. 429 ff.--Until the end of
the fifth century higher education in the Orient remained in the hands of
the pagans. The life of Severus of Antioch, by Zachariah the Scholastic,
preserved in a Syrian translation [_supra_, ch. VII, n. 81], is
particularly instructive in this regard. The Christians, who were opposed
to paganism and astrology, consequently manifested an aversion to the
profane sciences in general, and in that way they became responsible to a
serious extent for the gradual extinction of the knowledge of the past (cf.
_Rev. hist. litt. rel._, _ibid._, p. 431; Royer, _L'enseignement d'Ausone à
Alcuin_, 1906, p. 130 ff.). But it must be said in their behalf that before
them Greek philosophy had taught the vanity of every science that did not
have the moral culture of the ego for its purpose, see Geffcken, _Aus der
Werdezeit des Christentums_, p. 7, p. 111.
18. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 294. Cf. _supra_, pp. 175 f. {284}
19. Ambrosiaster, _Comm. in Epist. Pauli_, p. 58 B: "Dicentes per istos
posse ire ad Deum sicut per comites pervenire ad regem" (cf. _Rev. his.
lit. rel._, VIII, 1903, p. 427).--The same idea was set forth by Maximus of
Turin (_Adv. pag._, col. 791) and by Lactantius (_Inst. div._, II, 16, § 5
ff., p. 168 Brandt); on the celestial court, see also Arnobius, II, 36;
Tertullian, _Apol._, 24.--Zeus bore the name of king, but the Hellenic
Olympus was in reality a turbulent republic. The conception of a supreme
god, the sovereign of a hierarchical court, seems to have been of Persian
origin, and to have been propagated by the magi and the mysteries of
Mithra. The inscription of the Nemroud Dagh speaks of [Greek: Dios
Ôromasdou thronous] (_supra_, ch. VI, n. 26), and, in fact, a bas-relief
shows Zeus-Oramasdes sitting on a throne, scepter in hand. The Mithra
bas-reliefs likewise represent Jupiter Ormuzd on a throne, with the other
gods standing around him (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 129; II, p. 188, fig.
11); and Hostanes pictured the angels sitting around the throne of God
(_supra_, ch. VI, n. 38; see Rev. iv). Moreover, the celestial god was
frequently compared, not to a king in general, but to the Great King, and
people spoke of his satraps; cf. Pseudo-Arist., [Greek: Peri kosmou], c. 6,
p. 398 _a_, 10 ff. = Apul., _De mundo_, c. 26; Philo, _De opif. mundi_, c.
23, 27 (p. 24, 17; 32, 24, Cohn); Maximus of Turin, X, 9; and Capelle, _Die
Schrift von der Welt_ (_Neue Jahrb. für das klass. Altert._, VIII), 1905,
p. 556, n. 6. Particularly important is a passage of Celsus (Origen,
_Contra Cels._, VIII, 35) where the relation of this doctrine to the
Persian demonology is shown. But the Mazdean conception must have combined,
at an early date, with the old Semitic idea that Baal was the lord and
master of his votaries (_supra_, p. 94 ff.). In his _Neutestamentliche
Zeitgeschichte_, (2d. ed., 1906, p. 364 ff.), Holtzmann insists on the fact
that the people derived their conception of the kingdom of God from the
pattern of the Persian monarchy. See also _supra_, p. 111.
A comparison similar to this one, which is also found among the pagans of
the fourth century, is the comparison of heaven with a city (Nectarius in
St. Aug., _Epist._, 103 [Migne, _P. L._, XXXIII, col. 386]): "Civitatem
quam magnus Deus et bene meritae de eo animae habitant," etc. Compare the
City of God of St. Augustine and the celestial Jerusalem of the Jews {285}
(Bousset, _Religion des Judentums_, 1903, p. 272).--Cf. also Manilius, V,
735 ff.
20. August., _Epist._ 16 [48] (Migne, _Pat. Lat._, XXXIII, col. 82):
"Equidem unum esse Deum summum sine initio, sine prole naturae, seu patrem
magnum atque magnificum, quis tam demens, tam mente captus neget esse
certissimum? Huius nos virtutes per mundanum opus diffusas multis vocabulis
invocamus, quoniam nomen eius cuncti proprium videlicet ignoramus. Nam Deus
omnibus religionibus commune nomen est. Ita fit ut, dum eius quasi quaedam
membra carptim variis supplicationibus prosequimur, totum colere profecto
videamur." And at the end: "Dii te servent, per quos et eorum atque
cunctorum mortalium communem patrem, universi mortales, quos terra
sustinet, mille modis concordi discordia, veneramur et colimus." Cf.
Lactantius Placidus, _Comm. in Stat. Theb._, IV, 516.--Another pagan
(_Epist._, 234 [21], Migne, _P. L._, XXXIII, col. 1031) speaks "deorum
comitatu vallatus, Dei utique potestatibus emeritus, id est eius unius et
universi et incomprehensibilis et ineffabilis infatigabilisque Creatoris
impletus virtutibus, quos (_read_ quas) ut verum est angelos dicitis vel
quid alterum post Deum vel cum Deo aut a Deo aut in Deum."
21. The two ideas are contrasted in the _Paneg. ad Constantin. Aug._, 313
A. D., c. 26 (p. 212, Bährens ed.): "Summe rerum sator, cuius tot nomina
sunt quot gentium linguas esse voluisti (quem enim te ipse dici velis,
scire non possumus), sive tute quaedam vis mensque divina es, quae toto
infusa mundo omnibus miscearis elementis et sine ullo extrinsecus accedente
vigoris impulsu per te ipsa movearis, sive alique supra omne caelum
potestas es quae hoc opus tuum ex altiore naturae arce despicias."--Compare
with what we have said of _Jupiter exsuperantissimus_ (p. 128).
22. Macrobius, _Sat._, I, 17 ff.; cf. Firm. Mat., _Err. prof. rel._, c. 8;
_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, 338 ff. Some have supposed that the source of
Macrobius's exposition was Iamblichus.
