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

850

A. Jeremias, op. cit. pp. 59 sq.; M. Jastrow, op. cit. pp. 475 sq., 484 sq.; Herodotus, i. 199. The name which Herodotus gives to the goddess is Mylitta, but this is only a corruption of one of her Semitic titles, whether Baalath (Hebrew בעלת) “mistress,” or perhaps rather Mullittu, from Mu'allidtu (Hebrew מילדת), “she who helps to the birth.” See E. Meyer, s. v. “Astarte,” in W. H. Roscher's Lexicon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, i. 648; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament3 (Berlin, 1902), p. 423 note 7. The female “votaries of Marduk” are repeatedly mentioned in the code of Hammurabi. See C. H. W. Johns, Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters (Edinburgh, 1904), pp. 54, 55, 59, 60, 61; Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 63.

851

Along with Anaitis at Zela there were worshipped two deities named Omanos and Anadates; Strabo says that they were Persian divinities, and certainly their ritual as described by him was purely Persian. See Strabo, xi. 8. 4, p. 512, xv. 3. 15, p. 733; Franz Cumont, Les Religions orientales dans le Paganisme romain2 (Paris, 1909), pp. 214 sq. It has been proposed to identify their names, first, with those of the two Persian archangels (Amshaspands), Vohumano or Vohu Manah (“Good Thought”) and Ameretât (“Immortality”), and, second, with those of Haman and his father Hammedatha in the book of Esther (iii. 1). In order to support the identification of Anadates with Ameretât and Hammedatha it has been further proposed to alter Anadates into Amadates or Amardates in the text of Strabo, which would assimilate the name to Amurdâd, a late form of Ameretât. See P. Jensen, Hittiter und Armenier (Strasburg, 1898), p. 181; Franz Cumont, Textes et Monuments figurés relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra, i. (Brussels, 1899) pp. 130, 131; H. Winckler, Altorientalische Forschungen, Dritte Reihe, i. (Leipsic, 1901) p. 4; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament3 (Berlin, 1902), p. 516 note 3; P. Haupt, Purim (Leipsic, 1906), p. 26; L. B. Paton, Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Esther (Edinburgh, 1908), pp. 88, 92. As to the Persian archangels (Amshaspands) see C. P. Tiele, Geschichte der Religion im Altertum (Gotha, 1896-1903), ii. 200 sqq.; L. H. Gray, “The Double Nature of the Iranian Archangels,” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, vii. (1904) pp. 345 sqq.; J. H. Moulton, Early Religious Poetry of Persia (Cambridge, 1911), pp. 58 sqq. But apart from the philological difficulty created by the forcible alteration of Strabo's text in order to bring it into conformity with the theory, it is difficult to see how the highly abstract conceptions of the archangels “Good Thought” and “Immortality” could have passed into the highly concrete and by no means angelic figures of Haman and Hammedatha. This latter difficulty has been pointed out to me in a letter (8th June, 1901) by my friend the Rev. Professor J. H. Moulton, who further informs me that in Persian religion Vohu Manah is never linked with Ameretât, whereas Ameretât is constantly linked with another archangel Haurvatât (“Health”). Professor Theodor Nöldeke in a letter to me (20th May, 1901) also expresses himself sceptical as to the proposed identifications; he tells me that the name of a Persian god cannot end in data, just as the name of a Greek god cannot end in – δωρος or – δοτος. On the whole it seems better to leave Omanos and Anadates out of the present discussion.

852

Franz Boas, “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians,” Report of the United States National Museum for 1895 (Washington, 1897), p. 396.

853

Franz Boas, op. cit. pp. 420 sq. The description applies specially to the masked dances of the Kwakiutl tribe, but probably it holds good for the similar dances of the other Indian tribes on the same coast. Thus among the Bella Coola Indians “the masks used in the dances represent mythical personages, and the dances are pantomimic representations of myths. Among others, the thunder bird and his servant … appear in the dances” (F. Boas, op. cit. p. 651).

854

Tamanawas or tamanous is a Chinook term signifying “guardian spirits.” See Totemism and Exogamy, iii. 405 sqq.

855

James G. Swan, The Indians of Cape Flattery, p. 66, quoted by Franz Boas, op. cit. pp. 637 sq.

856

J. Adrian Jacobsen, “Geheimbünde der Küstenbewohner Nordwest-America's,” Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte (1891), pp. 384 sq. The passage has been already quoted by me in Totemism and Exogamy, iii. 500-502.

