Chapter XII: Mother-Kin and Mother Goddesses (9)

149 Ignaz V. Zingerle, _Sitten, Bräuche und Meiningen des Tiroler
Volkes_2 (Innsbruck, 1871), pp. 176-178.

150 Christian Schneller, _Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol_ (Innsbruck,
1867), p. 238.

151 Elard Hugo Meyer, _Badisches Volksleben im neunzehnten Jahrhundert_
(Strasburg, 1900), p. 601.

M65 Annual festivals of the dead among the Letts and Samagitians.

152 P. Einhorn, “Historia Lettica,” in _Scriptores Rerum Livonicarum_,
ii. (Riga and Leipsic, 1848) pp. 587, 598, 630 _sq._, 645 _sq._ See
also the description of D. Fabricius in his “Livonicae Historiae
compendiosa series,” _ib._ p. 441. Fabricius assigns the custom to
All Souls’ Day.

153 J. Lasicius, “De diis Samagitarum caeterorumque Sarmatarum,” in
_Magazin herausgegeben von der lettisch-literärischen Gesellschaft_,
xiv. 1. (Mitau, 1868), p. 92.

154 F. J. Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und äussern Leben der Ehsten_ (St.
Petersburg, 1876), pp. 366 _sq._; Boecler-Kreutzwald, _Der Ehsten
abergläubische Gebräuche, Weisen und Gewohnheiten_ (St. Petersburg,
1854), p. 89.

M66 Festival of the dead in Russia.

155 W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_2 (London, 1872), pp.
321 _sq._ The date of the festival is not mentioned. Apparently it
is celebrated at irregular intervals.

M67 Annual festivals of the dead among the Votiaks of Russia.

156 M. Buch, _Die Wotjäken_ (Stuttgart, 1882), p. 145.

157 J. Wasiljev, _Übersicht über die heidnischen Gebräuche, Aberglauben
und Religion der Wotjäken_ (Helsingfors, 1902), pp. 34 _sq._
(_Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne_, xviii.). As to the Votiak
clans see the same work, pp. 42-44.

M68 Feast of All Souls in the Abruzzi.

158 G. Finamore, _Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_ (Palermo, 1890),
pp. 180-182. Mr. W. R. Paton writes to me (12th December 1906): “You
do not mention the practice[s] on the modern Greek feast τῶν ψυχῶν
(in May) which quite correspond. The κόλυβα is made in every house
and put on a table laid with a white tablecloth. A glass of water
and a taper are put on the table, and all is left so for the whole
night. Our Greek maid-servant says that when she was a child she
remembers seeing the souls come and partake. Almost the same rite is
practised for the κόλυβα made on the commemoration of particular
dead.”

M69 Soul-cakes on All-Souls’ Day in England. “Souling Day” in
Shropshire.

159 John Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
1882-1883), i. 393.

160 John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_ (London, 1881),
p. 23.

161 Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_
(London, 1883), p. 381. The writers record (pp. 382 _sqq._) some of
the ditties which were sung on this occasion by those who begged for
soul-cakes.

162 J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_, i. 392, 393; W.
Hone, _Year Book_ (London, N.D.), col. 1288; T. F. Thiselton Dyer,
_British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), pp. 405, 406, 407, 409; J.
Harland and T. T. Wilkinson, _Lancashire Folk-lore_ (London, 1882),
p. 251; Elizabeth Mary Wright, _Rustic Speech and Folk-lore_
(Oxford, 1913), p. 300.

163 Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London,
1909), p. 255. See also T. F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular
Customs_ (London, 1876), p. 410, who, quoting Pennant as his
authority, says that the poor people who received soul-cakes prayed
God to bless the next crop of wheat.

_ 164 County Folk-lore_, vol. ii. _North Riding of Yorkshire, York, and
the Ainsty_ (London, 1901), quoting George Young, _A History of
Whitby and Streoneshalth Abbey_ (Whitby, 1817), ii. 882.

165 T. F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_, p. 410.

166 M. Martin, “Description of the Western Islands of Scotland,” in John
Pinkerton’s _Voyages and Travels_ (London, 1808-1814), iii. 666.

M70 Feast of All Souls among the Indians of Ecuador.

167 Dr. Rivet, “Le Christianisme et les Indiens de la République de
l’Équateur,” _L’Anthropologie_, xvii. (1906) pp. 93 _sq._

M71 The nominally Christian feast of All Souls on Nov. 2 appears to be
an old Celtic festival of the dead adopted by the Church in 998 A.D.
Institution of the Feast of All Souls by the Abbot of Clugny.

168 See above, pp. 53, 55, 62, 65.

169 Sir John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London and Edinburgh, 1888), pp.
460, 514 _sq._; _id._, “Celtae and Galli,” _Proceedings of the
British Academy, 1905-1906_ (London, N.D.), p. 78; _Balder the
Beautiful_, i. 224 _sq._

170 K. Müllenhoff, _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, iv. (Berlin, 1900) pp. 379
_sq._ The first of October seems to have been a great festival among
the Saxons and also the Samagitians. See Widukind, _Res gestae
Saxonicae_, i. 12 (Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_, cxxxvii. 135); M. A.
Michov, “De Sarmatia Asiana atque Europea,” in S. Grynaeus’s _Novus
Orbis Regionum ac Insularum veteribus incognitarum_ (Bâle, 1532), p.
520. I have to thank Professor H. M. Chadwick for pointing out these
two passages to me. Mr. A. Tille prefers to date the Teutonic winter
from Martinmas, the eleventh of November. See A. Tille, _Die
Geschichte der deutschen Weihnacht_ (Leipsic, N.D.), pp. 23 _sqq._;
O. Schrader, _Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde_
(Strasburg, 1901), p. 395.

171 A. J. Binterim, _Die vorzüglichsten Denkwürdigkeiten der
Christ-Katholischen Kirche_, v. 1 (Mayence, 1829), pp. 493 _sq._; J.
J. Herzog und G. F. Plitt, _Real-Encyclopädie für protestantische
Theologie und Kirche_,2 i. (Leipsic, 1877), pp. 303 _sq._; W. Smith
and S. Cheetham, _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_ (London,
1875-1880), i. 57 _sq._

M72 The feast of All Saints on Nov. 1 seems also to have displaced a
heathen festival of the dead.

172 A. J. Binterim, _op. cit._ v. 1, pp. 487 _sqq._; J. J. Herzog und G.
F. Plitt, _op. cit._ i. p. 303; W. Smith and S. Cheetham,
_Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_, i. 57. In the last of these
works a passage from the _Martyrologium Romanum Vetus_ is quoted
which states that a feast of Saints (_Festivitas Sanctorum_) on the
first of November was celebrated at Rome. But the date of this
particular Martyrology is disputed. See A. J. Binterim, _op. cit._
v. 1, pp. 52-54.

173 J. J. Herzog und G. F. Plitt, _op. cit._ i. 304. A similar attempt
to reform religion by diverting the devotion of the people from the
spirits of their dead appears to have been made in antiquity by the
doctors of the Persian faith. For that faith “in its most finished
and purest form, in the _Gathas_, does not recognize the dead as
objects worthy of worship and sacrifice. But the popular beliefs
were too firmly rooted, and the Mazdeans, like the sectaries of many
other ideal and lofty forms of religion, were forced to give way. As
they could not suppress the worship and get rid of the primitive and
crude ideas involved in it, they set about the reform in another
way: they interpreted the worship in a new manner, and thus the
worship of the dead became a worship of the gods or of a god in
favour of the loved and lost ones, a pious commemoration of their
names and their virtues.” See N. Söderblom, _Les Fravashis_ (Paris,
1899), pp. 6 _sq._ The _Gathas_ form the oldest part of the
_Zend-Avesta_. James Darmesteter, indeed, in his later life startled
the learned world by a theory that the _Gathas_ were a comparatively
late work based on the teaching of Philo of Alexandria. But this
attempt of a Jew to claim for his race the inspiration of the
Persian scriptures has been coldly received by Gentile scholars. See
J. H. Moulton, _Early Zoroastrianism_ (London, 1913), pp. 8 _sqq._

M73 Festival of the death and resurrection of Osiris in the month of
Athyr. The finding of Osiris.

174 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 39. As to the death of Osiris on the
seventeenth of Athyr see _ib._ 13 and 42. Plutarch’s statement on
this subject is confirmed by the evidence of the papyrus Sallier
IV., a document dating from the 19th dynasty, which places the
lamentation for Osiris at Sais on the seventeenth day of Athyr. See
A. Wiedemann, _Herodots zweites Buch_, p. 262; _id._, _Die Religion
der alten Ägypter_, p. 112; _id._, _Religion of the Ancient
Egyptians_, pp. 211 _sq._

175 See above, p. 50.

176 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 39. The words which I have translated
“vegetable mould” are γῆν κάρπιμον, literally, “fruitful earth.” The
composition of the image was very important, as we shall see
presently.

177 Lactantius, _Divin. Institut._, i. 21; _id._, _Epitome Inst. Divin._
23 (18, ed. Brandt and Laubmann). The description of the ceremony
which Minucius Felix gives (_Octavius_, xxii. 1) agrees closely
with, and is probably copied from, that of Lactantius. We know from
Appian (_Bell. Civ._ iv. 6. 47) that in the rites of Isis a priest
personated Anubis, wearing a dog’s, or perhaps rather a jackal’s,
mask on his head; for the historian tells how in the great
proscription a certain Volusius, who was on the condemned list,
escaped in the disguise of a priest of Isis, wearing a long linen
garment and the mask of a dog over his head.

178 The suggestion is due to Prof. A. Wiedemann (_Herodots zweites
Buch_, p. 261).

179 Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 2. Herodotus
tells (ii. 61) how the Carians cut their foreheads with knives at
the mourning for Osiris.

180 In addition to the writers who have been already cited see Juvenal,
viii. 29 _sq._; Athenagoras, _Supplicatio pro Christianis_, 22, pp.
112, 114, ed. J. C. T. Otto (Jena, 1857); Tertullian, _Adversus
Marcionem_, i. 13; Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vi. 10.

M74 The great Osirian inscription at Denderah.

181 W. Smith, _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography_, ii. 1127.

182 For complete translations of the inscription see H. Brugsch, “Das
Osiris-Mysterium von Tentyra,” _Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache
und Alterthumskunde_, 1881, pp. 77-111; V. Loret, “Les fêtes
d’Osiris au mois de Khoiak,” _Recueil de Travaux relatifs à la
Philologie et à l’Archéologie Égyptiennes et Assyriennes_, iii.
(1882) pp. 43-57, iv. (1883) pp. 21-33, v. (1884) pp. 85-103. On the
document and the festivals described in it see further A.
Mariette-Pacha, _Dendérah_ (Paris, 1880), pp. 334-347; J. Dümichen,
“Die dem Osiris im Denderatempel geweihten Räume,” _Zeitschrift für
ägyptische Sprache und Alterthumskunde_, 1882, pp. 88-101; H.
Brugsch, _Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter_ (Leipsic,
1885-1888), pp. 616-618; R. V. Lanzone, _Dizionario di Mitologia
Egizia_, pp. 725-744; A. Wiedemann, _Herodots zweites Buch_, p. 262;
_id._, “Osiris végétant,” _Le Muséon_, N.S. iv. (1903) p. 113; E. A.
Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_, ii. 128 _sq._; _id._,
_Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection_, ii. 21 _sqq._; Miss Margaret
A. Murray, _The Osireion at Abydos_ (London, 1904), pp. 27 _sq._

M75 The rites of Osiris in the month of Khoiak represented the god as
dead, dismembered, and then reconstituted by the union of his
scattered limbs.

183 R. V. Lanzone, _op. cit._ p. 727.

184 H. Brugsch, in _Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und
Alterthumskunde_, 1881, pp. 80-82; A. Wiedemann, in _Le Muséon_,
N.S. iv. (1903) p. 113. The corn used in the making of the images is
called barley by Brugsch and Miss M. A. Murray (_l.c._), but wheat
(_blé_) by Mr. V. Loret.

185 H. Brugsch, _op. cit._ pp. 99, 101.

186 H. Brugsch, _op. cit._ pp. 82 _sq._; R. V. Lanzone, _op. cit._ p.
728; Miss Margaret A. Murray, _op. cit._ p. 27.

187 H. Brugsch, _op. cit._ pp. 90 _sq._, 96 _sq._, 98; R. V. Lanzone,
_op. cit._ pp. 743 _sq._; E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the
Egyptians_, ii. 128. According to Lanzone, the ploughing took place,
not on the first, but on the last day of the festival, namely, on
the thirtieth of Khoiak; and that certainly appears to have been the
date of the ploughing at Busiris, for the inscription directs that
there “the ploughing of the earth shall take place in the Serapeum
of _Aa-n-beḥ_ under the fine Persea trees on the last day of the
month Khoiak” (H. Brugsch, _op. cit._ p. 84).

188 Miss Margaret A. Murray, _The Osireion at Abydos_, p. 28; H.
Brugsch, _op. cit._ pp. 83, 92. The headless human image in the cow
may have stood for Isis, who is said to have been decapitated by her
son Horus, and to have received from Thoth a cow’s head as a
substitute. See Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 20; G. Maspero,
_Histoire ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient Classique_, i. 177; Ed.
Meyer, _s.v._ “Isis,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und
röm. Mythologie_, ii. 366.

189 H. Brugsch, _op. cit._ pp. 92 _sq._; R. V. Lanzone, _op. cit._ pp.
738-740; A. Wiedemann, _Herodots zweites Buch_, p. 262; Miss M. A.
Murray, _op. cit._ p. 35. An Egyptian calendar, written at Sais
about 300 B.C., has under the date 26 Khoiak the following entry:
“Osiris goes about and the golden boat is brought forth.” See _The
Hibeh Papyri_, Part i., edited by B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt
(London, 1906), pp. 146, 153. In the Canopic decree “the voyage of
the sacred boat of Osiris” is said to take place on the 29th of
Khoiak from “the sanctuary in the Heracleum” to the Canopic
sanctuary. See W. Dittenberger, _Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones
Selectae_, No. 56 (vol. i. pp. 105, 108). Hence it would seem that
the date of this part of the festival varied somewhat in different
places or at different times.

190 H. Brugsch, _op. cit._ p. 99; E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the
Egyptians_, ii. 129; compare Miss Margaret A. Murray, _op. cit._ p.
28, who refers the ceremony to the twenty-fifth of Khoiak.

191 H. Brugsch, _op. cit._ pp. 94, 99; A. Mariette-Pacha, _Dendérah_,
pp. 336 _sq._; R. V. Lanzone, _op. cit._ p. 744. Mariette supposed
that after depositing the new image in the sepulchre they carried
out the old one of the preceding year, thus setting forth the
resurrection as well as the death of the god. But this view is
apparently not shared by Brugsch and Lanzone.

M76 The resurrection of Osiris represented on the monuments.

192 A. Mariette-Bey, _Dendérah_, iv. (Paris, 1873) plates 65, 66, 68,
69, 70, 71, 72, 88, 89, 90; R. V. Lanzone, _Dizionario di Mitologia
Egizia_, pp. 757 _sqq._, with plates cclxviii.-ccxcii.; E. A. Wallis
Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_, ii. 131-138; _id._, _Osiris and
the Egyptian Resurrection_, ii. 31 _sqq._

193 H. Brugsch, _Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter_, p. 621; R.
V. Lanzone, _Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia_, plate cclxi.; A.
Wiedemann, “L’Osiris végétant,” _Le Muséon_, N.S. iv. (1903) p. 112;
E. A. Wallis Budge, _Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection_, i. 58.
According to Prof. Wiedemann, the corn springing from the god’s body
is barley. Similarly in a papyrus of the Louvre (No. 3377) Osiris is
represented swathed as a mummy and lying on his back, while stalks
of corn sprout from his body. See R. V. Lanzone, _op. cit._ pp. 801
_sq._, with plate ccciii. 2; A. Wiedemann, “L’Osiris végétant,” _Le
Muséon_, N.S. iv. (1903) p. 112.

194 Hippolytus, _Refutatio omnium haeresium_, v. 8, p. 162 ed. L.
Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin (Göttingen, 1859). See _Spirits of the
Corn and of the Wild_, i. 38 _sq._

195 Prof. A. Erman rightly assumes (_Die ägyptische Religion_,2 p. 234)
that the images made in the month of Khoiak were intended to
germinate as a symbol of the divine resurrection.

M77 Corn-stuffed effigies of Osiris buried with the dead to ensure their
resurrection.

196 A. Wiedemann, “L’Osiris végétant,” _Le Muséon_, N.S. iv. (1903) p.
111; _Egyptian Exploration Fund Archaeological Report, 1898-1899_,
pp. 24 _sq._; A. Moret, _Kings and Gods of Egypt_ (New York and
London, 1912), p. 94, with plate xi.; _id._, _Mystères Égyptiens_
(Paris, 1913), p. 41.

197 B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, in _Egyptian Exploration Fund
Archaeological Report, 1902-1903_, p. 5.

198 Miss Margaret A. Murray, _The Osireion at Abydos_, pp. 28 _sq._

199 Sir J. Gardiner Wilkinson, _A Second Series of the Manners and
Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_ (London, 1841), ii. 300, note §.
The writer seems to have doubted whether these effigies represented
Osiris. But the doubt has been entirely removed by subsequent
discoveries. Wilkinson’s important note on the subject is omitted by
his editor, S. Birch (vol. iii. p. 375, ed. 1878).

200 A. Erman, _Die ägyptische Religion_,2 pp. 209 _sq._

M78 The festivals of Osiris in the months of Athyr and Khoiak seem to
have been substantially the same.

201 See above, pp. 24 _sq._, 27 _sq._, 49 _sq._

M79 The old festival of Khoiak may have been transferred to Athyr when
the Egyptians adopted the fixed Alexandrian year in 30 B.C.
M80 The transference would be intelligible if we suppose that in 30 B.C.
the dates of all the Egyptian festivals were shifted backward by
about a month in order to restore them to their natural places in
the calendar.

202 So it was reckoned at the time. But, strictly speaking, Thoth in
that year began on August 31. The miscalculation originated in a
blunder of the ignorant Roman pontiffs who, being charged with the
management of the new Julian calendar, at first intercalated a day
every third, instead of every fourth, year. See Solinus,
_Collectanea_, i. 45-47 (p. 15, ed. Th. Mommsen, Berlin, 1864);
Macrobius, _Saturn_, i. 14. 13 _sq._; L. Ideler, _Handbuch der
mathematischen und technischen Chronologie_, i. 157-161.

203 Theoretically the shift should have been 40, or rather 42 days, that
being the interval between July 20 and August 29 or 31 (see the
preceding note). If that shift was actually made, the calendar date
of any festival in the old vague Egyptian year could be found by
adding 40 or 42 days to its date in the Alexandrian year. Thus if
the death of Osiris fell on the 17th of Athyr in the Alexandrian
year, it should have fallen on the 27th or 29th of Khoiak in the old
vague year; and if his resurrection fell on the 19th of Athyr in the
Alexandrian year, it should have fallen on the 29th of Khoiak or the
1st of Tybi in the old vague year. These calculations agree nearly,
but not exactly, with the somewhat uncertain indications of the
Denderah calendar (above, p. 88), and also with the independent
evidence which we possess that the resurrection of Osiris was
celebrated on the 30th of Khoiak (below, pp. 108 _sq._). These
approximate agreements to some extent confirm my theory that, with
the adoption of the fixed Alexandrian year, the dates of the
official Egyptian festivals were shifted from their accidental
places in the calendar to their proper places in the natural year.

Since I published in the first edition of this book (1906) my theory
that with the adoption of the fixed Alexandrian year in 30 B.C. the
Egyptian festivals were shifted about a month backward in the year,
Professor Ed. Meyer has shown independent grounds for holding “that
the festivals which gave rise to the later names of the (Egyptian)
months were demonstrably held a month later in earlier ages, under
the twentieth, eighteenth, indeed partly under the twelfth dynasty;
in other words, that after the end of the New Kingdom the festivals
and the corresponding names of the months were displaced one month
backwards. It is true that this displacement can as yet be proved
for only five months; but as the names of these months and the
festivals keep their relative position towards each other, the
assumption is inevitable that the displacement affected not merely
particular festivals but the whole system equally.” See Ed. Meyer,
_Nachträge zur ägyptischen Chronologie_ (Berlin, 1908), pp. 3 _sqq._
(_Abhandlungen der königl. Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften vom
Jahre 1907_). Thus it is possible that the displacement of the
festivals by a month backward in the calendar took place a good deal
earlier than I had supposed. In the uncertainty of the whole
question I leave my theory as it stood.

