It is said of Orpheus by Horace, Cædibus, et victu fœdo deterruit: by which one should be led to think, that the putting a stop to this unnatural gratification was owing to him. Others think, that he only discountenanced the eating of raw flesh, which before had been usual. But this could not be true of Orpheus: for it was a circumstance, which made one part of his institutes. If there were ever such a man, as Orpheus, he enjoined the very thing, which he is supposed to have prohibited. For both in the [643]orgies of Bacchus and in the rites of Ceres, as well as of other Deities, one part of the mysteries consisted in a ceremony styled ωμοφαγια; at which time they eat the flesh quite crude with the blood. In Crete at the [644]Dionusiaca they used to tear the flesh with their teeth from the animal, when alive. This they did in commemoration of Dionusus. [645]Festos funeris dies statuunt, et annuum sacrum trietericâ consecratione componunt, omnia per ordinem facientes, quæ puer moriens aut fecit, aut passus est. _Vivum laniant dentibus Taurum_, crudeles epulas annuis commemorationibus excitantes. Apollonius Rhodius speaking of persons like to Bacchanalians, represents them [646]Θυασιν ωμοβοροις ικελαι, as savage as the Thyades, who delighted in bloody banquets. Upon this the Scholiast observes, that the Mænadas, and Bacchæ, used to devour the raw limbs of animals, which they had cut or torn asunder. [647]Πολλακις τῃ μανιᾳ κατασχισθεντα, και ωμοσπαρακτα, εσθιουσιν. In the island of Chios it was a religious custom to tear a man limb from limb by way of sacrifice to Dionusus. The same obtained in Tenedos. It is Porphyry, who gives the account. He was a staunch Pagan, and his evidence on that account is of consequence. He quotes for the rites of Tenedos Euelpis the Carystian. [648]Εθυοντο δε και εν Χιω τῳ Ωμαδιῳ Διονυσῳ ανθρωπον διεσπωντες· και εν Τενεδῳ, φησιν Ευελπις ὁ Καρυστιος. From all which we may learn one sad truth, that there is scarce any thing so impious and unnatural, as not at times to have prevailed. We need not then wonder at the character given of the Lestiygones, Lamiæ, and Cyclopians, who were inhabitants of Sicily, and lived nearly in the same part of the island. They seem to have been the priests, and priestesses, of the Leontini, who resided at Pelorus, and in the Cyclopian towers: on which account the Lamiæ are by Lucilius termed [649]Turricolæ. They are supposed to have delighted in human blood, like the Cyclopians, but with this difference, that their chief repast was the flesh of young persons and children; of which they are represented as very greedy. They were priests of Ham, called El Ham; from whence was formed ’Lamus and ’Lamia. Their chief city, the same probably, which was named Tauromenium, is mentioned by Homer, as the city of Lamus. [650]Ἑβδοματῃ δ' ἱκομεσθα Λαμου αιπυ πτολιεθρον. And the inhabitants are represented as of the giant race.