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

J. A. MacCulloch, in Dr. J. Hastings's Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, iii. (Edinburgh, 1910) pp. 78 sqq. Compare S. de Ricci, “Le calendrier Gaulois de Coligny,” Revue Celtique, xix. (1898) pp. 213-223; id., “Le calendrier Celtique de Coligny,” Revue Celtique, xxi. (1900) pp. 10-27; id., “Un passage remarquable du calendrier de Coligny,” Revue Celtique, xxiv. (1903) pp. 313-316; J. Loth, “L'année Celtique,” Revue Celtique, xxv. (1904) pp. 113-162; Sir John Rhys, “The Coligny Calendar”, Proceedings of the British Academy, 1909-1910, pp. 207 sqq. As the calendar stands, the number of days in the ordinary year is 355, not 354, seven of the months having thirty days and five of them twenty-nine days. But the month Equos has attached to it the sign ANM, which is attached to all the months of twenty-nine days but to none of the months of thirty days except Equos, all of which, except Equos, are marked with the sign MAT. Hence, following a suggestion of M. S. de Ricci (Revue Celtique, xxi. 25), I suppose that the month Equos had regularly twenty-nine days instead of thirty, and that the attribution of thirty days to it is an error of the scribe or mason who engraved the calendar.

In the Coligny calendar the summer solstice seems to be marked by the word trinouxtion affixed to the seventeenth day of the first month (Samonios, nearly equivalent to our June). As interpreted by Sir John Rhys (op. cit. p. 217), the word means “a period of three nights of equal length.” If he is right, it follows that the Celts who constructed the calendar had observed the summer solstice.

783

J. A. MacCulloch, in Dr. J. Hastings's Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, iii. 79. Compare Sir J. Rhys, “The Coligny Calendar,” Proceedings of the British Academy, 1909-1910, pp. 292 sq.

784

We know from Livy (xxii. i. 19 sq.) that the Saturnalia was celebrated in December as early as the year 217 b. c.; and in his learned discussion of the proper date of the festival the antiquary Macrobius gives no hint that it ever fell at any other time than in December (Saturnal. i. 10). It would be a mistake to infer from Livy's account of the Saturnalia in the year 217 b. c. that he supposed the festival to have been first instituted in that year; for elsewhere (ii. 21. 1) he tells us that it was established at the time when the temple of Saturn was dedicated, namely in the year 497 b. c. Macrobius (Saturn. i. 8. 1) refers the institution of the Saturnalia to King Tullus Hostilius. More probably the festival was of immemorial antiquity.

785

Macrobius, Sat. i. 12. 7; Solinus, i. 35, p. 13 ed. Th. Mommsen (Berlin, 1864); Joannes Lydus, De Mensibus, iii. 15. On the other hand, we know that the ceremony of renewing the laurels, which originally took place on the first of March, was long afterwards transferred to the first of January. See Ovid, Fasti, iii. 135 sqq., and Macrobius, Saturn. i. 12. 6, compared with Geoponica, xi. 2. 6, where the note of the commentator Niclas may be consulted. This transference is strictly analogous to the change which I conjecture to have been made in the date of celebrating the Saturnalia.

786

Palladius, De re rustica, books iii. and iv. passim.

787

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 137-139.

788

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 136-144, ii. 97 sqq.

789

Compare C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico (London, 1903), ii. 268: “To the Huichol so closely are corn, deer, and hikuli associated that by consuming the broth of the deer-meat and the hikuli they think the same effect is produced – namely, making the corn grow. Therefore when clearing the fields they eat hikuli before starting the day's work.”

790

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 104 sqq. The Indians of Santiago Tepehuacan abstain from flesh, eggs, and grease while they are engaged in sowing cotton and chilis, because they believe that were they to partake of these viands at that time, the blossoms would fall and the crop would suffer. See “Lettre du curé de Santiago Tepehuacan à son évêque sur les mœurs et coutumes des Indiens,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris), Deuxième Série, ii. (1834) p. 181.

791

In Franche-Comté not only husbands and wives were expected to be continent from the first Sunday of Lent to the first Sunday after Easter, but even sweethearts separated during that time, bidding each other a formal farewell on the first of these days and meeting again with similar formality on the last. See C. Beauquier, Les Mois en Franche-Comté (Paris, 1900), p. 35. I am informed that the observance of chastity during Lent is enjoined generally by the Catholic church. As to its injunction by the Coptic church see F. Wüstenfeld, Macrizi's Geschichte der Copten (Göttingen, 1845), p. 84; Il Fetha Nagast, o Legislazione dei Re, codice ecclesiastico e civile di Abissinia, tradotto e annotato da Ignazio Guidi (Rome, 1899), p. 164.