204 If the results of the foregoing inquiry be accepted, the
resurrection of Osiris was regularly celebrated in Egypt on the 15th
of November from the year 30 B.C. onward, since the 15th of November
corresponded to the 19th of Athyr (the resurrection day) in the
fixed Alexandrian year. This agrees with the indications of the
Roman Rustic Calendars, which place the resurrection (_heuresis_,
that is, the discovery of Osiris) between the 14th and the 30th of
November. Yet according to the calendar of Philocalus, the official
Roman celebration of the resurrection seems to have been held on the
1st of November, not on the 15th. How is the discrepancy to be
explained? Th. Mommsen supposed that the festival was officially
adopted at Rome at a time when the 19th of Athyr of the vague
Egyptian year corresponded to the 31st of October or the 1st of
November of the Julian calendar, and that the Romans, overlooking
the vague or shifting character of the Egyptian year, fixed the
resurrection of Osiris permanently on the 1st of November. Now the
19th of Athyr of the vague year corresponded to the 1st of November
in the years 32-35 A.D. and to the 31st of October in the years
36-39; and it appears that the festival was officially adopted at
Rome some time before 65 A.D. (Lucan, _Pharsalia_, viii. 831
_sqq._). It is unlikely that the adoption took place in the reign of
Tiberius, who died in 37 A.D.; for he is known to have persecuted
the Egyptian religion (Tacitus, _Annals_, ii. 85; Suetonius,
_Tiberius_, 36; Josephus, _Antiquit. Jud._ xviii. 3. 4); hence
Mommsen concluded that the great festival of Osiris was officially
adopted at Rome in the early years of the reign of Caligula, that
is, in 37, 38, or 39 A.D. See Th. Mommsen, _Corpus Inscriptionum
Latinarum_, i.2 Pars prior (Berlin, 1893), pp. 333 _sq._; H. Dessau,
_Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, vol. ii. p. 995, No. 8745. This
theory of Mommsen’s assumes that in Egypt the festivals were still
regulated by the old vague year in the first century of our era. It
cannot, therefore, be reconciled with the conclusion reached in the
text that the Egyptian festivals ceased to be regulated by the old
vague year from 30 B.C. onward. How the difference of date between
the official Roman and the Egyptian festival of the resurrection is
to be explained, I do not pretend to say.

M81 Osiris in one of his aspects a personification of the corn. Osiris a
child of Sky and Earth. The legend of the dismemberment of Osiris
points to the dismemberment of human beings, perhaps of the kings,
in the character of the corn-spirit.

205 See above, p. 48.

206 See above, p. 6.

207 See above, p. 7.

208 Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ i. 166.

_ 209 The Dying God_, p. 250.

_ 210 Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 236 _sqq._

211 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 73, compare 33.

212 Diodorus Siculus, i. 88. 5. The slaughter may have been performed by
the king with his own hand. On Egyptian monuments the king is often
represented in the act of slaying prisoners before a god. See A.
Moret, _Du caractère religieux de la royauté Pharaonique_ (Paris,
1902), pp. 179, 224; E. A. Wallis Budge, _Osiris and the Egyptian
Resurrection_, i. 197 _sqq._ Similarly the kings of Ashantee and
Dahomey used often themselves to cut the throats of the human
victims. See A. B. Ellis, _The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold
Coast_ (London, 1887), p. 162; _id._, _The Ewe-speaking Peoples of
the Slave Coast_ (London, 1890), pp. 125, 129.

M82 Roman and Greek traditions of the dismemberment of kings. Modern
Thracian pretence of killing a man, who is sometimes called a king,
for the good of the crops.

_ 213 Scholia in Caesaris Germanici Aratea_, in F. Eyssenhardt’s edition
of Martianus Capella, p. 408 (Leipsic, 1866).

214 Dionysius Halicarnasensis, _Antiquit. Rom._ ii. 56. 4. Compare Livy,
i. 16. 4; Florus, i. 1. 16 _sq._; Plutarch, _Romulus_, 27. Mr. A. B.
Cook was, I believe, the first to interpret the story as a
reminiscence of the sacrifice of a king. See his article “The
European Sky-God,” _Folk-lore_, xvi. (1905) pp. 324 _sq._ However,
the acute historian A. Schwegler long ago maintained that the
tradition rested on some very ancient religious rite, which was
afterwards abolished or misunderstood, and he rightly compared the
legendary deaths of Pentheus and Orpheus (_Römische Geschichte_,
Tübingen, 1853-1858, vol. i. pp. 534 _sq._). See further W. Otto,
“Juno,” _Philologus_, lxiv. (1905) pp. 187 _sqq._

_ 215 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 313 _sqq._

216 Euripides, _Bacchae_, 43 _sqq._, 1043 _sqq._; Theocritus, xxvi.;
Pausanias, ii. 2. 7; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 5. 1 _sq._;
Hyginus, _Fab._ 132 and 184. The destruction of Lycurgus by horses
seems to be mentioned only by Apollodorus. As to Pentheus see
especially A. G. Bather, “The Problem of the Bacchae,” _Journal of
Hellenic Studies_, xiv. (1904) pp. 244-263.

217 Nonnus, _Dionys._ vi. 165-205; Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._
ii. 17 _sq._, p. 15 ed. Potter; Justin Martyr, _Apology_, i. 54;
Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 6; Arnobius,
_Adversus Nationes_, v. 19. According to the Clementine
_Recognitiones_, x. 24 (Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, i. 1434)
Dionysus was torn in pieces at Thebes, the very place of which
Pentheus was king. The description of Euripides (_Bacchae_, 1058
_sqq._) suggests that the human victim was tied or hung to a
pine-tree before being rent to pieces. We are reminded of the effigy
of Attis which hung on the sacred pine (above, vol. i. p. 267), and
of the image of Osiris which was made out of a pine-tree and then
buried in the hollow of the trunk (below, p. 108). The pine-tree on
which Pentheus was pelted by the Bacchanals before they tore him
limb from limb is said to have been worshipped as if it were the god
himself by the Corinthians, who made two images of Dionysus out of
it (Pausanias, ii. 2. 7). The tradition points to an intimate
connexion between the tree, the god, and the human victim.

218 Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii. 55. At Potniae in Boeotia a priest
of Dionysus is said to have been killed by the drunken worshippers
(Pausanias, ix. 8. 2). He may have been sacrificed in the character
of the god.

219 Lucian, _De saltatione_, 51; Plato, _Symposium_, 7, p. 179 D, E;
Pausanias, ix. 30. 5; Ovid, _Metam._ xi. 1-43; O. Gruppe, _s.v._
“Orpheus,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm.
Mythologie_, iii. 1165 _sq._ That Orpheus died the death of the god
has been observed both in ancient and modern times. See E. Rohde,
_Psyche_3 (Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903) ii. 118, note 2, quoting
Proclus on Plato; S. Reinach, “La mort d’Orphée,” _Cultes, Mythes et
Religions_, ii. (1906) pp. 85 _sqq._ According to Ovid, the
Bacchanals killed him with hoes, rakes, and mattocks. Similarly in
West Africa human victims used to be killed with spades and hoes and
then buried in a field which had just been tilled (J. B. Labat,
_Relation historique de l’Ethiopie occidentale_, Paris, 1732, i.
380). Such a mode of sacrifice points to the identification of the
human victim with the fruits of the earth.

220 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 5. 1.

221 R. M. Dawkins, “The Modern Carnival in Thrace and the Cult of
Dionysus,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xxvi. (1906) pp. 191-206.
See further _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 25 _sqq._

M83 Norwegian tradition of the dismemberment of a king, Halfdan the
Black. Frey, the Scandinavian god of fertility, buried at Upsala.

222 Snorri Sturluson, _Heimskringla, Saga Halfdanar Svarta_, ch. 9. I
have to thank Professor H. M. Chadwick for referring me to this
passage and translating it for me. See also _The Stories of the
Kings of Norway (Heimskringla)_, done into English by W. Morris and
E. Magnússon (London, 1893-1905), i. 86 _sq._ Halfdan the Black was
the father of Harold the Fair-haired, king of Norway (860-933 A.D.).
Professor Chadwick tells me that, though the tradition as to the
death and mutilation of Halfdan was not committed to writing for
three hundred years, he sees no reason to doubt its truth. He also
informs me that the word translated “abundance” means literally “the
produce of the season.” “Plenteous years” is the rendering of Morris
and Magnússon.

