Part 60

For the honour of Diana, in the character of Agrotera, the shows of wild beasts in the Roman Circus and Amphitheatre were generally designed: so Claudian,

Tu juga Taygeti, frondosaque Mænala, Clio, I Triviæ supplex; non aspernata rogantem Amphitheatrali faveat Latonia pompæ!... &c.

and for their support in splendid variety, the whole world was ransacked for its rarest and most savage animals:

quodcunque tremendum est Dentibus, aut insigne jubis, aut nobile cornu, Aut rigidum setis capitur decus omne timorque Sylvarum, &c.

No deity amongst the heathens was more terrible than the masculine daughter of Latona, (ἀῤῥενικὴ πέρα τοῦ μέτρου, καὶ ὄρειος, in Juno’s taunting language,) and none less patient of affront—

gods and men Fear’d her stern frown, and she was queen o’ th’ woods.

The reader will call to recollection the death of the unfortunate son of Autonoë, τὸν Ἀκταίωνος ἄθλιον μόρον, (Euripid. Bacchæ,) and the desolation of the well-cultivated vineyard of Œneus (Homer. Iliad. L. +ix.+) at the hand of Dian,

καὶ γὰρ τοῖσι κακὸν χρυσόθρονος Ἄρτεμις ὦρσε χωσαμένη.

It is supposed that the beautiful poetry of Callimachus, in which the anger and favour of the goddess are so feelingly described, (Hymn, in Dian.,) was imitated from the Psalms of David, which the poet, peradventure, had seen at the court of King Ptolemy. See the effects of her wrath, vs. 124. σχέτλιοι οἷς τύνη χαλεπὴν, κ. τ. λ.; with which are contrasted the good luck and happiness of those to whom she is propitious, vs. 129. οὓς δέ κεν εὐμειδής τε καὶ ἵλαος, κ. τ. λ. The conclusion follows, of course, that no man in his right senses should think of slighting the powerful dispenser of so much good and evil—μή τις ἀτιμήσῃ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν.

The reader will find an amusing description of the worshipful Dian in the sulks at the marked insult of Œneus,

(solas sine thure relictas Præteritæ cessasse ferunt Latoïdos aras)—

in Lucian, περὶ Θυσίων: καί μοι δοκεῖ ὁρᾷν αὐτὴν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ τότε μόνην, says the infidel satirist, τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν ἐν Οἰνέως πεπορευμένων, δεινὰ ποιοῦσαν, καὶ σχετλιάζουσαν οἵας ἑορτῆς ἀπολειφθήσεται.

Ἀνατιθέναι ἀπαρχὰς τῶν ἁλισκομένων τῇ Θεῷ, καὶ ἀποκαθαίρειν, κ. τ. λ.—as amended by Schneider. “Ac ne degustabant quidem novas fruges, aut vina,” says Pliny (+xviii.+ 2.) “antequam sacerdotes primitias libassent.” And our venerable courser would have his disciples observe with strictness the same religious ceremonies of dedication, purification, &c. The ancients always purified themselves before sacrificing—“Ego, nisi quid me vis, eo lavatum, ut sacrificem:” and Hector tells his mother he is afraid to pour forth even a libation to Jupiter with unwashed hands,

χερσὶ δ’ ἀνίπτοισιν Διῒ λείβειν αἴθοπα οἶνον ἅζομαι.

The τοὺς κύνας καὶ τοὺς κυνηγέτας of our author answers to the “tota juventus” of Gratius, hereafter cited; and his ὡς νόμος, to the “lustralis de more sacri” of the Faliscian.

M. Le Verrier de la Conterie derives the fête of the French Chasseurs called La S. Hubert from this Celtic festival of Diana. As the latter supplanted with her images the unseen divinity of earlier adoration, she in her turn yielded the tutelage of the chase to St. Martin, St. Germain, and St. Hubert. Arrian wrote in the second century, and in the sixth we find Diana still predominant:—“Le père Dom Martin nous assure que vers la fin du sixième siècle, les Gaulois célébroient les mystères de cette divinité avec des chants excessifs, et toutes les débauches que peuvent produire l’amour et le vin, sur une montagne des Ardennes qui est dans le Luxembourg, où ils avoient une idole de Diane fort grande et fort célèbre,” &c.