857

As to the belief of these Esquimaux that at the Festival of the Dead the spirits of the departed enter into and animate their human namesakes, see Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, p. 371.

858

E. W. Nelson, “The Eskimo about Bering Strait,” Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1899) pp. 394 sq.

859

K. Th. Preuss, Die Nayarit Expedition, I. Die Religion der Cora Indianer (Leipsic, 1912), pp. xcii. sqq., xcv. sqq.

860

Th. Koch-Grünberg, Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern (Berlin, 1909-1910), i. 130-140, ii. 169-201. The passage translated in the text occurs in vol. ii. p. 196.

861

F. Vormann, “Tänze und Tanzfestlichkeiten der Monumbo-Papua (Deutsch-Neuguinea),” Anthropos, vi. (1911) pp. 415 sq., 418 sqq., 426 sq.

862

A. W. Nieuwenhuis, Quer durch Borneo (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 324. As to these masquerades of the Kayans see Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 95 sq., 186 sq.

863

Rev. J. Perham, “Mengap, the Song of the Dyak Sea Feast,” Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. 2 (Singapore, December, 1878), pp. 123 sq., 134; H. Ling Roth, The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo (London, 1896), ii. 174 sq., 183. Compare E. H. Gomes, Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo (London, 1911), pp. 213 sq.: “This song of the head feast takes the form of a story setting forth how the mythical hero Klieng held a head feast on his return from the warpath, and invited the god of war, Singalang Burong, to attend it. It describes at great length all that happened on that occasion. The singing of this song takes up the whole night. It begins before 8 p. m., and lasts till next morning. Except for a short interval for rest in the middle of the night, the performers are marching and singing all the time.” On the third day of the festival the people go out on the open-air platform in front of the house and sacrifice a pig. “The people shout together (manjong) at short intervals until a hawk is seen flying in the heavens. That hawk is Singalang Burong, who has taken that form to manifest himself to them. He has accepted their offerings and has heard their cry” (E. H. Gomes, op. cit. p. 214).

864

A. E. Haigh, The Attic Theatre (Oxford, 1889), pp. 4 sqq, The religious origin of Greek tragedy is maintained by Professor W. Ridgeway (The Origin of Tragedy, Cambridge, 1910), but he finds its immediate inspiration in the worship of the dead rather than in the worship of Dionysus.

865

H. Oldenberg, Die Literatur des alten Indien (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1903), pp. 236 sqq. Professor Oldenberg holds that the evolution of the Indian drama was probably not influenced by that of Greece.

866

Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 239 sq.

867

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 97 sqq.

868

C. P. Tiele, Babylonisch-Assyrische Geschichte (Gotha, 1886-1888), pp. 351 sqq.; M. Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, U.S.A., 1898), p. 43; Sir G. Maspero, Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient Classique, iii. Les Empires (Paris, 1899), pp. 378 sqq.; C. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Literature (New York, 1901), pp. 94 sqq.

869

Athenaeus, xii. 38 sq., pp. 528 f-530 c; Diodorus Siculus, ii. 23 and 27; Justin, i. 3. Several different versions of the king's epitaph have come down to us. I have followed the version of Choerilus, the original of which is said to have been carved in Chaldean letters on a tombstone that surmounted a great barrow at Nineveh. This barrow may, as I suggest in the text, have been one of the so-called mounds of Semiramis.

870

Ammianus Marcellinus, xiv. 8; Dio Chrysostom, Or. xxxiii. p. 408 (vol. ii. p. 16 ed. L. Dindorf, Leipsic, 1857). Coins of Tarsus exhibit the effigy on the pyre, which seems to be composed of a pyramid of great beams resting on a cubical base. See K. O. Müller, “Sandon und Sardanapal,” Kunstarchäologische Werke (Berlin, 1873), iii. 8 sqq., whose valuable essay I follow. For fuller details see Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 91 sqq., 139 sqq.

871

Agathias, Hist. ii. 24.

872

Joannes Lydus, De magistratibus, iii. 64; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, ii. 6. 2 sq.; Lucian, Dial. deorum, xiii. 2.

873

K. O. Müller, “Sandon und Sardanapal,” Kunstarchäologische Werke (Berlin, 1873), iii. 16 sq. The writer adds that there is authority for every stroke in the picture. His principal source is the sixty-second speech of Dio Chrysostom (vol. ii. p. 202 ed. L. Dindorf), where the unmanly Sardanapalus, seated cross-legged on a gilded couch with purple hangings, is compared to “the Adonis for whom the women wail.”

