General resemblances between Mesopotamian and early Hellenic rites of
tendance of dead--Mesopotamian theory of the lower world gloomier--The
terror of the spectre stronger in the East than in the West; yet both
fear the miasma of the dead--In both, the literary evidence clashes
somewhat with the evidence from the graves--Certain important
differences in tendance of dead--Water essential in later Babylonian,
wine and the triple libation in early Hellenic--Hero-cult strong in
early Hellas, at least very rare in Mesopotamia--Hellenic idea of
re-incarnation not {xi} yet found in Babylonian records--The evocation
of ghosts, and the periodic meals with or in memory of the dead,
common to both peoples--General All Souls’ festival--But in Babylonia
no popular belief in posthumous punishments and rewards--The powers of
the lower world more gloomy and repellent than in Hellas--No mysteries
to develop the germs of a brighter eschatologic faith
CHAPTER XIII.
Comparison of the Ritual.
In the second millennium all Semitic communities had evolved the
temple, and Babylonia the idol--In Greece, temple-building was coming
into vogue, but the cults still aniconic--The pillar and the phallic
emblem common in early Greece, very rare in Mesopotamia--Sacrifice
both in East and West of two types, the blood-sacrifice and the
bloodless, but in Hellas νηφάλια ἱερά in early vogue, not yet found in
the East--Incense unknown to the pre-Homeric Greeks--The distinction
between Chthonian and Olympian ritual not found at
Babylon--Communion-sacrifice and sacrament in early Greece, not found
as yet in Mesopotamia--Vicarious piacular sacrifice common to both
regions, but human sacrifice rife in early Greece, not found in
Mesopotamia--Mystic use of blood in Greek ritual, immolation or
expulsion of the scape-goat not yet discovered in Mesopotamia--The
death of the divinity in Babylonian ritual--Mourning for Tammuz--In
other Semitic communities--In Hittite worship, Sandon of Tarsos--Attis
of Phrygia--Emasculation in Phrygian ritual, alien to Babylonian as to
Hellenic religious sentiment--Death of divinity in Cretan ritual, and
in Cyprus--In genuine Hellenic religion, found only in agrarian
hero-cults, such as Linos, Eunostos; these having no connection with
Tammuz--Babylonian liturgy mainly a service of sorrow, Greek mainly
cheerful--A holy marriage at Babylon, on Hittite relief at
Boghaz-Keui, in Minoan and Hellenic ritual--A mortal the consort of
divinity, an idea found in many races widely removed--Greek
evidence--Consecrated women in Mesopotamia, two types--Their functions
to be distinguished from the consecration of virginity before marriage
mentioned by Herodotus--Other examples of one or the other of these
customs in Asia Minor--Various explanations of these customs offered
by anthropology--Criticism of different views--Their religious
significance--Ritual of purification--Cathartic use of water and
fire--Preservation of peace during public purification--Points of
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