III. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ZODIAC

The Vernal Equinox has all over the ancient world, and

from the earliest times, been a period of rejoicing and of

festivals in honor of the Sungod. It is needless to labor

a point which is so well known. Everyone understands

and appreciates the joy of finding that the long darkness

is giving way, that the Sun is growing in strength, and

that the days are winning a victory over the nights. The

birds and flowers reappear, and the promise of Spring is

in the air. But it may be worth while to give an elementary

explanation of the ASTRONOMICAL meaning of this period,

because this is not always understood, and yet it is very

important in its bearing on the rites and creeds of the early

religions. The priests who were, as I have said, the early

students and inquirers, had worked out this astronomical

side, and in that way were able to fix dates and

to frame for the benefit of the populace myths and legends,

which were in a certain sense explanations of the order of

Nature, and a kind of "popular science."

The Equator, as everyone knows, is an imaginary line

or circle girdling the Earth half-way between the North

and South poles. If you imagine a transparent Earth with

a light at its very centre, and also imagine the SHADOW

of this equatorial line to be thrown on the vast concave

of the Sky, this shadow would in astronomical parlance

coincide with the Equator of the Sky--forming an imaginary

circle half-way between the North and South celestial poles.

The Equator, then, may be pictured as cutting across the

sky either by day or by night, and always at the same

elevation--that is, as seen from any one place. But the

Ecliptic (the other important great circle of the heavens)

can only be thought of as a line traversing the constellations

as they are seen at NIGHT. It is in fact the Sun's path

among the fixed stars. For (really owing to the Earth's

motion in its orbit) the Sun appears to move round

the heavens once a year--travelling, always to the left,

from constellation to constellation. The exact path of

the sun is called the Ecliptic; and the band of sky on either

side of the Ecliptic which may be supposed to include

the said constellations is called the Zodiac. How then--

it will of course be asked--seeing that the Sun and the Stars

can never be seen together--were the Priests ABLE to map

out the path of the former among the latter? Into that

question we need not go. Sufficient to say that they succeeded;

and their success--even with the very primitive instruments

they had--shows that their astronomical knowledge

and acuteness of reasoning were of no mean order.

To return to our Vernal Equinox. Let us suppose that

the Equator and Ecliptic of the sky, at the Spring season,

are represented by two lines Eq. and Ecl. crossing each

other at the point P. The Sun, represented by the small

circle, is moving slowly and in its annual course along the

Ecliptic to the left. When it reaches the point P (the

dotted circle) it stands on the Equator of the sky, and then

for a day or two, being neither North nor South, it

shines on the two terrestrial hemispheres alike, and day and

night are equal. BEFORE that time, when the sun is low

down in the heavens, night has the advantage, and the

days are short; AFTERWARDS, when the Sun has travelled more

to the left, the days triumph over the nights. It will be seen

then that this point P where the Sun's path crosses the Equator

is a very critical point. It is the astronomical location

of the triumph of the Sungod and of the arrival of Spring.

How was this location defined? Among what stars was

the Sun moving at that critical moment? (For of course

it was understood, or supposed, that the Sun was deeply

influenced by the constellation through which it was, or

appeared to be, moving.) It seems then that at the

period when these questions were occupying men's minds

--say about three thousand years ago--the point where

the Ecliptic crossed the Equator was, as a matter of

fact, in the region of the constellation Aries or the he-

Lamb. The triumph of the Sungod was therefore, and quite

naturally, ascribed to the influence of Aries. THE LAMB

BECAME THE SYMBOL OF THE RISEN SAVIOR, AND OF HIS PASSAGE

FROM THE UNDERWORLD INTO THE HEIGHT OF HEAVEN. At first such

an explanation sounds hazardous; but a thousand texts and

references confirm it; and it is only by the accumulation

of evidence in these cases that the student becomes convinced

of a theory's correctness. It must also be remembered

(what I have mentioned before) that these myths and legends

were commonly adopted not only for one strict reason but

because they represented in a general way the convergence of

various symbols and inferences.