223 As to the descent of Halfdan and the Ynglings from Frey, see
_Heimskringla_, done into English by W. Morris and E. Magnússon, i.
23-71 (_The Saga Library_, vol. iii.). With regard to Frey, the god
of fertility, both animal and vegetable, see E. H. Meyer,
_Mythologie der Germanen_ (Strasburg, 1903), pp. 366 _sq._; P.
Hermann, _Nordische Mythologie_ (Leipsic, 1903), pp. 206 _sqq._

_ 224 Heimskringla_, done into English by W. Morris and E. Magnússon, i.
4, 22-24 (_The Saga Library_, vol. iii.).

M84 Segera, a magician of Kiwai, said to have been cut up after death
and the pieces buried in gardens to fertilize them.

_ 225 Totemism and Exogamy_, ii. 32 _sq._, from information supplied by
Dr. C. G. Seligmann.

M85 Apparently widespread custom of dismembering a king or magician and
burying the pieces in different parts of the kingdom.
M86 In this dismemberment a special virtue seems to have been ascribed
to the genital organs.

226 See above, p. 10.

227 Dudley Kidd, _Savage Childhood_ (London, 1906), p. 291.

228 Above, p. 97.

229 Above, pp. 268 _sq._

M87 The Egyptian kings probably opposed the custom and succeeded in
abolishing it. Precautions taken to preserve the bodies of kings
from mutilation.

230 See my notes on Pausanias, i. 28. 7 and viii. 47. 5 (vol. ii. pp.
366 _sq._, vol. iv. pp. 433 _sq._).

231 R. F. Harper, _Assyrian and Babylonian Literature_ (New York, 1901),
p. 116; C. Fossey, _La Magie Assyrienne_ (Paris, 1902), pp. 34 _sq._

232 Amos ii. 1.

233 Pausanias, i. 9. 7 _sq._

M88 Graves of kings and chiefs in Africa kept secret. Burial-place of
chiefs in Fiji kept secret. Graves of Melanesian magicians kept
secret.

234 P. B. du Chaillu, _Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa_
(London, 1861), pp. 18 _sq._

235 J. Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (Berlin, 1906), p. 107.

236 Mary H. Kingsley, _Travels in West Africa_ (London, 1897), pp. 449
_sq._ In West African jargon the word ju-ju means fetish or magic.

237 Father Porte, “Les reminiscences d’un missionnaire du Basutoland,”
_Missions Catholiques_, xxviii. (1896) pp. 311 _sq._ As to the
_Baloi_, see A. Merensky, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss Süd-Afrikas_
(Berlin, 1875), pp. 138 _sq._; E. Gottschling, “The Bawenda,”
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxv. (1905) p. 375. For
these two references I have to thank Mr. E. S. Hartland.

238 Henri A. Junod, _The Life of a South African Tribe_ (Neuchâtel,
1912-1913), i. 387 _sq._

239 Lorimer Fison, “Notes on Fijian Burial Customs,” _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, x. (1881) pp. 141 _sq._

240 R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), p. 269.

M89 Among the Koniags of Alaska the bodies of dead whalers were cut up
and used as talismans.

241 Ivan Petroff, _Report on the Population, Industries, and Resources
of Alaska_, p. 142. The account seems to be borrowed from H. J.
Holmberg, who adds that pains were taken to preserve the flesh from
decay, “because they believed that their own life depended on it.”
See H. J. Holmberg, “Über die Völker des russischen Amerika,” _Acta
Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae_, iv. (Helsingfors, 1856) p. 391.

M90 Assimilation of human victims to the corn.

242 Above, p. 97.

243 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 31; Herodotus, ii. 38.

244 Herrera, quoted by A. Bastian, _Die Culturländer des alten Amerika_
(Berlin, 1878), ii. 639; _id._, _General History of the vast
Continent and Islands of America_, translated by Capt. J. Stevens
(London, 1725-26), ii. 379 _sq._ (whose version of the passage is
inadequate). Compare Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des nations
civilisées du Mexique et de l’Amérique Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-59),
i. 327, iii. 525.

245 E. Lefébure, _Le mythe Osirien_ (Paris, 1874-75), p. 188.

246 Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 2,
“_Defensores eorum volunt addere physicam rationem, frugum semina
Osirim dicentes esse, Isim terram, Tyfonem calorem: et quia
maturatae fruges calore ad vitam hominum colliguntur et divisae a
terrae consortio separantur et rursus adpropinquante hieme
seminantur, hanc volunt esse mortem Osiridis, cum fruges recondunt,
inventionem vero, cum fruges genitali terrae fomento conceptae annua
rursus coeperint procreatione generari._” Tertullian, _Adversus
Marcionem_, i. 13, “_Sic et Osiris quod semper sepelitur et in
vivido quaeritur et cum gaudio invenitur, reciprocarum frugum et
vividorum elementorum et recidivi anni fidem argumentantur_.”
Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 65, οὕτω δὲ καὶ τοῖς πολλοῖς καὶ
φορτικοῖς ἐπιχειρήσομεν, εἴτε ταῖς καθ᾽ ὤραν μεταβολαῖς τοῦ
περιέχοντος εἴτε ταῖς καρπῶν γενέσεσι καὶ σποραῖς καὶ ἀρότοις
χαίρουσι τὰ περὶ τοὺς θεοὺς τούτους συνοικειοῦντες, καὶ λέγοντες
θάπτεσθαι μὲν Ὄσιριν ὅτε κρύπτεται τῇ γῇ σπειρόμενος ὁ καρπός, αὖθις
δ᾽ ἀναβιοῦσθαι καὶ ἀναφαίνεσφαι ὅτε βλαστήσεως ἀρχή. Eusebius,
_Praeparatio Evangelii_, iii. 11. 31, ὁ δὲ Ὄσιρις παρ᾽ Αἰγυπτίοις
τὴν κάρπιμον παρίστησι δύναμιν, ἢν θρήνοις ἀπομειλίσσονται εἰς γὴν
ἀφανιζομένην ἐν τῷ σπόρῳ καὶ ὑφ᾽ ἡμῶν καταναλισκομένην εἰς τὰς
τροφάς. Athenagoras, _Supplicatio pro Christianis_, 22, pp. 112, 114
ed. J. C. T. Otto, τὰ δὲ στοιχεῖα καὶ τὰ μόρια αὐτῶν θεοποιοῦσιν,
ἄλλοτε ἄλλα ὀνόματα αὐτοῖς τιθέμενοι, τὴν μὲν τοῦ σίτου σπορὰν
Ὄσιριν (ὄφεν φασὶ μυστικῶς ἐπὶ τῇ ἀνευρέσει τῶν μελῶν ἢ τῶν καρπῶν
ἐπιλεχθῆναι τῇ Ἴσιδι. Εὐρήκαμεν, συγχαίρομεν). See also the passage
of Cornutus quoted above, vol. i. p. 229, note 2.

M91 Osiris as a tree-spirit. His image enclosed in a pine-tree.

_ 247 De errore profanarum religionum_, 27.

248 See above, vol. i. pp. 267, 277.

249 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 21, αἰνῶ δὲ τομὴν ξύλου καὶ σχίσιν λίνου
καὶ χοὰς χεομένας, διὰ τὸ πολλὰ τῶν μυστικῶν ἀναμεμίχθαι τούτοις.
Again, _ibid._ 42, τὸ δὲ ξύλον ἐν ταῖς λεγομέναις Ὀσίριδος ταφαῖς
τέμνοντες κατασκευάζουσι λάρνακα μηνοειδῆ.

250 See above, p. 9.

M92 The setting up of the _ded_ pillar at the great festival of Osiris
in the month of Khoiak. The setting up of the pillar may have been
an emblem of the god’s resurrection.

251 As to the _tet_ or _ded_ pillar and its erection at the festival see
H. Brugsch in _Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und
Alterthumskunde_, 1881, pp. 84, 96; _id._, _Religion und Mythologie
der alten Aegypter_, p. 618; A. Erman, _Aegypten und aegyptisches
Leben im Altertum_, pp. 377 _sq._; _id._, _Die ägyptische
Religion_,2 pp. 22, 64; C. P. Tiele, _History of the Egyptian
Religion_ (London, 1882), pp. 46 _sq._; Sir J. Gardiner Wilkinson,
_Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_ (London, 1878), iii.
pp. 67, note 3, and 82; A. Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient
Egyptians_, pp. 289 _sq._; G. Maspero, _Histoire ancienne des
Peuples de l’Orient Classique_, i. 130 _sq._; A. Moret, _Du
caractère religieux de la royauté Pharaonique_, p. 153, note 1;
_id._, _Mystères Égyptiens_, pp. 12-16; E. A. Wallis Budge, _The
Gods of the Egyptians_, ii. 122, 124, _sq._; _id._, _Osiris and the
Egyptian Resurrection_, i. 6, 37, 48, 51 _sqq._; Miss Margaret A.
Murray, _The Osireion at Abydos_, pp. 27, 28; Ed. Meyer, _Geschichte
des Altertums_,2 i. 2, p. 70. In a letter to me (dated 8th December,
1910) my colleague Professor P. E. Newberry tells me that he
believes Osiris to have been originally a cedar-tree god imported
into Egypt from the Lebanon, and he regards the _ded_ pillar as a
lopped cedar-tree. The flail, as a symbol of Osiris, he believes to
be the instrument used to collect incense. A similar flail is used
by peasants in Crete to extract the ladanum gum from the shrubs. See
P. de Tournefort, _Relation d’un Voyage du Levant_ (Amsterdam,
1718), i. 29, with the plate. For this reference I am indebted to
Professor Newberry.

252 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 15. See above, p. 9.

_ 253 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 88-90.

M93 Osiris associated with the pine, the sycamore, the tamarisk, and the
acacia.

254 A. Mariette-Bey, _Dendérah_, iv. pl. 66.

255 A. Mariette-Bey, _Dendérah_, iv. pl. 72. Compare E. Lefébure, _Le
mythe Osirien_, pp. 194, 196, who regards the tree as a conifer. But
it is perhaps a tamarisk.

256 E. Lefébure, _op. cit._ pp. 195, 197.

257 S. Birch, in Sir J. G. Wilkinson’s _Manners and Customs of the
Ancient Egyptians_ (London, 1878), iii. 84.

258 Sir J. G. Wilkinson, _op. cit._ iii. 62-64; E. A. Wallis Budge, _The
Gods of the Egyptians_, ii. 106 _sq._; G. Maspero, _Histoire
ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient Classique_, i. 185.

259 J. H. Breasted, _Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient
Egypt_ (London, 1912), p. 28.

260 A. Moret, _Kings and Gods of Egypt_ (New York and London, 1912), p.
83.

261 Above, vol. i. pp. 227 _sq._

262 Sir J. G. Wilkinson, _op. cit._ iii. 349 _sq._; A. Erman, _Aegypten
und aegyptisches Leben im Altertum_, p. 368; H. Brugsch, _Religion
und Mythologie der alten Aegypter_, p. 621.

263 We may compare a belief of some of the Californian Indians that the
owl is the guardian spirit and deity of the “California big tree,”
and that it is equally unlucky to fell the tree or to shoot the
bird. See S. Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Washington, 1877), p.
398. When a Maori priest desires to protect the life or soul (_hau_)
of a tree against the insidious arts of magicians, he sets a
bird-snare in the tree, and the first bird caught in the snare, or
its right wing, embodies the life or soul of the tree. Accordingly
the priest recites appropriate spells over the bird or its wing and
hides it away in the forest. After that no evil-disposed magician
can hurt the tree, since its life or soul is not in it but hidden
away in the forest. See Elsdon Best, “Spiritual Concepts of the
Maori,” _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, ix. (1900) p. 195. Thus
the bird or its wing is the depository of the external soul of the
tree. Compare _Balder the Beautiful_, i. 95 _sqq._

264 Sir J. G. Wilkinson, _op. cit._ iii. 349 _sq._; H. Brugsch,
_Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter_, p. 621; R. V. Lanzone,
_Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia_, tav. cclxiii.; Plutarch, _Isis et
Osiris_, 20. In this passage of Plutarch it has been proposed by G.
Parthey to read μυρίκης (tamarisk) for μηθίδης (_methide_), and the
conjecture appears to be accepted by Wilkinson, _loc. cit._

265 E. Lefébure, _Le mythe Osirien_, p. 191.

266 E. Lefébure, _op. cit._ p. 188.

267 R. V. Lanzone, _Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia_, tav. ccciv.; G.
Maspero, _Histoire ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient Classique_, ii.
570, fig.

M94 Osiris in relation to fruit-trees, wells, the vine, and ivy.

268 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35. One of the points in which the myths
of Isis and Demeter agree is that both goddesses in the search for
the loved and lost one are said to have sat down, sad at heart and
weary, on the edge of a well. Hence those who had been initiated at
Eleusis were forbidden to sit on a well. See Plutarch, _Isis et
Osiris_, 15; Homer, _Hymn to Demeter_, 98 _sq._; Pausanias, i. 39.
1; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, i. 5. 1; Nicander, _Theriaca_, 486;
Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 20, p. 16 ed. Potter.

269 Tibullus, i. 7. 33-36; Diodorus Siculus, i. 17. 1, i. 20. 4.

270 E. A. Wallis Budge, _Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection_, i. 38,
39.

271 E. A. Wallis Budge, _op. cit._ i. 19, 45, with frontispiece.

272 Diodorus Siculus, i. 17. 4 _sq._

M95 Osiris perhaps conceived as a god of fertility in general.

273 Herodotus, ii. 48; Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 12, 18, 36, 51;
Diodorus Siculus, i. 21. 5, i. 22. 6 _sq._, iv. 6. 3.

274 Hippolytus, _Refutatio omnium haeresium_, v. 7, p. 144 ed. Duncker
and Schneidewin.

275 A. Mariette-Bey, _Dendérah_, iv. plates 66, 68, 69, 70, 88, 89, 90.
Compare R. V. Lanzone, _Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia_, tavv.
cclxxi., cclxxii., cclxxvi., cclxxxv., cclxxxvi., cclxxxvii.,
cclxxxix., ccxc.; E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_,
ii. 132, 136, 137.

276 Miss Margaret A. Murray, _The Osireion at Abydos_, p. 27.

277 That the Greek Dionysus was nothing but a slightly disguised form of
the Egyptian Osiris has been held by Herodotus in ancient and by Mr.
P. Foucart in modern times. See Herodotus, ii. 49; P. Foucart, _Le
culte de Dionysos en Attique_ (Paris, 1904) (_Mémoires de l’Académie
des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres_, xxxvii.).

M96 As god of the corn Osiris came to be viewed as the god of the
resurrection.