23. Julian had intended to make all the temples centers of moral
instruction (Allard, _Julien l'Apostat_, II, 186 ff.), and this great idea
of his reign was partially realized after his death. His homilies were
little appreciated by the bantering {286} and frivolous Greeks of Antioch
or Alexandria, but they appealed much more to Roman gravity. At Rome the
rigorous mysteries of Mithra had paved the way for reform. St. Augustine,
_Epist._, 91 [202] (Migne, _P. L._, XXXIII, col. 315), c. 408 A. D.,
relates that moral interpretations of the old myths were told among the
pagans during his time: "Illa omnia quae antiquitus de vita deorum
moribusque conscripta sunt, longe aliter sunt intelligenda atque
interpretanda sapientibus. Ita vero in templis populis congregatis recitari
huiuscemodi salubres interpretationes heri et nudiustertius audivimus." See
also _Civ. Dei_, II, 6: "Nec nobis nescio quos susurros paucissimorum
auribus anhelatos et arcana velut religione traditos iactent (pagani),
quibus vitae probitas sanctitasque discatur." Compare the epitaph of
Praetextatus (_CIL_, VI, 1779 = Dessau, _Inscr. sel._, 1259): "Paulina veri
et castitatis conscia | dicata templis," etc.--Firmicus Maternus (_Mathes_,
II, 30) demands of the astrologer the practice of all virtues, "antistes
enim deorum separatus et alienus esse debet a pravis illecebris
voluptatum.... Itaque purus, castus esto, etc."
24. This is clearly asserted by the verses of the epitaph cited (v. 22 ff):
"Tu me, marite, disciplinarum bono | puram ac pudicam SORTE MORTIS EXIMENS,
| in templa ducis ac famulam divis dicas: | Te teste cunctis imbuor
mysteriis." Cf. Aug., _Epist._, 234 (Migne, _P. L._, XXXIII, col. 1031,
letter of a pagan to the bishop,): "Via est in Deum melior, qua vir bonus,
piis, puris iustis, castis, veris dictisque factisque probatus et deorum
comitatu vallatus ... ire festinat; via est, inquam, qua purgati antiquorum
sacrorum piis praeceptis expiationibusque purissimis et abstemiis
observationibus decocti anima et corpore constantes deproperant."--St.
Augustine (_Civ. Dei_, VI, 1 and VI, 12) opposes the pagans who assert
"deos non propter praesentem vitam coli sed propter aeternam."
25. The variations of this doctrine are set forth in detail by Macrobius,
_In Somn. Scip._, I, 11, § 5 ff. According to some, the soul lived above
the sphere of the moon, where the immutable realm of eternity began;
according to others, in the spheres of the fixed stars where they placed
the Elysian Fields (_supra_, ch. V, n. 65; see Martian, _Capella_, II,
209). The Milky Way in particular was assigned to them as their residence
{287} (Macr., _ib._, c. 12; cf. Favon. Eulog., _Disput. de somn.
Scipionis_, p. 1, 20 [Holder ed.]: "Bene meritis ... lactei circuli lucida
ac candens habitatio deberetur"; St. Jerome, _Ep._, 23, § 3 [Migne, _P.
L._, XXII, col. 426), in conformity with an old Pythagorean doctrine
(Gundel, _De stellarum appellatione et relig. Romana_, 1907, p. 153 [245]),
as well as an Egyptian doctrine (Maspero, _Hist. des peuples de l'Orient_,
I, p. 181).--According to others, finally, the soul was freed from all
connection with the body and lived in the highest region of heaven,
descending first through the gates of Cancer and Capricorn, at the
intersection of the zodiac and the Milky Way, then through the spheres of
the planets. This theory, which was that of the mysteries (_supra_, pp.
126, 152) obtained the approbation of Macrobius ("quorum sectae amicior est
ratio") who explains it in detail (I, 12, § 13 ff.). Arnobius, who got his
inspiration from Cornelius Labeo (_supra_, ch. V, n. 64), opposed it, as a
widespread error (II, 16): "Dum ad corpora labimur et properamus humana ex
mundanis circulis, sequuntur causae quibus mali simus et pessimi." Cf.
also, II, 33: "Vos, cum primum soluti membrorum abieretis e nodis, alas
vobis adfuturas putatis quibus ad caelum pergere atque ad sidera volare
possitis," etc.). It had become so popular that the comedy by Querolus,
written in Gaul during the first years of the fifth century, alluded to it
in a mocking way, in connection with the planets (V, 38): "Mortales vero
addere animas sive inferis nullus labor sive superis." It was still taught,
at least in part, by the Priscillianists (Aug., _De haeres._, 70;
Priscillianus, éd. Schepss., p. 153, 15; cf. Herzog-Hauck, _Realencycl._,
3d ed., s. v. "Priscillian," p. 63.--We have mentioned (_supra_, ch. VI, n.
54) the origin of the belief and of its diffusion under the empire.
26. Cf. _supra_, p. 152, and pp. 189 ff.; _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 296.
27. This idea was spread by the Stoics ([Greek: ekpurôsis]) and by
astrology (_supra_, p. 177); also by the Oriental religions, see
Lactantius, _Inst._, VII, 18, and _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 310.
28. Gruppe (_Griech. Mythol._, pp. 1488 ff.) has tried to indicate the
different elements that entered into this doctrine.
29. Cf. supra, pp. 134 f., p. 160 and _passim_. The similarity {288} of the
pagan theology to Christianity was strongly brought out by Arnobius, II,
13-14.--Likewise in regard to the Orient, de Wilamowitz has recently
pointed out the close affinity uniting the theology of Synesius with that
of Proclus (_Sitzungsb. Akad. Berlin_, XIV, 1907, pp. 280 ff.) he has also
indicated how philosophy then led to Christianity.
30. M. Pichon (_Les derniers écrivains profanes_, Paris, 1906) has recently
shown how the eloquence of the panegyrists unconsciously changed from
paganism to monotheism. See also Maurice, _Comptes Rendus Acad.
Inscriptions_, 1909, p. 165.--The vague deism of Constantine strove to
reconcile the opposition of heliolatry and Christianity (Burckhardt, _Die
Zeit Constantins_, pp. 353 ff.) and the emperor's letters addressed to
Arius and the community of Nicomedia (Migne, _P. G._, LXXXV, col. 1343 ff.)
are, as shown by Loeschke (_Das Syntagma des Gelasius_ [Rhein. Mus., LXI],
1906, p. 44), "ein merkwürdiges Produkt theologischen Dilettantismus,
aufgebaut auf im wesentlichen pantheistischer Grundlage mit Hilfe weniger
christlicher Termini und fast noch weniger christlicher Gedanken." I shall
cite a passage in which the influence of the astrological religion is
particularly noticeable (col. 1552 D): [Greek: Idou gar ho kosmos morphê
eitoun schêma tunchanei hôn; kai hoi asteres ge charaktêras probeblêntai;
kai holôs to pneuma tou sphairoeidous toutou kuklou, eidos tôn ontôn
tunchanei hon, kai hôsper morphôma; kai homôs ho Theos pantachou paresti.]
* * * * * {289}
INDEX.
Ablutions, Ritualistic, 208.
Absolutism, 38, 141, 161.
Abstinence, 40.
Abydos, 89, 98, 99, 237 n. 78;
Isis in, 99;
Liturgy of, 97;
Mysteries of, 237 n. 77;
Phallophories of, 78.
Achemenides, 127, 135, 143.
Adonis, 110;
and Attis, 69.
Æsculapius and Eshmoun, 21;
Serpent sacred to, 173.
_Aeterna domus_, 240 n. 91.
_Aeternus, Deus_, 130.
Africa, Isis in, 83.
Agatha, St., 237 n. 73.
Agathocles, 79, 80.
Agrippa forbids worship of Isis, 82.
Ahriman, 152, 190, 199;
and Satan, 153, 266 n. 36.
Ahura-Mazda, 127, 145;
and Bel, 146.
Alexander, 135;
of Aphrodisias, 276 n. 54;
Polyhistor, 255 n. 66.
Alexandria, 84;
Greek influence in, 75f.;
Isis in, 90, 232 n. 33.
Alexandrian calendar, 84;
mysteries, 99, 240 n. 91.
Amasis, 86.
Amber road, 216 n. 12.
Ambrosiaster, 204.
Ameretat, 145.
_Amici Augusti_, 137.
Ammianus Marcellinus, 211.
Ammon, 230 n. 9.
Amshaspends, 145, 263 n. 20.
Anahita, 54, 65, 145;
and Ishtar, 146;
Cybele and, 227 n. 32.
Ananke, 182.
Anatolia, 47, 139, 143.
Andros, 76.
Angels, 138, 152, 207, 267 n. 38.
Animals, 116;
sacred in Egypt, 78, 230f. n. 11;
sacred in Phrygia, 48;
sacred in Syria, 115f.
Animism, 183.
Anti-gods, 152.
Antinous, 86.
Antiochus, the Great, 105;
of Commagene, 124, 264 n. 26.
Antonines, 140.
Antoninus Pius, 111.
Antony, 82.
Anubis, 77.
_Apertio_, 95.
Aphaca, 246 n. 40.
Aphrodite and Isis, 89.
Apion, 218 n. 20.
Apollo and Mithra, 155.
Apollodorus of Damascus, 8.
Apuleius, 20, 79, 97, 104, 129.
Aquileia, Isis in, 83.
Aquitania, 108.
Arabia, Astrology in, 275 n. 48.
Aramaic, 146.
Archeology as source, 16.
Architecture, 8, 216 n. 11.
Archon, 126.
Aristotle, 138.
Arius, 288 n. 30.
Arles, 216 n. 12.
Armenia, 144.
Army. See "Soldiers" and "Militia."
Arnobius, 204, 223 n. 38, 226 n. 30, 236 n. 65, 277 n. 57, 287 n. 25.
Arsacides, 135.
{290}
Arsinoë, Serapeum in, 79.
Art, Astrology in, 164, 168;
Egyptian, 86;
in Persia, 141;
Influence of Oriental, 7;
of Oriental religions, 33;
of paganism, 17, 218 n. 23.
Artaxerxes, 137.
Artemis and Cybele, 227 n. 32.
Aryans, Nature worship of, 145.
Ascalon, 117.
Asceticism, 40f., 51, 157.
Asia Minor, 46ff., 197;
Isis in, 80;
Mazdaism in, 145;
Mithraism in, 143.
Astarte, 120, 243 n. 21;
Immorality of, 118.
Astrology, 207;
and magic, 32, 162ff.;
Babylonian, 151;
Chaldean, 199;
Christian theology and, 260 n. 89;
in Syria, 123, 133;
Origin of, 170, 272 n. 19;
religious, 169.
Atar, 145.
Atargatis, 103ff.;
and Venus, 123;
Fish sacred to, 117.
Athens, Serapis in, 79.
Atonement, 40.
Attalus, 47, 51.
Attica, Attis and Cybele in, 62.
Attis, x, 22, 48, 53, 69, 197, 225 n. 21;
and Cybele, 62f.;
Death of, 59;
Hymns to, 217 n. 14;
in Greece, 57;
_Menotyrannus_, 61.
Augustine, St., 71, 202, 220 n. 15, 275 n. 47.
Augustus, 39, 111, 135, 187, 261 n. 5, 280 n. 80;
and Diocletian, 3;
and the Egyptian religion, 82;
Reforms of, 38.
Aurelian, 114f., 124, 205, 252 n. 59.
Aust, Emil, xii.
Autun, 57.
Avesta, 142.
Aziz, 113.
Baal, x, 22, 84, 114, 118, 123, 130, 248 n. 43;
and Saturn, 21;
different from Jehovah, 131;
Mystics of, 41.
_Ba'al samîn_, 127, 131, 151, 256 nn. 69, 70; 264 nn. 25, 29.
Baalat, 118, 123, 248 n. 43.
Babylon, Astrology of, 151;
Confession of sin in, 222 n. 31;
Cosmology of, 220 n. 15;
Influence of in Persia, 146;
Influence of in Syria, 122;
Judaism and, 123.
See also "Chaldeans."
Bacchus, 282 n. 12;
and Attis, 69.
Balmarcodes, 110.
Baltis, 113.
Bambyce, Lady of, 122.
Baptism, Mithraic, 157;
Taurobolium compared to, 70.
Bardesanes of Edessa, 144.
Beirut, 110f., 192.
Bel, 32, 115, 123f.;
Ahura Mazda and, 146.
Bellona, 54.
Beneventum, Iseum of, 233 n. 35.
Berosus, 31, 163, 176.
Bethels, 116. See also "Litholatry."
Bidez, Joseph, 213 n. 1.
Boethius, 211.
Book of the Dead, 90.
Borsippa, 122.
_Bronton, Zeus_, 226 n. 24.
Brotherhoods, 58. See also "Fraternity."
Bryaxis, 76.
Bubastis, 230 n. 9.
Byzantium, 141;
Astrology in, 170.
Cadiz, Isis of, 96.
_Caelestis, Jupiter_, 128.
_Caelus_, 128, 130, 175;
Jupiter, 147.
See also "Sky" and "Zeus Ouranios."
Calendars, 173;
Alexandrian, 84.
Caligula, 55, 84, 198.
Campus Martius, Iseum of, 233 n. 35.
_Cannophori_, 56.
Cappadocia, 112f.
Caracalla, 84.
Carneades, 166.
Carnuntum, 150.
{291}
_Carpentum_ of Cybele, 225 n. 20.
Catacombs, 65, 226 n. 23.
Catasterism, 173.
Cato, 105.
Catullus, 49.
Chaeremon, 273 n. 24.
Chaldean astrology, 199;
cosmology, 133;
oracles, 124, 202, 226 n. 29, 251 n. 55.
Chaldeans, 105, 122, 124, 170, 187, 267 n. 39.
Chalybes, 147.
Chastity, 40.
Cheremon, 87.
China, 141.
Chiron, 173.
_Christi, Militia_, xxff.
Christian liturgy, Pagan prayer in, 218 n. 17;
monotheism, 134;
theology and astrology, 260 n. 89.
Christianity, and heliolatry, 288 n. 30;
and paganism, xviff., 202ff., 288 n. 29;
Hellenistic influence on, 214 n. 8;
opposed to astrology, 167;
opposed to science, 283 n. 17;
Resemblance to, xxiii;
Triumph of, xi, 19, 85.
See also "Church."
Christmas, xvii.
Church, Fathers of the, xviii, 14;
militant, xix.
Cicero, 164.
Claudius, 55.
Cleanthes, Hymns of, 217 n. 17.
Clothing of souls, 269 n. 54.
Commagene, 112f., 139, 146f.
Commodus, 39, 149.
Common origin of ideas, xviii.
Communions in Phrygia, 69.
Communities of initiates, Rise of, 27.
Community and family, 69.
Comte, 206.
Confession of sin, 40;
in Babylonia, 222 n. 31.
Conscience, Influence of Oriental religions on, 28, 35ff., 43.
Constantine, 246 n. 40, 288 n. 30.
Continence, 157.
Cosmology, Babylonian, 220 n. 15;
Chaldean, 133.
Coulanges, Fustel de, 99.
Crete, 147.
Critodemus, 170.
Crucifix, Devotion to, 109.
Cybele, 22, 47ff., 197;
and Anahita, 227 n. 32;
and Mithra cults combined, 65;
Mystics of, 41.
Cyprian, St., 282 n. 9.
Dacia, 112, 113.
_Dadophori_, 97.
Dagon, 117.
_Damascenus, Jupiter_, 111.
Dante, 180, 276 n. 49.
_Dea Syria_, 14, 104.
Death, Life after, 99, 223 n. 38;
Spirit released by, 43.
See also "Immortality."
Decalogue, Mithraic, 155.
_Deinvictiaci_, 233 n. 41.
Delos, Atargatis in, 105, 107;
Attis in, 61;
Isis in, 80.
Demeter and Isis, 76, 89.
Demetrius of Phalerum, 75.
Democritus, 189.
Demonology, 210, 267 n. 39;
Persian, 152ff., 284 n. 19.
Demons, 138, 266 n. 37, 280 n. 76.
_Dendrophori_, 56f.
Deterioration of races, 25, 219 n. 6.
_Devotio_, 27.
_Dies sanguinis_, 56, 70.
Diffusion, Agents of, 24.
_Diis angelis_, 266 n. 38.
Diocletian, 142, 150;
and Augustus, 3;
Court of, 141.
Diodochi, 137.
Diodorus of Sicily, 52, 240 n. 91;
of Tarsus, 275 n. 47.
Diogenes Laertius, 255 n. 66.
Dionysus and Osiris, 76;
and Sabazius, 48.
See also "Sabazius."
Dioscuri, 128, 173.
Discipline, Persian, 155.
Dispersion of the Jews, 138, 189.
Distinctions abolished, 28.
{292}
Doliché, 113, 147.
Dolichenus, Jupiter, 25, 113, 116, 148, 249 n. 47.
Domitian, 38, 84, 85.
_Domus aeterna_, 240 n. 91.
See also "Heaven" and "Souls."
Druidism, 20.
Dualism, Persian, xxi, 142, 151, 159, 199, 210.
Dusares, 111.
Easter, xviii, 70.
Egypt, 73ff., 112f.;
Astrology in, 251 n. 56;
Magi in, 139;
Magic in, 279 n. 69.
Egyptian mysteries, Ethics of, 90.
Elagabal, 114, 116.
_Elementa_, 206.
Elephantine, 256 n. 69.
Elysian Fields, 126.
See also "Souls."
Emesa, 112;
Baal of, 114.
Emotion in Oriental religions, 30, 34.
Emperors, Worship of, 22.
End of the world, 138, 209.
See also "Eschatology."
England, Inscription in, 112, 132.
Epicureans, 203.
Epicurus, 90.
Epona, 25.
Erasmus, 204.
Eros, Harpocrates and, 90.
Eryx, Mount, 118.
Eschatology, 199.
See also "Immortality."
Eshmoun, Æsculapius and, 21.
Ethics of Egyptian mysteries, 90;
of Mithraism, 199;
Persian, 154.
See also "Morality."