792

Socrates, Historia Ecclesiastica, v. 22; Sozomenus, Historia Ecclesiastica, vii. 19 (Migne, Patrologia Graeca, lxvii. coll. 632-636, 1477); W. Smith and S. Cheetham, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, s. v. “Lent,” vol. ii. pp. 972 sq.; Mgr. L. Duchesne, Origines du Culte Chrétien (Paris, 1903), pp. 241-243.

793

Firmicus Maternus, De errore profanarum religionum, 27.

794

Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 69: καὶ γὰρ Ἀθήνῃσι νηστεύουσιν αἱ γυναῖκες ἐν θεσμοφορίοις χαμαὶ καθήμεναι, καὶ Βοιωτοὶ τὰ τῆς Ἀχαιᾶς μέγαρα κινοῦσιν, ἐπαχθῆ τὴν ἑορτὴν ἐκείνην ὀνομάζοντες, ὡς διὰ τὴν τῆς Κόρης κάθοδον ἐν ἄχει τῆς Δήμητρος οὕσης. Ἔστι δὲ ὁ μὴν οὗτος περὶ πλειάδα σπόριμος, ὂν Ἀθὺρ Αἰγύπτιοι, Πυανεψιῶνα δ᾽ Ἀθηναῖοι, Βοιωτοὶ δὲ Δαμάτριον καλοῦσι. As to the festival and the rule of chastity observed at it, see further Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i. 116, ii. 17 sq.

795

H. Fielding, The Soul of a People (London, 1898), pp. 172 sq. The orthodox explanation of the custom is that during these three months the Buddha retired to a monastery. But “the custom was far older even than that – so old that we do not know how it arose. Its origin is lost in the mists of far-away time.” Compare C. J. F. S. Forbes, British Burma (London, 1878), pp. 170 sq.; Shway Yoe, The Burman, his Life and Notions (London, 1882), i. 257, 262 sqq.

796

Athenaeus, xiv. 44 sq., pp. 639 B-640 a.

797

Macrobius, Saturn. i. 7. 37 and i. 10. 22; Demosthenes, Or. xxiv. 26, p. 708. As to the temple of Cronus and Rhea, see Pausanias, i. 18. 7; Im. Bekker's Anecdota Graeca (Berlin, 1814-1821), i. p. 273, lines 20 sq. That the Attic month Hecatombaeon was formerly called Cronius is mentioned by Plutarch (Theseus, 12). Other Greek states, including Samos, Amorgos, Perinthus, and Patmos, had a month called Cronion, that is, the month of Cronus, which seems to have coincided with June or July. See G. Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum2 (Leipsic, 1898-1901), Nos. 644 and 645; E. Bischoff, “De fastis Graecorum antiquioribus,” Leipziger Studien für classischen Philologie, vii. (1884) p. 400. At Magnesia on the Maeander the month of Cronion was the time of sowing (Dittenberger, op. cit. No. 553, lines 15 sq.), which cannot have fallen in the height of summer. Compare Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 8.

798

Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum, iii. No. 77; Ch. Michel, Recueil d'Inscriptions Grecques (Brussels, 1900), No. 692, pp. 595 sq.; I. de Prott et L. Ziehen, Leges Graecorum Sacrae, i. (Leipsic, 1896), No. 3, pp. 7 sq.; E. S. Roberts and E. A. Gardner, Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, Part II. (Cambridge, 1905), No. 142, pp. 387 sq. From the same inscription we learn that cakes with twelve knobs were offered to other deities, including Apollo and Artemis, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hercules.

799

Scholiast on Hesiod, Works and Days, 370 (p. 170 ed. E. Vollbehr, Kiel, 1844): Καὶ ἐν τοῖς πατρίοις ἐστιν ἑορτὴ Πιθοιγία, καθ᾽ ἣν οὒτε οἰκέτην οὔτε μισθωτὸν εἴργειν τῆς ἀπολαύσεως τοῦ οἴνου θεμιτὸν ἦν, ἀλλὰ θύσαντας πᾶσι μεταδιδόναι τοῦ δώρου τοῦ Διονύσου. As to the festival of the opening of the wine-jars see August Mommsen, Heortologie (Leipsic, 1864), pp. 349 sqq.; id., Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 384 sqq. “When the slaves,” says Plutarch, “feast at the Cronia or go about celebrating the festival of Dionysus in the country, the shouts they raise and the tumult they make in their rude merriment are intolerable” (Non posse suaviter vivi secundum Epicurum, 26). That the original festival of Cronus fell at Athens in Anthesterion is the view of Aug. Mommsen (Heortologie, pp. 22, 79; Feste der Stadt Athen, p. 402).

