According to Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, the worship of Bacchus was imported into Greece by Melampus, who taught the Greeks the mysteries connected with phallic worship; and Plutarch says that “nothing, is simpler than the manner in which they celebrated formerly in my country the Dionysiaca. Two men walked at the head of the procession; one carried an amphora of wine, the other a vine branch; a third led a goat; a fourth bore a basket of figs; a figure of a phallus closed the procession.” Tertullian tells us that that which in the mysteries of Eleusis is considered as most holy, concealed with most care, and only explained to the initiated at the last moment, is the image of the virile member. The festival of Venus, held at Rome in the beginning of April each year, was in honour of the sexual union of the powers of heaven and of earth. The Roman ladies led a cart, in which was a huge phallus, to the temple of Venus, outside the Colline gate, and there presented the member to the sexual part of the goddess. Spring was, indeed, the special season for phallic processions, as we learn from a passage of “Iamblichus de Mysteriis,” given by Mr. Westropp: “We say the erection of the phalli is a certain sign of prolific power, which, through this, is called forth to the generative energy of the world; on which account many phalli are consecrated in the spring, because then the whole world receives from the gods the power which is productive of all generation.” It is sufficiently obvious that the return of the sun to the vernal equinoxial sign each year, or the union of the active and passive principles, formed the cornerstone of the various religious systems, and that this marriage, as it were, of heaven with earth, occurring each springtime, and bringing with it such a train of good results, gave rise to the most sacred institutions and rites, which to us may appear disgusting, but which, to the ancients, were looked upon with the greatest awe and veneration.