Eugene, 282 n. 9.
Evil principle deified, 152.
_Expiatio_, 40.
Faith, Reason and, 169, 194;
Union of science and, 32, 34.
Farnell, xiii.
Fatalism, 179ff., 276 n. 54;
of Tiberius, 164.
_Fautori imperii sui_, 150.
Feasts, 44, 48;
Liturgic, 64;
Sacred, 59, 68, 151, 208;
Fish at sacred, 246 n. 37.
Fetichism, 51, 127, 131, 210.
Firdusi, 160.
Fire, Sacred, 137;
Universe to be destroyed by, 177, 210.
Firmicus Maternus, 15, 181, 204, 205, 282 n. 7, 286 n. 23.
Fish, 117, 245 n. 36, 246 n. 37;
Sacred, 40.
Flagellations, 40, 56, 104, 222 n. 31.
Flavians, 140.
Formulas as sources, 11, 216 n. 14.
Foucart, 48, 76.
Fraternity, 156.
See "Brotherhoods."
Frazer, xiii.
Future life, Notions of, 37, 39, 43;
retribution in Egypt, 92.
See also "Death" and "Immortality."
Galatia, Magi in, 139.
Galerius, 136, 141, 150.
Galli, 50, 52, 70, 106, 208, 222 n. 31.
Gallipoli, 237 n. 77.
Gaul, Cybele in, 57;
Influence of Orient in, 9, 216 n. 12;
Syrians in, 108f.
Gayomart, 227 n. 32.
Germany, 112.
Gnosis, 33.
Gnostic hymns, 217 n. 14;
sects, 233 n. 41.
Gnosticism, 196.
God, Pagan conceptions of, 207, 284 n. 19.
Goethe on the Brocken, 274 n. 41.
Gontrand, 108.
Good Friday, 71, 228 n. 42.
Great Mother, ix, x, xviii, 30, 46ff., 148, 197, 201, 205f.
Greece, Cybele in, 57;
Isis in, 77, 80, 230 n. 8.
Greek influence in Alexandria, 75f.;
philosophy, Dualism in, 152;
religion, 30, 31, 33.
{293}
Gregory of Tours, 108.
Gruppe, xiii.
Hadad, 107, 111, 121, 242 n. 10;
and Jupiter, 123;
Etymology of, 133.
Hadrian, 86, 119.
Hammurabi and Marduk, 220 n. 14.
Hannibal, 46.
_Hagioi_, 121, 249 n. 47.
Harpist, Song of the, 241 n. 91.
Harpocrates, 77;
and Eros, 90.
Hauran, 8.
Heaven a city, 284 n. 19;
a court, 207.
See also "Elysian Fields."
Hecate, 282 n. 12.
Heliogabalus, 114, 120.
Heliognostae, 233 n. 41.
Heliolatry and Christianity, 288 n. 30.
Heliopolis, 123.
_Heliopolitanus, Jupiter_, 111, 249 n. 47.
Hellenistic influence on Christianity, 214 n. 8.
Henotheism in Syria, 133.
Hera, 282 n. 11;
and Isis, 89;
_sancta_, 249 n. 47.
Hermes, 226 n. 23;
Psychopompos, 59.
Hermes Trismegistus, 32, 85, 202, 234 n. 46.
Hermetism, 88, 234 n. 53, 250 n. 49;
Influence of, 233 n. 41.
Herodotus, 96, 147.
Hierapolis, 123.
High places, Worship of, 116.
_Hilaria_, 57.
Hinduism, 210.
Hipparchus, 275 n. 42.
Homer, 202.
Honor, 156.
Horus, 98.
Hostanes, 184, 189, 193, 267 n. 39, 284 n. 19.
Hymn to Isis, 76, 230 n. 6;
as sources, 11, 217 n. 14;
of Synesius, 260 n. 89.
_Hymnodes_, 97.
Hypsistos, xxi, 62, 128, 227 n. 30, 252 n. 59, 255 n. 66.
See also "Most High."
Hystaspes, 189.
Iamblichus, 87.
Iao, 63.
_Iasura_, 104.
_Ichthus_ symbolism, 117.
Idolatry, Death of, 85;
in Syria, 133;
of Hinduism, 210.
Idols, Consecration of, 278 n. 61,
Toilet of, 96.
Ignatius, St., 217 n. 17.
Immorality of Astarte, 118;
of legends, 203.
Immortality, 39, 42f., 59, 68, 145, 209, 238 n. 82;
in Egypt, 99;
in Persia, 159;
Semitic ideas on, 125.
Industry, Influence of Oriental, 9.
Initiates, Rise of communities of, 27;
Syrian, 120.
Initiation, 100.
Intelligence, Influence of Oriental religions on, 28, 31ff., 43.
Intelligent light (sun), 133.
_Inventio_ of Osiris, 98.
_Invicti_, 130.
Io and Isis, 89.
Ishtar and Anahita, 146.
Isis, x, xvii, 22, 55, 73ff., 206;
and Io, 89;
and Venus, 90;
Hymns to, 217 n. 14;
Influence of, 86;
Mysteries of, 87, 198;
Mystics of, xx;
Worshipers of, 41.
Italy, Syrians in, 106f.
Ituraea, 112.
Jehovah, x, 257 n. 72;
Baal different from, 131.
Jerome, 108.
Jewish colonies in Phrygia, 62.
Jews, 189, 196;
in Asia Minor, 64;
Monotheism of, 122.
Judaism, 252 n. 59;
and Babylon, 123;
Influence of, 63;
Influence of Parseeism on, 138.
{294}
Julia Domna, 113, 251 n. 57;
Maesa, 113;
Mammea, 113.
Julian, 70, 154, 156, 201, 213 n. 4, 285 n. 23;
the Chaldean, 279 n. 66;
the Theurge, 279 n. 66, n. 68.
Juno, 205.
Jupiter _Caelestis_, 128;
_Caelus_, 147;
_Damascenus_, 111;
_Dolichenus_, 25, 113, 116, 148;
Hadad and, 123;
_Heliopolitanus_, 111;
Protector, 147.
See also "Zeus."