800

Pausanias, vi. 20. 1. Compare Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Antiquit. Rom. i. 34. The magistrates called “kings” (βασίλαι) by Pausanias are doubtless identical with “the kings” (τοὶ βασιλᾶες) mentioned in a law of Elis, which was found inscribed on a bronze plate at Olympia. See H. Roehl, Inscriptiones Graecae Antiquissimae (Berlin, 1882), No. 112, p. 39; C. Cauer, Delectus Inscriptionum Graecarum propter dialectum memorabilium2 (Leipsic, 1883), No. 253, p. 175; H. Collitz, Sammlung der griechischen Dialekt-Inschriften, No. 1152 (vol. i. Göttingen, 1884, p. 321); Ch. Michel, Recueil d'Inscriptions Grecques, No. 195, p. 179.

801

See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 44 sqq., ii. 177, 361.

802

Hesiod, Works and Days, 111, 169; Plato, Politicus, p. 269 a; Diodorus Siculus, iii. 61, v. 66; Julian, Epistola ad Themistium, p. 258 c (pp. 334 sq., ed. F. C. Hertlein, Leipsic, 1875-1876); “Anonymi Chronologica,” printed in L. Dindorf's edition of J. Malalas (Bonn, 1831), p. 17. See further M. Mayer's article “Kronos,” in W. H. Roscher's Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, ii. (Leipsic, 1890-1897) col. 1458.

803

See M. Mayer, op. cit. ii. 1501 sqq.

804

Pausanias, vi. 20. 4 sq.

805

Plato, Republic, ix. p. 565 d e; pseudo-Plato, Minos, p. 315 c; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 81; Pausanias, viii. 2 and 38; Porphyry, De abstinentia, ii. 27; Augustine, De civitate Dei, xviii. 17. The suggestion that Lycaean Zeus may have been merely a successor of Cronus is due to my friend Professor W. Ridgeway.

806

Porphyry, De abstinentia, ii. 54.

807

The Dying God, pp. 161 sqq.

808

The Dying God, pp. 113 sqq.

809

Athenaeus, xiv. 44, p. 639 c; Dio Chrysostom, Or. iv. 69 sq. (vol. i. p. 76 ed. L. Dindorf, Leipsic, 1857). From Athenaeus we learn that the festival was described or mentioned by Berosus in his first book and by Ctesias in his second.

810

Strabo, xi. 8. 5, p. 512.

811

Strabo, xi. 14. 16, pp. 532 sq.; Ed. Meyer's article “Anaitis,” in W. H. Roscher's Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, i. (Leipsic, 1884-1890) pp. 330 sqq.

812

By A. H. Sayce, Religion of the Ancient Babylonians (London and Edinburgh, 1887), p. 68; Bruno Meissner, “Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Purimfestes,” Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, l. (1896) pp. 296-301; H. Winckler, Altorientalische Forschungen, Zweite Reihe, ii. Heft 3 (Leipsic, 1900), p. 345; C. Brockelmann, “Wesen und Ursprung des Eponymats in Assyrien,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, xvi. (1902) pp. 391 sq.

813

P. Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier (Strasburg, 1890), pp. 84 sqq.; H. Zimmern, “Zur Frage nach dem Ursprunge des Purimfestes,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, xi. (1891) pp. 159 sqq.; A. Jeremias, s. v. “Marduk,” in W. H. Roscher's Lexicon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, ii. 2347 sq.; M. Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, U.S.A., 1898), pp. 186, 677 sqq.; R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Literature (New York, 1901), pp. 136 sq., 137, 140, 149; C. Brocklemann, “Wesen und Ursprung des Eponymats in Assyrien,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, xvi. (1902) pp. 391 sqq.; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament3 (Berlin, 1902), pp. 370 sq., 374, 384 n.4, 402, 514 sqq.; id., “Zum Babylonischen Neujahrsfest,” Berichte über die Verhandlungen der königlich Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-historische Klasse, lviii. (1906) pp. 126-156; M. J. Lagrange, Études sur les Religions Sémitiques2 (Paris, 1905); pp. 285 sqq. King Gudea is thought to have flourished about 2340 b. c. See Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums,2 i. 2. (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1909) pp. 488 sq. As to the ceremony of grasping the hands of Marduk's image, see also C. F. Lehmann (-Haupt), Šamaššumukin, König von Babylonien (Leipsic, 1892), pp. 50 sqq.; Sir G. Maspero, Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient Classique, iii. Les Empires (Paris, 1899). pp. 381 sq.