M. Fleuri (Hist. Ecclesiast. Tom. +viii.+ l. +xxxv.+ n. 22.) relates the destruction of Diana’s image, and the erection of the monastery and church of St. Martin on its site. But neither St. Martin, nor St. Germain, (“évêque d’Auxerre, et chasseur de grande réputation,”) were able to preserve their ascendancy against the superior claims of St. Hubert, (“évêque de Liège, plus fin et plus rusé dans l’art de la chasse,”) who subsequently received the first-fruits of the chase, ἀπαρχὰς τῶν ἁλισκομένων, and a tenth part of the game, as an annual consecration, ἐνιαύσια, from the posterity of the Celts.

The worship of Diana Venatrix extended from Celtica to the British Isles, which at an early period were peopled by a Celtic race, (see note 12. at the end of the present chapter). “Amongst other the goddes also,” says Holinshed, “whiche the Scottishmen had in most reverence, Diana was chiefe, whom they accompted as their peculiar patronesse, for that she was taken to be the goddesse of hunting, wherein consisted their chiefest exercise, pastime, and delite.” And at the same period, we find these Scoto-Celts in possession of greyhounds and hounds of chase of the highest repute, during the reign of Dorvadille.

Θησαυρὸς signifies, primarily, “theca, ubi res pretiosa deponitur;” and secondarily, “ipsa res condita.” See Martinii Lexicon Philologicum.

Ἐπὶ μὲν λαγῷ ἁλόντι δύο ὀβολὼ ἐμβάλλουσιν. The game of the modern courser was valued by the Celtic sportsmen, for Dian’s treasury, at about 2½d. of British currency. The obolus was a small Greek coin of silver, weighing about 11 grains, in ancient money worth 1½d. It was the sixth part of the drachma, which nearly answered to the Roman denarius. The double obolus, or diobolion, exactly hit the value of the hare in the Celtic scale of appreciation.

Ἐπὶ δὲ ἀλώπεκι δραχμὴν—Anglicè, ninepence for a fox. The silver drachma was equal to six oboli, consequently this crafty and destructive felon was estimated at thrice the value of the hare. The reasons of the text for the extra payment must be perfectly satisfactory to the patrons of the leash—ὅτι ἐπίβουλον τὸ χρῆμα, καὶ τοὺς λαγὼς διαφθείρει, κ. τ. λ. “Fraudulentum animal,” says Isidorus, “insidiisque decipiens:” and Ælian, αἱροῦνται δὲ οἱ λαγῲ ὑπὸ ἀλωπέκων ἐνίοτε, οὐκ ἧττον δρόμῳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ μᾶλλον τέχνῃ· σοφὸν γὰρ ἀπατᾷν ἀλώπηξ, καὶ δόλους οἶδεν. Xenophon, too, remarks that foxes are wont to kill not only hares, but leverets, αὐτοὺς καὶ τὰ τέκνα: and is supported by the Cilician poet of the chase, who says of the fox—

δὴ τότε καὶ θήρῃ πικρὴν ἐπὶ μῆτιν ὑφαίνει οἰωνούς τε δόλοισιν ἑλεῖν καὶ τέκνα λαγωῶν.

“Foxes done grete harme,” says Duke Edmund, “in wareyns of conynges and of hares, the whiche thei ete, and take hem so gynnously and withe grete malice, and not withe rennyng.”

Ἐπὶ δὲ δορκάδι τέσσαρας δραχμάς. The tetradrachm of silver was worth four drachmas, or three shillings sterling—a high valuation of the roe-deer, an animal of chase, rather scarce in the British Isles, but at all times, I believe, abundant in France. De Langley calls the roe “a good litel beest, and goodly for to hunte to.”

Ὁπόταν γενέθλια ἥκη τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος. The gods of antiquity had their natal days as well as men. “Dies nobis natalitii sunt,” says Arnobius, “et potentias cœlites dies autumant habere natales.” The anniversary of Diana’s birth-day (see Ad. Turnebi Adversar. L. +viii.+ c. +xxvi.+) was celebrated on the 13th of August—“Augustis redit Idibus Diana.” “Feriis suis, emeritos canes, quietosque à venatione, et immunes habere credebatur, et ipsa etiam feriari,” in the words of Pitiscus.

Ipsa coronat Emeritos Diana canes, et spicula tergit, Et tutas sinit ire feras.

Pausanias in Achaicis c. +xviii.+ describes a splendid celebration of the sylvan rites of Diana Laphria by the people of Patræ, in costliness and magnificence far surpassing these Celtic ceremonies, but in character somewhat similar. The festival of Patræ was also annual, as in Celtica.

Ἱερεῖον.