The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 07 of 12)

129

Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 18, 42.

130

The resurrection of Osiris is not described by Plutarch in his treatise Isis et Osiris, which is still our principal source for the myth of the god; but it is fortunately recorded in native Egyptian writings. See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 274. P. Foucart supposes that the resurrection of Dionysus was enacted at the Anthesteria; August Mommsen prefers to suppose that it was enacted in the following month at the Lesser Mysteries.

131

Aelian, De Natura Animalium, xii. 34. Compare W. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites2 (London, 1894), pp. 300 sqq.

132

Aulus Gellius, v. 12. 12.

133

See The Dying God, p. 166 note 1, and below, p. 249.

134

R. Foerster, Der Raub und die Rückkehr der Persephone (Stuttgart, 1874), pp. 37-39; The Homeric Hymns, edited by T. W. Allen and E. E. Sikes (London, 1904), pp. 10 sq. A later date – the age of the Pisistratids – is assigned to the hymn by A. Baumeister (Hymni Homerici, Leipsic, 1860, p. 280).

135

Hymn to Demeter, 1 sqq., 302 sqq., 330 sqq., 349 sqq., 414 sqq., 450 sqq.

136

Hymn to Demeter, 310 sqq. With the myth as set forth in the Homeric hymn may be compared the accounts of Apollodorus (Bibliotheca, i. 5) and Ovid (Fasti, iv. 425-618; Metamorphoses, v. 385 sqq.).

137

Hymn to Demeter, 47-50, 191-211, 292-295, with the notes of Messrs. Allen and Sikes in their edition of the Homeric Hymns (London, 1904). As to representations of the candidates for initiation seated on stools draped with sheepskins, see L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, iii. (Oxford, 1907) pp. 237 sqq., with plate xv a. On a well-known marble vase there figured the stool is covered with a lion's skin and one of the candidate's feet rests on a ram's skull or horns; but in two other examples of the same scene the ram's fleece is placed on the seat (Farnell, op. cit. p. 240 note a), just as it is said to have been placed on Demeter's stool in the Homeric hymn. As to the form of communion in the Eleusinian mysteries, see Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. 21, p. 18 ed. Potter; Arnobius, Adversus nationes, v. 26; L. R. Farnell, op. cit. iii. 185 sq., 195 sq. For discussions of the ancient evidence bearing on the Eleusinian mysteries it may suffice to refer to Chr. A. Lobeck, Aglaophamus (Königsberg, 1829), pp. 3 sqq.; G. F. Schoemann, Griechische Alterthümer,4 ii. 387 sqq.; Aug. Mommsen, Heortologie (Leipsic, 1864), pp. 222 sqq.; id., Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 204 sqq.; P. Foucart, Recherches sur l'Origine et la Nature des Mystères d'Eleusis (Paris, 1895) (Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, xxxv.); id., Les grands Mystères d'Eleusis (Paris, 1900) (Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, xxxvii.); F. Lenormant and E. Pottier, s. v. “Eleusinia,” in Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines, ii. 544 sqq.; L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, iii. 126 sqq.

138

Hippolytus, Refutatio Omnium Haeresium, v. 8, p. 162, ed. L. Duncker et F. G. Schneidewin (Göttingen, 1859). The word which the poet uses to express the revelation (δεῖξε, Hymn to Demeter, verse 474) is a technical one in the mysteries; the full phrase was δεικνύναι τὰ ἱερά. See Plutarch, Alcibiades, 22; Xenophon, Hellenica, vi. 3. 6; Isocrates, Panegyricus, 6; Lysias, Contra Andocidem, 51; Chr. A. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 51.

139

Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii. 12, p. 12 ed. Potter: Δηὼ δὲ καὶ Κόρη δρᾶμα ἤδη ἐγενέσθην μυστικόν; καὶ τὴν πλάνην καὶ τὴν ἀρπαγὴν καὶ τὸ πένθος αὐταῖν Ἐλευσὶς δᾳδουχεῖ. Compare F. Lenormant, s. v. “Eleusinia,” in Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines iii. 578: “Que le drame mystique des aventures de Déméter et de Coré constituât le spectacle essentiel de l'initiation, c'est ce dont il nous semble impossible de douter.” A similar view is expressed by G. F. Schoemann (Griechische Alterthümer,4 ii. 402); Preller-Robert (Griechische Mythologie, i. 793); P. Foucart (Recherches sur l'Origine et la Nature des Mystères d'Eleusis, Paris, 1895, pp. 43 sqq.; id., Les Grands Mystères d'Eleusis, Paris, 1900, p. 137); E. Rohde (Psyche,3 i. 289); and L. R. Farnell (The Cults of the Greek States, iii. 134, 173 sqq.).