Let me enumerate a few points with regard to the Vernal

Equinox. In the Bible the festival is called the Passover,

and its supposed institution by Moses is related in Exodus,

ch. xii. In every house a he-lamb was to be slain,

and its blood to be sprinkled on the doorposts of the

house. Then the Lord would pass over and not smite that

house. The Hebrew word is pasach, to pass.[1] The lamb

slain was called the Paschal Lamb. But what was that

lamb? Evidently not an earthly lamb--(though certainly

the earthly lambs on the hillsides WERE just then ready

to be killed and eaten)--but the heavenly Lamb, which

was slain or sacrificed when the Lord "passed over" the

equator and obliterated the constellation Aries. This was

the Lamb of God which was slain each year, and "Slain

since the foundation of the world." This period of the

Passover (about the 25th March) was to be[2] the beginning

of a new year. The sacrifice of the Lamb, and its blood,

were to be the promise of redemption. The door-frames of the

houses--symbols of the entrance into a new life--were

to be sprinkled with blood.[3] Later, the imagery of the

saving power of the blood of the Lamb became more

popular, more highly colored. (See St. Paul's epistles, and

the early Fathers.) And we have the expression "washed

in the blood of the Lamb" adopted into the Christian

Church.

[1] It is said that pasach sometimes means not so much to pass

over, as to hover over and so protect. Possibly both meanings

enter in here. See Isaiah xxxi. 5.

[2] See Exodus xii. i.

[3] It is even said (see The Golden Bough, vol. iii, 185) that

the doorways of houses and temples in Peru were at the Spring

festival daubed with blood of the first-born children--commuted

afterwards to the blood of the sacred animal, the Llama. And as

to Mexico, Sahagun, the great Spanish missionary, tells us that

it was a custom of the people there to "smear the outside of

their houses and doors with blood drawn from their own ears and

ankles, in order to propitiate the god of Harvest"

(Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi, p. 235).

In order fully to understand this extraordinary expression

and its origin we must turn for a moment to the worship

both of Mithra, the Persian Sungod, and of Attis the Syrian

god, as throwing great light on the Christian cult and

ceremonies. It must be remembered that in the early centuries

of our era the Mithra-cult was spread over the whole Western

world. It has left many monuments of itself here

in Britain. At Rome the worship was extremely popular,

and it may almost be said to have been a matter

of chance whether Mithraism should overwhelm Christianity,

or whether the younger religion by adopting many of the

rites of the older one should establish itself (as it did) in

the face of the latter.

Now we have already mentioned that in the Mithra

cult the slaying of a Bull by the Sungod occupies the same

sort of place as the slaving of the Lamb in the Christian

cult. It took place at the Vernal Equinox and the blood

of the Bull acquired in men's minds a magic virtue.

Mithraism was a greatly older religion than Christianity;

but its genesis was similar. In fact, owing to the Precession

of the Equinoxes, the crossing-place of the Ecliptic and

Equator was different at the time of the establishment

of Mithra-worship from what it was in the Christian period;

and the Sun instead of standing in the He-lamb, or Aries,

at the Vernal Equinox stood, about two thousand years

earlier (as indicated by the dotted line in the diagram), in this

very constellation of the Bull.[1] The bull

therefore became the symbol of the triumphant God, and the

sacrifice of the bull a holy mystery. (Nor must we

overlook here the agricultural appropriateness of the bull as

the emblem of Spring-plowings and of service to man.)

[1] With regard to this point, see an article in the Nineteenth

Century for September 1900, by E. W. Maunder of the Greenwich

Observatory on "The Oldest Picture Book" (the Zodiac). Mr.

Maunder calculates that the Vernal Equinox was in the centre of

the Sign of the Bull 5,000 years ago. [It would therefore be in

the centre of Aries 2,845 years ago--allowing 2,155 years for the

time occupied in passing from one Sign to another.] At the

earlier period the Summer solstice was in the centre of Leo, the

Autumnal equinox in the centre of Scorpio, and the Winter

solstice in the centre of Aquarius--corresponding

roughly, Mr. Maunder points out, to the positions of the

four "Royal Stars," Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares and Fomalhaut.

The sacrifice of the Bull became the image of redemption.

In a certain well-known Mithra-sculpture or group, the Sungod

is represented as plunging his dagger into a bull, while

a scorpion, a serpent, and other animals are sucking the

latter's blood. From one point of view this may be taken as

symbolic of the Sun fertilizing the gross Earth by plunging

his rays into it and so drawing forth its blood for the

sustenance of all creatures; while from another more astronomical

aspect it symbolizes the conquest of the Sun over winter

in the moment of "passing over" the sign of the Bull, and the

depletion of the generative power of the Bull by the Scorpion

--which of course is the autumnal sign of the Zodiac and

herald of winter. One such Mithraic group was found at

Ostia, where there was a large subterranean Temple "to the

invincible god Mithras."

In the worship of Attis there were (as I have already indicated)

many points of resemblance to the Christian

cult. On the 22nd March (the Vernal Equinox) a pinetree

was cut in the woods and brought into the Temple of

Cybele. It was treated almost as a divinity, was decked

with violets, and the effigy of a young man tied to the stem

(cf. the Crucifixion). The 24th was called the "Day of

Blood"; the High Priest first drew blood from his own

arms; and then the others gashed and slashed themselves,

and spattered the altar and the sacred tree with blood; while

novices made themselves eunuchs "for the kingdom of

heaven's sake." The effigy was afterwards laid in a tomb.

But when night fell, says Dr. Frazer,[1] sorrow was turned to

joy. A light was brought, and the tomb was found to

be empty. The next day, the 25th, was the festival of

the Resurrection; and ended in carnival and license (the

Hilaria). Further, says Dr. Frazer, these mysteries "seem

to have included a sacramental meal and a baptism of

blood."

[1] See Adonis, Attis and Osiris, Part IV of The Golden Bough, by

J. G. Frazer, p. 229.

"In the baptism the devotee, crowned with gold and

wreathed with fillets, descended into a pit, the mouth of

which was covered with a wooden grating. A bull, adorned

with garlands of flowers, its forehead glittering with gold

leaf, was then driven on to the grating and there stabbed

to death with a consecrated spear. Its hot reeking blood

poured in torrents through the apertures, and was received

with devout eagerness by the worshiper on every part of

his person and garments, till he emerged from the pit,

drenched, dripping, and scarlet from head to foot, to

receive the homage, nay the adoration, of his fellows--as

one who had been born again to eternal life and had washed

away his sins in the blood of the bull."[1] And Frazer continuing

says: "That the bath of blood derived from slaughter

of the bull (tauro-bolium) was believed to regenerate

the devotee for eternity is proved by an inscription

found at Rome, which records that a certain Sextilius

Agesilaus Aedesius, who dedicated an altar to Attis and

the mother of the gods (Cybele) was taurobolio criobolio que

in aeternum renatus."[2] "In the procedure of the Taurobolia

and Criobolia," says Mr. J. M. Robertson,[3] "which

grew very popular in the Roman world, we have the literal

and original meaning of the phrase 'washed in the blood of

the lamb'[4]; the doctrine being that resurrection and eternal

life were secured by drenching or sprinkling with the

actual blood of a sacrificial bull or ram."[5] For the

POPULARITY of the rite we may quote Franz Cumont, who

says:--"Cette douche sacree (taurobolium) pareit avoir ete

administree en Cappadoce dans un grand nombre de sanctuaires, et

en particulier dans ceux de Ma la grande divinite

indigene, et dans ceux: de Anahita."

[1] See vol. i, pp. 334 ff.

[2] Adonis, Attis and Osiris, p. 229. References to Prudentius,

and to Firmicus Maternus, De errore 28. 8.

[3] That is, "By the slaughter of the bull and the slaughter of

the ram born again into eternity."

[4] Pagan Christs, p. 315.

[5] Mysteres de Mithra, Bruxelles, 1902, p. 153.

Whether Mr. Robertson is right in ascribing to the priests

(as he appears to do) so materialistic a view of the

potency of the actual blood is, I should say, doubtful. I

do not myself see that there is any reason for supposing that

the priests of Mithra or Attis regarded baptism by

blood very differently from the way in which the Christian

Church has generally regarded baptism by water--namely,

as a SYMBOL of some inner regeneration. There may certainly

have been a little more of the MAGICAL view and a little

less of the symbolic, in the older religions; but the

difference was probably on the whole more one of degree

than of essential disparity. But however that may be,

we cannot but be struck by the extraordinary analogy

between the tombstone inscriptions of that period "born

again into eternity by the blood of the Bull or the Ram,"

and the corresponding texts in our graveyards to-day.

F. Cumont in his elaborate work, Textes et Monuments relatifs

aux Mysteres de Mithra (2 vols., Brussels, 1899) gives

a great number of texts and epitaphs of the same character

as that above-quoted, and they are well worth studying

by those interested in the subject. Cumont, it may be

noted (vol. i, p. 305), thinks that the story of Mithra and

the slaying of the Bull must have originated among some

pastoral people to whom the bull was the source of all life.

The Bull in heaven--the symbol of the triumphant Sungod--

and the earthly bull, sacrificed for the good of humanity

were one and the same; the god, in fact, SACRIFICED HIMSELF

OR HIS REPRESENTATIVE. And Mithra was the hero who first

won this conception of divinity for mankind--though of

course it is in essence quite similar to the conception put

forward by the Christian Church.

As illustrating the belief that the Baptism by Blood was

accompanied by a real regeneration of the devotee, Frazer

quotes an ancient writer[1] who says that for some time after

the ceremony the fiction of a new birth was kept up

by dieting the devotee on MILK, like a new-born babe.

And it is interesting in that connection to find that even in

the present day a diet of ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT MILK for

six or eight weeks is by many doctors recommended as

the only means of getting rid of deep-seated illnesses

and enabling a patient's organism to make a completely new

start in life.

[1] Sallustius philosophus. See Adonis, Attis and Osiris, note,

p. 229.

"At Rome," he further says (p. 230), "the new birth and

the remission of sins by the shedding of bull's blood appear

to have been carried out above all at the sanctuary of the

Phrygian Goddess (Cybele) on the Vatican Hill, at or near

the spot where the great basilica of St. Peter's now stands;

for many inscriptions relating to the rites were found when

the church was being enlarged in 1608 or 1609. From

the Vatican as a centre," he continues, "this barbarous system

of superstition seems to have spread to other parts of

the Roman empire. Inscriptions found in Gaul and Germany

prove that provincial sanctuaries modelled their ritual on that

of the Vatican."

It would appear then that at Rome in the quiet early

days of the Christian Church, the rites and ceremonials

of Mithra and Cybele, probably much intermingled and

blended, were exceedingly popular. Both religions had been

recognized by the Roman State, and the Christians, persecuted

and despised as they were, found it hard to make any

headway against them--the more so perhaps because the

Christian doctrines appeared in many respects to be merely

faint replicas and copies of the older creeds. Robertson

maintains[1] that a he-lamb was sacrificed in the

Mithraic mysteries, and he quotes Porphyry as saying[2]

that "a place near the equinoctial circle was assigned to

Mithra as an appropriate seat; and on this account he

bears the sword of the Ram [Aries] which is a sign of Mars

[Ares]." Similarly among the early Christians, it is said,

a ram or lamb was sacrificed in the Paschal mystery.

[1] Pagan Christs, p. 336.

[2] De Antro, xxiv.

Many people think that the association of the Lamb-god

with the Cross arose from the fact that the constellation

Aries at that time WAS on the heavenly cross (the

crossways of the Ecliptic and Equator-see diagram, ch.

iii), and in the very place through which the Sungod

had to pass just before his final triumph. And it is

curious to find that Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho[1]

(a Jew) alludes to an old Jewish practice of roasting a Lamb on

spits arranged in the form of a Cross. "The lamb,"

he says, meaning apparently the Paschal lamb, "is roasted

and dressed up in the form of a cross. For one spit is transfixed

right through the lower parts up to the head, and one

across the back, to which are attached the legs [forelegs] of

the lamb."

[1] Ch. xl.

To-day in Morocco at the festival of Eid-el-Kebir, corresponding

to the Christian Easter, the Mohammedans sacrifice

a young ram and hurry it still bleeding to the precincts

of the Mosque, while at the same time every household slays

a lamb, as in the Biblical institution, for its family feast.

