§ 46. According to the words of the oath, indeed, as preserved by Stobæus and Pollux, the standing firm beside one’s comrade is specially mentioned; but even if this interesting document be not spurious, as Cobet supposes,[49] this particular declaration may be considered prospective, and applying to the remainder of the citizen’s life. I add the words here for the benefit of those who have not the Greek text at hand: “I will never disgrace these hallowed weapons, or abandon my comrade, beside whomsoever I am placed, and I will fight for both sacred and common things personally and with my fellows. I will not leave my country less, but greater and better by sea and land, than I may have received it. I will obey the rulers for the time being, and obey the established laws, and whatsoever others the commonwealth may agree to establish; and if any one abolish the ordinances or disobey them, I will not allow it, but will defend them personally and with the rest. I will obey the established religion. Be my witnesses Aglauros, Enyalios, Ares, Zeus, Thallo, Auxo, Hegemone.” Though Cobet be right that some features of this oath can hardly have been generally used through the course of Athenian history, and that it was probably made up at a late period, the list of gods, so curious and unlike what a late pedant would invent, points to some old source; and perhaps there are other really historical traditions in it. The _general_ authenticity of this text has rather been confirmed by the discovery of the oath of the ephebi of Dreros (near Knossus) in Crete--an inscription of undoubted authenticity. Here, there are not only the general declarations of loyalty and patriotism, but special oaths to support the allied Knossus, and declarations of hatred and hostility against the town of Lyttos.[50] This formal declaration of hatred may be compared with the outspoken aristocratic oath quoted by Aristotle: “I will be ill-disposed to the demos, and will do it whatever harm I can devise.” The various religious ceremonies connected with the admission to the status of an ephebus, which was considered distinct both from a boy and from a man--the sacrifices, the cutting of the long hair (except in Sparta), the solemn assembly of relatives, remind us strongly of the _confirmation_ of the Christian Church, to which it is the heathen parallel.