140

On Demeter and Proserpine as goddesses of the corn, see L. Preller, Demeter und Persephone (Hamburg, 1837), pp. 315 sqq.; and especially W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen (Strasburg, 1884), pp. 202 sqq.

141

According to the author of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (verses 398 sqq., 445 sqq.) and Apollodorus (Bibliotheca, i. 5. 3) the time which Persephone had to spend under ground was one third of the year; according to Ovid (Fasti, iv. 613 sq.; Metamorphoses, v. 564 sqq.) and Hyginus (Fabulae, 146) it was one half.

142

This view of the myth of Persephone is, for example, accepted and clearly stated by L. Preller (Demeter und Persephone, pp. 128 sq.).

143

See, for example, Firmicus Maternus, De errore profanarum religionum, 17. 3: “Frugum substantiam volunt Proserpinam dicere, quia fruges hominibus cum seri coeperint prosunt. Terram ipsam Cererem nominant, nomen hoc a gerendis fructibus mutuati”; L. Preller, Demeter und Persephone, p. 128, “Der Erdboden wird Demeter, die Vegetation Persephone.” François Lenormant, again, held that Demeter was originally a personification of the earth regarded as divine, but he admitted that from the time of the Homeric poems downwards she was sharply distinguished from Ge, the earth-goddess proper. See Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines, s. v. “Ceres,” ii. 1022 sq. Some light might be thrown on the question whether Demeter was an Earth Goddess or a Corn Goddess, if we could be sure of the etymology of her name, which has been variously explained as “Earth Mother” (Δῆ μήτηρ equivalent to Γῆ μήτηρ) and as “Barley Mother” (from an alleged Cretan word δηαί “barley”: see Etymologicum Magnum, s. v. Δηώ, pp. 263 sq.). The former etymology has been the most popular; the latter is maintained by W. Mannhardt. See L. Preller, Demeter und Persephone, pp. 317, 366 sqq.; F. G. Welcker, Griechische Götterlehre, i. 385 sqq.; Preller-Robert, Griechische Mythologie, i. 747 note 6; Kern, in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, iv. 2713; W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 281 sqq. But my learned friend the Rev. Professor J. H. Moulton informs me that both etymologies are open to serious philological objections, and that no satisfactory derivation of the first syllable of Demeter's name has yet been proposed. Accordingly I prefer to base no argument on an analysis of the name, and to rest my interpretation of the goddess entirely on her myth, ritual, and representations in art. Etymology is at the best a very slippery ground on which to rear mythological theories.

144

Hymn to Demeter, 8 sqq.

145

Hymn to Demeter, 279, 302.

146

Homer, Iliad, v. 499-504.

147

Iliad, xiii. 322, xxi. 76.

148

Hesiod, Works and Days, 31 sq.

149

Quoted by Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 66.

150

Pausanias, i. 22. 3 with my note; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 615; J. de Prott et L. Ziehen, Leges Graecorum Sacrae, Fasciculus I. (Leipsic, 1896) p. 49; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 28; Scholiast on Sophocles, Oedipus Colon. 1600; L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, iii. 312 sq.

151

Herodotus, i. 193, iv. 198; Xenophon, Hellenica, vi. 3. 6; Aelian, Historia Animalium, xvii. 16; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 28; Geoponica, i. 12. 36; Paroemiographi Graeci, ed. Leutsch et Schneidewin, Appendix iv. 20 (vol. i. p. 439).

152

Cerealia in Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxiii. 1; Cerealia munera and Cerealia dona in Ovid, Metamorphoses, xi. 121 sq.