Juvenal, 13, 23, 37, 41, 78, 90, 92.
Kiss of welcome, 137.
Kizil-Bash peasants, 47.
Labeo, Cornelius, 6, 255 n. 64.
Labranda, 147.
Lactantius Placidus, 143, 204.
Lagides, 75, 79;
Financial system of the, 4.
Lammens, 262 n. 12.
Lang, xiii.
Law in Rome and the Orient, 5.
Lebanon, 122.
Licinius, 150.
Life after death, 99, 223 n. 38.
See also "Immortality."
Lightning, God of, 127.
Lion, 224 n. 2.
Literature as source, 13;
Astrology in, 164;
in Persia, 138;
Influence of Roman, 20;
Influence of Oriental, 7.
Litholatry, 116, 119, 244 n. 29.
Liturgic repasts, 64.
Liturgy, 130, 198;
Magic in, 278 n. 61;
Mithraic, 217 n. 15;
of Abydos, 97;
Pagan prayer in Christian, 218 n. 17;
Persian, 151;
Roman, 29.
Lucian, 13, 14, 34, 104, 115, 119, 122, 201.
Lucian's _De dea Syria_, Authenticity of, 218 n. 19.
Lucius of Patras, 105.
Lucretius, 223 n. 39.
Lustrations, 39.
Lydia, Magi in, 139.
Lydus, Johannes, 55.
Lyons, 216 n. 12.
Mâ, 48, 53, 228 n. 34.
McCormack, Thomas J., v.
Macrobius, 204, 208, 287 n. 25.
Magi, 138;
Theology of the, 268 n. 39.
Magic, Astrology and, 32, 182ff.;
Bibliography of, 277 n. 58;
in Persia, 139;
Religion and, 93;
religious, 185.
_Magna Mater_, 46ff.
See also "Great Mother."
_Magousaioi_, 144, 146.
Maiuma, 110.
Malaga, Syrians in, 108.
Malakbel, 113, 249 n. 47.
Maleciabrudus, 242 n. 10.
Manetho, 32, 75, 193.
Manicheism, 123, 142, 220 n. 15, 232 n. 26, 244 n. 29.
Manilius, 168, 178.
Marduk, Hammurabi and, 220 n. 14.
Marius, 106.
Marna, 110.
_Mar'olam_, 130.
Mars, 173.
Matter, Spirit imprisoned in, 43.
Mauretania, 112.
Maximus of Madaura, 207.
Maximus of Turin, 204, 282 n. 8, 283 n. 14, 284 n. 19.
Mazdaism, 136;
in Asia Minor, 145.
_Megalenses, Ludi_, 47, 52.
Melkarth, 243 n. 21.
Memory, Lake of, 239 n. 89.
Mèn, 62.
_Menotyrannus_, Attis, 61.
Merchants, Influence of, on diffusion, 24, 79, 105.
Mercury, 173;
Simios and, 123.
Merovingians, 108.
_Métragyrtes_, 51.
Michel, Charles, xxv, 213 n. 1.
_Militia Christi_, xxff.
Militia, Sacred, xx, 27.
Militias, Religious, 213 n. 6.
{295}
Minucius Felix, 84.
Mithra, x, 22, 84, 142ff.;
and Apollo, 155;
and Attis, 69;
and Cybele cults combined, 65;
and Shamash, 146;
Mysteries of, 33, 126, 140, 269 n. 54;
Mystics of, 41;
Purity of, 157.
Mithradates Eupator, 135, 144;
Toxicology of, 280 n. 73.
Mithraism, Advantages of, 159;
Ethics of, 199;
not Zoroastrianism, 150.
Mithreum near Trapezus, 262 n. 16.
Mohammedans, Magic of the, 278 n. 65.
Monotheism, 288 n. 30;
Christian, 134;
in Syria, 133;
Parseeism closest to, 150.
Morality, in the Oriental mysteries, xxii, 44;
in Egyptian religion, 81;
in Roman religion, 35;
Laxity of, 42;
of paganism, 209;
unrewarded, 37.
See also "Ethics."
Mosaic Law, xxi.
Most-High, 134, 145.
See also "Hypsistos."
Mutilations, 40.
Mysteries, Alexandrian, 88, 99, 240 n. 91;
Charm of, 29;
Egyptian, 237 n. 77;
Egyptian, Theology of, 90;
Hellenic, 214 n. 8, 221 n. 23;
in Syria, 120;
of all the Oriental religions, 205;
of Isis, 87, 142, 258 n. 79,
of Mithra, 33, 126, 140, 142, 199, 269 n. 54, 286 n. 23;
Oriental, xxii, 44;
Phrygian, 51.
Mystic rites, 39f., 51.
Mythology, Roman, 35.
_Nama Sebesio_, 16.
Names, Barbarian, 279 n. 69;
Theophorous, 148.
Naples, Syrians in, 108.
Narses, 136.
_Natalis Invicti_, xvii, 228 n. 42.
Nature worship, 206.
_Navigium Isidis_, 97.
Nechepso, 163.
Nectanebos, 86.
Neo-Platonism, ix, xxiv, 34, 45, 70, 124, 152, 188, 201, 244 n. 29, 279
n. 66.
Neo-Pythagoreanism, 152.
Nephtis, 230 n. 9.
Nero, 87, 106;
initiated by Tiridates, 263 n. 16.
Nicocreon, 79.
Nietzsche, 177.
Nigidius Figulus, 164.
Nile, 205.
Nimes, 216 n. 12;
Isis in, 83.
Nöldeke, 258 n. 80;
on authenticity of _De dea Syria_, 218 n. 19.
Numidia, 113.
Olympus a republic, 284 n. 19;
Sacrifices on, 143.
_Omnipotens et omniparens_, 129.
_Omnipotentes_, 63, 226 n. 30.
Orchoë, 122.
Organism, Universe an, 207.
Orient, Law in the, 5f.
Menace of, 2ff.;
Triumph of, 26.
Ormuzd, 152, 190, 199.
_Ornatrices_, 94, 96.
Orpheus, 101, 202.
Orphic hymns, 217 n. 14.