814

On this subject the Master of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge (the Rev. C. H. W. Johns), has kindly furnished me with the following note: “ZAG is the name of the ideogram meaning ‘head or beginning.’ MU is the sign for ‘year.’ When put together ZAG-MU means ‘beginning of year.’ But ZAG-MU-KU means ZAG MU-d, i. e. ZAG with MU suffixed. Therefore it is the name of the ideogram, and there is as yet no proof that it was ever read Zakmuk. Hence any similarity of sound with either Sacaea or Zoganes is precarious. I cannot prove that the signs were never read Zakmuku, but that is not a Semitic word nor a Sumerian word.”

815

The statement occurs in an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar. See P. Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, p. 85; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament3 (Berlin, 1902), p. 402. The title of the president of the divine synod, “king of the gods of heaven and earth,” is believed by Professor Zimmern to have originally referred to the god Nabu, though at a later time it was applied to Marduk.

816

See The Dying God, p. 116 note 1. In Egypt the Macedonian calendar seems to have fallen into great confusion. See W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae (Leipsic, 1903-1905), ii. pp. 649 sq. I would remind the reader that while the dates of the Syro-Macedonian months varied in different places, their order was the same everywhere.

817

See above, p. 355, note 5. On the other hand Prof. H. Zimmern prefers to suppose that the Sacaea was quite distinct from Zakmuk, and that it fell in July at the time of the heliacal rising of Sirius, which seems to have been associated with the goddess Ishtar. See H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament3 (Berlin, 1902), pp. 426 sq.

818

Encyclopaedia Biblica, s. v. “Year,” vol. iv. (London, 1903) coll. 5365 sqq.

819

The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 59 sqq.

820

The Golden Bough, Second Edition, iii. 237 sqq.

821

J. Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung2 (Leipsic, 1885), pp. 200 sq.

822

H. Zimmern, “Zur Frage nach dem Ursprunge des Purimfestes,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, xi. (1891) pp. 157-169; W. Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebräischen Archäologie (Freiburg i. B. and Leipsic, 1894), ii. 198 sqq.; Br. Meissner, “Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Purimfestes,” Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, l. (1896) pp. 296-301; Fr. Cumont, “Le roi des Saturnales,” Revue de Philologie, xxi. (1897) p. 150; P. Haupt, Purim (Leipsic, 1906). The various theories which have been propounded as to the origin of Purim are stated and discussed by Prof. L. B. Paton in his Commentary on the Book of Esther (Edinburgh, 1908), pp. 77-94. See also Encyclopaedia Biblica, s. v. “Purim,” vol. iii. (London, 1902) coll. 3976 sqq.

823

S. R. Driver, Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament8 (Edinburgh, 1909), p. 484. Professor T. Witton Davies would date the book about 130 b. c. See Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, edited by Rev. T. Witton Davies (Edinburgh and London, n. d.), pp. 299-301 (The Century Bible).

824

2 Maccabees xv. 36. As to the date of this book, see S. R. Driver, op. cit. p. 481.

825

We know from Josephus (Antiquit. iii. 10. 5) that in the month Nisan, the first month of the Jewish year, the sun was in Aries. Now the sun is in Aries from March 20th or 21st to April 19th or 20th; hence Nisan answers approximately to April, and Adar to March.

826

Esther iii. 7.

827

Esther iii. 7, ix. 26.

828

This is the view of H. Zimmern (Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, xi. (1891) pp. 157 sqq.), and it is favoured by W. Nowack (Lehrbuch der hebräischen Archäologie, ii. 198 sq.). Compare H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament3 (Berlin, 1902), p. 518.

829

P. Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, pp. 240 sq.

830

The explanation is that of P. Jensen, quoted by Th. Nöldeke in Encyclopaedia Biblica, s. v. “Esther,” vol. ii. (London, 1901) col. 1404 note 1. In Greek, for a similar reason, the word for “pebble” and “vote” is identical (ψῆφος). As to this etymology see also C. H. W. Johns, s. v. “Purim,” Encyclopaedia Biblica, iii. (London, 1902) coll. 3979 sq.