But it will perhaps be said, "You are going too fast and

proving too much. In the anxiety to show that the

Lamb-god and the sacrifice of the Lamb were honored

by the devotees of Mithra and Cybele in the Rome of the

Christian era, you are forgetting that the sacrifice of the

Bull and the baptism in bull's blood were the salient

features of the Persian and Phrygian ceremonials, some centuries

earlier. How can you reconcile the existence side

by side of divinities belonging to such different periods, or

ascribe them both to an astronomical origin?" The answer

is simple enough. As I have explained before, the Precession of

the Equinoxes caused the Sun, at its moment

of triumph over the powers of darkness, to stand at one period

in the constellation of the Bull, and at a period some

two thousand years later in the constellation of the Ram.

It was perfectly natural therefore that a change in the

sacred symbols should, in the course of time, take place;

yet perfectly natural also that these symbols, having once

been consecrated and adopted, should continue to be

honored and clung to long after the time of their astronomical

appropriateness had passed, and so to be found side by

side in later centuries. The devotee of Mithra or Attis

on the Vatican Hill at Rome in the year 200 A.D. probably

had as little notion or comprehension of the real origin of

the sacred Bull or Ram which he adored, as the Christian in

St. Peter's to-day has of the origin of the Lamb-god whose

vicegerent on earth is the Pope.

It is indeed easy to imagine that the change from the

worship of the Bull to the worship of the Lamb which

undoubtedly took place among various peoples as time

went on, was only a ritual change initiated by the priests

in order to put on record and harmonize with the astronomical

alteration. Anyhow it is curious that while Mithra

in the early times was specially associated with the bull,

his association with the lamb belonged more to the Roman

period. Somewhat the same happened in the case of Attis.

In the Bible we read of the indignation of Moses at the

setting up by the Israelites of a Golden Calf, AFTER the

sacrifice of the ram-lamb had been instituted--as if indeed

the rebellious people were returning to the earlier

cult of Apis which they ought to have left behind them in

Egypt. In Egypt itself, too, we find the worship of

Apis, as time went on, yielding place to that of the Ram-

headed god Amun, or Jupiter Ammon.[1] So that both

from the Bible and from Egyptian history we may conclude

that the worship of the Lamb or Ram succeeded to

the worship of the Bull.

[1] Tacitus (Hist. v. 4) speaks of ram-sacrifice by the Jews in

honor of Jupiter Ammon. See also Herodotus (ii. 42) on the same

in Egypt.

Finally it has been pointed out, and there may be some

real connection in the coincidence, that in the quite early

years of Christianity the FISH came in as an accepted symbol

of Jesus Christ. Considering that after the domination

of Taurus and Aries, the Fish (Pisces) comes next in succession

as the Zodiacal sign for the Vernal Equinox, and

is now the constellation in which the Sun stands at that

period, it seems not impossible that the astronomical change

has been the cause of the adoption of this new symbol.

Anyhow, and allowing for possible errors or exaggerations,

it becomes clear that the travels of the Sun through

the belt of constellations which forms the Zodiac must

have had, from earliest times, a profound influence on

the generation of religious myths and legends. To say

that it was the only influence would certainly be a mistake.

Other causes undoubtedly contributed. But it was a main

and important influence. The origins of the Zodiac are

obscure; we do not know with any certainty the reasons

why the various names were given to its component sections,

nor can we measure the exact antiquity of these names; but

--pre-supposing the names of the signs as once given--it

is not difficult to imagine the growth of legends connected

with the Sun's course among them.

Of all the ancient divinities perhaps Hercules is the one

whose role as a Sungod is most generally admitted. The

helper of gods and men, a mighty Traveller, and invoked

everywhere as the Saviour, his labors for the good of the

world became ultimately defined and systematized as

twelve and corresponding in number to the signs of the

Zodiac. It is true that this systematization only took place

at a late period, probably in Alexandria; also that the

identification of some of the Labors with the actual

signs as we have them at present is not always clear. But

considering the wide prevalence of the Hercules myth over

the ancient world and the very various astronomical systems

it must have been connected with in its origin, this lack of

exact correspondence is hardly to be wondered at.