874

Herodotus, i. 7.

875

Herodotus, i. 86 sq., with J. C. F. Bähr's note. According to another and perhaps more probable tradition the king sought a voluntary death in the flames. See Bacchylides, iii. 24-62; Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 141 sqq.

876

The Dying God, pp. 41 sq.

877

Sophocles, Trachiniae, 1195 sqq.:

πολλὴν μὲν ὕλην τῆς βαθυρρίζου δρυὸς κείραντα πολλὸν δ᾽ ἄρσεν ἐκτεμόνθ᾽ ὁμοῦ ἄγριον ἔλαιον, σῶμα τουμὸν ἐμβαλεῖν.

The passage was pointed out to me by my friend the late Dr. A. W. Verrall. The poet's language suggests that of old a sacred fire was kindled by the friction of oak and wild olive wood, and that in accordance with a notion common among rude peoples, one of the pieces of wood (in this case the wild olive) was regarded as male and the other (the oak) as female. On this hypothesis, the fire was kindled by drilling a hole in a piece of oak with a stick of wild olive. As to the different sorts of wood used by the ancients in making fire by friction, see A. Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks2 (Gütersloh, 1886), pp. 35 sqq.; The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 249 sqq. In South Africa a special fire is procured for sacrifices by the friction of two pieces of the Uzwati tree, which are known respectively as husband and wife. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 65.

878

Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 68.

879

F. C. Movers, Die Phoenizier, i. (Bonn, 1841) p. 496.

880

This suggestion was made by F. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde (Heilbronn, 1879), p. 9. It occurred to me independently.

881

Lucian, De dea Syria, 49.

882

Codex Theodosianus, Lib. xvi. Tit. viii. § 18: “Judaeos quodam festivitatis suae solleni Aman ad poenae quondam recordationem incendere, et sanctae crucis adsimulatam speciem in contemptu Christianae fidei sacrilega mente exurere provinciarum rectores prohibeant: ne locis suis fidei nostrae signum immisceant, sed ritus suos infra contemptum Christianae legis retineant: amissuri sine dubio permissa hactenus, nisi ab inlicitis temperaverint.” The decree is dated at Constantinople, in the consulship of Bassus and Philip. For locis we should probably read jocis with Mommsen.

883

Fr. Cumont, “Une formule grecque de renonciation au judaïsme,” Wiener Studien, xxiv. (1902) p. 468. The “Christian fast” referred to in the formula is no doubt Lent. The mention of the Jewish Sabbath (the Christian Saturday) raises a difficulty, which has been pointed out by the editor, Franz Cumont, in a note (p. 470): “The festival of Purim was celebrated on the 14th of Adar, that is, in February or March, about the beginning of the Christian Lent; but that festival, the date of which is fixed in the Jewish calendar, does not always fall on a Saturday. Either the author made a mistake or the civil authority obliged the Jews to transfer their rejoicings to a Sabbath” (Saturday).

884

Israel Abrahams, The Book of Delight and other Papers (Philadelphia, 1912), pp. 266 sq. Mr. Abrahams ingeniously suggests (op. cit. pp. 267 sq.) that the ring waved over the fire was an emblem of the sun, and that the kindling of the Purim fires was originally a ceremony of imitative magic to ensure a supply of solar light and heat.

885

Albîrûnî, The Chronology of Ancient Nations, translated and edited by Dr. C. Edward Sachau (London, 1879), pp. 273 sq.

886

Quoted by Lagarde, “Purim,” p. 13 (Abhandlungen der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, xxxiv. 1887).

887

M. Güdemann, Geschichte des Erziehungswesens und der Cultur der abendländischen Juden (Vienna, 1880-1888), ii. 211 sq.; I. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (London, 1896), pp. 260 sq.

888

J. J. Schudt, Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1714), ii. Theil, p. 309.

889

Socrates, Historia Ecclesiastica, vii. 16; Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. J. Classen (Bonn, 1839-1841), vol. i. p. 129. Theophanes places the event in the year 408 a. d. From a note in Migne's edition of Socrates, I learn that in the Alexandrian calendar, which Theophanes used, the year 408 corresponded to the year which in our reckoning began on the first of September 415. Hence if the murder was perpetrated in spring at Purim it must have taken place in 416.

890

This is the view of H. Graetz (Geschichte der Juden,2 iv. Leipsic, 1866, pp. 393 sq.) and Dr. M. R. James (Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich (Cambridge, 1896), by A. Jessopp and M. R. James, pp. lxiii. sq.).