153

Libanius, ed. J. J. Reiske, vol. iv. p. 367, Corinth. Oratio: Οὐκ αὖθις ἡμῶν ακαρποσ ἡ γῆ δοκεῖ γεγονέναι? οὐ πάλιν ὁ πρὸ Δήμητρος εἶναι βίος? καί τοι καὶ πρὸ Δήμητρος αἱ γεωργίαι μὲν οὐκ ἦσαν; οὐδὲ ἄροτοι, αὐτόφυτοι δὲ βοτάναι καὶ πόαι; καὶ πολλὰ εἶχεν εἰς σωτηρίαν ἀνθρώπων αὐτοσχέδια ἄνθη ἡ γῆ ὠδίνουσα καὶ κύουσα πρὸ τῶν ἡμέρων τὰ ἄγρια. Ἐπλανῶντο μὲν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐπ᾽ ἀλλήλους; ἄλση καὶ ὄρη περιῄσαν, ζητοῦντες αὐτόματον τροφήν. In this passage, which no doubt represents the common Greek view on the subject, the earth is plainly personified (ὠδίνουσα καὶ κύουσα), which points the antithesis between her and the goddess of the corn. Diodorus Siculus also says (v. 68) that corn grew wild with the other plants before Demeter taught men to cultivate it and to sow the seed.

154

Ovid, Fasti, iv. 616; Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelii, iii. 11. 5; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 28; Anthologia Palatina, vi. 104. 8; W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, p. 235; J. Overbeck, Griechische Kunstmythologie, iii. (Leipsic, 1873-1878) pp. 420, 421, 453, 479, 480, 502, 505, 507, 514, 522, 523, 524, 525 sq.; L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, iii. 217 sqq., 220 sq., 222, 226, 232, 233, 237, 260, 265, 268, 269 sq., 271.

155

Theocritus, Idyl. vii. 155 sqq. That the sheaves which the goddess grasped were of barley is proved by verses 31-34 of the poem.

156

Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelii, iii. 11. 5; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 28, p. 56, ed. C. Lang; Virgil, Georg. i. 212, with the comment of Servius.

157

See the references to the works of Overbeck and Farnell above. For example, a fine statue at Copenhagen, in the style of the age of Phidias, represents Demeter holding poppies and ears of corn in her left hand. See Farnell, op. cit. iii. 268, with plate xxviii.

158

Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 28, p. 56 ed. C. Lang.

159

Percy Gardner, Types of Greek Coins (Cambridge, 1883), p. 174, with plate x. No. 25.

160

Diodorus Siculus, v. 68. 1.

161

Hesiod, Works and Days, 448-474; Epictetus, Dissertationes, iii. 21. 12. For the autumnal migration and clangour of the cranes as the signal for sowing, see Aristophanes, Birds, 711; compare Theognis, 1197 sqq. But the Greeks also ploughed in spring (Hesiod, op. cit. 462; Xenophon, Oeconom. 16); indeed they ploughed thrice in the year (Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, vii. 13. 6). At the approach of autumn the cranes of northern Europe collect about rivers and lakes, and after much trumpeting set out in enormous bands on their southward journey to the tropical regions of Africa and India. In early spring they return northward, and their flocks may be descried passing at a marvellous height overhead or halting to rest in the meadows beside some broad river. The bird emits its trumpet-like note both on the ground and on the wing. See Alfred Newton, Dictionary of Birds (London, 1893-1896), pp. 110 sq.

162

Hesiod, Works and Days, 383 sq., 615-617; Aratus, Phaenomena, 254-267; L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie (Berlin, 1825-1826), i. 241 sq. According to Pliny (Nat. Hist. xviii. 49) wheat, barley, and all other cereals were sown in Greece and Asia from the time of the autumn setting of the Pleiades. This date for ploughing and sowing is confirmed by Hippocrates and other medical writers. See W. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,3 i. 234. Latin writers prescribe the same date for the sowing of wheat. See Virgil, Georg. i. 219-226; Columella, De re rustica, ii. 8; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xviii. 223-226. In Columella's time the Pleiades, he tells us (l. c.), set in the morning of October 24th of the Julian calendar, which would correspond to the October 16th of our reckoning.

163

Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 69.

