Introduction to the History of Religions

Chapter 47

[707] For example, in Australia, Fiji, New Guinea, and India.

[708] Greece, Rome (Lupercalia), Egypt, and apparently in Israel (Ex. x.x.xii, 6; Numb. xxv).

[709] In carnivals and many less elaborate customs.

[710] See above, -- 34.

[711] It was observable in the lower animals, but in their case was not regarded as religiously important. See below, -- 419, for the connection of animals with phallic cults.

[712] -- 158 ff.

[713] Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, ii, 361.

[714] See Ratzel, _History of Mankind_; Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvolker_; Muller, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_; Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_; Codrington, _The Melanesians_; W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_; Hartland, article "Bantu" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_; Callaway, _Amazulus_; Featherman, _Races of Mankind_; Grunwedel, "Lamaismus" in _Die orientalischen Religionen_ (I, iii, 1 of _Die Kultur der Gegenwart_); Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 149; Matthews, Dorsey, Teit, Boas, Hill-Tout, opp. cit. (on American Indians).

[715] -- 34.

[716] A. B. Ellis, _Yoruba_ and _E?e_. Ellis does not say that the cult exists in Ashanti, where we should expect it to be found; its absence there is not accounted for. On phallic wors.h.i.+p in Congo see H. H. Johnston, in _Journal of the Anthropological Inst.i.tute_, xiii.

[717] Hopkins, _Religions of India_, pp. 453, 470.

[718] Cf. Crooke, article "Bengal" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.

[719] Griffis, _Religions of j.a.pan_; Aston, _s.h.i.+nto_; Buckley, in Saussaye, _Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte_, 2d ed.; Florens, in _Die Kultur der Gegenwart_.

[720] Herodotus, ii, 48 f.

[721] _Isis and Osiris_, 51.

[722] An example of nave popular festivities is given in Herodotus, ii, 60.

[723] The Gilgamesh epic (Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and a.s.syria_, p. 477); Amos ii, 7; Deut. xxiii, 17 f.; Herodotus, i, 199; Strabo, xvi, 1, 20; Epistle of Jeremy, 42 f.; Lucian, _De Syria Dea_, 6 ff. But Hos. ii, Ezek. xvi, xxiii, Isa. lvii, 8, are descriptions of Hebrew addiction to foreign idolatrous cults.

[724] Isa. lvii, 8: "Thou didst love their bed, the yad thou sawest." The renderings in the English Revised Version are not possible.

[725] Lucian, op. cit., 28, cf. 16.

[726] The Aramean Atargatis, properly Attar-Ate, is substantially identical with Ashtart and Ishtar.

[727] Lucian, _De Syria Dea_, 15.

[728] J. P. Peters, _Nippur_, Index, s.v. _Phallic symbols_; Bliss

[729] These objects (Hebrew _ma.s.seba_) are denounced by the prophets because they were connected with the Canaanite non-Yahwistic wors.h.i.+p. The same thing is true of the sacred wooden post (the _ashera_) that stood by shrines; Deut. xvi, 21 f., etc.

[730] Roscher, _Lexikon_, s.v. _Priapos._ Diodorus Siculus, iv, 6, mentions also Ithyphallos and Tychon.

[731] Roscher, _Lexikon_.

[732] S. Seligmann, _Der bose Buck und Verwandtes_, ii, 191 ff.

[733] Diodorus Siculus, i, 88.

[734] Roscher, _Lexikon_, s.v. _Indigitamenta_. _Muto_ is 'phallos.'

[735] So Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, iv, II, 34 al.

[736] S. Seligmann, _Der bose Blick und Verwandtes_, ii, 196 ff.

[737] Cf. Hopkins, _Religions of India_, p. 490, n. 4.

[738] On the yoni as amulet see Seligmann, _Der bose Blick und Verwandtes_, ii, 203.

[739] Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, ii, 491 f., and the references there to Gait's _a.s.sam_ and other works.

[740] III Rawlinson, pl. i, no. 12155, and IV Rawlinson, col. 2, II. 25-28. The androgynous sense is maintained by G. A. Barton, in _Journal Of the American Oriental Society_, xxi, second half, p. 185 ff. Other renderings of the first inscription are given by Thureau-Dangin in _Revue d'a.s.syriologie_, iv, and Radau, _Early Babylonian History_, p. 125.

[741] Text in Craig, _a.s.syrian and Babylonian Religious Texts_, i, pl. vii, obv. 6, and by Meek, in _American Journal of Semitic Languages_, xxvi; translation in Jastrow's _Religion Babyloniens und a.s.syriens_, i, 544 f., and discussion by him in article "The 'Bearded' Venus" in _Revue archeologique_, 1911, i.

[742] See for Lenormant's view _Gazette archeologique_, 1876 and 1879, and Jastrow's criticism in the article cited in the preceding note.

[743] Lajard, _Recherches sur le culte de Venus_. He is followed by A. Jeremias, _The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East_ (Eng. tr.), i, 123.

[744] _Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum_, l, i, p. 13.

[745] 1 Sam. xii, 28; Deut. xxviii, 10. The angel in whom is Yahweh's name (Ex. xxiii, 21) has the authority of the deity.

[746] Cf. Dillmann, in _Monatsbericht der Akademie der Wissenschaften_ (Berlin, 1881). The feminine form given to Baal in Rom. xi, 3 f., may refer to the disparaging term 'shame' (Heb. _boshet_, for which the Greek would be _aischune_) often subst.i.tuted by the late editors of the Old Testament for Baal. Saul's son Ishbaal ('man of Baal') is called Ishbosheth, Jonathan's son Meribbaal is called Mephibosheth, etc.

[747] Dillmann (loc. cit.) combines _shame_ with Ashtart, as if the sense were 'the heavenly Ashtart of Baal'--an impossible rendering; but he also interprets the phrase to mean 'Ashtart the consort of the heavenly Baal.' Halevy, _Melanges_, p. 33; Ed. Meyer, in Roscher's _Lexikon_, article "Astarte."

[748] _Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum_, i, i, no. 195; i, ii, no. 1, al. Tanit appears to be identical in character and cult with Ashtart.

[749] See below, -- 411 f.: cf. W. R. Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, 2d ed., p. 478.

[750] A similar interpretation is given by Baethgen in his _Semitische Religionsgeschichte_, p. 267 f. His "monistic"

view, however, that various deities were regarded as manifestations of the supreme deity is not tenable.

[751] Servius, Commentary on Vergil, _aen._ ii, 632; Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, iii, 8 on the same pa.s.sage.

[752] There are ma.n.u.script variations in the text of Servius, but these do not affect the sense derived from the two authors, and need not be considered here.

[753] Cf. Frazer, _Adonis Attis Osiris_ p. 428 ff.

[754] Servius, "they call her"; Macrobius, "Aristophanes calls her." But who this Aristophanes is, or where he so calls her, we are not informed.

[755] So Jastrow, in the article cited above. Remarking on the statement of Lydus (in _De Mensibus_, ii, 10) that the Pamphylians formerly wors.h.i.+ped a bearded Venus, he calls attention to the Carian priestess of Athene (Herodotus, i, 175; viii, 104), who, when misfortune was impending, had (or grew) a great beard--a mark of power, but presumably not a genuine growth. Exactly what this story means it is hard to say.



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