Osiris, 237 n. 77;
and Attis, 69;
Deceased identified with, 99;
the judge, 90f.;
_Inventio_ of, 98;
Serapis and, 74ff.
Ostia, Syrians in, 108.
Otho and Vitellius, 164.
Pagan theology and Christianity, 288 n. 29.
Paganism, Chaotic condition of, vii;
Education in, 283 n. 17;
Essence of, 131;
Latin, 197;
Morality of, 209;
Semitic, 116;
Syrian, 121.
Palmyra, 112f., 115, 123f., 252 n. 59.
Pan and Attis, 69.
Pannonia, 112;
Syrians in, 108.
Pantheism, 33;
Solar, 134.
{296}
_Pantheos_, 70.
Papas. See "Attis."
Paphos, Conical stone at, 116.
Parseeism closest to monotheism, 150;
Influence of, on Judaism, 138.
_Pastophori_, 94.
Penance, 40f.;
in Syria, 249 n. 46.
Pergamum, 47ff.
Perseus and Andromeda, 173.
Persia, 135ff.;
Magic of, 189.
Pessinus, 47ff.; 148, 197.
Petilia, 239 n. 89.
Petosiris the priest, 163.
Phallophories of Abydos, 78.
Philo of Alexandria, 230 n. 11.
Philo of Biblos, 115, 122.
Philosophers, 201.
Philosophy, 33.
Phoenicia, 122.
Phrygia, 46ff.;
Magi in, 139;
Penance in, 40.
Pigeon, 117.
Pilgrimages, 46.
Pine, Sacred, 56f.
Piraeus, Attis in, 61.
Plagiarism, 11.
Plants, Sacred, in Egypt, 78.
Plato, 265 n. 34.
Platonists, 14.
Pliny, 279 n. 69.
Plutarch, 14, 75, 87, 90, 142, 152, 190.
Pluto, chief of demons, 266 n. 37.
Polemicists as source, 15.
Pompeii, Frescoes of, 235 n. 58;
Iseum at, 81.
Pompey, 143.
Porphyry, 93, 95, 152.
Posidonius of Apamea, 164.
Pozzuoli, 111;
Serapeum of, 81;
Syrians in, 108.
Praetextatus, 208, 211;
Catacombs of, 65, 226 n. 23;
Epitaph of, 286 n. 23;
Wife of, 282 n. 13.
Priesthood, 41;
in Egypt, 94;
Oriental 32.
Proclus, 228 n. 41.
_Prophetes_, 94.
Prudentius, 66, 204, 282 n. 5.
Psychological crisis, 27.
Ptolemy, 164, 170, 182.
Ptolemy Euergetes, 79.
Ptolemy Soter, 74, 79.
Purification, 64; in Mazdaism, 156.
Purity, 209;
Conception of, 234 n. 49, 249 n. 46;
in Egyptian ritual, 91;
in Syria, 121;
of Mithra, 157.
_Pyrethes_, 144.
Pythoness, 106.
Querolus, 287 n. 25.
Rameses II, 86.
Ramsay, 225 n. 7.
Rationalism of Greece, 31.
Reason and faith, 169, 194.
_Refrigerium_, 102.
Reinach, xiii.
Religion, and magic, 93;
Roman, 28.
Religions, Invasion of the barbarian, 10, 19, 22;
Parliament of, xiii.
Renan, x, 1, 160.
Repasts. See "Feasts."
Responsibility, Collective, 36.
Resurrection, 138.
Reward and punishment, 37, 92, 154.
Rhodes, Attis in, 61.
Rites, Mystic, 39f., 51.
Ritual, Egyptian, 93;
Pharaonic, 236 n. 70.
Ritualistic ablutions, 208.
Roman liturgy, 29;
mythology, 35;
religion, 28.
Rome, Isis in, 83;
Private law of, 5.
Rufinus, 85.
Sabaoth, 63.
Sabaziasts, xxi, 226 n. 23.
Sabazius, 22, 59, 64f.
Dionysus and, 48.
See also "Dionysus."
Sabbatists, xxi.
Sabians, 250 n. 49.
Sacerdotal character of Oriental civilizations, 31.
{297}
Sacrifice, Human, 119.
Sagittarius, 173.
Salvation, xxiii, 33, 40, 43.
Sanctuary, Right of, 250 n. 49.
_Sanctus_, (Mithra), 157.
Sassanides, 135, 140;
Court of the, 141.
Satan, Ahriman and, 153, 266 n. 36.
Saturn, 172;
Baal and, 21.
Saviour, 223 n. 36.
Scaevola, 6, 35.
Science, 43;
and faith, 32, 34;
and the priesthood, 32;
Christians opposed to, 283 n. 17;
Magic a, 183f.
Sciences, Astrology queen of, 162.
Scipio Nasica, 47.
Scopas, 76.
Seleucides, 62, 121, 128, 138.
Seleucus, 256 n. 67;
Callinicus, 79.
Semele and Isis, 89.
Semitic paganism, 116;
religions, Diffusion of the, 111ff.
Seneca, 217 n. 17.
Senses, Influence of Oriental religions on, 28ff., 43.
_Septizonia_, 164.
Serapis, x, 22, 73ff., 126;
chief of demons, 266 n. 37.
Serpent sacred to Æsculapius, 173.
Set, 98.
Severi, 140, 167, 196.
Severus of Antioch, 233 n. 33.
Sextus Empiricus, 167.
Shamash and Mithra, 146.
Showerman, xiv, 225 n. 15.
Sibylline oracles, 233 n. 34.
Sibyls, 46.
Sicily, Slave revolution in, 105.
Sidereal immortality, 254 n. 64,
worship, 133, 251 n. 57, 254 n. 64.
See also "Stars."
_Signa Memphitica_, 233 n. 35.
Simios and Mercury, 123.
Sky, 208. See "Caelus."
Slave revolution in Sicily, 105.
_Sol invictus_, 114, 146, 205;
_sanctissimus_, 249 n. 47.
Soldiers of fate, xx;
Faith of Syrian, 112;
Persian cult spread by, 149.
Souls, Abode of, in the stars, 125, 159, 269 n. 54, 287 n. 25;
Abode of, in the earth, 159;
Clothing of, 269 n. 54.