The Labors of Hercules which chiefly interest us are:

(1) The capture of the Bull, (2) the slaughter of the Lion,

(3) the destruction of the Hydra, (4) of the Boar, (5) the

cleansing of the stables of Augeas, (6) the descent into

Hades and the taming of Cerberus. The first of these is

in line with the Mithraic conquest of the Bull; the Lion is

of course one of the most prominent constellations of the

Zodiac, and its conquest is obviously the work of a Saviour

of mankind; while the last four labors connect themselves

very naturally with the Solar conflict in winter against

the powers of darkness. The Boar (4) we have seen

already as the image of Typhon, the prince of darkness;

the Hydra (3) was said to be the offspring of Typhon;

the descent into Hades (6)--generally associated with

Hercules' struggle with and victory over Death--links

on to the descent of the Sun into the underworld, and its

long and doubtful strife with the forces of winter; and

the cleansing of the stables of Augeas (5) has the same

signification. It appears in fact that the stables of Augeas

was another name for the sign of Capricorn through which

the Sun passes at the Winter solstice[1]--the stable of course

being an underground chamber--and the myth was that

there, in this lowest tract and backwater of the Ecliptic

all the malarious and evil influences of the sky were collected,

and the Sungod came to wash them away (December was the

height of the rainy season in Judaea) and cleanse the year

towards its rebirth.

[1] See diagram of Zodiac.

It should not be forgotten too that even as a child in the

cradle Hercules slew two serpents sent for his destruction--

the serpent and the scorpion as autumnal constellations

figuring always as enemies of the Sungod--to which

may be compared the power given to his disciples by Jesus[1]

"to tread on serpents and scorpions." Hercules also as

a Sungod compares curiously with Samson (mentioned

above, ii), but we need not dwell on all the

elaborate analogies that have been traced[2] between these two

heroes.

[1] Luke x. 19.

[2] See Doane's Bible Myths, ch. viii, (New York, 1882.)

The Jesus-story, it will now be seen, has a great number

of correspondences with the stories of former Sungods and

with the actual career of the Sun through the heavens--so

many indeed that they cannot well be attributed to

mere coincidence or even to the blasphemous wiles of the

Devil! Let us enumerate some of these. There are (1)

the birth from a Virgin mother; (2) the birth in a stable

(cave or underground chamber); and (3) on the 25th December

(just after the winter solstice). There is (4) the

Star in the East (Sirius) and (5) the arrival of the Magi

(the "Three Kings"); there is (6) the threatened Massacre

of the Innocents, and the consequent flight into a distant

country (told also of Krishna and other Sungods). There

are the Church festivals of (7) Candlemas (2nd February),

with processions of candles to symbolize the growing

light; of (8) Lent, or the arrival of Spring; of (9) Easter

Day (normally on the 25th March) to celebrate the crossing

of the Equator by the Sun; and (10) simultaneously the

outburst of lights at the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. There

is (11) the Crucifixion and death of the Lamb-God, on Good

Friday, three days before Easter; there are (12) the

nailing to a tree, (13) the empty grave, (14) the glad

Resurrection (as in the cases of Osiris, Attis and others);

there are (15) the twelve disciples (the Zodiacal signs);

and (16) the betrayal by one of the twelve. Then later

there is (17) Midsummer Day, the 24th June, dedicated to

the Nativity of John the Baptist, and corresponding

to Christmas Day; there are the festivals of (18) the

Assumption of the Virgin (15th August) and of (19) the

Nativity of the Virgin (8th September), corresponding

to the movement of the god through Virgo; there is the conflict

of Christ and his disciples with the autumnal asterisms,

(20) the Serpent and the Scorpion; and finally

there is the curious fact that the Church (21) dedicates the

very day of the winter solstice (when any one may very

naturally doubt the rebirth of the Sun) to St. Thomas, who

doubted the truth of the Resurrection!

These are some of, and by no means all, the coincidences

in question. But they are sufficient, I think, to prove--

even allowing for possible margins of error--the truth

of our general contention. To go into the parallelism

of the careers of Krishna, the Indian Sungod, and Jesus

would take too long; because indeed the correspondence

is so extraordinarily close and elaborate.[1] I propose, however,

at the close of this chapter, to dwell now for a

moment on the Christian festival of the Eucharist, partly

on account of its connection with the derivation from

the astronomical rites and Nature-celebrations already

alluded to, and partly on account of the light which the festival

generally, whether Christian or Pagan, throws on the

origins of Religious Magic--a subject I shall have to deal

with in the next chapter.

[1] See Robertson's Christianity and Mythology, Part II, pp.

129-302; also Doane's Bible Myths, ch. xxviii, p. 278.

