Dioscorides, _De materia medica_, iv. 79; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxv. 154. Dr. J. B. Bradbury, Downing Professor of Medicine in the University of Cambridge, informs me that this belief is correct. “Although _conium_ [hemlock] is not used as an anaphrodisiac at the present day, there can be no doubt that it has this effect. When rubbed into the skin it depresses sensory nerve-endings and is absorbed. After absorption it depresses all sympathetic nerve-cells. Both these effects would tend to diminish organic reflexes such as aphrodisia” (Dr. W. E. Dixon, Pharmacological Laboratory, Cambridge). Pausanias seems to imply that the hierophant was forbidden to marry (ii. 14. 1). It may have been so in his age, the second century of our era; but an inscription of the first century B.C. shews that at that time it was lawful for him to take a wife. See P. Foucart, _Les Grands Mystères d’Eleusis_, pp. 26 _sqq._ (extract from the _Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres_, vol. xxxvii.). Footnote 469: Pausanias, ix. 3; Plutarch, quoted by Eusebius, _Praepar. Evang._ iii. 1 _sq._ Footnote 470: Above, p. 64. Footnote 471: Above, p. 66. Footnote 472: W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 177. Footnote 473: W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 177 _sq._ Footnote 474: J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 318 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 178. Footnote 475: W. Hone, _Every Day Book_, ii. 595 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 178. Footnote 476: With regard to Zeus as an oak-god see below, pp. 358 _sq._ Hera appears with an oak-tree and her sacred bird the peacock perched on it in a group which is preserved in the Palazzo degli Conservatori at Rome. In the same group Pallas is represented with her olive-tree and her owl; so that the conjunction of the oak with Hera cannot be accidental. See W. Helbig, _Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischen Altertümer in Rom_ 2nd Ed., (Leipsic, 1899), i. 397, No. 587. Footnote 477: Pausanias, viii. 42. Footnote 478: At Cnossus in Crete, Diodorus Siculus, v. 72; at Samos, Lactantius, _Instit._ i. 17 (compare Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vi. 7); at Athens, Photius, _Lexicon_, _s.v._ ἱερὸν γάμον; _Etymologicum Magnum_, _s.v._ ἱερομνήμονες, p. 468. 52. A fragment of Pherecydes relating to the marriage of Zeus and Hera came to light some years ago. See Grenfell and Hunt, _New Classical and other Greek and Latin Papyri_ (Oxford, 1897), p. 23; H. Weil, in _Revue des Études grecques_, x. (1897) pp. 1-9. The subject has been discussed by W. H. Roscher (_Juno und Hera_, Leipsic, 1875, pp. 72 _sqq._). From the wide prevalence of the rite he infers that the custom of the sacred marriage was once common to all the Greek tribes. Footnote 479: