Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 1 (of 2)Lang, Andrew
Religion
Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Lang, Andrew
Myth; Mythology; Religion; Rites and ceremonies
4. Another savage rite, the use of serpents in Greek mysteries, is
attested by Clemens Alexandrinus and by Demosthenes (loc. cit.). Clemens
says the snakes were caressed in representations of the loves of Zeus in
serpentine form. The great savage example is that of "the snake-dance
of the Moquis," who handle rattle-snakes in the mysteries without
being harmed.(1) The dance is partly totemistic, partly meant, like
the Thesmophoria, to secure the fertility of the lands of the Moquis
of Arizonas. The turndum or (Greek text omitted) is employed. Masks are
worn, as in the rites of Demeter Cidiria in Arcadia.(2)
(1) The Snake-Dance of the Moquis. By Captain John G. Bourke, London,
1884.
(2) Pausanias, viii. 16.
5. This last point of contact between certain Greek and certain savage
mysteries is highly important. The argument of Lobeck, in his celebrated
work Aglaophamus, is that the Mysteries were of no great moment in
religion. Had he known the evidence as to savage initiations, he would
have been confirmed in his opinion, for many of the singular Greek
rites are clearly survivals from savagery. But was there no more truly
religious survival? Pindar is a very ancient witness that things of
divine import were revealed. "Happy is he who having seen these things
goes under the hollow earth. He knows the end of life, and the god-given
beginning."(1) Sophocles "chimes in," as Lobeck says, declaring that
the initiate alone LIVE in Hades, while other souls endure all evils.
Crinagoras avers that even in life the initiate live secure, and in
death are the happier. Isagoras declares that about the end of life and
all eternity they have sweet hopes.
(1) Fragm., cxvi., 128 H. p. 265.
Splendida testimonia, cries Lobeck. He tries to minimise the evidence,
remarking that Isocrates promises the very same rewards to all who live
justly and righteously. But why not, if to live justly and righteously
was part of the teaching of the mysteries of Eleusis? Cicero's evidence,
almost a translation of the Greek passages already cited, Lobeck
dismisses as purely rhetorical.(1) Lobeck's method is rather cavalier.
Pindar and Sophocles meant something of great significance.
(1) De Legibus ii. 14; Aglaophamus, pp. 69-74.
Now we have acknowledged savage survivals of ugly rites in the Greek
mysteries. But it is only fair to remember that, in certain of the few
savage mysteries of which we know the secret, righteousness of life and
a knowledge of good are inculcated. This is the case in Australia, and
in Central Africa, where to be "uninitiated" is equivalent to being
selfish.(1) Thus it seems not improbable that consolatory doctrines were
expounded in the Eleusinia, and that this kind of sermon or exhortation
was no less a survival from savagery than the daubing with clay, and the
(Greek text omitted), and other wild rites.
(1) Making of Religion, pp. 193-197, 235.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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