Part 28

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, Sec. 20, FHG, III, p. 563): Hippolytus also tells us (V, 1, p. 145, Cruice), that in the Syrian mysteries ([Greek: Assurion teletai]) it was taught that the stones were animated ([Greek: hoi lithoi eisin empsuchoi; echousi gar to auxetikon]), and the same doctrine perpetuated itself in Manicheism. (Titus of Bostra, II, 60, p. 60, 25, de Lagarde ed.:

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, Melanges 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-Keui, a little west of Doliche, 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 Nosairis [Revue de l'Orient chretien], 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: Doelger, [Greek: ICHTHYS], das Fischsymbol in fruehchristlicher 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 ton ichthuon apothanei, karpoustho authemeron epi tou bomou], 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: deipnokrites, deipnois kreinas polla met' euphrosunes], in the temple of the Janiculum (Gauckler, C.R. Acad. Inscr., 1907, p. 142; Bolletino communale, 1907, pp. 15 ff.). Cf. Lagrange, Religions semitiques, 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, Sec. 16, p. 532 C.) narrates in connection with the temple of Anaitis in Acilisena, that [Greek: thugateras hoi epiphanestatoi tou ethnous anierousi parthenous, ais nomos esti kataporneutheisais polun chronon para tei theoi meta tauta didosthai pros gamon, ouk apaxiountos tei toiautei 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 progonon pallakidon]) who had temporarily filled the same office ([Greek: pallakeusasa kata chresmon Dii]). Even at Thebes in Egypt there existed a similar custom with striking local peculiarities in the time of Strabo (XVII, 1, Sec. 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-Nail earn their dowry in the ksours and the cities, before they go back to their tribes to marry, and Doutte (Notes sur l'Islam maghrebien, 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-Nail 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 premiere union sexuelle impliquant une effusion de sang, a ete interdite, lorsque ce sang etait celui d'une fille du clan verse 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 antiquites.

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: Phularches] (II, 2, col. 1568, Bernhardy). Cf. Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, I, p. 405, 409.

45. Hippolytus, Adv. Haeres., V, II, Sec. 7: [Greek: Assurion teletai]; Sec. 18: [Greek: Assurion musteria] (pp. 145, 148, ed. by Cruice). Cf. Origen, Contra Celsum, I, 12. Pognon (Inscrip. semitiques, {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 Noeldeke, Zeitschrift fuer 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'archeologie 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. fuer semit. Epigraph., II, p. 155; Clermont-Ganneau, Recueil d'archeol. 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 bosoros]. Some time ago I copied at a dealer's, a dedication engraved upon a lamp: [Greek: Theoi hagioi Arelseloi], 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-Douwair 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, Sec. 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, Goettingische gelehrt. Anzeigen, 1905, 704 ff.)--The existence of [Greek: katochoi] at Baetocece and elsewhere appears to be due to Egyptian influence (Jalabert, Melanges 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; Bouche-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, Mem. 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.