I have already (Ch. II) mentioned the Eucharistic

rite held in commemoration of Mithra, and the indignant

ascription of this by Justin Martyr to the wiles of the Devil.

Justin Martyr clearly had no doubt about the resemblance

of the Mithraic to the Christian ceremony. A Sacramental

meal, as mentioned a few pages back, seems

to have been held by the worshipers of Attis[1] in

commemoration of their god; and the 'mysteries' of the

Pagan cults generally appear to have included rites--

sometimes half-savage, sometimes more aesthetic--in which

a dismembered animal was eaten, or bread and wine (the

spirits of the Corn and the Vine) were consumed, as

representing the body of the god whom his devotees desired

to honor. But the best example of this practice is

afforded by the rites of Dionysus, to which I will devote

a few lines. Dionysus, like other Sun or Nature deities,

was born of a Virgin (Semele or Demeter) untainted by any

earthly husband; and born on the 25th. December. He was

nurtured in a Cave, and even at that early age was

identified with the Ram or Lamb, into whose form he was

for the time being changed. At times also he was worshiped

in the form of a Bull.[2] He travelled far and

wide; and brought the great gift of wine to mankind.[3]

He was called Liberator, and Saviour. His grave "was

shown at Delphi in the inmost shrine of the temple of Apollo.

Secret offerings were brought thither, while the women

who were celebrating the feast woke up the new-born

god. . . . Festivals of this kind in celebration of the

extinction and resurrection of the deity were held (by

women and girls only) amid the mountains at night,

every third year, about the time of the shortest day. The

rites, intended to express the excess of grief and joy at the

death and reappearance of the god, were wild even

to savagery, and the women who performed them were

hence known by the expressive names of Bacchae, Maenads,

and Thyiades. They wandered through woods and mountains,

their flying locks crowned with ivy or snakes, brandishing

wands and torches, to the hollow sounds of the drum,

or the shrill notes of the flute, with wild dances and

insane cries and jubilation.

[1] See Frazer's Golden Bough, Part IV, p. 229.

[2] The Golden Bough, Part II, Book II, p. 164.

[3] "I am the TRUE Vine," says the Jesus of the fourth gospel,

perhaps with an implicit and hostile reference to the cult of

Dionysus--in which Robertson suggests (Christianity and

Mythology, p. 357) there was a ritual miracle of turning water

into wine.

Oxen, goats, even fawns and roes from the forest were killed,

torn to pieces, and eaten raw. This in imitation of the

treatment of Dionysus by the Titans"[1]--who it was supposed

had torn the god in pieces when a child.

[1] See art. Dionysus. Dictionary of Classical Antiquities,

Nettleship and Sandys 3rd edn., London, 1898).

Dupuis, one of the earliest writers (at the beginning of

last century) on this subject, says, describing the mystic

rites of Dionysus[1]: "The sacred doors of the Temple in which

the initiation took place were opened only once a year, and

no stranger might ever enter. Night lent to these august

mysteries a veil which was forbidden to be drawn aside

--for whoever it might be.[2] It was the sole occasion

for the representation of the passion of Bacchus [Dionysus]

dead, descended into hell, and rearisen--in imitation

of the representation of the sufferings of Osiris which,

according to Herodotus, were commemorated at Sais in

Egypt. It was in that place that the partition took

place of the body of the god,[3] which was then eaten--

the ceremony, in fact, of which our Eucharist is only a

reflection; whereas in the mysteries of Bacchus actual raw

flesh was distributed, which each of those present had

to consume in commemoration of the death of Bacchus

dismembered by the Titans, and whose passion, in Chios

and Tenedos, was renewed each year by the sacrifice of a man

who represented the god.[4] Possibly it is this last fact which

made people believe that the Christians (whose hoc est corpus

meum and sharing of an Eucharistic meal were no more than

a shadow of a more ancient rite) did really sacrifice a child

and devour its limbs."

[1] See Charles F. Dupuis, "Traite des Mysteres," ch. i.

[2] Pausan, Corinth, ch. 37.

[3] Clem, Prot. Eur. Bacch.

[4] See Porphyry, De Abstinentia, lii, Section 56.

That Eucharistic rites were very very ancient is plain

from the Totem-sacraments of savages; and to this subject

we shall now turn.