891

For an examination of some of these reported murders, see M. R. James, op. cit. pp. lxii. sqq.; H. L. Strack, Das Blut im Glauben und Aberglauben der Menschheit (Munich, 1900), pp. 121 sqq. Both writers incline to dismiss the charges as groundless.

892

Above, pp. 353 sq.

893

J. Buxtorf, Synagoga Judaica (Bâle, 1661), cap. xxix. p. 554; J. Chr. G. Bodenschatz, Kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen Juden (Erlangen, 1748), ii. 253 sq.

894

Esther iv. 3 and 16, ix. 31.

895

So far as I know, Professor Jensen has not yet published his theory, but he has stated it in letters to correspondents. See W. Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebräischen Archäologie (Freiburg i. Baden and Leipsic, 1894), ii. 200; H. Günkel, Schöpfung und Chaos (Göttingen, 1895), pp. 311 sqq.; D. G. Wildeboer, in his commentary on Esther, pp. 174 sq. (Kurzer Hand-Commentar zum Alten Testament, herausgegeben von D. K. Marti, Lieferung 6, Freiburg i. B., 1898). In the Babylonian calendar the 13th of Adar was so far a fast day that on it no fish or fowl might be eaten. In one tablet the 13th of Adar is marked “not good,” while the 14th and 15th are marked “good.” See C. H. W. Johns, s. v. “Purim,” Encyclopaedia Biblica, iii. (London, 1902) col. 3980.

896

M. Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, U.S.A., 1898), pp. 471 sq., 475 sq., 481-486, 510-512; L. W. King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology (London, 1899), pp. 146 sqq.; P. Jensen, Assyrisch-Babylonische Mythen und Epen (Berlin, 1900), pp. 116-273; R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Literature (New York, 1901), pp. 324-368; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament3 (Berlin, 1902), pp. 566-582; Das Gilgamesch-Epos, neu übersetzt von Arthur Ungnad und gemeinverständlich erklärt von Hugo Gressmann (Göttingen, 1911). Professor Jastrow points out that though a relation cannot be traced between each of the tablets of the poem and the corresponding month of the year, such a relation appears undoubtedly to exist between some of the tablets and the months. Thus, for example, the sixth tablet describes the affection of Ishtar for Gilgamesh, and the visit which she paid to Anu, her father in heaven, to complain of the hero's contemptuous rejection of her love. Now the sixth Babylonian month was called the “Mission of Ishtar,” and in it was held the festival of Tammuz, the hapless lover of the goddess. Again, the story of the great flood is told in the eleventh tablet, and the eleventh month was called the “month of rain.” See M. Jastrow, op. cit. pp. 484, 510.

897

Ezekiel viii. 14.

898

Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 183 sq., 227.

899

Esther vii. 8.

900

See above, p. 368.

901

Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 183.

902

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

903

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

904

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

905

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

906

The Dying God, pp. 148 sqq.

907

Esther vi. 8 sq., viii. 15.

908

The Dying God, pp. 254 sqq.

909

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

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

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

910

The interpretation here given of the four principal personages in the book of Esther was suggested by me in the second edition of this book (1900). It agrees substantially with the one which has since been adopted by Professor H. Zimmern (in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament,3 Berlin, 1902, p. 519), and by Professor P. Haupt (Purim, Leipsic, 1906, pp. 21 sq.).

911

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

912

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

913

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

914

The Dying God, pp. 148 sqq.

915

The Dying God, pp. 46 sqq.

916

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

917

Berosus, quoted by Eusebius, Chronicorum liber prior, ed. A. Schoene (Berlin, 1875), coll. 14-18; id., in Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, ed. C. Muller, ii. 497 sq.; P. Jensen, Assyrisch-Babylonische Mythen und Epen (Berlin, 1900), pp. 2 sqq.; L. W. King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology (London, 1899), pp. 54 sqq.; M. Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, U.S.A., 1898), pp. 408 sqq.; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament3 (Berlin, 1902), pp. 488 sqq.; M. J. Lagrange, Études sur les Religions Sémitiques2 (Paris, 1905), pp. 366 sqq.; R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (Oxford, preface dated 1911), pp. 31 sq., 36. In the Hebrew account of the creation (Genesis i. 2) “the deep” (תהום tĕhom) is a reminiscence of the Babylonian mythical monster Tiamat.

918

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

919

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

920

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