278 Above, pp. 13 _sq._

279 Above, pp. 90 _sq._

280 1 Corinthians xv. 36-38, 42-44.

M97 Great popularity of the worship of Osiris.

281 Herodotus, ii. 42. Compare E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the
Egyptians_, ii. 115 _sq._, 203 _sq._; _id._, _Osiris and the
Egyptian Resurrection_, i. 22 _sq._

M98 Multifarious attributes of Isis.

282 H. Brugsch, _Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter_, p. 645; W.
Dittenberger, _Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae_, vol. ii. p.
433, No. 695; _Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum_, iii. p. 1232, No.
4941. Compare H. Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, vol. ii.
Pars i. p. 179, No. 4376 A. In Egyptian her name is _Hest_ or _Ast_,
but the derivation and meaning of the name are unknown. See A.
Wiedemann, _The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, pp. 218 _sq._

283 C. P. Tiele, _History of Egyptian Religion_ (London, 1882), p. 57.

284 E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_, ii. 203 _sq._

M99 How Isis resembled yet differed from the Mother Goddesses of Asia.
Isis perhaps originally a goddess of the corn.

285 Diodorus Siculus, i. 14. 1 _sq._ Eusebius (_Praeparatio Evangelii_,
iii. 3) quotes from Diodorus a long passage on the early religion of
Egypt, prefacing it with the remark that Diodorus’s account of the
subject was more concise than that of Manetho.

286 Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, viii. 27. Tertullian says that Isis
wore a wreath of the corn she had discovered (_De corona_, 7).

287 Diodorus Siculus, i. 14. 2.

288 See above, p. 45, and vol. i. p. 232.

289 H. Brugsch, _Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter_, p. 647; E.
A. Wallis Budge, _Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection_, ii. 277.

290 H. Brugsch, _op. cit._ p. 649. Compare E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods
of the Egyptians_, ii. 216.

291 H. Brugsch, _loc. cit._

292 Herodotus, ii. 59, 156; Diodorus Siculus, i. 13, 25, 95;
Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, ii. 1. 3; J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on
Lycophron_, 212. See further W. Drexler, _s.v._ “Isis,” in W. H.
Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 443 _sq._

_ 293 Anthologia Planudea_, cclxiv. 1.

_ 294 Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta_, ed. G. Kaibel (Berlin,
1878), No. 1028, pp. 437 _sq._; _Orphica_, ed. E. Abel (Leipsic and
Prague, 1885), pp. 295 _sqq._

295 W. Drexler, _op. cit._ ii. 448 _sqq._

M100 Refinement and spiritualization of Isis in later times: the
popularity of her worship in the Roman empire. Resemblance of Isis
to the Madonna.

296 Otho often celebrated, or at least attended, the rites of Isis, clad
in a linen garment (Suetonius, _Otho_, 12). Commodus did the same,
with shaven head, carrying the effigy of Anubis. See Lampridius,
_Commodus_, 9; Spartianus, _Pescennius Niger_, 6; _id._,
_Caracallus_, 9.

297 L. Preller, _Römische Mythologie_3 (Berlin, 1881-1883), ii. 373-385;
J. Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_ (Leipsic, 1885), iii.2
77-81; E. Renan, _Marc-Aurèle et la fin du Monde Antique_ (Paris,
1882), pp. 570 _sqq._; J. Reville, _La religion romaine à Rome sous
les Sévères_ (Paris, 1886), pp. 54-61; G. Lafaye, _Histoire du culte
des divinités d’Alexandrie_ (Paris, 1884); E. Meyer and W. Drexler,
_s.v._ “Isis,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm.
Mythologie_, ii. 360 _sqq._; S. Dill, _Roman Society in the Last
Century of the Western Empire_2 (London, 1899), pp. 79 _sq._, 85
_sqq._; _id._, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_ (London,
1904), pp. 560 _sqq._ The chief passage on the worship of Isis in
the West is the eleventh book of Apuleius’s _Metamorphoses_. On the
reputation which the goddess enjoyed as a healer of the sick see
Diodorus Siculus, i. 25; W. Drexler, _op. cit._ ii. 521 _sqq._ The
divine partner of Isis in later times, especially outside of Egypt,
was Serapis, that is Osiris-Apis (_Asar-Ḥāpi_), the sacred Apis bull
of Memphis, identified after death with Osiris. His oldest sanctuary
was at Memphis (Pausanias, i. 18. 4), and there was one at Babylon
in the time of Alexander the Great (Plutarch, _Alexander_, 76;
Arrian, _Anabasis_, vii. 26). Ptolemy I. or II. built a great and
famous temple in his honour at Alexandria, where he set up an image
of the god which was commonly said to have been imported from Sinope
in Pontus. See Tacitus, _Histor._ iv. 83 _sq._; Plutarch, _Isis et
Osiris_, 27-29; Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ iv. 48, p. 42 ed.
Potter. In after ages the institution of the worship of Serapis was
attributed to this Ptolemy, but all that the politic Macedonian
monarch appears to have done was to assimilate the Egyptian Osiris
to the Greek Pluto, and so to set up a god whom Egyptians and Greeks
could unite in worshipping. Serapis gradually assumed the attributes
of Aesculapius, the Greek god of healing, in addition to those of
Pluto, the Greek god of the dead. See G. Lafaye, _Histoire du culte
des divinités d’Alexandrie_, pp. 16 _sqq._; A. Wiedemann, _Herodots
zweites Buch_, p. 589; E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the
Egyptians_, ii. 195 _sqq._; A. Erman, _Die ägyptische Religion_,2
pp. 237 _sq._

298 The resemblance of Isis to the Virgin Mary has often been pointed
out. See W. Drexler, _s.v._ “Isis,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der
griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 428 _sqq._

299 W. Drexler, _op. cit._ ii. 430 _sq._

300 Th. Trede, _Das Heidentum in der römischen Kirche_ (Gotha,
1889-1891), iii. 144 _sq._

301 On this later aspect of Isis see W. Drexler, _op. cit._ ii. 474
_sqq._

M101 Osiris interpreted as the sun by many modern writers.

302 P. E. Jablonski, _Pantheon Aegyptiorum_ (Frankfort, 1750-1752), i.
125 _sq._

303 Diodorus Siculus, i. 11. 1.

304 See p. 116, note 2.

305 See Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, bk. i.

_ 306 Saturn._ i. 21. 11.

307 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 10 and 51; Sir J. G. Wilkinson, _Manners
and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_ (London, 1878), iii. 353; R.
V. Lanzone, _Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia_, pp. 782 _sq._; E. A.
Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_, ii. 113 _sq._; J. H.
Breasted, _Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt_,
pp. 11 _sq._ Strictly speaking, the eye was the eye of Horus, which
the dutiful son sacrificed in behalf of his father Osiris. “This act
of filial devotion, preserved to us in the Pyramid Texts, made the
already sacred Horus-eye doubly revered in the tradition and feeling
of the Egyptians. It became the symbol of all sacrifice; every gift
or offering might be called a ‘Horus-eye,’ especially if offered to
the dead. Excepting the sacred beetle, or scarab, it became the
commonest and the most revered symbol known to Egyptian religion,
and the myriads of eyes, wrought in blue or green glaze, or even cut
from costly stone, which fill our museum collections, and are
brought home by thousands by the modern tourist, are survivals of
this ancient story of Horus and his devotion to his father” (J. H.
Breasted, _op. cit._ p. 31).