164

Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 70. Similarly Cornutus says that “Hades is fabled to have carried off Demeter's daughter because the seed vanishes for a time under the earth,” and he mentions that a festival of Demeter was celebrated at the time of sowing (Theologiae Graecae Compendium, 28, pp. 54, 55 ed. C. Lang). In a fragment of a Greek calendar which is preserved in the Louvre “the ascent (ἀναβάσις) of the goddess” is dated the seventh day of the month Dius, and “the descent or setting (δύσις) of the goddess” is dated the fourth day of the month Hephaestius, a month which seems to be otherwise unknown. See W. Froehner, Musée Nationale du Louvre, Les Inscriptions Grecques (Paris, 1880), pp. 50 sq. Greek inscriptions found at Mantinea refer to a worship of Demeter and Persephone, who are known to have had a sanctuary there (Pausanias, viii. 9. 2). The people of Mantinea celebrated “mysteries of the goddess” and a festival called the koragia, which seems to have represented the return of Persephone from the lower world. See W. Immerwahr, Die Kulte und Mythen Arkadiens (Leipsic, 1891), pp. 100 sq.; S. Reinach, Traité d'Epigraphie Grecque (Paris, 1885), pp. 141 sqq.; Hesychius, s. v. κοράγειν.

165

Theocritus, Idyl. vii.

166

In ancient Greece the vintage seems to have fallen somewhat earlier; for Hesiod bids the husbandman gather the ripe clusters at the time when Arcturus is a morning star, which in the poet's age was on the 18th of September. See Hesiod, Works and Days, 609 sqq.; L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie, i. 247.

167

See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 190 note 2.

168

See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 190 note 2.

169

Hesiod, Works and Days, 383 sq.

170

L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie, i. 242.

171

Compare Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 17, ἐπειδὰν γὰρ ὁ μετοπωρινὸς χρόνος ἔλθῃ, πάντες που οἱ ἄνθρωποι πρὸς τὸν θέον ἀποβλέπουσιν, ὅποτε βρέξας τὴν γῆν ἀφήσει αὐτοὺς σπείρειν.

172

August Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum, p. 193.

173

See above, pp. 44 sqq.

174

See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 283 sqq.

175

Scholiast on Aristophanes, Knights, 720; Suidas, s. vv. εἰρεσιώνη and προηροσίαι; Etymologicum Magnum, Hesychius, and Photius, Lexicon, s. v. προηρόσια; Plutarch, Septem Sapientum Convivium, 15; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 521, line 29, and No. 628; Aug. Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 192 sqq. The inscriptions prove that the Proerosia was held at Eleusis and that it was distinct from the Great Mysteries, being mentioned separately from them. Some of the ancients accounted for the origin of the festival by a universal plague instead of a universal famine. But this version of the story no doubt arose from the common confusion between the similar Greek words for plague and famine (λοιμός and λιμός). That in the original version famine and not plague must have been alleged as the reason for instituting the Proerosia, appears plainly from the reference of the name to ploughing, from the dedication of the festival to Demeter, and from the offerings of first-fruits; for these circumstances, though quite appropriate to ceremonies designed to stay or avert dearth and famine, would be quite inappropriate in the case of a plague.

176

Hesychius, s. v. προηρόσια.

177

August Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum, p. 194.

178

August Mommsen, l. c.

179

Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 521, lines 29 sqq.

180

Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 628.

181

The view that the Festival before Ploughing (Proerosia) fell in Pyanepsion is accepted by W. Mannhardt and W. Dittenberger. See W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und Feldkulte (Berlin, 1877), pp. 238 sq.; id., Mythologische Forschungen, p. 258; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 note 2 on Inscr. No. 628 (vol. ii. pp. 423 sq.). The view that the Festival before Ploughing fell in Boedromion is maintained by August Mommsen. See his Heortologie (Leipsic, 1864), pp. 218 sqq.; id., Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 192 sqq.

182

See below, p. 82.

183

L. Ideler, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie (Berlin, 1825-1826), i. 292 sq.; compare August Mommsen, Chronologie (Leipsic, 1883), pp. 58 sq.

184

For example, Theophrastus notes that squills flowered thrice a year, and that each flowering marked the time for one of the three ploughings. See Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, vii. 13. 6.

185

Hesiod, Works and Days, 383 sqq. The poet indeed refers (vv. 765 sqq.) to days of the month as proper times for engaging in certain tasks; but such references are always simply to days of the lunar month and apply equally to every month; they are never to days as dates in the solar year.

186

See below, p. 72.

187

Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquit. Rom. i. 12. 2.

188

Xenophon, Historia Graeca, vi. 3. 6.

189

Isocrates, Panegyric, 6 sq.