831

Esther x. 22.

832

J. Buxtorf, Synagoga Judaica (Bâle, 1661), pp. 554 sq., 559 sq.

833

J. Buxtorf, op. cit. p. 559; Schickard, quoted by Lagarde, “Purim,” Abhandlungen der kön. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, xxxiv. (1887) pp. 54 sq. Compare J. Chr. G. Bodenschatz, Kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen Juden (Erlangen, 1748), ii. 256. For the rule forbidding men and women to exchange garments, see Deuteronomy xxii. 5.

834

J. J. Schudt, Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1714), ii. Theil, pp. 309, 314, 316, iv. Theiles die ii. Continuation, p. 347; I. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (London, 1896), pp. 261 sqq. I have to thank my learned friend Dr. S. Schechter for bringing both these works to my notice.

835

P. Jensen, “Elamitische Eigennamen,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vi. (1892) pp. 47-70; compare ib. pp. 209-212. All Jensen's etymologies are accepted by W. Nowack (Lehrbuch der hebräischen Archäologie, Freiburg i. Baden and Leipsic, 1894, ii. 199 sq.); H. Gunkel (Schöpfung und Chaos, Göttingen, 1895, pp. 310 sq.); D. G. Wildeboer (in his commentary on Esther, pp. 173 sqq., forming part of K. Marti's Kurzer Hand-Commentar zum alten Testament, Freiburg i. B. 1898); Th. Nöldeke (s. v. “Esther,” Encyclopaedia Biblica, vol. ii. coll. 1404 sq.); and H. Zimmern (in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament,3 Berlin, 1902, pp. 485, 516 sq.). On the other hand, Br. Meissner (Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, I. (1896) p. 301) and M. Jastrow (The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 686, note 2) suspend their judgment as to the identification of Haman and Vashti with Elamite deities, though they apparently regard the identification of Mordecai and Esther with Marduk and Ishtar as quite certain. The doubt which these scholars felt as to the derivation of one at least of these names (Vashti) is now known to be well founded. See below, p. , note 3.

It deserves to be noted that on the twenty-seventh day of the month Tammuz the heathen of Harran used to sacrifice nine male lambs to Haman, “the supreme God, the father of the gods,” and they ate and drank on that day. Chwolsohn suggests a comparison of the festival with the Athenian Cronia. See D. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus (St. Petersburg, 1856), ii. 27 sq., 211 sqq.

836

Th. Nöldeke, s. v. “Esther,” in Encyclopaedia Biblica, vol. ii. (London, 1901) coll. 1405. But in a letter, written to me (20th May 1901) since the publication of the last edition of this book, Professor Nöldeke expresses a doubt whether he has not followed Jensen's mythological identifications in the book of Esther too far.

837

“The change of m to w or v (the Hebrew ו = waw) is frequent and certain” (the Rev. C. H. W. Johns in a letter to me, May 19th, 1913). The change is vouched for also by my friend Professor A. A. Bevan, who cites as an instance the name of the Babylonian king Amel-Marduk, which in Hebrew is changed into Evil-Merodach (2 Kings xxv. 27; Jeremiah lii. 31). See E. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament3 (Berlin, 1902), p. 396.

838

The name of the Elamite goddess is read as Parti by the Rev. Father Scheil. See E. Cosquin, Le Prologue-cadre des Mille et Une Nuits, les Légendes Perses, et le Livre d'Esther (Paris, 1909), p. 68 (extract from the Revue Biblique Internationale, Janvier et Avril, 1909, published by the Dominicans of Jerusalem). The Master of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge (the Rev. C. H. W. Johns), has kindly examined the facsimile of the inscriptions for me. He informs me that Father Scheil's reading is correct and that the reading Mashti is quite wrong. He further tells me that Jensen was misled by an incorrect edition of the inscriptions to which alone he had access. The signs for par (or bar) and mash in the inscriptions resemble each other and therefore might easily be confused by a copyist. All Jensen's etymologies, except that of Mordecai, are adversely criticized by M. Emile Cosquin in the work to which I have referred (pp. 67 sqq.). He prefers with Oppert to derive all the names except Mordecai (the identity of which with Marduk he does not dispute) from the old Persian. However, these derivations from the Persian are rejected by Professor Th. Nöldeke, whose opinion on such a point is entitled to carry great weight. See Encyclopaedia Biblica, ii. (London, 1901) col. 1402, s. v. “Esther.”