Sources, 11ff.
Spear, Sacred, 67.
Species, Variation of, 25.
Spencer, Herbert, 222 n. 34.
Spirit imprisoned in matter, 43.
Spring of water, 239 n. 90.
Stars, 129;
Deified, 199;
Soul in the, 125, 159, 269 n. 54, 287 n. 25.
Steer, the author of creation, 68.
Stoics, 14, 148, 167, 171, 177, 180, 214 n. 6;
Philosophy of, xx.
_Stolistes_, 94, 96, 97.
Stones, Worship of, 116.
See also "Litholatry."
Strabo, 32, 122, 145, 247 n. 41.
Strategus, God a, 214 n. 6.
Sulla, 54, 81.
Sun, Supreme, 133. See also "_Sol invictus_."
Superstition, 36, 277 n. 58.
_Supplicium_, The term, 219 n. 9.
Symmachus, xxiv, 204, 211.
Sympathy, 171, 194.
Synesius, Hymns of, 260 n. 89.
Syria, Isis in, 79.
Syrian goddess, 14, 104.
Syrians in Italy, 106f.
Tabu, 120, 157.
Taurobolium, xviii, 66, 198, 206, 208;
compared to baptism, 70.
Tetrabiblos, 170, 182, 271 n. 5.
Thasos, Attis in, 61.
Thaumaturgus, 188.
Thebes, Sepulchers of, 99.
Themistius, 200.
Theodore of Mopsuestia, 153.
Theology, 33;
and astrology, 175, 260 n. 89;
of the Egyptian mysteries, 90;
of the magi, 268 n. 39.
{298}
Theophilus, 85;
Miniature of, 232 n. 32.
Theophorous names, 148.
Thessaly, Witches of, 186.
Thoth, 32, 94, 237 n. 77.
Thunder-god, 256 n. 67.
Tiberius, 39, 180;
Fatalism of, 164;
persecutes priests of Isis, 83.
Time, 35;
Deified, 150, 273 n. 36.
Timotheus the Eumolpid, 51, 75, 99, 229 n. 4.
Tin road, 216 n. 12.
Tiridates, Nero initiated by, 263 n. 16.
Toilet of the idol, 96.
Tonsure, 235 n. 58.
Totem, 48.
Trapezus, Mithreum near, 262 n. 16.
Trees, Sacred, 48, 56, 78, 116.
Triads, 250 n. 55.
Trinity, Egyptian, 77;
Syrian, 123.
Tyche, 179;
and Isis, 89.
Tylor, xiii.
_Tyrannos_, 61.
Universal church, 211.
Universe, 207.
Valens, 200;
Vettius, 168, 171.
Varro, 38, 202.
Vedanta, 210.
Venus, 173;
Atargatis and, 123;
Isis and, 90.
Viminacium, 267 n. 38.
Vincentius, Grave of, 65.
Vitellius, Otho and, 164.
Vogüé, de, 8.
Vohumano, 145.
Water, Spring of, 239 n. 90;
Worship of, 116.
Wissowa, xiii.
Xenophanes, 203.
Yahveh Zebaoth, 64.
See also "Jehovah."
Yazatas, 145, 148, 152.
Zachariah the Scholastic, 283 n. 17, 233 n. 33, 281 n. 81.
Zeno, 176.
Zenobia, 252 n. 59.
Zervan Akarana, 150.
Zeus Ammon, 230 n. 9;
Bronton, 226 n. 24;
Keraunios, 256 n. 67;
Oromasdes, 147;
Ouranios, 128;
Stratios, 265 n. 29.
See also "Jupiter."
Zoolatry, 119.
See also "Animals."
Zoroaster, 138, 145, 184, 189, 193, 269 n. 54, 277 n. 57, 279 n. 70;
Votaries of, 160.
Zoroastrianism, Mithraism not, 150.
Zosimus, 277 n. 57.
* * * * *
Corrections made to printed original.
p. 40. "regenerate the initiated person": 'initated' in original.
p. 138. "and the Hamites of Egypt": 'Hanites' in original.
p. 148. "But in spite of all these accommodations": 'accomodations' in
original.
p. 175. "particularly the twelve signs of the zodiac": 'particutarly' in
original.
p. 176. "twelve months connected with the zodiac": 'tweleve' in original.
p. 178. "a system of indisputable grandeur": 'indiputable' in original.
p. 182. "a more pernicious aberration, gaining ground": 'gronud' in
original.
p. 227. n. 30. "the [Greek: pantokratôr] of the Septuagint": 'Septugint' in
original.
p. 236. n. 65. "the principal text we have": 'mave' in original.
p. 251. n. 34. "differentiation of the ecclesiastic and lay functions":
'ecclestiastic' in original.
p. 253. n. 62. "among the Nosaïris": 'Hosaïris' in original.
p. 264. n. 24. "Cf. supra, p. 127, n. 68.": 'p. 373' in original (which
does not exist).
p. 268. n. 41. "man had to struggle perpetually": 'strugle' in original.
p. 273. n. 26. "[Greek: astronomian]": '[Greek: astrouomian]' in original.
p. 275. n. 48. "see supra, ch. V, n. 57.": 'ch. VIII' in original; there is
no such note, ch. V appears to be meant.
p. 285. n. 21. "Jupiter exsuperantissimus (p. 128).": 'p. 190' in original;
p. 128 appears to be the only relevant passage.
p. 287. n. 25. "We have mentioned (supra, ch. VI, n. 54)": 'ch. V' in
original, but ch. VI appears to be the relevant note.
p. 287. n. 27. "by astrology (supra, p. 177)": 'p. 262' in original; p. 262
is in the notes, p. 177 appears to be the relevant passage.
Index:
Arnobius "277 n. 57": 'n. 58' wrongly in original.
Carneades. 'Carbeades' wrongly in original.
Julian the Theurge, "n. 68": 'n. 67' wrongly in original.
Sidereal. 'Siderial' wrongly in original.
Supplicium, "219 n. 9.": 'n. 6' wrongly in original.
Triads, "250 n. 55.": 'n. 50' wrongly in original.
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