190

Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 20 (vol. i. pp. 33 sqq.); E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, Part ii. (Cambridge, 1905) No. 9, pp. 22 sqq.

191

Aristides, Panathen. and Eleusin., vol. i. pp. 167 sq., 417 ed. G. Dindorf (Leipsic, 1829).

192

Diodorus Siculus, v. 2 and 4; Cicero, In C. Verrem, act. ii. bk. iv. chapters 48 sq. Both writers mention that the whole of Sicily was deemed sacred to Demeter and Persephone, and that corn was said to have grown in the island before it appeared anywhere else. In support of the latter claim Diodorus Siculus (v. 2. 4) asserts that wheat grew wild in many parts of Sicily.

193

Diodorus Siculus, v. 4.

194

This legend, which is mentioned also by Cicero (In C. Verrem, act. ii. bk. iv. ch. 48), was no doubt told to explain the use of torches in the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone. The author of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter tells us (verses 47 sq.) that Demeter searched for her lost daughter for nine days with burning torches in her hands, but he does not say that the torches were kindled at the flames of Etna. In art Demeter and Persephone and their attendants were often represented with torches in their hands. See L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, iii. (Oxford, 1907) plates xiii., xv. a, xvi., xvii., xviii., xix., xx., xxi. a, xxv., xxvii. b. Perhaps the legend of the torchlight search for Persephone and the use of the torches in the mysteries may have originated in a custom of carrying fire about the fields as a charm to secure sunshine for the corn. See The Golden Bough,2 iii. 313.

195

The words which I have translated “the bringing home of the Maiden” (τῆς Κόρης τὴν καταγωγήν) are explained with great probability by Professor M. P. Nilsson as referring to the bringing of the ripe corn to the barn or the threshing-floor (Griechische Feste, Leipsic, 1906, pp. 356 sq.). This interpretation accords perfectly with a well-attested sense of καταγωγή and its cognate verb κατάγειν, and is preferable to the other possible interpretation “the bringing down,” which would refer to the descent of Persephone into the nether world; for such a descent is hardly appropriate to a harvest festival.

196

Cicero, Pro L. Flacco, 26.

197

Himerius, Orat. ii. 5.

198

Μητρόπολις τῶν καρπῶν, Aristides, Panathen. vol. i. p. 168 ed. G. Dindorf (Leipzig, 1829).

199

Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum,2 No. 20, lines 25 sqq.; E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, ii. (Cambridge, 1905) No. 9, lines 25 sqq., κελευέτω δὲ καί ὁ ἱεροφάντης καὶ ὁ δᾳδοῦχος μυστηρίοις ἀπάρχεσθαι τοὺς Ἔλληνας τοῦ καρποῦ κατὰ τὰ πάτρια καὶ τὴν μαντείαν τὴν ἐγ Δελφῶν. By coupling μυστηρίοις with ἀπάρχεσθαι instead of with κελεύετω, Miss J. E. Harrison understands the offering instead of the exhortation to have been made at the mysteries (Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Second Edition, p. 155, “Let the Hierophant and the Torchbearer command that at the mysteries the Hellenes should offer first-fruits of their crops,” etc.). This interpretation is no doubt grammatically permissible, but the context seems to plead strongly, if not to be absolutely decisive, in favour of the other. It is to be observed that the exhortation was addressed not to the Athenians and their allies (who were compelled to make the offering) but only to the other Greeks, who might make it or not as they pleased; and the amount of such voluntary contributions was probably small compared to that of the compulsory contributions, as to the date of which nothing is said. That the proclamation to the Greeks in general was an exhortation (κελευέτω), not a command, is clearly shewn by the words of the decree a few lines lower down, where commissioners are directed to go to all Greek states exhorting but not commanding them to offer the first-fruits (ἐκείνοις δὲ μὴ ἐπιτάττοντας, κελεύοντας δὲ ἀπάρχεσθαι ἐὰν βούλωνται κατὰ τὰ πάτρια καὶ τὴν μαντείαν ἐγ Δελφῶν). The Athenians could not command free and independent states to make such offerings, still less could they prescribe the exact date when the offerings were to be made. All that they could and did do was, taking advantage of the great assembly of Greeks from all quarters at the mysteries, to invite or exhort, by the mouth of the great priestly functionaries, the foreigners to contribute.