308 E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_, i. 467; A. Erman,
_Die ägyptische Religion_,2 p. 8.

_ 309 Isis et Osiris_, 52.

_ 310 De errore profanarum religionum_, 8.

M102 The later identification of Osiris with Ra, the sun-god, does not
prove that Osiris was originally the sun. Such identifications
sprang from attempts to unify and amalgamate the many local cults of
Egypt.

311 Lepsius, “Über den ersten ägyptischen Götterkreis und seine
geschichtlich-mythologische Entstehung,” in _Abhandlungen der
königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_, 1851, pp. 194
_sq._

312 The view here taken of the history of Egyptian religion is based on
the sketch in Ad. Erman’s _Aegypten und aegyptisches Leben im
Altertum_, pp. 351 _sqq._ Compare C. P. Tiele, _Geschichte der
Religion im Altertum_ (Gotha, 1896-1903), i. 79 _sq._

M103 Most Egyptian gods were at some time identified with the sun.
Attempt of Amenophis IV. to abolish all gods except the sun-god.
Failure of the attempt.

313 On this attempted revolution in religion see Lepsius, in
_Verhandlungen der königl. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin_,
1851, pp. 196-201; A. Erman, _Aegypten und aegyptisches Leben im
Altertum_, pp. 74 _sq._, 355-357; _id._, _Die ägyptische Religion_,2
pp. 76-84; H. Brugsch, _History of Egypt_ (London, 1879), i. 441
_sqq._; A. Wiedemann, _Aegyptische Geschichte_ (Gotha, 1884), pp.
396 _sqq._; _id._, _Die Religion der alten Agypter_, pp. 20-22;
_id._, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, pp. 35-43; C. P. Tiele,
_Geschichte der Religion im Altertum_, i. 84-92; G. Maspero,
_Histoire ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient Classique_, i. 316
_sqq._; E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_, ii. 68-84;
J. H. Breasted, _History of the Ancient Egyptians_ (London, 1908),
pp. 264-279; A. Moret, _Kings and Gods of Egypt_ (New York and
London, 1912), pp. 41-68. A very sympathetic account of this
remarkable religious reformer is given by Professor J. H. Breasted
(_Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt_, pp.
319-343). Amenophis IV. reigned from about 1375 to 1358 B.C. His new
capital, Akhetaton, the modern Tell-el-Amarna, was on the right bank
of the Nile, between Memphis and Thebes. The king has been described
as “of all the Pharaohs the most curious and at the same time the
most enigmatic figure.” To explain his bodily and mental
peculiarities some scholars conjectured that through his mother,
Queen Tii, he might have had Semitic blood in his veins. But this
theory appears to have been refuted by the discovery in 1905 of the
tomb of Queen Tii’s parents, the contents of which are of pure
Egyptian style. See A. Moret, _op. cit._ pp. 46 _sq._

M104 Identification with the sun is no evidence of the original character
of an Egyptian god.
M105 The solar theory of Osiris does not explain his death and
resurrection.

314 P. Le Page Renouf, _Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion_2
(London, 1884), p. 113.

315 The late eminent scholar C. P. Tiele, who formerly interpreted
Osiris as a sun-god (_History of Egyptian Religion_, pp. 43 _sqq._),
afterwards adopted a view of his nature which approaches more nearly
to the one advocated in this book. See his _Geschichte der Religion
im Altertum_, i. 35 _sq._, 123. Professor Ed. Meyer also formerly
regarded Osiris as a sun-god; he now interprets him as a great
vegetation god, dwelling in the depths of the earth and causing the
plants and trees to spring from it. The god’s symbol, the _ded_
pillar (see above, pp. 108 _sq._), he takes to be a tree-trunk with
cross-beams. See Ed. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, i. p. 67, §
57 (first edition, 1884); _id._, i.2 2. pp. 70, 84, 87 (second
edition, 1909). Sir Gaston Maspero has also abandoned the theory
that Osiris was the sun; he now supposes that the deity originally
personified the Nile. See his _Histoire ancienne_4 (Paris, 1886), p.
35; and his _Histoire ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient Classique_,
i. (Paris, 1895), p. 130. Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge also formerly
interpreted Osiris as the Nile (_The Gods of the Egyptians_, i. 122,
123), and this view was held by some ancient writers (Plutarch,
_Isis et Osiris_, 32, 34, 36, 38, 39). Compare Miss M. A. Murray,
_The Osireion at Abydos_ (London, 1904), p. 29. Dr. Budge now
explains Osiris as a deified king. See his _Osiris and the Egyptian
Resurrection_, vol. i. pp. xviii, 30 _sq._, 37, 66 _sq._, 168, 254,
256, 290, 300, 312, 384. As to this view see below, pp. 158 _sqq._

M106 The death and resurrection of Osiris are more naturally explained by
the annual decay and growth of vegetation.

316 For the identification of Osiris with Dionysus, and of Isis with
Demeter, see Herodotus, ii. 42, 49, 59, 144, 156; Plutarch, _Isis et
Osiris_, 13, 35; Diodorus Siculus, i. 13, 25, 96, iv. 1; _Orphica_,
Hymn 42; Eusebius, _Praepar. Evang._ iii. 11. 31; Servius on Virgil,
_Aen._ xi. 287; _id._, on Virgil, _Georg._ i. 166; J. Tzetzes,
_Schol. on Lycophron_, 212; Διηγήματα, xxii. 2, in _Mythographi
Graeci_, ed. A. Westermann (Brunswick, 1843), p. 368; Nonnus,
_Dionys._ iv. 269 _sq._; Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_,
28; Ausonius, _Epigrammata_, 29 and 30. For the identification of
Osiris with Adonis and Attis see Stephanus Byzantius, _s.v._
Ἀμαθοῦς; Damascius, “Vita Isodori,” in Photius, _Bibliotheca_, ed.
Im. Bekker (Berlin, 1824), p. 343_a_, lines 21 _sq._; Hippolytus,
_Refutatio omnium haeresium_, v. 9. p. 168 ed. Duncker and
Schneidewin; _Orphica_, Hymn 42. For the identification of Attis,
Adonis, and Dionysus see Socrates, _Historia Ecclesiastica_, iii. 23
(Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, lxvii. 448); Plutarch, _Quaestiones
Conviviales_, iv. 5. 3; Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 19,
p. 16 ed. Potter.

317 Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 7. According to Professor Ed. Meyer, the
relations of Egypt to Byblus were very ancient and close; he even
suggests that there may have been from early times an Egyptian
colony, or at all events an Egyptian military post, in the city. The
commercial importance of Byblus arose from its possession of the
fine cedar forests on the Lebanon; the timber was exported to Egypt,
where it was in great demand. See Ed. Meyer, _Geschichte des
Altertums_,2 i. 2. pp. xix, 391 _sqq._

318 Herodotus, ii. 49.

319 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35.

320 Osiris, Attis, Adonis, and Dionysus were all resolved by him into
the sun; but he spared Demeter (Ceres), whom, however, he
interpreted as the moon. See the _Saturnalia_, bk. i.

M107 Osiris was sometimes interpreted by the ancients as the moon.

321 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 41.

322 On Osiris as a moon-god see E. A. Wallis Budge, _Osiris and the
Egyptian Resurrection_, i. 19-22, 59, 384 _sqq._

323 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 13, 42.